Movies are no doubt a profitable form of entertainment, but animated films often hold a special place in people’s hearts. Most of the time, animated movies cater to younger and family-friendly audiences, much like Disney, Pixar, and DreamWorks have done with their movies.
Each of these companies have had some incredibly successful films over the years, but Disney is, of course, the leader when it comes to beloved animated movies. These movies obviously have talented writers and animators working on the projects, but the movie studios also have to hire actors to give the animated characters a voice.
With the money that Disney is able to throw around, they have been able to hire some high profile celebrities to provide voices for their characters over the years. DreamWorks Studios is relatively new compared to Disney, but they have also been able to hire some famous actors and actress to bring characters to life.
Sometimes the voice actors behind characters look nothing like you might imagine, but there are plenty of examples of voice actors who look just like the characters they voice. Here are 25 Disney And DreamWorks Voice Actors That Look (Almost) Exactly Like Their Characters.
Kathryn Beaumont: Alice
Kathryn Beaumont is an actress who is most known for her roles in the 1951 film Alice in Wonderland and the 1953 Peter Pan. Not only did Beaumont voice Alice and Wendy in their respective films, but she was also the real-life reference that was used to create the animated films.
Because of this, the animators made Alice look just like Beaumont and did the same thing with Wendy a few years later. Obviously, Alice and Wendy couldn’t look identical, but both characters closely resemble their real-life voice actress.
Rowan Atkinson: Zazu
When The Lion King hit theaters in 1994, the film had a star-studded cast. The Oscar-winning film had several talented voice actors such as Matthew Broderick, Moira Kelly, Jeremy Irons, and of course James Earl Jones. The film also featured Rowan Atkinson as the red-billed hornbill Zazu.
One wouldn’t think that a bird could look almost identical to a human, but Zazu looks just like Rowan Atkinson. It’s mainly Zazu’s bushy eyebrows that resemble Atkinson, but some of his facial features also closely resemble Atkinson’s.
Jennifer Saunders: Fairy Godmother
Over the years, DreamWorks has gotten several big named celebrities to voice characters in their Shrek films. Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Julie Andrews, and Antonio Banderas are some of the most famous actors attached to the series, but Jennifer Saunders also had a role in Shrek 2.
Saunders is most known for her role of Edina in Absolutely Fabulous, but she also played the Fairy Godmother in Shrek 2. Saunders' hair looks a bit different than the Fairy Godmother’s, but the rest of her facial features are pretty much identical to Saunders.
Eleanor Audley: Lady Tremaine And Maleficent
Eleanor Audley has an acting career dating all the way back to the 1940s, but she is most known for her Disney roles. In Sleeping Beauty she played Maleficent and in Cinderella she played Lady Tremaine. Both characters were villains in the films and both characters looked very similar to their voice actor.
Much like the case with Kathryn Beaumont, Audley was a live-action model for the characters, which meant the animators made Maleficent and Lady Tremaine look just like her. Maleficent’s facial features are a bit more exaggerated to set her apart from Lady Tremaine, but both look like Audley.
Wayne Knight: Al McWhiggin
Toy Story was a big achievement for Pixar when it was released in 1995, so it wasn’t much of a surprise when Toy Story 2 was released in 1999. Much like the first film, the sequel had a human villain, this time in the form of a toy collector who steals Woody.
The character’s name was Al McWhiggin, who looks strikingly similar to his voice actor Wayne Knight. Most people will also remember Knight from his role of Nedry in the first Jurassic Park, but he played an equally vile role in Toy Story 2.
Ed Asner: Carl Fredericksen
One of the most tear-jerking scenes in Disney’s history is the opening montage of Up with Carl and Ellie. Actor Edward Asner was the voice behind Carl Fredricksen, but the character also seemed to be designed after him.
On any regular day, Asner looks just like Fredericksen, but Asner also occasionally wears glasses like the ones featured above that look like Carl’s. Up ended up winning two Academy Awards including Best Animated Feature Film of the Year and it's hard to imagine what the film would have been like without Asner.
Zachary Levi: Flynn Rider
Zachary Levi was plunged into the spotlight when he starred on Chuck from 2007 to 2012, but his career has only gotten bigger since then. Levi has played roles in both the Marvel Cinematic universe and the DC Extended Universe by playing Fandral in Thor: The Dark World and Shazam in Shazam!.
Levi also played a character in Tangled named Flynn Rider, who actually looks a lot like Levi himself. Flynn Rider was based on the prince from the Brothers Grimm fairy tale and ends up being a love interest to Rapunzel.
Irene Bedard: Pocahontas
Irene Bedard has played many Native American characters in her career, but her most famous role is Pocahontas in the 1995 movie of the same name. Bedard has been a part of many projects since then, but she returned to the role of Pocahontas several times, most notably in 1998 for Pocahontas 2: Journey to a New World and in 2018 for Ralph Breaks the Internet.
Since Bedard is a Native American herself, it only made sense to base Pocahontas off of what Bedard looked like, and that seems to be exactly what Disney did.
Danny DeVito: Philoctetes
Danny DeVito is one actor on this list who has had a very diverse acting career. He starred as the Penguin in the 1992 film Batman Returns, played Mr. Wormwood in Matilda, and of course plays Frank Reynolds on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. DeVito also has a Disney title under his belt since he voiced Philoctetes in the 1997 film Hercules.
Philoctetes, or Phil, is a half-human half-goat, who actually bears some resemblance to DeVito. Some may take offense to being compared to Phil from Hercules, but over the years DeVito’s roles have seemed to embrace his physical characteristics, especially his height.
Jane Lynch: Sergeant Calhoun
Jane Lynch may be mostly known for Glee, but she has also dipped her toes into Disney territory. In 2012, Jane Lynch voiced the character Sergeant Calhoun, who was a battle-hardened warrior from the fictional game Hero’s Duty. Despite her strict and authoritative behavior, she falls in love and eventually marries Fix-It Felix Jr.
Sergeant Calhoun returned for the 2018 film Ralph Breaks the Internet, but her appearance remained mostly the same. Lynch has mostly done comedic roles in her career, but this action character was made to look just like her.
Anika Noni Rose: Princess Tiana
One of the more recent Disney princesses is Princess Tiana from The Princess and the Frog. In the film, Tiana is an aspiring chef who wants to start her own restaurant, but also has to turn herself back into a human after she transforms into a frog.
Anika Noni Rose, who is known for her role as Lorrell Robinson in Dreamgirls, provided the voice of Tiana in 2009, but also returned to the character in 2018 for Ralph Breaks the Internet. The character looks a lot like Anika Noni Rose, so it’s likely that Disney just based the character around what the actress looked like.
Jack McBrayer: Fix-It Felix Jr.
Jack McBrayer is one of the people on this list that has a very distinct voice. McBrayer had a starring role on 30 Rock, but he also voiced the character Fix-It Felix Jr. in Wreck-It Ralph.
If just hearing Felix’s voice wasn’t enough to reveal Jack McBrayer as the voice actor, then the look of Felix certainly should have because Felix looks just like Jack McBrayer. The character has the same hairstyle as the voice actor, but his eyebrows, eyes, and other facial features also closely resemble McBrayer.
Phyllis Smith: Sadness
One of Phyllis Smith’s earliest roles was that of Phyllis Vance on the hit sitcom The Office. Smith is most known for that role, but she also voiced one of the emotions in Inside Out. Smith landed the role of Sadness in the Disney Pixar film in 2015.
Sadness is completely blue in appearance, but obviously, Smith isn’t blue in real life! Instead, the similarities once again come in the facial features for the character. Smith may not look exactly like Sadness, but she surely resembles her character more than any of the other voice actors in Inside Out do.
Christopher Plummer: Charles Muntz
Charles F. Muntz was a famous explorer that Carl Fredricksen and his wife Ellie admired in the movie Up. The man was a role model as they were growing up, but Carl found the unfortunate truth about the explorer near the middle to end of the film.
Muntz traveled to South America in search of a living specimen of a tropical bird, but his goals ended up being a lot more sinister than people has previously thought. Muntz was voiced by Christopher Plummer, who was the clear inspiration behind the look of Up’s antagonist.
Bobby Driscoll: Peter Pan
One of Disney’s many successful movies was the 1953 Peter Pan. People have tried to duplicate the success of the character Peter Pan over the years, including the movie Peter Pan in 2003 and Pan in 2015, but nothing has come close to the beloved Disney Classic.
Actor Bobby Driscoll provided the voice of Peter Pan, but the character also looks a lot like the voice actor. The reason behind this is because Driscoll was used as a reference model for the character, meaning the animators purposefully made Peter Pan look like Bobby Driscoll.
Jay Baruchel: Hiccup
The How to Train Your Dragon series started in 2010 with Jay Baruchel voicing the role of a young Viking named Hiccup. The final film in the series, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, was released this year. The animation certainly improved in the two sequels, but Hiccup also grew up since the movies span several years.
While many people joke that the three stages of Hiccup look like the three stages of Jim from The Office, many people would also agree that the character looks a lot like the voice actor Jay Baruchel.
Anthony Gonzalez: Miguel
Anthony Gonzalez didn’t have many acting credits before he voiced Miguel in Coco. Gonzalez appeared on the TV shows Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, The Bridge, and in the short films Imagination of Young and Icebox. Needless to say, his role as the voice of a Disney character was considered his break out role.
Coco heavily focused on Mexican culture and was highly praised by fans and critics. Coco had many characters like Héctor, Ernesto de la Cruz , and Mamá Imelda, but the animators no doubt made Miguel look like Gonzalez.
Auli’i Cravalho: Moana
Moana was yet another Academy Award-winning movie whose main character looked like its voice actor. Some people may say that Dwayne Johnson looks like the Demigod Maui, but more people would likely agree that Moana looks like Auli’i Cravalho.
Cravalho’s very first acting gig was the voice of a Disney princess, so the actress was thrown into the starlight since the beginning of her acting career. Cravalho is an 18-year-old Hawaiian Native, so it only makes sense that Disney would make her character look similar to her.
Kristen Bell: Anna
While Idina Menzel’s Elsa would be considered the main character in 2013’s Frozen, Kristen Bell’s character still played a big role in the film. Bell played the character Anna, who was the sister of Elsa. Anna was a special character because she was one Disney character who didn’t immediately fall in love with her love interest, in this case, Hans.
Bell honestly looks a lot like Anna, but she also looks similar to Elsa as well. Bell looks more like Elsa than Menzel does, but then again, maybe it is just her blonde hair.
Ming-Na Wen: Mulan
Mulan was one of the later movies to come out in the 90s, 1998 to be exact. The movie was about a young woman who enlisted in the army as a man so that her father didn’t have to. Mulan had some big named actors as voice actors including George Takei, Eddie Murphy, and Pat Morita.
Ming-Na Wen had been in several projects prior to 1998, but today she is most known for voicing the Disney princess and her role on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as Melinda May. Yifei Liu will be playing Mulan in Disney’s 2020 live-action remake of Mulan, but Ming-Na Wen also resembled the famous character.