The best animated sci-fi movies of all time have a great mix of both sci-fi themes and incredible animation that deliver stories that even the best live-action movies can’t. Sci-fi has always utilized special effects, dating back to the earliest movies, such as Georges Méliès’ A Trip to the Moon and Fritz Lang’s Metropolis.
However, there is a limit to what live-action sci-fi movies can accomplish, although movies like Avatar show the gap is lessening. That said, there has never been a limit to what animation filmmakers could accomplish with sci-fi ideas and visuals. The best animated movies can tell sci-fi stories that outshine others in the genre.
Paprika (2006)
Paprika is a groundbreaking animated movie that delivered an emotional and intelligent sci-fi story. Released in 2006, Paprika was a Japanese anime film that helped bring something new to the genre. The story follows a dream detective named Paprika who battles a terrorist who shares other people’s dreams.
This movie comes close to what Christopher Nolan did with Inception, as it takes the viewers inside the dream realm to show the action of the story. However, as an animated film, it has a chance to go even further than Nolan could, even with his incredible sci-fi action thriller’s special effects.
The animated masterpiece takes viewers on a ride where the boundaries between dreams and the real world are almost indistinct, showing that they are not opposing concepts, but work together. It is a brilliantly constructed sci-fi movie with a great story and some of the best visuals available in the genre.
Elio (2025)
Pixar has always been at the top of the game when releasing its originals, and Elio is proof that even when audiences ignore the films, there is something here that makes them the elite in animated storytelling. Elio is the story of a young boy who wishes he could travel to space, if only to find happiness eluding him on Earth.
The film tells a story with big sci-fi ideas, including a young boy’s attempt to stop an intergalactic war. However, this is more than that. This is a story about a young boy trying to find his place in the world and discover what he is really meant to be. It shares a similarity with Lilo & Stitch in its discussion of what family means.
The animation is also incredible, with the visuals in outer space colorful and vibrant, while also deadly and horrific at other times. Even on Earth, where Elio feels like he doesn’t fit in, Pixar’s animation style is as brilliant as ever. This movie deserved a big audience, and there is hope people will one day discover what they missed.
Predator: Killer Of Killers (2025)
No one could have imagined that the Predator franchise would roar back to life as something as incredible and inspired as it did. It was also shocking that it happened on a streaming service like Hulu. It started in live action with Prey, but then Predator: Killer of Killers took it all to another level.
The same man was responsible for both Prey and Predator: Killer of Killers, with Dan Trachtenberg directing both efforts. In the latter, he delivered the story using animation, which allowed him to do things that were never possible in his live-action effort. Through it all, he kept the story intelligent and interesting as well.
Predator: Killer of Killers received great reviews and was praised for both its striking visuals and how Trachtenberg explored the mythos of the Yautja and their hierarchy within their own society. Predator: Badlands will allow Trachtenberg to continue his direction with the franchise.
The Mitchells Vs. The Machines (2021)
One of the biggest surprises when it comes to animated movies came in 2021 when Netflix released The Mitchells vs. the Machines, and it ended up as a massive critical success. Once again, this tells a family story and has as much to do with their relationship as it does with the robot overlords who rise in this film.
The movie follows a family who is driving their daughter to college when an AI rises and sends its robot minions to enslave humanity. However, while this is the danger, the real story here follows a father and daughter who were once close but found themselves no longer understanding each other as the daughter grows up.
Despite being a Netflix original, it received massive praise and award recognition. It was nominated for an Oscar but lost to Encanto. It also received an almost perfect Rotten Tomatoes score, sitting at 97% fresh.
Big Hero 6 (2014)
While not advertised as such, Big Hero 6 is an animated Marvel movie, but more than that, it is a pure Disney Animation effort at heart. It makes sense because the MCU was getting huge at the time, and this was a movie that needed to live on its own, and it did so with incredible success.
The story takes place in the futuristic city of San Fransokyo, where a young inventor named Hiro Hamada prefers to use his skills for more immediate satisfaction rather than going to university to become more. He finally goes to school and meets new friends, who become superheroes after his brother’s murder.
The inflatable health care robot Baymax was the breakout star here. Big Hero 6 was a massive success, winning the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, beating out How to Train Your Dragon 2 for the award. It also has a positive 90% on Rotten Tomatoes.
The Iron Giant (1999)
The Iron Giant was a surprise 1999 animated film that tells a sci-fi story about a young boy named Hogarth, who finds and befriends a giant robot with extraterrestrial origins. However, when the U.S. government tries to come after the robot, the young boy does what he can to protect his new friend.
The animation here was groundbreaking at the time, combining both traditional animation and computer-generated imagery, and it contributed to the film becoming a cult classic due to the unique look of the animation. However, the story was what really carried the movie to great heights.
The story is another family theme, with the original story written by Sylvia Plath’s husband to comfort his children after she died by suicide. Director Brad Bird used the story to help himself cope with the death of his sister, who was murdered. The Iron Giant was the gun that didn’t want to be a gun, a brilliant sci-fi metaphor.
The Wild Robot (2024)
The Wild Robot was a 2024 animated sci-fi film by DreamWorks, set in a world over-reliant on technology. Robots were designed to serve their owners’ every need. However, when one robot ends up lost after a plane crash, it ends up becoming self-sentient when it blends in with animals in nature.
The voice cast was impressive, with Lupita Nyong’o (Black Panther’s Shuri), with names like Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, Catherine O’Hara, Bill Nighy, and Mark Hamill all involved. The animation was excellent, with DreamWorks moving away from the more typical photo-realism, replacing it with a more hand-painted look.
Critics praised the sci-fi story of a world where even a robot could become more human than humans when it goes back to nature. It has a 97% Rotten Tomatoes score, and it won the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature.
Ghost In The Shell (1995)
Ghost in the Shell was a Japanese cyberpunk anime that followed in the path of Akira in creating a sci-fi world with scenes that no live-action movie could ever replicate at the time. The story is about a hacker/ghost known as the Puppet Master, and it shares themes with the classic sci-fi film Blade Runner.
The sci-fi story sees a cyborg named Major Matoko Kusanagi, who is working for the government organization Section 9 as she pursues the Puppet Master. The themes explore philosophy and identity, an excellent match for the ideals of Blade Runner.
While the movie has its roots in the sci-fi films that came before, Ghost in the Shell was also a movie that influenced all subsequent sci-fi anime, as well as live-action movies like The Matrix.
WALL-E (2008)
WALL-E was proof that Pixar was the master of original animated films, and especially those that deal with real-world problems in creative ways. Directed by Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo), this film takes place in a future where Earth has become uninhabitable, save for robots cleaning up the mess there.
WALL-E is a robot that is cleaning the Earth in case the radiation levels allow humans to one day return. What is incredible is that the movie is mainly a silent film, with WALL-E on Earth spending a lot of time by himself and watching the classic musical Singing in the Rain. When he meets a robot named EVE, things change.
The film also explores deep themes, with humans becoming obese and unwilling to move due to years spent in space. There are also environmental issues here, with the act of destroying the planet from within. WALL-E won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature and holds a 95% Rotten Tomatoes score.
Akira (1988)
Akira was the movie that changed everything about Japanese anime, particularly in terms of Western appreciation for the style. The movie was also what started the trend for cyberpunk stories, along with the live-action Blade Runner. Akira proved in the 80s that anime could be as essential as any Disney Animation film.
Based on the manga of the same name, Akira tells the story of a young man who develops psychic powers that threaten to bring down society. It helped elevate steampunk to the mainstream, and it was the movie that introduced an entire generation of film lovers to anime.