What seperates animated movies from most movies has been touched on. Many times in animated movie production, actors rarely are performing with anyone else. The come into the studio, perform a couple of lines, then leave. They have to act without baseing their actions of anyone else (anyone whose ever performed can understand the difficulty of solo work).

Because of the non-realistic nature of animation, a script and story become all the more important. I thought Cowboy Bebop was boring too. However, watch something like Last Exile (I know it's a TV miniseries, but it's an illustration), something that you really care what happens to the characters, and there's something hapening to keep it interesting. The Incredibles also is a good example.

Anime as opposed to animated movies are designed for Japanese Culture, and consequently some things won't work for global audiences. When the do hit those universals that's when anime truly shines.

As for the original question, are animated movies worthy of being called movies. Well to respond, don't forget about disney's "Beauty and The Beast". Wasn't that the only animated movie in history to be nominated for a Best Picture oscar?