What non-Disney animated features do you remember fondly from your childhood and youth?

I'm interested mainly in theatrical releases in the U.S., but I also realize that a lot of such films had a limited theatrical release and went straight to home video, especially foreign animated features, so if you think of any of those, please list them. Thanks.


I saw a handful of non-Disney animated features as a child: the Fleischers' HOPPITY GOES TO TOWN (1941, re-released in 1959), the Russian THE SNOW QUEEN (released in U.S. in 1960), and THE INCREDIBLE MR. LIMPET (1964/live-action-animation hybrid from WB). In high school, I saw YELLOW SUBMARINE (1968), with animated versions of the Beatles.


Depending on your ages, I’m assuming your non-Disney animated childhood favorites would come from a sampling like CHARLOTTE’S WEB (1973), the Charlie Brown “Peanuts” animated features, THE HOBBIT (1977), Bakshi’s WIZARDS (1977), Bakshi’s LORD OF THE RINGS (1978), WATERSHIP DOWN (1978), HEIDI’S SONG (1982), THE LAST UNICORN (1982), THE SECRET OF NIMH (1982), and the ones I began taking my daughter to: AN AMERICAN TAIL (1986), THE LAND BEFORE TIME (1988), WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? (1988), ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN (1989), FERNGULLY: THE LAST RAINFOREST (1992), Hayao Miyazaki anime features like MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO, CASTLE IN THE SKY, and KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE, and the Russian THE MAGIC PONY (1977), discovered on home video.


That’s just a quick sampling, since there were plenty of others, esp. after the Disney Studio went through quite a slump in the 20-odd years after Uncle Walt’s death, creating a vacuum in the animation market filled by Don Bluth and others before the Disney renewal launched by Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg with THE LITTLE MERMAID (1989), et al.


So which ones do you remember?

Dooku, you made the same mistake I did. I read the thread title as "Disney non-animated features" and then was confused by the OP.


Remember fondly? The Last Unicorn and The Secret of NIMH. I suppose the LOTR ones, but those weren't things in my regular rotation.

I was too old when Fievel and the dinosaur movies arrived. I don't think I have ever watched any of them, even with my kids.

When my oldest was little, she won a copy of Kiki's Delivery Service on VHS. I had never heard of it and was disappointed she didn't get one of the other "big" (read: Disney) titles. After we watched it though, we fell in love with it. That was my introduction to Miyazaki. I am not an avid fan, but I did seek out the big ones.

Anastasia is a long-standing favorite of mine, but some of that goes back to my work on promoting it at the theater I worked at.

I recall liking Titan AE for being sci-fi (not necessarily for being good), but never bothered to watch it a second time.

Iron Giant is a classic!

Prince of Egypt was the first DVD I owned (technically, The Matrix was the first one I purchased, but Prince of Egypt arrived first). Not sure if I ever watched it all the way through, but I recall the animation being good.

Of course, now we have a renaissance of animation with the Spider-verse movies and TMNT.

I also remember seeing a few others you mentioned on TV:
Watership Down
Charlotte's Web
Yellow Submarine
Peanuts (Race For Your Life was the fan-favorite within my community)

Not mentioned yet:
-Gulliver's Travels (1939)
-Gay Purr-ee (1962) My sister and I LOVED this
-Tubby The Tuba (1975) One of the first things I remember first seeing on HBO over at a friend's house
-Animalympics (1980) I think The Movie Channel used to show this quite a bit
-Frankenstein (AKA Monster of Frankenstein) (1981) This popped up on a Sunday morning on local TV. The anime version of Frankenstein.
-There was a (Disturbing) animated version of Pinocchio I ran into on local TV. It opened with an incomplete Pinocchio suddenly coming alive (All he had was his head, torso and one leg) and he ran (Or hopped) away from Gepetto. Gepetto ended up getting arrested by the authorities because people thought he was harming "A child". I quickly changed the channel soon after that. I'm guessing this was the '71 Italian version.

Saw Last Unicorn and Secret of Nimh in theaters.

Rented:
The Mouse and His Child (1977) I was kinda obsessed with this one for some reason.
Wizard of Oz (1982) Anime

I distinctly remember that Hanna-Barbera released something into theaters around 1985. I remember seeing a TV spot for it (It was a reel showcasing all types of things they've made--Including some stop-motion animation) and when I went to see Troll in theaters, I saw a "Coming Soon" poster with Yogi Bear on it. Did some looking up at Wiki, but haven't been able to find anything about that.

But I was able to finally solve another old animated mystery I've long had just recently. At one of the video stores I used to go to, there was a movie-poster on the wall with an alien guy sitting on the bridge of a ship holding his head together. For years and years, I always wondered what this was and by sheer luck, I ran into the trailer and spotted the imagery:

From my childhood?

Wizards
Animalymics
Heavy Metal
Watership Down

That's about it, as far as I can remember.

I discovered An American Tail and The Secret of NIMH later and enjoyed them.

Ash, Roger Rabbit is for all intents and purposes, a Disney film.

Charlotte's Web
​​​​​​Wizards
​​​​​​An American Tail

These are the only ones I remember particularly liking. I've seen others, but don't have an impression either way.

I've only revisited Wizards as an adult, and I still like it.

Yep, but I skipped over the OP. post deleted

I believe that's the anime classic, GALAXY EXPRESS 999 (1979), but I didn't realize it ever got a U.S. home video release back in the day. Viz Video released it uncut in both subbed and dubbed editions in the 1990s.

Don Bluth did a lot of good work outside of Disney. I loved both American Tale movies and All Dogs Go to Heavan when I was younger.

We're Back: A Dinosaur Story
Titan A.E.
Anastasia

An American Tail
All Dogs go to Heaven
The Land Before Time
The Secret of NIMH
The Transformers: The Movie

Were all big when I was a kid in the 80s.


The Iron Giant
Anastasia
The Prince of Egypt
Balto
The Road to El Dorado

I saw but I was a little too old to care much for animated “kids” movies by that time.

Definitely saw the following in the theater as a kid:

The Last Unicorn
The Secret of NIMH
An American Tail
Transformers: The Movie
The Adventures of Mark Twain (Claymation, if that counts)

Fire and Ice

Cats Don't Dance - Underrated. A cute tribute to the golden age of Hollywood.

The Princess and the Goblin - A Hungarian production based on George MacDonald's 1872 novel. It got a US theatrical release by Hemdale in 1994. Animation is a bit crude, but I liked it as a kid.

Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland - Japanese production inspired by the comic strip. Another US release from Hemdale (three years after the initial release by Toho-Towa in Japan). Some interesting names came and went throughout the project's development: Miyazaki, Ray Bradbury, Gary Kurtz - with Disney veterans Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston being consulting on character design. The screenplay is co-credited to Chris Columbus with songs by the Sherman Brothers.

Rock & Rule - Canadian production (by Nelvana) given a limited US release through MGM. Didn't see this until I was in my late teens, but it's pretty fun. Songs by Debbie Harry, Lou Reed, Cheap Trick and Iggy Pop.

The Halloween Tree - Ray Bradbury adaptation (he narrates and wrote the teleplay) produced by Hanna-Barbera for TNT, featuring voicework by Leonard Nimoy.

The Swan Princess - Very much trying to give the Disney princess films a run for their money. Bland lead characters, but that style of animation was about as good as it came outside Disney and Bluth. Disney tried to bury it at the box office by re-releasing The Lion King the same weekend. While it flopped theatrically, it did well enough on home video for director Richard Rich to produce about a dozen DTV sequels, most of them cheap CG garbage.

The two biggest would be An American Tail and Land Before Time. Also the two that probably gave Disney the most run for their money.

Secret of Nimh (and non animated Dark Crystal) kind of scarred me, in a not-too-bad way. Those visuals stuck with me for a long time. All Dogs Go to Heaven is similar.

The first Land Before Time was great too, because at the time I loved dinosaurs (and the animation was terrific).

I remember being a bit older but my aunt worked at Sears and there was a huge marketing blitz for American Tail. But it wasn't a movie that really stuck with me.

But yeah, Transformers: The Movie takes the cake for me. I watched that multiple times in the theaters, had the vinyl, played that tape to death, etc. I fully understood at the time that the purpose was to sell more toys and i was completely onboard with that.

If we're talking stuff I didn't see in theaters, there's a ton because we frequented the video store all the time:
Both Unico movies, co produced by Sanrio
The Hobbit (but I didn't really understand the animated Return of the King at the time)
Warriors of the Wind, a heavily edited version of Miyazaki's Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind The poster was captivating even though it had no relevance to the actual movie
Clash of the Bionoids, a dubbed release of the incredible Macross: Do You Remember Love
Time Fighters and Time Fighters in the Land of Fantasy, which were just edited together episodes of Time Bokan
I can't remember which but I'm sure there were some Captain Harlock features that came out but they were probably also just edited together episodes
Ultraman, the Adventure Begins (called Ultraman USA in Japan)
Animalympics wasn't very good but I liked the Olympics

And I'll get ragged on for this but I loved the first two Care Bears movies, especially the second one where they introduced the cousins.

I really can't think of any features other than Yellow Submarine. Not much outside of Disney in the 60s.

I feel like there has to be some that I’m spacing on but of all the ones listed really only Transformers: The Movie. I like - love a lot of the other movies listed but didn’t get into them until I was an adult.

That one plus stop motion animated The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix on cable for me.

Also on cable Warriors of the Wind, a dubbed version of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, and Starbirds, a condensed, dubbed movie version of Tosho Daimos anime series.

Several of the US released ones already mentioned as well.

Thanks for sharing all these titles.

There’s a lot to research.

For the record, here are the non-Disney animated features I’ve watched since beginning this project in February, ordered by year of release (22 so far):

Gulliver’s Travels (1939/U.S.)

Mr. Hoppity Goes to Town (1940/U.S.)

Johnny the Giant Killer (1950/France)

Animal Farm (1954/U.K.)

The Snow Queen (1957/USSR)

The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964/U.S.)

Gulliver’s Travels Beyond the Moon (1965/Japan)

Yellow Submarine (1968/U.K.)

Fritz the Cat (1972/U.S.)

The Little Mermaid (1975/Japan)

The Magic Pony (1975/USSR)

Wizards (1977/U.S.)

The Wild Swans (1977/Japan)

The Hobbit (1977/U.S., made for TV)

Lord of the Rings (1978/U.S.)

Twelve Months (1980/Japan)

The Wizard of Oz (1982/Japan)

Asterix vs. Caesar (1985/France)

Starchaser: The Legend of Orin (1985/U.S.-South Korea)

Transformers: The Movie (1986/U.S.-Japan)

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993/U.S.)

Jungle Emperor Leo (1997/Japan)

I remember me and my little brother went to see Pinocchio In Outer Space (1965) at our local movie theater and we both enjoyed it.