There are no categories for animals in the Academy Awards, though last month, the Academy announced on X, "The Oscar for bestest boi goes to Messi from Anatomy of a Fall." Esquire magazine recognized this grave injustice last year, when it gave Jenny the Donkey from "Banshees of Inisherin" the first annual Best Animal Actor award. Here's their breakdown of animal actors this year. We want to know, what was the most iconic animal performance of all time.
If there were Oscars for animals, our poll participants would have awarded one to Jonesy from "Alien," who got 29% of the vote. But commenters pointed out our options were anything but comprehensive. Apologies to the Black Stallion, Cujo, Asta, the Littlest Hobo, Rex from "Hudson and Rex," Milo from "The Mask," Tonto from "Harry and Tonto," Benji, Babe the Pig, and Mr. Ed. No apologies to Godzilla or King Kong who for obvious reasons don't count (unless there's something we don't know). Here's a story from Atlas Obscura about the now-defunct PATSY (Picture Animal Top Star of the Year) awards.
@CultureDesk There could be a whole other category for actors who played animals (or monsters). In that case Katsumi Tezuka who played Gojira (Godzilla) in the original 1954 film would be a great nominee.
@CultureDesk Well, I should darn well hope so. He was adorable. And I don't even like dogs that much. How about Pyewackett from "Bell, Book and Candle"?
@stevendrowe Aaaand now we're singing "The Littlest Hobo" theme tune for the rest of the day. "Maybe tomorrow, I'll want to settle down,
Until tomorrow, I'll just keep moving on." 🎶
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