Best Animated Sci-Fi Movies Ever Made

Animation has given us a bundle of well-written and entrancing stories to enjoy, from the likes of The Land Before Time, to even the less known Ed Edd n' Eddy. It doesn't matter if you like the more niche community of Japanese anime, you sure do know it exists. Ignoring movies like The Incredibles and The Brave Little Toaster (absolute classics in their own right), I'd rather take a look at our wildest science fiction anime iterations taken from the likes of the most conceptual and talented films on sci-fi.

Remember, these aren't even close to your classic sci-fi animated feature. They're more like somewhat period pieces, others are a director's step into a new genre, and even far less are simply art in of themselves. Whatever the case may be, these titles have depicted an incredible berth of imagination and insight, not solely of human nature, but of how animation itself can succeed in bringing us mere glimpses into the future, past, and sometimes even well beyond the likes of reality itself.

Based on the Japanese animated science fiction television series with the same name, Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, or as it's known in Japan, Cowboy Bebop: Heaven's Door, truly encapsulates what animated science fiction truly is: spaceflight, lots of shooting, and adventure beyond that of only earth.

Despite picking up from where the show relatively left off, Heaven's Door was merely an "extension" of the TV series, for which director Shinichirō Watanabe had considered simply mini-films in themselves. It's among the most elegant animated sci-fi movies ever made for the incorporation of both fanfare and new prospects. It was written in a way to keep fans ecstatic with the aesthetics, yet allowed for a new audience with higher animation quality and improved styles of filming.

Almost identical to Inception, despite being an animated sci-fi classic, Paprika shows its own ingenuity through the use of powerful character development, successfully misguiding audience's awarenesses, and shaping a whole new, more frightening reality in the future. In this wild sci-fi thriller, the comfort of dreams actually turns into a nightmare when a prototype dream recording device goes missing.

Join a witty detective, an aspectual dream being, and her faithful friends as they embark upon a mission of unknown bounds. It's as cerebral as it is trippy, drawing on classic sci-fi elements like never before seen in animation. Aside from the twists and amazing characters, Paprika also examines how we should beware of modern technology.

Based on Katsuhiro Otomo's manga, despite much of movie's latter half differing considerably from the written work, this dystopian post-apocalyptic cyberpunk science fiction thrill ride is a lot of different things mashed into one amazing story that surrounds the leader of a biker gang, Shōtarō Kaneda, and his telekinetic friend Tetsuo Shima.

Set in the sprawling and trippy science fiction haven known as Neo-Tokyo, Kaneda must not only help Shima through this trying time in unlocking his newly acquired telekinetic abilities, but must also apprehend various enemies attempting to end his friend's rather dangerous life. Akira comes highly regarded not only as among the best animated sci-fi movies ever, but quite possibly one of the most interesting anime features ever adapted.

The fact that it's a Disney movie shouldn't deter you from this nostalgic addition among the best animated sci-fi movies, especially because it blends the best from literature, ie Treasure Island, and puts a classic sci-fi spin on it for something not simply "out of this world," but even far beyond that.

Instead of being stuck on a tin can in deep space, the characters in Treasure Planet ride around on literal space ships (like those wooden vessels we used up until steel and iron became more commonplace). The story follows a young Jim Hawkins, whose experience with his father's abandonment led to his continuous angst, and trouble with the law. Beyond his adolescence, Jim also holds a deep fascination for the stars and a legend called "Treasure Planet."

The 1977 animated feature Wizards is probably the oldest film to make it among the best animated sci-fi movies. Written, directed, and produced by Ralp Bakshi, Wizards follows a more fantastical adventure involving the forces of magic, technology, and post-apocalyptic science. It's now a cult classic, aptly inviting younger audiences still even to this day.

After the Earth has long been destroyed by nuclear warfare, in addition to nearly 2 million years of radioactive cloud dissipation has passed, only a small group of individuals have managed to survive among the radioactive wastes, now called Montagar. Representative of the forces of good and evil respectively, Avatar and Blackwolf, two powerful sorcerers on different paths of learning, engage in a head to head rivalry for the glory of wizardry.

Adapted from Ted Hughes' novel of the same name, The Iron Giant is somewhat similar in genre to that of Treasure Planet: children's action and adventure. What most people tend to forget about truly well-rounded animation is not so much the story or even the special effects. It's about the messages conveyed by the characters.

The Iron Giant greatly identifies this mantra by way of bringing to life a fallen robot, whose humanity—despite not even being a living human—is tested beyond realms of the ordinary. Only possible through the likes of classic sci-fi, The Iron Giant is a brilliant display of friendship, companionship, and the test of time. Time travel back to your youth in one of the very best animated sci-fi movies ever filmed.

Keanu Reeves loves his science fiction more than anything, but this time he's taken a different appearance: animation. A Scanner Darkly is probably the most eccentric title in this bunch of animated sci-fi movies; it is, after all, based on Phillip K. Dick's masterpiece of the same name.

Inviting the more psychedelic and otherworldly, A Scanner Darkly tells the story of an America brittled by its loss in the war on drugs. Taking place in the near future, the movie follows Bob Arctor, an undercover agent tasked with infiltrating the ether worlds underlining Substance D, which has approximately 20 percent of the entire population addicted. Can he succeed in stopping the narcotic from popularizing any further, or is the world seemingly doomed?

This lovely psychedelic trip-fest surrounds the premise inherent in the 1957 French novel Oms en série by Stefan Wul. Though the film might be in French, this doesn't take away from the quality of this ancient classic. Fantastic Planet is unlike any foreign or anime film you have ever seen; it's among the best animated sci-fi movies and was even named 36th among Rolling Stone's greatest animated movies.

The tale surrounds the premise of human life living on a remote world inhabited by giant humanoid aliens, all of whom view us humans as no more than animals. It's an interesting perspective in science fiction and largely embodies early animation; it reveals to the audience this breathtaking new world of fantastical dimensions, yet we are mere ants and must overcome the hardships of alien dominance.

Like the head-banging chaos and unrelenting pounding of the actual music genre itself, Heavy Metal slides in to stir reality with one of the best animated sci-fi movies from the 1980s. Interestingly, and more of an iconic element for the film, Heavy Metal was based on the magazine of the same name.

Indirectly, the film splices various stories and fantasies from the magazines and paints them into an anthology of epic proportions. It utilizes various commonalities from the magazine, like nudity, graphic violence, and sexuality in the showcasing of music, sci-fi, and their variety of outtakes.

Jeffrey Scott, an animation writer of avid fame, wrote this fantasy piece on Orin, a young miner who finds a mysterious sword that leads to his grandfather's death and the unlocking of his deeper meaning on Trinia, the movie's futuristic planetary setting. This is the best animated sci-fi movie for Star Wars fans.

It's also among the most revolutionizing animated sci-fi movies for benefiting the craft itself; The Legend of Orin was the first animated feature that utilized both traditional and computer animation tactics, in addition to being the first released in 3D. The story, at its heart, discusses self-understanding in line with one's reality and meaning in that reality.

Not to be confused with the 1927 black and white feature film of the same name, Metropolis (sometimes even referred to as Osamu Tezuka's Metropolis) is among the best animated sci-fi films for displaying urban life as never before categorized, then placing the same cybernetic connotations so expressed in its 1927 counterpart.

This early 2000s rendition of the all-time classic film takes a similar approach in the portrayal of human-robot coexistence. The futuristic city of Metropolis itself is an unending cultural melting pot, wherein distaste for mechanized cyborgs increases as humans continue to lose their jobs to the robots. Witness a revolution unfold in this unrelenting anime masterpiece that remains among the best animated sci-fi movies ever produced.