4 - Beauty and the Beast

3 - Princess Mononoke

2 - Toy Story

1 - Fantasia

There were some very tough omissions from this list, but as we say around here pretty often, that's why we do a Top Five - it's supposed to be difficult.

So, we tip our hats or raise or glass to the ones left out: Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, The Jungle Book, The Lion King, Steamboat Willie, Finding Nemo, Shrek, Monsters, Inc., The Iron Giant, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Bambi, Mulan, Ice Age, The Incredibles, and many, many more.

Now for our justification. Without revisiting Pinocchio in probably over 20 years, there are still scenes that exist as vibrant memories. Between Jiminy Cricket and "When You Wish Upon a Star," this one is pure childhood, and almost 70 years later, it's absolutely timeless.

Beauty and the Beast is Disney's last pre-Pixar classic. It's a stronger film with better songs than The Lion King or Aladdin, and it's dozens of times better than the films that preceded it in Dinsey's catalog, movies like The Little Mermaid, The Rescuers Down Under, The Black Cauldron...It's also worth noting that it's the only animated feature ever nominated for Best Picture.

Just as a ranking of animated films would have to include Walt Disney, you can't have this list without Miyazaki-san. Hayao Miyazaki is one of the world's great filmmakers, and even though he was 58 when Princess Mononoke was released, he's clearly at the top of his game. It's not really a movie for kids, granted, but the director's influence on the art and genre of modern film animation, as well as the role of this film in particular, can't be forgotten.

Toy Story changed everything in 1995. The first completely digital animated film, it also featured a staple of Pixar movies, the need for quality storytelling above all else. Every animated movie that has followed is bound to Toy Story.

And if you go back some 55 years before Toy Story, every animated film that followed it owes something to Fantasia. The first and perhaps still truest expression of the wonder and world of animated storytelling, Fantasia is entertaining, educational, and unforgettable. Much has been made of the film being too much of an acquired taste for its time, but adjusted for inflation, Fantasia has made $447 million in the U.S. So its influence isn't just on other films.