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Disney is forever synonymous with cartoons and animation, and while the recent Pixar films (Pixar is owned by Disney) have gathered critical acclaim, they’re still a far cry from some of the best Anime movies ever made. During the late 80s and the 90s, Anime went from a niche viewership that was rarely available in the Western world, to almost mainstream it is today, mainly because of a few films that changed the way the Western audience looked at animes. Here are ten anime movies that surpass virtually anything Disney has made, including the Pixar films.

10: 5CM Per Second (2007, IMDB link)

Probably one of the most visually stunning animated movies (not just animes) to be released this decade, 5CM Per Second is comprised of three stories, which deal with love between people with a great distance between them. It’s not for everyone, especially young kids who won’t understand much of it, but the sheer beauty of the animation of Makoto Shinkai is some of the most artful visions you’ll ever see — both in animation and live action movies. Just search the title on Google Images and indulge yourself in a few frames.
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Legendary Japanese anime Akira is coming to Blu-ray this month – February 24 to be precise.

The film will make use of the BD-50 dual-layer discs that hold 50GB of data. The video will be a new 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 transfer (1.85:1) and Japanese audio in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround (192 KHz/24 bit), PCM 2.0 Stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround. An English dub in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround will also be on the disc.

On Blu-ray.com is a long article that explains the meticulous process that is being used to restore the 1988 Japanese film for the HD release. While the film was remastered in 2001 for DVD, advancements in technology meant they had to start all over again.

Talking to MTV News, Leonardo diCaprio revealed that he is waiting for the final draft of the live-action remake of classic anime film Akira. He also noted that Ninja Scroll is still in early development stage.

One can easily epect Hollywood to screw up these projects, but diCaprio seems committed not to make them fail.

"I’m a big fan of Japanese anime… I know there a lot of loyal fans out there of the project and die-hard fans, so we’re going to try to do the best job we possibly can and we’re not going to make the movie until the script is in the right shape," he said.

Finally, he added that he has no plans to star in either film though his Appian Way company is producing both projects.