ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — As the year winds to a close, 828reviewsNOW takes a look at the best movies of 2025. First things first: from gory sci-fi spectacles to French-language indies, we draw up a list of the year’s best animated features.

Honorable mentions

  • “Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League”
  • “The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie”
  • “KPop Demon Hunters”

5. “ELIO” (2025, 98 min., directed by Adrian Molina, Madeline Sharafian and Domee Shi)

(Courtesy: Pixar Animation Studios) The titular “Elio” in the Pixar space adventure.

Pixar Animation Studios is probably the most reliable brand name for animated films out there, even if “Elio,” its latest original feature, underperformed at the box office when it was released last June. It’s a shame more people haven’t seen it. The space-faring adventure about an alien-obsessed kid is gorgeously animated, wry and silly in turns and filled with Pixar’s signature tear-jerking emotion.

It may not have abducted billions at the box office, but “Elio” will abduct your heart. Read our full review here.

Rating: 4/5

“Elio” is now streaming on Disney+.

4. “ARCO” (2025, 88 min., directed by Ugo Bienvenu)

(Courtesy: NEON) “Arco” features a young boy who can fly through time, thanks to his rainbow-colored cloak.

“Arco” is a rainbow of sweetness. The film follows the blossoming friendship between Iris, a lonely little girl living in 2075, and Arco, a little boy from 2932 who crash lands in the past after taking his family’s colorful flying cape for a spin.

The French production features an all-star English dub. The “Arco” voice cast includes Natalie Portman, Mark Ruffalo, Will Ferrell, Andy Samberg, America Ferrera and, funnily enough, Flea, for what ultimately amounts to something like “E.T.” meets “An Inconvenient Truth.”

The structure of the story isn’t anything new – a lonely kid makes a new friend with a super powered outsider – but the fresh, bouncy animation and commitment to imagining a future realistically addled by climate change is unique among family films this year. To be clear, “Arco” is not a dystopia. Even set in a challenging future, the film is very much of the storied animated tradition of capturing the whimsical magic of childhood.

Rating: 4/5

“Arco” will be released nationwide in early 2026.

3. “PREDATOR: KILLER OF KILLERS” (2025, 85 min., directed by Dan Trachtenberg)

(Courtesy: Hulu) A Predator fights a samurai in one part of “Predator: Killer of Killers.”

While “Predator: Badlands,” which I loved, was the big, blockbuster “Predator” film this year, “Predator: Killer of Killers,” an animated anthology released straight to Hulu, may be even better.

Unlike its PG-13 counterpart, “Killer of Killers” is as brutal, bloody and R-rated as sci-fi flicks get. The film is a triptych, depicting battles between humans and Predators across three different eras of time: Scandinavia circa. 800, where a Viking warrior faces the Yautja, 17th century Japan, where a samurai squares off against the alien, and 1942 North Africa, where a WWII fighter pilot goes toe to toe with a spaceship in an aerial shootout.

It all might be the coolest premise for any movie ever made.

Though this “Predator” flick lacks any probing existential themes or particularly nuanced characters, it is pure animated entertainment. While very much not for kids, I recommend it to every other sci-fi junkie out there. “Killer of Killers” is a killer time.

Rating: 4/5

“Predator: Killer of Killers” is now streaming on Hulu.

2. “LITTLE AMÉLIE OR THE CHARACTER OF RAIN” (2025, 75 min., directed by Liane-Cho Han Jin Kuang and Maïlys Vallade)

(Courtesy: GKIDS) “Little Amélie or the Character of Rain” is oriented around the relationship between a three-year-old with a god complex and her loving nanny.

In the most complimentary way possible, “Little Amélie or the Character of Rain” looks like it was drawn by the world’s most talented preschooler. The film is brightly animated in soft, gentle colors, like a pack of crayons come to life.

The visual palette is appropriate, given the subject matter: “Little Amélie” is told from the perspective of a three-year-old little girl convinced she is God. The film has a clever, mischievous script, which Amélie voice actor Loïse Charpentier narrates with conceited aplomb, just as you’d imagine a precocious toddler would.

The film follows Amélie’s early upbringing in Japan, where her Belgian family has chosen to live for a short time. While she has an adversarial relationship with her two older siblings, Amélie finds a kindred spirit in Nishio, her gentle, patient nanny. The relationship between the two, particularly a scene near the end of the film, is the reason “Little Amélie” is the sole animated film to bring me to tears this year.

Told with clever direction in a short and sweet hour and 15 minutes, “Little Amélie” makes a strong case for the best animated movie of the year…

Rating: 4/5

“Little Amélie or the Character of Rain” is now available to stream on-demand.

1. “ZOOTOPIA 2” (2025, 107 min., directed by Jared Bush and Byron Howard)

(Courtesy: Walt Disney Animation Studios) Nick Wilde, voiced by Jason Bateman, and Judy Hopps, voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin, are back in “Zootopia 2.”

…however, “Zootopia 2” is a tough act to beat.

Like the first film, released to critical acclaim and financial success in 2016, “Zootopia 2” follows Judy Hopps, a bunny voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin, and Nick Wilde, a fox voiced by Jason Bateman, police detectives working in the anthromorphic animal city of Zootopia. In the sequel, the partners are off on a new case, an adventure filled with animal puns, gorgeous animation and a surprisingly astute metaphor for gentrification and racial prejudice.

“Zootopia 2” has already cleared a billion dollars at the worldwide box office and looks poised for nominations at the Oscars and beyond, but to give it the most important accolade of all, it is the 828reviewsNOW Animated Movie of the Year. Read our full review here.

Rating: 4.5/5

“Zootopia 2” is now playing in theaters nationwide.