The 2000s were one of the most landmark and iconic decades for feature-length animation. The decade can be attributed to the rise and mass popularization of 3D computer animation as the primary form of cinematic animation. Studios like Pixar and DreamWorks helped show audiences just how powerful of a tool 3D computer animation can be to create beautiful, unlike anything seen before animated films.

While Pixar and DreamWorks created many iconic animated films of this decade, there were still numerous great and underappreciated animated films to release in the 2000s. The lowered barrier to entry allowed many great animated films from studios outside of Disney to be created. The 2000s as a whole were a decade defined by its experimentation and going against the grain, so it makes sense that this thought process would also find its way into the medium of animation.

10 'The Tale of Despereaux' (2008)

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The 2000s had no shortage of rodent-centric stories, as seen with the success of films like Ratatouille, Stuart Little, and Flushed Away. One of the most often forgotten and unrecognized rodent films of the late 2000s was The Tale of Desperaux. The film follows the story of Despereaux, a young mouse who is more adventurous and ambitious than the other mice in his village. He is soon thrust into his own fairy tale adventure and is tasked with saving a princess and showing the importance of being brave.

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One of the biggest strengths of The Tale of Despereaux is its multiple key characters and storylines that all interlink with one another. Despereaux isn't the only character going through his journey of self-discovery, as the princess, a disgraced rat named Roscuro, and many others all have their stories of growth in the spotlight. The film as a whole does a great job balancing these shorter fable-like stories together to create a style and approach much like the classic fairy tales of old.

9 'Redline' (2009)

Redline

Redline tells the story of the most dangerous and lucrative intergalactic race circuit in the universe, culminating in its final race, Redline. The race is as fast-paced and exciting as it is dangerous and illegal, and with Redline's location being the dangerous planet Roboworld, the stakes have never been higher. We follow fan favorite daredevil racer JP, who has earned his way into the Redline race via vote-in and his efforts to survive the dangerous race and win it all.

More than anything else, Redline is an endless visual feast from beginning to end. There's a lot to love about Redline, from the highly detailed and mesmerizing hand-drawn animation style to the grimy underground sci-fi character designs and worldbuilding. Redline is a high-octane racing film that perfectly captures the adrenaline and high speeds that come from racing and places the audience in the front-row seat for it all.

8 'Monster House' (2006)

D.J., Chowder, and Jenny in the Monster House armed with water guns and flashlights.

Monster House follows the story of a group of teens who go face to face with the creepy house in their neighborhood. What sets this house apart from any standard creepy house is that the house is alive and has begun feasting on the neighborhood residents. With Halloween right around the corner, this trio of kids has to stop the evil house before it has its way with all the trick-or-treaters.

Monster House is much darker and more willing to approach darker moments and more emotional themes than previously seen with computer-animated films. The house itself lends the film to a lot of creativity and avenues for not only frightening moments where the house eats people but also the dark, disturbing, and incredibly well-made architecture of the home. All of these aspects come together to create a scarily fun time that pleasantly surprises more times than it disappoints.

7 'A Scanner Darkly' (2006)

Keanu Reeves and Woody Harrelson in A Scanner Darkly (2006)
Image via Warner Independent Pictures

Based on the sci-fi novel by Phillip K. Dick, A Scanner Darkly takes place in a world where the war on drugs has failed, and a new drug known as Substance D has flooded the market. With this rise in the drug market, the government has created an underground network of surveillance and secrecy so powerful that the members hide their identities from each other. We follow the story of one specific undercover agent, who, while dealing with his addiction to Substance D, is tasked with surveilling his own home and roommates.

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While director Richard Linklater has used rotoscoping for a feature-length animated film both before this film with Waking Life and later with Apollo 10 1/2, A Scanner Darkly is this style at its best. The surreal and otherworldly animation style works perfectly with the original written work and helps amplify the novel's themes of addiction, corruption, and losing your sense of self. The film also makes great use of Linklater's signature emphasis on dialogue and great performances from Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., and Winona Ryder.

6 'Osmosis Jones' (2001)

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Osmosis Jones looks inside the fully functional and complete society of cells and pathogens inside a man named Frank DeTorri (played by Bill Murray). When Frank eats an infected egg containing a deadly virus, it's up to the duo of white blood cell Osmosis Jones (voiced by Chris Rock) and special agent cold pill Drix (voice by David Hyde Pierce) to stop the virus and save Frank.

Osmosis Jones combines live-action segments following Frank and his daughter with animated segments inside his body to create a unique and original style and premise for the film. While the live-action segments aren't anything to write home about, the animated section of the film is full of creative worldbuilding as we see the inner workings and living and breathing city inside of Frank. Brought together by a classic buddy cop comedy premise and a great villain performance by Lawrence Fishburne as the virus, Osmosis Jones truly has a lot of creativity to offer.

5 'A Town Called Panic' (2009)

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A Town Called Panic is a French-language stop-motion fantasy film that follows the absurd events and sequence of events that take place in a simple countryside town and community. When Cowboy and Indian attempt to get their roommate Horse a present for his birthday, their mistakes set into action a cavalcade of increasingly ridiculous and unpredictably hilarious events.

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2009 was already a defining year for stop-motion animation, considering the release of masterworks such as Coraline and Fantastic Mr. Fox. However, the hijinks of Cowboy, Indian, and Horse present within A Town Called Panic deserve to be held in a similarly high regard as the other great works of stop-motion from 2009. It's a film that revels in its absurdity, and takes no time to explain its strange and unbelievable world, and will go onto the next hilarious gag before audiences can even process what they just witnessed. Despite that, the film stays consistent in its approach and ends with a heartfelt and kindhearted ending that helps bring to life the strange town and its equally strange residents.

4 'Hoodwinked!' (2005)

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Hoodwinked! takes the classic story of Little Red Riding Hood that everyone knows and takes its own crime mystery take on the story. Starting off right after what would be the events of the classic fable, we see a series of police interviews and proceedings where each main member of the tale tells their own side of what happened. The stories all overlap and connect with one another by the end, but audiences and the police get to learn what happened behind the scenes of the classic fairy tale.

While taking a raunchy, in-your-face approach to fairy tale stories was nothing new in the 2000s after the massive smash hit success of Shrek, Hoodwinked! does a great deal to set itself apart. Its police setting creates a stark tone to the film, which only furthers itself by the heavy comedic focus on dialogue. The writing truly does the majority of the heavy lifting for the film, creating a cult classic animated film whose comedic approach was unlike any other animated film at the time.

3 'Surf's Up' (2007)

Cody Maverick and Chicken Joe in Surf's Up
Image via Sony

Surf's Up follows the story of Cody Maverick (played by Shia LaBeouf), a penguin with lofty ambitions of being a pro surfer just like his idol, the legendary Big Z. When tryouts for a big surfing competition arrive in his hometown of Shiverpool, Cody finally gets his chance to break free of his small town and show the world what he's capable of. Although on the road to glory and success, he learns that there's more to life than simply being the best.

While it may be easy for one to simply write off Surf's Up as a movie riding on the coattails of the success of Happy Feet, the film is completely different in execution and approach. Primarily, the film's mockumentary approach, akin to the work of Christopher Guest, is something that is hardly explored in the animated format, and Surf's Up thrives in this storytelling style. Its animation still holds up over 15 years later, a rare feat for this early era of computer-animated films. Surf's Up is a film that deserves much more respect and appreciation than it's gotten and holds up as one of the best animated hidden gems of the era.

2 '9' (2009)

9 - 2009
Image via Focus Features

One of the rare animated films to get a PG-13 rating, 9 tells the story of a strange and mysterious post-apocalyptic world. When a ragdoll with the number 9 stitched on his back (voiced by Elijah Wood) first comes to life, he soon finds a small community of similar ragdolls with their own numbers one through eight. 9 soon learns that the community hides away from terrifying machines that hunt them down, yet 9 still convinces the community to join him on a quest to discover how the world got to this state.

9 is a film that, from the very first scene, has lofty ambitions and mystery ingrained into its very core. It's the type of sci-fi thriller story that is rarely seen in animation, especially in the form of high-budget computer animation, as seen here. The character designs also are immediately distinct and leave an impression on audiences, both the innocence and individuality of the ragdolls and the horrors of the machines.

1 'Robots' (2005)

Tim sits atop his perch by the gate to Bigweld Industries
Image via 20th Century Fox

Robots tells the story of a young robot inventor named Rodney Copperbottom (voiced by Ewan McGregor), who dreams of going to the big city and inventing under the wing of his idol, Bigweld. Rodney soon gets his chance to finally make a change in the world and be an inventor in the big city, but this happens just as Big Weld Industries gets a new manager named Ratchet. Ratchet plans to eradicate and make older robots obsolete, so it's up to Rodney to make a change to save his friends and family before it's too late.

One of the first animated films from Blue Sky Studios, Robots flourishes with its unique and beautiful world-building and character designs. Every individual character, whether a major character or background character, has its own distinct and beautiful design that helps flesh out and bring life to this metallic world. Also supporting some great vocal performances from the likes of comedy legends like Robin Williams and Mel Brooks, Robots is a film that surprises and delights audiences from beginning to end.

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