The 1990s saw animated movies roar back to the mainstream after two decades of struggles. This specific decade rebuilt animation from the ground up, and it provided some of the best animated films in history, with Disney delivering masterpieces and rival studios rising to become as successful, if not more so, than the Mouse House.
Disney experienced a renaissance at the end of the 1980s, and that flowed into an impressive decade in the 1990s. This decade also saw the debut of Pixar with Toy Story in 1995 and of DreamWorks Animation with Antz in 1998. Add in the continued excellence of Studio Ghibli out of Japan, the rise in stop-motion animation, and even an MTV show turned into a movie, and it was an impressive decade for animation.
This decade saw the first animated movie to ever receive a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars, and it was also the decade of the first fully computer-animated feature film. Names like Hayao Miyazaki, Brad Bird, John Lasseter, and more helped bring animation to a wholly new level, and every year of the 1990s featured at least one animated film release that stands up with any movie in history.
1990 — The Rescuers Down Under
Disney was starting to experience what became known as the Disney Renaissance in 1989 with The Little Mermaid. This resulted in some incredible 1990s Disney animated movies, although there was one holdover franchise that was stuck in between The Little Mermaid and the 1991 animated classic that changed everything. That movie shouldn’t be forgotten, as it remains a fantastic film that deserves more love.
The Rescuers Down Under is notable for being the first Disney animated movie sequel to ever get a theatrical release. This is the sequel to The Rescuers (1977), with Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor returning to their roles as Bernard and Bianca, mice who set out to rescue people. This time they head to Australia to rescue a young boy named Cody. It stands out as one of only three major American theatrically released animated features of 1990.
1991 — Beauty And The Beast
While The Little Mermaid started the Disney Renaissance, it is Beauty and the Beast that stands as the movie that brought Disney back to relevance. That is because this film was the first animated film ever nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture. Based on the classic fairy tale, the plot follows Belle, imprisoned in the castle of a cursed prince, who must learn to love and be loved before the last petal falls from an enchanted rose.
Beauty and the Beast received six Oscar nominations and won two, including Best Original Score and Best Original Song for the title track. It was also the first animated film to win the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy. It grossed over $451 million worldwide, making it a major critical and commercial success.
1992 — Aladdin
Disney remained on a roll the next year when the studio followed Beauty and the Beast with Aladdin. Based on “Aladdin and the Magic Lamp” from One Thousand and One Nights, Robin Williams turned heads with his voice role of the Genie, which was mostly improvised. The animation was also groundbreaking, combining hand-drawn animation with CGI elements, notably the Cave of Wonders and the Magic Carpet’s patterned surface.
Aladdin became the highest-grossing film of 1992, earning over $504 million worldwide, once again proving that Disney was back. It also received five Academy Award nominations, winning Best Original Score and Best Original Song for “A Whole New World.” Williams received a special Golden Globe award for his vocal performance.
1993 — The Nightmare Before Christmas
In 1993, a stop-motion movie ruled the animation world with The Nightmare Before Christmas. The movie was produced by Tim Burton and directed by Henry Selick. The story was based on an old Burton idea, but he passed the role to Selick since he was directing Batman Returns at the time. The plot follows Jack Skellington, the “Pumpkin King” of Halloween Town, who discovers Christmas Town and tries to take over the holiday.
Thanks to the intricate stop-motion effects and all the different figures, it took three years to finish making the movie. It was all worth it as the film became a massive cult favorite and a commercial success, earning $109 million on an $18 million budget
1994 — The Lion King
In 1994, Disney was back on top after taking a one-year break with The Lion King, a movie loosely based on William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The film was based on an original story rather than an existing fairy tale, following the lion cub Simba’s journey to reclaim his kingdom. Its “Circle of Life” opening and the CGI-assisted wildebeest stampede are landmark technical set pieces.
Elton John wrote the music and Tim Rice the lyrics, with a score by Hans Zimmer. The Lion King was the highest-grossing release of 1994 and, at roughly $968 million worldwide with re-releases, is the highest-grossing traditionally hand-drawn animated film of all time. It won two Academy Awards, including Best Original Score for Zimmer and Best Original Song for “Can You Feel the Love Tonight.”
1995 — Toy Story
In 1995, the world of animated movies changed forever. This was the year that Pixar released its first animated feature film, and Toy Story proved that Pixar was a new force in Hollywood, and this started the rise of one of the most creatively brilliant animation studios in American history. Toy Story was the first feature-length film entirely computer-animated, and it starred Tom Hanks as Woody and Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear, two toys owned by a young boy named Andy.
The story imagines the secret lives of toys, centering on their desire to always make sure the children who own them have fun and imaginative lives growing up. John Lasseter received a Special Achievement Academy Award for spearheading the first feature-length computer-animated film. It also launched Pixar and the modern CGI-animation era.
1996 — Beavis And Butt-Head Do America
While Disney had The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1996, the best animated movie from that year was an animated road comedy based on an MTV adult animated series. Directed by series creator Mike Judge, Beavis and Butt-Head Do America takes the animated series that mostly had two kids watching music videos on TV on a journey across America to find their stolen television.
Judge voiced both title characters, with guest voices from Bruce Willis, Demi Moore, Robert Stack, and Cloris Leachman. It was the second highest-grossing animated film of 1996, behind Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and stood out as a bold adult-oriented alternative to family animation. Beavis and Butt-Head Do America drew strong reviews, unusual for a TV-to-film comedy spinoff.
1997 — Princess Mononoke
Ghibli had been releasing incredible animated movies since the 1980s, and Hayao Miyazaki was one of the best visionaries in the genre for his entire career. In 1997, Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke was released, and it was a major success in Japan. It became the highest-grossing film in Japan of 1997, earning over $150 million there and holding Japan’s box-office record until Miyazaki’s own Spirited Away (2001).
Princess Mononoke follows Ashitaka, a cursed young prince caught in a war between the gods of a forest and the humans of an iron-mining town. He meets the wolf-raised girl San along the way. Its mature themes of environmentalism, industrialization, and moral ambiguity set it apart from Western family animation of the era. Despite a modest US box office, it sold strongly on home video and vastly expanded Ghibli’s influence outside Japan.
1998 — Mulan
In 1998, Disney animation was back with a movie that helped break out of its Disney princess mode for female-led movies with Mulan. This movie features a young woman named Fa Mulan, who disguises herself as a man to take her aging father’s place in the army during a Hun invasion of Imperial China. This allows Mulan to become a powerful warrior and prove herself among the men fighting in this war.
Mulan competed in an unusually crowded 1998 animation field including DreamWorks’ Antz and The Prince of Egypt, Pixar’s A Bug’s Life, and The Rugrats Movie. It out-grossed DreamWorks’ rivals The Prince of Egypt and Antz. It received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Musical or Comedy Score and was praised for its rare Disney heroine who is a warrior rather than a princess.
1999 — The Iron Giant
Brad Bird made his name with Pixar, but before this, he proved his excellence with the 1999 animated movie The Iron Giant. It was based on the 1968 novel The Iron Man by British poet Ted Hughes. Set in the 1950s Cold War-era Maine, it follows a giant metal robot from space who befriends a boy named Hogarth Hughes and chooses to be a hero rather than a weapon.
The voice cast included Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick Jr., and Vin Diesel as the Giant. It was a box-office flop, earning only about $23 million, but it earned strong critical acclaim and became a celebrated cult classic. It launched Bird’s career, leading to his Oscar-winning Pixar films The Incredibles and Ratatouille, and is now widely ranked among the best animated films ever.