top 10 animtors

1VoteEWalt Disney

Walt Disney had heart and feeling to his art / animation / movies.. his was the best of the best.M+58

It was he who did the animation known, and will always be remembered for his good old classics that were created during the difficult moments. Had it not been for him, we had not seen colorful animated movies today. He was a perfectionist and showed what we can do with fantasy!M+21

He is best in all bests animator... Amazing creativity and thinking
Awesome characters in his movies and programmes... No one ccan be like himM+19

Hi my name jeffM-2

V35 Comments

2VoteEHayao Miyazaki

Something about Miyazaki's animation gives such a wonderful feeling to the audience. While his animation style is more anime than Walt Disney's--which is, in a sense, a sort of mixture of the cartoon style and a few other things--one can't ignore the masterpieces in his films. While watching "The Wind Rises", as well as all of his work actually, I noticed the great detail spent in the background. As well as when the female was painting, you could almost feel the paint. The movements in his animations are beautifully done, not to mention that Miyazaki is one of the only animators left who does traditional rather than digital. Not to say that digital is a bad thing--in fact, as an artist, I greatly appreciate all digital work. I find it harder in some aspects than traditional too--but something about the beautiful lines and camera movements in traditional animation... It's just something you can't deny. There's also the fact that every time I watch on of Miyazaki's I notice how he makes the viewing to the audience seem just as though a camera were doing it all, and not pencil and paper. I'm sure you know what I mean. With all the pan ups, downs, sides, etc.

I'd also like to mention his amazing story telling. Especially seen in his more sci-fi/fantasy films (Spirited Away, Castle In The Sky, Howls Moving Castle, Princes Mononoke, etc), Hayao Miyazaki seems to put so much effort in making symbolism, good 4D characters (personality wise and appearance wise), his background stories and settings. Everything that many authors seem to forget nowadays, Miyazaki seems to put even more attention to it.

// I also love the fact that most of his movies aren't romance. There's nice little platonic love, and that's fun //M+11

Lets be honest here, Walt Disney's so called animes (in fact, is more of a cartoon than anything else so it should even be on this list in the first place -_-) are nothing but fun little story for kids to enjoy. But on the other hand, Hayao Miyazaki's anime is not only extremely interesting to watch, if you can actually FULLY understand the story, in every single one of he's anime there is an allegory buried deep inside the story to helps us to understand a set of principle or concept which actually helped me to build my own foundation of principles as a kid. So therefore, in my opinion Hayao Miyazaki is the best animator as he's anime is for EVERYONE and that it can also make a huge impact on your mind while Walt Disney's 'animes' are just a story with nothing deeper to it, that is, for kids who just want to burn their time.M+5

Walt Disney was a pioneer but Miyazaki has an awesome depth to his stories and flow to his animation that I haven't seen in many other films. I also know people who have studied animation and some of the study samples they have shown me are derived from Miyazaki's work (ie. How to draw facial expressions, etc). I have heard that when professional animators need inspiration, they watch a Miyazaki movie.M+20

I think that Miyazaki surpasses Disney as an artist, but Disney was more a business man and hence, more popularM+1

V48 Comments

3VoteEMatt Groening

Matt Groening is not an Animator. He is a cartoonist. All animation work is done by actual animators. His show is undoubtedly cemented in American culture and is significant in many respects. However, per this list, he is not an actual animatorM+6

Maybe so but the characters were his idea after all and he was the designer for each character. That in my mind is pretty close to being an animator/cartoonist. Does your theory mean that Will Hanna and Joe Barbera were just cartoonists too?M+2

Last I checked The Simpsons have lasted over 500 episodes, of course Matt Groening is one of the greatest animators around at the moment. Plus he resurrected Futurama.M+1

With memorable characters like Homer Simpson, Bart Simpson, Barney Gumble, Mr Burns and Bender among others Matt has to be #1M+1

V10 Comments

4VoteESeth Mcfarlane

Your a boss dude!M+2

Dude you are awesome you created family guy and voiced ted my fave cartoon characterM-1

One of the worst animators everM 

Should be way higherM 

V6 Comments

5VoteEWill Hanna

This is number 1 hands down! These guy created great cartoons such as: The Huckleberry Hound Show, The Quick Draw McGraw Show, The Flintstones, The Yogi Bear Show, Top Cat, The Jetsons, The Magilla Gorilla Show, Jonny Quest, Space Ghost, Wacky Races, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! And The Smurfs.

They eventually moved forward from those to new cartoon shows (Cartoon Cartoons) such as Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, Cow and Chicken, I Am Weasel and The Powerpuff Girls.M+10

Will Hanna is definitely awesome but he definitely didn't create the smurfs.M+1

As clean as good as entertaining as memorableM+2

I think that will hanna should go up to 3! How many amazing things did he create?!M 

V5 Comments

6VoteEJohn Lasseter

He's a one of the great animators ever...
This man is born for animation.. After he's creation in up and toy story pixar and disney got new meaning to their respective position...M+1

He's the king right nowM+1

Read his class of 2013 speech to Eckerd College. Enough said.M-1

7VoteEChuck Jones

The best known... Impossible not to laugh..M+6

His animation inspires me to work hard.M+2

Wow this guy is like the best by akramM+2

8VoteEGenndy Tartakovsky

My favorite with Hayao Miyazaki. I think that he's more than a simple animator, he's an artist. Starting with Dexter's Lab, Powerpuff Girls, and creating a masterpiece such as Samurai Jack. Not everybody is chosen by a genius like George Lucas to make a mini-series in the middle of his biggest saga. Also he participated in the artbooks for some action sequences of Iron Man 2, and his last job: Hotel Transylvania
Pretty good for a 10th place, uh?M+3

Great animator. One of my personal favorites. I watched his shows when I was a kid and one day to not only meet him, but be like him, Create the in-depth characters with a interesting story that I can't wait to continue writing.M+1

9VoteEAkira Toriyama

I LIKE THE ARTWORK HE CONTRIBUTED IN DRAGON BALL
AND FROM THEREON I DECIDED TO BECOME A TRUE ANIMATOR IN MY LIFE AND WORK HARD AS HIM.
I WISH I COULD EVER TALK TO HIM TO HOW TO BECOME LIKE HIMM+5

Best animator ever! Hands down! No one is allowed to say differently. He is the creator of the dragon ball series, and for that he earns a bunch of respect! 😊M-2

You are the bestM 

V4 Comments

10VoteETrey Parker/Matt Stone

creators of personalaties such as cartman, kenny eric, and kyle - munkee_linc97M 

Greatest of all time next to disneyM 

The Contenders

11VoteETex Avery

This was the guy who practically invented cartoon gags. He created Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Droopy the Basset Hound among others.M+5

I'm suprised about the low ranking of arguably the inventor of edgy cartoon gags.M+4

More a director, but deserves the vote.M 

12VoteEUb Iwerks

Ub (a.K.A. "Ubbe") was Walt Disney's "pen-hand" and a profound innovator throughout his lifetime in the business.M+1

13VoteERollin "Ham" Hamilton

14VoteEFriz Freleng

15VoteEMike Judge

Creator of King of the Hill and Beavis and Butthead. Both great shows and actually shows character development with humour also following it.M+1

yeah, damn good animator and voice actor too - CrowdedChiselM-3

16VoteETim Burton

I love his animation. So gothic so unique. And great stories to go with. Very underrated.M 

17VoteEHugh Harman

18VoteEJoe Barbera

19VoteEMax Fleischer

Max Fleischer has devoted his entire life to the animation than anybody elseM 

20VoteEYoshihiro Togashi

Not an animator but I would put him over Akira Toriyama simply because Toriyama only had 1 great Manga/Anime
Dragonball. For the people who want to count DBZ that is only a continuation of Dragonball not a separate entity. While Togashi created Yu Yu Hakusho and Hunter X Hunter. Which have been 2 of the greatest Mangas ever with 2 story lines and even the protagonists are completely different in personality.