"Examining last year's ranking of the Best Animated Movies, it's clear we had to do a little extra digging to find our favorites. We all know the drill by now: movies we were expecting were delayed to this year, which caused us to plunge a little deeper into the art form and explore corners that might have previously gotten blocked by the studio giants. As a result, we discovered some unique, unshakable gems that are still rattling around our imagination.
In 2021, the slate was less grim. Most of the expected arrivals … arrived. Phew. Although not all, we're still waiting on The Bob's Burgers Movie, Minions: The Rise of Gru, and a few others. But we didn't want to lose that sense of discovery. We still wanted to go reaching in the animated areas frequently overlooked. For that reason, once again, when assembling 2021's best-of list of animated movies, I considered the animated short form on the same level as the feature film."
