ROTTEN TOMATOES: Total Recall: Our Favorite Talking Animals

Total Recall: Our Favorite Talking Animals

by Jeff Giles

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7. Charlotte's Web

"Modern-day remake of beloved children's classic" is a phrase that, nine times out of 10, is synonymous with cinematic disaster -- but the 2006 film version of E.B. White's Charlotte's Web proved to be the exception to the rule, soaring to 78 percent on the Tomatometer and racking up over $80 million at the box office. Of course, casting the voice talents of Robert Redford, Julia Roberts, Steve Buscemi, John Cleese, and Oprah Winfrey (as a horse, spider, rat, sheep, and goose, respectively) never hurts -- but White's timeless tribute to pan-species friendship has been resonating with readers young and old for over 50 years. Tell the story faithfully -- as director Gary Winick and screenwriters Susannah Grant and Karey Kirkpatrick did here -- and the audience will follow. Some pig, indeed.

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6. Stuart Little

Michael J. Fox as an adorable talking mouse and Nathan Lane as a jealous cat named Snowbell. How's that for perfect casting? And it gets better -- M. Night Shyamalan and David O. Russell were just two of the writers involved in bringing E.B. White's 1945 classic Stuart Little (66 percent) to the big screen, and the human cast includes Geena Davis, Hugh Laurie, and Jonathan "The Human Head Weighs Eight Pounds" Lipnicki. It isn't hard to see how the budget topped $100 million -- or why Columbia earned it back, and then some. As White's plucky protagonist and his arch-enemy, Fox and Lane helped make the film a hit with parents as well as kids -- and helped make kid-friendly voicework appealing to actors with bigger box-office clout than, say, Jay Mohr.

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5. Francis

Before there was Jason, before there was Freddy, there was Francis the Talking Mule. Novelist David Stern's creation was the inspiration for an incredible seven films, starting with 1950's Francis (and ending, unfortunately, with 1956's Francis in the Haunted House, which featured none of the actors from the first six installments). The plot -- as with Jason and Freddy -- was always basically the same, dropping soldier Peter Stirling (Donald O'Connor) into a ridiculous situation where he had to be bailed out by his sarcastic, braying friend (voiced by Chill Wills). Stirling's penchant for ill-advised honesty when it came to Francis' special talents invariably landed him under some sort of psychiatric observation, until the movie's final act, when everyone realized he'd been telling the truth all along. Until the next movie, of course.

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4. Joe's Apartment

Skits and short films rarely benefit from being turned into feature-length films -- just ask Lorne Michaels -- but as soon as MTV started airing brief clips of talking, singing, dancing cockroaches in the early '90s, a Joe's Apartment movie was a foregone conclusion. The film's 12 percent Tomatometer speaks for itself, but this earnest tale of cockroaches with hearts of gold is still the only place to hear Billy West, Dave Chappelle, and Jim Turner voicing lifelike bugs, and it offers a tantalizing glimpse of the career Jerry O'Connell was building for himself before he wrote the First Daughter screenplay and became the world's foremost Tom Cruise impersonator.

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(1-19 of 19 posts) | Reply

jokerboy1991 writes:
on May 14 2008 06:25 PM

I thought the talking animals in The Golden Compass were cool.

(Reply to this)

Mishmerized writes:
on May 14 2008 06:52 PM

What! How did a human with a lion costume make the list? Its the worst animal portayal ever! If you want memorable, what about the whole cast in Dr Doolittle?

I am available for hire

(Reply to this)

Xandril Zaax writes:
on May 14 2008 07:19 PM

Yeah, the Wizard of Oz being on this list is a travesty.

(Reply to this)

iammusic17 writes:
on May 14 2008 08:25 PM

FINDING NEMO????? Dory????????

(Reply to this)

CoUcH ToMaToE DoUgIe writes:
on May 14 2008 09:43 PM

what about homaward bound: the incredible journey? Now that was

a great movie with talking animals and i'm telling if Don Ameche's

performance of Shadow doesn't tear you up just a little...well you hate

animals, then. Also, great job with number 1, Babe was a masterpiece and

i still wish i had singing mice seperating the chapters in my ongoing life.

Also, lets not forget the voice of Babe,Christine Cavanaugh, also is

responsible for some famous voice overs including Chuckie Finster from the

rugrats, Dexter form Dex's Lab; and Oblina from Ahhh!! Real Monsters.

(Reply to this)

CoUcH ToMaToE DoUgIe writes:
on May 14 2008 10:01 PM

Also, everyone lay off the King Of The Forest!!!! He's got

courage and he's not afraid to show off his medal to prove it ;)

(Reply to this)

mashrur29 writes:
on May 14 2008 10:57 PM

Alvin and the Chipmunks?

(Reply to this)

atothec writes:
on May 15 2008 12:25 AM

I immediately thought of Finding Nemo.

Sad to see it isn't there...

(Reply to this)

knowingtoast85 writes:
on May 15 2008 02:06 AM

I have a feeling they were angling for live-action talking animals. Otherwise, Disney would own this list inside and out.

I truly believe "Babe" is one of the best movies of the 1990s.

(Reply to this)

detroit666 writes:
on May 15 2008 08:01 AM

BORRRRRRRRRRRRRRNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE AS FREE AS THE....

Elsa the Lion - a REAL lion, unlike Aslan OR "The" Cowardly one....

How about them flying monkeys?

(Reply to this)

scorpion_renderlord writes:
on May 15 2008 10:03 PM

HOW DID JURASSIC PARK 3 NOT MAKE THIS LIST?? ..That one talking velociraptor that says "Alan" is quite possibly the single most memorable talking movie animal of all time.

(Reply to this)

ecyoj writes:
on May 15 2008 10:51 PM

Babe certainly deserved to be number one -- a great and charming film. Charlotte's Web was another worthy contender. Both films were fine narratives featuring accomplished actors with positive messages sorely needed in these times.

(Reply to this)

MaleKim writes:
on May 15 2008 11:10 PM

Has anyone else ever wanted to see Disney try "Shaggy Dog" with a woman instead of a man. Yeah, I know what a female dog is called. But these days, even at Disney, it's a frequently heard term and they could have some fun with it. (Besides, it's a name a lot of women today are proud to wear.)

(Reply to this)

minderbinder writes:
on May 16 2008 08:34 AM

Definitely agree with Babe, one of my all time favorite movies. And the sequel is just as good, maybe even a little better. It's a real shame there was bad (and completely undeserved) buzz before it even came out, the sequel is one of the greatest, most overlooked and underrated kids movies of all time.

I think it's obvious that animated talking animals aren't on the list simply because it's a list of talking animals in live action films.

And I totally support Wizard of Oz being on there - great performance as the cowardly lion.

(Reply to this)

dgcritic writes:
on May 16 2008 09:49 AM

What about harry potter animals? I think buckbeak, the grey hippogriff was great!

(Reply to this)

Kudama writes:
on May 16 2008 09:55 AM

WTF??? WT****ingH!?!?

Where is Milo & Otis. That should be number one! That was Dudley Moore's masterpiece. They put Joe Apartment over Milo & ****ing Otis??? OK. Any minute now my alarm clock's gonna go off and I will awaken from this nightmare.

(Reply to this)

mbwassell writes:
on May 16 2008 01:51 PM

Are we talking animated or non-animated?? If we go with animated- well Disney owns that realm. They can claim a big portion with the non-animated as well. Again- The Incredible Journey was great, and what about The Cat From Outer Space, Thomasina, and The Richest Cat in The World? Of course I loved the Francis movies (with Donald O'Connor). Of course how could we forget Wilbur- a horse is a horse, of course of course.

(Reply to this)

mbwassell writes:
on May 16 2008 01:52 PM

Are we talking animated or non-animated?? If we go with animated- well Disney owns that realm. They can claim a big portion with the non-animated as well. Again- The Incredible Journey was great, and what about The Cat From Outer Space, Thomasina, and The Richest Cat in The World? Of course I loved the Francis movies (with Donald O'Connor). Of course how could we forget Wilbur- a horse is a horse, of course of course.

(Reply to this)

alsanali writes:
on May 17 2008 09:31 AM

I'm just sad that Garfield is missing from the dishonrable mentions.

(Reply to this)

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