Introduction
Happy New Year, fellow adventurers! Blaziker is here to celebrate the beginning of a brand new year! In all honestly, I am already missing 2024, not because of the sheer number of animated movies of this year (84 animated movies in fact, almost twice the amount as in 2023), but how interesting 2024 was in terms of the animated movies we got!
Firstly, here is the bad news: the bad animated movies from this year are really bad this year. Sure, given the sheer number of animated movies this year, it is expected I had to cover some bad apples, but this year, compared to only one animated movie that I rated “Extra Mild” with no animated movies I rated “No Flavour!” in the previous year, I had the displeasure to give 5 animated movies “Extra Mild” and a further 3 “No Flavour!”. It seems these eight animated movies do not read through my recent essay on the Americanisation of Non-Mainstream Animated Movies because they all commit the same errors I talked about in that essay.
Secondly, however, here is the good news: the best animated movies this year are really, really good! Honestly, the best animated movies really outshine the competition and are deserving of being given such high praise from me, especially given the level of experimentation in both stories and animation styles, and the number of countries not known for animation that produced some of the best of 2024. Compared to 2023 where 12 animated movies got an “Extra Hot” rating, with 9 more getting a “Straight Up Fire!” rating, in 2024, I gave a staggering 26 animated movies “Extra Hot” and 14 more “Straight Up Fire!”, proving that yes, 2024 was also a great year of animation, in fact one of the most exciting.
So, which movies truly deliver on their high expectations, and which movies belong in the bargain bin? Well, why don’t we begin part 1 (of 4), because there are too many animated movies in 2024) of the Worst to Best Animated Movies of 2023 with the bottom 21 animated movies of 2024!
(Also, for a few movies, there were changes to their overall scores because I either liked them more or less as time progresses.)
84. Johnny Puff: Secret Mission
NO. JUST. NO. No more of these unnecessary Arctic Dogs spin-offs. I had cringed through this movie as well as the original, which resulted in one massive review/rant about how this movie insults the entire animation industry. The less I give it any coverage, the better.
83. Cats in the Museum
Again, no, but mostly because that movie is produced by an animation studio based in R***a, a war criminal country helmed by a dictator and that it feels like an animated movie rip-off. Again, the less said about it, the better.
82. Una Aventura Gigante
It is easy to see why Eduardo Schdult is one of the most disliked animators in Latin America, because with Una Aventura Gigante, there is no creativity or cohesion in this mess of an animated movie. Almost none of the elements work, and it pains to see how behind the Latin American animation scene is.
81. Giants of La Mancha
Speaking of the above, how about another terrible Latin American animated movie that has annoying characters, cringe-inducing comedy, a cheap-looking animation style and a terrible soundtrack to boot? Seriously, this region is just embarrassing in terms of animated movies…
80. Gracie and Pedro: Pets to the Rescue!
Produced by unknown first-timers with an unnecessary huge celebrity voice cast, a terrible execution of a generic and familiar concept, ugly animation and a terrible soundtrack. To this day, I still had no idea how that had to exist.
79. Megamind vs the Doom Syndicate
Perhaps the worst mainstream animated movie this year, while the Megamind community demanded a sequel to one of the best animated movies of the early 2010s, this sloppy “effort” ain’t it, chief.
78. Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie
Barely escaping as perhaps the worst mainstream animated movie of 2024, this SpongeBob SquarePants spin-off animated movie is filled with a poorly executed story and an animation style that is uglier than the story. It seems fitting that the details about its leak are more interesting than the movie itself.
77. Little Emma (Rating Updated)
Yet another animated movie that came absolutely out of nowhere, this curiosity also suffered from the same issues as many of the animated movies I had covered on this list so far. The only positive is that it is at least a (slightly) watchable animated movie, but the positives stop here.
76. Warrior King
While Chinese animation is enjoying some renaissance, there is no denying it still produced some terrible animated movies, and this is one of them. A confusing story with a more confusing animation style makes it one of the most confusing animated movies of 2024.
75. Butterfly Tale (Rating Updated)
While 2024 is a fantastic year for most types of animated movies, there were not a high number of good family-friendly foreign CG animated movies, as most of this year are just worth not seeing (with only a handful of family-friendly foreign CG animated movies that I can highly recommend just like last year). This generic and poorly animated, Americanised animated movie is just one of those many examples…
74. My Freaky Family
… And you could say the same thing about My Freaky Family…
73. Richard the Stork 2
… And also Richard the Stork 2. Seriously Germany, why are you still lagging behind the other European counterparts in 2024???
72. The Tiger’s Apprentice
At least The Tiger’s Apprentice is not as big of a disaster as first thought for Paramount Animation standards, although given its numerous production issues, I was not surprised by its mediocrity.
71. Dragonkeeper
Dragonkeeper suffered from many production issues as well, and while not as egregious as The Tiger’s Apprentice, is an overall weak animated movie that is a stark contrast to the somewhat high expectations I had for this one. This is why Spanish CG animated movies are inferior to its top-quality non-CG ones…
70. They Shot the Piano Player
Without a question the most disappointing animated movie of 2024 from the creators of Chico and Rita. A movie that beats around the bush with its story and a confusing animation style that just feels not interesting, this is overall not good…
69. The Canterville Ghost
2024 sees a good number of UK-based CG animated movies, and among those, this is the weakest of the bunch. At least it provides a few interesting moments that prevented it from going much lower.
68. 200% Wolf
Barely scoring above 10/20, 200% Wolf is a downgrade compared to 100% Wolf as it relied too much on the storylines from the first movie, and I just feel it was lacking something to make this sequel a worthwhile… apart from furries smooching for wolf-form Freddy Lupin that is…
67. Noah’s Ark
Probably the least bad animated movie from Latin America this year, Noah’s Ark 2024 at least executes what it was trying to do by bringing the Brazilian Noah’s Ark songs into the big screen, and just doing that. I’m sure it will have the Brazilian fans, but that’s about it.
66. Panda Bear in Africa
Of the 18 animated movies I covered this year that came from this year’s Annecy Film Festival, this is the weakest of the group, but it nevertheless is an okay-ish executed animated movie that at least sells its concept well, even if it barely misses out on the passing grade of “Hot” or higher.
65. Mantra Warrior: The Legend of the Eight Moons
The first of the two Thai animated movies that came out this year, the first part of the Mantra Warrior series is honestly a decent introduction into the series that is based on the Thai warrior Ramayama, but while the animation is stunning, the writing unfortunately could not keep up with the rest of the elements, and that single-handedly lets the entire movie down.
64. Despicable Me 4
The lowest-ranked animated movie that was shortlisted for this year’s Oscars for Best Animated Feature, the fourth instalment in the love-it-or-hate-it movie series did not change much compared to the other three movies and felt quite stale. Still, if it ain’t broke, why fix it?
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 2024. Until next time, see you on our next adventure!
