This list provides an overview of animated productions that can be considered as first-time milestones in the development of animation techniques or in artistic or commercial success. It can be achieved only in animated works (feature films, short films, and television) alongside with live-action animated hybrid and the earliest invention of physical animation technique, but heavily relied of CGI or motion capture in live-action films (e.g. Jurassic Park and Avatar) are excluded.
Early animation
Joseph Plateau's illustration of his invention in Correspondance mathématique et physique (1833)
17th-to-19th-century: Earliest animation, before film
A predecessor of the multiplane technique had already been used for The Adventures of Prince Achmed. Ub Iwerks had developed an early version of the multiplane camera in 1934 for his The Headless Horseman Comicolor Cartoon.[14]
First animated feature film to use three-strip Technicolor
Recorded in Fantasound with 33 microphones on eight channels, but the reproduction of multi-channel Fantasound in theaters was eventually more limited than intended
Walt Disney Pictures, which produced the film, considered it to be live-action despite the entire film (aside from its opening shot) being computer animated.[26] Other sources deemed it to be animated based on specified criteria.[27]
2020
First non-American animated film to topped the annual global box office.
It also the first R-rated animated film to earn $200 to 500 million worldwide, surpassing the previous R-rated film Sausage Party (2016) with $140 million worldwide, which makes Demon Slayer: Mugen Train three times larger than the former in a box-office gross for a R-rated animated film, making it a rare feat.[28] It only occurs an non-American animated film to topped the global box office for five years.
2024
First animated feature film to earn $1.6 billion worldwide.
Currently the highest-grossing Pixar film of all time as well as the second highest-grossing animated film of all time which was surpassed by Ne Zha 2.
First animated feature film to earn over $200 million at its 5-day opening weekend.
First animated feature film to premiere on television
Tadhana. It was broadcast once on Philippine channels GMA 7, RPN 9, and IBC 13 to commemorate the sixth anniversary of martial law, and was never released commercially in theaters until 2020s.[32][33][34][35]
First animated feature film combined with stop-motion and computer animation
Flushed Away; produced by Aardman Animations, heavily use with CGI for characters and visual effects in heavily contrast with stop-motion animation.[38]
2007
First animated feature film developed by one person
Sausage Party. While most previous R-rated animated films are 2D traditional, Sausage Party is officially recognized as the first R-rated fully CGI to be rated by MPA in years.[44]
Loving Vincent. 75% of animated using paint and brush to canvas in present after van Gogh's death, while the other 25% also animated using paint and brush through rotoscoping, which only appears in flashback.[45]
2024
First animated feature film made completely with AI
^Some sources claim that Creation (1915), by Pinto Colvig, was the first feature-length animated film, but no known copies survive, and the claim is disputed in mainstream animation history.
^Mayuga, Sylvia L. (2005). "Chapter 5: Dancing With The Dictator". Huling Ptyk: Da Art of Nonoy Marcelo. The House Printers Corporation. pp. 65–84. Drawing board to our country's first full-length animation by Nonoy Marcelo.
^Bendazzi, Giannalberto (2015-11-06). "Latvia". Animation: A World History: Volume III: Contemporary Times. CRC Press. pp. 144–147. ISBN978-1-317-51988-1.
^Solomon, Charles (1989). Enchanted Drawings: The History of Animation. New York: Random House, Inc. pp. 231–232. ISBN978-0-394-54684-1.
^ Finished in 1930 but not released until 1937 due to funding issues
^Gomery, Douglas (1985). "The Coming of Sound: A History". In Weis, Elisabeth; Belton, John (eds.). Film Sound: Theory and Practice(PDF). New York: Columbia University Press. p. 8. Retrieved 2025-07-18.
^Aviado, Pandy (2005). "Isang Balik-tingin sa Pagsasa-Animation ng Tadhana". Huling Ptyk: Da Art of Nonoy Marcelo. The House Printers Corporation. pp. 75–78.