# The 20 Best Animal Movies of All Time

> Dog weepies, horse epics, a pig who herds sheep and one very famous shark. Live action and animation sit side by side here, decades apart.

*By YPB Team · Published October 4, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-20-best-animal-movies-of-all-time*

---

## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Jaws** — score 1000/1000
   Steven Spielberg's 1975 thriller about a great white shark terrorising a beach town, the first summer blockbuster.
2. **Life of Pi** — score 700/1000
   Ang Lee's 2012 survival story of a boy adrift in a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger.
3. **Homeward Bound** — score 547/1000
   The 1993 Disney film about two dogs and a cat crossing the Sierra Nevada to get home.
4. **Gorillas in the Mist** — score 489/1000
   The 1988 biopic of primatologist Dian Fossey and the mountain gorillas of Rwanda.
5. **Babe** — score 437/1000
   The 1995 Oscar-winning tale of a piglet raised by a sheepdog who learns to herd sheep.
6. **Born Free** — score 437/1000
   The 1966 true story of Joy and George Adamson raising Elsa the lioness in Kenya.
7. **Old Yeller** — score 379/1000
   Disney's 1957 frontier drama about a boy and his loyal yellow dog.
8. **Seabiscuit** — score 379/1000
   The 2003 drama about the undersized racehorse that lifted Depression-era America.
9. **Turner & Hooch** — score 379/1000
   The 1989 buddy-cop comedy pairing Tom Hanks with a slobbering Dogue de Bordeaux.
10. **Free Willy** — score 379/1000
   The 1993 family film about a boy who frees a captive orca, starring Keiko.
11. **King Kong** — score 379/1000
   The 1933 original about a giant ape taken from Skull Island to New York.
12. **The Lion King** — score 312/1000
   Disney's 1994 animated epic about a lion cub's journey to reclaim his kingdom.
13. **War Horse** — score 312/1000
   Spielberg's 2011 First World War epic following a horse from an English farm to the trenches.
14. **Beethoven** — score 312/1000
   The 1992 family comedy about a giant, chaotic St. Bernard.
15. **Marley & Me** — score 312/1000
   The 2008 comedy-drama about a family and their lovably destructive Labrador.
16. **Paddington 2** — score 312/1000
   The 2017 sequel in which the marmalade-loving bear is framed for theft.
17. **Fly Away Home** — score 312/1000
   The 1996 film about a girl who leads a flock of orphaned geese south with an ultralight plane.
18. **Hachi: A Dog's Tale** — score 235/1000
   The 2009 film based on the true story of Hachikō, the Akita who waited for his owner for years.
19. **Finding Nemo** — score 235/1000
   Pixar's 2003 ocean adventure about a clownfish searching for his son.
20. **The Black Stallion** — score 146/1000
   The 1979 adventure about a shipwrecked boy and the wild Arabian horse he befriends.

Tags: movies, animals, family