Being in the animation industry, I am interested in being aware of the animated feature films that make the most box office earnings. Today I review this list of the 20 highest grossing animated movies of all time and would like to share my views on why I think these movies did as well as they did. They will make up my recommended recipe for an animated feature film blockbuster.

1. Shrek 2 (3D) – $436,471,036

2. Finding Nemo (3D) – 339,714,978

3. The Lion King (2D) – 328 539 505

4. Shrek the Third (3D) – $322,719,944

5. Shrek (3D) – 267,665,011

6. The Incredibles (3D) – 261,657,004

7. Monsters, Inc. (3D) – 255,870,172

8. Toy Story 2 (3D) – $245,852,179

9. Cars (3D) – $244,082,982

10. Aladdin (2D) – 217,350,219

11. Ratatouille (3D) – $206,445,654

12. Happy Feet (3D) – $198,000,317

13. Ice Age: Meltdown (3D) – $195,330,621

14. Madagascar (3D) – $193,595,521

15. Toy Story (3D) – $191,780,865

16. The Simpsons Movie (2D) – $183,135,014

17. The Polar Express (3D) – $179,100,434

18. Ice Age (3D) – 176,387,405

19. Beauty and the Beast (2D) – $171,350,553

20. Tarzan (2D) – $171,091,819

Shrek – The Crop Top

Shrek 2 takes the lead as you can see from the list. In fact, the Shrek trilogy occupies positions 1, 4 and 5, all in the top 5 positions. This is a very impressive feat and in my opinion Shrek took the cake because the stories were really good and the jokes were good. Of course, it helped a lot that 4 main stars were cast: Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas, and Mike Myers. In fact, of the Shrek trilogy, I enjoyed Shrek 2 the most, so personally I’m not surprised that it had the best performance of the three.

3D vs. 2D

From the list below, we can see that 3D movies take up 15 of the seats, compared to their 2D counterparts which take up just 5 seats. From this statistic, it would seem that the audience is favoring 3D animation over 2D animation. Even 2D/3D fusion shows like Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron and Treasure Planet didn’t seem to please them enough. It would seem that The Lion King, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and Tarzen only make the top 20 due to their strong family-oriented stories and classic branding. The Simpsons movie basically benefited from a huge fan base through its television series. Barring such unique franchises, it would seem like a 3D show would beat a 2D one any day. Animation studios seem to be echoing this sentiment, as the number of 2D animated films produced has dropped dramatically in recent years.

a strong story

This is probably not new to you, but I’ll say it anyway. I think one of the biggest factors that will drive an animated feature would be a strong and compelling story. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if you forget everything else, you must have a great story to tell! Every movie on the list tells an interesting story (well, almost) and they all did well enough to make it into the top twenty.

Laughter, the best medicine

People like to laugh. They like to laugh at others. They like to laugh at themselves. They just like to laugh. All things constant, I think Shrek takes three of the top five because of the original quips and banter from him. And don’t forget the two masters of comedy, Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy, who performed the voiceovers for Shrek and Donkey respectively. How can you beat that lethal duo?

A strong voiceover cast

It’s a given that a star-studded cast for voiceovers draws the crowd, especially when the celebrities are well-liked and great performers. Again, refer to the cast of Shrek. With Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy, Antonio Banderas, how can the movie go wrong?

The importance of recognizable characters within the show

This is just my theory, but I firmly believe that in addition to having a strong story, animated features should also feature recognizable characters. And when I say recognizable characters, I don’t mean just human characters. I mean the monsters. I mean the animals. I mean superheroes. With characters that are more interesting than humans, they are instantly more recognizable. Look at the list closely. Apart from a couple of old 2D movies, what other movie had a cast that only had simple human beings as leads? Having interesting and relatable characters will definitely attract ticket sales because people want to pay to see interesting characters in an animated feature, not just human beings! I don’t have to remind you again about the failure of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, right?

my personal favorites

In case you were wondering, my personal favorites are Monster Inc, The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, Shrek 2, and Ice Age in that order. My reason? They all have strong and compelling stories. And I put them in this order according to how much I enjoyed each individual movie. I have to say that Monster Inc gave me the best enjoyment factor!

Conclution

So here is my recommended recipe for an animated movie blockbuster:

1. The film must be made in 3D

2. You must have a compelling story to tell

3. Inject lots of humor into the show

4. Get a strong cast to be your voiceover talents

5. Character designs must be interesting and memorable

I hope this article has been an interesting read. Visit my websites to read more of my articles or just to see what I’m doing.