The 10 Best Animal Performances In Movies Ranked (Including Good Boy)

The new horror movie "Good Boy" is getting a lot of attention (you can read our review here), and for good reason: it stars a very cute, very talented dog. In "Good Boy," Indy the dog moves into an old house with his owner Todd and quickly discovers the place is haunted. Todd seems oblivious to the ghosts lurking about, but Indy, with his keen dog senses, is all too aware. Indy is the dog of "Good Boy" director Ben Leonberg, and this pup delivers such a wonderful actor that it inspired us to put together a list of some of the best animal performances in movies. As is always the case with a list like this, we have to acknowledge up front that some animals didn't make the cut even though we love them all dearly. We had to whittle this down to 10 entries, and while we wish we could acknowledge every movie animal, we did the best we could with what we have. "Good Boy" is now in select theaters and eventually headed to streaming service Shudder. 

A bird soaring high in the sky used as a metaphor for the human soul taking flight is a bit of a cliché, but not the way Ken Loach tells it in his kitchen sink masterpiece "Kes." Billy Casper (Dai Bradley) is a neglected and directionless 15-year-old kid who faces a bleak future working at a coal face in the deprived mining town of Barnsley, UK. It's grim up north, alright, but Billy starts aspiring to something better when he finds a fledgeling kestrel and trains the young bird in his free time.

Bradley was plucked from a local school in the town and only had experience acting in pantomime, and his raw performance is miraculous. According to author ("A Kestrel for a Knave") and screenwriter Barry Hines (whose brother trained kestrels in the area), Bradley "wouldn't have known a sparrow from an eagle" and spent a month training intensively with kestrels to build his confidence handling the birds. The hard work paid off and there is a hushed sense of wonder to the training sequences set on the moors above the town, providing a feeling of beauty and freedom in stark contrast to Billy's harsh day-to-day life.

Loach allows a little low-key lyricism in these moments and it's inspiring to see the trust and understanding growing between the boy and the bird, something all the more impressive when you know it was done for real. Spoiler alert: No actual kestrels were harmed for the film's emotionally devastating conclusion, but Bradley wasn't told that — hence his authentically distraught reaction. It's a painfully sad ending, yet I like to think that Kes helps Billy dream bigger and escape the drudgery set out for him at the beginning of the film. (Lee Adams)

Not many films win both the Palme D'Or and the Palm Dog at the Cannes Film Festival, but nobody can deny that Messi the Dog is part of what makes Justine Triet's 2023 film "Anatomy of a Fall" so special. The movie, which is a somber and emotional drama about a novelist named Sandra Voyter (Academy Award nominee Sandra Hüller) who may or may not be responsible for her husband's death, is already great, but it becomes excellent when you bring the impeccably trained (and incredibly cute) Messi into the narrative as Snoop, the dog who belongs to Sandra, her late husband Samuel Maleski (Samuel Theis), and their visually impaired son Daniel (Milo Machado-Graner), for whom Messi works as a guide dog.

Messi's Snoop is a genuinely wonderful presence throughout the film, reflecting the difficult emotions of Samuel, Daniel, and Sandra throughout ... and a troubling "experiment" that Daniel performs involving Snoop towards the climax of the film helps him understand what might have actually happened to his father. (Don't worry. Snoop lives, or I wouldn't even be talking about this movie, frankly.) Messi's big blue eyes and unusually expressive face really help this movie tell its story as effectively as possible, and it certainly doesn't hurt that Messi's press tour was a freakin' delight (remember when the very good boy got his own seat at the Academy Awards when "Anatomy of a Fall" was nominated for best picture?!). "Anatomy of a Fall" isn't a movie where you'd expect to see a cute dog, but Messi's Snoop really pushes the entire project from great to near-perfect. (Nina Starner)

With some distance, "Game Night" has asserted itself as one of the better studio comedies to come about in the last decade. It boasts a stellar human cast led by Jason Bateman ("Ozark") and Rachel McAdams ("Doctor Strange"), with Jesse Plemons ("Breaking Bad") stealing the show as the nosey, lonely cop neighbor, Gary. However, Gary would be nothing without his trusty pooch companion Bastian, played by Oliva the dog.

An impossibly white, adorable American West Highland Terrier, Olivia's performance as Bastian helps to elevate Gary, creating some of the movie's funniest moments. "How can that be profitable for Frito Lay?" Gary asks as he clutches Bastian. But by far the dog's shining moment comes when Batman's Max is digging around on Gary's computer. He gets blood on Bastian and the ensuing disaster is gut-bustingly funny. The way Bastian shakes the blood all over the room unknowingly is perfection. There's something about Oliva's performance as Bastian that elevates all of these little moments. It's that perfect, innocent dog look. That sense of charm. That perfect obliviousness to everything that's going on. Dogs don't really know they're in movies, but it feels like Olivia knows she's in a movie.

There are absolutely better movies that are more explicitly about dogs. There are better leading performances from dogs in movies. But as far as supporting performances by dogs go? As far as funny performances go? Olivia's turn as Bastian is at or near the top. It's the goods (Ryan Scott).

Dogs make good actors because they're eager to please, and bears can be highly trainable because they're so food motivated, but how in the heck do you get an animal as stubborn as a donkey to perform? In the case of Jenny the miniature donkey, who played the eponymous mini beast of burden in "The Banshees of Inisherin," the trick was to have another miniature donkey around for comfort. Once Jenny felt safe with her donkey buddy in front of the lights and cameras, she was much more willing to play her role as the best four-legged friend of sad sack Pádraic (Colin Farrell). Sure, she also kicked him pretty good once, but that's what donkeys do!

"The Banshees of Inisherin" is a brutal friendship breakup movie with some phenomenal human acting from Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, and Barry Keoghan, but it's Jenny who really steals the show every time she's on screen. She's both adorable and a tiny bit menacing, and it's extremely important that the audience loves her as much as Pádraic for the film's third act to work. Thankfully, Jenny nailed it, and these days she's retired and living her best life running in a field with full-sized donkeys in rural Ireland, though she still has the biggest personality of them all. (Danielle Ryan)

Director Wolfgang Petersen delivered an all-timer of a PG fantasy adventure movie with 1984's "The NeverEnding Story." That PG rating is important because this is a movie aimed at younger audiences. Be that as it may, Petersen pulled precisely zero punches and traumatized an entire generation thanks to one harrowing, gut-punch of a scene. That scene sings in the saddest of ways thanks to the fantastic performance from Atreyu's trusty horse, Artax.

In the film, Atreyu (Noah Hathaway) is sent on a quest to find a cure for an illness that has overtaken the Childlike Empress. These quests are rarely solo endeavors and a companion is part of the deal. Think Binx in "Hocus Pocus" or Dug in "Up." For Atreyu, that companion is Artax, a snow white horse who instantly has this presence on screen that makes the viewer believe he is a loyal, great friend, as any perfect animal companion should be. It's the kind of thing that makes a kid go, "Mom and dad, I want a horse." It's Artax's ability to connect with the viewer that makes that scene such a generational gut punch.

As Atreyu is ushering Artax through the Swamps of Sadness, the horse succumbs to the sadness and slowly falls into the abyss of the black goo. Artax's death is unrelenting and devastating. It's remarkable that it was in a movie for kids. Even more remarkable is just how much the audience is hurt by it, more than many, many, many on-screen human deaths. It's a credit to Artax and the performance from that beautiful horse. That death doesn't sting more than 40 years later if the horse isn't very good at its job (Ryan Scott).

A billionaire (Anthony Hopkins), a photographer (Alec Baldwin), and the photographer's assistant (Harold Perrineau) crash-land in the middle of Alaskan wilderness. They have to deal with the hostile surroundings. They have to figure out how to attract the attention of prospective rescuers. They have to navigate some extremely delicate and potentially murderous personal issues. But mostly, they have to survive the giant Kodiak bear that views them as breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Penned by David Mamet and directed by Lee Tamahori, the 1997 survival thriller "The Edge" is a peculiar movie that combines Hopkins at the height of his post-"The Silence of the Lambs" fame with a genre that you might not associate him with. However, even his considerable gravitas can't match the screen presence of the film's true star, Bart the Bear. Bart is a powerhouse threat who drives much of the film's plot, to the point that whenever he isn't around, the viewer finds themselves missing him. A true force of nature that could snap any horror villain in half, he proves to be a formidable threat that forces the protagonists to improvise a full-on "Home Alone" scenario to survive.

Bart the Bear plied his trade in many movies, but "The Edge" is without doubt his magnum opus. Don't trust me on the quality of the big lug's acting, though — trust award-winning thespian Sir Anthony Hopkins, who'd already worked with Bart in "Legends of the Fall" when the pair signed up for this one. "Tony Hopkins was absolutely brilliant with Bart," animal trainer Lynne Seus told The Seattle Times in 2000. "He acknowledged and respected him like a fellow actor. He would spend hours just looking at Bart and admiring him. He did so many of his own scenes with Bart." (Pauli Poisuo)

In the 2015 film "The Witch," written and directed by Robert Eggers, a 1630s Puritan family in New England are led by patriarch William (Ralph Ineson) after being banished from their community over a religious disagreement. Shortly thereafter, the family goat, Black Phillip, starts behaving very strangely, even becoming violent. But how do you get a goat to act possessed? By letting it be a goat, of course! Charlie, the goat who portrayed Black Phillip in "The Witch," was apparently an absolute nightmare to work with, even attacking Ineson and goring him badly enough that he dislodged a tendon in the actor's ribs. Maybe Charlie was just method acting since Black Phillip really had the devil in him, but ouch.

While Ineson wasn't much of a fan of Charlie's and vice-versa, that rebellious spirit and tendency toward attacking people definitely helped make Charlie's performance all the more convincing. Goats aren't usually the most terrifying animals on the planet, no matter how feisty they can be, but Black Phillip manages to be truly menacing, and that's all thanks to Charlie. Maybe the old adages about goats and the devil being connected are onto something after all? Either way, it's one hell of an animal performance that makes the movie's ending that much more powerful. (Danielle Ryan)

There are many movies featuring animals, fewer movies centered around animals, and even fewer movies that have an animal as its main protagonist. Part of what makes "Good Boy" special is that the titular good boy — played by Indy, the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever — is not just the protagonist, he's the only character we see clearly on screen at all times. He is crucial to the movie, the character experiencing all the haunted house horror, and without his performance the whole thing falls apart.

Indy is a bonafide star, a great performer whose every head-tilt, every subtle movement of his loopy ears convey countless emotions. We feel for him not only because he's a horror movie protagonist, and not only because he's a dog, but because he does a great job convincing the audience of the utter terror he's experiencing in a way few human actors can do. This is not just a good boy, he's the goodest boy, and by the time credits roll, Indy already got a paw in the great pantheon of animal movie performers. (Rafael Motamayor)

John Carpenter's "The Thing" opens with a red herring. A Norwegian husky is seen outrunning a helicopter while evading bullets, which immediately appeals to our empathy. After all, why is an innocent dog being ruthlessly targeted? Surely, the blame lies with the humans wanting to shoot it without reason? This instinctual assumption shapes our narrative expectations, but what really sells this curious premise is a layered performance by Jed the Wolfdog, who plays the husky in question. Right after being rescued by the folks at Outpost 31, the husky lurks around the base, gradually conveying a sense of dread that cannot be explained quite yet. Its eyes seem to betray some sort of hidden intensity, as if it's observing every person at Outpost 31 while silently evaluating their weaknesses.

The titular shapeshifting entity reveals itself once the husky morphs into the grotesque Kennel-Thing, which jolts us out of our preconceived notions and relays the immediacy of the danger at hand. None of this would've felt as horrifying or hard-hitting without Jed's ability to command the screen, as the wolfdog doesn't simply growl or bark to convey malice. Jed's eerie performance directly informs our initial understanding of The Thing as a shrewd, manipulative being that camouflages itself as a seemingly benevolent presence to lure their next victim into a false sense of safety.

Jed passed away in 1995, but he will always be remembered as an incredible animal actor and a very good boy. (Debopriyaa Dutta)

The storyline of this 1939 classic rests almost entirely on Toto. The plot begins when his life is threatened, and wraps up when he's the one who pulls the curtain and exposes the titular Wizard of Oz as a fraud. Toto is not only adorable and well-behaved, but he's a shrewd detective; everyone was fooled by the Wizard's schtick except for him.

Toto is largely played by Terry, a female Cairn Terrier who was a total Hollywood darling. Terry starred in over a dozen other movies throughout her lifetime, and by the time she was cast in "Wizard of Oz" she was able to command a salary of $125 a week, more than some of the human actors on set and more than most of her male canine industry peers. She was the most famous dog of the late '30s and early '40s, and given the continued popularity of "The Wizard of Oz" she's likely the most famous dog in all of film history.

Making Terry's acting career more impressive is her humble origins; she was reportedly abandoned by her birth parents and struggled in her early years with a carpet-wetting tendency. Many dogs would've let this discourage them from pursuing the big screen, but not her: she landed her first acting gig in the '34 rom-com "Ready for Love" and it was all uphill from there. By the time she played Toto she was a master of her craft, holding her own with Judy Garland without lifting a paw. (Michael Boyle)