Who doesn’t love a film that features or stars in a film? I don’t think there is anyone who is reading this post can’t put themselves in a place that say, “auwww” when you read this weeks top 10 list! We thought it would be a good idea to run down our very own top 10 animal featured film list! This is ours – let’s see how it compares on your list!
There is a difference between being featured in a movie, and starring in a movie. And even if an animal is listed in the movie’s title, it does not necessarily mean they are the star of the film. They could be the co-star, for example. (i.e.: the buddy cop film which features a human detective and a canine as his or her partner.) And if you are cute and adorable, the animal can steal the movie away from their leading human star.
That means that this list is tailor-made for animated feature films. But we left it open for both live-action and animated films.
One last thing that I learned is that there are fewer horse movies than I originally imagined. Considering their popularity, their gentle nature, and the popularity of the My Little Pony cartoon amongst adults, it was quite a surprise to discover that the lists of horse-starring movies was so small.
Good news – no animals were hurt in the making of these lists.
Keith – Lassie
Lassie is a fictional female collie dog character created by Eric Knight in a short story expanded to novel length called Lassie Come-Home. However, Knight may have been influenced by another female collie named Lassie, featured in the 1859 story “The Half-brothers” written by British writer Elizabeth Gaskell. “The Half-brothers” is a short, sentimental story in which a female border collie named Lassie, loved only by her young master, saves the day.
Published in 1940, Knight’s novel was filmed by MGM in 1943, as Lassie Come Home with a dog named Pal playing Lassie. Pal then appeared with the stage name “Lassie” in six other MGM feature films through 1951. Pal’s owner and trainer Rudd Weatherwax then acquired the Lassie name and trademark from MGM and appeared with Pal (as “Lassie”) at rodeos, fairs, and similar events across America in the early 1950s. In 1954, the long-running, Emmy winning television series Lassie debuted, and, over the next 19 years, a succession of Pal’s descendants appeared on the series. The “Lassie” character has appeared in radio, television, film, toys, comic books, animated series, juvenile novels, and other media. Pal’s descendants continue to play Lassie today.
David – Old Yeller
Old Yeller is a 1957 American family tragedy film produced by Walt Disney. It stars Tommy Kirk, Dorothy McGuire and Beverly Washburn. It is about a boy and a stray dog in post-Civil War Texas. It is based upon the 1956 Newbery Honor-winning book of the same name by Fred Gipson. Gipson also cowrote the screenplay with William Tunberg. Its success led to a sequel, Savage Sam, which was also based on a book by Gipson.
Keith – Seabiscuit
Seabiscuit is a 2003 American biographical sports psychological-drama thriller film based on the best-selling non-fiction book Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand. The film is loosely based on the life and racing career of Seabiscuit, an undersized and overlooked thoroughbred race horse, whose unexpected successes made him a hugely popular media sensation in the United States during the Great Depression.
David – The Yearling
The Yearling (1946) is a Technicolor family film drama directed by Clarence Brown, produced by Sidney Franklin, and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The screenplay by Paul Osborn and John Lee Mahin (uncredited) was adapted from Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’s novel of the same name. The film stars Gregory Peck, Jane Wyman, Claude Jarman, Jr., Chill Wills, and Forrest Tucker.
The story was remade in 1994 TV film The Yearling starring Peter Strauss and Jean Smart.
Keith– Turner & Hooch
Turner & Hooch is a 1989 American comedy-thriller film starring Tom Hanks and Beasley the Dog as the eponymous characters, Turner and Hooch respectively. The film also co-stars Mare Winningham, Craig T. Nelson and Reginald VelJohnson. It was directed by Roger Spottiswoode; the film was originally slated to be directed by Henry Winkler, but he was terminated because of his “creative differences”. It was co-written by Michael Blodgett of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls fame.
Although K-9 (with James Belushi) was released prior to this film (exactly three months earlier), Turner & Hooch became more popular and seemingly overshadowed its greater success, even though K-9 had a very similar plot. A pilot for a Turner & Hooch TV series was made and ran as a part of The Magical World of Disney.
David – The Birds
The Birds is a 1963 horror thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on the 1952 story “The Birds” by Daphne du Maurier. It depicts Bodega Bay, California, which is, suddenly and for unexplained reasons, the subject of a series of widespread and violent bird attacks over the course of a few days.
The film features the screen debut of Tippi Hedren. It also starred Rod Taylor, Jessica Tandy, Suzanne Pleshette, and Veronica Cartwright.
The film was written by Evan Hunter. Hitchcock told him to develop new characters and a more elaborate plot, keeping du Maurier’s title and concept of unexplained bird attacks.
Keith – The Lion King
The Lion King is a 1994 American animated epic musical film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 32nd animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. The story takes place in a kingdom of lions in Africa, and was influenced by the biblical tales of Joseph and Moses and William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet. The film was produced during a period known as the Disney Renaissance. The Lion King was directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, produced by Don Hahn, and has a screenplay credited to Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts and Linda Woolverton. Its original songs were written by composer Elton John and lyricist Tim Rice, and original scores were written by Hans Zimmer. The film features an ensemble voice cast that includes Matthew Broderick, James Earl Jones, Jeremy Irons, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Moira Kelly, Nathan Lane, Ernie Sabella, Rowan Atkinson, Robert Guillaume, Madge Sinclair, Whoopi Goldberg, Cheech Marin, and Jim Cummings.
The Lion King tells the story of Simba, a young lion who is to succeed his father, Mufasa, as king; however, after Simba’s uncle Scar murders Mufasa, Simba is manipulated into thinking he was responsible and flees into exile in shame and despair. Upon maturation living with two wastrels, Simba is given some valuable perspective from his childhood friend, Nala, and his shaman, Rafiki, before returning to challenge Scar to end his tyranny.
Development of The Lion King began in 1988 during a meeting between Jeffrey Katzenberg, Roy E. Disney and Peter Schneider while promoting Oliver & Company in Europe. Thomas Disch wrote a film treatment, and Woolverton developed the first scripts while George Scribner was signed on as director, being later joined by Allers. Production began in 1991 concurrently with Pocahontas, which wound up attracting most of Disney’s top animators. Some time after the staff traveled to Hell’s Gate National Park in Kenya to research on the film’s setting and animals, Scribner left production disagreeing with the decision to turn the film into a musical, and was replaced by Minkoff. When Hahn joined the project, he was dissatisfied with the script and the story was promptly rewritten. Nearly 20 minutes of animation sequences took place at Disney-MGM Studios in Florida. Computer animation was also used in several scenes, most notably in the wildebeest stampede sequence.
David – Babe
Babe is a 1995 comedy-drama family film, co-written and directed by Chris Noonan. It is an adaptation of Dick King-Smith’s 1983 novel The Sheep-Pig, also known as Babe: The Gallant Pig in the USA, which tells the story of a pig who wants to be a sheepdog. The main animal characters are played by a combination of real and animatronic pigs and Border Collies.
After seven years of development, Babe was filmed in Robertson, New South Wales, Australia. The talking-animal visual effects were done by Rhythm & Hues Studios and Jim Henson’s Creature Shop.
The film was a box office success and grossed $36,776,544 at the box office in Australia. It has received considerable acclaim from critics: it was nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, winning Best Visual Effects. It also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film.
In 1998, Babe producer and co-writer George Miller directed a sequel, Babe: Pig in the City.
Keith – Charlotte’s Web (1973 animated version)
Charlotte’s Web is a 1973 American animated musical film produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and Sagittarius Productions and based upon the 1952 children’s book of the same name by E. B. White. The film, like the book, is about a pig named Wilbur who befriends an intelligent spider named Charlotte who saves him from being slaughtered and was distributed to theatres by Paramount Pictures on March 1, 1973. It is the first of only three Hanna-Barbera features not based upon one of their famous television cartoons — Heidi’s Song (1982) and Once Upon a Forest (1993) being the other two — and was a moderate critical and commercial success.
The song score of lyrics and music was written by the Sherman Brothers, who had previously written music for family films like Mary Poppins (1964), The Jungle Book (1967), and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968).
The film has found a devoted following over the years due to television and VHS; in 1994 it surprised the marketplace by becoming one of the best-selling titles of the year, 21 years after its first premiere. No other non-Disney musical animated film has enjoyed such a comeback in popularity, prompting a direct-to-video sequel, Charlotte’s Web 2: Wilbur’s Great Adventure, which Paramount released in the US on March 18, 2003 (Universal released the film internationally), followed by a live-action film version of the original story, which was released on December 15, 2006.
David – Bolt
Bolt is a 2008 American computer animated road-comedy-adventure film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, released by Walt Disney Pictures, and the studio’s 48th animated feature. It is the first film directed by Chris Williams and Byron Howard. The film stars the voices of John Travolta, Miley Cyrus, Malcolm McDowell, Diedrich Bader, Nick Swardson, Greg Germann, Susie Essman and Mark Walton. The film’s plot centers on a small white dog named Bolt who, having spent his entire life on the set of a television series, thinks that he has super powers. When he believes that his human, Penny, has been kidnapped, he sets out on a cross-country journey to “rescue” her.
Despite a relatively marginal box-office performance, Bolt received a strong positive critical reception and is renowned for playing an important role in instigating what is widely referred to as the New Disney Renaissance, as well as setting the studio in a new creative direction that would lead to other critically acclaimed features such as Tangled and Frozen. Bolt was also Disney Animation’s first feature film to be produced under the complete creative guidance of John Lasseter, as well as the first computer-animated feature film to implement non-photorealistic rendering.
The film was nominated for a series of awards, such as the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, which it lost to another Walt Disney Pictures release, WALL-E.
Keith – Finding Nemo
Finding Nemo is a 2003 American computer-animated comedy-drama adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Written and directed by Andrew Stanton, it tells the story of the overprotective clownfish named Marlin who, along with a regal tang named Dory, searches for his abducted son Nemo all the way to Sydney Harbour. Along the way, Marlin learns to take risks and let Nemo take care of himself.
Originally released on May 30, 2003, the film was eventually re-released in 3D on September 14, 2012, and it was released on Blu-ray on December 4, 2012. The film received widespread critical acclaim, won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and was nominated in three more categories including Best Original Screenplay. It was the second highest-grossing film of 2003, earning a total of $936 million worldwide. Finding Nemo is the best-selling DVD of all time, with over 40 million copies sold as of 2006, and was the highest-grossing G-rated film of all time before Pixar’s own Toy Story 3 overtook it. It is the 31st highest-grossing film of all time, as well as the 5th highest-grossing animated film. In 2008, the American Film Institute named it the 10th greatest animated film ever made as part of their 10 Top 10 lists.A sequel, Finding Dory, is in production, set to be released on June 17, 2016.
David – Rango
Rango is a 2011 American computer-animated action comedy western film directed by Gore Verbinski and produced by Verbinski, Graham King and John B. Carls. Rango was a critical and commercial success, and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. In the film, Rango, a chameleon, accidentally ends up in the town of Dirt, an outpost that is in desperate need of a new sheriff. It features the voices of actors Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Bill Nighy, Abigail Breslin, Alfred Molina, Harry Dean Stanton, Ray Winstone, Timothy Olyphant, Stephen Root and Ned Beatty. It was released to theaters on March 4, 2011.
Keith – Babe
Babe is a 1995 comedy-drama family film, co-written and directed by Chris Noonan. It is an adaptation of Dick King-Smith’s 1983 novel The Sheep-Pig, also known as Babe: The Gallant Pig in the USA, which tells the story of a pig who wants to be a sheepdog. The main animal characters are played by a combination of real and animatronic pigs and Border Collies.
After seven years of development, Babe was filmed in Robertson, New South Wales, Australia. The talking-animal visual effects were done by Rhythm & Hues Studios and Jim Henson’s Creature Shop.
The film was a box office success and grossed $36,776,544 at the box office in Australia. It has received considerable acclaim from critics: it was nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, winning Best Visual Effects. It also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film.
In 1998, Babe producer and co-writer George Miller directed a sequel, Babe: Pig in the City.
David – Seabiscuit
Seabiscuit is a 2003 American biographical sports psychological-drama thriller film based on the best-selling non-fiction book Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand. The film is loosely based on the life and racing career of Seabiscuit, an undersized and overlooked thoroughbred race horse, whose unexpected successes made him a hugely popular media sensation in the United States during the Great Depression.
Keith – The Fox and the Hound
The Fox and the Hound is a 1981 American animated drama film based on the Daniel P. Mannix novel of the same name, produced by Walt Disney Productions and released in the United States on July 10, 1981. The 24th film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film tells the story of two unlikely friends, a red fox named Tod and a hound dog named Copper, who struggle to preserve their friendship during their childhood despite their emerging instincts and the surrounding social pressures demanding them to be adversaries.
The film is directed by Ted Berman, Richard Rich and Art Stevens and features the voices of Kurt Russell, Mickey Rooney, Jack Albertson, Pearl Bailey, Pat Buttram, Sandy Duncan, Richard Bakalyan, Paul Winchell, Jeanette Nolan, John Fiedler, John McIntire, Keith Coogan, and Corey Feldman. At the time of release it was the most expensive animated film produced to date, costing $12 million. A direct-to-video followup, The Fox and the Hound 2, was released to DVD on December 12, 2006.
David – The Secret of NIMH
The Secret of NIMH is a 1982 American animated fantasy adventure drama film directed by Don Bluth in his directorial debut. It is an adaptation of Robert C. O’Brien’s 1971 children’s novel Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. The film was produced by Aurora Pictures and released by United Artists, and features the voices of Elizabeth Hartman, Dom DeLuise, Arthur Malet, Derek Jacobi, Hermione Baddeley, John Carradine, Peter Strauss, and Paul Shenar. The “Mrs. Frisby” name in the novel had to be changed to “Mrs. Brisby” during production due to trademark concerns with Frisbee discs. Released to wide critical acclaim, the film was a moderate commercial success. It was followed in 1998 by a direct-to-video sequel called The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue, which was made without Bluth’s input or consent.
A CGI/live action reboot is currently in the works.
Keith – Jaws
Jaws is a 1975 American thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley’s 1974 novel of the same name. The prototypical summer blockbuster, its release is regarded as a watershed moment in motion picture history. In the story, a giant man-eating great white shark attacks beachgoers on Amity Island, a fictional New England summer resort town, prompting the local police chief to hunt it with the help of a marine biologist and a professional shark hunter. The film stars Roy Scheider as police chief Martin Brody, Richard Dreyfuss as oceanographer Matt Hooper, Robert Shaw as shark hunter Quint, Murray Hamilton as Larry Vaughn, the mayor of Amity Island, and Lorraine Gary as Brody’s wife, Ellen. The screenplay is credited to both Benchley, who wrote the first drafts, and actor-writer Carl Gottlieb, who rewrote the script during principal photography.
Shot mostly on location on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, the film had a troubled production, going over budget and past schedule. As the art department’s mechanical sharks suffered many malfunctions, Spielberg decided to mostly suggest the animal’s presence, employing an ominous, minimalistic theme created by composer John Williams to indicate the shark’s impending appearances. Spielberg and others have compared this suggestive approach to that of classic thriller director Alfred Hitchcock. Universal Pictures gave the film what was then an exceptionally wide release for a major studio picture, over 450 screens, accompanied by an extensive marketing campaign with a heavy emphasis on television spots and tie-in merchandise.
Generally well received by critics, Jaws became the highest-grossing film of all time until Star Wars. It won several awards for its soundtrack and editing. Along with Star Wars, Jaws was pivotal in establishing the modern Hollywood business model, which revolves around high box-office returns from action and adventure pictures with simple “high-concept” premises that are released during the summer in thousands of theaters and supported by heavy advertising. It was followed by three sequels, none with the participation of Spielberg or Benchley, and many imitative thrillers. In 2001, Jaws was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, being deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
David – Watership Down
Watership Down is a 1978 British animated adventure drama film written, produced and directed by Martin Rosen and based on the novel Watership Down by Richard Adams. It was financed by a consortium of British financial institutions. Originally released on 19 October 1978, the film was an immediate success and it became the sixth most popular film of 1979 at the British box office. It was the first animated feature film to be presented in Dolby surround sound.
It features the voices of John Hurt, Richard Briers, Harry Andrews, Simon Cadell, Nigel Hawthorne, and Roy Kinnear, among others, and was the last film work of Zero Mostel, as the voice of Kehaar the gull. The musical score was by Angela Morley and Malcolm Williamson. Art Garfunkel’s hit single “Bright Eyes”, which was written by songwriter Mike Batt, briefly features.
Keith – My Dog Skip
My Dog Skip is a 2000 American family drama film, directed by Jay Russell. It is based on the autobiographical book My Dog Skip by Willie Morris. The movie was released March 3, 2000. The movie recounts a few anecdotes about nine-year-old Willie growing up in Yazoo City, Mississippi. The son of a veteran of the Spanish Civil War and a housewife, Willie is the daily victim of three school bullies. Then one day the title character, a dog he names Skip (bought by his mother over his dad’s objections) comes into his life, and everything changes. The dog is Willie’s entry into a world of new and even stronger and closer friendships. Thus, Skip teaches him that the strongest and truest friendships can be just as wonderful and precious like life.
David – Jaws
Jaws is a 1975 American thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley’s 1974 novel of the same name. The prototypical summer blockbuster, its release is regarded as a watershed moment in motion picture history. In the story, a giant man-eating great white shark attacks beachgoers on Amity Island, a fictional New England summer resort town, prompting the local police chief to hunt it with the help of a marine biologist and a professional shark hunter. The film stars Roy Scheider as police chief Martin Brody, Richard Dreyfuss as oceanographer Matt Hooper, Robert Shaw as shark hunter Quint, Murray Hamilton as Larry Vaughn, the mayor of Amity Island, and Lorraine Gary as Brody’s wife, Ellen. The screenplay is credited to both Benchley, who wrote the first drafts, and actor-writer Carl Gottlieb, who rewrote the script during principal photography.
Shot mostly on location on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, the film had a troubled production, going over budget and past schedule. As the art department’s mechanical sharks suffered many malfunctions, Spielberg decided to mostly suggest the animal’s presence, employing an ominous, minimalistic theme created by composer John Williams to indicate the shark’s impending appearances. Spielberg and others have compared this suggestive approach to that of classic thriller director Alfred Hitchcock. Universal Pictures gave the film what was then an exceptionally wide release for a major studio picture, over 450 screens, accompanied by an extensive marketing campaign with a heavy emphasis on television spots and tie-in merchandise.
Generally well received by critics, Jaws became the highest-grossing film of all time until Star Wars. It won several awards for its soundtrack and editing. Along with Star Wars, Jaws was pivotal in establishing the modern Hollywood business model, which revolves around high box-office returns from action and adventure pictures with simple “high-concept” premises that are released during the summer in thousands of theaters and supported by heavy advertising. It was followed by three sequels, none with the participation of Spielberg or Benchley, and many imitative thrillers. In 2001, Jaws was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, being deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
And there you have it folks, our combined top 10 list for animal featured film list! Want to hear us talk about it? Just listen to our podcast unlimited episode 79! we will debate our version of this list! What do you think? Do you agree? Whats on your list! We want to know!
To hear our commentary and logic behind our lists, check out our Top Ten segment in Podcast Unlimited’s episode #79. To see our entire list of Honorable Mentions, along with some more insightful commentary, check out our sister blog here.