This study aims to investigate the effect of different formats of emotionally designed educational animations in terms of the emotional worthiness of the material, retention and transfer, intrinsic motivation, subject interest and cognitive load. In this direction, an experimental research approach was adopted. Five emotionally diverged animations were developed for the study, one of which was designed without adding any appealing illustrations. Animations were about the life cycle of low mass stars and was developed by researchers under the supervision of an animation expert. With one control and four treatment groups, experiment was carried out with the participation of 256 students at a state university in Turkey. Data were gathered using Turkish adaptation of Subject Interest Scale, Intrinsic Motivation Scale, one-item Subjective Cognitive Load Scale, and a retention test, a transfer tests and an emotional experience survey which were developed by the researchers. Turkish adaptation process of Subject Interest Scale and Intrinsic Motivation Scale were also conducted by the researchers. Findings showed that two of the animations, both of which included character animations and one of which was enhanced by an introduction music and emotionally complementary sound effects, were emotionally effective. According to the results, emotionally effective animations had positive effects on transfer, intrinsic motivation and subject interest while no effect was found in terms of retention and cognitive load.