20 Stars Who Look Just Like The Cartoons They Voice – And 20 Who Couldn't Be More Different

Anika Noni Rose was thrilled beyond belief when she was cast to play Disney’s first black princess. The star told fans at New York Comic Con in 2019 about how she felt after seeing her character for the first time in The Princess and the Frog. Rose remembered, “I had no idea that Tiana was going to look as much like me as she did and I was mindblown.”

Taron Egerton played Johnny the gorilla in the animated movie Sing – even though he’s quite a slight and un-hairy young man. The movie contained an accidental bit of foreshadowing for his career, though. Egerton sang the Elton John song “I’m Still Standing” as Johnny, and then a few years later he played the British musician himself!

Lola – the femme fatale fish in Shark Tale – bears a very strong resemblance to her voice actress Angelina Jolie. The animators even threw in some fins that looked like her hair, and then of course there’s the big prominent lips. Just to make things super confusing though, a different fish in the movie is actually called “Angie.”

Brad Bird – director of The Incredibles – never intended to be the final voice actor for Edna Mode. He recorded the voice for the initial “scratch” reels and planned on offering the role to Lily Tomlin. But when the latter heard Bird’s hilarious acting she told him he should keep his voice in the movie, and thus one of the most amusing character-actor mismatches was born.

Chances are most people didn’t give a second thought to who played Captain Hook in Disney’s 1953 version of Peter Pan. It was before the days of celebrity voice actors, after all. But the man playing the famous villain looked exactly like him – right down to the mustache. It was distinguished American actor Hans Conried!

Mark Hamill is a very sweet person, right? The internet is full of stories of the man who was Luke Skywalker doing nice things for people. So, that makes it all the more surprising that he voiced one of comicdom’s most famous villains – the Joker – in not only Batman: The Animated Series but multiple other related shows and games.

Auli’i Cravalho was just a teenager when she shot to fame as Pacific Islander Disney princess Moana in the titular movie. The actress didn’t even have to formally audition for the part, she was that perfect for it. Also, Cravalho is happy to reprise her role as the brave young adventurer if there’s ever a live-action remake.

Say you’re putting together an animated crossover between two Nickelodeon properties – Rugrats and The Wild Thornberrys – and one of the characters is going to be a talking dog. Who do you get to voice that animal? Why, Hollywood action icon Bruce Willis of course! He accepted the role in Rugrats Go Wild because his daughters watched the cartoons, according to Cinema.com.

Wayne Knight didn’t just do the voice for Al the toy collector in Toy Story 2, he provided the look for the character right down to the goatee. A brave move on Knight’s part, really – considering that Al is a slobby thief who ends the movie sobbing his heart out in a bad chicken costume…

Since 1999 Mila Kunis has voiced Meg on Family Guy – the teenage girl who’s the butt of all the jokes. Luckily, Kunis doesn’t have much in common with Meg beyond hair color. And in 2021 she told the website Collider, “I’m so grateful for this job. I can’t believe people still care.”

The animators for Mulan incorporated some of Ming-Na Wen’s mannerisms into her Disney heroine. They noticed that the actress touched her hair a lot, so they made sure that Mulan did, too. To this day, Ming-Na is closely associated with the character and even had a cameo in the 2020 live-action version.

You’ve seen those adverts with the talking M&Ms, right? Bet you never in a million years guessed that the voice of the yellow one is Oscar winner J.K. Simmons. And he continued on in the role even after he’d won the award! Now that’s dedication. According to Mental Floss, the M&M company even gave him a portrait of himself made out of the candy to celebrate.

Jane Lynch absolutely loved getting a character similar to her in the movie Wreck-It Ralph. She told the website HuffPostUK in 2013, “I guess I was surprised at how much my character ended up looking like me. Not that my body looks like that! Sergeant Calhoun moves her mouth in a certain way, which is exactly how I talk.”

British comedian and all-round hellraiser Russell Brand has a certain look to him, right? It’s sort of a rock-star, pirate kind of style. But in the child friendly franchise Despicable Me, the ex-husband of Katy Perry plays Doctor Nefario, who looks absolutely nothing like him at all.

Actor Kevin Michal Richardson plays lots of characters on American Dad – Principal Lewis, Captain Monty and Tank Bates among others. But it’s probably safe to say that Principal Lewis is the one that the star most resembles. He’s not one of the major characters, but thanks to Richardson he’s a fan favorite.

Cameron Diaz told the Female First website in 2005, “It’s so gratifying every time I walk down the street and a parent or a kid comes up or parents are always saying, you know who that is – that’s Princess Fiona and the kids are always, like, no it’s not.” And to be fair to those kids, Diaz doesn’t look that much like Fiona from Shrek even in non-ogre form!

Let’s face it, Zachary Levi was always going to look the part of a Disney prince. So, when he took the role of Flynn in Tangled it was bang-on perfect – especially since it turned out Levi could sing really well, too. Oh, and he’s also been known to do Flynn’s famous “smolder” for fans.

Timmy from the children’s cartoon Fairly Odd Parents was a little boy played by an adult woman. This is actually pretty common in the animation industry, because talented female voice actors can do child voices well and there’s no need to worry about their voice changing later. Timmy’s VA was Tara Strong, who went on to star in Loki among other things.

Sandra Bullock decided to sign on as supervillain Scarlet Overkill in Minions – her first animated role in over a decade – for a curious reason. At that time, she had a five-year-old and wanted him to be able to watch her in something, according to the BBC. Aww. Let’s hope he wasn’t too scared of Scarlet, because she looks a lot like his mom!

Legendary actor Vincent Price always wanted to voice a Disney character, and he finally got his chance in 1986’s The Great Mouse Detective. He played Ratigan – who’s a very stylish and flamboyant villain – but is also still, well, a rat. Luckily, Price didn’t take offence at this and absolutely loved the experience.

Say you’re looking for a Hollywood superstar to play a stereotypical superhero in your animated feature. Who do you pick? Well, Brad Pitt obviously has the perfect look. And he was thrilled to do it because it meant all the fun of playing a superhero without having to squeeze into any tights!

Buzz Lightyear is a toy, obviously, but he’s a bulky and square-jawed one and that doesn’t really describe actor Tim Allen. Pixar has plans for a movie about the “real” Buzz Lightyear – i.e. the space hero the toy is based on – coming soon. And rather than Allen, he’ll reportedly be played by Chris Evans in that.

Young Bobby Driscoll was a contract player with Disney when he voiced the title character of Peter Pan. As you can no doubt tell, the eponymous character’s face was based on his as well. But despite his part in the film’s success, Disney dropped Driscoll when he got older and the actor experienced a downward spiral. Sadly, he was found dead at the age of just 31.

The TV show Rick and Morty owes a lot of its success to Justin Roiland, who not only co-created the show but voices both the very different title characters. He told the website Collider in 2021, “I knew those characters really well and I knew how to do them and I knew how to play against myself and talk to myself, basically.”

Donnie in The Wild Thornberrys was a little boy raised by orangutans who couldn’t say any coherent words. So, who did the show creators get in to voice him? Legendary rock star Flea, of course! Donnie even looks like a caricature of him! It sounds like a completely bizarre idea on paper, but it worked.

Think of a live-action version of Fred Flintstone and you’ll probably picture John Goodman. He played Fred in the 1994 Flintstones movie and is generally considered to have done a good job. But before that, actor Alan Reed was the original voice of Fred, and he bears less physical resemblance.

When Danny DeVito appeared in Disney’s Hercules as Philoctetes – a.k.a. Phil – fans were amused by how much the small red satyr looked like him. As soon as a live-action version of the animation was announced, fans were clamoring for the actor to reprise the role. Tellingly, even Josh Gad – another contender for the part – reportedly wanted DeVito.

Alec Baldwin looks nothing like a baby, and the humor in this movie comes from hearing an infant speaking in his clearly adult voice. Of course, The Boss Baby is not considered a very good film by most critics. Though it got nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars – meaning Baldwin was probably laughing all the way to the bank.

Eleanor Audley was Disney’s secret weapon when it came to female villains. First she voiced and was the animation model for Lady Tremaine – Cinderella’s wicked stepmother. Nine years later she did the same thing for Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty. And Audley is also the voice of Madame Leota in Disneyland’s iconic Haunted Mansion.

Casey Kasem – the original voice of Shaggy in Scooby-Doo – didn’t look much like him, but he definitely contributed a great deal to the character. It’s even thanks to Kasem that the modern-day Shaggy is a vegetarian! The star actually quit the show in anger after being required to voice a Scooby-Doo Burger King commercial. And the talent insisted that Shaggy stop eating meat before he’d agree to come back.

John DiMaggio’s an extremely prolific voice actor. He’s been in many things. But you might recognize him best as the voice of Bender the robot from Futurama, Jake the dog from Adventure Time, or King Zog from Disenchantment. Of those three, it’s probably safe to say that King Zog resembles him the most!

One of Marvel’s maddest characters is Howard the Duck. He’s, well, a talking duck who goes on adventures, and the character has definitely got his fans. You’ll have heard actor Seth Green voice him in the shows Ultimate Spider-Man and the Guardians of the Galaxy, and he’s the voice whenever Howard pops up in the live-action MCU movies, too.

No prizes for guessing who plays Avery Bullock in American Dad. It is, of course, Sir Patrick Stewart, who lent his look to the character as well. There’s just something intrinsically funny about hearing a legendary British actor do the voice of an obnoxious CIA director, and Stewart happens to agree!

Paul Newman’s last big role was the voice of Doc Hudson in the Pixar film Cars. Even without any human features, the vehicle somehow extrudes Newman’s typical charm, and Newman absolutely loved being in the movie. Old recordings of him in the role were re-used for Cars 3 even – reportedly with permission from his family.

British comedy star Jennifer Saunders provided the voice for the Fairy Godmother in Shrek 2 – and the face as well. She told The Guardian newspaper in 2004, “This job really has been one of my favorite jobs in the world. No one’s looking at you.” Well, they were, but it was a computer-generated version of her.

Actress Eartha Kitt was the voice of the evil Yzma in Disney’s 2000 comedy The Emperor’s New Groove, and most people would agree she was totally hilarious in the role. But right into her old age the one-time Catwoman was a very good looking lady, and Yzma was, er, not.

Native American actress Irene Bedard was both the voice and the face model for Pocahontas. The star became so associated with the historical figure that she even played the character’s mother in 2005’s The New World. And Bedard was back as the animated version again for Disney’s 2008 crossover film Ralph Breaks the Internet three years later.

The world’s most famous obnoxious ten-year-old boy – Bart Simpson – is played by a woman named Nancy Cartwright and has been since 1987. She remembered to the Today show in 2019, “I originally went in to do the voice of Lisa. And when I arrived there, the auditions for Bart and Lisa were on the table. And Bart got my interest.” It’s lucky he did!

When Disney started courting Robin Williams for the role of the Genie, Mental Floss notes that they had their artists animate the character over clips of his old stand-up routines. It was enough to swing Williams into accepting the part, and now it’s a role that the late, beloved actor is most associated with.

Orson Welles’ career ended with a whimper – from his point of view at least. The director’s final acting role was as the baddie Unicron in 1986’s Transformers: The Movie, and it was a part he reportedly took simply to pay the bills. But the filmmakers remember him being friendly in the actual recording studio, and Transformers did bring joy to millions of children after all.