Summary

• The early 2000s saw a shift from hand-drawn to computer-generated animation, challenging Disney's reign in the genre.
• While some iconic animated movies emerged, many others were either forgotten or never discovered by audiences.
• From forgotten gems like "Dinosaur" and "Treasure Planet" to flops like "Sinbad," the decade had a mix of hits and misses.

The early 2000s animated movies created an exciting decade for the genre. It saw the traditional hand-drawn animation style being mostly replaced by computer-generated animation. It was also a period in which Disney's reign as the best in the genre was challenged by other studios. While several iconic animated movies arrived that decade from Pixar and DreamWorks, there are also even more movies audiences either forgot about or never knew about in the first place, some better than others.

Looking back on the animated movies of the 2000s, there are a number that have cemented their status in the genre as true classics. Then there are those special movies that might have been overlooked when initially released only for their reputation to grow in the years since. But even with so many notable animated movies to come out of the decade, there are still many that have never managed to find an audience and remain obscure entries in the genre, even some from Disney itself.

1 Dinosaur (2000)

Disney Animation

Disney's 2000 CGI movie Dinosaur follows a herd of dinosaurs making a long and dangerous journey to find a new home after their old home is destroyed. The naturalistic visuals of the movie were praised at the time, but critics felt the story was lacking. Disney planned for this movie to usher in a new exciting age for Disney animated movies as the studio's first 3D animated film.

Dinosaur only received praise for its visuals and the opening sequence. Critics say it lacked the storytelling that made classic Disney animation so beloved. It was a big success at the box office, bringing in $350 million worldwide (via Box Office Mojo) and it was also one of the best-selling home video releases in 2001. Despite that, Dinosaur has kind of been forgotten to time.

2 Everyone's Hero (2006)

Fox Animation

Much like Field of Dreams and Moneyball, Everyone's Hero is a love letter to baseball. However, it takes a much more bizarre approach to exploring the sport. Set during the Great Depression, this is the story of a young boy who discovers a talking baseball. Together, they attempt to retrieve Babe Ruth's bat (which can also talk) from the clutches of a thief.

Everyone's Hero was co-directed by the late actor Christopher Reeve, and it features the voice talents of Forest Whittaker, Whoopi Goldberg, and Robin Williams as the manager of the Chicago Cubs. Regardless, the premise is so strange that the movie failed to attract much of an audience, but it remains a fun movie to go back and watch with newer audiences coming to appreciate it.

3 Space Chimps (2008)

Fox Animation

• Available to Rent on Prime Video

NASA's experiments in space travel in the 1960s that involved sending chimpanzees into orbit played into the classic sci-fi movie The Planet of the Apes. However, Space Chimps was a much less iconic take on that compelling true story. The movie features the voice talents of Andy Samberg as the grandson of the first chimp sent into space.

He leads a new set of chimps on a space-bound mission where they face off with aliens on a strange new planet. While this early 2000s animated movie is mostly forgotten, it was a small success when it was released, making $64.8 million on a $37 million budget (via Box Office Mojo) and spawning a video game that dropped in the same year. There was also a sequel in 2010 that has been forgotten.

4 The Wild (2006)

Disney Animation (Buena Vista Pictures)

There have been several examples of similar animated movies by competing studios released around the same time. Such was the case with Disney's The Wild, which shared more than a few similarities with Madagascar. The Wild is about a lion who lives in the New York Zoo. By accident, he is sent to Africa, a land where he is not prepared to survive.

His friends – an anaconda, a giraffe, and a squirrel – team up to help him find his way home. It came out a year after Madagascar became a hit, so The Wild was mostly forgotten but remains something worth checking out for fans of the genre.

5 Clifford's Really Big Movie (2004)

Warner Bros. Pictures Animation

Available to stream on Prime Video

Clifford the Big Red Dog received a live-action movie that brought the lovable giant dog to life in 2021. But it was not the first attempt to bring the popular children's character to the big screen. Clifford's Really Big Movie finds the large dog running away from home and joining a traveling animal show. His end goal is to win a lifetime supply of his favorite doggie treats.

Clifford's Really Big Movie was John Ritter's final theatrical movie role released after his death.

There was the sense that the movie would have been better served as a television special rather than a movie as it failed to find a large audience. The reviews it received were about on par with the more notable adaptation that arrived in 2021.

6 Sinbad: Legend Of The Seven Seas (2003)

DreamWorks Animation

Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas was designed to be DreamWorks Animation's big summer blockbuster for 2003. It was a rousing adventure, headlined by a well-established character, that had big-time celebrity voices such as Brad Pitt, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Michelle Pfieffer. Instead, it turned out to be an expensive flop. The hand-drawn animated movie opened just a few weeks after Pixar's Finding Nemo, which captured the attention of families in a major way.

The movie didn't even earn back half its $60 million budget domestically as it only made $80.8 million on a $60 million budget and ended up as the last time DreamWorks Animation used traditional hand-drawn animation in a feature film (via Los Angeles Times). However, fans of this animation style are likely to get something out of it.

7 Recess: School's Out (2001)

Disney Animation

Recess was an animated series focusing on the experience of six elementary school students. While Recess was by no means a ratings smash, it did well enough that Disney attempted a full-length feature film version. Recess: School's Out finds the pint-sized heroes battling an evil school administrator who wants to eliminate summer vacation. The movie earned decent reviews but came and went from theaters quickly. The target audience just wasn't large enough to make it a hit.

8 Barnyard (2006)

Nickelodeon Movies

For a time in the 2000s, Nickelodeon made a concerted effort to break into the movie business with a series of animated films that included Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. The plot of Barnyard centers around an irresponsible, hard-partying cow named Otis who learns to develop some maturity when he and his fellow bovines work to stop a kid who engages in the practice of cow-tipping. The movie did decent at the box office but received mostly mixed reviews.

9 Igor (2008)

MGM Animation

Available to stream on Netflix

Igor certainly has an interesting premise. It builds a story around Igor, the famed assistant of Dr. Frankenstein, referred to here as Doctor Glickenstein. John Cusack provides the voice of the character, who yearns to step out of the background and into the spotlight by becoming an evil scientist, just like his boss. Igor seems to attempt the kind of dark weirdness that could have made for an unusual and interesting animated movie, similar to some of Tim Burton's notable movies.

The movie was a big deal when released, premiering at the 2008 New York Comic Con and then hitting theaters with video games, toys, books, and comics as tie-ins. It didn't do well at the box office, only making $30.7 million on a $25 million budget (via Box Office Mojo), and reviews were mixed. However, it won an Annie Award and has since become a cult favorite.

10 Treasure Planet (2002)

Disney Animation

Disney came up with the idea of taking Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel Treasure Island and turning it into a science-fiction adventure. Treasure Planet follows teen Jim Hawkins as he travels the galaxy, following a map that promises to deliver a bounty of riches. Treasure Planet did not perform nearly as well as most other Disney animated features. Given its $140 million budget, the domestic box office take of $38 million cemented it as one of the most notable box office bombs of the 2000s.

11 Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimarron (2002)

DreamWorks Animation

• Available to Rent on Prime Video & Apple TV

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron was another early 2000s animated movie that had high hopes of being the next big hit only to be largely overlooked when it was released. Spirit is a wild Mustang who is captured and sold to the U.S. Cavalry. After escaping the clutches of a cruel colonel, he seeks to reunite with others of his kind. Despite the beautiful imagery of the movie, it was not the kind of feel-good, fun adventure fans might have expected at the time.

It spawned a Netflix spin-off TV series in 2017 called Spirit Riding Free

However, in the years since its release, Spirit has received a reevaluation. It did earn an Oscar nomination when it was released, and while it was a box office failure, it spawned a Netflix spin-off TV series in 2017 called Spirit Riding Free and a spin-off movie called Spirit Untamed in 2021.

12 Fly Me To The Moon (2008)

Summit Entertainment

• Available to stream on Freevee

It's surprising that Fly Me to the Moon isn't more well-known if only for its bizarre premise. Based on a real historical event, it follows three talking houseflies who stow away on Apollo 11 on the historic voyage to the moon. The movie is a noticeably lower-scale production than the likes of Pixar and DreamWorks. It also takes its premise to some strange places with a group of Soviet flies attempting to sabotage the mission and even includes a cameo from Buzz Aldrin.

13 9 (2009)

Lux Animation

Available to stream on Max

With Tim Burton as one of the producers, it's no surprise that 9 was a stranger and darker early 2000s animated movie than others in the genre. The central character is a burlap doll named #9. He makes his way through a post-apocalyptic future where humankind has been wiped out by a sentient machine. 9 deals with heavy ideas, such as how fear can influence decision-making. There's even a religious vibe running through the story.

A scientist creates nine of the rag dolls, each with a different part of his personality or characteristics in them. Their job is to defeat the computer that conquered and wiped out humans (also created by the scientist), and hopefully bring back a spark of life to the planet once again. The movie received positive to mixed reviews and earned a Producers Guild nomination.

14 Home On The Range (2004)

Disney Animation

Home on the Range is a 2004 Disney film that follows the exploits of a group of dairy cows. To prevent the foreclosure of the farm on which they live, the cows must hunt down a notorious cattle rustler, so they can collect the bounty on his head. Traditional hand-drawn animated movies had drastically decreased in popularity by the time Home on the Range was released. After the mediocre performance of this movie, Disney cut back on that style of animation for several years.

15 The Road To El Dorado (2000)

DreamWorks Animation

The Road to El Dorado seemed poised to be DreamWorks' big splashy Disney-like adventure. With stars Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh leading the movie and original songs by Elton John and Oscar winner Tim Rice, it seemed like a winner. It tells the story of two con artists who come into possession of a map that will allegedly lead them to El Dorado, a rumored city of gold.

Sadly, with lukewarm reviews and a poor box office performance, The Road to El Dorado was one of the first notable bombs of the 21st century. It failed to even make back its budget, with only a $76 million worldwide take on a $95 million budget. However, in later years, The Road to El Dorado movie received a reevaluation and is now considered a cult classic, with praise for the animation and the music by Elton John and Hans Zimmer.

16 Doogal (2006)

Pathé Distribution

• Available to rent on Prime Video & Apple TV

Doogal is a French-animated movie that was originally titled The Magic Roundabout. It is based on a TV series of the same name and features unlikely heroes who have to stop a villain who wants to freeze the world. The American version features a big cast, including Jon Stewart, Whoopi Goldberg, and Chevy Chase, and wasn't released until a full year after the French version.

The movie is a stop-motion animated movie that received mixed reviews from French and U.K. audiences but was mostly bashed by American film critics. Its worldwide box office was only $26.7 million on a $20 million budget (via Box Office Mojo), and the planned sequel ended up being canceled.

17 Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)

Disney Animation

The ambitious sci-fi Disney adventure Atlantis: The Lost Empire features the voice talents of Michael J. Fox as an adventurer who decides to continue his grandfather's search for the lost city of Atlantis. The film follows him on this journey. Viewers didn't seem to know what to make of this atypical Disney movie. The characters didn't break into song, as was then common in the studio's animated fare, and there were no cute animal sidekicks.

This likely led to this early 2000s animated movie's box office failure, which only saw it bringing in $186 million on a budget that was estimated to be up to $120 million (via Box Office Mojo). Part of that failure might be that it went head-to-head with Shrek at the box office. It did pick up seven Annie Awards nominations and received a sequel in 2003. It has also become more popular in later years, another cult classic from Disney animation's down period.

18 Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters (2007)

First Look Pictures

Aqua Teen Hunger Force ran for 11 successful seasons as part of Cartoon Network's "Adult Swim" block of programming. The show followed the adventures of a meatball, a milkshake, and a package of French fries and had a passionate cult following with its unabashedly absurd humor. Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters continued the outrageous style of the show in a big-screen tale in which the characters battle a demonic piece of exercise equipment.

There was a sequel that arrived in 2022 called Aqua Teen Forever: Phantasm.

Given the small release, and a budget of only $750,000, few people beyond the die-hard fans of the show remember the movie. There was a sequel that arrived in 2022 called Aqua Teen Forever: Phantasm, although that one went straight to Max.

19 Valiant (2005)

Disney Animation (Buena Vista Pictures)

Streaming now on Disney+

Yet another rare animated movie to be based on a true story, Valiant takes the rather surprising approach of making a family-friendly cartoon set during the battles of World War II. It uses the format to tell the admittedly interesting story of carrier pigeons used during the war. Ewan McGregor voices the title character, a carrier pigeon whose job is to deliver important communications on behalf of the Allied forces. When one of his colleagues is captured by an Axis falcon, Valiant mounts a mission to save him.

The true story was based on how the Allied forces used carrier pigeons to deliver messages to help soldiers during World War II. Despite this, the movie received mostly negative reviews, although it was a minor box-office success.

20 Teacher's Pet (2004)

Disney Animation (Buena Vista Pictures)

Streaming now on Disney+

Teacher's Pet is based on a short-lived cartoon that ran on Saturday morning television about a dog who can talk and read. He consequently decides to pose as a human and attend school with his owner. The movie simply told the same story as the show in the big-screen version. Though the show had a reasonable fanbase, its popularity failed to grow beyond that when the movie was released.

Teacher's Pet came and went from theaters without much notice, only making $6.5 million on a $10 million budget (via Box Office Mojo). The cartoon itself remains a more obscure one from the era. Despite this, the early 2000s animated movie earned positive reviews, with a 76% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.