A Sunday film should do one thing above all else: justify the afternoon. Not exciting enough to feel like you should be doing something else. Just right.
Animation isn't a genre - it's a medium. And in the right hands, it reaches emotional places live-action simply cannot.
Popular, outgoing Fujino is celebrated by her classmates for her funny comics in the class newspaper. One day, her teacher asks her to share the space with Kyomoto, a truant recluse whose beautiful artwork sparks a competitive fervor in Fujino. What starts as jealousy transforms when Fujino realizes their shared passion for drawing.
While living as an ordinary deliveryman and motor racing fan, Nezha encounters old nemeses and must rediscover his powers to protect his loved ones.
It's been ten years since the dragons moved to the Hidden World, and even though Toothless doesn't live in New Berk anymore, Hiccup continues the holiday traditions he once shared with his best friend. But the Vikings of New Berk were beginning to forget about their friendship with dragons. Hiccup, Astrid, and Gobber know just what to do to keep the dragons in the villagers' hearts. And across the sea, the dragons have a plan of their own...
Forcibly separated from her twin brother when they are orphaned, a melancholic misfit learns how to find confidence within herself amid the clutter of misfortunes and everyday life.
After receiving a warning that Yunyun's hometown is in danger, Kazuma's party is relieved to discover it's only a joke...until it isn't. The Demon King's general has just arrived to obtain The Mage Killer, a weapon with world-ending power.
The animated films that last are the ones that never condescend. They trust their audience - child or adult - to handle complexity, loss, and wonder in equal measure.
During the rise of fascism in Mussolini's Italy, a wooden boy brought magically to life struggles to live up to his father's expectations.
When K-pop superstars Rumi, Mira and Zoey aren't selling out stadiums, they're using their secret powers to protect their fans from supernatural threats.
The story of the last Seal Child's journey home. After their mother's disappearance, Ben and Saoirse are sent to live with Granny in the city. When they resolve to return to their home by the sea, their journey becomes a race against time as they are drawn into a world Ben knows only from his mother's folktales. But this is no bedtime story; these fairy folk have been in our world far too long. It soon becomes clear to Ben that Saoirse is the key to their survival.
A young man arrives at the last hometown of painter Vincent van Gogh to deliver the troubled artist's final letter and ends up investigating his final days there.
An urban office worker finds that paper airplanes are instrumental in meeting a girl in ways he never expected.
The films that give you a good cry do so because they've earned it. Not through sadness alone - through care. These films care.
These films prove that animation is not a lesser form of cinema. It's a different one - capable of its own kind of greatness.