Best Traditional Animated Movies Not Made By Disney

Adapted from the autobiographical graphic novels of the same name, it was also nominated for best animated feature. This film offers an honest and personal insight of a girl growing up in a war torn nation. Persepolis makes a great case that animation can be used to tackle a wide variety of subjects.

Brought to you by the director of The Triplets of Belleville. A melancholy and beautifully drawn film. It really should have won the Academy Award for best animated feature the year it came out. (Yes, I love Pixar, but that doesn't mean the studio has to win every award.)

A truly great film and the directorial debut of Brad Bird (who would later direct The Incredibles and Ratatouille). One of my favorite movies growing up. If you love animation, or just love cinema, this is a must see.

Don Bluth's big break after he left Disney in order to try and bring back quality to American animation. He succeeded. The film is responsible for triggering the Disney's animation renaissance in the late 80's and even got the attention of Steven Spielberg.

Widely regarded as Russia's best animated feature. It is a very loyal adaptation of the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale of the same name. The Snow Queen has won several prizes, including the Cannes Film Festival prize for best animated film. Hayo Miyazaki cites it as a major influence on his style.

One of those films that is incredibly sad and hard to sit through, but you should still see. Brought to you by the same team that created Watership Down, it is arguably the better film, both animation and story wise.

A British film not intentioned for small children. Watership Down is one of the closest adaptations to a book that has ever been filmed. It does not shy away from the original story's darkness at all. Ahead of its time.

This famous French masterpiece was in production for over 30 years. It was originally released in 1952 but not presented in the way its creator intended. The film follows two young lovers who are being pursued by a corrupt king. One of the film's greatest strengths is its little reliance on dialogue. Its visual and narrative style were influential on animators Hayo Miyazaki and Isao Takahata.

Produced by Rankin/Bass and adapted from Peter S. Beagle's classic story. It's one of those rare childrens' films that is surprisingly mature, offering a lot to older viewers as well. Some other pluses: it stars Mia Farrow, has music by America, and many of the animators on the film later went on to form Studio Ghibli.

Another serious war movie set in the Middle East. It won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film. One of the most mature and insightful pictures I have seen dealing with post traumatic stress disorder.

The Fleischer's second and better film. Sadly, it was also their last due to the film's unfortunate release date which was close to when Pearl Harbor was bombed. Nobody went to see the film and Fleischer Studios went bankrupt. Mr. Bug was the first animated film with an original story and featured some great music. It is considered by some to be the best animated film that Disney never made.

The Prince of Egypt is often overlooked today because it was released during the Disney Renaissance which is shame. This film does an excellent job adapting the classic Moses story and features a very good score on par with, and even exceeding, some Disney films released at the time. It remains one of the best animated films produced by Dreamworks.

The most amazing thing about this movie is that is was made by one person. It utilizes several styles of animation, has jazz musical numbers reminiscent of Betty Boop cartoons, and relates Sita's relationship woes to that of the director. Tying all these things together sounds like an impossible task, but it works, it works well.

This excellent French film contains little dialogue and is perhaps one of the most unique films out there. It was nominated for two Academy Awards, for best animated feature and best original song. Strange, beautifully drawn, and positively surreal.

Poor Richard Williams. You work on a film for over 25 years and as soon as you get successful, it gets taken away from you and horribly deviated from its original intent. If you see this film watch it how it was meant to be seen. Go and watch the incomplete but visually dazzling 'Re-cobbled Cut' on Youtube.

The first animated film to be based off real people...well sort of. The psychedelic artwork and soundtrack of Yellow Submarine remains imprinted in popular culture to this day. It was one of the first films to break away from the 'Disney Wannabe' trend.

Directed by the great Chuck Jones, animated at UPA, and featuring the voice of Judy Garland. What more could you want? Gay Purr-ee features an original musical storyline about cats falling in love in Paris. (Disney would later 'borrow' this premise for The Aristocats about 10 years later.)

Definitely not for children. It's a gory film noir, murder-mystery with cats. Felidae is Germany's most expensive animated film ever made costing over 10 million marks.

Not only was this Britain's first animated film, it was also one of the first major animated films not intended for children. It was very well received critically and followed very closely to Orwell's original tale (save for its cop out ending).

Released by the Fleischer Brothers (most famous for Betty Boop and Popeye) in order to compete against Disney's Snow White. It is best remembered for its extensive use of the Rotoscope and was nominated for two Academy Awards, for best score and best original song. Although successful at the box office, it was critically less well received than Snow White and has become little known today.