Animation has the potential to create some of the most awe-inspiring and jaw-dropping storytelling in the entire medium of film, using pure artistic craft to bring to life worlds and concepts not possible in any other way. While the different styles and approaches to animation have evolved and changed over the years, animation’s core facets and inherent strengths have continued to stay strong for over a hundred years, with audiences of all ages falling in love with what is possible in animation.
However, for every exceptional and groundbreaking animated film that goes above and beyond and changes the industry landscape, there are also cataclysmic disasters whose only recognition comes from pure infamy. From high-budget disasters that failed to make the most of the latest in animation technology to low-budget ripoff films riding on the coattails of more popular films, there are many ways that an animated film can fall from grace and be considered one of the worst of all time.
10 ‘Mars Needs Moms’ (2011)
Director: Simon Wells
Often considered to be one of the biggest box office bombs of all time, Mars Needs Moms had high aspirations of being the future of what was possible with animated films, but instead became a mess of uncanny valley visuals. The film follows the story of young boy Milo, who after a falling out with his mother, soon finds himself on an intergalactic adventure after she is suddenly abducted by Martians, who have been collecting human mothers for their nefarious purposes. Milo finds himself deep in space, teaming up with human stowaway Gribble to save his mom from the alien threat.
Mars Needs Moms was a part of the selection of motion capture animated films created by Robert Zemeckis‘s ImageMovers Digital, following in the footsteps of previous efforts like The Polar Express, Monster House, and A Christmas Carol. While those previous films all certainly had their fair share of uncanny valley elements to them, Mars Needs Moms ramps it up to a disturbing degree with its use of unintentionally horrifying aliens. Combined with an underwhelming and by-the-numbers sci-fi story, the result ended up being a critical and box office disaster so massive that it single-handedly closed down the animation studio that made it.
Mars Needs Moms is an animated sci-fi adventure that follows nine-year-old Milo, who embarks on a daring mission to rescue his mom after she’s abducted by Martians. On Mars, he teams up with a tech-savvy Earthman named Gribble and a rebel Martian girl named Ki. Together, they race against time to save Milo’s mom and uncover the truth behind the Martians’ plan.
- Release Date
- March 11, 2011
- Director
- Simon Wells
- Runtime
- 98 Minutes
Watch on Disney+
9 ‘Pinocchio: A True Story’ (2021)
Director: Vasiliy Rovenskiy
While it’s normally one of the most underappreciated and overlooked parts of animated films, a voiceover performance can be the defining difference that transforms a film into a modern classic or a comical failure. In terms of recent memory, few animated films have had as hilariously terrible vocal performances as Pinocchio: A True Story, which while not the original language of the film, the notorious English dub with Pauly Shore and Jon Heder drew attention from across the world. The film wildly changes from classic Pinocchio stories, focusing entirely on Pinocchio’s time at the circus and following his escapades in attempting to stop crimes while being a part of the traveling circus.
It’s hard to understate how much of a comical mismatch the voice of Shore is for Pinocchio, whose classic 90s surfer dude tone of voice ends up transforming Pinocchio into a sassy, flamboyant source of limitless unintentional comedy. This is even aside from the film’s multitude of other issues, including a lackluster low-budget animation style and a story that changes the story of Pinocchio so much to the point that it’s nearly unrecognizable. It made it even worse that the film managed to release the same year as two other Pinocchio films, easily being the worst of the three.
Pinocchio: A True Story follows the adventures of a wooden puppet who dreams of becoming real. Joining a traveling circus, Pinocchio experiences friendship, temptation, and self-discovery while navigating the challenges of his new world. As he learns valuable life lessons, Pinocchio strives to earn the trust and love of those he encounters.
- Release Date
- March 22, 2022
- Director
- Vasiliy Rovenskiy
- Cast
- Filipp Lebedev , Diomid Vinogradov , Anton Eldarov , Eliza Martirosova , Andrey Kurganov , Dmitri Iosifov , Alexey Voytyuk , Irina Kireeva , Aleksandr Gavrilin , Vitaly Loiko
Watch on Tubi
8 ‘Delgo’ (2008)
Director: Marc F. Adler, Jason Maurer
Animation has proven to be a greatly effective avenue to bring to life vast and limitless fantasy worlds filled with vibrant creatures and concepts that still enchant audiences to this day. However, not every film ends up succeeding just by creating a world that is rich with lore and history, as there actually needs to be something at the center to capture the hearts and attention of audiences. This fundamental concept is something that is notoriously failed by Delgo, a film that spent nearly a decade in production hell, yet became an infamous box office bomb thanks to the film’s drab and boring execution.
Delgo has high ambitions of telling a story of warring factions and a legacy that has spanned across generations, yet when the characterization and execution are so basic and underwhelming by comparison, it ends up spreading to infect the entire experience. The film features all the classic tropes and clichés that overwhelmed the worst fantasy films of the 2000s, combined with character designs that were more disturbing and uncomfortable than charming and likable. Delgo‘s only remaining legacy is that of its infamous failures, as nothing else about the film is even remotely memorable.
Buy on Amazon
7 ‘Doogal’ (2006)
Directors: Dave Borthwick, Frank Passingham, Jean Duval
Another primary example of a painful English dub going above and beyond to make a film worse, the specifics behind Doogal‘s American dub are much more complicated due to the film originally being made in the English language. The film was originally released in the U.K. as The Magic Roundabout, a modern adaptation of a classic British series, and mostly stuck to the original series stylings and humor. However, fearing a disconnect and lack of familiarity with the source material, U.S. distributor Miramax decided to redub the entire film with an array of A-list stars, including Jimmy Fallon, Jon Stewart, Whoopi Goldberg, and Chevy Chase.
What was originally an inoffensive and quaint adventure film was transformed into a non-stop barrage of references and in-jokes that destroyed any semblance of charm or wit from the original film. It plays out less like a genuine film that was released to the public and instead, a feature-length riffing commentary track from a group of people who never saw the original movie just making whatever jokes and references were at the top of their heads. The experience is far from anything close to actual quality, though it does have merit as a hilarious so-bad-it’s-good adventure film thanks to the increasingly baffling decisions and dialogue throughout.
Doogal
- Release Date
- February 11, 2005
- Director
- Jean Duval , Frank Passingham , Dave Borthwick
- Runtime
- 82 Minutes
Watch on Netflix
6 ‘Marmaduke’ (2022)
Director: Mark A.Z. Dippé
Reboots and modern iterations of classic characters are increasingly becoming the standard when it comes to not just animated films, but just about anything looking to make a splash and reach a wide audience in the modern era of streaming and franchise focus. Although not every return to a classic character is going to be met with rousing acceptance, as films like Marmaduke manage to please next to nobody with their execution of the character. In the classic fashion of the character, the film sees the Great Dane (voiced by Pete Davidson) getting up to chaotic shenanigans, now being trained by a world-class dog trainer to compete in a luxurious dog show.
While Marmaduke as a character used to be a smash hit and an icon of animal comedy, all these years removed from the heights of his popularity, this modern reboot shows that a film requires more than generic baseline animal comedy to be worthwhile. There’s a lot that doesn’t work about the film, between the uncomfortable character designs, phoned-in vocal performances, constant toilet humor, and a confusing plot that takes the focus away from hijinks and leans into a dog show. Marmadukecould have found success 25 years ago, but in the current year it was lauded as a disaster on all fronts.
Marmaduke (2022)
- Release Date
- May 6, 2022
- Runtime
- 88 Minutes
- Main Genre
- Comedy
Watch on Netflix
5 ‘Ratatoing’ (2007)
Director: Michelle Gabriel
One of the most infamous and egregious subgenres of animated films are the notorious low-budget “mockbusters” films that blatantly copy elements and styles from a more popular film as well as release around the same time in hopes of stealing leach business away like a cinematic barnacle. While there are countless examples of bottom-of-the-barrel films that have been fighting for scraps of the biggest animated films out there, one film that has risen to be the unofficial face of animated mockbusters is the hilariously titled Ratatoing.
Clearly acting as a rip on Pixar’s animated masterpiece Ratatouille, Ratatoing similarly follows a wannabe chef rodent, although this chef has already found success, being the owner of a restaurant for rodents in Rio de Janeiro. The animation style feels reminiscent of the earliest days of computer animation in cinema, with low-quality textures and stilted animation feeling more at home in a 90s video game than a feature film. Even at only 44 minutes in runtime, the film makes a massive impact with its repeated animation, lazy story, and constant failed attempts to steal Ratatouille‘s thunder.
Buy on Amazon
4 ‘Norm of the North’ (2016)
Director: Trevor Wall
With so many animated films being released year after year, there can be a select few films where their complete lack of quality is discernible from only a single look, a quality greatly shown off by Norm of the North. The film follows the titular polar bear Norm (Rob Schneider) who, to convince humans to stop coming to his home in the Arctic, travels to New York City to spread the word. In the process, Norm accidentally ends up becoming the mascot for the corporation responsible for the home building and destruction of his icy home.
Norm of the North is a tone-deaf, misguided animated effort that serves to amplify the worst trends and clichés that dominated low-effort animated films throughout the 2010s. Between the increased focus on cutesy marketable characters, low-effort celebrity voice actors who give half-baked performances with little effort, and an animation style that is lagging behind films released over a decade ago, Norm of the North became an immediate target for ridicule and mockery.
Norm of the North
- Release Date
- January 15, 2016
- Director
- Trevor Wall
- Runtime
Watch on Plex
3 ‘The Emoji Movie’ (2017)
Director: Tony Leondis
One of the biggest factors behind a film’s failure can be attributed to the major disconnect between executive producers and what they actually believe audiences want to see in a feature film. No film quite effectively shows off this major disconnect like The Emoji Movie, a film that just about everybody under the sun could have told you was a bad idea, but executives trekked on hoping to “appeal to the younger generation”. The film takes a look inside a cell phone, showing the lives and culture that emojis live when they aren’t being used for texting, and the self-discovery journey of meh-emoji Gene, who doesn’t feel like being “Meh” anymore.
Ever since the film was announced, The Emoji Movie became a constant target of mockery as the symbolic scapegoat of all idiotic decisions made by executives, being an idea that seemingly nobody was asking for. When the film finally did end up releasing, it managed to surpass even the lowest expectations for just how lackluster and generic it could be, with an abundance of cheap product placement and cookie-cutter characters. More than just a terrible animated film, The Emoji Movie is often in conversation as one of the worst movies of all time.
The Emoji Movie
When their world is threatened to be deleted, Gene (TJ Miller) ventures off with Hi-5 (James Corden) and Jailbreak (Anna Faris) to save Textopolis and become an emoji with a single expression. Despite being critically panned, The Emoji Movie had a stacked supporting cast, including Maya Rudolph, Jennifer Coolidge, Patrick Stewart, Christina Aguilera, and Sofía Vergara, among others.
Watch on Netflix
2 ‘The Legend of the Titanic’ (1999)
Directors: Orlando Corradi, Kim Jun Ok
In the wake of the massive box office success of James Cameron‘s Titanic, there was a wide variety of strange and unexpected approaches from third parties to tap into this unexpected popularity of the real-life disaster. One of the most egregious and poor-taste films to capitalize on this popularity is The Legend of the Titanic, an animated riff on a love story aboard the Titanic that includes talking animals, evil whalers, and a giant octopus. While it somehow isn’t the only animated movie about the Titanic to be released, it certainly stands out as the worst of an already painful selection.
Even putting aside the absurdity of putting an entire cast of talking animals in a story that was originally just a grounded drama in a historical setting, it only gets worse when considering the ramifications and legacy of the real lives lost aboard the ship. It’s incredibly distasteful, to say the least, to transform a notorious tragedy into a colorful animal-filled adventure, but the film makes its most egregious sin during the finale when the giant octopus ends up saving everyone, so nobody dies aboard the Titanic. It’s one of the most shocking and disgusting choices ever put in a historical film, actively disrespecting the lives lost for the sake of profits and marketability to young, impressionable children.
Rent on Amazon Prime
1 ‘Foodfight!’ (2012)
Director: Lawrence Kasanoff
At the very bare minimum of artistic expression, most films can at the very least say that there was a larger vision or goal behind them in something they wanted to say or express, with even the worst ripoffs having some creative expression outside of profits. This sentiment is something that is genuinely up in the air with Foodfight, an amalgamation of choppy animation and low-quality models that actively feels more like a commercial than a feature film at certain moments.
Foodfight attempts the classic “inanimate objects come to life” storyline that has made many animated films in the past successful, with its twist being to bring the various mascots and brands at a supermarket to life. On top of the selection of original characters present in the film, Foodfight features a wide array of real-life brands in its supporting cast, from Charlie the StarKist Tuna to Mrs. Buttersworth and Mr. Clean. While the film falls into a lot of the same pitfalls and low-quality aspects as many other terrible animated films, it’s this disregard for respect for the audience and constant shoving of products in their faces that makes it the worst animated film of all time.
Foodfight!
- Release Date
- February 12, 2013
- Director
- Lawrence Kasanoff
- Runtime
- 91 minutes
Rent on Vudu