Top 10 Animated Movies with Stacked Casts You've Never Heard Of
#10: “Open Season” (2006)
The 2006 film “Open Season” tells the story of a group of animals uniting against a band of human hunters. It was the debut film from Sony Pictures Animation, and the studio definitely came out swinging, with the impressive cast they assembled. Jane Krakowski, Jon Favreau, Debra Messing, Patrick Warburton and Gary Sinise all lent their voices to multiple characters in the film. And that’s just the supporting cast. The lead roles, Boog the Grizzly Bear and Elliot the amnesiac deer, were voiced by none other than Martin Lawrence and Ashton Kutcher respectively. The film did well enough to spawn three sequels. However, they were all direct-to-video, featuring a lesser-known cast with each subsequent installment.
#9: “The Pebble and the Penguin” (1995)
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“Happy Feet” wasn’t the first animated movie set in the penguin world of Antarctica. About a decade earlier, there was “The Pebble and the Penguin,” an independent film about a shy penguin’s attempts to win the heart of his crush with an ethereal pebble. Unlike “Happy Feet,” which soared to box-office success and won an Academy Award, this film was a critical and commercial disappointment, likely only remembered by its creators. Despite this, it boasted quite the formidable roster of actors, including Tim Curry, Jim Belushi and the great Martin Short. To top that off, the songs featured in “The Pebble and the Penguin” were written and produced by Mr. “Copacabana” himself, Barry Manilow.
#8: “The Pagemaster” (1994)
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Following the mega-success of the first two “Home Alone” movies in the early ‘90s, there was no bigger child actor in the world than Macaulay Culkin. Yet, that star power wasn’t enough to make “The Pagemaster” a success in 1994. Culkin and Christopher Lloyd, both of whom played roles in the live-action and animated parts of the movie, weren’t the only big names to grace the movie poster. Also included in the voice cast were Patrick Stewart and Whoopi Goldberg, along with another alum of the “Star Trek” universe, Leonard Nimoy. Unfortunately though, the film was panned by critics and failed to achieve financial success, falling short of even recouping its $34 million budget at the box-office.
#7: “The Secret World of Arrietty” (2012)
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If you were in Japan in 2010, then there’s a good chance you not only heard of the film “Arrietty the Borrower,” but you probably also saw it. Produced by the renowned Studio Ghibli, it was the highest-grossing Japanese film in the country that year. However, when it was released two years later as “The Secret World of Arrietty” in North America, it didn’t perform quite as strongly. Nevertheless, they were able to pull some impressive folks to dub the voices. The North American version featured the likes of Will Arnett, Amy Poehler and Carol Burnett. Meanwhile, the UK release boasted talents such as Saoirse Ronan, Tom Holland and Olivia Colman.
#6: “The Last Unicorn” (1982)
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The early ‘80s were a rather forgettable period for animated movies. Even Disney struggled until “The Little Mermaid” re-animated the ailing studio in 1989. Amid this backdrop came 1982’s “The Last Unicorn,” a touching tale about the titular creature, who embarks on a journey to learn the fate of the rest of her kind. The film barely made an impact at the box office, despite receiving positive reviews and featuring a stacked cast of voice actors. There was Mia Farrow as the unicorn, Alan Arkin as Schmendrick the magician, as well as Jeff Bridges and Angela Lansbury picking up other parts. As Janet Maslin of the New York Times noted, that’s “a cast that would do any live-action film proud”.
#5: “The Ant Bully” (2006)
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Picture a movie starring Julia Roberts, Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep. That would be an unforgettable experience, wouldn’t it? Well guess what? You don’t just have to imagine it, because it actually exists. Back in 2006, all three of those Hollywood superstars voiced characters in “The Ant Bully”. But it turns out the star-studded line-up doesn’t even stop there. The film also offered audiences the voices of Paul Giamatti, Regina King, Bruce Campbell and Lily Tomlin. Sadly, not as many people as the studio would have hoped eventually got to hear those voices in the theaters, as “The Ant Bully” only grossed about $55 million on a $50 million budget.
#4: “Smallfoot” (2018)
Unlike some of the other films on our list, 2018’s “Smallfoot” received generally positive reviews and was a hit at the box office, raking in over $200 million. Despite these achievements, the film, about the coming together of Yetis and humans, isn’t one that gets talked about much, if at all. However, it may see a resurgence in popularity, particularly due to the soaring career of one of its stars, Zendaya, who has received acclaim for her award-winning turn in “Euphoria”. Additionally, the film features the voices of Common, LeBron James and Danny DeVito, while Channing Tatum and James Corden take top billing as Migo the Yeti and Percy the human respectively.
#3: “Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas” (2003)
DreamWorks Animation enjoyed significant success in the late ‘90s and early 2000s with star-studded films like “Antz”, “Shrek” and “Madagascar”. However, not all of their ventures hit the mark, with one notable example being the 2003 adventure movie, “Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas”. Contrary to what you might think, Sinbad, the ‘90s comedian, didn’t voice the main character here. Instead, that role was filled by none other than Brad Pitt. The leading man was joined by Catherine Zeta-Jones, who gave life to Princess Marina, Sinbad’s love interest. Other major names who filled out the rest of the cast include Michelle Pfeiffer and Joseph Fiennes.
#2: “Robots” (2005)
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When you think of Robin Williams in animated movies, “Aladdin” immediately comes to mind, and rightfully so. The brilliant comedian and actor truly stole the show in the 1992 Disney classic. While Williams once again displayed his exceptional humor in 2005’s “Robots”, the film definitely didn’t have the same cultural impact as the one with the big blue genie 13 years prior. Interestingly, it seems pretty much every prominent actor of that era had a role in “Robots”. The star-studded cast included Ewan McGregor, Stanley Tucci, Halle Berry, Mel Brooks, Paula Abdul, Amanda Bynes and even the voice of Darth Vader himself, Mr. James Earl Jones. Now that’s a Death Star’s worth of celebrities, if we’ve ever seen any.
#1: “Flushed Away” (2006)
If you thought that Andy Serkis and Ian McKellen had only shared the screen on “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit” trilogies, then you thought wrong. How could you forget the brilliant 2006 adventure comedy “Flushed Away”? The film centers around a pet rat who gets flushed down the toilet and falls in love with a rat in the sewer. McKellen portrayed a toad, while Serkis voiced one of the character’s henchmen. Additionally, Jean Reno played the toad’s French cousin, Le Frog, while the two main characters were voiced by Hugh Jackman and Kate Winslet. All that star power probably helped it make $178 million, but with a budget of $149 million, the film sadly fell short of expectations. Which one of these movies is now on your “must see” list? Let us know in the comments below.
