Film
Ghostdance
A 90-minute animated film about a Mykis, a Native teenager who accidentally summons a faceless spirit and strikes a bargain: he'll help her recover her identity if she teaches him to dance. Visually inventive, emotionally grounded, it moves between the mundane and the supernatural with genuine tenderness. For anyone drawn to stories where the magical emerges from grief and connection.
If you liked this
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse2023
Virtuosic animation that treats movement and identity as the same thing. Every frame builds character through how bodies occupy space. The story is secondary to the visual storytelling.
But At 140 minutes it sprawls, and the plot deliberately doesn't resolve. Some find it exhausting rather than exhilarating.
Your Name.2016
A spirit-tinged romance where two people are literally separated by identity. Gorgeous, propulsive, and deeply felt. Proves animation can do intimate character work at blockbuster scale.
But The premise is fantastical and the emotional beats are engineered to hit hard. If you distrust sentimentality you'll sense the machinery.
Wolfwalkers2020
A girl discovers a supernatural parallel world and must choose between two lives. Stunningly drawn, it moves between watercolor softness and visual intensity. The animation itself tells you who the characters are.
But The plot is fairly straightforward coming-of-age stuff. If you need narrative complexity over visual poetry, it might feel slight.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Ghostdance
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri2017
Both use animation to explore identity and belonging through a young person's journey. Ghostdance finds magic in the spiritual; Afar finds it in the everyday. Both trust the image over explanation.
An animated documentary following an 11-year-old Ethiopian boy across landscapes and through city life. No dialogue, only observation. Pure visual storytelling about identity, belonging, and the vastness of the world. Animation becomes ethnography.
But It's slow and radically unnarrated. No plot, no music, no guide. For many viewers this will feel like a lecture rather than a film.
More like this (7)
The Secret of Kells2009
Gorgeously stylized Irish mythology filtered through a boy's discovery of magic and belonging. Every frame looks like an illuminated manuscript. Proof that animation can be folk art.
But It's more mood and beauty than plot momentum. The story meanders deliberately, which some experience as pacing issues.
Spirited Away2001
A girl enters a spirit world and must recover her identity to escape. Miyazaki's masterpiece blends the mundane and magical seamlessly. The animation is alive in ways that feel almost spiritual.
But It's 125 minutes of patient, deliberate storytelling. If you need constant plot movement this will feel slow, even now.
A Letter to Momo2012
A grief-stricken girl befriends yokai (Japanese spirits) and learns to live again. Tender, beautifully animated, and unafraid of sadness. The supernatural emerges naturally from emotional truth.
But It's contemplative and quiet. The pace is determined by feeling rather than action, which doesn't suit every mood.
Song of the Sea2014
Two siblings and a seal-woman navigate a world where Irish mythology is fading away. Stunningly composed, it treats animation as pure storytelling. The emotional core is unshakeable.
But Like other Tomm Moore films it prioritizes atmosphere over plot clarity. The narrative logic is poetic rather than literal.
Moana2016
Polynesian mythology, ancestral spirits, and a girl discovering who she is through dance and navigation. Visually confident, musically strong, emotionally genuine. Blockbuster animation with real depth.
But It's more conventionally plotted than some of these others. If you want strangeness and ambiguity over clarity, it's safer.
The Boy and the Heron2023
Miyazaki's latest is a fever dream where a grieving boy pursues a heron into a magical world. The animation is extraordinary and the emotional register is complex. It's about loss, memory, and finding a way forward.
But It's deliberately disorienting and doesn't explain itself. The logic is dreamlike rather than narrative. It demands patience and tolerance for strangeness.
The Breadwinner2017
Both center a young person using supernatural/magical intervention to navigate a fractured identity and recover what's been taken. Both ask: what do we need to become to survive? Both answer with beauty rather than cynicism.
An Afghan girl disguises herself as a boy to survive Taliban rule, escaping into stories and animation. It moves between live reality and animated imagination. Visually bold, emotionally shattering, gorgeously drawn by different hands.
But It deals with real atrocity and oppression. This isn't comfort viewing. The tonal shifts between reality and fantasy can feel jarring.
People
Directing
- Kim O'BomsawinDirector
- Nicolas BliesDirector
- Stéphane Hueber-BliesDirector
Writing
- Kim O'BomsawinWriter
- Nicolas BliesWriter
- Stéphane Hueber-BliesWriter
- Valérie Beaugrand-ChampagneWriter
Production
- Andrée-Anne FrenetteProducer
- Francine AllaireProducer
- François Le GallProducer
- Marion GuthProducer
- Sébastien OnomoProducer
- Stéphan RoelantsProducer