Board 8 > Ten Biggest Animated Films In Terms Of Overall Cultural Impact (since 1989)

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I've been around for pretty much all of these, so off the top of my head, here are the top ten in terms of overall impact, merchandise, financial success, just basically how "big" each of these films felt at release and afterwards. I'm only doing since 1989, since I'm not really comfortable weighing the older films that didn't have the benefit of the modern marketing/merchandising machine we have now. I'm also not counting films that were already part of franchises (Pokemon, I'm looking at you).

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#10: Aladdin
While The Little Mermaid kicked off the Disney Renaissance and Beauty and the Beast got a Best Picture nomination and was the first animated film to cross $100 million at the North American box office (in its initial release), Aladdin just felt like the biggest of the three. Had the most merchandise, was the first modern animated film to REALLY push a celebrity voice actor with Robin Williams, was a huge blockbuster with over $200 million in North America (which in 1992 was a big deal, it was the #1 highest grossing film of the year)... Aladdin was EVERYWHERE in a way its contemporaries really weren't.

#9: How To Train Your Dragon
Even more merch than Aladdin with a comparable box office success and was one of the first Dreamworks films to really get a major push from an online fandom as well, in a way previous CGI Dreamworks films never did (Shrek had memes sure, but not the loads of fanfics/fanart this film had). Along with Kung Fu Panda, it really pushed the idea that Dreamworks still had "it" even with Disney starting to have its resurgence with Tangled. Sequels were huge too, and were theatrical hits (unlike Aladdin's sequels which went DTV). Honestly, this was the Aladdin of the early 2010s, minus Robin Williams but plus a massive online fandom, which causes it to just edge out Aladdin in my opinion.

#8: Encanto
The music was EVERYWHERE, even moreso than Let It Go back in 2013. Though it wasn't a huge theatrical hit, it scored huge in terms of streaming views. Had a huge online presence, PLUS four quadrant appeal to kids and adults. Completely put the nail in Raya and the Last Dragon's coffin as far as fandom was concerned, and even overshadowed Turning Red to an extent a few months later. Also broke into the mainstream with memes and soundtrack exposure, with songs getting radio play (again, we hadn't seen this since Let It Go).

#7: Finding Nemo
An enormous hit from a box office and merchandising perspective, it even got millions of kids to buy clownfish who had no business trying to take care of them. Was being quoted left and right back in the day. Elevated the profile of Ellen DeGeneres significantly (hell, even moved the needle on Albert Brooks' fame a tiny bit, getting some attention on his other film projects and his stand-up). Was easily the biggest Pixar hit between Toy Story and Cars and was arguably bigger than Cars. Speaking of which...

#6: Cars
Obviously one of the biggest merchandising success stories ever for an animated film. The box office was big (though not as big as Finding Nemo), but obviously the merch and toys made up for it. While not as big of a cultural impact outside kids and the film itself, the tremendous success of the franchise amongst kids is what earns Cars a spot on the list, and even above Finding Nemo (you can still find big Cars sections in a lot of toy departments, but can't find much Finding Nemo stuff at all).

#5: KPop Demon Hunters
Biggest Netflix film in history, one of the biggest movie soundtracks ever, ubiquitous among kids and young adults, MASSIVE online fandom presence, mainstream impact (just got its voice actresses on SNL and Fallon)... and this one still has room to grow considering there hasn't even been much in the way of merch yet and the sequel is just starting to enter development. Time will tell, but already KPop Demon Hunters has to be considered one of the biggest animated successes of the modern era.

#4: Toy Story
Pixar's first, and most impactful film, even above Finding Nemo and Cars. Beats them both by combining the merchandising power of Cars with the box office success and mainstream impact of Finding Nemo, while also legitimizing CGI animated feature films and putting Pixar on the map. Critically, it and its two sequels have enjoyed incredible success as well, and You've Got A Friend In Me is definitely up in the pantheon of all time great animated movie songs. While it doesn't have much of a fandom to speak of, it has plenty of meme appeal, making its online presence felt in that way.

#3: Frozen
Elsa and her theme song "Let It Go" are iconic and ubiquitous, and the two films became the biggest box office successes of Disney's 2010s revival era. Kids everywhere know Frozen, its main characters are instantly recognizable, and of course the success of the film spread to online fandom and mainstream respectability as well. The poster child for 2000s Disney, apart from perhaps Stitch, it's so big it's a franchise in and of itself, apart from the main Disney Princess line.

#2: Shrek
Dreamworks' CGI champion, the film that contributed heavily to Disney's 2000s slump, and featuring one of the most recognizable animated characters ever created. Love him or hate him, Shrek became the animated icon of an entire decade, and until Elsa came along, he was probably the most popular animated film character amongst kids and even grown-ups, with a film franchise that achieved incredible box office success. Despite the decline in quality for the last couple of films, Shrek 5 is incredibly hotly anticipated, proving Shrek's nostalgic sticking power.

#1: The Lion King
Disney's most successful animated film ever, grossing $300 million domestically in 1994 (adjusted for inflation, this is somewhere around $600 million, crushing Frozen and its sequel). The merch was everywhere, Simba was INESCAPABLE back in the 90s, and DIsney's struggled to reach the heights of the cultural juggernaut that was The Lion King ever since. It spawned one of the greatest Broadway musicals of all time, made James Earl Jones iconic for a voice performance besides Darth Vader, gave us numerous sequels and animated spinoffs, featured memorably in Kingdom Hearts, lent itself to parodies, won awards, had numerous songs chart on the Billboard list... no animated phenomenon in the last 35 years has surpassed The Lion King, and only Shrek and maybe Frozen have come close. As big as KPop Demon Hunters seems now, it's unlikely that even it will approach the success and cultural pervasiveness of Disney's 90s juggernaut.

Honorable mentions: The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ice Age, Lilo and Stitch, The Incredibles, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, Tangled, Moana

Good list, although honestly Shrek should probably be #1 I think. So many things changed because of that film, the shift to all CGI, the use of referential humour, the creation of the Best Animated Feature category at the oscars and of course Dreamworks itself.

Feel like Into the Spiderverse should at least get an honorable mention for the industry impact it's had on animation style

spiderverse webcrawled so kpop demon hunters could go up up up

i'm with you on the top four but then i'm mostly "eh" on the rest. if kpop demon hunters is gone by next year then does it still belong? and i just wasn't in the right demo for many of these to penetrate for me

I feel like Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke deserve a mention for making Studio Ghibli a mainstream success with American audiences. Showing that foreign animated movies can be successful here.

I feel like Cars should be off the list.

Spiderverse and Ghibli deserve to at least be mentioned, get Cars outta here

Cars should not be on that list over Spiderverse, Despicable Me and Spirited Away.

Take out Cars and FInding Nemo for Spirited Away and Despicible Me and it's a very good list. Spiderverse arguably should be on there too, but I'm not sure what it would replace. Encanto?

RySenkari posted...

#5: KPop Demon Hunters

I only know of this from Fortnite. Is it really top 5 material? A quick Goog says it came out this year so that seems a bit premature but I'm not really that tuned in obviously

Lots of anti-Cars posts without any reasoning to them...

Finding Nemo seems like the least relevant of the bunch. It wasn't the biggest box office hit, or the biggest merchandising hit.

Cars is on there purely for being a merch mover and Despicable Me seems like it beats it in that category.

It seems odd to me that, if this is measuring cultural impact, the Disney Renaissance and the complete rejuvenation of animation (Which led to the establishment of Dreamworks, Illumination and more) is missing THE 1989 film that started it all - The Little Mermaid.

Maniac64 posted...

Cars is on there purely for being a merch mover and Despicable Me seems like it beats it in that category.

Not to mention Despicable Me put Illumination on the map and the minions were a FAR bigger culturally to the point that they appeared in the Olympic Opening ceremony last year.

And being a merch mover is more of an economic/financial impact rather than cultural. Are there even any widespread quotes, memes, or even memorable scenes from Cars that are on or close to the scale of some of these other films? The biggest cultural impact Cars actually had was it ended Pixar's "every film they release is gold" aura once the sequel dropped.

Pretty solid list for the most part, but I do feel like Spiderverse needs to be on there for the influence in animation style. Despicable Me/Minions was also insanely huge for cultural impact. Those little yellow goobers were everywhere

MZero posted...

I only know of this from Fortnite. Is it really top 5 material? A quick Goog says it came out this year so that seems a bit premature but I'm not really that tuned in obviously

double platinum soundtrack, broke all kinds of music industry records and netflix records, front runner for both grammys and oscars this year