Animation is one of my favorite mediums of film and TV. I feel like it's so freeing visually. But one thing we don't talk about too often is how freeing it is to writers as well.

When you're writing an animation screenplay, you have room to make anything a character; your story can exist in any world, and there is no limit to where your imagination can take you.

Today, I want to look at some of my favorite animated screenplays and talk about what you can learn from each of them.

Let's dive in.

The 7 Best Animation Scripts

'Finding Nemo''Finding Nemo'Credit: Credit: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

There have been almost 100 years of animated films, and I have to be honest, I haven't read all of them. So when I was making this list, I stuck with the ones I thought were really special on the page, because I read them.

1. Toy Story

Like I said, anything is possible in animation, and an entire world built out of our toys, which come to life when we're not looking, is such a fun conceit. This script really pushes things to a new level and creates such dynamic characters.

2. Finding Nemo

While this follows the traditional road trip movie tropes, it also took a huge world under the sea and allowed it to expand through one fish's journey. and it built smaller worlds within that giant world, of the tank, the reef, and even shark AA.

3. Wall-E

This is one of my favorite movies of all time. It has such great stakes and does such a good job of anthropomorphizing these robots using human traits. And the stakes are the entire planet.

4. Inside Out

Another script that shows the endless possibilities of where animation can take you. The worldbuilding alone is wild, taking what we know about the mind and then creating an entire space within, plus balancing those stories on the inside and outside.

5. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

When I read this script, I felt like I was digging into a comic book. It's got so many visual cues, and also I thought drew a great portrait of its main characters and its villains. We know the arcs clearly.

6. Shrek

This was one of the first animated movies that I felt like tickled me as an adult. It has a great style on the page and knows how to draw out visual jokes and gags.

7. Coco

As the song goes, "Remember me," and I always do when I'm writing about imagination. What I like about this script is the dichotomy between the living world and the world of the dead, and how heartfelt it draws its characters.

Summing It All Up

Hopefully, these animated scripts give you ideas for your next spec script. For me, they always remind me of the endless possibilities that lie within our imaginations, and they have taught me a lot of lessons about storytelling.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

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