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The Best Animated Movies of 2023 (So Far)
The Best Animated Movies of 2023 (So Far),It’s a tremendous year for animation, and that’s before we’ve even gotten to Miyazaki’s last film. Here are the best animated movies of the year so far, including ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie,’ ‘Suzume,’ and ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.’

The Best Animated Movies of 2023 (So Far)

We may only be halfway through, but 2023 already has the best release calendar for blockbuster feature animation since at least 2009 — a year that began with Wall-E winning an Oscar and saw the theatrical bows of Up, Coraline, Secret of Kells, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, and Fantastic Mr. Fox. This one feels just as stuffed: It’s already given us a joyous graphic-novel adaptation we feared we’d never see, a new Spider-Verse film pulsating with energy, and the return of an anime master not named Hayao Miyazaki. It will soon deliver the latest (last??) film by Miyazaki himself, a fresh new take on TMNT, the triumphant conclusion to the long-running ancestral trauma pageant The Venture Bros., and even another Chicken Run, to name a few. For now, though, it’s enough to bask in the seven features below that have wowed us for one reason or another.

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Photo: Unicorn Wars

The “Care Bears meets Apocalypse Now” label this movie’s gotten isn’t exaggeration. Director Alberto Vazquez’s movie pits colorful, cuddly cubs against a mysterious race of black unicorns in bloody, vengeful conflict. This one of the funniest and most grotesque animated fantasy films of the decade — in which we get to know an adorable, richly designed cast of ursine characters before they meet their brutally gory ends. Along the way, Unicorn Wars offers commentary on the nature of conflict and the human bear condition, ultimately making a statement on militarism, propaganda, and religion. “All empires and all nations have their narratives to justify the wars,” Vazquez has said in an interview. Unicorn Wars is the sort of film that has no realistic shot at something like an Academy Award, even for animation, but it’s a great example of what the medium is capable of achieving.

Available to Rent Prime Video

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