Divisive among critics and popular at the box office, live-action translations of animated classics undoubtedly generate tremendous hype around their casting choices. From Disney fairy tale reimaginings to cartoons brought to full-fledged life, casting a beloved animated personality’s flesh-and-blood equivalent is a herculean task that, at best, can translate the character seamlessly into the real world, but at worst, can come off as bad cosplay.
The demands an actor must meet in bringing an animated character to live-action are unlike any other role. A character that has existed solely as penciled drawings or computer simulations must now be manifested in a performance that is believable and worthy of the iconic namesake. The voice, the physicality, and even the wardrobe must meld together harmoniously in order to make the silly cartoon clown and animated heroes into three-dimensional on-screen presences.
Here are five of the best performances ever given in the leap from toon to human:
Matthew Lillard as Shaggy Rogers
Scooby-Doo (2002) brought Hanna-Barbera's meddling kids and snack-tastic dog to flesh and blood live-action for the very first time. The film served as a tongue-in-cheek parodic satire of the original series and catered a lot of its humor to the tropes of the franchise, while also maintaining the genuine spirit of Mystery Inc.’s adventures. The cast across the board brought the iconic characters to life with a contemporary spin, with Freddie Prinze Jr. as Fred Jones, Sarah Michelle Gellar as Daphne Blake and Linda Cardellini as Velma Dinkley. Far and away, the most memorable performance out the cast was Matthew Lillard as Scooby’s best pal, Shaggy Rogers. Having to act mostly against a talking CGI Great Dane who was never on set, Lillard’s performance made the comradery between the two feel as wholesome and genuine as it was in the cartoon. Lillard’s gangly physicality elicited great moments of slapstick, while his on-point vocal impression secured him a job voicing Shaggy in several animated projects as well. The icing on the cake was Lillard’s impassioned proclamation for his love of the name, “Mary Jane”.
Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn
Harley Quinn debuted in animated form in the critically-acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series as a one-off henchwoman to Gotham’s clown prince of crime. Over the years, Harley grew enough of a passionate following and compelling pathos to graduate into the proper DC Comics library, leading to her introduction to the modern DC film universe. Margot Robbie’s tenure as DC’s jester jezebel had a rocky start, with 2016’s Suicide Squad leaving the bulk of her key scenes on the cutting room floor and relegating her to badass eye candy. Come 2020’s Birds of Prey and 2021’s The Suicide Squad, Robbie was given more chances to show off her lively interpretation of the former Arkham doctor. Over the three films and three different directors, Robbie has proven to be a tailor-fit casting for Harley Quinn and one of the great superhero movie performances of recent years. Robbie is equal parts bubbly and explosive, hitting the perfect Harley balance of lovable and threatening. With the prowess to pull off acrobatic stunts and manic punchlines, Robbie’s performance exhumes a screen-presence that is all-around delightfully psychotic.
Glenn Close as Cruella De Vil
When it comes to classic Disney animation, no villain is as iconic as 101 Dalmatians’ Cruella De Vil. The striking character design by animator Marc Davis and shrill vocal performance of Betty Lou Gerson lit the screen ablaze with a fashionable redefinition of animated villainy. While 2021’s Cruella positioned Emma Stone in a sympathetic anti-hero slant on the character, the 1996 remake truly brought the fur-clad prima donna villainess to life in the form of Glenn Close. Close’s performance fires off the screen and into the stratosphere through manic facial expressions, ear-splitting shouting, and bombastic dominance in every scene with a voice that cuts like a skinning knife. The character of Cruella necessitates a mental balancing act of high-profile class and bombastic domineering, which Close accomplishes in spades, flipping between joyous embellishment and outright insanity. Acting against herds of animals and subdued supporting human cast, Close provides a bulk of the film’s entertainment value through an overtly expressive performance and a wardrobe’s worth of distinct costumes.
Brendan Fraser as George of the Jungle
On paper, Disney’s George of the Jungle (1997) sounds like a childishly simple film, which it is in many respects. The muscle-bound Tarzan-wannabe, dreamt up by Rocky and Bullwinkle creator Jay Ward, originated as an economically-produced Saturday morning cartoon that built itself on animal puns and slapstick humor. In film form, George of the Jungle lives on a self-aware silliness that does everything in its power to replicate the experience of the cartoon through a comedic narration, fourth-wall jokes, and a trunkful of physical comedy that ultimately amount to an apologetically fun film. Brendan Fraser stars as George, a role that doesn’t require much in the way of complex dialogue or nuance, but demands a lot of strong physicality. George sustains near-constant slapstick torment at the hands of the jungle’s flora and fauna, which Fraser turns into a reliable source of laughs through hilarious facial expressions and a body build for deadweight physical comedy smacking into trees.
Will Smith as The Genie
Robin Williams as the Genie in Disney’s Aladdin (1992) was a landmark in the relationship between voice actor and animation. Williams inhabited the role as only he could and the Genie himself became melded to Williams’ comic persona. Then came Guy Ritchie’s 2019 featuring Will Smith in the role. For a character and performance as iconic and beloved as the original Genie, recasting any actor would be next to impossible and have the potential to blunder, which it occasionally does in Smith’s case. When Smith utilizes the rapid-fire delivery and transformative voicework that Williams originated, it does not work for his version of the character and comes across as pandering. However, where Smith does succeed as the Genie are in the moments that he plays it the way only he could: as Will Smith. Between the overblown CGI makeup and repurposed lines from the original, Smith still shines in the moments of genuine charm and heart that feel appropriate for this new interpretation and make an iconic character new again. In a performance reminiscent of his days on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Smith’s own comedic sensibilities and dramatic sincerity capture the heart of the Genie’s desire for freedom and fun-loving personality.