Long-running franchises are more common nowadays, with series milking their IP as much as possible, for better or worse. However, everyone loves a good trilogy, like The Lord of the Rings. Animation, in particular, has become more popular, with viewers hoping for more trios in the medium.
With the rise of animation, now is the perfect time to rank the seven best movie trilogies, with each entry a masterpiece. Based on animation, writing, popularity, fan opinion, critical acclaim, and the overall quality of each film, here are seven must-watch trilogies that define the genre’s best.
1
Berserk: The Golden Age Arc (2012–2013)
Berserk is arguably one of the greatest manga series of all time, but its anime adaptations have received mixed reception. This set of movies adapts the Golden Age arc, a flashback about Guts’ backstory, from meeting the Band of the Hawk to fighting many battles, to the one moment that changed his life forever.
The later adaptations of Berserk are much worse, but luckily, these films are at least good, if not as good as the manga. Still, this story is timeless, and the trilogy does an excellent job of highlighting this iconic fantasy arc. It is dark, compelling, and rich in storytelling, making for a worthy adaptation of one of the best manga stories. Fans are better off reading the manga, but these movies are still masterpieces in their own right.
2
The Lego Movie Trilogy (2014–2019)
Rex Dangervest, voiced by Chris Pratt, smiles confidently in The Lego Movie 2.Image via Warner Bros.
Everyone grew up playing with LEGOs, so it was only a matter of time until it got its own movie. The LEGO Movie had only two films, but this entry also includes The LEGO Batman Movie. Emmett (Chris Pratt) is an average construction worker, but now he is the one chosen to lead the resistance against evil.
No one expected The Lego Movie to be so good, but it instantly became a family classic and a staple animated movie. It was fun and creative, relating to everyone who has ever played with Lego. Next is The Lego Batman Movie, which was another shockingly fascinating and entertaining film that did well by the character while also offering new moments and humor, resulting in a fun and quirky trilogy that many fans want a new movie of.
3
Puss in Boots Trilogy (2011–2022)
Puss in Boots bids farewell to a female cat on a dock by a ship in Puss in Boots, 2011Image via DreamWorks
Shrek is one of the most iconic trilogies of all time, but it sadly didn’t make this list since not all of them are masterpieces. However, that created an equally great spin-off, Puss in Boots. The titular cat has three films, each taking him from encounters with a bad egg and three adorable but feisty kittens to a face-to-face encounter with death itself.
Puss in Boots: The Three Diablos isn’t a masterpiece, but it is still a solid and enjoyable film that shouldn’t keep this trilogy off this list. The first film is an entertaining romp, but nothing more. However, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is one of the greatest modern animated films, conveying a sense of emotional weight heavier than most. The themes, story, and villain create a masterpiece that rivals most animated trilogies.
Collider Exclusive · Oscar Best Picture Quiz Which Oscar Best Picture Is Your Perfect Movie? Parasite · Everything Everywhere · Oppenheimer · Birdman · No Country
Five Oscar Best Picture winners. Five completely different visions of what cinema can be — and what it can do to you. One of them is the film that was made for the way your mind works. Ten questions will figure out which one.
🪜Parasite
🌀Everything Everywhere
☢️Oppenheimer
🐦Birdman
🪙No Country for Old Men
01
What kind of film experience do you actually want? The best movies don’t just entertain — they leave something behind.
02
Which idea grabs you most in a film? Great films are driven by a central obsession. What’s yours?
03
How do you like your story told? Form is content. The way a story is shaped changes what it means.
04
What makes a truly great antagonist? The opposition defines the protagonist. What kind of opposition fascinates you?
05
What do you want from a film’s ending? The final note is the one that lingers. What do you want it to sound like?
06
Which setting pulls you in most? Where a film takes place shapes everything — mood, stakes, what’s even possible.
07
What cinematic craft impresses you most? Every great film has a signature — a technical or artistic element that makes it unmistakable.
08
What kind of main character do you root for? The protagonist is the lens. Who you choose to follow says something about you.
09
How do you feel about a film that takes its time? Pace is a choice. Some films sprint; others let tension accumulate slowly, deliberately.
10
What do you want to feel walking out of the cinema? The best films leave a mark. What kind of mark do you want?
The Academy Has Decided Your Perfect Film Is…
Your answers have pointed to one Oscar Best Picture winner above all others. This is the film that was made for the way your mind works.
Parasite
You are drawn to films that operate on multiple levels simultaneously — that begin in one genre and quietly, brilliantly migrate into another. Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite is a film about class, desire, and the architecture of inequality that manages to be darkly funny, deeply suspenseful, and genuinely shocking across a single extraordinary running time. Your instinct is for cinema that hides its true intentions until the moment it’s ready to reveal them. Parasite is exactly that — a film that rewards close attention and punishes assumptions, right up to its devastating final image.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
You want it all — and this film gives you all of it. The Daniels’ Everything Everywhere All at Once is one of the most maximalist films ever made: action comedy, multiverse sci-fi, family drama, existential crisis, and a genuinely earned emotional core that sneaks up on you amid the chaos. You are someone who responds to ambition, who doesn’t want cinema to choose between being entertaining and being meaningful. This film refuses that choice entirely. It is overwhelming by design, and its overwhelming nature is precisely the point — because the feeling of being crushed by infinite possibility is exactly what it’s about.
Oppenheimer
You are drawn to cinema on a grand scale — films that understand history not as a backdrop but as a force, and that place their characters inside that force and watch what happens. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is a film about the terrifying gap between what we can do and what we should do, told with the full weight of one of the most consequential moments in human history behind it. You want your films to feel important without feeling self-important — to earn their ambition through sheer craft and the gravity of their subject. Oppenheimer does exactly that. It is enormous, complicated, and refuses easy comfort.
Birdman
You are drawn to films that foreground their own construction — that make the how of the filmmaking part of the what it’s about. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, shot to appear as a single continuous take, is cinema examining itself through the cracked mirror of a fading actor’s ego. You respond to formal daring, to the feeling that a film is doing something that probably shouldn’t be possible. Michael Keaton’s performance and Emmanuel Lubezki’s restless camera create something genuinely unlike anything else — a film that is simultaneously about creativity, relevance, self-destruction, and the impossibility of ever truly knowing if your work means anything at all.
No Country for Old Men
You are drawn to cinema that trusts silence, that refuses to explain itself, and that treats dread as a form of meaning. The Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men is a film about the arrival of a new kind of evil — implacable, arbitrary, and utterly indifferent to the moral frameworks we use to make sense of the world. It is one of the most formally controlled films ever made, and its controlled restraint is what makes it so terrifying. You want your films to haunt you, not comfort you. You are not interested in resolution if resolution would be dishonest. No Country for Old Men is honest in a way that most cinema never dares to be.
4
Kizumonogatari Trilogy (2016–2017)
There are a handful of anime films on this list, but one of the greatest anime series of all time featured is the Monogatari Series. The Kizumonogataritrilogy is the first part of the franchise chronologically, following Araragi as he gains the powers of a vampire. However, if he wants to live as a human, he must retrieve the limbs of the vampire who took his blood, sending him off on a perilous journey.
The Monogatari Series is one of the most polarizing anime series because of its controversial themes and sexual content. However, the Kizumonogatarimovies feature less of that and more of a cohesive story, making it the series’s best arc. The animation is gorgeous, fluid, and distinct, and the direction, editing, and style create an unconventional yet mesmerizing movie. Kizumonogatariis a wild ride with action, gore, romance, and drama, and each film is better than the next.
5
How to Train Your Dragon Trilogy (2010–2019)
Live-action adaptations of animated films are all the rage nowadays, even if they rarely turn out well, but one of the most recent was also one of the best. How to Train Your Dragon is a staple of the 2010s, following Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), a Viking boy too weak in a world of cold-hearted warriors. Instead of killing a dragon, he tames it, hoping the rest of the clan and these creatures can live in harmony.
The How to Train Your Dragon franchise is one of the most consistent, with each of the three movies offering a fun adventure with plenty of drama, emotion, action, and magic. The messages are wholesome and important, bolstering this already essential film with worthwhile subtleties. Each movie is grander than the next, and the natural progression and aging of the characters is a nice addition, creating an essential 2010s animated trilogy.
6
Makoto Shinkai’s Disaster Trilogy (2016–2022)
Suzume holding a chair while looking at the camera in SuzumeImage via Toho
Most of the anime films on this list are part of a franchise or adaptation work, but Makoto Shinkai’s Disaster Trilogy is an original story. The trilogy consists of Your Name, which follows two teenagers who try to find each other after they switch bodies; Weathering With You, where a runaway student meets a girl who can control the weather; and Suzume, where the titular protagonist can see supernatural forces and tries to stop the world from ending.
What starts as a wholesome adventure in Your Name quickly becomes a high-stakes race against time. Often hailed as one of the greatest anime films of all time, this is the trilogy’s best, known for its visual beauty, powerful themes, and a profound romantic story. Weathering With You is the least popular of the bunch, but it is arguably the most daring. Choosing an unexpected plot twist, the story is ingrained in everyone’s memory. The atmospheric storytelling and gritty urban style set it apart from other idealistic films. Suzume is a direct response to the 2011 earthquake, detailing a deeply personal film that is also the most important. It ends the trilogy on a fantastic note, with masterful writing, themes, and animation.
7
Toy Story Trilogy (1995–2010)
Image via Disney/Pixar
After a string of lackluster originals, Pixar has leaned heavily into sequels, some of which panned out, while others failed. However, their magnum opus is undoubtedly Toy Story. When Andy accidentally forgets his toys when moving, his old reliable cowboy, Woody (Tom Hanks), and new and improved space man, Buzz (Tim Allen), begrudgingly work together to find him. Toy Story 2 is about the gang trying to escape a greedy collector, and Toy Story 3 follows the usual crew trying to escape a center for abandoned toys after mistakenly being donated.
Technically, Toy Story isn’t a trilogy, as the fourth film in 2019 made it a tetralogy, and the upcoming Toy Story 5 will make it even longer. Still, the original three is too perfect a conclusion not to be considered its own trilogy. The first three films are a flawless, complete story, wrapping up character arcs and bringing themes full circle. Each has a powerful message that is something new and inventive. In the end, the Toy Story trilogy might be the greatest of all time.
