The 20 best animated DreamWorks movies, ranked

20. The Road to El Dorado (2000) The stakes are huge and the setting is mythic, but it's the little things that cement The Road to El Dorado 's charms. Our heroes are not valiant adventurers; Miguel ( Kenneth Branagh ) and Tulio ( Kevin Kline ) are mere con artists whose lowly outsider status makes them perfect foils for the powerful, thieving conquistador Hernán Cortés (with plenty of historical liberties, of course).

The two scoundrels stumble into their biggest con yet when locals in the eponymous city of gold mistake them for gods. As you can imagine, hijinks ensue. Meanwhile, this DreamWorks movie knows how to build one joke on top of the next.

Where to watch The Road to El Dorado: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

Dav Pilkey's long-running comic book series comes to life in this slice of adolescent tomfoolery. Captain Underpants revolves around best friends (and committed pranksters) George ( Kevin Hart ) and Harold ( Thomas Middleditch ), who hypnotize the menacing Principal Krupp ( Ed Helms ) to become their imagined superhero Captain Underpants. To what end? Well, to stop the evil Professor Poopypants' ( Nick Kroll ) plot to eradicate laughter, of course.

The movie's visual style reflects the simple, broad caricature of childhood drawings, and those who grew up on the books will find plenty of Easter eggs on display.

Where to watch Captain Underpants: Netflix

What happens when you plug the heist genre, namely the slick attitude of films like Reservoir Dogs , into a world where anthropomorphized animals coexist with humans? You get The Bad Guys, in which a group of career crooks, led by sly thief Mr. Wolf ( Sam Rockwell ), are finally caught for their misdeeds. The governor, Diane Foxington ( Zazie Beetz ) — who is, you guessed it, a fox — gives the crew a chance to rehabilitate themselves. The Bad Guys has style to spare and knows how to translate edge into a child-friendly template.

Where to watch The Bad Guys: Amazon Prime Video

Just as the superhero movie was becoming pop cinema's dominant genre, along came Megamind to poke fun at it. It starts with a dual parody of Superman's origins: Two alien babies are sent to Earth as their home planets get destroyed. One is raised in a loving, wealthy family and grows up to be Metro Man ( Brad Pitt ); the other is raised in a prison and matures into his arch-nemesis, Megamind ( Will Ferrell ). The latter is our loveable antihero who spends the runtimes unwittingly reforming himself.

Arriving the same year as the similar Despicable Me , Megamind is at its best when it takes direct, satirical aim at the tropes that define the very identities of superheroes and supervillains.

Where to watch Megamind: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

Sophisticated rat Roddy St. James ( Hugh Jackman ) enjoys his domesticated life in a swank Kensington mansion. But after a foe flushes him down the toilet, he finds himself immersed in an intricately constructed rodent civilization in the sewer system. Needless to say, this society includes a charmingly resourceful lady rat, Rita Malone ( Kate Winslet ). Roddy and Rita make an indelible buddy-comedy duo as the movie unfurls an increasingly madcap adventure, making Flushed Away not just a clever British comedy but a truly thrilling action farce.

Where to watch Flushed Away: Peacock

Madagascar follows a quartet of animals going on an accidental transatlantic journey. Showboating lion Alex ( Ben Stiller ), energetic zebra Marty ( Chris Rock ), neurotic giraffe Melman ( David Schwimmer ), and strong-minded hippo Gloria ( Jada Pinkett Smith ) live comfortably in the zoo, but Marty has become discontented. He wonders whether there's more to life — and winds up, along with his pals, on a cargo ship headed for the eponymous African island.

While many animated movies boast A-list voice talent, Madagascar gets more mileage out of its cast than most. The wacky adventure is expected; the performances make it shine.

Where to watch Madagascar: Peacock

There are feel-good stories, lost-and-found stories, redemption stories, mismatched buddy comedies, and alien invasion movies... and then there's Home , which is all of the above rolled into one. The story concerns Tip Tucci ( Rihanna ), a young girl trying to get home to her mother, and Oh ( Jim Parsons ), a member of the extraterrestrial race that has just attempted a "friendly" hostile takeover of Earth. Oh is public enemy No. 1 among his own people (long story) and yearns for redemption. He finds a friend in Tip, and together they deliver a road trip dramedy in a rather classic tradition.

Where to watch Home: Peacock

Antz , DreamWorks' first animated film, had ambition to spare. Not content to tell a simple insect tale for children, it goes the extra mile and gives its characters a philosophical crisis to contend with. Our neurotic protagonist, Z ( Woody Allen ), questions his purpose — weighing his role as one interchangeable cog in the ant colony vs. his own individualistic desires, including his affection for the fetching Princess Bala ( Sharon Stone ).

It's kiddie fare with a healthy dose of existentialism, telling a story that's more grown-up than other animated movies that only have younger viewers in mind. Antz may not be the heaviest fable in the world, but it's a lot more sophisticated than audiences expected.

Where to watch Antz: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

The second installment of this Viking franchise is a worthy follow-up to the original. Years have passed between the two chapters, but the sequel feels like an emotional and thematic continuation. In the first movie, our unlikely hero Hiccup ( Jay Baruchel ) finds his purpose and proves himself to his father. This time around, he reunites with his long-lost mother, Valka ( Cate Blanchett ), who is also a devoted protector of dragons.

The film expands beyond its predecessor with colorful set pieces and even more magnificent dragons than before, while further exploring the thorny dynamics between parent and child.

Where to watch How to Train Your Dragon 2: Peacock

Ants and bees must have a lot in common. At the very least, Bee Movie seems to have taken its cues from Antz. Both explicitly confront individualism in a collectivist world, in this case a beehive, in which Barry B. Benson ( Jerry Seinfeld ) is about to enter the honey-producing workforce. Barry, however, would prefer to be a rough-n-tough pollen jock.

After venturing outside the hive, he discovers humans profiting from bees' honey — exploiting their labor, if you will — and decides to take legal action. Look, this movie has everything: wall-to-wall "bee" puns, trivial Seinfeldian observations, environmental lessons, and even a Ray Liotta cameo.

Where to watch Bee Movie: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

Kung Fu Panda is a classic DreamWorks movie starring Jack Black as Po, a lethargic panda working in his dad's noodle shop who dreams of becoming a kung fu master. Much to everyone's surprise, he's soon chosen to become the prophesized dragon warrior and must train to stop a deadly threat.

Black brings his signature brand of sweet, high-energy comedy to the role of Po. The character's journey to believing in himself shows that heroes can come in any shape and size — a lesson his mentor, Master Shifu ( Dustin Hoffman ), has to learn as well. Wisdom is one thing, but honestly, we're all here for the slapstick kung-fu sequences, aren't we?

Where to watch Kung Fu Panda: Netflix

Before Targaryens graced our screens, How to Train Your Dragon scratched audiences' fire-breathing itch. A Viking village has considered dragons their enemies for thousands of years, so much so that it's a rite of passage for young men to kill one in a sort of masculine coronation. But Hiccup — the bookish, very un-warrior-like son of the village chieftain ( Gerard Butler ) — breaks the tradition and befriends the dragon he was supposed to kill. Now, he must convince the villagers that dragons and humans can coexist.

EW's critic praised the film's " kinetically dreamy, soaring-through-the-air effervescence" and the tender bond between Hiccup and Toothless.

Where to watch How to Train Your Dragon: Max

Spirit is a free-spirited mustang captured by Americans during the late 19th-century American Frontier Wars. A Lakota man, Little Creek, helps Spirit escape and the two eventually bond — though not without a good bit of struggle. Spirit is simply uninterested in being tamed; that he found himself in human territory in the first place was simply bad luck. What separates this film from other animal-driven DreamWorks movies is that Spirit only speaks via occasional narration (by Matt Damon ).

Most of the narrative is propelled forward by the sweeping, expansive animation and the characters' evocative body language.

Where to watch Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron: Peacock

Everyone's favorite fearless feline hero triumphantly returns for his second solo feature and fifth big-screen appearance overall. This time around, Puss ( Antonio Banderas ) is staring down the barrel of his own mortality. He's down to his last life, but a Wishing Star offers him a chance to get them back — if he can reach it before someone else does, that is. By his side is ex-fiancée Kitty Softpaws ( Salma Hayek ) and their self-assigned chihuahua sidekick, Perrito ( Harvey Guillén ).

In addition to its swashbuckling pleasures, The Last Wish raised DreamWorks' animation bar with an experimental approach reminiscent of the Spider-verse films.

Where to watch Puss in Boots: The Last Wish: Amazon Prime Video

Shrek wasn't the first DreamWorks animated feature, but it was the movie that cemented the studio's legacy. Sure, it's a cultural mainstay now, but it's easy to forget what kind of lightning bolt it was at the time. An irreverent, hysterical satire of fairy tales that took a sledgehammer to Disney's sacred cows, it's also a genuinely strong fairy tale in and of itself — in other words, the best of both worlds.

Mike Myers ' titular ogre will live on in meme infamy, but the movie's most important impact may be how it singlehandedly differentiated DreamWorks from Disney. Shrek's funniest moments are jokes the Mouse House simply wouldn't dare attempt.

Where to watch Shrek: Peacock

DreamWorks' first collaboration with Aardman Animation remains one of the best entries in both libraries. (And it's a pretty damn good riff on 1963's The Great Escape, too.) The movie's central chicken coop is a marvelous claymation facsimile of a POW camp; no wonder all the chickens keep trying to liberate themselves.

When the daring American circus rooster Rocky ( Mel Gibson ) crash-lands inside their farm, they see a golden opportunity to get out for good. Like Aardman's other classics, Chicken Run features razor-sharp slapstick humor and stunning set pieces — especially the birds' final escape attempt.

Where to watch Chicken Run: Netflix

DreamWorks knew what it was doing here; you simply can't go wrong jumping on the Wallace and Gromit train. They're British icons for a reason. Here, our beloved cheese-loving inventor and his trusty, resourceful dog find themselves in a classic monster movie scenario. As the title implies, there's a giant rabbit afoot, and it's wreaking havoc on the town's annual vegetable competition.

It would be a great disservice to spoil Were-Rabbit 's twist, but suffice it to say it elegantly dovetails with the film's Universal Monster influences. Beyond that, Sir Wallace and Sir Gromit are in fine form, and their creator, Nick Park, once again proves himself a brilliant orchestrator of comic chaos.

Where to watch Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit: Netflix

A robot named Roz ( Lupita Nyong'o ) crash-lands in a forest, where she finds a baby gosling egg. Roz is programmed to complete menial tasks, but after Pinktail the opossum ( Catherine O'Hara ) tells her she has to care for the little one, Roz learns the hard way that motherhood isn't so simple.

The touching story argues that there's no single, correct type of family, nor a "right" way to raise children. Roz, for example, enlists the help of Pinktail and Fink the fox ( Pedro Pascal ) to rear her surrogate goose-child. The Wild Robot is an unexpected gem and bonafide tear-jerker, reaching emotional and comic beats that call to mind the best of Pixar.

Where to watch The Wild Robot: Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

The story of Exodus has been told countless times in film; Moses ( Val Kilmer ), of course, needs no introduction. But there are good reasons why The Prince of Egypt has seen its reputation grow over the years. This is easily one of the most visually striking animated movies of the last few decades, including but not limited to the parting of the Red Sea.

Beyond its moving, operatic soundtrack, the film also forges a genuine intimacy among its characters, particularly Moses's relationship with his adopted father, the Pharaoh ( Patrick Stewart ), and his adoptive brother Rameses ( Ralph Fiennes ).

Where to watch The Prince of Egypt: Netflix

How do you follow a cultural phenomenon like Shrek? By doubling down on everything. Shrek 2 surpasses the original by trimming all excess fat and leaning into its every strength — this one is funnier, faster, and weirder, while never sacrificing any of the character charms.

The first film is so jam-packed with sight gags and satirical targets, that one could reasonably wonder if there were any fairy tales left to plunder. There were; it's almost like they saved their best material for round two. Shrek 2 is a fairy tale farce, of course, but it's also a great comedy of (royal) manners, an extended joke about in-laws, and a blistering Hollywood send-up. Oh, and it gave us Puss in Boots and those irresistible saucer eyes.

Where to watch Shrek 2: Peacock