Best animation apps for kids (2026)

How do you decide which animation app is right for your kid? That's the question I started from when I designed Kubrio Animation Studio. I've spent 8 years in education. Before I built anything, I researched the popular kids' animation apps and made films with them: stop-motion apps, frame-by-frame drawing apps, puppet apps, and coding tools. Each one is good at something, and most of them keep a kid on the screen for most of the work.

I chose three things to design around. Screen time, because the making should happen on paper as much as possible. The principles of animation, because a kid who understands story, characters, and shots can make a film in any tool. And a real film at the end, because a finished thing that people watch is what makes a kid want to make the next one.

Why is this possible now? A kid can now direct a team of AI agents. In Kubrio Animation Studio, the agents bring your kid's drawing to life, set up the storyboard, and shoot every scene: the frame-by-frame work animators used to do by hand. So your kid's time goes to the parts that teach: drawing the characters, telling the story, and directing each scene. I designed Animation Studio to be the best at those three things. Here's how to check any app against them, including ours.

How to choose an animation app for your kid: three questions

How much screen time does it take?

Look at where the making happens. In FlipaClip or Animation Desk, your kid draws every frame on the screen: a lot of craft, and a lot of screen time. In Stop Motion Studio, the hands-on work is posing real objects, and the screen is for capturing each shot. An AI video app that turns a typed prompt into a cartoon takes a minute of screen time, but the kid described it and the machine made it.

We designed Animation Studio for less screen time, so most of the making happens at the table. Your kid draws the star and any other characters with a pencil or marker on real paper. They can sketch the story as a row of boxes before they tell it, and draw any storyboard panel they want to replace.

The screen comes in for short, specific jobs: snapping a photo of each drawing, telling Tek the story, checking the storyboard, and watching the scenes come back. A short movie takes about an hour in one sitting, and much of that hour is pencil and paper.

Does it teach how animation works?

Ask whether an app teaches the principles behind a film or only its buttons. Most of the apps we tested come with tutorials for their own tools. FlipaClip and Procreate Dreams teach the craft of motion well: onion skinning, frame rates, and timing. ScratchJr and Scratch teach sequence and logic. Stop Motion Studio teaches patience and small moves. Fewer of them teach the storytelling a film needs.

Every cartoon also needs the same storytelling pieces: a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end, characters people care about, a storyboard that plans each shot, sound and lines, directing, and a premiere where someone watches it.

Each room in the studio has a free film under a minute long that teaches one of those pieces, and each one shows how kids do it. They're free for anyone to watch, with no account. Watch them with your kid before a first film. Most of the steps work with paper and a pencil, even before you open any app.

What can your kid make with it?

Ask what your kid has at the end. The apps we tested make different things, and most stop at a clip: a flipbook-style clip from FlipaClip, a stop-motion short from Stop Motion Studio, a recorded puppet show from Puppet Pals, or an animated story built from code blocks in ScratchJr. A finished thing that someone watches is what makes a kid want to make the next one.

Here's what Animation Studio makes.

That's The Littlest Ghost, a one-minute film. We made it in Kubrio Animation Studio from one drawing, to show you what the studio makes. It isn't a kid's film, but your kid's film starts the same way: one character, drawn by hand.

In Animation Studio, a first film is a short movie: 45 seconds, three scenes, one sitting of about an hour. After a short, your kid can make a movie: 2 minutes, eight scenes, a few sittings in one week. The film stars the character your kid drew, with their title on the poster and their first name in the credits.

How Kubrio Animation Studio is designed

In Animation Studio, your kid makes the decisions a director makes: who is in the film, what happens, what each panel shows, who says what, and what the film is called. The studio does the frame-by-frame work. For the parent's overview, projects, and safety details, see the Kubrio Animation Studio hub.

Six steps from drawing to premiere

Each step is a room in the studio, with its own free how-to film.

1. Characters. Your kid draws the star on paper, taps I drew one, snaps a photo, names the character, and adds one thing about it. Tek, the studio's AI producer, brings the drawing to life in the season's cartoon look. Free film: character design for kids.
2. Storyboard. Your kid tells Tek what happens, by typing or by holding a button and talking. Tek sets up one panel per scene from that story. Your kid fixes any panel that's wrong, or drops in a drawing of their own. Free film: story elements for kids.
3. Sound. Your kid picks who talks in each scene and gives them one line, or chooses music only. Free film: write a cartoon's lines.
4. Set. The studio shoots every scene. Your kid keeps a take, or says what to change and shoots it again. Free film: direct a cartoon.
5. Poster. Your kid names the film and makes a poster with the title and their name on it. Free film: make a movie poster.
6. Premiere. The finished film premieres in your kid's portfolio with a title card and credits. Free film: hold a movie premiere at home.

How your kid controls the AI

Your kid steers the studio with two things: their drawings and their words. The AI never invents the star and never writes the story.

• Drawings set the look. The characters on screen are the ones your kid drew. A panel your kid draws replaces the one Tek set up.
• Words set the story. Every scene comes from what your kid typed or said. Each line a character speaks is one your kid gave them, typed or said.
• Choices set the film. Your kid keeps or reshoots every take, and says what to change. The title on the poster is theirs.

A project to start from

Each season brings film projects to the studio. A project gives your kid an opening line from Tek, a few things to draw, and sometimes a genre with a rule, so your kid learns the shape of a ghost story or a mystery by making one. This season's films are the Monster Movie, the Ghost Story, the Spooky Comedy, and the Halloween Mystery. Your kid can also start from their own idea.

What Animation Studio isn't for

A kid who wants to draw every frame should use FlipaClip or Animation Desk, and a kid who wants to animate clay or LEGO should use Stop Motion Studio. You won't find Animation Studio in an app store. It runs in the browser, on a laptop or an iPad, as one of three studios in a paid Kubrio membership: Animation Studio, Game Studio, and Magazine Studio. See pricing for the membership.

The apps we tested and what each one is for

We didn't set out to rank these apps against each other. We played with all of them to learn what each does well, so we could build the right experience for kids. Here's what we found.

Animate real objects: Stop Motion Studio. This was the strongest tool we tried for tabletop animation. Your kid poses a figure, takes a photo, moves it a little, and takes another. It works with clay, LEGO, cut paper, and drawings. It's a different craft from turning drawings into a film, and a great one.

Draw every frame by hand: FlipaClip. For the kid who wants to own every in-between, this is where we'd start. FlipaClip teaches what professional animators use: onion skinning, frame rates, and timing. Animation Desk does the same job with a flipbook feel. On an iPad, Procreate Dreams is the step up for an older kid who draws a lot.

Act out a show: Puppet Pals. Your kid drags characters onto a stage, moves them with a finger, and records their own voice as they go. A photo of a drawing can become a character.

Build a first story before they draw much: ScratchJr. For kids around 5 to 7. They snap together picture blocks to make characters move, talk, and change scenes. Toontastic 3D used to fill this spot, but it's gone from the App Store and its Google Play listing hasn't been updated since 2017, so skip older lists that still recommend it.

Animate through code: Scratch. For kids ready to program. Your kid scripts a character to move, and the animation comes out of the logic they build.

What about typing a prompt into an AI video app? General AI video generators make a finished clip from a sentence. They're built for adults, and the kid doesn't make much of what comes back. If your kid wants their drawing and their story on screen, pick a tool where their work is the starting point.

What we found when we tested them

Best stop motion app for kids

Stop Motion Studio. It's rated 4+ on the App Store and Everyone on Google Play, it runs on iPhone, iPad, and Android, and it's free to start. A one-time purchase on the App Store unlocks every feature. Your kid needs a phone or tablet, something to hold it steady, and a figure to move.

Best free animation apps for kids

For young kids, ScratchJr is free with no in-app purchases, and Scratch is free in a web browser for kids 8 and up. For drawing every frame on a computer, Pencil2D is free, open-source software for Windows, macOS, and Linux. FlipaClip and Stop Motion Studio are free to start, but FlipaClip shows ads and both sell extra features.

Best animation app for kids on iPad

It depends on the job. FlipaClip is the free way to draw every frame on an iPad. Procreate Dreams is a one-time purchase, iPad only, and suits older kids who already draw a lot. For a finished film from your kid's own drawing, Animation Studio runs in the iPad's browser, and your kid uses the camera to snap the drawings.

By age

• Ages 4 to 6: ScratchJr (designed for 5 to 7) and Puppet Pals. Both let a kid tell a story before they draw much.
• Ages 7 to 9: Stop Motion Studio for objects, and Animation Studio for a film that stars their drawing. Animation Studio is for kids 6 to 13, and younger kids often talk to Tek instead of typing.
• Ages 10 to 13: FlipaClip or Animation Desk to draw every frame, Scratch to animate through code, and Animation Studio for longer movies with more characters. Procreate Dreams and Pencil2D suit a kid who wants to draw every frame with pro tools.

The ratings in the table come from the app stores. A 4+ or Everyone rating describes the content, not how hard the app is to use.

What it takes at home

For Animation Studio you need paper, something to draw with, and a laptop or iPad with a camera. The studio runs in the browser, so there's nothing to install.

Sharing, and what stays private

Every finished film stays in your kid's Kubrio portfolio. Other Kubrio kids can watch it inside Kubrio, and your kid sees the first names of the kids who did. The finished film is also public: it gets a page at kubrio.com/made that anyone with the link can open, and your kid can send it to anyone they want to show. The page shows a first name, age, and cartoon avatar, never a last name, photo, school, or city, and you can take any page down anytime. When a film premieres, you get an email with the link. For the details, see sharing and privacy.