Some of the most beloved and highest-regarded animated movies can find their origin in the 2000s, as it was a decade primarily remembered for its revolution and massive changes in animation. The decade saw the best of the best when it came to 2D animation, releasing films like Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle, as well as the newly rising standard of 3D animation with films like The Incredibles and Wall-E. However, for every amazing and genre-defining animated film that the decade saw, many massive failures completely missed the mark.
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The ever-growing new standard of 3D computer animation came with some hiccups, and not every studio was able to easily adapt to the evolving new world. That, on top of the massive rise in popularity of DVDs and the explosion of the home video market, meant a great number of cheap, low-budget animated movies were being released consistently throughout the decade. As the current go-to place for film fans to converse and share their opinions on films of all types, Letterboxd is the perfect spot to see which animated films of the 2000s are considered the worst of the worst.
10 ‘Pinocchio 3000’ (2003)
Letterboxd Average Rating: 1.9/5
Pinocchio 3000 is a futuristic retelling of the classic children’s novel, taking place in the far-off year of 3000, following the story of the little robot Pinocchio who wishes to become a real boy. Created by Gepetto to be a prototype super robot equipped with human emotions, Pinocchio must accomplish numerous tests before he can be given a heart and become a real boy. Specifically, Gepetto’s holographic fairy assistant Cyberina wants Pinocchio to learn the difference between right and wrong.
While there have been numerous experimental and genre-bending versions of Pinocchio over the years, Pinocchio 3000’s sci-fi riff on the story does very little to justify its own existence. Aside from the more blatant issues, such as its pacing issues and abysmal animation quality, the film’s major detractor is its world, which fails to deliver on the possibilities of a futuristic Pinocchio. Even with its half-decent voice cast featuring the likes of Howie Mandel and Whoopi Goldberg, the film feels less like an actual film that exists and more like a strange fever dream.
Watch on Crackle
9 ‘The Reef’ (2006)
Letterboxd Average Rating: 1.9/5
The Reef follows the story of a young fish named Pi (voiced by Freddie Prinze Jr.), who lives with his extended family of fish on the Reef, where he also happens to meet the love of his life, Cordelia (voiced by Evan Rachel Wood). To impress Cordelia, Pi decides to get the ruthless bully shark off of her back, in the process having to save the entire Reef from having to hide in fear from the deadly sharks.
Animated fish movies became a frequent trend throughout the 2000s, following the success of both Finding Nemo and Shark Tale. The Reef finds a lot of inspiration from both of these films, yet fails to bring anything new or even interesting to watch to the table that wasn’t already explored in other animated fish films. The Reef is genuinely one of the most forgettable and boring animated films one can imagine, failing to even provide any “so bad, it’s good” qualities and instead just going through the motions to create a bland and lifeless viewing experience.
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8 ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ (2008)
Letterboxd Average Rating: 1.8/5
Fly Me to the Moon follows the story of a trio of best friend houseflies, Nat, IQ, and Scooter, as they go out to accomplish their dreams and become the first flies to reach the moon. Inspired by the adventures and stories told by Nat’s Grandpa Amos, they believe that they truly have what it takes to continue his legacy for the rest of the world. They hatch a scheme to become secret stowaways aboard the Apollo 11 flight to the moon, hoping to become icons of progress for houseflies around the world as they prove that anything is possible.
Despite being named after one of the most recognizable and famous songs of all time, Fly Me to the Moon couldn’t be more average and forgettable in its execution. Especially for a film released at the latter end of the decade, the below-average animation and character designs stick out greatly for just how lackluster and underwhelming they are. The overall focus of the film is also on strange and unassuming places, focusing much more on an array of boring and inconsequential side characters and villains as opposed to actually focusing on the main character trio.
Fly Me to the Moon
Release Date August 15, 2008
Director Ben Stassen
Rating G
Runtime 84
Watch on Prime Video
7 ‘Plan Bee’ (2007)
Letterboxd Average Rating: 1.8/5
One of the many straight-to-DVD ripoff movies that were released during the decade, Plan Bee follows the story of Bing, a honeybee living the perfect life for a bee in beautiful Washington DC. He spends his days enjoying the fresh air, blooming flowers, and all the honey he could ask for. However, his life is suddenly upended when a ruthless queen bee hijacks his hive, completely changing his life for the worse, and forcing him to take the queen head-on to preserve his way of life.
It’s blatant from the get-go that Plan Bee serves no other purpose than to attempt to leech off of the release of 2007’s other Bee-related animated movie, Bee Movie. However, Plan Bee’s complete lack of a budget means that it doesn’t hold a candle to what Bee Movie was able to accomplish, making for a jarring viewing experience filled with terrible 3D models and even worse voice acting. Plan Bee has very few actual positives that it can attribute to itself, and even in the ironic, meme-y sense, Bee Movie has the film beaten tenfold.
Buy on Amazon
6 ‘Rapsittie Street Kids: Believe in Santa’ (2002)
Letterboxd Average Rating: 1.8/5
One of the most infamous animated Christmas movies of all time, Rapsittie Street Kids: Believe in Santa follows young aspiring rapper Ricky, who gives his beloved teddy bear to a girl in his class he has a crush on. However, the girl doesn’t like the gift that Ricky gave her, so she ends up throwing the stuffed bear away. Eventually, she has a change of heart after seeing Rick. E’s home life, so she and a group of friends go out to find the teddy bear to lift his spirits in time for Christmas.
Even knowing just how much 3D animation as a medium was ever-growing and evolving in the early years of the decade, Rapsittie Street Kids’ visuals are so dated they look as though they belong in the 80s. The film’s genuinely jarring and hilariously bad animation style continues to enthrall and bewilder throughout its entire runtime, combined with its lackluster story and characters to create a complete holiday disaster. Nearly every scene in Rapsittie Street Kids has something to laugh at, making the film an incredibly effective “so bad, it’s good” animated comedy.
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5 ‘Leo the Lion’ (2005)
Letterboxd Average Rating: 1.8/5
Leo the Lion follows the story of young Leo, a vegetarian lion who gets great amounts of disdain and disappointment from his family, who don’t understand his lifestyle. However, his life of loneliness and solitude is suddenly upended when he meets Avoria, an elephant queen who recently gave birth to two calves, yet has mysteriously been separated from her young. Leo takes it upon himself to take care of these children in her wake, resulting in many extravagant adventures between the trio.
Leo the Lion is a film whose major drawback is its unnerving and unpleasant animation style, with the film’s characters and backgrounds feeling well out of place compared to other 2005 animated movies. Combined with the main character’s stature of being a vegetarian and being malnourished as a result, this makes for one of the most unappealing main character designs in an animated film. The plot itself is also highly convoluted for an animated film and draws into question some highly confusing and disturbing questions if thought about beyond the surface level.
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4 ‘The Little Panda Fighter’ (2008)
Letterboxd Average Rating: 1.6/5
The Little Panda Fighter follows the story of a clumsy panda named Pancada, who works at a boxing club and has big aspirations of becoming a professional dancer. After a strange miscommunication error, Pancada accidentally ends up being a combatant at his club’s upcoming fight, being mistaken for a legendary panda fighter who challenged the club’s champion. Pandaca now must train for his upcoming battle, and finds that his dancing skills may just be helpful for him in the ring.
As far as animated rip-off movies go, it’s hard to get more blatant and obvious than The Little Panda Fighter, which is attempting to leech off of the success of Dreamworks’ Kung Fu Panda. While Kung Fu Panda was filled with exceptional and groundbreaking visuals, fun characters, and exhilarating battle sequences, The Little Panda Fighter features none of these positive aspects. Its minuscule budget resulted in a film with primarily lackluster dialogue sequences and dated animation quality, with a plot that only resembles Kung Fu Panda via having a Panda main character.
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3 ‘A Car’s Life: Sparky’s Big Adventure’ (2006)
Letterboxd Average Rating: 1.6/5
A Car’s Life: Sparky’s Big Adventure follows the story of Sparky, an adventurous young car attempting to find his meaning and goals for what to do with his life. Despite his father’s attempts to set him on the right path and teach him valuable lessons, Sparky repeatedly finds himself hanging around his dangerous bad influence friend, Diesel. The duo constantly finds themselves in troublesome situations while out on the road, with one specific instance having Sparky reevaluate his entire life.
A blatant ripoff of Pixar’s own talking car film, Cars, A Car’s Life features a lot of the same locales and messaging of Cars without any of the heart or grace of the original. Even down to the main character being a bright red car, A Car’s Life does very little to hide its status as a ripoff film, yet its low budget meant that it was never going to hold a candle to what Cars was able to accomplish. Cars isn’t even particularly a standout film in Pixar’s library, yet compared to A Car’s Life, the film might as well be the greatest animated film ever made.
Rent on Prime Video
2 ‘Titanic: The Legend Goes On’ (2000)
Letterboxd Average Rating: 1.5/5
Image via Titanic Cartoons SRL Roma
One of the many strange Titanic movies that cropped up after the massive success of James Cameron’s blockbuster hit, Titanic: The Legend Goes On is a strange animated retelling of the Titanic disaster. The film follows a blossoming love story between the upper-class Sir William and the blue-collar Angelica, as they form a deep and powerful bond on their voyage across the ocean. However, as the disaster strikes, everyone’s lives are at stake as the ship begins sinking to the ocean floor.
While Cameron’s Titanic told its historical love story with grace and beauty, The Legend Goes On instead tells its story with cheap laughs and bafflingly confusing additions. Of all stories, Titanic is not one that needed the implementation of walking talking animals and an extended song sequence with a rapping dog, yet The Legend Goes On delivers on these painfully awkward additions and more. Even when considering these more wild and unbelievable additions, the vast majority of the film is just a dull, boring repeat of Cameron’s masterpiece, with very little originality to call its own.
Buy on Amazon
1 ‘What’s Up: Balloon to the Rescue’ (2009)
Letterboxd Average Rating: 1.4/5
A blatant ripoff of Pixar’s Up, What’s Up: Balloon to the Rescue follows the story of scientist Dr. Crumb, who spends the majority of his time inside his home, and rarely sees the wonders of the outside world. To fix this predicament while still being able to perform his experiments in his lab, Crumb and his assistants set up his house with a giant balloon to have it travel around the world. The crew embarks on numerous adventures while traveling the world, including a strange and mysterious stone that has powers that could revolutionize the world as we know it.
While initially starting as an obvious and cheap Up ripoff, with an old man accompanied by a young boy traveling across the world in a house propelled by a balloon, What’s Up soon detours into a world of incomprehensibility. The film has a frankly unbelievable shift in focus when the primary villain is introduced, creating a plot that is as uninteresting as it is hard to follow. More than just the worst animated film of the 2000s, the Letterboxd community considers What’s Up to be one of the worst animated movies of all time.
Watch on YouTube
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