Animation courses are very popular with students. However, in most animation interpretation, there is a heavy emphasis on the use of semiotics to interpret animations, which students often have difficulty understanding. In the study, the methods of art appreciation were applied to the teaching of animation appreciation and criticism at the University, with the aim of providing teachers with an alternative approach. The study employs a review of the Iiterature and action research to collect the materials needed for the research. The research results show that the methods of art criticism can help students to interpret animations, but that some adjustment needs to be made to the focus of observation. Getting students to analyse the forms and techniques of animation, to interpret both its explicit meanings and subtexts, and to present their own responses to the work. Instructors can use questions to guide students’ thinking; being asked to consider questions relating to the significance of values in daily life can help students to clarify their own value schemes. The utilization of a group discussion strategy can help to stimulate the examination of a wider range of viewpoints via "brainstorming"; small groups of two to three students are found to constitute the ideal size for group discussions. Appropriate use of learning sheets can help students to perform systematic collation of their own ideas, while end-of-semester reports can be used to verify students’ learning outcomes.