With big animation companies such as Disney, Dreamworks, and Illumination Entertainment, countless beloved animated classics have been released over the years. Yet there are plenty of other animation companies in the world, each trying to be noticed with the films they produce.

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Some animated films initially make an impact but are then forgotten by the generations following the original audience, whereas other animated films are immediately ignored upon release. Because of this, a whole array of animated films are seemingly unheard of, except by a select few viewers. Occasionally, animated films get noticed years later to become cult classics. Still, without an audience to talk about them, many films never get any attention in the competitive field of movie making.

10 The Scarecrow Was A Forgettable Musical

The Scarecrow 2000

The 2000 release of The Scarecrow followed the titular Scarecrow Feathertop, who fell in love with the human Polly. With magic, Feathertop appeared human, so he could meet Polly and hopefully make her fall in love with him.

Feathertop ran into trouble with his romantic rival Grisham, who wished to marry Polly for her looks. While this film had nice characters and plenty of creative dance routines, the music, animation, and plot were subpar and unmemorable at best.

9 Postman Pat: The Movie Subverted Expectations

Postman Pat The Movie

Postman Pat is a UK cartoon that started airing in 1981 and is still ongoing today, following the daily life of Pat and his cat Jess while they deliver the mail in their small town of Greendale. With such limited adventures for the kind-hearted postman, it was an ambitious project for Lionsgate to give Pat his own feature-length film. Yet, in 2014, the world saw the release of Postman Pat: The Movie.

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Instead of following Pat's usual routine as a Postman, the movie saw Pat enter a singing contest run by the famous judge, Simon Cowbell. Pat entered the contest to help pay for the honeymoon that he and his wife could never afford. While the start is somewhat generic, the film soon subverted expectations and got plain weird when Pat became so famous that the mail service built an armada of robotic Pat clones to deliver the mail across the country. Pat was then forced to battle his evil robot doppelgängers, ensuring they didn't take over the world.

8 Bartok The Magnificent Is The Colorful Spin-Off To Anastasia

Bartok The Magnificent animated movie starring Bartok the bat.

1999's Bartok the Magnificent was the prequel and spin-off to Don Bluth's hit film Anastasia. Yet, where many viewers remember Anastasia as a timeless classic, few have ever heard of this colorful prequel.

The story follows Bartok the bat as he runs a show bragging about the heroic deeds he never performed to con audiences out of their money. However, when the young Czar Ivan is kidnapped, Bartok's new fans send him to defeat the witch Baba Yaga to rescue Ivan. Despite having a hit cast with Tim Curry, Kelsey Grammer, and Jennifer Tilly, this witty film is not well remembered.

7 Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer Turned A Christmas Comedy Song Into A Movie

Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer

Over the years, the classic Christmas comedy song Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer has been covered by many artists, and in the year 2000, the song's events were turned into an animated film of the same name. The strange film plot saw the rise of an evil CEO, Jake Spankenheimer, who tries to get Grandma to sell her famous fruit cake bakery. However, Grandma initially refuses the sale, and so Jake tries to claim power of attorney over her legal affairs.

While his plan initially fails, Jake later starts to look sensible next to Grandma, who becomes an amnesiac after Santa runs her over with his reindeer. The film is largely unknown except to a small cult following who claim that it and its namesake song are the height of comedy.

6 Rover Dangerfield Immortalized Comedian Rodney Dangerfield As A Dog

Rover Dangerfield and Rodney Dangerfield

Comedian Rodney Dangerfield was at peak popularity during the late 80s. Naturally, Warner Bros. decided to make a comedy film wherein Rodney became Rover, voicing his namesake dog in an animated adventure. The film follows Rover, the Vegas show dog, as he tries to adjust to farm life after being forced to flee his home.

Considering most of Rodney's fans were adults, this film didn't go down well with its target audience of children and was largely forgotten after its initial release. Had the film been R-Rated as it was initially intended, it might have done well with an older audience and riskier jokes.

5 Faeries Combined 2-D Animation, CGI, and Practical Effects In A Daring Manner

Faeries 1999 animated movie.

The 1999 film Faeries followed two children, Nellie and George, as they accidentally find themselves transported to Fairyland. After George eats a fairy cake, the faeries insist that he cannot leave unless he completes some trials that will satisfy the Prince. However, the children are hindered by the villainous Shapeshifter, who plans to use them to depose the Prince and steal the throne.

Although the film's story is fairly standard, what makes it so unusual is the multiple mediums of animation used. Most of the film is 2-D animation, yet as it progresses, it adds CGI and even includes some live-action backgrounds to introduce practical effects to the film. While the changes in animation are jarring and strange by today's standards, they were bold and experimental upon the film's initial release.

4 The Magic Flute Is A Weird Conglomeration Of Events

The Magic Flute 1995 animated movie.

Made to showcase Mozart's opera of the same name, the BBC's 1995 short film The Magic Flute was a part of the Operavox series. The film was a nonsensical series of events made difficult to follow with its rushed dialogue and fast-paced changes of scenery.

With only 30 minutes to depict the story of The Magic Flute, the film was so badly rushed that no viewer could make sense of what was going on without understanding the original material. This animation saw men turn into birds, the animal kingdom dancing ballet, and the Queen of Night melting into nothingness while her servants flew into the moon.

3 Plague Dogs Was A Horror Presented To Children

Snitter and Ruwf escape the lab in The Plague Dogs movie.

Richard Adams was a famous British novelist, well known for his depressing stories with dark endings, many of which were immortalized in disturbing films targeted toward children. While many remember the harrowing scenes of Watership Down which saw rabbits drowning in fields of blood, few know that Adams' work inspired another film, The Plague Dogs.

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The film followed two dogs, Rowf and Snitter, who are test subjects in a laboratory. As test subjects, the pair are subjected to electric shocks and are repeatedly drowned and resuscitated to satisfy the Scientists' curiosity. The pair escape the laboratory, seeking freedom, yet are hunted by their previous masters. However, there is no happy ending in this disturbing horror, as the two dogs end up drowning in a lake.

2 Rock And Rule Was A Post-Apocalyptic Musical

Rock and Rule animated movie poster.

Rock and Rule, otherwise known as Ring of Power, was an adult Jukebox Musical released in 1983. The film followed old Rock performer Mok Swagger on his journey to find the perfect voice in a world of wash-ups and has-beens.

Mok soon finds the singer, Angel, and while she believes he only wishes for her to sing for him, Mok actually intends to use her voice to summon a demon from another dimension who can only be freed through the power of music. This strange adventure film is little remembered and went largely ignored upon initial release.

1 Felidae Was A Disturbing Yet Beautiful Animation

Felidae animated movie poster.

The 1994 German animation Felidae saw Francis the cat as an amateur detective trying to solve the mystery of who was murdering his fellow cats. The few viewers who remember this film were disturbed by its contents.

Most initially mistook Felidae for a children's film thanks to its beautiful animation reminiscent of the Disney art style, yet even more fluid and striking. However, viewers were quickly horrified to see scenes such as uncensored animal mating, brutal on-screen murders, and worst of all, Francis' nightmare of Gregor Mendel puppeteering hundreds of mangled feline corpses.

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