Early 2000s Kids Movies: The Best Films from 2000 to 2010

Pixar didn’t just get bigger in the 2000s, it got bolder, like it finally realized kids movies could carry real emotional weight. The decade starts with a factory powered by screams, and somehow ends with a lonely robot staring at the stars like they’re a love letter.

First, Monsters, Inc. turns bedtime fear into a job, with Sulley and Mike Wazowski clocking in night after night until Boo’s accidental slip into their world wrecks the whole system. Then Finding Nemo drags Marlin across the ocean for his kid, only to discover the “safe” plan is a dentist aquarium in Sydney. After that, The Incredibles makes suburban normalcy feel like a trap, and the whole thing gets topped by Remy’s kitchen takeover in Ratatouille, followed by WALL-E’s quiet, planet-sized heartbreak.

By 2008, you’re not just watching movies, you’re living inside their rules, and they do not let go.

The Pixar Decade

Pixar had released Toy Story in 1995 and A Bug's Life in 1998. The 2000s were when it became undeniable.

Monsters, Inc. (2001) Two monsters, Sulley and Mike Wazowski, work at a factory that generates power from children's screams — by scaring them from inside their closets at night. When a human child accidentally gets through to the monster world, the whole premise unravels. Monsters, Inc. was Pixar's first fully realized exploration of a completely invented world, and the friendship between Sulley and the child Boo is one of the most emotionally effective relationships in the studio's catalogue.

Finding Nemo (2003) A clownfish named Marlin crosses the entire ocean to find his son Nemo, who was taken by a scuba diver and placed in a dentist's aquarium in Sydney. Finding Nemo won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and was, at the time of its release, the highest-grossing animated film ever made. The animation of water, light, and the deep ocean was technically groundbreaking in 2003.

The Incredibles (2004) A family of superheroes living in suburban anonymity under a government witness protection-style program gets pulled back into action. The Incredibles worked as a superhero film, a family drama, and a satire of mediocrity culture simultaneously. Brad Bird wrote and directed it after making The Iron Giant at Warner Bros. It remains one of the few animated films that holds up completely for adults watching without children.

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The Pixar

Ratatouille (2007) A rat named Remy wants to be a chef. He ends up controlling a talentless cook at a famous Parisian restaurant by hiding under his hat and pulling his hair. The premise sounds ridiculous; the execution is one of Pixar's most visually sophisticated and thematically dense films. The food critic Anton Ego's final monologue is one of the best pieces of writing in any animated film.

WALL-E (2008) A small waste-collecting robot left alone on an abandoned Earth falls in love with a probe robot named EVE. The first third of WALL-E is essentially a silent film - no dialogue, only sound and image - before expanding into a broader story about environmental collapse and human dependency. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

Up (2009) A 78-year-old widower ties thousands of balloons to his house and flies it to South America. A Wilderness Explorer accidentally comes along. Up opens with a montage covering Carl and Ellie's entire life together that has been making adults cry in front of their children for fifteen years. The rest of the film earns what that opening promises.

The 27 animated movie moments that hit like a truck covers several Pixar entries from this decade - the moments from Mulan, Inside Out, and others that are still talked about as the high-water marks of the form.

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DreamWorks Animation and the Competition

Pixar was the dominant studio, but DreamWorks Animation made it interesting.

Shrek (2001) An ogre and a donkey rescue a princess. Shrek was the first major animated film to build its entire identity around subverting the conventions of fairy tales and Disney specifically. It won the first-ever Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, beating Monsters, Inc., and launched a franchise that eventually became too long. The original film remains sharp.

Shrek 2 (2004) Shrek and Fiona visit her royal parents. Shrek 2 is one of the rare sequels that matches its original - it adds characters (Puss in Boots, voiced by Antonio Banderas, is arguably the best character in the franchise), deepens the central relationship, and lands a musical finale that is one of the funniest sequences in any animated film of the decade.

Kung Fu Panda (2008) Po, an overweight and clumsy panda who works in his family's noodle shop, is accidentally declared the chosen warrior destined to defeat the villain Tai Lung. Kung Fu Panda had a visual style influenced by Chinese art and animation and a genuine emotional throughline about self-acceptance.

Madagascar (2005) Four zoo animals - a lion, a zebra, a hippo, and a giraffe - accidentally end up in the wild. Madagascar leaned heavily into its voice cast, particularly Chris Rock and Ben Stiller, and generated a franchise that has outlasted most expectations.

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Disney's 2000s Films

Disney's own animated studio went through a difficult decade. Pixar's success made Disney's traditional animation efforts look comparatively weak, and the studio experimented with formats and styles before regaining its footing.

Lilo & Stitch (2002) Lilo is a lonely Hawaiian girl who adopts what she believes is a dog - an escaped alien genetic experiment designated Stitch. Lilo & Stitch is one of the most genuinely emotional Disney films of the 2000s. Its treatment of Lilo's grief over her parents, and of Nani's attempt to hold their family together, is handled with more honesty than most children's animated films allow.

Brother Bear (2003) A young Inuit man named Kenai is transformed into a bear and has to find his way back to human form. Brother Bear is the most underrated Disney film of the decade. Its visual style is deliberately different from earlier Disney animation - wider, more painterly, more influenced by landscape than character.

The Princess and the Frog (2009) Tiana, a New Orleans waitress working toward her dream of opening a restaurant, accidentally turns into a frog when she kisses a prince who was already a frog. The Princess and the Frog was Disney's return to traditional hand-drawn animation after several years of CGI and live-action films, and introduced Tiana as the first African American Disney princess.

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Live-Action Kids Movies of the 2000s

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) The beginning of one of the most successful film franchises in history. Harry Potter discovers he's a wizard and attends Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The first film established the visual template for the entire series - the production design, the John Williams score, and the casting of Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint, all of whom were unknowns at the time.

Spider-Man (2002) Sam Raimi's Spider-Man adaptation starring Tobey Maguire launched the modern superhero film era. It was the first superhero film to gross over $100 million in its opening weekend in the United States.

Spy Kids (2001) Two children discover their parents are secret agents and have to rescue them. Spy Kids was directed by Robert Rodriguez and had a visual inventiveness and genuine affection for its young protagonists that most children's action films lack.

Holes (2003) Based on Louis Sachar's novel, Holes follows Stanley Yelnats, a boy sent to a juvenile detention camp where inmates are forced to dig holes every day. Holes is one of the better book-to-film adaptations of the decade, maintaining the novel's nested narrative structure and its themes about fate, injustice, and family curses.

Night at the Museum (2006) Larry Daley becomes a night watchman at the Natural History Museum and discovers that every exhibit comes to life after dark. Night at the Museum ran for three films, all of which performed well, but the original has the sharpest premise and the cleanest execution.

The production details behind many of these films are as interesting as the films themselves. The 100 movie industry facts from Martin Scorsese to Bond covers a wide range of behind-the-scenes context, and the scenes producers cut before the final version includes several from family films of this era that would have significantly changed how the movies landed.

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Underrated 2000s Kids Movies Worth Revisiting

The Road to El Dorado (2000) Two Spanish con men accidentally find their way to the legendary city of El Dorado and are mistaken for gods. DreamWorks' traditionally animated adventure was released in the shadow of Shrek's development, received mixed reviews, and underperformed at the box office. It is funnier and better-crafted than its reputation suggests, with Kevin Kline and Kenneth Branagh having obvious chemistry as the leads.

Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) A linguist and cartographer joins an expedition to find the lost city of Atlantis. Atlantis had a visual style heavily influenced by the work of designer Mike Mignola, which gave it a look completely distinct from any other Disney film. It performed modestly and has been largely overlooked since, which is undeserved.

Treasure Planet (2002) Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island in space. Treasure Planet used a technique called "Deep Canvas" to combine traditional character animation with computer-generated 3D backgrounds, producing a visual style no other film has replicated. It failed commercially but is now recognized as one of Disney's more technically ambitious films.

Bolt (2008) A dog who believes he has superpowers because he has lived his entire life on a television set escapes and tries to get back to his owner. Bolt was the first Disney animated film in years to receive genuine critical acclaim. It paved the way for Tangled and Frozen.

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That’s the vibe shift, from Toy Story’s toys to Monsters, Inc.’s monsters clocking in for screams.

Pixar may have owned the 2000s, but the classics still live on, like Mickey, Donald, and Goofy from the original Disney lineup.

And just when you think the stakes are “boo found,” Marlin’s entire ocean quest for Nemo turns it into a one-cinematic rescue mission.

Meanwhile, The Incredibles adds another twist by treating superhero life like a paperwork problem, then yanking the family back into chaos anyway.

Then Ratatouille and WALL-E take the same emotional playbook, one with a chef’s hat and one with a robot left behind on an abandoned Earth.

The films in this section belong to the broader category of 50 cult movies that underperformed theatrically but found their audience over time - the gap between box office performance and lasting reputation is often larger than studios expect.

And several of the 10+ movie continuity mistakes that viewers missed - Titanic, Home Alone, and others from this era - are scattered through family films where nobody expected anyone to look that closely.

Some of these films are also among the better book-to-movie adaptations of any decade - Holes in particular was widely praised for maintaining the source novel's structure. The 16 movies with amazing endings that viewers still talk about includes several from this decade, particularly from the Pixar catalogue.

The 2000s didn’t just give kids movies, it gave them stories that stick to you like Boo on your imagination.

Want the lines that kept Disney kids quoting for decades, start with these repeated Disney movie quotes.