With no clear frontrunner for the Best Animated Feature Oscar, many pundits are claiming that it was a lousy year for animation. It wasn't. There have only been a handful of films that have captured the imagination of the movie-going public in a serious way and there were a number of high profile, expensively produced bombs that littered the cinematic landscape (The Secret Life of Pets ended up as a franchise nonstarter), but these things are true every year. The fact that The Angry Birds Movie 2 narrowly missed my list is a testament to the variety and quality of the animated features released this year. (Seriously, it's good.) And, it should be noted, I haven't gotten a chance to see Weathering With You yet, although I am, of course, dying to.

Also, before we get into the list, I wanted to stress that Jon Favreau's The Lion King is, without question, an animated film. The fact that many are still referring to the movie as "live action" is as baffling as it is factually incorrect; this new Lion King was hand animated by a team of talented artists, just like the original 1994 classic. The movie is an undeniable technical accomplishment, for sure, but should be heralded for what it is: one of 2019's most successful animated films.

10. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

Admittedly, the finale of How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is beautiful and heartfelt and will probably wring a tear or two out of you, when all is said and done. But it was also undone by crippling creative decisions made during How to Train Your Dragon 2 by the since-ousted DreamWorks Animation head Jeffrey Katzenberg. Those decisions left the third film largely adrift, story-wise, and everything, from its ace cast (what was Cate Blanchett doing, exactly?) to its imaginative collection of dragon characters, suffered as a result. Still, the animation is some of the most beautiful work DreamWorks has ever produced and there are a collection of rousing set pieces that produce a facsimile of that old How to Train Your Dragon spirit. And sometimes that's enough.

9. Teen Titans Go! Vs. Teen Titans

In a brief post-credits sequence at the end of last year's woefully underrated Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, it was teased that the characters from the more mature Teen Titans animated series had entered the realm of the more outwardly cartoony Teen Titans Go! (which was a comedic spin-off of the other series). Teen Titans Go! Vs. Teen Titans serves as a feature-length crossover of the series (actors voice the same characters in both series, making things both simpler and more complicated), twice as silly as you'd imagine and three times as hilarious (hurt feelings are put aside through the use of a 90s-style hip hop song, complete with characters commenting on their differing art styles). By the time the movie reaches its Into the Spider-Verse indebted finale, where versions of the Teen Titans appear from all sorts of bizarre corners of multiverse, Teen Titans Go! Vs. Teen Titans has reached a level of sublime goofiness that few animated features ever achieve. It's a shame that this didn't get a theatrical release (aside from a San Diego Comic Con fan screening), but hopefully there will still be more direct-to-home-video installments.

8. Steven Universe: The Movie

Since 2013 Steven Universe has been widely hailed for its lush animation, intricate storylines, snappy songs and inclusive LGBTQ themes, and when the fifth season finale aired earlier this year, it sort of seemed like that was it. But instead of a series finale, it served as something of a backdoor pilot. Released months after the finale aired, Steven Universe: The Movie, a big, boisterous feature-length musical, effectively restarted the series, with Steven Universe Future, a miniseries fashioned as an epilogue to the main story, following closely behind. And watching the film, directed by series creator Rebecca Sugar (alongside Kat Morris and Joe Johnston), it would have been a fitting goodbye, neatly positioned as a rewarding, emotionally resonant send-off for die-hard fans and a welcome entry point for those new to the series (that will hopefully inspire a watch from the beginning). Steven Universe: The Movie begins with a storybook opening, just like a classic Disney cartoon, and from there jumps forward in time from when the series ended, with a teenage Steven giving up the diamond homeworld to stay on Earth. From there, things go from bad to worse, with the emergence of a new villain Spinel (Sarah Stiles), who is animated in the "rubber hose" style of a character from 1930s animation, and a host of incredibly catchy songs written by Sugar and performed by pop stars like Chance the Rapper and Estelle. Commercial animation, especially animation aired squarely at children, is rarely this compassionately concerned with feelings.

7. The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part

The first LEGO Movie was an unexpected delight, full of inventive designs and a conceit that only revealed itself towards the end of the film - that everything we had just watched took place in the imagination of a young boy with daddy issues. It was brilliant but it painted the series into a corner, from a narrative perspective, especially after Warner Bros. released two spin-offs that audiences were indifferent towards. Sadly, The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, may have suffered from simply too many LEGO movies in too short a time period, along with a lack of freshness compared to the original. But here's the thing: it's still really, really great. And, given what was revealed at the end of the first movie, is a nimble balancing act between parallel narrative. There are themes of maturity and understanding (on the human side of things) and an intricate time travel plot and a cameo by Bruce Willis (on the LEGO side). The animation, by Australian studio Animal Logic, is just as beautiful as ever (you can practically see the fingerprints) and while the movie lacks some of the comedic zip of the first film (original directors Christopher Miller and Phil Lord wrote the film but didn't direct), there are still enough surprises and visual gags to keep you entertained for the entire running time.

6. Klaus

Spanish animator Sergio Pablos is the animation industry's greatest secret weapon, having contributed the story to Despicable Me (leading to an unstoppable juggernaut of a franchise) and Smallfoot, and designing characters for everything from Treasure Planet to Rio. Klaus, his directorial debut, features all the hallmarks of his career thus far, including wonderfully designed characters and a storyline that mixes the sour and sweet in all sorts of delicious ways. An origin story for Santa Claus, Klaus focuses on a postman (Jason Schwartzman) who is given a post near the arctic circle, in an awful town called Smeerensburg (it's real - look it up) where everyone is literally warring with everyone else. He comes up with an ingenious way to get out of his post, with the local children writing letters to Klaus (J.K. Simmons) in return for a small toy. Surprisingly melancholy and emotional, Klaus was brought to life through cutting edge technology that expertly mixes traditional hand-drawn animation with state-of-the-art computer effects. The result is a new Christmas classic that is also unlike anything you've ever seen before, with Pablos' background in character design and animation shining through brilliantly. (How Disney hasn't released something that looks like this is beyond me.) Netflix paid handsomely for the opportunity to release this film; it paid off.

5. Missing Link

It's a miracle Laika has made it this far; the Portland, Oregon-based stop-motion animation studio has churned out charming (but damnably esoteric) films for the past ten years, with each film costing more than the previous film (and earning less), while its founder and guiding light Travis Knight unceremoniously left for the world of big budget live action Hollywood franchises. Sigh. Missing Link was their biggest, most complicated endeavor yet, a globe-trotting adventure that feels equally indebted to Sherlock Holmes and Indiana Jones stories, with a buffoonish 19th century explorer (Hugh Jackman) who attempts to reunite a bigfoot (Zach Galifianakis) with his yeti family in the Himalayas. (It was intended to be brighter and more accessible than the studio's earlier, moodier work.) With absolutely ravishing visuals (including some of the studio's most elaborate set pieces yet, including a big showdown at an ice palace that I still can't quite figure out how they accomplished) and some nifty character work, it was written and directed by Laika MVP Chris Butler, one of the most talented filmmakers working in animation today. A bit too left-of-center for mainstream America's taste, Missing Link nonetheless proved that Laika is still committed to making challenging, artful confections, no matter how high the cost or how little the return.

4) Frozen II

The first Frozen was a true phenomenon, capturing the zeitgeist so completely it was impossible to escape. And in the six years that followed, Anna (Kristen Bell) and Elsa (Idina Menzel) have stuck around, in a short film and Christmas special and cameo in Ralph Breaks the Internet. But we always knew a full-length follow-up was on the way, and now that it's finally arrived, we can breathe a sigh of relief: Frozen is still fabulous. The plot details of Frozen II still remain fuzzy and I've already seen the movie twice; what a mysterious forest and Elsa's powers and the death of their parents have to do with anything is beyond me. Thankfully, original directors Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee make sure we know that what really matters is the emotional arc of our favorite characters and pushing the storytelling from the land of fairy tale into something grander and more mythic, while also straining the limits of what the technology can accomplish, oftentimes blurring the line between backgrounds, effects, and character animation. And the songs are totally killer; "Into the Unknown" is the heir apparent to "Let It Go" (in terms of empowering belters) with accompanying visuals that border on the expressionistic and "Lost in the Woods," sung by Kristoff (Jonathan Groff) and styled as a Peter Cetera-era Chicago power ballad, is the movie's showstopping centerpiece, as formally adventurous as anything Walt Disney Animation Studios has done recently.

3. I Lost My Body

Strange and bewildering, with an unexpected emotional power, I Lost My Body (acquired by Netflix at Cannes, where it won the Grand Prix, and available on the streaming service now) is arguably the weirdest animated film of 2019 but also one of the most rewarding. The story of an amputated hand that, following an accident (the exact details of which are saved until a big reveal towards the end), attempts to reunite with his lost body (belonging to a sweet, lovelorn Moroccan immigrant). Co-written by Amelie screenwriter Guillaume Laurant (and based on his novel Happy Hand), the movie is gently absurd, occasionally quite surreal, and often deeply philosophical, with co-writer/director Jérémy Clapin wringing an almost uncomfortable amount of suspense out of the hand doing pretty much anything. (As it turns out, Paris isn't the easiest place for a disembodied appendage to traverse.) Sweet and deeply melancholy, with a scratchy, hand-animated style (computers undoubtedly assisted), it's unlike any animated feature released this year, less interested in overt stylization than providing a deeply contemplative, one-of-a-kind experience.

2. Toy Story 4

The year's biggest surprise was Pixar's Toy Story 4, a sequel that many questioned the mere existence of after the note-perfect, heart-tugging ending of Toy Story 3. This fourth entry in the popular franchise (and the first in ten years) wound up being the most mature, formally adventurous, gorgeously animated and emotionally complex entry in the entire franchise and perhaps the greatest sequel Pixar has ever produced. (My apologies to Incredibles 2.) Director Josh Cooley wasn't happy with repeating what worked about the previous films, instead pushing this installment into uncharted territory, exploring both the existential quandary of the birth of a toy (with Tony Hale's frantic, lovable Forky) and what happens when a toy gets "lost." The latter is explored through the prism of Bo Peep's experience after leaving Molly's room and her reconnection with Woody. Instead of focusing on the beloved characters we know and love, Cooley introduces a host of new playthings, including Ducky and Bunny (Keegan Michael-Keyand Jordan Peele), Duke Caboom (Keanu Reeves) and Gabby Gabby (Christina Hendricks), a truly poignant villain and a pair of visually dynamic new environments in an antique store and small town carnival. The fact that people spoke so passionately about Toy Story 4's ending (that left me in tears, no less) is a testament to its singular power.

1. Primal

Sure, Primal might have aired in five installments on the Cartoon Network, but it is also up for the Best Animated Feature Oscar and I saw it in a (sparsely attended) movie theater in downtown Los Angeles earlier this year so it's going on the list -- and straight to the tippity top, no less. These five "tales of savagery" hail from visionary animator Genndy Tartakovsky, who has spent most of the past decade directing the cuddly Hotel Transylvania films for Sony. When Tartakovsky returned to his landmark series Samurai Jack in 2017, he updated the formerly family-friend series for more mature audiences and Primal takes that philosophy even further. Despite the Saturday-morning set-up of a caveman (dubbed Spear) and dinosaur (called Fang) teaming up to traverse the prehistoric wasteland, this is some of the most visceral, mature work Tartakovsky has ever produced, full of shattered bones and buckets of blood. The episodes are nearly wordless exercises in pure animation, lovingly crafted and totally expressive, with an art style inspired by Frank Frazetta paintings, pulp magazines, horror comic books, old timey serials and the airbrushed sides of vans, rendered in brutally beautiful 2D animation. It's impossible to watch Primal and to not be totally blown away by the command of the craft, technical artistry, emotional contours and storytelling prowess. There are another five installments due sometime in the not-too-distant future. They can't come quickly enough.