Animated movies can take just about any shape, but every story needs conflict. The easiest kind of conflict tends to be the literal physical kind, but that's where most cartoons run into a problem. A lot of animated films see their hero draw a magic sword or a laser pistol, but some get a little more creative.
The secret motivation of design in any given animated project is toy sales. If the artists make their hero and villain wield something cool, the company can mold it out of plastic and sell it for a profit. Whether it's motivated by merchandising or imagination, some animated movies feature truly unique weapons of choice.
Maui's Hook - Moana
In Hawaiian mythology, the great hero Māui dredged the islands from the depths of the sea with a magic hook. That tool was carved by the gods from the bones of Māui's deific ancestors. Disney's Moana takes elements of that legend and throws it into a wonderful fantasy adventure. Maui is portrayed as a mortal man raised by the gods, granted incredible superhuman powers by his magic hook. That hook is technically a weapon, perhaps the mightiest one in the world, but it's also much more. It's also what grants Maui his shape-shifting powers. The main quest of the film revolves around retrieving it. It has all the mythological weight of the sword in the stone or Thor's hammer, but it takes a unique shape that's appropriate to the mythology. It's a powerful weapon and one of the most important cultural artifacts in the world.
SP//dr - Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Spider-Verse may just be the best superhero movie ever made. The film brought some of the most unique and interesting takes on the beloved wall crawler to the big screen. One such twist on the concept is Peni Parker, the hero of Earth-14512. Rather than the traditional radioactive spider bite and the standard suite of superpowers, Peni is psychically bonded with her arachnid ally. Her brilliant father built an incredible robot and the spider took up residence inside. This allows Peni to fight crime as SP//dr. The robot is an anime-style mech that's primarily being piloted by a spider. That enough would be absurd, but the design also deviates from the standard. Those who've seen the comics by My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way would know that the machine has a fairly standard Gurren Lagann look on the page. The film version is an orb with four legs. The Sp//dr robot is a fascinating machine inside and out.
Vector's Guns - Despicable Me
Despicable Me seems like it came out a million years ago. Doesn't it just feel like humanity has been living with the minions since the dark ages? The first film in Illumination's massive franchise depicted a duel of wits between a pair of supervillains, both of whom specialized in creating tools of destruction. Gru came to battle with lasers, spaceships, and freeze rays. Vector, however, inexplicably chooses various types of undersea life for his armaments. Vector has a gun that launches piranhas and a gun that launches squids. Neither is particularly impressive when used, but they both raise a lot of interesting questions. Sure, they're meant to be jokes, but the idea of a man insisting on deep-sea predators as ideal murder weapons works on multiple levels.
Microbots - Big Hero 6
Baymax is certainly unique, but he's not a weapon. One could technically harm someone with a defibrillator or a stethoscope, but that doesn't make them weapons either. On the other hand, though they serve a ton of different purposes, Hiro Hamada's microbots are a fascinating tool of destruction. Hiro's very small magnetic robots are capable of forming structures, moving like ocean waves, and enacting the will of whoever happens to command them. The main villain of the film, the man in the Kabuki mask, steals the microbots to act as his primary weapon. They're very compelling to watch, granting the user seemingly infinite power with the distinctive look of infinite army ants under their command. The microbots can do just about everything, and the creativity on display makes them more interesting than the average sci-fi nanomachines.
Inferno - How to Train Your Dragon 2
Hiccup is one of the most intelligent heroes in any animated film. The apex of his creativity and ingenuity comes in his weapon of choice. Unable to wield any of his village's typical giant axes or massive clubs, Hiccup uses his mastery of dragons to build a tool that wields their power. Inferno is a longsword that coats itself in dragon saliva as it's drawn. It also contains the flammable gas of a different species of dragon. A flint lies on either side of the handle, allowing Hiccup to ignite the blade into a brilliant fire-sword or spark the gas to create a firebomb. Interestingly, despite its lethal potential, it isn't designed with killing in mind. The roaring flame of its blade is capable of captivating and pacifying dragons, making it one of only four known tools that can tame the creatures. It's a masterful piece of craftsmanship that also says a lot about the man who made it. Inferno is one of the smartest tools in animated cinema, perfectly fitting its creator.