Throwback: 24 of the Best 2000s Animated Movies and Where to Watch Them

Aspiring rat-chef, Remy, gets to take a crack at his dream job when he befriends Linguini, a low-level worker at a renowned restaurant in Paris. The story follows Remy as he works under Linguini's chef hat, using his hair to control his motor skills and cooking his way to the top of the ranks.

This underrated classic focuses on a group of rodents and other animals whose goal is to steal food from the humans who took over their forest with a housing development. This is all following RJ, the raccoon, who was caught by Vincent the bear for stealing his hibernation food. If RJ doesn't replace the stolen food in a week, Vincent will wreak havoc on him.

The Academy Award winner for Best Animated Feature in 2009, Up is a story about Carl Fredericksen, an older man and widower who ties a bunch of balloons to his house in order to travel to South America. However, he doesn't realize that Russell, a Wilderness Explorer, was also in the house when it took off on its journey. The film tracks the two as they develop a friendship and meet new creatures along the way, like Dug, a golden retriever.

Starring Ewan McGregor as Rodney Copperbottom, the story tracks him as he sets out to fulfill his dream of being a famous inventor. He leaves his hometown and heads to Robot City to find his idol, Bigweld, who is a world-famous inventor, but Copperbottom eventually realizes that there's a massive scam behind the man he has idolized for so long.

When his father dies after being attacked by a coyote, Otis, a cow, has to take the lead of his farm and the animals within it. The story follows Otis in his new role, which he doesn't take very seriously, forcing others to do the work that he should be doing. Throughout the film, Otis faces off with Dag, the head of a coyote pack, who eventually kidnaps some of the farm's hens. Given this, Otis has to figure out a way to retrieve them before they're killed.

The infamous green ogre, Shrek (Mike Myers), is upset to find that the swamp he calls home has been taken over by a horde of different creatures. When he agrees upon terms with Lord Farquaad to rescue Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) in exchange for Farquaad getting rid of the creatures, Shrek sets off on his journey. Taking Donkey (Eddie Murphy) with him on his expedition, Shrek soon realizes his love for Fiona through the act of saving her.

Sid, a sloth, and Manny, a wooly mammoth, team up and decide to travel north, where they end up coming into the possession of a human child, who they have to care for. In their travels, they encounter a pack of saber-tooth tigers, though one specific saber, Diego, spares them—except it's for a different purpose than Sid and Manny think.

Incorporating both animated and live scenes into the film, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie reunites us with SpongeBob and Patrick, who are tasked with finding King Neptune's crown in Shell City before Plankton is able to get his hands on it. Plankton's plan is to steal the crown, steal the Krabby Patty secret formula (as always), and take over the world. We stick with SpongeBob and Patrick as they traverse the underwater scene, encountering different places and people while under and later, above water.

This film iteration of the TV series finds Jimmy and his friends in a situation that they're not used to: all of their parents are gone. At first not realizing that it's because of an alien invasion, all of the kids in town go wild, celebrating by eating tons of junk food and running through the streets, making a huge mess. When they figure out that a group called the Yolkians have brainwashed their parents, the kids have to come to the rescue and save them before their parents are fed to Poultra, the almighty alien chicken.

A bit of an underwater mob story, Shark Tale is about Oscar (Will Smith), who works at the Whale Wash, an underwater car wash. Oscar ends up being mistaken for killing a mob boss's son, but when people start to believe that he's super tough, he goes along with it to further his popularity. However, it ends up backfiring when the other fish begin to find out and Oscar is put into situations where he's not able to defend himself as well as he should.

Happy Feet is a musical comedy that centers around Mumble, a penguin who is incredible at tap dancing but not so great at singing, which makes it tough for him to find a mate. However, he meets Ramón, who helps introduce him to Gloria, which makes Mumble extremely happy. However, when Mumble refuses to stop tap dancing, it gets him exiled from the land and onto the forbidden shore.

Set at the Central Park Zoo in New York City, a group of animals tries to stop a few penguins from escaping the zoo, though end up lost on the island of Madagascar when things go awry. Thousands of miles away from their home, the group encounters King Julien XIII, a lemur who rules the land. Each animal has a different reaction to being in the wild, with some enjoying it while others deeply miss their home.

Billy Crystal and John Goodman play Mike and Sulley, respectively, two monsters from Monstropolis who have very different personalities. The two of them work for a factory that generates its energy by scaring young children, so the monsters have to be extremely good at their jobs. When Boo, a little girl, gets into the facility, Mike and Sulley have to figure out how to shield her from the others, as children are usually toxic to monsters (though Boo is not).

Starring Jerry Seinfeld as Barry, Bee Movie is exactly what it sounds like: it's about bees. However, these bees are a whole lot more intelligent than we thought, as they hold various jobs across their hive and take huge risks by going out into the real world. Inspired by this, Barry dreams of becoming a Pollen Jock, which would allow him to explore New York City and pollinate flowers as his daily job. Sneaking out one day, Barry meets Vanessa, a human, after she saves his life, which prompts him to start a deep friendship with her.

One of the most adored films to have come out of Studio Ghibli, Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away is about Chihiro, a 10-year-old who gets wrapped up in another dimension after her parents are turned into pigs (I know). Wanting to free her parents, she sets out to find the person responsible for this, who turns out to be Yubaba, a powerful witch, encountering tons of spirits along the way.

The Incredibles follows a family of superheroes, helmed by former superheroes, Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl. Though they had hung up their suits a while ago, the entire family quickly jumps into action when their town is being threatened by a massive robot. Later in the movie, they take on Syndrome, a former wannabe-sidekick of Mr. Incredible's, who's looking to take revenge on him and his family.

This penguin-focused surfing movie was meant to be a spoof of the classic surfing documentaries of the past, as we watch a crew of penguins take on the waves at Pen-Gu Island. There's a massive surfing contest about to occur there, and the young surfer, Cody Maverick, is determined to win it. While there, he meets his surfing idol, Big Z, and they develop a friendship over the course of the film.

Is it a grouping of the best 2000s animation without Finding Nemo? Premiering in 2003, this film was a massive hit, as it follows the little clownfish, Nemo, who has gotten separated from his father, Marlin. Alone in the ocean, Nemo meets a number of different sea creatures as he searches for his father, including Crush, Gill, and of course, Dory, who got her own spinoff in 2016's Finding Dory.

Open Season stars Martin Lawrence as Boog, a massive grizzly bear, and Elliot, a mule deer who is unable to remember things, voiced by Ashton Kutcher. The pair meet under unlikely circumstances but end up becoming friends, deciding to get rid of all of the humans who hunt animals. In addition to these two, we also get to see other animals like McSquizzy, a squirrel, and Deni, a mallard duck.

Monster House is probably one of the most underrated films to come out of this decade, and possibly one of the most underrated movies to exist. I mean, come on, who doesn't want to see a dilapidated house come to life and experience the discovery of an exoskeleton of an old woman in the basement? All joking aside, this film is incredibly done, tracking a group of kids—D.J., Chowder, and Jenny—as they try to find out more about the Monster House, which is owned by Horace Nebbercracker.

WALL-E is a sad-looking robot who works alone on Earth in the year 2805, tasked with cleaning up garbage on the planet. Though living a fairly lonely life, the robot, EVE, comes to Earth and befriends WALL-E, who falls in love with her. The film was beautifully made and ended up winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2008.

Six-year-old Lilo adopts Stitch, who's actually an extraterrestrial creature, and they quickly become best friends, exploring Hawaii together and getting to know one another. Though Stitch was purposely created to cause destruction, he's the opposite and instead tries to conceal himself from being discovered by his creators. The film became an instant classic, highlighting friendship and the Hawaiian tradition of extended families.

Lightning McQueen is the star of Cars, which follows both him and his buddies as they gear up for the Piston Cup, which is a major car race that McQueen is destined to win. He meets new cars as he prepares for his race, though he has a selfish personality, which makes things difficult. Eventually ending up in Radiator Springs, McQueen meets Mater (a rusty pick-up truck and new friend) and gets a bit of a restart to his life.

Based on Neil Gaiman's novella, Coraline tracks its namesake—and very curious—character as she follows a doll, who shows her an entirely new world when she opens up a secret door in her house. The story is all about this universe, which Coraline doesn't realize has some secrets of its own in store for her.