10 Best Animated Western Movies Of All Time (2024)

Some truly great films have come out of the rare intersection of animation and the Western genre. Despite the Western genre being one of the oldest in cinema, a shockingly small number of feature films have attempted to bring it to the animated form. It may be that the Western simply came around too early for such a union to be viable. There are plenty of examples of animated shorts which embrace a Western setting, but by the time animated features had gained dominance over shorts, the Western genre had faded in popularity.

Despite the genre’s fall from prominence, it never disappeared entirely. Since the rise in feature-length animation, a handful of 2D and 3D animated films have tried on the dressing of a western. From major studios such as Dreamworks and Disney, to boutique animation houses of varying nationalities, the Western has proven a promising (but often unrewarding) prospect for the animated format. Such filmmakers generally shy away from wholeheartedly embracing the spirit and ethos of the Western, choosing instead to blend it with another genre, such as comedy, animal picture, or mystery.

10 Scooby Doo: Shaggy’s Showdown (2017)

The Scooby Doo gang has seen numerous incarnations across dozens of series and movies of wildly varying quality. The robust charm of the Scooby gang’s central formula allows the franchise to place its characters into a wide variety of genres and settings. Such is the case in Scooby Doo: Shaggy’s Showdown, which manages to deliver an extremely fun blend of Western and mystery. The film boasts an abandoned goldmine, an old west legend, and one of the franchise’s better monster designs in its spectral cowboy.

9 Lucky Luke: Ballad Of The Daltons (1978)

The French comic book series Lucky Luke never reached the same level of international success as other European series Tintin and Asterix, but it nevertheless proved big enough in France to warrant several animated films. The second film, Lucky Luke: Ballad of The Daltons, was dubbed over in English and distributed in the US by Disney. The film’s quintessential western plot of four outlaw brothers seeking revenge on a judge and jury is transformed into rollicking cartoon farce by the slapstick world and the interventions of the titular gunslinging lawman. The film is a foreign culture’s fond and funny homage to American Westerns rendered with an outsider’s insight.

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8 Bravestarr: The Movie (1988)

The film adaptation of the 1980s series Bravestarr boasts all the charm of the original cartoon. Bravestarr is a deeply fun, heavily stylized space-western that follows Bravestarr, a Native American marshal with magical powers who enforces the law on the planet of New Texas in the 23rd Century. The film serves as Bravestarr’s origin story, centering on his arrival to New Texas and his conflict with the zombie cowboy Tex Hex. While the writing is often stale and predictable, the world is wonderfully imaginative, and the animation itself is a true highlight.

7 Home On The Range (2004)

Home on The Range may not be among Disney’s best animated movies, but the film is a lovingly animated take on the frontier Western. Its plot of a group of farm animals who seek to save their home by claiming the bounty on the head of a cattle rustler feels true to the spirit of a Western. The story never materializes into anything substantial, but the film certainly has its charms. As one of Disney’s last works of 2D hand-drawn animation, the film is a visual delight, representing the result of nearly seven decades of artistic development. The film also boasts some great songs, courtesy of Disney hitmaker Alan Menken.

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6 Calamity, A Childhood Of Martha Jane Cannary (2020)

One of the more critically-lauded entries in the animated-western genre is Calamity, A Childhood of Martha Jane Cannary. Another French film fascinated with the American Wild West, Calamity gives a fictionalized account of the adolescent years of Martha Jane Cannary, who would one day become the legendary frontierswoman Calamity Jane. The narrative is adventurous and, despite its rollicking pace, maintains thematic focus on restrictive social expectations and the bravery of Jane’s defiance. However, the highest praise must be reserved for the film’s beautiful, fluid animation. By doing away with outlines for characters and objects, Calamity's visual language meaningfully speaks to the beauty and the freedom of the frontier.

5 Spirit Untamed (2021)

This stand-alone sequel to the beloved 2001 film Spirit likewise tells the story of an untamable horse’s bond with a young human in the American West. In Spirit Untamed, a girl moves to a frontier town where she befriends a young mustang and seeks to aid him in his escape from abusive horse wranglers. While it doesn’t quite measure up to the quality of the first film, it revisits and reinforces the original’s themes of the free and untamable spirit of the West. Spirit Untamed also benefits from beautiful 3D animation and some of the animated medium’s best riding sequences.

4 Daisy Town (1971)

The original Lucky Luke film, Daisy Town, is widely considered the best of the series. The film centers on the formation of an Old West town in the desert upon the only sign of life within miles, a single daisy. The criminal element in the town soon calls for the services of Lucky Luke, the lawman who can shoot faster than his shadow. Like Ballad of The Daltons, Daisy Town poses an extremely likable pastiche of the American western, complete with the genre’s essential trappings: saloons, outlaws, and showdowns. It’s a funny film with dynamic action and colorful characters, all tied together by an obvious and earnest love for the Western genre.

3 An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991)

An American Tail: Fievel Goes West is the sequel to 1988’s An American Tail. The film sees Fievel, the titular mouse, stranded in an American frontier town, where he must outwit gunslingers and an evil capitalist cat. Under the supervision of producer Steven Spielberg, Fievel Goes West incorporated dynamic “camera” movement and creative lighting to give the hand drawn animation an impressive cinematic quality. The plot honors the tropes of the Western, but speeds by at the pace of a classic Warner Bros. cartoon, making for a loving and euphoric genre co*cktail.

2 Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimarron (2002)

Spirit: Stallion of The Cimarron follows a wild mustang of the American frontier who fights for freedom after being captured by frontiersfolk bent on taming the region. It’s a stirring fable of the untamable nature of the American West, even amid the encroachment of civilization. The plot lacks sophistication, and the powerful visual storytelling is undermined by the last-minute studio decision to include a redundant inner monologue voiced by Matt Damon, but the film sings with reverence for the majesty of the free West. Its cinematic beauty and enduring resonance make Spirit one of Dreamworks' best films.

1 Rango (2011)

Rango is an unexpected delight of a film. The story follows a chameleon who stumbles into a position as sheriff of an animal frontier town desperately in need of water. With Rango, director Gore Verbinski demonstrates the same profound understanding of the western genre which his Pirate of The Caribbean films express of the pirate genre. The film not only benefits from beautiful animation and a top-notch voice cast, but also from a mature execution which blends thrilling cinematic action with unexpectedly profound introspection. Rango is not only the best animated western, but also belongs in conversations of the best animated films and best Westerns in the modern era.