10 Best Cult Classic Animated Movies, Ranked (2024)

When a movie isn't loved by everyone, or generally manages to attract a small yet devoted fanbase instead of having universal appeal, it could well qualify as a cult classic. Oftentimes, the followings for such movies build steadily over years, or even decades, and some cult classics, in hindsight, look ahead of their time. Think that scene in Back to the Future where Marty says: “I guess you guys aren't ready for that, yet. But your kids are gonna love it.”

Cult classics aren’t exclusive to live action, either, because there have been plenty of animated films that are definable as having cult appeal; some finding fanbases fairly quickly, and others taking longer to accumulate acclaim. Some of the best and most distinctive animated cult classics are ranked below, beginning with the good and ending with the great.

10 'Son of the White Mare' (1981)

Director: Marcell Jankovics

A unique and kind of arthouse fantasy/adventure movie that also happens to be animated, Son of the White Mare tells what feels like a fairly traditional fantastical story in a bold and unusual way. It revolves around three brothers, three dragons, and three princesses, and there are few surprises when it comes to which group forms the heroes, which group’s the damsels in distress, and which group is made up of the villains.

But there’s nothing generic or predictable about the rest of Son of the White Mare, with animation that initially looks simple, but becomes more impressive the further the film goes on. It’s not the sort of thing that’ll appeal to everyone, of course, but the consensus on this film – from the people who've seen it – is undeniably positive.

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9 'Belladonna of Sadness' (1973)

Director: Eiichi Yamamoto

There are plenty of great anime movies that can be described as either niche or outright cult classics, and the darkly fantastical and surreal Belladonna of Sadness is one of them. It’s a film with an odd/evocative title, and it proves even stranger once you actually sit down to watch it, with the experience being overwhelming, sometimes quite shocking, and always unnerving.

Essentially, Belladonna of Sadness is about a woman who wants revenge against an evil lord no matter the cost, which leads to her making a deal with the devil, taking on a whole new appearance and finding herself changing in other ways as she enacts vengeance. It’s the sort of thing where you might get lost narratively, but that doesn’t always matter when all the non-narrative stuff is so striking and unlike much else out there.

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Directors: Pino Van Lamsweerde, John Bruno, Jimmy T. Murakami

Heavy Metal, like a good many other anthology movies, is a little hard to summarize, thanks to the fact that it includes numerous segments that each tell their own story. They're sort of tied together genre-wise and a little bit thematically (maybe, kind of), and there is an overarching premise, in a way, from which all the stories are sourced: a glowing orb that tells a young woman each alarming, often violent tale.

The animation can be quite crude in places, and Heavy Metal does undeniably feel like it’s trying to shock and provoke, too, with things being very sexually explicit and violent compared to the majority of animated movies. Yet these qualities of Heavy Metal do scream “cult movie” in many ways, for both better and worse, and even detractors of the film will likely be able to appreciate how and why it’s grown a cult following over the years.

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7 'Yellow Submarine' (1968)

Director: George Dunning

In no way can The Beatles be called a cult band because, put simply, musicians don’t really get a whole lot bigger, more acclaimed, or internationally recognized. But the films the members of The Beatles were in do tend to be a little more obscure or most appealing to hardcore Beatles fans (with the exception of the rather popular and widely-liked A Hard Day’s Night… though from Help! onwards… things get weird).

And Yellow Submarine, while probably one of the better Beatles-related films, does ultimately feel like an acquired taste, and probably easiest to enjoy for those looking for something a little oddball. It’s visually dazzling, and though the plot is a bit whatever, the world it takes place in and the trippy, imaginative animation on offer makes it worth a watch (but while the main characters resemble the members of The Beatles, the band members themselves only have brief voice roles overall).

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6 'Wizards' (1977)

Director: Ralph Bakshi

Almost any Ralph Bakshi movie could classify for cult classic status, because he’s a singular filmmaker whose work is always undeniably his own; identifiable as such regardless of quality. Little he’s made is bolder, stranger, and (arguably) better than Wizards, though, which tones things down a little when it comes to adult content (compared to some other Bakshi films) but gets more ambitious regarding scope and genres.

Wizards is a full-on blend of science fiction and fantasy, taking place countless years after atomic weapons destroyed the world, and having this otherworldly version of Earth inhabited by fairies, wizards, and other magical beings. Battles are fought, with a mix of things fairytale, futuristic, and 20th century; in other words, sort of the present when Wizards was released. It’s hard to explain. It’s weird. But it’s worth checking out.

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5 'Alice' (1988)

Director: Jan Švankmajer

Some of the aforementioned films have been weird, but things are going to get a whole lot weirder right now. Enter Alice. This is a take on a tale most people are likely familiar with: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. But the presentation and overall feel of 1988’s Alice prove anything but familiar or expected.

This is maybe one of the more frightening fantasy movies out there, at least of the ones that don’t have explicitly un-family-friendly things. There’s no profanity and the violence isn't necessarily graphic, for example, but the look of the film is like an unsettling dream in its milder moments, and closer to a nightmare during its most frightening parts. Only the title character is live-action, and everyone else is brought to life using unsettling stop-motion animation. So, while it might give you nightmares, at least they should be visually arresting nightmares!

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4 'Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion' (1997)

Directors: Hideaki Anno, Kazuya Tsurumaki

Hey, depending on what circles you belong to or are familiar with, there’s a more than good chance you’ve heard of Neon Genesis Evangelion. It was one of the most significant anime series of the 1990s, though when looking at things more broadly – and on an international scale – it’s not heinous to suggest that it’s probably not for everyone (those Rebuild of Evangelion movies did work to make Neon Genesis Evangelion more approachable, though).

But then there’s The End of Evangelion, which was essentially a feature-length conclusion to the original show, and one that took all the particularly dark and perplexing aspects of said show and turned it all up to 11. It is a non-stop assault on the senses and the soul in a way that both impresses and horrifies. You have to be pretty into Neon Genesis Evangelion to not only enjoy it, but also understand it (and, then again, even understanding the story up until this point doesn’t guarantee enjoyment of this exceedingly dark, downbeat, and confronting film).

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3 'Redline' (2009)

Director: Takeshi Koike

Animated or otherwise, there’s a good argument to be made that Redline was one of the coolest and most underappreciated action movies of its decade. The premise is wonderfully simple and hard to resist, with all the main characters involved in a wild intergalactic car race, and much of the film being dedicated to showing these high-speed, adrenaline-fueled events.

Picture the pod-racing scene from The Phantom Menace, but with some vehicles that are a little more American Graffiti (hey, two George Lucas movies!), and stretched to feature-length, and that’s a little how Redline feels. It’s also a bit Speed Racer, for fans of that film, which came out a year earlier and was technically live-action, though clearly had a great deal of CGI animation. Redline, in contrast, was done with hand-drawn animation, and the whole thing is genuinely mind-blowing.

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2 'Fantastic Planet' (1973)

Director: René Laloux

You can’t talk about unusual animated movies with cult followings without a mention of Fantastic Planet, which is still as strange and otherworldly when watched today as it would’ve been upon release, more than 50 years ago. It tells a story involving giant blue creatures of high intelligence that keep regular-sized human beings (who therefore look tiny) as pets.

It’s undeniably trippy stuff, and is also a rather concentrated burst of bizarre animated science fiction, thanks to its slim runtime of just 72 minutes. Fantastic Planet is the sort of film that might wash over you while it’s on, but something about how it feels just lingers long after it’s over. It’s hard to resist either thinking about it more or giving it another watch, and even if it’s generally just passionate fans of older animation who've seen it, just about anyone in the camp will have likely been affected by Fantastic Planet in one way or another (it’s gonna get ya, get ya, get ya, get ya).

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1 'Akira' (1988)

Director: Katsuhiro Otomo

Akira starts at 11 and then never lets up, being one of the most thrillingly relentless anime films ever made, understandably holding up as an undisputed sci-fi classic. It takes place in Neo-Tokyo, in the once future year of 2019, and revolves around a biker gang that’s forever reshaped after one of its members gains unusual powers that eventually threaten the world, on account of the immense physical/psychological changes such powers bring about.

The overall feel of Akira is iconic, from the style of animation, to the character/vehicle designs, to the world-building, and to (especially) the music. It’s non-stop and captivating stuff, standing as the sort of anime film that’s probably not quite as approachable as similarly legendary films like those of Hayao Miyazaki, but proves more than worthwhile for those after something a little more sci-fi-heavy and emotionally uncompromising.

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