Top 10 Best Stop-Motion Animated Films

Well, I did Top 30 Best Computer Animated Films, and then I did Top 50 Best Traditional Animated Films. Now it's about time that I did the Top 10 Best Stop-Motion Animated Films! However, I have two rules: First, the movie has to be over an hour long. Second, the film had to be released in the US theatrically, with the exception of The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix, a Norwegian film. Without further ado, let's start the countdown!
10. ParaNornan (2012)
 
Laika's followup to Coraline, ParaNorman is about a boy named Norman, who has the ability to see and talk to ghosts. Everyone thinks that he's crazy, but when zombies start infesting the town, it's up to Norman to save everyone. ParaNorman is different from Coraline because it's more for a teen audience with a deep mature story, some sensual themes, and some strong swear words for a PG film. Regardless, ParaNorman got great reviews and got nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, but lost to Pixar's feature that year, Brave.
9. Corpse Bride (2005)
 
In Tim Burton's followup to The Nightmare before Christmas, Victor Van Dort (Johnny Depp) is betrothed to the lovely Victoria Everglot (Emily Watson). However, after practicing his vows in the forest, Victor accidentally marries a corpse named Emily (Helena Bonham Carter) and gets sent to the colorful Land of the Dead, inhabited by zombies, skeletons, and creepy-crawlies. However, Barkis Bittern, who killed Emily years ago, hears about Victor's sudden disappearance, and plans to marry Victoria against her will. Corpse Bride did quite well at the box-office, got good reviews, and even got an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature, but lost to Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
8. Coraline (2009)

Coraline was Laika's first-ever feature film, and stars an 11-year-old girl named Coraline Jones (Dakota Fanning), who moves into a new apartment with her parents. She finds a door that leads to an alternate universe, but only at night. This universe has copies of Coraline's parents, but these ones actually listen to her; Coraline's Other Mother cooks delicious food, while her Other Father is a genius inventor. The only difference is that in this universe, everyone has buttons for eyes, and if Coraline wants to stay, she has to have buttons sewn into her eye sockets. Now Coraline has to challenge Other Mother to an ultimate game in order to get her real parents back. Coraline got really good reviews when it premiered and got nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, but lost to Pixar's Up.
7.  Shaun the Sheep: The Movie (2015)

Shaun the Sheep made his debut in the 1995 Wallace and Gromit short film "A Close Shave", in which Gromit is framed for sheep rustling and Wallace falls in love with an owner of a wool shop. Several years later, Shaun got his own TV series simply called 'Shaun the Sheep'. Wallace and Gromit don't appear, but instead, there are several new characters like Bitzer, a big-nosed sheepdog who looks a bit like Gromit, Shirely, a gluttonous sheep with tons of wool, Timmy, the baby of the flock, the unnamed Farmer, and three trouble-making pigs. The best way to describe the series is like Nickelodeon's Barnyard in stop-motion with better writing, better character designs, and more likable characters. There's also not much dialogue, not even from the human characters.

In Shaun the Sheep: The Movie, Shaun is tired of living on the farm and decides to go to the city. However, the Farmer gets lost in the city and suffers from amnesia. Now it's up to Shaun and his flock to find the Farmer and get his memory back. Like Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Shaun the Sheep is an enjoyable film, but suffers from a weak villain, this time in the form of an animal-control worker named Trumper. Like 'Curse of the Were-Rabbit', Shaun the Sheep: The Movie got excellent reviews, and even got nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, but lost to Pixar's feature that year, Inside Out. Also, when 'Shaun' was released theatrically in the US, it did horribly at the box-office. Maybe because it had to compete against the yellow cash-cow known as Minions.

6. Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)

In our favorite man-and-dog duo's first feature-length adventure, Wallace and Gromit are exterminators paid to get rid of bunnies (but not kill them) so they won't eat everyone's vegetables. Wallace builds a machine that brain-washes bunnies so they will eat cheese instead of vegetables. However, Wallace accidentally swaps brains with a bunny and turns into a Were-Rabbit! Now, it's up to his dog Gromit to save the day. While the animation is definitely top-notch, the film may be confusing to those who aren't familiar with Wallace and Gromit, as well as a rather lame villain; Victor Quartermaine, who wants to marry Lady Tottington and kill all the rabbits in town, is as threatening as Edgar the butler from The Aristocats. Nether the less, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is an enjoyable film, got great reviews, and won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.

5. The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix (1975)

Sorry that the poster I chose is in German. I don't think this film had an American release.

The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix is an enjoyable Norwegian film about an inventor named Theodore Rimspoke, who lives with his animal sidekicks Sonny Duckworth and Lambert in a workshop on top of a hill. When Theodore discovers that an invention of his, a race-car engine, is stolen by his former assistant, Rudoph Gore-Slimey, Theo has to build the ultimate race car and challenge Gore-Slimey in the Grand Prix. The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix became Norway's most successful film, and certain theaters shown it 28 years in a row! 'Pinchcliffe' is a forgotten gem that will appeal to both kids and adults and deserves a wider release.

4. The nightmare before Christmas (1993)

In Tim Burton's first animated feature, there lies a place where it's Halloween all the time, and the residents consist of monsters, ghosts, goblins, and other things that go bump in the night. After getting bored of the same routine year after year, Jack Skellington, the king of Halloween, accidentally stumbles into the North Pole and discovers Christmas. With the help of his friends, Jack decides to take over Christmas for the year, unaware of the disasters to come. The Nightmare before Christmas was a big success when it came out, got great reviews, and has become a beloved holiday classic ever since, for both Christmas and Halloween.

3. Chicken Run (2000)

 

Aardman's first feature film Chicken Run is about a British hen named Ginger (Julia Sawalha), who lives on a chicken farm owned by the wicked Mrs. Tweedy. Whenever the chickens stop laying eggs, Tweedy kills them. When a 'flying' rooster named Rocky (Mel Gibson) crash lands into the farm, Ginger eagerly asks Rocky how he flew so all the chickens can fly to escape Mrs. Tweedy. Meanwhile, Mrs. Tweedy is tired of making minuscule profits and wants to earn real money by baking the chickens into pies. Chicken Run is a gem with fluid animation, a compelling story, and likable and funny characters. I also think Melicia Tweedy is Aardman's most threatening villain to date. Chicken Run got really good reviews, with a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and grossed over 200 million dollars worldwide. The film was so successful that Aardman and DreamWorks worked together on two more features, Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Flushed Away. However, both of them were flops in the US, so DreamWorks and Aardman abandoned one another for good after that.

2. Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)
 
Kubo and the Two Strings, Laika's fourth feature film, is about a Japanese boy named Kubo, who wields a magic guitar that can control paper. When the ghosts of his aunts attack a local village, Kubo gets rescued by a stubborn snow monkey and finds himself in a cave on top of a snowy mountain. Now Kubo must embark on a quest with the monkey, along with a humanoid samurai beetle, to find magic gear to defeat his evil grandfather the Moon King. Kubo and the Two Strings is one of the rare opportunities for an animated film in which the story is just as beautiful as the animation. If Zootopoia or Moana don't win the 2016 Oscar for Best Animated Film, when 'Kubo' should win.
And the Number 1 stop-motion animated film of all time is...
1. Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Based on the children's book by Roald Dahl, Fantastic Mr. Fox tells the story of a fox (George Clooney) who steals chickens for a living. When his wife Felicity (Meryl Streep) gets pregnant with a cub, she tells Mr. Fox to get a new job. Twelve fox years later, the cub grew up to be a stubborn boy fox named Ash (Jason Schwartzman), and gets jealous when his talented cousin Kristofferson (Eric Chase Anderson, director Wes Anderson's brother) comes over. After convincing his lawyer Clive Badger (Bill Murray) to buy a tree his family can live in, Mr. Fox plans on doing one more heist between three farmers: Walt Boggis, Nate Bunce, and Franklin Bean. However, the heist puts all the animals in danger, and it's now up to Mr. Fox to make things right. Fantastic Mr. Fox truly is fantastic with top-notch animation, witty writing, and an all-star voice cast. In fact, I enjoy Fantastic Mr. Fox just a little more than Pixar's feature that year, Up.
Well, these were the Top 10 Best Stop-Motion Animated Films of All Time. On February 14th, I will post an announcement for another story!