Cartoonists in the movies

April 27, 2005 9:48 AM

Cartoonists in the movies?

I'm trying to come up with a list of movies (or TV shows) that feature cartoonists as lead/major characters. Here's the list so far:

Michael Caine in "The Hand"
Brendan Fraser in "Monkeybone"
Jack Lemmon in "How to Murder Your Wife"
James Urbaniak as Crumb in "American Splendor"
Ben Affleck in "Chasing Amy"
Jamie Kennedy in "Son of the Mask"
Gabriel Byrne in "Cool World"
Ted Knight in "Too Close for Comfort"
Bob Newhart in "Bob"
Leah Thompson in "Caroline in the City"
Jeffrey Combs in "Cellar Dweller"
Tom Green in "Freddy Got Fingered"
Dean Martin in "Artists and Models"
Bob Hope in "That Certain Feeling"
Adolph Green in "I Want to Go Home" (written by Jules Feiffer, real-life cartoonist)
Jeffrey Jones in "The People Next Door"
Jerry O'Connell in "Tomcats"
Steve Gutenberg in "Three Men and a Baby"
Steve Gutenberg in "Don't Tell her It's Me"

posted by Robot Johnny to Media & Arts (24 answers total)

Does Paul Giamatti and Harvey Pekar in American Splendor count?
posted by Staggering Jack at 9:54 AM on April 27, 2005

Layne Meyer in Better Off Dead does a bit of cartooning, but it's sort of incidental.
posted by COBRA! at 9:58 AM on April 27, 2005

Layne Meyer in Better Off Dead does a bit of cartooning, but it's sort of incidental.

Also, One Crazy Summer.
posted by GeekAnimator at 10:11 AM on April 27, 2005

My World and Welcome to It - A TV series from the 60s...
posted by curtm at 10:12 AM on April 27, 2005

Josh Lucas representing an adult Haley Joel Osment playing a child named Water pretending to draw cartoons actually created by the legendary Berkely Breathed in the movie Secondhand Lions

(phew)
posted by cyphill at 10:18 AM on April 27, 2005

Oh yeah, I spelled Berkeley's name wrong and you can view the cartoons he drew for the movie here
posted by cyphill at 10:24 AM on April 27, 2005

Don't forget about Crumb.
posted by honeyx at 10:26 AM on April 27, 2005

Thanks for making me admit that I've seen the TV show The Adventures of McGee and Me, Robot Johnny.

Also, Breathing Room. Cool question.
posted by iconomy at 10:37 AM on April 27, 2005

Don't forget the plot summaries at IMDB - here's what you get when you use cartoonist as your keyword.
posted by iconomy at 10:39 AM on April 27, 2005

My World and Welcome to It about James Thurber
posted by doctor_negative at 10:41 AM on April 27, 2005

Tom Hulce in Slamdance
posted by O9scar at 10:50 AM on April 27, 2005

I hear Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is about to be made into a movie.
posted by terrapin at 10:55 AM on April 27, 2005

The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys starring Kieran Culkin was about some Catholic Highschool boys who get in trouble due to the comic book they draw in their spare time.
posted by extrabox at 10:56 AM on April 27, 2005

Autobiography of an Insect

He & She (TV show)

Artists and Models
posted by iconomy at 11:14 AM on April 27, 2005

The nice guy from Real World: San Fran (was that III?) was a cartoonist.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 11:38 AM on April 27, 2005

The nice guy from Real World: San Fran (was that III?) was a cartoonist.

Quick aside: was that Judd Winick? I heard that he was on one of the Real Worlds, but never watched the show.
posted by COBRA! at 11:41 AM on April 27, 2005

That is indeed Judd Winick. Run out and read his Barry Ween series. It's a mix of Calvin and Hobbes and Dexter's Laboratory with lots of expletives thrown in, and it's just gosh darn funny.
posted by NewGear at 12:38 PM on April 27, 2005

Wow, no one mentioned The Duck Factory, which launched Jim Carrey's career.
posted by mkultra at 1:44 PM on April 27, 2005

Dean Martin in "Artists and Models" -- if you haven't seen it check it out, it's one of Godard's favourite movies
posted by matteo at 1:46 PM on April 27, 2005

matteo - Technically, it's not the Dean Martin character in Artists and Models who's the cartoonist. He's a painter; Dorothy Malone's character is the cartoonist.

Sorry for the pedantry. I just finished a dissertation on the films of Frank Tashlin.
posted by Dr. Wu at 3:34 PM on April 27, 2005

mkultra: I was going to mention The Duck Factory as well, but I don't think it launched Jim Carrey's career (In Living Color seems to have accomplished that) so much as it only barely failed to end it before it began. Don't get me wrong, I'd much rather watch TDF than ILC, but that doesn't change their respective track records.
posted by Clay201 at 3:44 PM on April 27, 2005

How about Duck Amuck?
posted by hydrophonic at 6:05 PM on April 27, 2005

Eric Roberts in The Ambulance, which is a very entertaining, gloriously unabashedly B, movie too. He gets to interact with Stan Lee and all, since his character works for Marvel. Top that! Heh.
posted by Iosephus at 5:17 AM on April 28, 2005

In Ghost World, Thora Birch's character submits her sketchbook for art class, only to have the teacher dismiss cartoons as 'light entertainment'. The sketches were provided by Sophie Crumb.

And there's the Seinfield where Elaine tries to become a cartoonist for the New Yorker.
posted by hydrophonic at 11:48 AM on April 28, 2005