The 9 best CGI movies of all time: From Toy Story to the Spider-Verse
Computer-animated movies that take you to infinity, and beyond!
Toy Story 5 arrives in cinemas later this week (June 19th), marking the latest entry in a storied series of CGI movies.
Indeed, the original Toy Story film holds a very special place in cinematic history. When it arrived in 1995, it became the first ever feature length CGI film – that is, the first movie to be made entirely using computer animation techniques.
As such, Pixar’s landmark production did much more than kick off a franchise, or even a successful studio. It spawned an entire industry.
By way of a tribute to the decades-spanning Toy Story series and the entire form of cinema that it created, we thought now would be the ideal time to run through the best CGI movies ever made.
It’s a thorny subject for a list. Many of us have grown up with these films, so I’m quite aware that rating them (and omitting so many absolute bangers) is likely to provoke outrage.
I can only say that I’m sorry for the actual physical pain I’m about to inflict on you. Even if I am 100% right.
9. Sausage Party
Part of me wanted to include Sausage Party for the sake of variety, and perhaps just a little mischievous contrarianism amidst all this kiddie-focused fare. But when it comes down to it, this is a deft piece of work that goes to places most live action Hollywood movies dare not tread. It sets out its stall as a bawdy Seth Rogen comedy vehicle all about anthropomorphic sausages itching to get together with suggestively shaped buns in a quintessential supermarket, but soon expands into an unabashed statement about atheistic humanism. You don’t get that from Disney, God bless ‘em.
8. Big Hero 6
It would be a stretch to suggest that Big Hero 6 has flown under radar, but it rarely seems to be spoken about in the same terms as many of the other CGI films on this list. You can probably blame Frozen, which was released to billion-dollar-grossing success the previous year by the same studio. For my money, though, Big Hero 6 is the better film, with a stunning aesthetic that mashes together Japanese and American sci-fi culture. But it’s the heart-warming relationship between a young robotics nerd and his inflatable buddy (not like that) that forms the core of the movie’s appeal.
7. Shrek
If Toy Story paved the way for all computer animated movies to follow, then Shrek established the fact that this was indeed a CGI movie industry rather than a Pixar movie industry. It might have been DreamWorks Animation’s second computer animated feature, but it was the first to hit big with audiences, capturing the zeitgeist with its tongue-in-cheek send up of Disney’s hackneyed fairytale schtick. Which is truly amazing, when you read into the troubled nature of the production. Mike Myers brings the grouchy ogre to life, aided by a stellar supporting cast, an irreverent script, and a bracingly anachronistic soundtrack.
6. WALL·E
What really separates Pixar (at its best) from the rest of the family-oriented CGI movie crowd is that it has something to say. Arguably its grandest statement comes via WALL·E, which goes in strong on humanity’s complacency in the face of impending environmental disaster, with a side-order of disdain for consumerism. Don’t worry, though – it’s also got an adorable trash-scooping robot protagonist, who falls in love with a sleeker and deadlier model during a masterfully wordless opening stretch.
![The LEGO® Movie - Official Main Trailer [HD] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/fZ_JOBCLF-I/maxresdefault.jpg)
5. The Lego Movie
Warner Bros finally crashed the CGI movie space in 2014 with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s riotous riff on everyone’s favourite blocky toy brand. The Lego Movie represented a huge swing at the time, and its success surely paved the way for Barbie’s similarly irreverent cinematic treatment a decade later. Featuring a nigh-on perfect visual style that nods to stop motion animation and the sheer chaotic creativity of Lego itself, as well as a surprisingly meta storyline, it’s an absolute hoot with genuine cross-generational appeal.
4. Toy Story 2
This was a tricky one. As we’ve already discussed, the original Toy Story was foundational to this entire list, while Toy Story 3 reaches emotional depths and deals with the kind of weighty themes you simply don’t see too often from an ostensibly kiddie-focused film genre. But Toy Story 2 is sheer perfection, from its expressive animation to its razor-sharp script and impeccable characterisations. If there’s been a more joyful and thrilling exploration of mid-life crisis in all of cinema, I have yet to see it.
3. The Incredibles
Eight years before the first Avengers movie and more than two decades before Marvel’s so-so Fantastic Four reboot, Pixar aced the whole ‘quippy super-family’ thing with The Incredibles. Not only that, but they also produced one of the finest spy movies of the 21st century while they were at it. The Incredibles has it all, with a beautiful ‘60s sci-fi aesthetic, outrageously thrilling set pieces, and bags of heart, as our extraordinary nuclear family gets pulled back into the super-heroing business.
2. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
No-one, but no-one expected this. While the world was distracted by Tom Holland’s lovably dorky live action hero and his dalliances with the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe, Into the Spider-Verse quietly swung ahead with the best Spider-Man movie yet. The film’s successes are many and varied, but core to its appeal is that it does something genuinely new and daring in the field of computer animation. It’s impossible to describe Into the Spider-Verse’s aesthetic beyond made-up words like ‘comic-booky’, such is the vivid impression of ink-on-paper being given life and motion.
1. Ratatouille
Peak Pixar truly could do no wrong, as evidenced by this fact: its best ever film was about an aspiring Parisian chef fighting to work amidst wanton discrimination and corruption. The premise suggests ‘Ken Loach indie’ rather than ‘family-friendly box office smash’, but those Pixar magicians had it covered. They made the protagonist a gourmand rat named Remy, who finds that he can indulge his prodigious talent in the kitchen by hopping onto the head of a gormless kitchen assistant and controlling his movements. No other CGI film so expertly evokes childlike wonder in adults and kids alike.
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