The nineties were weird. We had slap bracelets, dial-up internet that sounded like a robot screaming, and a sudden, massive explosion in the quality of what we were watching on Saturday mornings and Friday nights. Honestly, if you grew up then, you didn't just watch movies. You lived them. Animated movies from 1990s weren't just "kids' stuff" anymore. They became these massive, cultural behemoths that changed how Hollywood worked.
Before this decade, animation was kinda struggling. Disney was in a slump. Then, boom. The Little Mermaid (technically late '89, but it set the stage) happened, and suddenly every studio in town realized there was serious money to be made in hand-drawn art. It wasn't just about selling toys, though that was a huge part of it. It was about the music, the Broadway-style storytelling, and the technical leaps that started making characters look almost... alive.
People forget how much the landscape shifted. We went from the "Dark Age" of the 80s to a "Renaissance." It’s a bit of a cliché now, but looking back, the shift was staggering. You had Jeffrey Katzenberg leaving Disney to help start DreamWorks. You had the rise of Pixar. It was a decade of massive egos and even bigger risks.
The Disney Renaissance and the Broadway Formula
Let’s be real: you can’t talk about animated movies from 1990s without starting with the House of Mouse. They figured out a cheat code. They hired Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, two geniuses from the musical theater world, and basically turned animated films into stage musicals.
Beauty and the Beast (1991) was a legitimate game-changer. It was the first animated film ever nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. Not "Best Animated Feature," because that category didn't even exist yet. It was just "Best Picture." It lost to The Silence of the Lambs, which is a wild comparison to think about. But it proved that animation could be high art. The ballroom scene, with its sweeping camera movement, used early computer-generated imagery (CGI) to create a sense of scale that felt impossible before.
Then came The Lion King in 1994. Internally at Disney, this was the "B-movie." The "A-team" was working on Pocahontas, which they thought would be the big Oscar winner. They were wrong. The Lion King became a global phenomenon. It drew from Shakespeare’s Hamlet and the Bible, specifically the stories of Joseph and Moses. It was heavy. It was dark. Mufasa’s death traumatized an entire generation of children, and honestly, we’re still not over it. The soundtrack by Elton John and Tim Rice didn't just top the charts; it stayed there. It was everywhere.
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The CGI Revolution and the Pixar Paradigm
While Disney was perfecting the hand-drawn musical, a small group of computer nerds in Northern California were about to change everything. 1995. Toy Story.
It sounds crazy now, but people weren't sure if audiences would sit through a full-length movie made entirely on computers. The textures were a bit plastic-looking, and the humans (lookin' at you, Sid) were borderline terrifying. But the writing? It was impeccable. John Lasseter and his team at Pixar realized that the technology didn't matter if the story sucked. They leaned into the plastic look by making the protagonists actual plastic toys. Brilliant.
Toy Story killed the traditional 2D musical eventually, but not immediately. It introduced a new kind of humor—smarter, faster, and filled with "wink-wink" jokes for the parents. It paved the way for A Bug's Life and the eventual rise of DreamWorks with Antz. The rivalry between Pixar and DreamWorks in the late 90s was legendary. It was petty, it was public, and it resulted in some of the best movies we’ve ever seen.
The Weird, Experimental, and the Not-Disney
Not everything was a fairy tale. Some of the best animated movies from 1990s came from outside the Disney bubble. These movies were darker, stranger, and often commercially unsuccessful at the time.
Take The Iron Giant (1999). Directed by Brad Bird, it’s a masterpiece of Cold War paranoia and childhood wonder. It flopped at the box office because Warner Bros. had no idea how to market it. They thought it was just another "robot movie." It wasn't. It was a profound meditation on choice and identity. "You are who you choose to be." If that doesn't make you tear up, you're probably a robot yourself.
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Then you had the weirdness of Don Bluth. He was the guy who walked out of Disney in the late 70s to do his own thing. In the 90s, he gave us Anastasia (1997) through Fox Animation Studios. People still think that's a Disney movie. It’s not. It was a gritty (well, as gritty as a musical about a lost princess can be) take on Russian history that leaned into a more "adult" aesthetic.
We also saw the rise of adult-oriented animation or at least stuff that pushed the PG rating. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) became a goth subculture staple. Henry Selick’s stop-motion work was breathtakingly tedious to produce, but it gave the film a tactile, "creepy-cute" vibe that CGI still struggles to replicate.
The Influx of Anime and Global Influence
We can't ignore what was happening in Japan. For many in the West, the 90s was the "Great Awakening" for anime.
Princess Mononoke (1997) by Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli blew the doors off what people thought animation could represent. It wasn't about good vs. evil in a simple way. It was about environmentalism, industrialization, and the messy grey areas of human nature. When Miramax bought the rights to distribute it in the US, Harvey Weinstein reportedly wanted to edit it down. Miyazaki's producer famously sent him a samurai sword with a note that said, "No cuts." Iconic behavior.
Back in the States, Ghost in the Shell (1995) was influencing directors like the Wachowskis. Without the 90s anime boom, we wouldn't have The Matrix. Period.
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Why Do We Care So Much?
So, why are we still obsessed with these films? Is it just nostalgia? Maybe a little. But there’s something else. The 90s represented a peak in "tactile" storytelling.
Most of these films were hand-inked and painted, at least at the start of the decade. There is a soul in those lines. Even the early CGI had a certain "we’re figuring this out as we go" charm. These movies also didn't talk down to kids. They dealt with death (The Lion King), social class (Aladdin), genocide (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), and the existential dread of being replaced (Toy Story).
The 90s was also the era of the "Megastar" voice actor. Robin Williams as the Genie in Aladdin changed the industry forever. Before him, voice acting was the domain of specialists. After him, every studio wanted a big name on the poster. It’s why we have Chris Pratt voicing everything today. For better or worse, that started in 1992.
Actionable Insights for the Modern Viewer
If you're looking to revisit this era or introduce it to someone else, don't just stick to the Top 10 lists. There's a lot of gold in the margins.
- Watch the "Flops": Movies like The Iron Giant, Cats Don't Dance, and Batman: Mask of the Phantasm are arguably better than some of the billion-dollar hits. They took risks that modern corporate animation often avoids.
- Look for the "Making Of" Docs: The 90s was the era of the "Platinum Edition" DVD. Searching for the behind-the-scenes footage of how they animated the Wildebeest stampede in The Lion King reveals the sheer technical insanity required to make these films.
- Compare the Restoration Versions: Many animated movies from 1990s have been "upscaled" for 4K. Sometimes this looks great; sometimes it scrubs away the beautiful grain of the original cells. Compare a 4K Disney+ stream to an old VHS if you still have one—the difference in color palette is wild.
- Track the Directors: If you like a certain 90s flick, follow the director's career. You'll find that the people who made The Little Mermaid (Ron Clements and John Musker) also made Treasure Planet, a weirdly underrated sci-fi epic that ended the era.
The 90s was a lightning-in-a-bottle moment where technology and traditional artistry shook hands. It gave us stories that weren't just "content" to be consumed and forgotten. They were events. They were cultural shifts. And honestly? They’re still better than most of the stuff coming out today.
Start by re-watching The Iron Giant. It holds up better than you remember, and it’ll remind you exactly why this decade was the peak of the medium. Focus on the character acting—the subtle movements of the Giant’s eyes or Hogarth’s frantic energy. That’s where the magic is.