Introduction
Good day, fellow adventurers! Blaziker has returned to continue on with part 2 of the worst to best animated movies of 2022, from 26th to 14th. If you want to see part 1 of the list, click here.
Now, let’s not waste any time, and continue with our countdown at the worst to best animated movies of 2022!
26. The Great Wolf Pack: A Call to Adventure
Story and characters: 2.5/5
Animation: 2.5/5
Special sauce: 4/5
Overall score: 9/15
Rating: Decent
Despite being animated by Anima Estudios (one of the worst performing theatrical animation studios based on overall quality) and having a runtime of only 45 minutes, A Call to Adventure was a pleasant surprise for a special meant to promote the redesigned mascots for a wilderness resort brand in America. Was I foolish waking up in the middle of the morning to watch the only live streaming of that movie, even though I don’t have to? Perhaps, but at least it was more engaging than expected.
25. Scrooge: A Christmas Carol
Story and characters: 3/5
Animation: 4/5
Special sauce: 2.5/5
Overall score: 9.5/15
Rating: Decent
With countless adaptations of the Charles Dickens Christmas story, Scrooge: A Christmas Carol turned out to be slightly better than expected, even if this was animated by a studio with a not-so-good track record. It may be a generic remake, but it is a well-executed, fundamentally solid adaptation that would bring in the Christmas spirit, and that is all I ever need for this remake.
24. Riverdance: The Animated Adventure
Story and characters: 2.5/5
Animation: 3.5/5
Special sauce: 4/5
Overall score: 10/15
Rating: Decent
One might not be familiar with the influence the world-famous Irish tap dancing group Riverdance brings in this dance form when they debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest 1994 as an interval act. I had my doubts about this movie when I watched the first trailer, but it turns out to be one of the best acid trips of 2022. It may lack in narrative substance, but this movie pays tribute to Irish culture in a sincere way.
23. Minions: The Rise of Gru
Story and characters: 3.5/5
Animation: 3.5/5
Special sauce: 3/5
Overall score: 10/15
Rating: Decent
Compared to the first Minions movie, the Minions sequel is much better, given that it has a heartfelt narrative on Gru trying to make big into the supervillain game. This has the typical Minions-style comedy, but unlike the first, I find the comedy to be less annoying than the first, which is a good sign. In fact, even if this was yet another movie in the Despicable Me franchise, Illumination understands who the audience for this movie was for, and they did a great job producing that particular movie for that particular audience.
22. Strange World
Story and characters: 2.5/5
Animation: 4.5/5
Special sauce: 3.5/5
Overall score: 10.5/15
Rating: Worth the Popcorn
Now, we get to the good stuff. Those 22 movies, starting from Strange World, are animated movies I can recommend to a varying extent, and should be worth considering as your next animated movie to watch. With that said, Strange World may be Disney’s weakest animated movie in quite a while. While the animation and some characters are great and I enjoyed the comic book aesthetic, the overcomplicated sci-fi world-building, not to mention having lack of cohesiveness for a Disney animated movie to combine the many ideas, makes it one of the biggest disappointments of the year.
21. Mortadelo and Filemon: Mission Implausible (2015)
Story and characters: 4/5
Animation: 3.5/5
Special sauce: 3.5/5
Overall score: 11/15
Rating: Worth the Popcorn
In stark contrast to previous animated movies by Ilion Animation Studios (now Skydance Animation Madrid), Mission Implausible is way more enjoyable compared to Luck, also animated by them. This movie combines a wacky plot that is smarter than expected (just like in Spycies, a movie I talked about a lot), has some amazing absurdist comedy and way more expressive animation for a typical Spanish mainstream animated movie. It might have come out 7 years ago, but I think this would stand well even in 2022.
20. DC League of Super-Pets
Story and characters: 4/5
Animation: 3.5/5
Special sauce: 3.5/5
Overall score: 11/15
Rating: Worth the Popcorn
Super-Pets turned out to be one of the most pleasant animated movie surprises of 2022. It had much better writing than expected from a DC Universe movie, and the voice acting, especially with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Kevin Hart, are some of the strongest voice acting performances of any mainstream animated movie this year. This is one movie that definitely over-delivered expectations, especially from a franchise that is burning and crashing.
19. Bubble
Story and characters: 3/5
Animation: 5/5
Special sauce: 4/5
Overall score: 12/15
Rating: Fuego
Despite the overcomplicated and rushed world-building of Bubble, it turned out to have some of the best animation of 2022! Combined with an amazing soundtrack, Bubble is definitely something Netflix needs to continuously pick up to make sure their Netflix animation line-up continues to be fresh. I think this is one of the more over-hated movies of the year, but to each their own, I guess.
18. Seal Team
Story and characters: 4.5/5
Animation: 3.5/5
Special sauce: 4/5
Overall score: 12/15
Rating: Fuego
Seal Team is yet another surprise of an animated movie, hailing from a country not known for its animation like South Africa. Despite issues regarding the animation, Seal Team possesses one of the most enjoyable storylines of any movie, complete with entertaining action a la The A-Team. With unforgettable characters and some brutal action, I am so glad Netflix picked that movie up for its platform.
17. Chickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness
Story and characters: 4/5
Animation: 4.5/5
Special sauce: 4/5
Overall score: 12.5/15
Rating: Fuego
Speaking of surprises, this was another surprise from an animation studio that had divided opinion. Not only does it have some competent storytelling and a fun cast of characters, the animation is honestly the best nWave Studios had ever done and, despite having only a 2.8 Letterboxd score (making it the lowest Letterboxd-rated animated movie to score 12 out of 15 and above from me), is significantly better than what that score is suggesting. Despite its lack of marketing, Chickenhare’s popularity, thanks to positive word of mouth, would make it the most viewed Netflix licensed animated movie of 2022 (even though some countries got this movie on a theatrical release), and deservedly so.
16. The House
Story and characters: 4/5
Animation: 4.5/5
Special sauce: 4.5/5
Overall score: 13/15
Rating: Fuego
While not all the three stories in the horror stop-motion anthology land on their feet, The House is still one of the great stop-motion animated movies of the year, especially in the year where we got blessed with tons of stop-motion animated movies. This is easily one of the most unique animated movies that is rarely found in mainstream animation, and we should continue to celebrate great non-mainstream animation like this one.
15. Lightyear
Story and characters: 3.5/5
Animation: 5/5
Special sauce: 4.5/5
Overall score: 13/15
Rating: Fuego
While I initially rated the Toy Story spin-off as a “Fairytale”, I recently downgraded it by one grade due to discovering more issues with the story structure, especially in the slightly problematic third act. With that said, that major flaw did not take away from the fact that this is still an enjoyable animated movie, even if that is not up to Pixar’s usually high standards.
14. Drifting Home
Story and characters: 4/5
Animation: 5/5
Special sauce: 4/5
Overall score: 13/15
Rating: Fuego
It was such a shame I only get to watch two anime movies this year, but both are great animated movies Netflix got to pick up. However, Drifting Home just has a more cohesive story and a bigger emotional weight compared to Bubble, despite a simpler premise. I definitely would like to see where Studio Colorido goes next from this, whether it be on Netflix or in theatres.
To Be Continued
And that’s it for part 2. We still got the best 13 animated movies of 2022 to go, so I will see you in the last part of this countdown! Until the next adventure, k thanks bye!
