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The 10 Worst Animated

Movies of All Time,
Ranked
By Robert Lee III – 23 hours ago

Custom Image by Nimesh Perera

Animation

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Animation has the potential to create

some of the most awe-inspiring and jaw-
dropping storytelling in the entire
medium of 8lm, using pure artistic craft
to bring to life worlds and concepts not
possible in any other way. While the
different styles and approaches to
animation have evolved and changed
over the years, animation's core facets
and inherent strengths have continued
to stay strong for over a hundred years,
with audiences of all ages falling in love
with what is possible in animation.

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However, for every exceptional and

groundbreaking animated 8lm that goes
above and beyond and changes the
industry landscape, there are also
cataclysmic disasters whose only
recognition comes from pure infamy.
From high-budget disasters that failed to
make the most of the latest in animation
technology to low-budget ripoff 8lms
riding on the coattails of more popular
8lms, there are many ways that an
animated 8lm can fall from grace and be
considered one of the worst of all time.

10
'Mars Needs Moms' (2011)
Director: Simon Wells
Image via Disney

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Often considered to be one of the

biggest box o7ce bombs of all time ,
Mars Needs Moms had high
aspirations of being the future of what
was possible with animated 8lms, but
instead became a mess of uncanny
valley visuals. The 8lm follows the story
of young boy Milo, who after a falling out
with his mother, soon 8nds himself on
an intergalactic adventure after she is
suddenly abducted by Martians, who
have been collecting human mothers for
their nefarious purposes. Milo 8nds
himself deep in space, teaming up with
human stowaway Gribble to save his
mom from the alien threat.

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Mars Needs Moms was a part of the

selection of motion capture animated
8lms created by Robert Zemeckis's
ImageMovers Digital, following in the
footsteps of previous efforts like The
Polar Express
Express, Monster House
House, and A
Christmas Carol . While those previous
8lms all certainly had their fair share of
uncanny valley elements to them, Mars
Needs Moms ramps it up to a disturbing
degree with its use of unintentionally
horrifying aliens. Combined with an
underwhelming and by-the-numbers sci-
8 story, the result ended up being a
critical and box oKce disaster so
massive that it single-handedly closed
down the animation studio that made it.

Mars Needs Moms

PG

Mars Needs Moms is an animated sci-8

adventure that follows nine-year-old Milo,
who embarks on a daring mission to
rescue his mom after she's abducted by
Martians. On Mars, he teams up with a
tech-savvy Earthman named Gribble and a
rebel Martian girl named Ki. Together, they
race against time to save Milo's mom and
uncover the truth behind the Martians' plan.

Release Date
March 11, 2011
Director
Simon Wells
Cast
Seth Green , Joan Cusack , Dan Fogler ,
Breckin Meyer , Elisabeth Harnois , Tom
Everett , Mindy Sterling , Raymond Ochoa
Runtime
98 Minutes

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9
'Pinocchio: A True Story'
(2021)
Director: Vasiliy Rovenskiy

While it's normally one of the most

underappreciated and overlooked parts
of animated 8lms, a voiceover
performance can be the de8ning
difference that transforms a 8lm into a
modern classic or a comical failure. In
terms of recent memory, few animated
8lms have had as hilariously terrible
vocal performances as Pinocchio: A
True Story
Story, which while not the original
language of the 8lm, the notorious
English dub with Pauly Shore and Jon
Heder drew attention from across the
world. The 8lm wildly changes from
classic Pinocchio stories, focusing
entirely on Pinocchio's time at the circus
and following his escapades in
attempting to stop crimes while being a
part of the traveling circus.

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It's hard to understate how much of a

comical mismatch the voice of Shore is
for Pinocchio, whose classic 90s surfer
dude tone of voice ends up transforming
Pinocchio into a sassy, Camboyant
source of limitless unintentional
comedy. This is even aside from the
8lm's multitude of other issues,
including a lackluster low-budget
animation style and a story that changes
the story of Pinocchio so much to the
point that it's nearly unrecognizable. It
made it even worse that the 8lm
managed to release the same year as
two other Pinocchio 8lms, easily being
the worst of the three.

Pinocchio: A True Story (2021)

PG

This animated retelling of the classic tale

follows Pinocchio as he embarks on a
journey to become a real boy.
Accompanied by his friend Tybalt the
horse, he discovers friendship, courage,
and the value of honesty while facing many
challenges in a fantastical world.

Release Date
March 22, 2022
Director
Vasiliy Rovenskiy
Cast
Filipp Lebedev , Diomid Vinogradov , Anton
Eldarov , Eliza Martirosova , Andrey
Kurganov , Dmitri Iosifov , Alexey Voytyuk ,
Irina Kireeva , Aleksandr Gavrilin , Vitaly
Loiko
Main Genre
Animation

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8
'Delgo' (2008)
Director: Marc F. Adler, Jason Maurer

  

Animation has proven to be a greatly

effective avenue to bring to life vast and
limitless fantasy worlds 8lled with
vibrant creatures and concepts that still
enchant audiences to this day. However,
not every 8lm ends up succeeding just
by creating a world that is rich with lore
and history, as there actually needs to be
something at the center to capture the
hearts and attention of audiences. This
fundamental concept is something that
is notoriously failed by Delgo
Delgo, a 8lm that
spent nearly a decade in production hell,
yet became an infamous box oKce
bomb thanks to the 8lm's drab and
boring execution.

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Delgo has high ambitions of telling a

story of warring factions and a legacy
that has spanned across generations,
yet when the characterization and
execution are so basic and
underwhelming by comparison, it ends
up spreading to infect the entire
experience. The 8lm features all the
classic tropes and clichés that
overwhelmed the worst fantasy Elms of
the 2000s , combined with character
designs that were more disturbing and
uncomfortable than charming and
likable. Delgo's only remaining legacy is
that of its infamous failures, as nothing
else about the 8lm is even remotely
memorable.

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7
'Doogal' (2006)
Directors: Dave Borthwick, Frank
Passingham, Jean Duval
Image via Pathé Distribution

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Another primary example of a painful

English dub going above and beyond to
make a 8lm worse, the speci8cs behind
Doogal
Doogal's American dub are much more
complicated due to the 8lm originally
being made in the English language. The
8lm was originally released in the U.K.
as The Magic Roundabout
Roundabout, a modern
adaptation of a classic British series,
and mostly stuck to the original series
stylings and humor. However, fearing a
disconnect and lack of familiarity with
the source material, U.S. distributor
Miramax decided to redub the entire 8lm
with an array of A-list stars, including
Jimmy Fallon, Jon Stewart, Whoopi
Goldberg, and Chevy Chase.

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What was originally an inoffensive and

quaint adventure 8lm was transformed
into a non-stop barrage of references
and in-jokes that destroyed any
semblance of charm or wit from the
original Elm. It plays out less like a
genuine 8lm that was released to the
public and instead, a feature-length
riKng commentary track from a group of
people who never saw the original movie
just making whatever jokes and
references were at the top of their
heads. The experience is far from
anything close to actual quality, though
it does have merit as a hilarious so-bad-
it's-good adventure Elm thanks to the
increasingly baWing decisions and
dialogue throughout.

Doogal

Release Date
February 11, 2005
Director
Jean Duval , Frank Passingham , Dave
Borthwick
Cast
Tom Baker , Jim Broadbent , Lee Evans ,
Joanna Lumley , Ian McKellen , Kylie
Minogue , Bill Nighy , robbie williams , Ray
Winstone
Runtime
82 Minutes

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6
'Marmaduke' (2022)
Director: Mark A.Z. Dippé
Image via Net9ix

Reboots and modern iterations of

classic characters are increasingly
becoming the standard when it comes
to not just animated 8lms, but just about
anything looking to make a splash and
reach a wide audience in the modern era
of streaming and franchise focus.
Although not every return to a classic
character is going to be met with
rousing acceptance, as 8lms like
Marmaduke manage to please next to
nobody with their execution of the
character. In the classic fashion of the
character, the 8lm sees the Great Dane
(voiced by Pete Davidson) getting up to
chaotic shenanigans, now being trained
by a world-class dog trainer to compete
in a luxurious dog show.

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While Marmaduke as a character used to

be a smash hit and an icon of animal
comedy, all these years removed from
the heights of his popularity, this modern
reboot shows that a 8lm requires more
than generic baseline animal comedy to
be worthwhile. There's a lot that doesn't
work about the 8lm, between the
uncomfortable character designs,
phoned-in vocal performances, constant
toilet humor, and a confusing plot that
takes the focus away from hijinks and
leans into a dog show. Marmadukecould
have found success 25 years ago, but in
the current year it was lauded as a
disaster on all fronts.

Marmaduke (2022)

TV-Y7

Release Date
May 6, 2022
Cast
Pete Davidson , J.K. Simmons , David
Koechner
Runtime
88 Minutes
Main Genre
Comedy

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5
'Ratatoing' (2007)
Director: Michelle Gabriel
Image via Vídeo Brinquedo

One of the most infamous and

egregious subgenres of animated 8lms
are the notorious low-budget
"mockbusters" Elms that blatantly copy
elements and styles from a more
popular 8lm as well as release around
the same time in hopes of stealing leach
business away like a cinematic barnacle.
While there are countless examples of
bottom-of-the-barrel 8lms that have
been 8ghting for scraps of the biggest
animated 8lms out there, one 8lm that
has risen to be the unoKcial face of
animated mockbusters is the hilariously
titled Ratatoing
Ratatoing.

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Clearly acting as a rip on Pixar's

animated masterpiece Ratatouille ,
Ratatoing similarly follows a wannabe
chef rodent, although this chef has
already found success, being the owner
of a restaurant for rodents in Rio de
Janeiro. The animation style feels
reminiscent of the earliest days of
computer animation in cinema, with
low-quality textures and stilted
animation feeling more at home in a
90s video game than a feature Elm.
Even at only 44 minutes in runtime, the
8lm makes a massive impact with its
repeated animation, lazy story, and
constant failed attempts to steal
Ratatouille's thunder.

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4
'Norm of the North' (2016)
Director: Trevor Wall

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With so many animated 8lms being

released year after year, there can be a
select few 8lms where their complete
lack of quality is discernible from only a
single look, a quality greatly shown off
by Norm of the North
North. The 8lm follows
the titular polar bear Norm (Rob
Schneider) who, to convince humans to
stop coming to his home in the Arctic,
travels to New York City to spread the
word. In the process, Norm accidentally
ends up becoming the mascot for the
corporation responsible for the home
building and destruction of his icy home.

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Norm of the North is a tone-deaf,

misguided animated effort that serves
to amplify the worst trends and clichés
that dominated low-effort animated
Elms throughout the 2010s. Between
the increased focus on cutesy
marketable characters, low-effort
celebrity voice actors who give half-
baked performances with little effort,
and an animation style that is lagging
behind 8lms released over a decade ago,
Norm of the North became an
immediate target for ridicule and
mockery.

Norm of the North

PG

Release Date
January 14, 2016
Director
Trevor Wall
Cast
Heather Graham , Bill Nighy , Ken Jeong ,
Rob Schneider , Zachary Gordon , Colm
Meaney
Runtime
86

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3
'The Emoji Movie' (2017)
Director: Tony Leondis
age for 'The Emoji Movie'
Image via Sony

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One of the biggest factors behind a

8lm's failure can be attributed to the
major disconnect between executive
producers and what they actually believe
audiences want to see in a feature 8lm.
No 8lm quite effectively shows off this
major disconnect like The Emoji Movie
Movie,
a 8lm that just about everybody under
the sun could have told you was a bad
idea, but executives trekked on hoping to
"appeal to the younger generation". The
8lm takes a look inside a cell phone,
showing the lives and culture that
emojis live when they aren't being used
for texting, and the self-discovery
journey of meh-emoji Gene, who doesn't
feel like being "Meh" anymore.

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Ever since the 8lm was announced, The

Emoji Movie became a constant target
of mockery as the symbolic scapegoat
of all idiotic decisions made by
executives, being an idea that seemingly
nobody was asking for. When the 8lm
8nally did end up releasing, it managed
to surpass even the lowest expectations
for just how lackluster and generic it
could be, with an abundance of cheap
product placement and cookie-cutter
characters. More than just a terrible
animated 8lm, The Emoji Movie is often
in conversation as one of the worst
movies of all time .

The Emoji Movie

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2
'The Legend of the Titanic'
(1999)
Directors: Orlando Corradi, Kim Jun Ok

In the wake of the massive box oKce

success of James Cameron's Titanic ,
there was a wide variety of strange and
unexpected approaches from third
parties to tap into this unexpected
popularity of the real-life disaster. One of
the most egregious and poor-taste 8lms
to capitalize on this popularity is The
Legend of the Titanic
Titanic, an animated riff
on a love story aboard the Titanic that
includes talking animals, evil whalers,
and a giant octopus. While it somehow
isn't the only animated movie about the
Titanic to be released, it certainly stands
out as the worst of an already painful
selection.

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Even putting aside the absurdity of

putting an entire cast of talking animals
in a story that was originally just a
grounded drama in a historical setting, it
only gets worse when considering the
rami8cations and legacy of the real lives
lost aboard the ship. It's incredibly
distasteful, to say the least, to transform
a notorious tragedy into a colorful
animal-8lled adventure, but the 8lm
makes its most egregious sin during the
8nale when the giant octopus ends up
saving everyone, so nobody dies aboard
the Titanic. It's one of the most shocking
and disgusting choices ever put in a
historical 8lm, actively disrespecting the
lives lost for the sake of proEts and
marketability to young, impressionable
children.

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1
'Foodfght!' (2012)
Director: Lawrence Kasanoff
Image via Viva Pictures

At the very bare minimum of artistic

expression, most 8lms can at the very
least say that there was a larger vision
or goal behind them in something they
wanted to say or express, with even the
worst ripoffs having some creative
expression outside of pro8ts. This
sentiment is something that is genuinely
up in the air with FoodGght
FoodGght, an
amalgamation of choppy animation and
low-quality models that actively feels
more like a commercial than a feature
Elm at certain moments.
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FoodGght attempts the classic

"inanimate objects come to life"
storyline that has made many animated
8lms in the past successful, with its
twist being to bring the various mascots
and brands at a supermarket to life. On
top of the selection of original
characters present in the 8lm, FoodGght
features a wide array of real-life brands
in its supporting cast, from Charlie the
StarKist Tuna to Mrs. Buttersworth and
Mr. Clean. While the 8lm falls into a lot
of the same pitfalls and low-quality
aspects as many other terrible animated
8lms, it's this disregard for respect for
the audience and constant shoving of
products in their faces that makes it the
worst animated 8lm of all time.

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Foodfght!

PG

Release Date
February 12, 2013
Director
Lawrence Kasanoff
Cast
Hilary Duff , Haylie Duff , Charlie Sheen ,
Eva Longoria , Wayne Brady , Larry Miller ,
Chris Kattan , Christopher Lloyd
Runtime
91 minutes

RENT ON VUDU

NEXT:

The 10 Worst Animated Movies

Of The 2020s So Far, According
To Letterboxd

Movie Animation Disney

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We want to hear from you! Share your opinions in the thread

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Sort by: Popular

Yves

2024-10-04 14:51:43

The Emoji movie wasn't as bad as the writer

would want you to believe.


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

Two

2024-10-04 05:47:37

Although not fully animated, Pixels might be

worse than every movie on this list.



 1

Oliver

2024-10-04 16:11:26

Pixels is a masterpiece of cinema you

uncultured

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