Introduction
Welcome back, fellow adventurers! Blaziker is here to celebrate the beginning of a brand new year! While there is not a lot of animated movies to talk about in 2024 so far, since there is no 2024 animated movies available to me yet, perhaps it is time we look back to how 2023 fares and rank the 45 animated movies I covered in this Blog, from the Worst to the Best of 2023.
If I were to be honest, comparing 2022 to 2023, 2023 felt like a mixed bag of a year for animated movies in general. Yes, it is not too bad compared to other odd-numbered years with an overall worse catalogue of animated movies, such as in 2013, 2019 and especially 2017, but still, coming off a relatively strong 2022, 2023 was a dip in quality overall.
Still, the good news is that the highs are very high indeed, while the lows did not reach the Mariana Trench levels thankfully, and there were indeed some bright spots in such a worrying year of animation, filled with long writers and screen actors’ strikes, the rampant increase in usage of AI and massive box office bombs for some of the biggest animated movies of 2023, not to mention streaming platforms not caring much about animated content unlike 2022 (I’m especially looking at you, Netflix).
So, which movie reach the brightest star and which movies fail to live up to their hype? Well, why don’t we begin with my bottom 15 animated movies of 2023, so without further ado, let’s begin part 1 of the Worst to Best Animated Movies of 2023 with the bottom 15 animated movies of 2023!
(Also, for a few movies, there were changes to their overall scores because I either liked them more or less as time progresses. You can also click on the headings for each movie to dive deeper into my reviews of them)
45. Rally Road Racers
Unsurprisingly, we begin the bottom of the list with perhaps an animated movie from one of the worst performing theatrical animation studios, Vanguard Animation. While there were redeeming elements that prevented Rally Road Racers from being another Marmaduke or The Soccer Football Movie, there was no denying how much out of depth Vanguard Animation is compared to other animation studios. In 2023.
44. Headspace
Sometimes, you have to take one for the team and cover some bad foreign CG animated movies for a living, and this is one of them. Bad writing, uncanny animation and a lack of uniqueness makes Headspace a lacklustre animated movie not worth making a sudden detour to cover its sudden release for.
43. Monty and the Street Party
This is honestly one of the most insane animated movies I had seen as of the recent decade, and of course it had to be the Danes who came up with such an incoherent animated movie worth seeing. It may be a technically bad animated movie, but I was smiling and laughing a lot with this one.
42. Mummies
Mummies turned out to be not only one of the biggest surprise stories of 2023 with its surprising huge box office run, but also one of my biggest guilty pleasures of 2023. It is definitely far from being good from the same animators that did the equally successful Tad the Lost Explorer trilogy, but I just love how bizarre this movie is.
41. Regue Chicken
You may be wondering why I ranked Regue Chicken above Mummies even though Regue Chicken has an even worse IMDb score. Well, even though this movie is also technically bad with lack of logic in writing and animation errors, I was able to appreciate how faithfully Colombian this movie is as well as the risks it took to try to be a genuinely good animated movie. That puts it above Mummies which plays it safe most of the time.
40. Running Man: Revengers
Running Man: Revengers is perhaps the most unexpected animated movie of 2023, having feared that this movie, based on the popular Running Man cartoon series which is based on the long-running Korean variety competition show. Yeah, try to keep up, but even then, this is a serviceable animated movie that does not seem to excite, but rather to entertain. That is honestly not a bad thing even if this movie is clearly not meant for me.
39. Inspector Sun and the Curse of the Black Widow
From the director behind Deep, an absolute guilty pleasure of an animated movie, and the studios behind Deep and the upcoming Giants of La Mancha (which if I were to be honest, does not look great), Inspector Sun is a pretty entertaining whodunit animated movie, even with its bizarre animation. A pretty basic foreign CG animated movie that does it right.
38. Under the Boardwalk
Under the Boardwalk is a safe, but well-executed musical animated movie inspired by West Side Story, with solid representation and charming animation. Unfortunately, the generic writing leaves a lot to be desired for one of Paramount Animation’s better efforts.
37. Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken
Perhaps one of the biggest disappointments of 2023, Ruby Gillman was let down by its less than stellar writing that makes it so difficult for me to enjoy. Even with its fantastic animation, there is not enough substance to save this movie from being one of the biggest box office bombs of 2023 for theatrical animated movies.
36. Trolls: Band Together
Speaking of DreamWorks, what had happened to them? Last year was such a stellar year for them with The Bad Guys and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, but this year, they dropped the ball with this and the aforementioned Ruby Gillman. The third movie in the Trolls franchise is full of cliches and generic writing, charming and safe animation and cheesy but memorable musical numbers. While it barely managed to be a “Hot”, on a bad day, I might be tempted to give it such a lower score.
35. The Magician’s Elephant
The Magician’s Elephant is the definition of a “fine” animated movie. The story, the animation, the characters, the score and the other elements are all “fine”, which is not actually a bad thing. However, in 2023, “fine” does not cut it anymore.
34. The Monkey King
Netflix’s adaptation of the Journey to the West origin story could have been more, especially with its fantastic animation. Alas, the westernisation of this story alone ruins the viewing experience for me, making it an absolute disappointment for fans of the well-loved Chinese mythical tale.
33. Miraculous: Ladybug and Cat Noir, the Movie
I am not sure what Miraculous creator Jeremy Zag was thinking when he was helping out with this movie, but whatever he cooked up in the movie, this movie felt overcooked. Aimless writing despite great looking animation, the Miraculous movie might put off potential fans that wanted to see an introduction to this well-beloved French animated series.
32. Argonuts
Argonuts (Epic Tails) is the type of animated movie that should not work at all, but it somehow managed to be entertaining. Even with its generic writing and animation, Argonuts managed to be entertaining enough for foreign CG animated movie standards, something is to be expected considering 2022 was one of the best years for foreign CG animated movies in general.
31. Leo
The more I think about Leo, the more I started to like Leo for what it was trying to do. Even with its technical faults, Leo is a charming Adam Sandler animated movie that certain audiences will enjoy, and that is something rare for a Happy Madison Productions movie.
To Be Continued
That is it for Part 1. Tune in next time to part 2 where we cover some of the better animated movies that came out in 2023. Until next time, see you on our next adventure!
