Cartoons of the 1960s – the best animated movies feature the work of Chuck Jones, who ensured characters were "not realistic, but believable"

Cartoons of the 1960s; A vibrant illustration of the Yellow Submarine, a psychedelically patterned background surrounds the iconic vessel.

The best cartoons of the 1960s include some of the biggest movie releases we still love today, including The One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), The Sword in the Stone (1963) and Mary Poppins (1964). But, there was more to animation in the 1960s than Disney. In this feature I ask filmmakers and animators working today, including the Chuck Jones Family and DNEG Animation, to name the cartoons of the '60s that got them into film.

For some background, the 1960s was a time of ever-evolving international animation production. Japanese, Chinese and Russian animation continued to be produced as it did across Europe. In the USA, the Walt Disney Animation Studio continued to produce a series of lavishly realised new movies in what would be the final decade of Disney’s life, one of which is The Jungle Book that appears on this list. For more of what came before, read my list of the best cartoons of the 1950s.