The most beautiful animation you've ever seen?

[flamewise]

Last weekend I watched Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole.

I thought it made "WALL-E" and "Finding Nemo" look a bit gray around the nose in terms of animation quality, even though Pixar still wins in terms of story quality.

[cephalopod9]

A hundred and something really short animations in a live action music video: it's pretty epic, imo

[Kimmo]

That clip is beautiful. Nice linkage.

The Animatrix is a great little smorgasbord. Highly recommended; far superior content to the Matrix sequels IMO.

I hear Batman: Gotham Knight, a smorgasbord done with the same idea, is also quite excellent.

Thanks for the heads-up, I checked it out... it's okay. Not nearly as impressive a selection of styles, though

[Pterosaur]

Samurai Jack is beautiful in its stylish minimalism. Watch “Jack and the Three Blind Archers” (Episode #7) for some great animation. I first watched Samurai Jack expecting another goofy Powerpuff Girls romp, and was surprised to see art. I’m in the middle of watching season two now, and I’m loving it.

[Electromechanical Magpie]

The most beautiful animation I've seen is probably Aquarela do Brazil from Disney's Saludos Amigos. I haven't seen that much animated film though, so I'm no great judge in this matter.

/edit
Forgot to add that what I liked about it is both how they toyed with the medium and created effects which would be impossible with anything but 2D animation and how it syncs with the music

[PatrickRsGhost]

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (For a dreamworks film, it was REALLY pretty.)

Watching this for the first time right now. Don't know why I had never watched it before. The backgrounds and landscape shots are breathtaking. The animation of the horses is so realistic, and just as amazing, especially any scenes with the horses running. And why did this not do so well at the Box Office?

[Jorpho]

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (For a dreamworks film, it was REALLY pretty.)

Watching this for the first time right now. Don't know why I had never watched it before.

The trailer included with the video release of Shrek was in a way downright repulsive.

[legopelle]

Anime
Mononoke Hime (Studio Ghibli)
When you get accustomed to 15 fps it really takes you by surprise what the medium can accomplish in 24.

Classic animation
The Secret of NIMH (
Brilliant movie with brilliant story and brilliant characters.

Modern Animation
Samurai Jack
See quote:

Samurai Jack is beautiful in its stylish minimalism. Watch “Jack and the Three Blind Archers” (Episode #7) for some great animation. I first watched Samurai Jack expecting another goofy Powerpuff Girls romp, and was surprised to see art. I’m in the middle of watching season two now, and I’m loving it.

Computer Animation
Ratatouille (Pixar)
Never have 3d food looked so apatizing.

[Rek]

Castle In The Sky and Howl's Moving Castle by Miyazaki. The detail amazes me every time.

[flamewise]

Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (For a dreamworks film, it was REALLY pretty.)

Watching this for the first time right now. Don't know why I had never watched it before.

The trailer included with the video release of Shrek was in a way downright repulsive.

Dreamworks somehow manage to make some of the most misleading trailers. I've got a policy now to go watch some of their movies IN SPITE of the trailers.

[dbsmith]

This animation is so beautiful, it brings a tear to my eye everytime i watch it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiARsQSlzDc