Underappreciated Traditionally Animated Movies

Definitely underappreciated - in fact, all of the traditional DreamWorks movies are pretty much ignored. Prince of Egypt is probably one of the best in the past few decades - easily on par with Disney at the peak of the Renaissance. The Road to El Dorado is very funny and very nice looking. I hear Spirit's not bad at all, and Sinbad... alright, well, three out of four, at least. It's a shame they've gone all-in on CGi; it's not bad, of course, but they had some real talent on the 2D front.



Man, I haven't seen that one in years... I remember loving it as a kid, though, definitely. One of those movies that got lost in the Disney knock-off shuffle of the 90s, I suppose.
 
Sinbad. The animation was fluid, the main character charismatic, and the story engaging. I don't understand why it flopped; it was a great movie.
 
Yes, yes yes. THANK you for mentioning this. I've always given credit to this movie for kindling my interest in Tolkien and Lord of the Rings, for the very reasons you've described (with the exception of the wood elves).

-Kim
 
Seconded - The Iron Giant is still an absolute favorite of mine, and IMHO it's Brad Bird's best film. It could easily be a film on par with the Disney Renaissance films in terms of writing and animation. CN would used to have 24 hour marathons of the the film(!!) but they never do it any more :-/
 
Agreed with the Iron Giant. And one that I really loved was Quest for Camelot. A lot of people just thought of it as a Disney rip-off but I thought that it was incredible. Great songs, fun story, everything was awesome. I'm really surprised that it isn't more popular.
 
I would say that Cats Dont Dance makes it in my book. I really wished that this had gotten more attention, it had a great batch of animation for it and I just blame Warner bros's dumb marketing on it. They only released ONE trailer of the film for crying out loud!

Wizards is one movie that makes it in my book as well. Its one of my favorite fantasy animated films and I wish that there would be more like this one. If there was ever a donatation to help out Bakshi's project(like how Joe Murray did Kaboing tv). I'd give him a 100 bucks or so to help him out.
 
I'd say Beavis and Butthead and the Spongebob Squarepants Movie. Both movies were fairly decent hits yet no one really talks about them or laud them very much. I feel they were both very well done.
 
Outstanding film, in every way..
..I could talk for hours about it..but today I will say this...

You stay, I go....

If you don't know what that means ...get this film and watch it a couple of times..you will......................Sun
 
Seconded.

Also, stretching the definition a bit, but Animalympics is probably the only thing I like in any medium that's related to the Olympics.
 
The Iron Giant's now probably the animated equivalent of The Shawshank Redeemption: a great film criminally underrated when in theaters but has since now been elevated to essentially classic status. Don't know if it counts as under-appreciated anymore.
 
Has anyone mentioned Brother Bear yet? I saw it yesterday for the first time since the theaters and I thought that it was the only Disney canon movie (aside from Princess and the Frog) that was released in the 00's that actually felt like a Disney movie.
 
I'm not sure if it has a really strong following, but I think you have a good point all the same. Whenever threads about under appreciated animated movies rolls along, Iron Giant is always mentioned. I think it has a cult following based on the amount of attention I've seen for it online, but I don't know if that means it has reached classic status. Though, given how often it is praised, I could see how people could question if it is an under-appreciated film.



I saw that movie in theaters with my parents and we loved it. The story was engaging, the characters were generally likable, there was a good amount of character development, the music was wonderful and the artwork was pretty great. It's easily one of my favorite Disney movies and it's still so much fun to watch. I still remember after my whole family watched it on DVD, my older brother, who isn't into watching a lot of Disney movies, said that it was right up there with the Lion King and I still agree with that statement. While I didn't see every animated Disney movie released in the 00's, Brother Bear did have that kind of genuine family Disney film feeling to it as I watched it, which might be one reason why my family and I enjoyed watching it so much.
 
Ditto. Out of the new millenium, Brother Bear along with Tangled and PATF have been great Disney canons. I first saw it in school and I think I was among the only one in class to shed a few tears from it. The message, characters, and music were all so engaging, though I think I've only seen the sequel once.
 
I still feel the strong urge to cry every time I see the ending. The message it has is definitely touching, as are the relationships between the brothers. As for the sequel, I've only seen it once too. It felt unnecessary to me and unlike some of the other Disney sequels which one could argue weren't necessary either, it didn't feel nearly as fun or engaging as the original film. Though, it might have helped that I just didn't care about Kenai finding a mate in his bear form after all of his growth and bonding with Koda in original film.
 
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