Top Ten Animated Superhero Movies.
August 22, 2013 in ANIMATION, SUPERHEROES
ANIMATED/SUPERHERO/MOVIES – Top Ten Animated Superhero Movies.
Simpsons Quote:
Rainer Wolfcastle: Up and at them.
Dialogue coach: No, “Up and atom”.
Rainer Wolfcastle: Up and at them.
Dialogue coach: Up and *atom*.
Rainer Wolfcastle: Up and at them.
Dialogue coach: [frustrated] Better.
I love watching animated cartoons. And one of my all-time favorite genres is superhero animated cartoons. There are other great animated Superhero movies out there besides The Incredibles.
Today I’m going to give you my top 10 animated superhero movies.
You can watch the video below or read the post with the links. I’ve embedded a trailer to each movie below.
If you like this list, you might also like my Top Ten Animated Superhero TV Shows:
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The Order of the List
Today I’m going to talk to you about my top 10 superhero animated movies. I consider all of these movies good.
The order that I’m going to put them in from 10 to 1, 1 being the number 1, the highest best one, as far as replay value, as far as me sitting down and wanting to watch it over and over.
So 10 being the one that I would want to experience less of, 1 being the one that I would want to watch over and over the most.
10. Batman Dark Knight Returns (Parts 1 and 2)
Beautiful movie. Great adaptation of the Frank Miller story, too dark and brooding for me. I remember reading it as a kid. I remember loving it. It no longer resonates with me as much, but the story and the production quality and everything about it, top notch, fantastic adaptation of the comic book.
9. Batman Year One.
8. Green Lantern: First Flight.
Fantastic movie, way better than the live action movie. It moves a little bit too fast, especially with the origin and all that, but great. I love it. Fantastic, highly recommend it, a lot of fun. If you love Green Lantern, this is the movie to watch.
7. Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths.
This one’s a fun one. Evil Justice League versus good Justice League. Ultraman versus Superman, Owlman versus Batman, fantastic. Great stuff, very nihilistic, over-the-top ending. Great, I love it.
6. Planet Hulk.
Planet Hulk is great. Basically, it’s Gladiator with the Hulk in a different planet where he just becomes this — he just gets to let lose and fight and just — it’s epic. It’s based on a really cool comic book storyline, also, which I’d also recommend you read, but the movie, great.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf13JRZKspM
5. Hulk Versus.
Now this is kind of almost cheating. These are not necessarily one movie. It’s two shorts compiled into one DVD where Hulk fights Wolverine and Hulk fights Thor. Cool. I like the designs more when he fights Wolverine. The story with Thor is a little bit better, but it’s cool fights anyway.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJd4O2blM_A
4. Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam.
I don’t own this. It’s on Netflix. Fantastic. I love the fights. The Shazam!/Superma story is part of a showcase. A lot of those shorts came out as backup stories to some of these other animated movies. Superman and Shazam fight Black Adam and it’s just epic. There’s a lot destruction. Great, great, great. I highly recommend it. Pick it up.
3. Superman vs. The Elite.
I also don’t own this. One of my all-time favorite Superman animated movies. And it’s all about how Superman is irrelevant and nobody cares about him and how he should change and be different. It’s basically saying that to Superman’s face and how he reacts. Awesome, awesome story. Great, I highly recommend it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXUu91JrpzA
2. Batman Under the Red Hood.
Incredible. This is one of the all-time best-written Batman movies ever. It’s so good. Great, fantastic climactic moment when he has to make this really hard decision. It is incredible. If you haven’t seen this, you owe it to yourself to watch it. If you’re a Batman fan, this is the movie to watch.
1. All-Star Superman.
I don’t own this because it’s on Netflix. I don’t need to own it right now. The moment it’s off Netflix I’m buying it. I’ve seen this movie so many times like six, seven, eight times. I love it. It’s great, it’s fantastic. Highly recommend it. Best animated Superman movie. The best representation of the silver age Superman you will ever see.
Honorable Mention – Fleischer Superman.
It’s an honorable mention. Why? Because it kind of doesn’t fit as a movie. It kind of does though, because this is the very first movies of Superman ever. Endlessly re-watchable. One of the best animated superhero cartoons ever made period. But they’re not like movies. They’re just shorts. And there’s a lot of them. They’re not quite TV shows. They’re not quite movies. So that’s why they’re honorable mention. I still think that you should watch them.
So that’s my top 10 animated superhero movies. Let me know what you think. If you just watch them. If you think I’m crazy with my list let me know.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeKexMAzs6M&list=PLBC90FD5E7FE633BE
If you like this list you may also like:
DC Animated Superhero Movies You Should Watch or Avoid.
Top Ten Animated Superhero TV Shows
Best in Science Fiction Animation
6 Reasons Why Watching Justice League Animated is a Great Way to Learn About the DC Universe.
My Thoughts on Young Justice Animated.
Thoughts on the Legion of Superheroes Animated Cartoon.
ANIMATION – How and Why Animated Films Need to Avoid the Same Fate as Westerns
I agree with this. I want different kinds of animated movies besides JUST family movies. I don’t have anything against family movies. They’re great. My kids and I can watch them together and they’re safe for us to watch, but I’d like animation to explore beyond just those types of movies.
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Good call on a lot of those. I’ve not seen all of them, but I do love “Under the Red Hood” I think I would’ve found room for “Mask of the Phantasm” on there too, probably bumping “Year One”. It’s a great story(Y1), but I dig on the comic so much that the cartoon fell a little short for me.
I’d almost call “The Iron Giant” a superhero movie. It’s got the sci-fi elements, the outcast/fugitive hero element, and the hero’s choice part of the story is huge. He even pretends to be Superman in the movie. What say you Luis? Does the Iron Giant have a place on this list?
I had this same exact conversation with my director today at lunch about “Iron Giant”. I don’t consider “Iron Giant” a superhero movie. I consider Iron Giant to be part of the “Super Robot” genre. Like “Iron Man 28/Gigantor”, “Mazinger Z”, “Voltron”, and “Giant Robo”. That said, “Giant Robo” can arguably be considered a superhero animated series since he’s surrounded by super powered characters so…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Robot
As for “Mask of the Phantasm,” I own a VHS copy of it and it’s a nice story but I just don’t watch it. I don’t like the designs as much. Batman is too fat. I should put it in again and watch it though, just to see how I feel about it now. It’s been a while. I don’t remember the movie blowing my mind when I first saw it (as a teenager).
I’m not really married to my picks for 10 and 9. The next best animated movies will bump them off easily enough. I’ll give “Phantasm” another shot.
Nice blog. Your passion has inspired me to watch your top four. I’ll let you know…
Wow! Okay, well all of them on NetFlix streaming if you’ve got it.
The Wonder Woman animated movie was really good–if they ever made a live action film, it’d have to go off of the same foundation. I’m not the biggest fan of Superman so I haven’t gone out of my way to watch all of his films, but I did see Superman/Batman Apokolips and Doomsday. I’m looking forward to watching Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox.
Superman vs. The Elite was pretty much made for anyone who doesn’t like Superman since it critiques Superman to his face. It’s worth seeing.
Flashpoint Paradox was pretty fun. I’m still debating with myself whether it would have made this list.
great collection! My all time favorite is Under the Hood until they released “Flashpoint Paradox” both have great twists in them with great action and storyline. I believe Flashpoint Paradox should somehow make the list here
I agree with most of your list, but there seems to be a pattern. First of all, your list is of DC movies only. But more than that, they are half Batman and half Superman. All of the animated movies were obviously inspired by Batman the Animated Series, even down to the voice actors. This page lists some sweet moments from the show: http://www.orgamesmic.com/batman-the-animated-series-review/
Hi John,
I would disagree with you on the notion that the list is only DC movies. I do have Planet Hulk and Hulk VS. on the list. Those are both Marvel.
That said, DC tends to produce the most amount of animated superhero movies, and Marvel’s movies don’t tend to be at the quality the DC stuff is at. They’re getting better but they have a long way to go.
And yes, most of them are Batman and Superman, although there are is one Justice League movie and a Green Lantern movie in there.
I would not say that any of these movies where “obviously inspired by Batman: The Animated series.” Although without the success of that great series, these movies would not exist. Most of these movies were inspired by actual comic book story lines above anything else.
Also, the voices in the Batman: Under the Red Hood, Batman Dark Knight, Batman: Year One, All Star Superman, Superman vs. The Elite, and Green Lantern are not from Batman: The animated series. Only the Justice League movie has one of the voice actors from that show.
And I also included the Fleischer Superman shorts in there that where the actual inspiration for the look and feel of Batman: The animated series. So I suppose, if you want to give any animated cartoon credit for the inspiration for animated superhero movies, it should be those shorts.