20 Best Animation movies like Esther's Notebooks (2018)

Joe Gardner is a middle school teacher with a love for jazz music. After a successful gig at the Half Note Club, he suddenly gets into an accident that separates his soul from his body and is transported to the You Seminar, a center in which souls develop and gain passions before being transported to a newborn child. Joe must enlist help from the other souls-in-training, like 22, a soul who has spent eons in the You Seminar, in order to get back to Earth.

Vladimir and Hector, two secret agents opposed in every way, are trying to recover a top secret material stolen by unknown intruders.

After their space ship is damaged in an asteroid field , 10-year-old Willy is separated from his explorer parents and finds himself alone on a dusty planet with only a cute robot for company in this fun animated adventure. Packed with neat little touches, from a space toothbrush that converts into a knife and a flamethrower, to a cuddly orange alien that bears a resemblance to How To Train Your Dragon’s Toothless, the movie (known as Terra Willy in its native France) follows Willy as he learns to adapt to his new surroundings and the planet’s quirky (and occasionally dangerous) inhabitants. Nicely animated with a sweet story at its heart, this junior space adventure with a really likeable lead character is well worth seeking out.

E.B., the Easter Bunny's teenage son, heads to Hollywood, determined to become a drummer in a rock 'n' roll band. In LA, he's taken in by Fred after the out-of-work slacker hits E.B. with his car.

Each Christmas, Santa and his vast army of highly trained elves produce gifts and distribute them around the world in one night. However, when one of 600 million children to receive a gift from Santa on Christmas Eve is missed, it is deemed ‘acceptable’ to all but one – Arthur. Arthur Claus is Santa’s misfit son who executes an unauthorized rookie mission to get the last present half way around the globe before dawn on Christmas morning.

Max the terrier must cope with some major life changes when his owner gets married and has a baby. When the family takes a trip to the countryside, nervous Max has numerous run-ins with canine-intolerant cows, hostile foxes and a scary turkey. Luckily for Max, he soon catches a break when he meets Rooster, a gruff farm dog who tries to cure the lovable pooch of his neuroses.

Set in 1879 Paris. An orphan girl dreams of becoming a ballerina and flees her rural Brittany for Paris, where she passes for someone else and accedes to the position of pupil at the Grand Opera house.

Five tales by Edgar Allan Poe come to life thanks to a pictorical style animation, five tales that exude madness, pestilence, murder and torture.

Three characters living in an unfinished painting venture out into the real world in search of their creator to convince him to finish his work.

Yellowbird lives in the ruins of an old house. He lacks the confidence to leave his home, no matter how much Bug, his labybird friend, tries to convince him to go out into the world. Attempts to toughen him up have had little success, so Bug seizes an opportunity that leaves Yellowbird unexpectedly finding himself the new leader of the flock that is migrating to Africa. Still, lacking faith in his own abilities and with danger and imminent failure lurking around every corner, our feathered hero is forced to either find the strength required to work with the team or bow out and stay hidden away forever.

Plant loving Hilda, has created a museum where she preserves endangered and rare plants from all over the world. Meanwhile Attilem, a new genetically modified cereal, is launched on the market. Growing with little water and fertilizer while generating high crop field Attilem looks like an ideal solution to eradicate starvation and provide an alternative to diminishing oil reserves. But nothing is at it seems...

Summer 1998 - Kabul under Taliban rule. Zunaira and Mohsen are young and in love. Despite the daily violence and misery, they hope for a better future. One day, a foolish gesture causes life to take an irrevocable turn.

Marona, an innocent and empathetic little female dog, remembers the life she has shared with different masters, whom she has loved unconditionally.

When an overenthusiastic Maya accidentally embarrasses the Empress of Buzztropolis, she is forced to unite with a team of misfit bugs and compete in the Honey Games for a chance to save her hive.

In 1975, Ryszard Kapuściński, a veteran Polish journalist, embarked on a seemingly suicidal road trip into the heart of the Angola's civil war. There, he witnessed once again the dirty reality of war and discovered a sense of helplessness previously unknown to him. Angola changed him forever: it was a reporter who left Poland, but it was a writer who returned…

Two Minions are busy at work in the mailroom. One of them, bored, decides to throw a box of expired PX-41 samples into its designated chute.

Thunder, an abandoned young cat seeking shelter from a storm, stumbles into the strangest house imaginable, owned by an old magician and inhabited by a dazzling array of automatons and gizmos. Not everyone welcomes the new addition to the troupe as Jack Rabbit and Maggie Mouse plot to evict Thunder. The situation gets worse when the magician lands in hospital and his scheming nephew sees his chance to cash in by selling the mansion. Our young hero is determined to earn his place and so he enlists the help of some wacky magician's assistants to protect his magical new home.

The misadventures of a young clumsy Fox and a feisty little red Hen. The Fox, both a little stupid and naïve, tries daily to devour the little Hen, without success. Tired of the repeated humiliation, the Fox is persuaded to steal the Hen’s eggs to raise and then eat. This plan seems perfect, until the moment the chicks hatch…

A series of interviews featuring linguist, philosopher and activist Noam Chomsky done in hand-drawn animation.

February 1939. Overwhelmed by the flood of Republicans fleeing Franco's dictatorship, the French government's solution consists in confining the Spanish refugees in concentration camps where they have no other choice than to build their own shelters, feed off the horses which have carried them out of their country, and die by the hundred for lack of hygiene and water... In one of these camps, two men, separated by barbwire, will become friends. One is a guard the other is Josep Bartoli (Barcelona 1910 - New York 1995), a cartoonist who fights against the Franco regime.

A 40-year-old middle-class man who loves his domotics to toe the line will figure out, because of a water drop, that things you own end up owning you.

Paxtown, a corrupt capital, torn by crime and preyed by the mafia. In this rotten megalopolis, Richard Aldana, street smart, without ties or ambitions, is a boxer in his off time. But this was all before everything got flipped on its head. Overnight, Aldana finds himself with Siri, a girl targeted by "The Order of the Lion," a religious group that thinks the girl is the key to "the other world".

Margo, Edith, and Agnes spot an ice cream truck.The three of them go after the truck but Agnes falls as she attempts to pedal to the truck. The Minions, seeing her so upset by this, decide to build her a unicorn-themed motorcycle. Agnes goes for a little ride around town.

Passepartout is a young and scholarly marmoset who always dreams of becoming an explorer. One day, he crosses paths with Phileas, a reckless and greedy frog, eager to take on a bet to circumnavigate the globe in 80 days and earn 10 million clams in the process. Seizing the opportunity of a lifetime to explore the world, Passepartout embarks with his new friend on a crazy and exhilarating adventure full of twists and surprises.