The Best Animated Films of 2026 (So Far)
2026 has turned into a genuinely strong year for animation, anchored by a Pixar studio finding its footing again after a rockier stretch, alongside a handful of other notable releases pushing the medium in interesting directions. Here's where the year's animated slate stands so far. Hoppers Pixar's original spring release has emerged as the year's most critically celebrated animated film, following a college student who transfers her consciousness into a robotic beaver to infiltrate and protect a wetlands beaver colony from human development. Directed by Daniel Chong, the film has been widely praised for tackling genuinely thorny themes about the limits of good intentions, rather than settling for a simpler environmentalist message, giving it a thematic bite that critics have compared to Pixar's most acclaimed earlier original work. Toy Story 5 The franchise's fifth installment turns its attention to a distinctly modern anxiety: the pull of screens on a generation …
