The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

No matter your age or gender, you definitely have plenty of good memories of one or more animation movies. Whether it’s old masterpieces like Toy Story, Lion King or Cinderella, or new creations with mind-blowing detail and technology like Encanto, Soul, and others, animation movies are a great way to take a break from complicated live-action films. Here are six of our favourite animation movies.

The painting ( Le Tableau, 2011)

Directed by Jean-François Laguionie, the French animated movie is a creative, highly symbolic film that revolves around an unfinished painting. Leaving it unfinished for mysterious reasons, the painter causes conflict to arise between the completely painted figures, the half-painted ones, and the sketches. The completeness is the only determinate for the social class any of the figures end up in, which is why a group of different characters eventually decide to go on an adventure in search of the painter so that he can finish the work. In 2013, the film was given the Award for Best Feature Film at the 8th Festival of European Animated Feature Films and TV Specials.

Watch the trailer here.  

The Wolf House ( La Casa Lobo, 2018)

Nothing disproves the idea that animated features can only be cosy and warm like this award-winning Chilean stop-motion animated horror film. The film, directed by Cristobal León and Joaquín Cociña, is inspired by real-life horrific events that the writers transform into a dark fairy-tale. The story revolves around a woman who finds refuge in a house in the south of Chile after escaping from a sect of German religious fanatics. The only inhabitants of the house are two pigs, who welcome her in. But, like a surreal nightmare, the house starts responding to the woman’s emotions, and little by little, the animals turn into humans.

Watch the trailer here.

Klaus (2019)

The Netflix-produced animated film is the Spanish director Sergio Pablo’s directorial debut. The plot revolves around an alternate origin story of Santa Klaus. Set in a fictional 19th-century world, the plot revolves around a postman who gets stationed in an island town to the Far North after proving himself a horrible student in the academy. There, he befriends a reclusive toymaker named Klaus. The animation is a mix between the traditional hand-drawn style (mainly Spanish) and the more modern computer-designed.

The Snow Maiden ( Snegurochka, 1952)

The traditionally-animated Soviet film is based on Russian folktales and the Slavic-pagan play of the same name written by Aleksandr Ostrovsky. The story revolves around the Snow Maiden: the daughter of “Spring the Beauty” and the Slavic mythological figure Ded Moroz who longs for the companionship of humans.

You can watch the whole movie with English subtitles on YouTube here.

The Art of Happiness ( L’arte della felicità, 2013)

This Italian animated drama, directed by Alessandro Rak as his directorial debut, is a beautiful ode to grief, and as the title says, the art of happiness. The plot revolves around a taxi driver, Sergio, who works in decaying Naples while dealing with the death of his brother. Sergio finds traces of his brother in the different alternating characters who occupy his taxi seats. The Art of Happiness won the award for the Best Animated Film at the 27th European Film Awards and the audience’s award for Best Feature Film at the 2014 Raindance Film Festival.

You can watch the trailer here.

Watership Down (1978)

Considered one of the best British animated films, Watership Down is no tale for children. Based on the dark and violent Richard Adams novel of the same name, the plot revolves around a colony of rabbits who hope to escape the destruction caused by human developers to save their community and seek out a safe place to set up a new warren.

You can watch the trailer here.