The Best Animated Shorts and Anthologies Streaming in 2025

Animated short films and anthology series represent animation at its most experimental and emotionally concentrated. Without the runtime requirements of features or the narrative obligations of series, shorts can take creative risks that longer formats cannot afford. Streaming platforms have collected an impressive array of animated anthologies and short film collections.

How We Selected: We reviewed options using full-season viewing, critical analysis, and production quality assessment. Primary factors were rewatch value, pacing consistency, narrative quality, acting performances. We do not accept payment or free products from any brand featured here.

Love, Death and Robots (Netflix)

Tim Miller and David Fincher’s anthology series collects animated shorts spanning science fiction, horror, comedy, and fantasy, each using a different animation style. Episodes range from five to twenty minutes, and the quality varies intentionally from photo-realistic 3D to hand-drawn to stop motion. Standout episodes include “Beyond the Aquila Rift,” a space horror story with a devastating twist, “Jibaro,” a visually stunning folk tale, and “Three Robots,” a comedic exploration of a post-human world. Four volumes provide hours of some of the most visually inventive animation available anywhere.

Inside Job (Netflix)

Shion Takeuchi’s animated comedy about a dysfunctional team that secretly runs the world blends conspiracy theory satire with genuine emotional depth. Lizzy Caplan voices Reagan Ridley, a genius engineer whose relationship with her manipulative father drives the show’s character arc. The show lasted two seasons before cancellation, but what exists is sharply written and consistently funny.

Blue Eye Samurai (Netflix)

This animated historical drama set in Edo-period Japan follows a mixed-race swordswoman seeking revenge against the European men responsible for her birth. The animation combines 3D characters with painterly environments inspired by traditional Japanese art, and the fight choreography is among the best in any animated series. The show takes its historical setting seriously while delivering visceral action and emotional storytelling.

Scavengers Reign (Max)

This adult animated science fiction series follows the crew of a damaged spacecraft stranded on an alien planet teeming with bizarre and dangerous life forms. The animation style is gorgeous, with alien ecosystems depicted in loving biological detail that makes the planet feel like a living character. The show’s pacing is deliberate and meditative, prioritizing atmosphere and worldbuilding over action.

Primal (Max)

Genndy Tartakovsky’s nearly dialogue-free series about a caveman and a dinosaur is a masterwork of visual storytelling. The animation communicates complex emotions entirely through movement and expression, and the action sequences are stunningly violent and beautiful. Two seasons prove that animation can deliver visceral adult entertainment without spoken dialogue.

The Midnight Gospel (Netflix)

Duncan Trussell and Pendleton Ward created an animated series that combines psychedelic visuals with genuine philosophical podcast conversations. Each episode features a real interview between Trussell and guests discussing meditation, death, drugs, and consciousness, overlaid with surreal animated adventures. The final episode, a conversation with Trussell’s dying mother, is one of the most emotionally devastating pieces of animation ever produced.

Star Wars: Visions (Disney Plus)

Japanese animation studios were given creative freedom to interpret the Star Wars universe, and the result is a collection of shorts that range from samurai drama to romantic comedy to abstract expressionism. Each studio brings its own visual identity, and the best episodes demonstrate how animation can reinvent familiar franchises through different cultural lenses.

Pixar SparkShorts (Disney Plus)

Pixar’s program for developing new talent produced a collection of shorts that experiment with visual styles and storytelling approaches outside the studio’s theatrical comfort zone. Films like Float, which uses flight as a metaphor for autism, and Kitbull, about the friendship between a kitten and a pit bull, demonstrate that Pixar’s emotional intelligence extends to formats beyond feature films.

Why Animated Shorts Matter

Short-form animation is where the medium’s future is being developed. The techniques, styles, and storytelling approaches pioneered in shorts eventually influence feature films and series. For viewers, shorts provide maximum creative impact in minimum time.

For more animation content, check out our guides to the best animated comedy for adults and the best animated shows for kids.