Hand Drawn English Language Animated Action/ Adventure Movies

[levcore]

Sorry about the clunky title. I'm not really into animation or hand drawn animation, however i do love action and adventure movies.

I recently watched the movie Atlantis: The Lost Empire and i loved it. It had everything i look for in an action adventure movie, the only downside was it wasn't live action. It would have been even better as a live action production.

Are there any other similar movies that you might be able to recommend? I've specified English language to prevent people recommending anime which i have absolutely no interest in. I also specified hand drawn animation as i'm pretty sure i'm aware of any CG ones that might qualify. I prefer something that if it was live action, might be considered a solid action adventure movie. If i could use Atlantis: The Lost Empire as a general guide for the kind of thing i'm looking for. Stuff with human characters ideally please, rather than animals etc.

Are suggestions are appreciated, thank you.

[mwynn]

The Secret of Nimh
Titan AE

[levcore]

Thanks for the suggestion, i neglected to specify in my first post, human characters please!

Titan AE has always looked interesting though, shame it doesn't have a blu ray.

[mwynn]

Originally Posted by levcore

Thanks for the suggestion, i neglected to specify in my first post, human characters please!

Titan AE has always looked interesting though, shame it doesn't have a blu ray.

I think you are limiting yourself by cutting off Anime. The English Dub of Akira is pretty good.

Have you tried any of the DC Animated movies?

[levcore]

Originally Posted by mwynn

I think you are limiting yourself by cutting off Anime. The English Dub of Akira is pretty good.

Have you tried any of the DC Animated movies?

You're right i am, i haven't actually watched Akira, maybe i should try the English dub as you say. I'm not really a fan of that Japanese art style to be honest though.

I haven't tried the DC animated movies either although those are a good suggestion. I think i'm so used to live action comic book movies now i might struggle to get into animated ones. Although i can't say that definitively without trying!

[Misioon_Odisea]

Oh boy oh boy, finally a thread in which I can unabashedly display my area of specialty with the community.

2D animation, be it western or Anime, is for me the exemplary medium of film where Action and Adventure films shine the most. For certain, Anime studios have taken far more advantage of its capabilities than American and European studios, where for some reason the possibilities remain for the most part unexplored. North America has decisively banished 2D animation from its system and thrown it off a cliff, while Europe, which does use it to this day, almost always employ it for calm, rudimentary tales with tiny scale and merely chilling around and relaxing. But nonetheless, there are still some films you can chase after if they are of your interest, but unfortunately with your particular requirement of it starring human characters in the main roles, the availability pool will be severely limited.

The two biggest matches that have not been mentioned yet are, by all means, The Road to El Dorado and Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, both by DreamWorks. The Road to El Dorado is the pinnacle animated adventure movie with a wide scale and some of the greatest characters ever drawn to grace our screens. It also has no talking animals and a couple of scenes with engaging action. Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas has a more linear story, but in spite of that it has incredible choreography for its action sequences and stupendous voice acting which gives its characters a determined spark. No talking animals here either. Also from DreamWorks is The Prince of Egypt, depending on your tolerance of religious subject matters, which may not necessarily fit into the adventure genre per se, but it does have an immense scale and the action is very intense, as it should be for traditional/hand-drawn/2D (however you'd like to call it) animation.
Also, seconding Titan A.E. and AKIRA (despite the latter being Anime) here, they absolutely fit the bill and you will never forget them if you give them a chance.

Having mentioned those, now the options are dastardly limited if you don't want to delve into Anime or animal protagonists. From Disney, I think Mulan is the biggest fit, despite Mushu the Dragon and the little cricket being there as assistant characters. Next is Tarzan, but then again, the talking gorillas and elephants and what else I've missed. I would mention Treasure Planet, which is practically everything you are looking for, but practically the main protagonist and his mother are the only human characters in the entire movie. Finally, there is The Sword in the Stone, which given its setting, you would swear it'd make for a grand adventure tale, but it actually plays out more as a slice-of-life take on the stories, and there's the talking owl, and the protagonists transform into different animals on several occasions, and the Blu-ray is one of Disney's worst ever.

There's not a whole lot left. On non-American, non-Japanese animation, the situation is even more deppresing... There's Wolfwalkers, which is by far the closest you'll find to what you want. There's also the French MFKZ, which has a banger English dub, but the animation is produced by a Japanese animation studio, so that may be a turn-off for you. Finally, there's the excellent Long Way North, which is an adventure movie by all means, but unlike the others mentioned, it's more slow-paced and philosophical, trading hyperkinesis for breathing room and meditation. And you said English-speaking, and from what I understand the English dub is pretty poor for this one.

If you'd like any more recommendations for animated films (in general, be it 2D or 3D CGI), just hit me up and I'll be more than happy to help! I sure wish too that there would be more English-speaking/western 2D animated action/adventure starring human characters, but unfortunately, American audiences in their bottomless wisdom (/s) throughly stuck out their collective middle fingers to what little we got, and as such the animation industry is the disaster it is today. (Goes without mentioning that Titan A.E., The Road to El Dorado, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas and Treasure Planet were all record-breaking box office failures, and amongst the most mentioned movies when talking about why does the United States refuses to make any more 2D animated films today).

[levcore]

Originally Posted by Misioon_Odisea

Oh boy oh boy, finally a thread in which I can unabashedly display my area of specialty with the community.

2D animation, be it western or Anime, is for me the exemplary medium of film where Action and Adventure films shine the most. For certain, Anime studios have taken far more advantage of its capabilities than American and European studios, where for some reason the possibilities remain for the most part unexplored. North America has decisively banished 2D animation from its system and thrown it off a cliff, while Europe, which does use it to this day, almost always employ it for calm, rudimentary tales with tiny scale and merely chilling around and relaxing. But nonetheless, there are still some films you can chase after if they are of your interest, but unfortunately with your particular requirement of it starring human characters in the main roles, the availability pool will be severely limited.

The two biggest matches that have not been mentioned yet are, by all means, The Road to El Dorado and Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, both by DreamWorks. The Road to El Dorado is the pinnacle animated adventure movie with a wide scale and some of the greatest characters ever drawn to grace our screens. It also has no talking animals and a couple of scenes with engaging action. Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas has a more linear story, but in spite of that it has incredible choreography for its action sequences and stupendous voice acting which gives its characters a determined spark. No talking animals here either. Also from DreamWorks is The Prince of Egypt, depending on your tolerance of religious subject matters, which may not necessarily fit into the adventure genre per se, but it does have an immense scale and the action is very intense, as it should be for traditional/hand-drawn/2D (however you'd like to call it) animation.
Also, seconding Titan A.E. and AKIRA (despite the latter being Anime) here, they absolutely fit the bill and you will never forget them if you give them a chance.

Having mentioned those, now the options are dastardly limited if you don't want to delve into Anime or animal protagonists. From Disney, I think Mulan is the biggest fit, despite Mushu the Dragon and the little cricket being there as assistant characters. Next is Tarzan, but then again, the talking gorillas and elephants and what else I've missed. I would mention Treasure Planet, which is practically everything you are looking for, but practically the main protagonist and his mother are the only human characters in the entire movie. Finally, there is The Sword in the Stone, which given its setting, you would swear it'd make for a grand adventure tale, but it actually plays out more as a slice-of-life take on the stories, and there's the talking owl, and the protagonists transform into different animals on several occasions, and the Blu-ray is one of Disney's worst ever.

There's not a whole lot left. On non-American, non-Japanese animation, the situation is even more deppresing... There's Wolfwalkers, which is by far the closest you'll find to what you want. There's also the French MFKZ, which has a banger English dub, but the animation is produced by a Japanese animation studio, so that may be a turn-off for you. Finally, there's the excellent Long Way North, which is an adventure movie by all means, but unlike the others mentioned, it's more slow-paced and philosophical, trading hyperkinesis for breathing room and meditation. And you said English-speaking, and from what I understand the English dub is pretty poor for this one.

If you'd like any more recommendations for animated films (in general, be it 2D or 3D CGI), just hit me up and I'll be more than happy to help! I sure wish too that there would be more English-speaking/western 2D animated action/adventure starring human characters, but unfortunately, American audiences in their bottomless wisdom (/s) throughly stuck out their collective middle fingers to what little we got, and as such the animation industry is the disaster it is today. (Goes without mentioning that Titan A.E., The Road to El Dorado, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas and Treasure Planet were all record-breaking box office failures, and amongst the most mentioned movies when talking about why does the United States refuses to make any more 2D animated films today).

Wow thanks for the detailed response here, much appreciated, loads of great recommendations. I'll certainly be checking these out, el dorado, Prince of egypt and Sinbad in particular look right up my street! Also Treasure Planet. It's a shame Titan AE doesn't have a blu ray.

[mwynn]

Street Fighter 2: The Animated Movie
Transformers the Movie
G.I. Joe the movie
Ninja Scroll
Vampire Hunter D

[Stanis]

Bashki's:

Lord of the Rings
Fire and Ice
Wizards

[Batmon77]

Akira

[Zillamon51]

Interesting thread!

I don't have any titles to contribute, at least off the top of my head, but I will watch this thread with great interest.

One recommendation I can make, with the caveat that it's a series and not a movie, is Avatar: The Last Airbender.

[Mandalorian]

Lots of great recommendations already. I'll say that you can watch most anime with a dub, so stuff like Miyazaki is very accessible to English language audiences and some fit perfectly into that old school action adventure vibe you're looking for. Princess Mononoke and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind are probably the most applicable. I don't care for it, per se, but maybe you'd also like Tales from Earthsea.

[kylor]

It's a little different as it has musical cues, but The Brave Little Toaster is a personal favorite. It has a good sense of adventure. Oh and there's The Pagemaster (it does have a bit of live-action to start) but the majority of it is animated. Great little animated adventure film. Another shoutout would be The Iron Giant, another favorite of mine. For more adult action and adventure, I'd recommend Heavy Metal.

[Zillamon51]

I second Princess Mononoke and The Iron Giant.

Mononoke is my favorite animated film. It's got incredible animated action and creatures, and complex human characters with no real "villains." Everyone has good and bad points, and understandable motives. If the OP is willing to give one anime a shot, make it this one. If it hits, then try Nausicaa and Castle in the Sky.

P.S. ^ These should all be on HBO Max.

[Guy87]

If you enjoy this you have a hell of a rabbit hole to fall down afterward.

[Guy87]

As an aside, it's upset me for years that Western 2D animation is basically dead in the world of commercial filmmaking.

It was particularly upsetting after Disney threw in the towel on what brought them to the dance after Princess & the Frog.

CG is lovely but it's not "better".

[Mandalorian]

Honestly, I don’t think 2D animated action adventure filmmaking gets much better than my avatar. Don’t limit yourself to film. Watch Avatar the Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra.

[levcore]

Originally Posted by Zillamon51

I second Princess Mononoke and The Iron Giant.

Mononoke is my favorite animated film. It's got incredible animated action and creatures, and complex human characters with no real "villains." Everyone has good and bad points, and understandable motives. If the OP is willing to give one anime a shot, make it this one. If it hits, then try Nausicaa and Castle in the Sky.

P.S. ^ These should all be on HBO Max.

Thanks for the recommendation, i have no HBO Max i'm afraid, i live in the UK and we do not get HBO Max.