A happy animated 2015 to you!

Don’t deny it, every adult still has a child somewhere deep down inside the heart. That’s the reason why each time an animated movie releases, you can see as many adults in the cinema theatres as young fans.

I’ve often marveled at how much more powerful the storylines of animated features are, compared to action movies. Makers of cartoons are poets in their own rights.

There are some great cartoon movies coming to a theatre near you this year. Here’s a look at five of them. Which one is the child in you craving for?

1. Inside Out

Pixar’s movies have always been hotly anticipated and they never fail to deliver. It has been almost two years since their last — Monsters University — and the world will be waiting with bated breath for their newest feature ‘Inside Out’.

This movie is set inside the consciousness of an 11-year-old girl and it charts her progress into teenage-dom. There is a constant battle between her five emotions — anger, fear, disgust, sadness and joy.

Only the people at Pixar can think up of such mad movie themes and we love them for that. Release the movie already!

Release date: June 19

Director: Pete Docter

Voice Cast: Amy Poehler, Lewis Black, Mindy Kaling, Bill Hader

2. Minions

What is the best thing that could happen to a super villain? Why, hundreds of yellow, cute, thumb-shaped minions, of course. But how do they find a master, if each of them perish thanks to their idiotic actions?

Though Minions speak mostly in baby tongue, they were ultimately the best things in Despicable Me 1 and 2. So a spin-off movie for the loveable beings was but a foregone conclusion.

By releasing it right in the middle of superhero tent pole movie season, the makers seems absolutely confident in their product. The trailer shows why. There’s a wealth of A-list celebrities to voice the minions and there’s little doubt this is going to be a laugh fest. Bananaaaaaa….

Release date: July 10

Director: Pierre Coffin, Kyle Balda

Voice Cast: Sandra Bullock, Jon Hamm, Michael Keaton, Alison Janney

3. Hotel Transylvania 2

The clash of generations continue. If the first movie spoke about the relationship between Count Dracula and his daughter, the second is all about the Count’s differences of opinion with his own father Vlad, an old school vampire, who decides to visit his son’s human-free hotel for monsters.

Once again, there’s a stellar cast of voice talents onboard. The first movie gave at least some people a feeling the makers did not fully utilise the wealth of talent available to them. Here’s hoping they get it right the second time around.

Release date: September 25

Director: Genndy Tartakovsky

Voice Cast: Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, Steve Buscemi, Mel Brooks

4. The Good Dinosaur

A film that has been in the making for almost five years, this is Pixar’s most troubled films to date. It had different release dates starting November, 2013. The film replaced its original director Bob Peterson with Peter Sohn and the plot too has allegedly undergone significant changes.

The synopsis states that in a world where dinosaurs never became extinct, a teenage Apatosaurus named Arlo goes on a quest to help his peaceful community, adopting a human boy named Spot along the way. Sounds promising.

Release date: November 25

Director: Peter Sohn

Voice Cast: Lucas Neff, John Lithgow, Frances McDormand, Neil Patrick Harris

5. Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet

This movie has a Qatari connection too as the Doha Film Institute played a major role in seeing the movie come to fruition. The film, inspired by the beloved classic, tells the story of an unlikely friendship between a young, mischievous girl and an imprisoned poet.

Roger Allers, director of Disney classic The Lion King, has ensured that the animation is top notch. Salma Hayek too has gone to town with her turn as a voice artist. This is one movie I would hate to miss.

Release date: August 7

Director: Roger Allers

Voice cast: Salma Hayek, Liam Neeson, John Krasinski, Alfred Molina, Quvenzhane Wallis, Frank Langella