25 Must-See Stop-Motion Animated Movies

In many ways, stop-motion is older than the medium of film itself. Before the celluloid film base was introduced in 1888, inventions like the zoetrope allowed viewers to watch short clips made out of a series of pictures. During the early silent film era, filmmakers used stop-motion techniques for special effects. However, for most contemporary viewers, stop-motion is synonymous with animated films that use puppets, clay (also called claymation), paper cuts or even other physical objects to tell a story. This kind of animation is a labor-intensive but beloved medium. While stop-motion animated films can use many types of materials, they are all made by physically manipulating objects between individually photographed frames. The effect makes it look as if the object is moving independently. The best stop-motion movies come from all genres, but children’s movies, art films, and, surprisingly, horror films are especially mainstays of stop-motion animation.

Top Stop-Motion And Claymation Films

This list plays a little fast and loose with the concept of “film.” It includes a short film and TV specials. However, all the entries on this list have been released on home video and are often watched as films. This list also prioritizes feature-length films. The genre of stop-motion films is a surprisingly varied field. While it is a popular technique for family films, many stop-motion films lean into the grotesque, creepy or spooky. Even some of the family-friendly choices deal with the macabre.

This list considers several factors, including quality, unique story-telling and legacy; however, it also explicitly considers the look of the film. When it comes to stop-motion, the film’s craft, design and art are central. The stars of many of these films are not the actors; they are the physical characters constructed out of clay and paper. While art and character design are important for all types of animation, the painstaking process of stop-motion animation, coupled with its physicality, makes these films feel like moving art.

25. Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride (2005)

Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride is not the most inventive film on this list, but it has a great look and some beautiful music. The film follows a nervous young man who accidentally marries an undead corpse in the lead-up to his wedding.

The film is loosely based on 17th-century Jewish folklore. The story was told to Burton by animator Joe Ranft while the two were working on The Nightmare Before Christmas. While its Jewish roots do not come through in the film, it has an almost folktale feel. Directed by Mike Johnson and Tim Burton, Corpse Bride stars Helena Bonham Carter, Johnny Depp and Emma Watson. It is available to rent here.

24. Missing Link (2019)

The first of several movies on this list from the stop-motion animated studio Laika, Missing Link tells the story of an 1800s sasquatch in search of his lost family. Directed by Chris Butler, the film is notably much lighter than other films from Laika and feels very family-friendly.

Missing Link features an impressive cast, including Hugh Jackman, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Fry, Matt Lucas, Timothy Olyphant, Emma Thompson and Zach Galifianakis. However, it was a box office failure. Missing Link was the first non-CGI animated film to win a Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film. It is available on streaming here.

23. Wendell & Wild (2022)

One of several films directed by Henry Selick on this list, Wendell & Wild is a bit divisive. There is a lot going on in the film, which is a blessing and a curse. However, the animation in this film is undeniably impressive and thematically, the film is interesting.

Wendell & Wild follows a young girl who must literally face her demons—two scheming brothers named Wendell and Wild. Wendell & Wild stars Lyric Ross, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele (who also co-wrote it with Selick), Angela Bassett, Ving Rhames and James Hong. It is available here.

22. Marcell the Shell with Shoes On (2021)

Marcell the Shell with Shoes On might be a controversial choice for this list as it is not a fully stop-motion animated film. The mockumentary blends stop-motion with live action and follows a talking shell who is desperate to reunite with his lost family.

Directed by Dean Fleischer Camp, the film is based on a 2010s series of shorts from Camp and Jenny Slate. The film stars Slate, Rosa Salazar, Thomas Mann, Camp, Lesley Stahl and Isabella Rossellini. Marcell the Shell with Shoes On is a heartwarming and immensely sweet film. It was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film at the Golden Globes and Oscars but lost to another stop-motion animated film, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio at both. Marcell the Shell with Shoes On is available on multiple platforms.

21. The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)

The Adventures of Prince Achmed is an important film in animation history and silent film history. However, it comes with a slight warning for racist caricatures. Directed by Lotte Reiniger, the film is widely considered the first animated feature film and employs a similar technique to the Indonesian art of Wayang shadow puppets.

The film is inspired by Hanna Diyab’s One Thousand and One Nights, though it blends several of the stories. Reiniger’s earlier film, 1922’s Cinderella, uses a similar paper cut style, establishing her as part of a group of early experimental German animators. While she continued working in cinema through the late 1970s, she had to flee Germany due to the rise of the Nazi Party and her outspoken leftwing politics. The Adventures of Prince Achmed was heavily censored in the 1920s as it included a pair of openly gay characters kissing. Reiniger was passionate about destigmatizing homosexuality and thought adding it to a children’s film was important. It is available on multiple platforms, including Kanopy for free.

20. ParaNorman (2012)

Laika’s ParaNorman is a sweet film about a young boy who can speak to the dead. It isn’t the studio’s best film, but it is a solid film with beautiful animation. ParaNorman was the first stop-motion film to use 3-D color-printed character faces.

The film is also cited as the first mainstream animated film to feature an openly gay character. It was also the first PG movie to be nominated for a GLAAD Media Award.

Directed by Sam Fell and Chris Butler, the film stars Kodi Smit-McPhee, Tucker Albrizzi, Anna Kendrick, Casey Affleck, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Leslie Man, Jeff Garlin, Elaine Stritch, Alex Borstein and John Goodman. It is available here.

19. The House (2022)

Technically, The House is a TV special. However, since it was released on Netflix and has a 97-minute run time, it feels a lot like a film. The House is a horror anthology in three parts that centers on families inhabiting the same mysterious house in different periods.

The first segment is directed by Emma de Swaef and Marc James Roels, while the second comes from Niki Lindroth von Bahr. Paloma Baeza directs the third. It stars Mia Goth, Jarvis Cocker, Susan Wokoma and Helena Bonham Carter. Although The House is purposely off-putting and won’t be for everyone, it features impressive animation and a unique narrative approach. It is available to stream here.

18. Shaun The Sheep Movie (2015)

It is surprising that a spin-off of a spin-off is as good as this film is. Shaun The Sheep Movie is based on the TV series Shaun the Sheep, which was a spin-off of the Wallace & Gromit short A Close Shave. Directed by Mark Burton and Richard Starzak, the film follows the titular sheep as he must rescue his farmer from the big city.

This film is very much for kids, but it is very charming. Inkoo Kang said of the movie in The Wrap, “Refreshingly for children (but especially for adults), there are no lessons to learn and no faults to admonish. Instead, it’s an 84-minute, dialogue-free distillation of all the innocent fun we wish childhood could be.” It is available to stream on multiple platforms.

17. Junk Head (2021)

Takehide Hori’s Junk Head is a Japanese sci-fi stop-motion film about a dystopian future in which population decline runs rampant. It is deeply strange but oddly captivating.

The film was made almost solely by Hori, who not only wrote and directed Junk Head but also sculpted characters, edited it and voice-acted and operated the camera. This is all the more impressive because Hori was self-taught and spent seven years on the project. Brian Tellerico wrote of the film in his Fantasia Fest round-up for Roger Ebert, “One watches Hori’s film marveling at the artistic accomplishment of his craft more than getting invested in its story—I’m not sure I could fully convey to anyone what it’s about—but it still casts a spell.” The film is available here.

16. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is another TV special. However, many rewatch every Christmas season as if it were a holiday movie, and it feels wrong not to have a Rankin/Bass holiday special on a list about stop-motion.

Rudolph stars Burl Ives, Billie Mae Richards and Larry Mann. Very loosely based on the Johnny Marks song of the same name, the special follows Rudolph to the island of misfit toys. It is a sweet holiday classic with now iconic character designs. It is available to stream here.

15. The Wolf House (2018)

The Wolf House is one of the most disturbing films on this list. It is a strange and surreal stop-motion horror film that will likely stick with audiences well after watching. The film follows a young girl who flees an isolated German colony, is stalked by a wolf, and takes refuge in an abandoned house.

Directed by Cristobal León and Joaquín Cociña, the film blends stop-motion and drawn animation. It also utilizes papier-mâché, clay and puppets. The film has a spooky handmade look that really sets it apart. The film is available on streaming here.

14. King Kong (1933)

King Kong blends stop-motion special effects with a live-action world. While the practice has dwindled, this technique is an important chapter in the history of special effects. In early film, stop-motion allowed for the fantastic, and King Kong is a beautiful example of this. Willis H. O’Brien did the special effects on the film. O’Brien used a similar technique for dinosaurs in 1925’s The Lost World and 1918’s The Ghost of Slumber Mountain. However, his work on King Kong inspired a genre: monster movies.

King Kong follows a film crew who capture a giant ape and bring him to New York City. Directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, the film stars Fay Wray, Robert Armstrong and Bruce Cabot. The film was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress in 1991 and inspired numerous sequels and remakes. It is available here.

13. Chicken Run (2000)

Directed by Wallace and Gromit’s Peter Lord and Nick Park, Chicken Run is still the highest-grossing stop-motion film ever. The film follows a cocky American rooster who must save a group of Yorkshire hens before they are turned into pot pies.

The film has fairly dark themes but balances it with homage and comedy. Chicken Run stars Mel Gibson, Phil Daniels, Lynn Ferguson, Tony Haygarth, Imelda Staunton and Julia Sawalha. The film was a co-production between Pathé and Aardman Animations in partnership with DreamWorks Animation. Chicken Run inspired the 2023 sequel Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget; however, the original film is better. It is available to rent on multiple platforms.

12. Street of Crocodiles (1986)

Street of Crocodiles is actually a short film, but no list about stop motion would be complete without at least one stop-motion animation The Brothers Quay. Street of Crocodiles follows a puppet exploring the dark and lonely world around him.

The film has been included in multiple home video releases, The Brothers Quay Collection: Ten Astonishing Short Films 1984–1993, Quay Brothers – The Short Films 1979–2003, and Phantom Museums – The Short Films of the Quay Brothers. It also was used in Christopher Nolan’s tribute documentary Quay in 2015. Unfortunately, it is currently not available on streaming.

11. Fantastic Planet (1973)

Fantastic Planet is a bit of an outlier on this list. For many, it will not look like a typical stop motion. While many stop-motion films are made using clay characters, Fantastic Planet uses cutouts, giving it a much more 2-D feel. While cutout stop-moton had a moment in the 1970s, Fantastic Planet is experimental in its animation and storytelling.

Directed by René Laloux, the film tells an allegorical story about humans living on a strange planet overrun with giant humanoid aliens. ​​The film won the Special Prize at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival. It was the first animated film to receive a PG rating by the MPAA in the US. It is available on multiple platforms.

10. Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)

You can’t talk about stop-motion cinema without Wallace and Gromit and Aardman Animations. While the duo’s shorts are arguably more famous, Wallace and Gromit have also appeared in two feature films. Directed by Nick Park and Steve Box, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is the first of their feature-length films.

The film follows Wallace and his dog, Gromit, who must use their pest control business to stop a giant rabbit from attacking the town. The film won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film. The new Wallace and Gromit film, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, was released globally in January of 2025. Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is available here.

9. The Tale of the Fox (1937)

Directed by Ladislas Starevich and Irène Starevich, The Tale of the Fox is based on the medieval tales of Renard the Fox. The film follows the titular fox as he upsets the lion king. The film stars Claude Dauphin, Romain Bouquet, Laine, Sylvain Itkine and Léon Larive.

The film is the sixth-ever animated feature film (and the third surviving one.) It uses puppets, and while it was made in the 1930s, the animation ages beautifully. It is unfortunately not on streaming but can be found online.

8. Mary and Max (2009)

Adam Elliot’s Mary and Max follows two pen pals over their unlikely 20-year friendship. The film stars Toni Collette, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Eric Bana, with narration by Barry Humphries.

The film explores the themes of loneliness, isolation and mental health and is impressively claymation-animated. Mary and Max used over 100 sets, 212 puppets and almost 500 miniature props, including a fully functioning miniature Underwood typewriter, which took nine weeks to design and build. The film premiered on the opening night of the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. It is available on multiple platforms.

7. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022)

Co-directed by Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio is a retelling of the classic tale of a wooden boy. The film was co-written by Over the Garden Wall’s Patrick McHale and stars Ewan McGregor, David Bradley, Gregory Mann, Burn Gorman, Ron Perlman, John Turturro, Cate Blanchett, Tim Blake Nelson, Christoph Waltz and Tilda Swinton.

The film has some notable changes from Carlo Collodi’s 1883 novel The Adventures of Pinocchio. It is set 20 years after the toymaker Geppetto loses his son to a WWI aerial bombardment and examines the rise of Italian fascism between the world wars. The film won Best Animated Feature Film at both the Golden Globes and Oscars, as well as five Annie Awards. It is available here.

6. Mad God (2021)

While several films on this list are not for children, Mad God is arguably the least appropriate for young viewers. The film is an experimental horror film that follows an unnamed assassin who descends into an underworld overrun by monsters.

The film was directed by legendary special effects artist, Phil Tippett. Tippett worked on stop-motion and go-motion special effects in Star Wars, Robo-Cop, Willow and Dragonslayer. However, Mad God is his feature directorial debut. While Tippett started working on the project in the 1990s, he shelved it while working on Jurrasic Park. Mad God is a bleak and strange film, but there is something undeniable about it. It feels destined for cult classic status. It is available to stream here.

5. Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Fantastic Mr. Fox is one of two stop-motion animated films directed by Wes Anderson. While the other film, Island of Dogs, is wonderful, there is something undeniable about Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Based on the Roald Dahl story of the same name and co-written by Noah Baumbach, the film follows a fox who must protect his pregnant wife and friends after raiding a farm goes badly.

The film features the voice talents of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Owen Wilson and Bill Murray. While it underperformed at the box office, it was met with approval from critics. The film features a beautiful score from Alexandre Desplat (who also worked on Island of Dogs). Fantastic Mr. Fox was nominated for two Oscars: Best Animated Feature and Best Original Score. Every shot of the film also includes orange, which gives it a beautiful autumnal glow. It is available on multiple platforms.

4. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Directed by Henry Selick and produced by Tim Burton, The Nightmare Before Christmas is a stop-motion mega-hit. The film has become both a Halloween and holiday classic. It follows Jack Skellington, the King of Halloween Town, as he tries to co-opt Christmas as part of a midlife crisis.

The film boasts an all-star cast, including Chris Sarandon, Catherine O’Hara and Paul Reubens. However, the most iconic aspect of the film is arguably the musical score by Danny Elfman. While many mistakenly believe the film was directed by Burton, he could not direct it due to a commitment to Batman Returns. However, the film is based on a poem that Burton wrote while working as a Disney animator in the 1980s. Burton has directed other stop-motion animated projects, including the beautifully made short Vincent. The Nightmare Before Christmas has a dedicated cult following. The film has garnered concerts, spin-off comics, video games, toys, a behind-the-scenes podcast and even a seasonal amusement park ride overlay at Disney’s Haunted Mansion in Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland. Find it here.

3. Anomalisa (2015)

Anomalisa is another stop-motion film that is decidedly not for children. The psychological stop-motion comedy-drama was co-directed by Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson. Kaufman also wrote the film, which is based on his 2005 audio play of the same name. The film follows a motivational speaker/customer service expert whose life changes after he meets a woman.

Anomalisa stars David Thewlis, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Tom Noonan. It premiered at the Telluride Film Festival and went on to be nominated for a Best Animated Feature Film Oscar. The film was championed by critics and currently holds a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes. It is available on multiple platforms.

2. Coraline (2009)

Coraline was the first feature-length film from Laika Studios (however, they were contacted to work on 2005’s Corpse Bride). The studio has become one of the biggest names in stop-motion animation, and it makes sense with films as impressive as Coraline. Directed by Henry Selick, the film is a children’s horror masterpiece.

Based on the Neil Gaiman YA novel of the same name, Coraline follows a young girl who discovers a sinister alternate universe behind a secret door. The film is a cult classic and is beloved for its spooky and creepy imagery. It is available to stream here.

1. My Life as a Courgette (2016)

My Life as a Courgette, also sometimes called My Life as a Zucchini, is a French-Swiss stop-motion animation. The film follows a young boy’s childhood in an orphanage after the death of his mother. Directed by Claude Barras, the film has both a French version and an English dub. The English version is slightly more star-studded, with performances by Nick Offerman, Amy Sedaris, Will Forte and Elliot Page. However, the French version feels more beautifully nuanced.

While the characters are colorful and the film is filled with whimsy, it isn’t afraid to explore weighty topics like abandonment and belonging. The film boasts a 99% on Rotten Tomatoes and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Feature. The film also won two Cesar Awards for Best Animated Film and Best Adapted Screenplay. Unfortunately, it is currently not on streaming.

Bottom Line

From upsetting horror to sweet films about clay sheep, there is so much to love about stop-motion animation. It’s a deeply artistic genre that will delight everyone from children to art-house cinema snobs.