This week sees the release of Fantastic Mr Fox where once again animals take centre stage on the big screen.
With the unmistakable voice of George Clooney Fantastic Mr Fox, which is directed by Wes Anderson, follows Mr and Mrs Fox who live an idyllic home life with their son Ash and visiting young nephew Kristopherson.
But after 12 years, the bucolic existence proves too much for Mr Fox's wild animal instincts. Soon he slips back into his old ways as a sneaky chicken thief and in doing so, endangers not only his beloved family, but the whole animal community.
Trapped underground and with not enough food to go around, the animals band together to fight against the evil Farmers, Boggis, Bunce and Bean, who are determined to capture the audacious, fantastic Mr Fox at any cost.
So to celebrate the release of this latest animal animation movie we take a look at some of the best animal characters to grace the big screen.
You can't talk about animal characters on the big screen without giving Babe a little mention released back in 1995, yes it really was that long ago!
Babe is a little pig who doesn't quite know his place in the world. With a bunch of odd friends, like Ferdinand the duck who thinks he is a rooster and Fly the dog he calls mom, Babe realizes that he has the makings to become the greatest sheep pig of all time, and Farmer Hogget Knows it.
With the help of the sheep dogs Babe learns that a pig can be anything that he wants to be.
Babe may have been made up by a combination of real and animatronic pigs but he is cute, pig as a pet anyone?
Most of us would like nothing more than getting up close and personal with a big cat and that's exactly what Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers did when they were filming Born Free.
Joy Adamson and her husband, Kenya game warden George Adamson, raise Elsa, a lion cub. When Elsa approaches maturity, Joy determines she must re-educate Elsa to living in the wild so that the lioness can return to a free life.
What's so great about the character of Elsa is she actually lived and that journey that she took with Joy and George is true, which makes the movie pack and even greater punch.
Another great animal character hit our screen for the very first time back in 2001 in the form of Donkey in Shrek.
Ok so he may talk a little bit too much and be a tad annoying but let's face it he is the reason that we keep coming back to the franchise, as he is superbly voiced by Eddie Murphy.
Over the coming films we have seen Donkey accept a dragon as his mate, a little odd granted, as well as take to fatherhood.
And with two more movies in the pipeline he looks like he's going to be Shrek's sidekick for a little while yet.
Don't you just hate it when children don't do as they are told? They think they know best and it usually gets them into trouble.
Well that's exactly what happened to Nemo, in Pixar's Finding Nemo, when he didn't listen to his father, all be it his rather over the top protective father.
Despite being told of the dangers of swimming out into open ocean Nemo gives it a go to prove to his new schoolmates that he isn't afraid. However some rather inquisitive humans are on hand to capture the little clown fish and it's left to his father to mount a rescue attempt.
However if this hadn't have happened I suppose we would have been treated to one of the best animation movies of all time. The movie was a massive success and went on to gross over $864 million and scoop the Best Animated Feature Oscar.
1933 brought a groundbreaking film came in the form of King Kong using pioneering special effects, stop motion models and animatronics it marked the birth of the visual effect blockbusters.
The over sized ape has made it to the big on two other occasions, in 1976 and 2005, and no matter which actors appear in the movie it's the king of the jungle that well and truly takes centre stage.
Other movies where animals take centre stage include Jurassic Park, yes let's face it we are only ever interested in the dinosaurs, Bolt, Bambi, Arachnophobia, Beethoven and of course Free Willy.
Fantastic Mr Fox is released 23rd October.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
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