The best films for a group don't flatten the experience - they create one. You want something that generates opinions, debates, a reason to stay up later than planned.
The 2010s produced a generation of films that refused to be just one thing. Smarter than they needed to be. Better than expected.
Animation isn't a genre - it's a medium. And in the right hands, it reaches emotional places live-action simply cannot.
One part vigilante, one part criminal kingpin, Red Hood begins cleaning up Gotham with the efficiency of Batman, but without following the same ethical code.
As Hiccup fulfills his dream of creating a peaceful dragon utopia, Toothless' discovery of an untamed, elusive mate draws the Night Fury away. When danger mounts at home and Hiccup's reign as village chief is tested, both dragon and rider must make impossible decisions to save their kind.
Celestine is a little mouse trying to avoid a dental career while Ernest is a big bear craving an artistic outlet. When Celestine meets Ernest, they overcome their natural enmity by forging a life of crime together.
Batman has not been seen for ten years. A new breed of criminal ravages Gotham City, forcing 55-year-old Bruce Wayne back into the cape and cowl. But, does he still have what it takes to fight crime in a new era?
A special bond develops between plus-sized inflatable robot Baymax, and prodigy Hiro Hamada, who team up with a group of friends to form a band of high-tech heroes.
These films use the freedom of animation to go places live-action won't. They earn every tear.
When Day, a sunny fellow, encounters Night, a stranger of distinctly darker moods, sparks fly! Day and Night are frightened and suspicious of each other at first, and quickly get off on the wrong foot. But as they discover each other's unique qualities--and come to realize that each of them offers a different window onto the same world-the friendship helps both to gain a new perspective.
One day a young woman named Blanca is saved by Xuan, a snake catcher from a nearby village. As they set off an a journey to discover her real identity, the pair develop feelings for each other.
Princes who have been turned into Dwarfs seek the red shoes of a lady in order to break the spell, although it will not be easy.
Five years after uniting the dragons and Vikings of Berk, Hiccup and Toothless soar beyond their homeland, charting the vast unknown. During one of their adventures, the pair discover a secret cave that houses hundreds of wild dragons -- and a mysterious dragon rider with a startling connection to Hiccup. And as the ruthless dragon conqueror Drago Bludvist rises to seize control of both dragons and people alike, Hiccup must step into his role as a true leader and, alongside his friends and Toothless, protect Berk from a devastating war.
A decade after a tragic mistake, family man Chas Chandler and occult detective John Constantine set out to cure his daughter Trish from a mysterious supernatural coma.
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.