1. Cat Soup 2001 -
This surreal anime short follows a young cat and his older sister on a journey through space and time to recover a lost piece of the sister's soul. Along the way they encounter a wizard, befriend a pig (and then eat him), and almost get cooked into soup by a perverted android.
2. Steam Boy (2005) -
This is an incredible adventure film set in an alternate, steam-punk Victorian England. It's directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, director of Akira, probably the most famous anime of all time. The animation is better than anything Disney has done in well over a decade (Pixar excluded). Further proof that 2D animation is not dead by a long shot.
Ray Steam discovers his father and grandfather are involved in a new invention that will change the course of mankind. Trouble is, his father is using the technology to create war machines of the future. Ray struggles to find a way to stop them from being unleashed on the world, while trying to figure out who he can trust (if anyone).
One of the things I love about this movie is the character depth. The adults are all portrayed in varying shades of gray. While there are good guys and bad guys, no one is completely good or evil. It's a level of depth unfortunately lacking in many family films. Hell, it's just not a very popular concept in American culture at all, these days.
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