At some point of time in our childhood we may have all thought of living a care-free life in the wild like that of Tarzan or Mowgli or simply craved for the company of wild creatures, courtesy our immature tendency to anthropomorphize animals. Kids nowadays readily cuddle with soft toys of animated characters like that of Simba, Baloo or a Po from the Kung Fu Panda fame, but little do we know that these characters are anthropomorphized from real creatures that may actually be far from friendly.
The beauty about 3D animation is that while its cutting edge technology has enabled the animators today to reduce the gap between real imagery and that of its cartooned version, it also has given them the liberty to experiment and create an altogether unreal character of their own, in other words, personify them. Even a vicious grizzly is convincingly portrayed as a lovable cuddly bear (Boog in Open Season) or a creepy-crawly insect is shown as a cute, loving animated character (Z in Antz).These anthropomorphized characters have not only amused the kids but even adults as well.
We at AnimationXpress.com have listed down 10 extremely popular and lovable animated characters on-screen that perhaps may not take to your liking as much in the real world.
Rango (Rango) – Johnny Depp has taken up some of the most bizarre roles on screen and so voicing a chameleon in the animated feature Rango (2011) doesn’t seem out of his league. Directed by Gore Verbinski, this western animated feature shows a crawly chameleon in a western badass looking character named Rango, who is accidently stranded in the West town of Dirt where desert creatures of similar nature are in a desperate need of a new sheriff.
We all have been bred with the knowledge that chameleons aren’t your best pet materials and even the English literature refers to chameleon as a creature that can’t be trusted, but Rango tells us a different story. After accidently knocking down the predator bird Hawk, Rango is made the new sheriff of Dirt but things go nasty when Rango finds out the twisted politics of the Mayor who has been manipulating the water-supply. With Rango’s love interest, Beans, a desert iguana (Isla Fisher) and his foe-turned friend Jake, the rattlesnake, Rango brings to light some of the creepiest desert creatures in a kickass animated feature.
Rango won the Oscar for the Best Animated Feature film in 2011.
Boog (Open Season) – Sony Pictures Animation brings a buddy comedy animated feature Open Season where a domesticated 900lb grizzly Boog (Martin Lawrence) is released into the wild right three days before the hunting season and he along with friend Elliot (Aston Kutcher), a one-horned mule deer must quickly rally all the forest animals to form a rag-tag army against the hunters.
There’s no doubt that bears are dangerous animals, but our grizzly hero here is a well-tamed bear who enjoys his captivity in a garage and spends his day as the star attraction of the town’s nature show However things get wild for Boog when he along with Elliot are released into the Timberline National Forest for their notorious behavior. It is in the wild that Boog learns that every animal is for himself but soon understands that in order to face the hunters; the animals need to team up. The Open Season franchise has spun off three installments grossing over $ 200 million world-wide.
Lenny (Shark Tale) – Spielberg’s Jaws (1975) was quite convincing in giving us the creeps about shark bites and that they aren’t the best fishes in the sea, we could fraternise with. But DreamWorks Animations’ Reef City in Shark Tale adds a twist to the tale of sharks. Lenny, a vegetarian Great White Shark is anything but what you would have thought of sharks as predators of the sea. Oscar nominated for the Best Animated Feature, Shark Tale swims across with a blue-streak cleaner wrasse (fish) named Oscar (Will Smith), who coincidently takes credit of slaying a gangster shark boss’s elder son and becomes the talk of the town as the Shark-slayer. Things get twisted when the younger vegetarian Great white, Lenny (Jack Black) is sent to kill Oscar, but the two end up teaming together to create an all-out entertaining ruckus. The tale ends with Oscar convincing the shark gangster, Don Lino (Robert-Di-Nero) about how accidently his elder son had died and how he should accept his son Lenny for the way he is (a Great White Vegetarian) and makes peace with the fishes of Reef City.
In spite of mixed reviews, the feature raked in $367 million world-wide against its budget of $75million.
Barry B Benson (A Bee Movie) – Pollinating the masses with sheer entertainment, DreamWorks Animations’ Bee Movie brings out a lovely chemistry between the worlds of bees and humans. When a newly graduated Barry goes out on his first day as a Pollen Jock, he befriends the human florist Vanessa and breaking the sacred rule, communicates with her. Only after their blooming friendship when Barry discovers how humans have been using honey, he decides to sue the human race. However Barry winning the trial sets a shift in the balance of nature and due to the lack of pollination by the bees who now have a stockpile of honey, the world’s flowers begin to die. The sharp-witted Barry then along with Vanessa and other bees set out to re-pollinate the flowers and the duo end up successful in their quest. The animated feature has shown for once that the victimised bees have more to them apart from their stinger and that a healthy friendship can exist between humans and bees.
However, word of sound advice still holds that keep a distance when you see a honey comb around.
Theo (Turbo) – A snail is indeed one of the last creatures, you could find cute, but DreamWorks Animations’ Turbo (2013) sets that notion aside with their speed-obsessed snail, Theo. Being one of the slowest creatures on the planet, our young hero aspires of becoming the fastest racer in the world. His weird ideologies and dreams sets him as an outcast in his snail community but things gather pace for Theo when a freak accident fuses his DNA with the nitrous oxide from a supercharger of a race-car. This transforms the animated orange snail into a super-charged speedy racer. From snail-races to actual NASCAR leagues, the Indianapolis 500, Theo speeds his way through the finishing line.
Although the animated flick gathered only $283 billion at the box office world-wide, its spin-off Netflix TV series Turbo FAST has been a profitable venture for the studios.
Flik (A Bug’s Life) – The 1998 animated feature, from Pixar Animations, A Bug’s Life retells one of Aesop’s fables The Ant and the Grasshopper, where the ant is our protagonist would-be inventor Flik (Dave Foley), and his nemesis is the tyrant grasshopper, Hopper (Kevin Spacey). Living in the not-so-eerie ant colony that has long been harassed by the grasshoppers demanding food from the ants, Flik believes in the idea of ‘Warrior bugs’ setting the ants free from the greedy grasshoppers. He sets out to find the warriors but ends up bringing home a group of bugs that turn out to be an inept circus troupe. All hell breaks loose when the ants find out about Flik’s folly, banishing him and his idea of a fake bird to draw away the grasshoppers.
In the climatic ending, Flik returns to save his colony, faces-off Hopper who ends up eaten by the chicks of a real bird and rekindling with his love interest Atta, the ant princess, becomes a real inventor with a perfected grain harvesting device. From grasshoppers to ants to bugs and caterpillars, the animated feature brings out the creepiest insects in a most vivid and imaginative portrayal.
RJ (Over The Hedge) – DreamWorks Animation brings another animated feature, Over the Hedge (2006) starring a con-artist raccoon, RJ (Bruce Willis) who leads a company of squirrel (Hammy), a turtle (Verne), attitude- stricken skunks and porcupines in a hilarious quest to forage food, but having a hidden motive of his own. The movie also features a Persian cat, a Rottweiler and a bear in some great animated roles.
RJ had a family of raccoons until they were killed by a weed hacker was then forced to live on his own and soon became a thief, conman, and briber in order to obtain food for himself to survive. However having messed up with Vincent, the bear’s food supply, the thieving raccoon, RJ must find a way to return the food back before the next full moon. With his twisted con-mind and charismatic personality he leads a group of wild animals into a human community to steal food but ends up with a chaotic heist. Although the cutie-pie RJ may amuse you, a raccoon with its wide-awake, black-masked face, it is considered best to leave these hardy creatures in the wild. Grossing $336 million world-wide, the animated feature was another commercial success for DreamWorks Animations.
Chicken Joe (Surf’s Up) – The laid back side-kick rooster, Chicken Joe (Jon Heder) from Sony Pictures Animation’s Surf’s Up makes it next to our list. The animated flick tells the story of the penguin, Cody Maverick’s (Shia Lebeof) whose ardent wish was to win the Surfing Championship and during the league befriends another entrant, Chicken Joe. Joe being a natural surfer makes it to the final with Cody and Tank, an arrogant penguin but Joe wins the championship by default as both Cody and Tank get disqualified. While Joe the bestie is seen as a great friend of Cody’s, make no mistake when you see a real-sized rooster crowing and running behind you. If you don’t believe, witness the strength and stamina of a rooster in a cock-fight and imagine how unreal our complacent Joe seems. While the story did seem fresh (Rotten Tomatoes- 78 per cent), Surf’s Up was washed away at the box office with a meager gross of $149 million.
Master Shifu (Kung Fu Panda) – Try not be fooled by DreamWorks Animations martial- arts comedy animated feature, Kung Fu Panda which has hilariously shown some of the wildest animals equipped with the art of Chinese martial arts. While its two installments have grossed over $1.3 billion world-wide, the animated tale tells the story of by far one of the most hilarious characters Po (Jack Black), as the accidental yet destined Dragon Warrior.
However Po’s master, Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), is the main supporting character. The disciplined and internally balanced red panda is a marvelous personification of a disciplined warrior living a balanced life. Having trained the Furious 5 and also the antagonist Tai Lung, Shifu after initially hesitating agrees to train Po to be the worthy Dragon Warrior. Throughout the series Shifu’s chemistry with Po is quite amusing; however thinking of red pandas (who are known in the Monster Encyclopedia, “cuddly death-dealers”) in the same light wouldn’t be a savvy decision.
King Julien (Madagascar) – Speaking about vicious and wild creatures, one surely cannot miss out DreamWorks’ wild entertainer, Madagascar (2005) filled with crazy adaptations of some of the wildest animals of Madagascar. Ruling in the self-proclaimed leader of the lemurs, King Julien, hilariously voiced by Sacha Baron Cohen, Julien is one lemur who wouldn’t fall short of entertaining you, remember its item song, ‘I like to move it, move it.’ The lovable character made its presence quite visible in all the three installments of the Madagascar franchise. The audience reception to the character has led to its own spin off series on Netflix, All Hail King Julien which premiered in December 2014.
While our cute King Julien may entice you to cuddle him; a real lemur being an agile carnivore with sharp teeth and claws may not appease you in a similar fashion.
So we see that creativity and imagination are a perfect mix for some of the best animated features on the big screen. Animation is an art for the creator who can take up any character or creature and add or twist some its features and traits only to brew something convincingly extraordinary and yet untrue! (We all know a Great White wouldn’t go veggie on its diet when its tastes our red liquid in the ocean or a Grizzly would go easy on us) Beware the real, but enjoy the animated!