Most traumatic animated films

Spirited Away wins 65% of its duels and tops the Animated Movies ranking ahead of Coraline.

The top three cluster within 11 ELO points, but the real divide emerges lower down. Grave of the Fireflies sits at rank 4 with 1316 ELO, then a 35-point drop separates it from Corpse Bride at rank 5. That gap marks the sharpest distinction in the upper rankings. Spirited Away's lead is narrow—just 7 points over Coraline—yet its win rate and duel count establish dominance in a tight field. Monster House rounds out the podium at rank 3 with 1318 ELO, while the bottom contenders spread wider: Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland lands at rank 25 with 1028 ELO, 45 points below The Last Unicorn and 301 points below the leader. The bottom positions suggest these films left less scarring impressions on voters than their higher-ranked counterparts.

This ranking draws from 854 duels contributed by 11 players across 25 contenders, last updated on 12 October 2026. Each duel asks which animated movie delivered the most trauma, and the results sketch a hierarchy of childhood disturbances. Spirited Away edges out stop-motion nightmares and wartime devastation alike. To shape this TopList further or explore how your own traumatic favorites measure up, cast your vote in the next round of duels.

Updated on October 12, 2026

How this ranking is computed

Every duel won lifts a contender and every loss drops them, by an amount that depends on the opponent's strength: beating the leader is worth more than beating the last. It is an ELO, the same principle as in chess. Duels are not drawn at random — an adaptive entropy sort puts the least predictable match-ups first, which settles the ranking far faster than a full round robin. A worldwide ranking is only published past 30 completed plays. Known limit: a contender who has faced few opponents keeps an approximate score, and the bottom of the table moves more than the podium.

How our rankings are made →