The Best Animated Movies to Prepare for Halloween Season

The Fall season has officially begun and so has the usual Fall crazes. Most people are in the middle of being wrapped up in the yearly "pumpkin spice craze" and others are excited to be able to pull out all of their flannel shirts from the back of their closet.

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The start of Fall also sets off another beloved time of the year and that is the spooky season. Halloween is right around the corner and one of the best ways to prepare for the scariest day of the year is with some good movies.

There are tons of movies to choose from to get into the Halloween spirit but today we'll be focusing on animated Halloween movies, so you won't be seeing anything from "The Conjuring" universe here. There however is a pretty good chance you'll see an entry (maybe two) from the Tim Burton catalog.

Criteria for This Halloween Movie List

I already mentioned that this list is going to be made up of animated Halloween-themed movies, so that is obviously the first requirement. The second requirement however is also important because though some may associate animated movies to be for kids, we want this list to be fun for adults too. Lastly, I need to have seen the movie myself, because how could I put an honest list together if I haven't seen it?

Halloween Movie Number One: Scooby-Doo! on Zombie Island

We are starting this list with a classic cast of characters that have been watched and enjoyed by children and adults for decades. Introducing our first entrant we have "Scooby-Doo! on Zombie Island."

Scooby-Doo! on Zombie Island was originally released as a straight-to-video feature back in 1998 and it marked a first for the Mystery Team. That first was that the monsters were in fact real. Actually the line "this time, the monsters are real" was used heavily to promote the film. This would also be the first entrant into a long list of straight-to-video Scooby-Doo movie releases which would include "Scooby-Doo! And the Witch's Ghost".

Lastly, this movie gave 90's kids like myself one of the greatest songs ever. Introducing "It's Terror Time Again".

Enter the "Corpse Bride"

Next up on this list of movies to get you ready for Halloween is the first entrant from the one and only Tim Burton. It's time for the "Corpse Bride."

Corpse Bride originally debuted back in 2005 and starred Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. The movie follows Depp's character Victor who is to be married but runs away after a case of cold feet. His running away leads him into the forest where after "grave misunderstanding" he finds himself "married" to the Corpse Bride Emily played by Bonham Carter.

As the movie progresses, a much more sinister story begins to unfold.

Off to a Parallel World with "Coraline"

Next on the list is a movie that many assume is a Tim Burton piece but actually isn't. Number three on this list is the 2009 hit, "Coraline."

I'm not going to lie, I literally just discovered that Coralina IS NOT a Tim Burton movie, however, there are a few reasons for that. According to Screen Rant, one of the reasons for this is because of the "gothic tone" the movie has which is similar to Burton's other movies. In addition, the director of Coraline was Henry Selick, who has worked with Tim Burton on a number of occasions.

The "Monster House" is Hungry

Entrant number 4 on this list comes from 2006 and it's a Monster...House that is.

"Monster House" takes that old idea of "that creepy house at the end of the street" to a whole new level. The three central characters to the film DJ, Chowder and Jenny must figure out a way to stop the literal monster house before the trick-or-treaters come out for Halloween. As Rotten Tomatoes stated, "Monster House welcomes kids and adults alike into a household full of smart, monstrous fun".

A Battle of Gotham's Biggest Bats: The Batman Vs Dracula

All right, I'll admit it, I played favorites with this next movie more so than any of the other options on the list. For the final entrant on this list, we are going to see a showdown in Gotham City, because it's "The Batman vs Dracula".

As a kid (and still today) Batman was my favorite superhero and this version of "The Batman" was a great follow-up to the highly acclaimed "Batman: The Animated Series" which starred Kevin Conroy as the caped Crusader and Mark Hamill as The Joker.

"The Batman vs Dracula" also served another purpose as it pitted the two titanic characters against each other for the first time.

You can find some more great Halloween themed content down below.