5 best animated war movies, ranked

Director Sunao Katabuchi imbues the manga adaptation with a striking delicacy despite its heavy subject, highlighting Suzu’s subtle strength and optimism. This delicate approach is seen through the protagonist’s resilience and personality and in the film’s animation. In This Corner of the World‘s watercolor-like visuals and gentle brushstrokes evoke a nostalgia that contrasts sharply with the narrative’s harsh realities.

Directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen, Flee tells the real-life story of Amin Nawabi (a pseudonym used to protect his identity), an Afghan refugee who recounts his journey from war-torn Kabul to Denmark. His interviews with Rasmussen reveal details about his past, including his family’s escape from the Mujahideen-controlled Afghanistan of the 1980s and their attempts to reach safety in Europe. A key part of his story is his recollection of his struggles with his sexual identity as a gay man in cultures that offered little acceptance. Amin also examines how his past plays a key role in shaping his relationships, particularly with his longtime partner, Kasper.

Flee is a distinct fusion of documentary, animation, and personal testimony, with this innovative combination allowing the film to reflect Amin’s psyche. The fluid, hand-drawn style shifts from realism to abstraction, showing the fragmented nature of the subject’s memory as well as the psychological weight of his displacement despite moving to safety. The 2021 film greatly benefits from Rasmussen’s sensitive direction, which never sensationalizes Amin’s trauma but allows his voice to guide the deeply moving narrative that becomes an essential story for survivors who understand the struggle of searching for a place to call home.

Folman takes audiences through the fog of memory as he uncovers the horrors of war, told through one dreamlike sequence after another. The film’s use of a graphic novel aesthetic makes it strangely hypnotic, with the animation of real-life testimonies lending them a detached, eerie atmosphere that underscores the distortion of trauma and memory. Waltz with Bashir invites viewers to this surreal world, only to deliver an unforgettable gut punch as Folman—and anyone watching—is reminded that this nightmare is reality.

The heart of the story is Marjane’s struggle to figure out where she belongs, with her wrestling between her love for Iran and the painful reality of the state of the country. Inspired by Satrapi’s original artwork, her story is told with striking black-and-white animation, complementing the highs and lows of the protagonist’s journey. Through Marjane’s complex experiences, Persepolis dispels the image of Iran as a monolith of oppression, instead revealing it as a place where love, resistance, and passion can exist.

Grave of the Fireflies contrasts its breathtakingly beautiful animation style with the tragedy that it captures. The chaos is anchored by Seita and Setsuko’s connection as siblings, with their small moments of joy only making the devastating ones hit so much harder. The 1988 movie crucially showcases the human cost of war not through soldiers or politicians but rather through children caught in its merciless tide. Grave of the Fireflies has an iconic emotional ending that demands to be felt and remembered, not as a manipulative tearjerker but as a raw depiction of the consequences of a world that fails its most vulnerable.