10 Best Animated Movies To Watch If You Love KPop Demon Hunters

Published Nov 13, 2026, 10:03 AM EST Senior Music Editor at Screen Rant, Sarah's love of sound and story drive the beat. A globetrotting brand whisperer and award-winning journalist, she’s built cross-cultural narratives around the world—but music has always been her true north. She launched DJ Mag North America, successfully introducing the iconic UK brand to the U.S. market. Previously, she carved a space for EDM inside the pages of VIBE, blending electronic and hip-hop culture long before it was trendy. Most pop stars worry about rival groups stealing their fans. In KPop Demon Hunters, the competition comes straight from hell. Netflix's animated phenomenon follows HUNTR/X, a wildly successful girl group whose concerts double as supernatural protection for the people cheering them on. Rumi, Mira, and Zoey have enough trouble managing fame before the Saja Boys arrive: a suspiciously irresistible boy band whose members are actual demons. At least most musicians only have to worry about bad reviews. The premise is gloriously ridiculous, but the movie knows exactly how to sell it. Its songs are proper pop hits rather than obligatory breaks in the story, and the fight choreography has the confidence of a stadium production. There's also a surprisingly painful secret beneath Rumi's polished image. As the daughter of a demon, she fears that revealing her true identity could cost her the friendships she's spent her life protecting. The conflict gives the music a purpose beyond generating another irresistible earworm. By the time HUNTR/X takes the stage for its biggest moments, a performance can feel as consequential as any battle. That combination makes finding a follow-up harder than it sounds. An animated musical with supernatural enemies would be the obvious choice, but fans might be equally drawn to the movie's unruly sense of humor or its striking visual style. And anyone who connected with Rumi's story may prefer another heroine wrestling with an identity she can't neatly explain to the people she loves. The films below take different routes to that same rush of excitement. Some turn concerts into battlegrounds; others find magic in an instrument or make teenage fandom feel like a life-or-death matter. Fortunately, you don't have to fight a demon to enjoy any of them. Turning Red (2022) The Saja Boys have serious competition in 4*TOWN, the fictional boy band that sends the girls of Pixar's Turning Red into a frenzy. Set in Toronto in 2002, Domee Shi's comedy follows 13-year-old Mei Lee, whose mother finds her devotion to the group alarming. Then Mei discovers that intense emotions turn her into a giant red panda. Adolescence was already going badly enough. Billie Eilish and Finneas wrote 4*TOWN's entirely convincing songs. The concert becomes a way for Mei and her friends to assert some independence, while the panda embodies everything she has been taught to keep under control. Rumi's secret in KPop Demon Hunters carries a different kind of danger, but both films understand how frightening it can be to disappoint the people you love. They also take the girls' enthusiasm for pop music seriously. Nobody needs to apologize for loving a boy band. One Piece Film: Red (2022) Uta, the superstar at the center of One Piece Film: Red, has a voice capable of doing considerably more than topping the charts. Her first live concert draws an enormous crowd, including Monkey D. Luffy and the Straw Hat Pirates. What begins as a celebration soon traps the audience in a supernatural crisis as Uta's plans take a sinister turn. HUNTR/X would have plenty to discuss with her about the responsibilities of fame. Japanese singer Ado supplies Uta's singing voice, performing seven featured songs that range from exuberant pop to far more volatile material. The numbers shape the action rather than simply decorating it; Uta's music is the source of the danger. That makes the film an unusually direct match for KPop Demon Hunters, especially for viewers fascinated by the way a performer can command an audience. There's one catch: One Piece comes with decades of lore, and newcomers won't recognize every face. The central concert story, however, has enough energy to welcome them anyway. Nimona (2023) Nimona would probably get along with HUNTR/X, provided nobody asked her to behave. In Netflix's animated fantasy, Chloë Grace Moretz voices a teenage shapeshifter who offers to help disgraced knight Ballister Boldheart (Riz Ahmed) clear his name. Nimona can become almost anything, frequently choosing the form most likely to cause widespread panic. Call her a monster and she'll give you a reason to run. Based on ND Stevenson's graphic novel, the film is gloriously funny until it suddenly isn't. Nimona's exuberance masks the damage of years spent being feared for something she can't change. Where Rumi hides her demonic heritage, Nimona performs her difference at maximum volume, daring the world to reject her again. The relationship with Ballister gives that bravado somewhere to go, and the action scenes make marvelous use of her unpredictable transformations. There's no pop concert to speak of. The film understands the loneliness behind a supposedly monstrous identity better than most musicals ever could. Scratch & Peek Identify the cover art while scratching off as little foil as possible. Trolls World Tour (2020) Custom Image by Shawn S Lealos Imagine the Saja Boys starting a genre war instead of trying to steal souls. In Trolls World Tour, Queen Barb (Rachel Bloom) wants rock music to conquer every other style, forcing Poppy (Anna Kendrick) and Branch (Justin Timberlake) to travel between musical kingdoms before her plan succeeds. The result is a ridiculously bright battle of the bands in which harmony has geopolitical consequences. Subtlety has wisely been left off the guest list. The voice cast includes Mary J. Blige and Kelly Clarkson, with Ozzy Osbourne playing Barb's father. Pop, funk, and rock collide in a soundtrack designed to keep the party moving, and the film has genuine affection for the cultures that grow around different kinds of music. It's younger-skewing than KPop Demon Hunters, with none of Rumi's darker emotional conflict. For viewers who primarily want another animated movie that treats a song like a superpower, though, it's a very cheerful fit. Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse (2018) When Miles Morales first becomes Spider-Man, he's less concerned with saving the multiverse than figuring out how to survive his new abilities without embarrassing himself. Sony Pictures Animation turns that familiar superhero dilemma into something radically inventive in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, where alternate Spider-heroes crash into Miles' life. The film never forgets that Miles is still figuring out who he wants to be. The visual kinship with KPop Demon Hunters is immediate: comic-book textures, deliberately exaggerated expressions, and action that plays fast and loose with physical reality. Both emerged from a studio willing to make computer animation look handmade and wonderfully unruly. Music is crucial, too. Post Malone and Swae Lee's "Sunflower" establishes Miles' world, while "What's Up Danger" turns his leap of faith into a moment of genuine exhilaration. That sequence gets at the same pleasure as watching Rumi finally own the part of herself she's been trying to conceal. Neither hero becomes compelling by copying somebody else. The Book Of Life (2014) Manolo, the aspiring musician in The Book of Life, would rather pick up his guitar than continue his family's bullfighting tradition. Unfortunately, his love for María becomes entangled in a wager between supernatural rulers, sending him into the Land of the Remembered. Directed by Jorge R. Gutiérrez and produced by Guillermo del Toro, the film draws on Mexican folklore and Día de Muertos traditions to create an afterlife bursting with color. Death has rarely looked so festive. The characters resemble painted wooden figures, making the animation feel like handmade folk art. Manolo's songs, including playful versions of familiar hits, are an extension of his struggle to choose his own future. That's the real connection to KPop Demon Hunters: music becomes an expression of personal identity while the supernatural world insists on interfering. The adventure is gentler, but the cultural details never feel like window dressing. Even the Land of the Remembered has its own irresistible showmanship. Big Hero 6 (2014) Baymax would be a terrible demon hunter. He'd probably insist on checking the monsters' vital signs before anyone was allowed to fight them. Still, Big Hero 6 shares HUNTR/X's team spirit. After a family tragedy, teenage inventor Hiro Hamada recruits his friends and gives his late brother's inflatable healthcare robot a less peaceful assignment. Where HUNTR/X has choreography, Hiro's team has customized technology, and the action builds around the pleasure of seeing everyone's abilities finally work together. Fall Out Boy's "Immortals" makes the group's superhero transformation feel like a full-scale music-video moment. But Baymax is more than a comic mascot. His earnest attempts to care for Hiro keep grief at the center of a story that might otherwise drown in gadgets. Fans drawn to the friendship and teamwork in KPop Demon Hunters should feel immediately at home, even without a single supernatural villain. The Mitchells Vs. The Machines (2021) The Mitchell family couldn't organize a normal road trip, let alone save civilization. Unfortunately, a robot uprising leaves aspiring filmmaker Katie, her parents, her little brother, and their deeply peculiar dog as humanity's best remaining hope. The Mitchells vs. the Machines comes from Sony Pictures Animation, the studio behind KPop Demon Hunters, and shares its willingness to push a visual joke until the screen practically explodes. Katie's handmade doodles invade the computer animation, internet memes become part of the storytelling, and the action never settles for a conventional chase when something much sillier is available. Beneath that gleeful mess is a sharp portrait of a father who doesn't understand his daughter's creative ambitions and a daughter who has stopped trying to explain them. Their disagreements are painfully recognizable even when robots are throwing people into pods. The Mitchells have no rehearsed moves or stage presence. Their spectacular lack of polish is precisely what makes them worth cheering for. Kubo And The Two Strings (2016) Kubo doesn't need a microphone to turn music into magic. The young storyteller at the center of Laika's Kubo and the Two Strings plays a shamisen that brings origami figures to life, a gift that becomes invaluable when dangerous spirits from his family's past begin hunting him. Director Travis Knight builds the adventure around Japanese-inspired folklore in astonishingly intricate stop-motion animation. The parallels go beyond the magical instrument. Kubo's abilities come with a family history he barely understands, and uncovering it forces him to reconsider what strength actually means. The masked Sisters are especially unnerving antagonists, far removed from the playful menace of the Saja Boys. There are no stadium anthems here; the shamisen's music feels intimate, almost like an extension of Kubo's memories. It's a more melancholy film than Netflix's pop-fantasy hit, but its spellbinding imagery makes room for genuine fear. Belle (2021) Release Date July 16, 2021 Runtime 121 minutes Director Mamoru Hosoda Writers Mamoru Hosoda Producers Nozomu Takahashi, Genki Kawamura, Yuichiro Saito, Yuka Saito, Hibiki Itou, Takeshi Kikuchi, Toshimi Tanio Cast Kaho Nakamura Suzu Naito / Belle (voice) Ryo Narita Shinobu Hisatake (voice) Shota Sometani Shinjiro 'Kamishin' Chikami (voice) Tina Tamashiro Ruka Watanabe (voice) Suzu can barely bring herself to sing in the real world. Online, she's a superstar. Mamoru Hosoda's Belle follows a grieving teenager who enters the vast virtual community U and becomes a celebrated performer through her dazzling digital avatar. Suddenly, millions of strangers adore a voice that Suzu has spent years struggling to reclaim. A mysterious figure known as the Dragon complicates her newfound fame. Her virtual concerts are enormous. Yet Hosoda's interest lies in the girl behind the avatar. Rumi knows that divide all too well. Both fear exposing the person behind the spectacle, though Suzu is hiding grief rather than demonic heritage. Belle also has the kind of soaring musical sequences that leave a song rattling around in your head long after the film ends. The fairy-tale romance sometimes strains against the darker material. For anyone whose favorite part of KPop Demon Hunters was watching Rumi find the courage to sing as herself, this is an especially rewarding next watch.