The 32 Best Stop-Motion Animated Movies of All Time

Clay, felt and wire puppets moved one frame at a time, by studio giants and lone obsessives alike. Which handmade world earns the top spot?

1. 1
   Coraline

   Laika's 2009 debut, adapted from Neil Gaiman, follows a girl who finds a sinister mirror-world behind a hidden door in her new home.
   1000pts
2. 2
   Fantastic Mr. Fox

   Wes Anderson's 2009 Roald Dahl adaptation with George Clooney voicing a dapper fox who returns to raiding farms.
   999pts
3. 3
   The Adventures of Mark Twain

   Will Vinton's 1985 claymation feature in which Twain and his characters ride an airship to meet Halley's Comet.
   868pts
4. 4
   James and the Giant Peach

   Henry Selick's 1996 Roald Dahl adaptation that shifts from live action into stop-motion once James climbs inside the peach.
   676pts
5. 5
   The House

   A 2022 Netflix anthology of three darkly comic stories set in the same house, made by Nexus Studios with felt-and-fabric puppets.
   625pts
6. 6
   Chicken Run

   Aardman's 2000 prison-break comedy set on a Yorkshire chicken farm, still the highest-grossing stop-motion film ever made.
   625pts
7. 7
   Wendell & Wild

   Henry Selick's 2022 Netflix horror-comedy, co-written with Jordan Peele, about two demon brothers and the girl who summons them.
   625pts
8. 8
   Anomalisa

   Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson's 2015 adult drama about a lonely motivational speaker, the first R-rated film nominated for the animation Oscar.
   566pts
9. 9
   The Nightmare Before Christmas

   Henry Selick's 1993 Tim Burton-produced musical about Jack Skellington hijacking Christmas, the film that made stop-motion a Halloween-season staple.
   566pts
10. 10
    The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

    Wallace & Gromit's 2005 feature debut, a pest-control horror parody that won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.
    566pts
11. 11
    Shaun the Sheep Movie

    Aardman's dialogue-free 2015 feature that sends Shaun and the flock into the big city to rescue their amnesiac farmer.
    500pts
12. 12
    Memoir of a Snail

    Adam Elliot's 2024 bittersweet claymation about a snail-hoarding misfit in 1970s Australia, nominated for the animation Oscar.
    500pts
13. 13
    Corpse Bride

    Tim Burton's 2005 gothic romance in which a nervous groom accidentally marries a dead bride in the underworld.
    500pts
14. 14
    A Town Called Panic

    A 2009 Belgian feature animating plastic toy figures in a manic story of a Cowboy, an Indian and a Horse whose house keeps getting stolen.
    500pts
15. 15
    ParaNorman

    Laika's 2012 zombie comedy about a boy who speaks to the dead and must lift a witch's curse on his town.
    423pts
16. 16
    Missing Link

    Laika's 2019 globe-trotting adventure about an explorer escorting a lonely Sasquatch to the Himalayas, winner of the Golden Globe for animation.
    423pts
17. 17
    My Life as a Zucchini

    Claude Barras's 2016 Swiss-French drama about an orphan finding family in a group home, nominated for the animation Oscar.
    423pts
18. 18
    The Wolf House

    A 2018 Chilean nightmare by Cristobal Leon and Joaquin Cocina, painted and sculpted directly on the walls of a house in constant metamorphosis.
    423pts
19. 19
    Alice

    Jan Svankmajer's 1988 surrealist Lewis Carroll adaptation mixing a live-action girl with unsettling stop-motion creatures.
    423pts
20. 20
    Isle of Dogs

    Wes Anderson's 2018 tale of a boy searching a Japanese garbage island for his exiled dog, voiced by an all-star cast.
    333pts
21. 21
    Early Man

    Nick Park's 2018 prehistoric comedy in which a Stone Age tribe challenges Bronze Age invaders to a football match.
    333pts
22. 22
    Kubo and the Two Strings

    Laika's 2016 Japanese-inspired epic about a one-eyed boy with a magical shamisen, widely praised as a technical peak of the medium.
    333pts
23. 23
    The Boxtrolls

    Laika's 2014 steampunk fable about a boy raised by underground trolls in the cheese-obsessed town of Cheesebridge.
    333pts
24. 24
    Shaun the Sheep: Farmageddon

    Aardman's 2019 sequel in which Shaun befriends a stranded alien and has to get her home before a shadowy agency intervenes.
    333pts
25. 25
    Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget

    Aardman's 2023 Netflix sequel in which Ginger and Rocky break into a high-tech farm to rescue their daughter.
    333pts
26. 26
    Vengeance Most Fowl

    The 2024 Wallace & Gromit feature that brings back the villainous penguin Feathers McGraw against a rogue smart gnome.
    333pts
27. 27
    Mad God

    Phil Tippett's 2021 dialogue-free descent into a grotesque industrial hell, hand-animated over three decades.
    333pts
28. 28
    Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio

    A 2022 Netflix musical retelling set in Mussolini's Italy that won del Toro the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
    0pts
29. 29
    Frankenweenie

    Tim Burton's 2012 black-and-white feature expansion of his early short about a boy who reanimates his dead dog.
    0pts
30. 30
    Mary and Max

    Adam Elliot's 2009 Australian claymation drama about the decades-long pen friendship between a lonely girl and a man with Asperger's.
    0pts
31. 31
    Marcel the Shell

    Dean Fleischer Camp's 2021 mockumentary about a one-inch shell searching for his lost family, blending stop-motion with live action.
    0pts
32. 32
    The Pirates! Band of Misfits

    Aardman's 2012 swashbuckling comedy about a hapless Pirate Captain trying to win Pirate of the Year with help from Charles Darwin.
    0pts

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