The 28 best animated movie franchises of all time

Hot take alert: "The Incredibles" is the best Pixar movie to date. It's also one of the better superhero movies, period. This 2004 gem perfectly shows that the promise of glory and adulation are as important to superheroes as doing the right thing, if not more. With "Incredibles 2" on track to bust some box office records this weekend, we're more than happy to get back to the Parr family of superheroes.  

Anyone who's seen any of the three "Toy Story" movies and claims not to have cried at least once is straight up lying to you. The franchise, which began in 1995, remains the gold standard by which all others are measured by, and with good reason, too. The original "Toy Story" was one of the first movies that took the animation industry in the direction of computer generated imagery. 

Did you know that "Shrek" is the most successful animated franchise of all time? The five movies (all four "Shreks" plus "Puss In Boots," a spin-off) have made more than $3.5 billion combined. Side note: outside of "Dreamgirls," the "Shrek" movies have been the only good thing Eddie Murphy has done since 2001. 

"Cars" might legitimately be the only good thing Larry The Cable Guy has ever done. That's not a knock. Okay, it is, but it's true (it's the only "certified fresh" from Rotten Tomatoes for Larry, aside from his appearance in the "Blue Collar Comedy Tour" movie). This franchise also gets a lot of bonus points for casting Cristela Alonzo, one of the funniest comedians you might not have heard of yet, in "Cars 3."

What do you get when you put Billy Crystal and John Goodman in the same movie? A monster hit. Okay, that was a terrible pun, but it doesn't make it any less true. 2001's "Monsters, Inc.," and its 2013 prequel, "Monsters University" were big hits for Pixar that it wouldn't surprise me if the studio made a third movie. Let's just hope it doesn't take them a decade to release it. 

If "Shrek" put DreamWorks on the map, "How To Train Your Dragon" gave its heart. The two-movie franchise (a third is in the works for 2019) about a viking boy and his pet dragon proved that DreamWorks is as capable at making emotionally-resonant movies as Pixar. 

I only need one word to justify including this five-movie property on this list: minions. Just look how happy Steve Carrell, who voices Gru (technically the main character in the franchise), looks in this picture.

I have a theory: John Leguizamo is the only reason why "Ice Age" is the second most successful animated franchise. This isn't a knock on Ray Romano, Queen Latifah, or Dennis Leary. Leguizamo is just that good as Sid the Sloth. He was born to play the part. Don't believe me? Try to imagine the movies without him.

Jack Black is pretty much a human cartoon, so it makes sense that Dreamworks Animation picked the extremely likable actor to voice Po, a goofy and good-hearted panda that also happens to be a kung fu master. "Kung Fu Panda" has been such a hit for the studio, that they are planning to make at least three more movies, which would bring the total to six. 

Any franchise that stars Chris Rock, Ben Stiller, Jada Pinkett Smith and David Schwimmer is guaranteed to be funny. "Madagascar," the Dreamworks studio trilogy about four pampered zoo animals who find themselves in the jungle, is most certainly that. 

It took more than 13 years for director Andrew Stanton to release "Finding Dory," the 2016 long-awaited sequel to 2003's "Finding Nemo." It was well worth the wait. Like its predecessor, which is also about a lost fish that crosses an ocean in search of its home, "Finding Dory" resonated with audiences worldwide. Collectively, the two films made nearly $2 billion at the box office.

"Wallace And Gromit," an animated series about an affable inventor who loves cheese and his adorable but non-speaking anthropomorphic dog, is the textbook definition of quaint. It's British and clay stop-motion. Despite its picturesqueness, the franchise does have real money-making power. "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Wererabbit," the only movie of the franchise, made $190 million worldwide after it was released in 2005. That makes it the second-highest grossing stop-motion movie of all time, second only to "Chicken Run."

Despite consisting of only two films (though director Carlos Saldanha has hinted at a possible third movie), the "Rio" franchise earns its spot on this list because it does a fantastic job at capturing the vibrancy that is Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Also, Blu, the main character, is voiced by none other than Jesse Eisenberg, which proves that the actor really can do it all. 

If you're not familiar with the "Doraemon" universe, all you need to know that it's a Japanese manga series created in 1969 about a boy and his time-traveling robotic cat (the titular Doraemon). This franchise deserves to be included on this least because of its longevity, and because there have been a whopping 38 (!!!) "Doraemon" movies. 

The "Pokémon" anime series, which is based on the hyper-popular video game series, has been around since 1997. In that time, there have been close to 1,000 total episodes and 19 movies devoted to Ash Ketchum catching and training the pocket monsters. It's worth noting that the first three "Pokémon" are among the top five highest grossing anime films of all time. 

Who would have thought that the 2014 animated movie based on the Danish play bricks would not only be super successful and genuinely funny, but would also spawn a sequel ("The Lego Movie 2" is expected in 2019) and at least three spinoffs ("The Lego Batman Movie," "The Lego Ninjago Movie," and "The Billion Brick Race")?

Look, you might not think so, but the "Happy Feet" franchise is low-key good for a variety of reasons. Firstly, it's a really fun musical with catchy songs. Secondly, it featured Robin Williams playing multiple characters. And finally, it was written and directed by George Miller, the creator of the ultra dystopian "Mad Max" franchise. I don't know about you, but the thought of Miller giving us a family-oriented pair of movies about penguins warms my heart at levels capable of melting icebergs. 

The 1978 children's book written by Judi Barrett was turned into a successful animated franchise in 2009 by directing/writing duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller (they were also the masterminds behind another entrant on this list, "The Lego Movie"). A sequel followed in 2013, and the franchise just expanded to television. 

" SpongeBob SquarePants," the trippy show about sea creatures that's watched by both kids and adults, is Nickelodeon's longest running animated series (it has 213 episodes and counting). Its popularity extends beyond TV. "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie" was released in 2004 and went on to make more than $140 million. It didn't hurt that the likes of Jeffrey Tambor, Alec Baldwin, and Scarlett Johansson lent their voices to the project. A sequel, "The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water," was released theatrically in 2015, and another is reportedly on the way for 2020.

Of all the Nickelodeon cartoons from the 1990s, "Rugrats" is easily the most successful. "Rugrats" was on air from 1991 until 2004, and it also produced a trilogy of theatrically released movies which collectively made $300 million worldwide. 

With apologies to Mickey Mouse & co., the Looney Tunes are much, much better. Not only were most of them voiced by the Mel Blanc (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig), but they were also animated by legendary Chuck Jones. Also, the Looney Tunes were in "Space Jam" with Michael Jordan and will co-star with LeBron James in the upcoming sequel. 

If you think the 36 years between “Jungle Book” films was a lot, get a load of this: between the release of 1953’s “Peter Pan” and its sequel, “Return to Never Land,” a full 49 years passed! Since then, the Disney franchise has been spun off into two TV shows and a Tinker Bell film series, which now includes a total of six movies released between 2008 and 2015.

Although it may come as a surprise to many adults, “The Lion King” didn’t stop after the first film in 1994. Far from it. A sequel, “The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride,” came out in 1998 — and although it a was a direct-to-video release, it included most of the main cast (Matthew Broderick, James Earl Jones, Moira Kelly, Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella), and received two thumbs up from famous film critic Roger Ebert. Since then, there was also the 2004 prequel “The Lion King 1 ½,” two TV series: “Timon and Pumbaa” and “The Lion Guard.” Of course, nothing has been as successful as the first film, which earned nearly $1 billion at the worldwide box office.

The “Hotel Transylvania” franchise only features two films at this point, but they earned a combined total of $831 million at the box office and spawned several video games and a TV series set to air toward the end of June 2017. For fans of feature films, a third installment, “Hotel Transylvania 3,” is schedule for release in the summer of 2018, and will again feature the core cast of Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg and Selena Gomez.

The first animated “Jungle Book” film was released all the way back in 1967, and its sequel, “The Jungle Book 2,” didn’t come out until 2003. In the 36 years in between, two live action films came out in 1994 and 1998, and another was released in 2016. However, the franchise also led to two animated TV shows, “TaleSpin” and “Jungle Cubs,” both of which aired in the 1990s. 

It might not mean much to kids today, but at one time, “The Rescuers” franchise was a pretty big deal. The first film was released back in 1977 and quickly became Disney’s most successful film at the time. In contrast, the 1990 sequel “The Rescuers Down Under” posted the least successful performance of Disney's renaissance era, earning less than $28 million at the box office. Nevertheless, kids adored it, and the film marked the company’s first foray into sequels.

Featuring the voices of Phillip Glasser, Dom DeLuise and Christopher Plummer, 1986’s “An American Tail” smashed expectations and became the highest-grossing non-Disney-produced animated feature at the time, earning $84 million at the worldwide box office. It was so successful that Steven Spielberg created his own company, Amblimation, in order to release the movie’s 1991 sequel, “An American Tail: Fievel Goes West.”

Was anyone else totally freaked out by “Fantasia” as a kid? Maybe it’s just us, as the 1940 movie has since become one of Disney’s most popular animated films in the time. So popular, in fact, that the franchise was resurrected 59 years later for the sequel “Fantasia 2000.” Don’t be fooled by the name, it actually premiered in 1999 with a traditional theatrical run that was also accompanied by numerous IMAX screenings, as well as a worldwide concert tour.