All Animated Robert Zemeckis Movies, Ranked by Uncanniness

Robert Zemeckis is a continually fascinating figure within Hollywood, as he’s been directing for decades now and has been behind undisputed classics, somewhat baffling misfires, and everything in between. He always swings for the fences, and is particularly adept at utilizing groundbreaking special effects, with this sometimes resulting in beloved classics like the Back to the Future trilogy and Forrest Gump. Other times, ambitious animation/special effects utilized by Zemeckis have led to strange, sometimes even uncanny movies that bite off more than they can chew.

Looking through his movies that extensively use animation is something that ultimately highlights this, with a total of six Robert Zemeckis films that are either entirely animated or feature live-action elements combined with animated elements. They’re ranked below by how deep they fall into the uncanny valley, which is roughly defined as the gap between something being clearly non-human in nature and undoubtedly human. When a movie falls into this space, it can become unintentionally creepy, as some of the later films below certainly demonstrate.

6 ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ (1988)

Starring Bob Hoskins

Who Framed Roger Rabbit gives some hope in these dark and uncanny times, because it is easily the least unintentionally unsettling of all the Robert Zemeckis animated movies. Sure, there’s some creepy stuff here, but those moments largely revolve around the villainous Judge Doom (unsurprising, considering his name). Otherwise, it’s an entertaining blend of live-action and animation, all revolving around a central mystery that involves a murder, as well as the framing of the titular Roger.

The blend of traditional and animation in Who Framed Roger Rabbit is seamless, and still looks amazing to this day. Given the horrifying stuff is supposed to be creepy, and the cartoon characters otherwise look appropriately cartoonish and blatantly not human, it’s a classic that also happens to avoid falling into the uncanny valley. The live-action humans are clearly humans, the animated characters are clearly non-human, and the lead villain – who does end up falling into both camps – is appropriately creepy, and in a way that serves the story.

Watch on Disney+

5 ‘Pinocchio’ (2022)

Starring Tom Hanks

If Robert Zemeckis’s animated movies were to be ranked by quality, there’s a good chance his 2022 take on Pinocchio would come in last. It was one of many live-action updates of classic Disney animated films that various people would argue are feeling increasingly unnecessary, particularly critics, who largely disliked this one. Narratively, it’s what you’d expect, telling the story of a wooden puppet who comes alive and strives to be a real boy, with some characters being animated with CGI, and others being played by live-action actors (like Tom Hanks, who portrays Geppetto).

Maybe you can cut Pinocchio some slack for not having as much unsettling animation as some of Zemeckis’s earlier movies, and for the main character being a puppet, who’s always going to look non-human in any event. But the extensive CGI here can still look a little unsettling and even upsetting, and having some human characters interacting with animated characters who are supposed to be photorealistic is just about always going to cause some discomfort. In any event, Guillermo del Toro’s stop-motion Pinocchio movie – also from 2022 – is better overall, and though it’s darker and more unsettling, that definitely feels intentional.

Watch on Disney+

4 ‘A Christmas Carol’ (2009)

Starring Jim Carrey

Just as there are a large number of Pinocchio movies out there, so too has A Christmas Carol been adapted into film plenty of times. 2009’s take on the classic Charles Dickens story, directed by Robert Zemeckis, is thankfully spared from being labeled the worst, considering 2001 saw the release of a rather dreadful one called Christmas Carol: The Movie. Something the 2009 version can be called, however, is perhaps the most nightmarish A Christmas Carol film seen yet.

To cut A Christmas Carol some slack, it’s a story about spirits intervening in the life of a bitter old man who detests Christmas, so perhaps some unsettling moments are there by design. It also has slightly better computer-generated animation than Zemeckis’s previous two films, both of which were also entirely animated in this style. But A Christmas Carol does still look off and not exactly pleasant in many ways, and even if there are no live-action human beings in the film to jarringly compare to the animated ones, the characters still find themselves looking flat, unappealing, and a bit like wax museum figures throughout.

Watch on Disney+

3 ‘Beowulf’ (2007)

Starring Ray Winstone and Angelina Jolie

With its grisly violence and other adult content aplenty, Beowulf feels like it should be an R-rated fantasy movie… only it somehow got away with a PG-13 rating. It was the second entirely CGI animated movie Robert Zemeckis made, and is certainly an interesting movie, even if much of it doesn’t work and feels very misguided/all over the place. It’s a loose adaptation of the epic poem of the same name, which is potentially the oldest surviving poem of its kind in Old English (the exact year it was written isn’t known).

As a movie, Beowulf looks bizarre and almost like watching a video game that you can’t play. The animation may have looked realistic – or at least striking – to some in 2007, but watched more than 15 years later, it just looks bizarre and oftentimes uncomfortable. Sure, the antagonists of Beowulf – particularly the monstrous Grendel – are frightening, but nothing ends up being scarier than the dead eyes and strange facial expressions found across all the film’s characters, whether they’re supposed to be scary or not. Some of the horror here being intentional, to some extent, is the only thing keeping Beowulf out of the deepest depths of the uncanny valley.

Watch on Showtime

2 ‘Welcome to Marwen’ (2018)

Starring Steve Carell

Inspired by an acclaimed documentary movie from 2010 called Marwencol, Welcome to Marwen is another Robert Zemeckis movie that aims to blend live-action and animation, and is quite possibly the most uncanny of these. Steve Carell plays a man named Mark, with the story revolving around the unique way he copes with a traumatic event in his life. Namely, he constructs an art installation that’s like a small model village, with this becoming a fantasy world that Mark uses to escape reality.

It’s possible to see how the film could work, with the fantasy sequences being done with the use of motion capture to contrast against scenes in the real world, but everything feels imbalanced in the end. Even if the animated figures are supposed to look uncanny, they might well look too uncanny, and can make parts of Welcome to Marwen look unappealing. It might’ve been a noble effort to retell a real-life story, but the execution makes it sadly unsettling.

Watch on Max

1 ‘The Polar Express’ (2004)

Starring Tom Hanks

In the pantheon of movies that feature uncanny and eerie animation, few are as notorious as The Polar Express. It’s a Christmas movie beloved by some, even if others might find the entire trip to be an unexpectedly terrifying one, especially because The Polar Express is intended for younger viewers. On paper, the story doesn’t sound all that scary, as it’s about a young boy who feels increasingly distanced from Christmas celebrations and all they entail, until he boards the titular train which is headed for the North Pole.

It was the first of three entirely CGI movies that Robert Zemeckis directed, and easily looks the roughest and most uncanny of them all. The human characters here sometimes look grotesque and entirely inhuman, and it can be hard to get invested in the story when everyone looks the way they do. The Polar Express is an unintentional nightmare of a movie, but those who don’t find themselves particularly affected by characters who’ve risen out of the uncanny valley like hordes of the undead might well find it to be a charming Christmas movie.

Watch on Max

NEXT: Every Robert Zemeckis Movie, Ranked From Worst to Best