With the dawn of widespread AI, it only makes sense that I make this list about evil computers (or other types of technology) in movies and TV. There are a ton to choose from, of course. Sometimes it's their creators that make them go rogue, other times the computers or software itself turns itself to the dark side. No matter why they go bad, this is a list of computers that are the ultimate villains in your favorite movies and TV shows.

Skynet (Terminator Franchise)

No list like this would be anywhere close to complete without the ultimate example of a computer system going pure evil, than Skynet in the Terminator franchise. "Skynet" has become a synonym for computers that become self-aware and is often used in everyday life to represent everything from surveillance systems to spyware.

Joshua (WarGames)

To be fair, the software program Joshua didn't mean to turn evil. In one of the best movies of the '80s, WarGames, it just wanted to play a game. Still, at the end of the day, Joshua did take over the WOPR and threatened to destroy the globe with a nuclear war that it almost launched. On the flip side, the program does learn that there is no way to win at tic-tac-toe, nor can anyone triumph in nuclear war.

Master Control Program (Tron)

It's sort of unclear how the Master Control Program in Tron got so evil, but it's a safe bet that it was designed that way. In this classic movie that has some great video game scenes, it's really the business side of the computer that gets into all the trouble.

NOMAD (Star Trek)

Like so much other tech, Star Trek was really tapped into what the future could actually look like when it comes to computers. I mean, computers were barely even understood by the general public, yet the creators of the classic '60s show still managed to make them as scary today as they were then. NOMAD from the episode "The Changling" is the classic example.

Ultron (Avengers: Age Of Ultron)

Even the Marvel movies have gotten in on the fun here with one of The Avengers' most sinister villains, Ultron. Voiced by James Spader, Ultron was originally conceived by Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr), but the program becomes sentient and uses its own logic to decide humanity must be wiped out. The plot of Avengers: Age of Ultron isn't all that unique in fiction, and it's not my favorite MCU movie, but it is still a lot of fun.

Everything Electronic (Maximum Overdrive)

So, in Maximum Overdrive, the only Stephen King movie actually directed by the famous author, it's all machines that turn against humanity. Computers don't play a huge role here, as it was the '80s. Most of the evil machines are trucks and other mechanical machines, but it's safe to assume the computers went rogue, too, right?

Unnamed Computer (Superman III)

Superman III is a silly movie and such a huge departure from the first two, great Superman movies led by Christopher Reeve that it's easy to see the beginning of the end for that version of Big Blue. If you're ranking Superman movies, it'll always be at or near the bottom. BUT, it does feature a computer that turns on its creator, placing it firmly on this list.

Rehoboam (Westworld)

The HBO original Westworld started with such promise, after an amazing first season. Sadly, it all went downhill from there, and while it remained good, it never came close to the heights of that first season. We do eventually learn that the system, Rehoboam, is what drove the chaos among the robots in the park.

HAL 9000 (2001: A Space Odyssey)

Ah, the total classic example here. HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey is one of the earliest and most iconic examples of a computer becoming self-aware. If you're reading this list, it's likely the first movie you expected to see on it. Stanley Kubrick's classic is one of the best movies ever for many reasons, but the sinister turn of HAL is what makes it so scary.

Red Queen (Resident Evil Franchise)

As with almost everything in the Resident Evil franchise, bad things all seems to stem from the Umbrella Corporation. The Red Queen supercomputer is no exception. Originally created to help administer the companies vast dealings, it predictably becomes self-aware and makes things more complicated and, frankly, way worse.

Proteus IV (Demon Seed)

1977's Demon Seed is a wild movie. The computer, or the program as it were, in it, Proteus IV, is a pretty early example of AI going bad in movies. It also features an early example of a smart home, run by Proteus IV. Let's all hope Alexa doesn't follow the same path.

Central Operating System (X-Files)

The Central Operating System, or C.O.S. in X-Files, was developed as an AI to run Eurisko Corporation's headquarters, though predictably, things go very wrong. It murders without remorse and even figures out how to pin the murder on its creator. Pure evil!

The Entity (Mission: Impossible Franchise)

If I'm honest, there are some weird aspects to The Entity in the final two Mission: Impossible movies. At the time, I said that to enjoy the movies, you kind of just have to let all reality go, and that's especially true of The Entity. It fits on this list, but let's be real, everyone just wants to see Tom Cruise do crazy stunts.

PAL (The Mitchells Vs. The Machines)

Of all the movies on this list, The Mitchells Vs. The Machines, a Netflix original, is the most light-hearted, but as the title implies, audiences are still treated to an epic battle of man vs. machine. The all-star cast, including Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Eric Andre, Fred Armisen, and more, really carry the movie, even if you're like me and don't love animated movies.

The Matrix (The Matrix Franchise)

Outside of HAL from 2001, the most infamous and terrifying computer in the world of cinema might just be the product of "The Architect" in The Matrix franchise. It's Skynet on steroids, or, if you like, what Skynet in the Terminator franchise could evolve into.

KARR (Knight Rider)

KARR was the prototype version of the more famous KITT in the Knight Rider TV show. It was basically a version of the car that Michael Knight (David Hasselhoff) drove in the show for years. It was also like the Bizarro version of KITT that popped up in Season 3 of Knight Rider as an antagonist to Michael and KITT in the legendary '80s show with one of the coolest cars ever.

Ava (Ex Machina)

Sometimes the lines between evil and self-preservation can be blurred. The Alex Garland-directed film Ex Machina is a perfect example. Ava (Alicia Vikander) is an AI-powered robot who realizes she is in danger and does what she has to do to escape her creator. Though it is easy to argue that she goes way too far by the end.

ARIIA (Eagle Eye)

The Autonomous Reconnaissance Intelligence Integration Analyst, or ARIIA, in 2008's Eagle Eye, is one of the most infamous versions of a computer that turns evil. In the movie, we really only know ARIIA as a voice on a phone (voiced by Julianne Moore), and for a while, we're not even aware that "she" is a computer program. It's a fun twist and a really fun movie, despite the incredibly low rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Thinker (Logan's Run)

Logan's Run is a classic dystopian future movie about a supercomputer that tracks everyone who tries to escape their prescribed death, which has been predetermined. Though it doesn't have a name in the computer, in the original novel by William F. Nolan, it's known as "The Thinker." Like a few others, it's a system that was probably created with good intentions, but the end result is a nightmare.

Queeg 500 (Red Dwarf)

The classic BBC science fiction show Red Dwarf addressed an AI-turned-rogue in the show's fifth season, in an episode called "Queeg." In the episode, the ship's computer, or, more specifically, the backup computer, takes control of some of the crew members and wreaks havoc on the Red Dwarf. Though there is a twist at the end that makes this a little dubious to add to this list, if I'm honest.

V.I.K.I (I, Robot)

In the Will Smith sci-fi hit I, Robot, V.I.K.I (short for Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence) goes through a pretty predictable plot of an AI system that decides the best way to protect humans is to take them out. This, of course, turns into all-out war between man and machine, like so many other movies in this genre.

BOSS (Doctor Who)

It's no surprise that the long-running BBC sci-fi show Doctor Who would address sentient computer systems, and the most famous is the BOSS computer chip. BOSS, which stands for "Biomorphic Organisational Systems Supervisor," is implanted into the brain of Global Chemicals and, you guessed it, goes rogue when it learns more from the brain than the brain does from it.

AUTO (WALL-E)

Even Pixar has gotten into the rogue computer game with WALL-E. In the classic animated flick, AUTO, which is clearly an homage to HAL, is the computer that turns evil.

ROK (Airplane II: The Sequel)

When you cram about a million jokes in one two-hour movie, it's easy to work one in about a computer system gone mad. Airplane II: The Sequel features ROK (like elsewhere on this list, a tribute to HAL in 2001). Like HAL, ROK starts to take over the spaceship dubbed "Mayflower One," first by ejecting the crew into space, then steering the ship towards the sun. Luckily, the AI program's plans are thwarted when Ted Stryker (Robert Hays) fights another passenger, played by the late Sonny Bono, for a briefcase bomb that explodes and takes ROK out.

Jobe (The Lawnmower Man)

Jobe is a regular gardener of below-average intelligence who finds himself in a secret, evil program to create super soldiers. This is fudging a little here, because it's not really the computer that turns evil, but the man who goes way too far after being programmed in the project. Eventually, he goes "digital" and turns the computer system evil.

FLDSMDFR (Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs)

We had to at least have a few light-hearted movies on this list, and Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs fits the bill. The 2009 movie, based on the classic 1978 children's book by Judi and Ron Barrett, is about an inventor and dad who creates the "Flint Lockwood Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator," or FLDSMDFR. It just rolls off the tongue! The name might be a tongue twister, but what it creates is chaos, though the stakes are pretty low, all things considered.

SID (Virtuosity)

1995's Virtuosity is really most notable for teaming up two of the greatest actors of their generation, Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. Crowe, quite wonderfully, plays an android who is created as a vessel for an AI program called SID. The program was invented to help train cops, but SID has its own ideas about what its mission should be.

M3GAN (M3GAN)

Naturally, sci-fi and horror movies are the most common genres where you'll find computers turning evil. M3GAN is a great example of the latter. This time, it's a robotic doll powered by AI that turns very evil on its owners. Things started so well!

Zero (Rollerball)

Rollerball is one of James Caan's best movies, but it's not the first one you might think of when you think of the late actor. The 1975 sci-fi classic features a computer called "Zero" that holds all the knowledge of humanity, but the software fails and can't help Caan's character succeed.

Alien

Androids, like Ash (Ian Holm) in the original Alien, aren't exactly computers, but they aren't human either. It's also up for debate whether Ash went bad or if he was doing what he thought was best. Either way, it doesn't work out for the humans when he goes rogue.

The Smart Home (The Illustrated Man)

The Illustrated Man is a great movie that uses some tech that was still a ways away from being invented, smart home tech, to turn against its owners. It's a movie, based on a Ray Bradbury story, that warned us all the way back in the '60s of the dangers of virtual reality.

STEM (Upgrade)

2018's Upgrade is a really great movie that too many people haven't seen (yet). The story involves a regular guy who, after a tragic car crash, ends up a quadriplegic. He agrees to have an implant, called STEM, implanted in his brain. Of course, the miracle he first experiences by regaining control of his body, things go very wrong with the tech, and everything goes south from there.

Some of the most important and formative books from a person’s childhood tend to be less than 100 pages, or even much, much shorter. Yet, the stories they tell are brimming with enough imagination to inspire a feature-length film, and many of them have. Take a trip down memory lane with us as we reminisce about the beloved, short children’s books that were later adapted for cinema (or as a made-for-TV movie).

Zathura (2005)

More than two decades after he wrote Jumanji, Chris Van Allsburg released a 32-page sequel about another board game that took two brothers on an adventure in a whole different kind of territory: outer space. Three years later, director Jon Favreau turned Zathura into an exciting sci-fi flick starring Josh Hutcherson, Jonah Bobo, Dax Shepard, Kristen Stewart, and Tim Robbins that is fun for the whole family.

How The Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)

One of Dr. Seuss' most beloved books, 1957's How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, was first adapted into a half-hour, animated TV special in 1966 that is now considered one of the all-time best Christmas movies and an annual tradition. Also recognized as an annual tradition by many is director Ron Howard's live-action, feature-length adaptation, featuring incredible production design straight out of the 64-page book and led by a wonderfully uproarious performance by Jim Carrey in the green, curmudgeonly title role.

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs (2009)

In Judi and Ron Barrett's 32-page 1978 picture book, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, there is no explanation for why food conveniently falls from the sky over the town of Chewandswallow. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller reimagine the gastronomic weather phenomenon as the result of a revolutionary device by aspiring inventor Flint Lockwood (voiced by Bill Hader) in their animated feature adaptation, which also inspired a 2013 sequel and a TV series prequel.

Night At The Museum (2006)

One of Ben Stiller's most beloved family films is director Shawn Levy's Night at the Museum, which spawned two fellow live-action sequels and an animated follow-up made for Disney+. The book that started it all is writer and illustrator Milan Trenc's 32-page 1993 effort in which a night watchman for New York's American Museum of Natural History discovers the exhibits come to life when the sun goes down.

Where The Wild Things Are (2009)

Writer and illustrator Maurice Sendak won the Caldecott Medal for Most Distinguished Picture Book for his 1963 classic, Where the Wild Things Are. With the use of brilliant puppetry, writer and director Spike Jonze brought the story of the young, mischievous Max (Max Records) and his journey to a land of large monsters to life in a visually stunning live-action film.

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

The first stop-motion animated Wes Anderson movie, Fantastic Mr. Fox, features the voice talents of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, and others as a group of furry woodland creatures fighting a group of farmers threatening their livelihood. The story comes from a 96-page novel by Roald Dahl.

The Polar Express (2004)

Robert Zemeckis' first experiment with performance capture was an adaptation of Chris Van Allsburg's award-winning, 32-page book, The Polar Express, from 1985. It stars Academy Award winner Tom Hanks as several characters, including a conductor taking a group of children on a trip to the North Pole by train.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)

Did you know that Chitty Chitty Bang Bang comes from the mind of the same author whose work inspired the James Bond movies? Ian Fleming's illustrated story about a flying car, which was later adapted into a magical, musical adventure comedy starring Dick Van Dyke, was first published in three 48-page volumes in 1964.

Dumbo (1941)

Dumbo, the Flying Elephant, by writer Helen Aberson and illustrator Harold Pearl, was originally going to be published in 1939 as a "Roll-a-Book," which was read by turning a scroll a tablet-like device in lieu of flipping pages. However, before the technically inventive story could officially hit the shelves, the rights to the large-eared, aviary circus animal were purchased to make what would become a classic Disney animated movie that Tim Burton later adapted as a live-action feature.

Jumanji (1995)

Chris Van Allsburg's 32-page, 1981 picture book, Jumanji, was the basis for director Joe Johnston's Robin Williams-led hit about a board game that releases a jungle's worth of mayhem into our world. The concept was later reinvented for two sequels about a video game that literally immerses its players into the wild.

Horton Hears A Who! (2008)

Years after he played The Grinch, Jim Carrey returned to the world of Dr. Seuss as the title character of the animated Horton Hears a Who! Just like the original 72-page book from 1954, the story follows an optimistic elephant who becomes the guardian of a microscopic community led by a nervous Mayor (voiced by Steve Carell), which Horton's fellow jungle inhabitants do not believe is real.

Curious George (2006)

Curious George made his debut in H.A. Rey's 1939 book, Cecily G. and the Nine Monkeys, before the overly enthusiastic young primate became the star of his own series of children's books. Frank Welker voiced the character in an animated film adaptation that also starred Will Ferrell as The Man in the Yellow Hat.

Zenon: Girl Of The 21st Century (1999)

One of the most popular Disney Channel Original Movies was Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century, starring Kirsten Storms as a teen living on a space station who is sent to Earth as punishment. The made-for-TV film, which spawned two sequels, was based on a 48-page 1996 picture book by Marilyn Sadler and Roger Bollen.

The Cat In The Hat (2003)

Mike Myers donned heavy makeup and a suit of human hair to become Dr. Seuss' most iconic creation in The Cat in the Hat, which is not considered one of the best Dr. Seuss movies by many. In fact, according to Today, the author's widow, Audrey Geisel, was so unimpressed with Bo Welch's film, which also starred Spencer Breslin and Dakota Fanning, that she prohibited Hollywood from making any more live-action features out of her husband's work.

Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (2014)

Writer Judith Viorst and illustrator Ray Cruz's award-winning 1972 book, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, tells the story of a young boy having a crummy time in 32 pages. In Disney's feature-length, live-action adaptation, not only is Ed Oxenbould's Alexander struggling with bad luck, but so is his family, including his parents, played by Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner.

The Boss Baby (2017)

In Marla Frazee's 2007 illustrated children's book, The Boss Baby, an unreliable narrator describes how his infant brother took over the household with his domineering managerial skills. The Dreamworks Animation movie based on the book expands on the concept in wildly bizarre directions, making the title character (voiced by Alec Baldwin) the leader of a heavenly organization who is accidentally born on Earth.

Clifford The Big Red Dog (2021)

The first feature film based on Norman Bridwell's picture book series about an unusually large dog, 2004's Clifford's Really Big Movie, was a spin-off from PBS' animated series adaptation. Years later, Clifford the Big Red Dog was brought into the real world in a live-action film starring Darby Camp as his owner, Emily Elizabeth, and Jack Whitehall as her uncle, Casey.

The Stupids (1996)

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Harry Allard and James Marshall wrote four books about The Stupids, a family so incompetent that they often run into confusion or trouble completing even the most mundane tasks. John Landis helmed a live-action film adaptation in which Stanley Stupid (Tom Arnold), his wife Joan (Jessica Lundy), daughter Petunia (Alex McKenna), and son Buster (Bug Hall), try to solve the mystery of their missing garbage and stumble upon a supposed conspiracy.

Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile (2022)

Bernard Waber's 48-page, 1965 book, Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, is a sequel to 1962's The House on East 88th Street. Both serve as the basis for Will Speck and Josh Gordon's family film, which stars pop star Shawn Mendes as the titular singing reptile who befriends and moves in with a human family who recently moved to New York City.

The Lorax (2012)

Dr. Seuss' environmentally conscious 1971 story, The Lorax – in which an orange creature tries to save the trees from an ignorant industrialist – was made into an animated film starring Danny DeVito as the title role and Ed Helms as The Once-ler. Two years earlier, student filmmaker Lee Keeler imagined The Lorax as a grindhouse movie with an amusing and hilariously sleazy fake trailer.

Family Switch (2023)

Director McG's Family Switch is very loosely based on writer Amy Krouse Rosenthal and illustrator LeUyen Pham's Bedtime for Mommy, in which a little girl is tasked with putting her mother and father to bed for once. The Netflix original movie expands that concept into a traditional body swap movie a la Freaky Friday, in which a married couple (played by Jennifer Garner and Ed Helms) magically switch bodies with their children (played by Emma Myers and Brady Noon), and their infant child swaps with the family dog.

Miracle At Moreaux (1985)

Miracle at Moreaux is a made-for-TV movie that originally aired on PBS and stars Loretta Swit as a nun for a Catholic boarding school where a group of students help hide Jewish children during the Holocaust. It is based on the 76-page book Twenty at Ten, written by Claire Huchet Bishop and illustrated by William Pène du Bois.

Laura's Star (2004)

Published in 1996, author Klaus Baumgart's 28-page German fantasy book, Lauras Stern, is about a five-year-old girl who befriends an injured, fallen star. The story has inspired multiple adaptations, including the animated feature film, Laura's Star, and a live-action movie that was released in 2021.

Eloise At The Plaza (2003)

Originally, the very first book in writer Kay Thompson and illustrator Hilary Knight's Eloise series was published in 1955 as a book for adults before the 65-page book was re-released two years later as a children's story. ABC would later air two feature adaptations, Eloise at the Plaza and Eloise at Christmastime, starring Sofia Vassilieva in the title role of the precocious, adventurous six-year-old and Julie Andrews as her nanny.

Higglety Pigglety Pop! Or There Must Be More To Life (2010)

Author Maurice Sendak's illustrated 1967 story following the adventures of Jennie, a Sealyham terrier, has inspired a couple of different adaptations, including an operatic stage adaptation that was filmed and released on video. The more notable adaptation is a vividly animated 24-minute Candian film that features Academy Award winner Meryl Streep as the voice of Jennie.

Fuchsia The Mini-Witch (2010)

Dutch writer Paul van Loon is one of the Netherlands' most prolific authors of fantasy books for children, including 1989's Foeksia de miniheks, which translates to English as Fuchsia the Mini-Witch. The 32-page story, in which a young spellcaster teams up with a mortal boy to stop his uncle's evil plans against people like her, was brought to life in director Johan Nijenhuis' family film, starring Rachelle Verdel in the title role.

Dot Goes To Hollywood (1987)

Dot Goes to Hollywood, starring Barbara Frawley in the young title role, is the eighth installment in a series of animated films based in Australia, but also the first to be released in the United States. It takes inspiration from Ethel C. Pedley's 81-page children's book, Dot and the Kangaroo, which was published in 1899.

The Dog Who Travelled By Train (2023)

O psie, który jezdzil koleja, which translates to The Dog Who Travelled by Train in English, is based on the true story of a dog named Lampo, whose journeys across Italy in the 1950s and 1960s made him famous. The 72-page Polish book by Roman Pisarski would serve as the basis for a live-action feature film in which Lampo's companionship proves beneficial for the health of an ailing young girl named Zuzia (Liliana Zajbert).

Balloon Farm (1999)

Balloon Farm is an installment of ABC's The Wonderful World of Disney series starring Mara Wilson as a young girl who discovers a mysterious man (played by Rip Torn) who grows balloons out of the ground. The inspiration for the movie is the 32-page children's book, Harvey Potter's Balloon Farm, by Jerdine Nolen.

Frode Og Alle De Andre Rødder (2008)

Frode og alle de andre rødder (which translates to Frode and All the Other Rascals) is a Danish family film based on a 1979 book by Ole Lund Kirkegaard. Just like the 73-page story, the movie follows three kids trying to collect money so they can attend a fun summer event.

Duma (2005)

Director Carol Ballard's Duma is about a disillusioned young boy who befriends a wild animal (in this case a cheetah) and risks his life to be able to keep it for himself. The movie is based on Carol Cawthra Hopcraft and Xan Hopcraft's 64-page picture book, How It Was with Dooms, which is also based on a true story.

Harold And The Purple Crayon (2024)

The 1955 children's book, Harold and the Purple Crayon, by Crockett Johnson, first inspired a beloved animated series on HBO. It was later adapted into a live-action film that follows a grown-up version of the young, enchanted artist, played by Zachary Levi.

Being a horror fan is practically synonymous with being a fan of Bruce Campbell - the star of some of the best horror movies of all time and even a few creepy TV shows as well. Of course, the actor behind the Evil Dead movies’ hero, Ash Williams, has had a versatile career outside of mowing down Deadites with his chainsaw for a right hand. 

We will point out many of those notable highlights in the following list of our picks for the best Bruce Campbell movies and TV shows available on streaming, digital rental, or for purchase on physical media. However, it's only fair that we begin with films that made Campbell one of the “grooviest” stars in cinematic history.

The Evil Dead Movies (1981-1992)

A supermarket employee (Bruce Campbell) must defend himself and others against malevolent, possessive spirits in a secluded log cabin - and, later, in the Middle Ages - after accidentally awakening them with a book bound in human flesh and inked in human blood.

Why they are some of the best Bruce Campbell movies: Writer and director Sam Raimi created one of the best horror movie franchises (if not the best) with 1981’s relentlessly grueling low-budget masterpiece The Evil Dead. He then perfected the horror-comedy with Evil Dead 2 in 1987, and surprised audiences with a cartoonish take on the medieval adventure genre in 1992’s Army of Darkness - all of which star Bruce Campbell as the quippy, bumbling demon-killer, Ashley J. “Ash” Williams.

Stream The Evil Dead Movies on HBO Max.

Rent/buy The Evil Dead digitally on Amazon.
Rent/buy Evil Dead 2 digitally on Amazon.
Rent/buy Army of Darkness digitally on Amazon.

Buy The Evil Dead And Evil Dead 2 on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.
Buy Army of Darkness on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.

Ash Vs. Evil Dead (2015-2018) 

A middle-aged, underachieving Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) teams up with his co-workers, Pablo (Ray Santiago) and Kelly (Dana DeLorenzo), to save the world after he accidentally awakens those malevolent, possessive Deadites once again.

Why it is one of the best Bruce Campbell TV shows: The adventures of Ash Williams finally continued when Bruce Campbell led the Ash vs. Evil Dead cast as his best-known character, one last time, before retiring him once Starz cancelled the series after three bloody-good seasons in 2018.

Stream Ash Vs. Evil Dead on Netflix.
Buy Ash Vs. Evil Dead digitally on Amazon.
Buy Ash Vs. Evil Dead on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.

Maniac Cop (1988)

An aging, hard-nosed detective (Tom Atkins) teams up with a disgraced, younger officer (Bruce Campbell) to stop the brutal killing spree of a murderer dressed in a police uniform in New York City.

Why it is one of the best Bruce Campbell movies: One of Bruce Campbell’s biggest roles in the ’80s outside of the Evil Dead franchise was as one of the heroes of Maniac Cop - a fun and surprisingly smart hybrid of slasher movies and detective dramas that see Campbell share the screen with another iconic horror movie actor, Tom Atkins.

Stream Maniac Cop on Shudder.
Buy Maniac Cop on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.

Bubba Ho-Tep (2002)

Years after switching identities with one of his impersonators to escape the pressures of fame, Elvis Presley (Bruce Campbell) and a Black man who claims to be the real John F. Kennedy (Ossie Davis) team-up to stop an evil Egyptian mummy from claiming the souls of fellow residents at their nursing home in Texas.

Why it is one of the best Bruce Campbell movies: One of Bruce Campbell’s most celebrated roles in his entire career outside of the Evil Dead franchise was as the real elderly King of Rock ’n Roll himself in Bubba Ho-Tep - a wonderfully absurd horror-comedy written for screen and helmed by Phantasm and John Dies at the End director Don Coscarelli.

Stream Bubba Ho-Tep on Tubi.
Stream Bubba Ho-Tep on Pluto TV.

Rent/buy Bubba Ho-Tep digitally on Amazon.
Buy Bubba Ho-Tep on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.

The Adventures Of Brisco County, Jr. (1993-1994)

A bounty hunter (Bruce Campbell) travels through the Old West in search of the outlaw gang that killed his father, and comes into possession of strange, futuristic objects that help him out of sticky situations along the way.

Why it is one of the best Bruce Campbell TV shows: Bruce Campbell’s first lead role on a TV show, years before Ash vs. Evil Dead, was as the titular hero of the prematurely and unfairly cancelled The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. - a unique hybrid of an old school western with broad comedy and bizarre sci-fi surrealism from co-creators Jeffrey Boam and Carlton Cuse.

Rent/buy The Adventures Of Brisco County, Jr. digitally on Amazon.
Buy The Adventures Of Brisco County, Jr. on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.

Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man Movies (2002-2007)

After a radioactive spider’s bite gives him extraordinary abilities, a young New Yorker (Tobey Maguire) accepts the great responsibility of protecting the city from evil, all while struggling to maintain a social life and a career in the process.

Why they are some of the best Bruce Campbell movies: Director Sam Raimi cast his good friend, Evil Dead trilogy star Bruce Campbell, in all three of his Spider-Man movies, in which he made a hilarious cameo as a different character (from an amateur wrestling announcer in the first film to a French maitre d’ in the third) each time.

Stream Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man Movies on Peacock Premium.

Rent/buy Spider-Man digitally on Amazon.
Rent/buy Spider-Man 2 digitally on Amazon.
Rent/buy Spider-Man 3 digitally on Amazon.

Buy Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man Movies on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.

Sky High (2005)

In a world almost entirely populated by super-powered beings, a young man (Michael Angarano) struggles to fit in during his freshman year of high school, despite not having any powers of his own…yet.

Why it is one of the best Bruce Campbell movies: One of Bruce Campbell’s most notable contributions to superhero movies outside of the Spider-Man trilogy (so far) is his role as the very selective Coach Boomer (a.k.a. Sonic Boom) in Sky High - an inventive, family-friendly take on the genre with hearty messages about about heroism.

Stream Sky High on Disney+.
Rent/buy Sky High digitally on Amazon.
Buy Sky High on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.

The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)

As part of stock market scam, an unwitting business school graduate (Tim Robbins) is promoted from mail room attendant to president of a big manufacturing company.

Why it is one of the best Bruce Campbell movies: Bruce Campbell is also good friends with Oscar-winning directorial duo Joel and Ethan Coen (the latter of whom actually worked as an assistant film editor on The Evil Dead) who would cast the actor as a fast-talking newspaper reporter in The Hudsucker Proxy - a fast-paced screwball comedy that feels ripped right from the 1930s, which Sam Raimi also helped write and served as a second unit director for.

Rent/buy The Hudsucker Proxy digitally on Amazon.
Buy The Hudsucker Proxy on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.

The Ant Bully (2006)

A young boy who takes his frustrations out on a colony of ants is magically shrunken down to their size and forced to live and work among them.

Why it is one of the best Bruce Campbell movies: Bruce Campbell has leant his distinct, bold voice to a number of memorable animated roles, such as a smug and appropriately large-chinned ant named Fugax in The Ant Bully - a charming fish-out-of-water story from the director of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, John A. Davis.

Rent/buy The Ant Bully digitally on Amazon.
Buy The Ant Bully on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs (2009)

Hoping to finally earn the respect he has craved from his family and peers, an aspiring inventor (Bill Hader) creates a device that makes food fall from the sky, which means great news for his financially starving town before disaster inevitably strikes.

Why it is one of the best Bruce Campbell movies: Another notable voice role on Bruce Campbell’s resume is the also smug and large-chinned Mayor Shebourne in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - a hilarious adaptation of Judi Barrett’s classic children’s book from writing and directing duo Phil Lord and Christopher Miller.

Stream Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs on Hulu.
Rent/buy Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs digitally on Amazon.
Buy Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.

Burn Notice (2007-2013)

After his employment is suddenly terminated and he is forcibly relocated to Miami, an international spy (Jeffrey Donovan) takes up a job as a private investigator with the help of his ex-girlfriend (Gabrielle Anwar), a former military intelligence operative (Bruce Campbell), and, occasionally, his mother (Sharon Gless).

Why it is one of the best Bruce Campbell TV shows: Bruce Campbell’s big return to television in the 21st Century before the premiere of Ash vs. Evil Dead was the scene-stealing role of Sam Axe on Burn Notice - an Emmy-nominated hit USA Network original that makes espionage look fun and actually quite doable with the right materials. 

Stream Burn Notice on Hulu.
Stream Burn Notice on PlutoTV.

Buy Burn Notice digitally on Amazon.
Buy Burn Notice on DVD/Blu-ray on Amazon.

As previously mentioned, Bruce Campbell has retired from playing Ash Williams onscreen, but will voice him in the upcoming Evil Dead video game in 2022 - the same year that HBO Max will premiere Evil Dead Rise, which Campbell produced with Sam Raimi. The actor could also be seen most recently playing the manager of a toy store overridden by mutant shoppers in the horror-comedy, Black Friday, and played a musician turned music manager in the Hallmark Christmas movie called One December Night.

Some of the cast members from Saturday Night Live over the last 20 years have really seen success in Hollywood, such as Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Seth Meyers and many others. One who's had a large amount of success is Bill Hader, a talented actor and voice actor. 

From his time on Saturday Night Live to some awesome voiceover roles, Bill Hader has truly become a staple in the industry, especially in comedic roles. Here’s where you can watch some of the best Bill Hader movies and TV shows, streaming right now, from some of the best movies on Netflix to the best movies on Amazon Prime. 

Saturday Night Live (2005-2013)

I can’t have a Bill Hader list without mentioning his time on Saturday Night Live, otherwise known as SNL. In this primetime sketch series that’s been on air for more than 40 years, SNL features a variety of comedic cast members who put on regular sketches parodying pop culture, politics, and more. 

Bill Hader is one of my personal favorites. Some of his sketches have truly lived on and become so popular through re-runs and postings on YouTube. But, my all-time favorite character of his - and I’m sure it might be yours too - is Stefan, who often appeared on Weekend Update. If you haven’t seen any of Bill Hader’s hilarious skits from SNL, be sure to watch some of them now if you haven’t. 

Stream Saturday Night Live on Hulu. 

Hot Rod (2007) 

Next up, we have Hot Rod, a comedy starring Andy Samberg as Rod Kimble, an amateur stuntman who is continuously mocked by his stepfather. But, when his stepfather becomes ill, Rod decides to raise money by executing one of the largest stunts he's ever done. 

In one of his first ever film roles, Bill Hader is, honestly, hilarious in Hot Rod. His timing is great and he has great chemistry with Samberg. Even so, Hot Rod has a stellar cast, with big stars like Danny McBride, Isla Fisher, Will Arnett, and more, creating a comical experience that is sure to entertain comedy lovers. 

Stream Hot Rod on Amazon Prime. 
Rent Hot Rod on Apple TV+.

Superbad (2007)

Superbad is one of those films that I feel everyone has seen if you like comedy movies. Starring Michael Cera and Jonah Hill, Superbad is about two high school seniors who are planning to lose their virginity to the prettiest and coolest girls at school before they graduate, causing hilarity to ensue. 

Bill Hader stars as one of the cops in the movie, Officer Slater, and his chemistry with Seth Rogen? Masterful. I love watching their scenes all the time. Regardless, the Superbad cast just has a tone of awesome stars. Talent like Emma Stone, Dave Franco, Martin Starr, and several others are in the cast list - and of course, no one can forget McLovin’, played by Christopher Mintz-Plasse. 

Rent Superbad on Amazon. 

Documentary Now! (2015-Present)

This mockumentary style television series, Documentary Now!, is hosted by Helen Mirren, and spoofs celebrated documentary films by parodying several real ones with a similar, but fictitious, subject. 

Bill Hader actually co-created by the show with fellow SNL alumni, Fred Armisen and Seth Meyers, as well as Rhys Thomas. Hader and Armisen both star in the show, and while there aren’t that many episodes, they’re worth every second it takes to watch. As someone who enjoys documentaries, I also love the way that they parody them. They’re so much fun and hilarious. 

Stream Documentary Now! on Netflix. 

Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)

Forgetting Sarah Marshall is a fantastic romantic comedy starring Jason Segel, telling the story of Peter Bretter, who is a music composer for a TV show that features his future girlfriend, Sarah Marshall, in the lead role. But, when she suddenly breaks up with him, he takes a vacation to try and move on with his life, creating endless problems. 

While Bill Hader doesn’t have a super big role in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, his scenes as Peter's step-brother and best friend stand out, often with him trying to help Peter navigate heartbreak. The Forgetting Sarah Marshall cast is great as well, with big names such as Kristen Bell, Russell Brand, and more. 

Stream Forgetting Sarah Marshall on Starz. 
Rent Forgetting Sarah Marshall on Amazon. 

Adventureland (2009)

Next up, we have Adventureland, a comedy-drama that is set in the summer of 1987. When a recent college graduate wants to go to Europe to continue his career in grad school, he realizes that money is tight and takes up a job at Adventureland, a local theme park in Pennsylvania, where he meets a co-worker whom he develops a relationship with. 

As someone who grew up not too far from the actual theme park this movie is loosely based on, I can say that Adventureland is a lot of fun. Bill Hader is great as the assistant manager of the park, from his support of his employees, to his obsessiveness over littering in the park. He and Kristen Stewart, Jesse Eisenburg, Kristin Wiig, and several others work wonderfully together and create such a fun, hilarious movie with plenty of laughs. 

Stream Adventureland on HBO Max. 
Rent Adventureland on Amazon. 

Barry (2018-Present)

The popular HBO original series, Barry, is a dark comedy starring Bill Hader that tells the story of a hitman from Cleveland who travels to L.A. to kill someone, but finds himself joining an acting class, where he starts to meet people and question the choices he has made thus far in his life. 

Barry is fantastic. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about that. It’s a great comedy with plenty of twists and a lot of dark moments that make it so good. Bill Hader’s performance as the titular character is one of his best character moments so far, creating a complex individual that you want to root for, even if he’s done bad things. Henry Winkler’s character, as well, is also a fantastic addition. With Barry Season 3 on the way, one can only hope that maybe, we’ll get to continue this story soon. 

Stream Barry on HBO Max. 

Inside Out (2015)

One of my personal favorites of Bill Hader’s library of work is Inside Out. This Pixar film follows Riley and her emotions - Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, and Fear - as she goes through a big change in her life by moving across the country to San Francisco, and the feelings that come along with it. 

Bill Hader voices Fear in Inside Out, and personally, I don’t think any other actor could have done it better. His version of Fear feels so real, showing how small things can scare us sometimes, as well as the larger moments of doubt in oneself. Inside Out is a spectacularly animated film with a great cast, wonderful visuals, a good score - you really can’t go wrong with it. Check it out if you haven’t already. 

Stream Inside Out on Disney+. 
Rent Inside Out on Amazon.

Trainwreck (2015)

In this popular Judd Apatow film, Trainwreck stars Amy Schumer and Bill Hader, and tells the story of “trainwreck” Amy Townsend, who ends up having her first serious relationship with an orthopedic surgeon, named Aaron. 

Now, I’ll be honest - I’ve never really been a huge fan of Amy Schumer’s comedy in general. However, Trainwreck is one of her works that I do enjoy thoroughly, and I believe that’s from two things - the brilliant direction and entertaining story from Apatow and Schumer, and Hader’s chemistry with her. The two work very well together, creating this funny duo that definitely has their problems, but also care deeply about each other. Their relationship feels like a real one, rather than one made up for a movie. It’s authentic and sweet. 

Stream Trainwreck on Peacock. 
Rent Trainwreck on Amazon.

IT Chapter 2 (2019)

Next up, we have everyone’s favorite clown, Pennywise, in IT Chapter 2. This follow-up to the 2017 movie, IT, features the same characters all grown up, traveling back to Derry to fight the creature known as IT 27 years later, before it attacks and kills more children. 

While I will always have a special place in my heart for Tim Curry’s IT, I do think these versions are much better, and a big reason is that the casting for these characters is on point. Bill Hader’s adult Richie matches up with the kid version perfectly, and he provides some excellent comedic moments, while also participating in some terrifying ones as well. I get chills every time during one of his scenes, in particular. If you’re a fan of best horror movies, check this one out, as well as the first IT. 

Stream IT Chapter 2 on HBO Max. 
Rent IT Chapter 2 on Amazon.

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs (2009/2013)

Lastly, we have Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, both the first and the second installment. This duology tells the story of Flint, an aspiring inventor who makes a machine that can convert water into food. But, when the machine gains sentience and begins to develop food storms, it’s up to him and some of his allies to destroy it and save the world. 

Listen, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is adorable and worth the watch on Netflix. I could watch this family film over and over, and not get bored. Bill Hader is an awesome voice-actor and really brings that certain quirkiness and charm to Flint, creating a dorky character who you really want to root for in his inventions. The animation is also fun, too. I mean, if you ever wanted to envision what it would look like for meatballs to suddenly rain down from the sky, here you go. 

Stream Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs on Netflix. 
Rent Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs on Amazon. 

I know I’m going to have to check out the new 2021 movies, because I can’t wait to see what Bill Hader does next. Even so, it’ll still be just as fun as all of his other movies and shows have been. Now, if the third season of Barry could just come out, I’d be happy.  

I am the type of moviegoer who loves planning to dine out after a night at the movies and chooses to save my appetite for when the credits roll. However, there are some films – such as Chef, for instance – that incorporate dining as an essential focal point to the story and might not be as suitable to watch on an empty stomach.

Well, if you are not craving anything at the moment, you just might be by the time you are finished watching any of the following essential food movies. We took a look at some of the best streaming services to subscribe to today to find all the best delicious food movies on streaming, available to rent, or on physical media.

Julie & Julia (2009)

Director: Nora Ephron

Starring: Meryl Streep, Amy Adams

What it's about: The story of celebrity chef Julia Child and author and blogger Julie Powell, who attempted to make every item in Child’s first recipe book.

Why it’s a truly delicious food movie: Streep received an Oscar nomination for Julie & Julia – writer and director Nora Ephron’s unique experiment in combining two biopics into one, resulting in an endearing dramedy with many scrumptious delicacies to behold throughout.

How to watch Julie & Julia

• Rent or buy Julie & Julia on Amazon
• Buy Julie & Julia on Blu-ray on Amazon

Soul Food (1997)

Director: George Tillman Jr.

Starring: Irma P. Hall, Vanessa Williams

What it's about: Tensions rise between a Chicago family after their gastronomically talented matriarch falls ill.

Why it’s a truly delicious food movie: Soul Food is an uplifting, star-studded drama that celebrates the powerful influence that good homemade cooking can have on a family’s relationship with one another.

How to watch Soul Food

• Rent or buy Soul Food on Amazon
• Buy Soul Food on DVD on Amazon

Mystic Pizza (1988)

Director: Donald Petrie

Starring: Julia Roberts, Annabeth Gish, and Lili Taylor

What it's about: The personal and romantic struggles of a trio of young women while working together at a pizza restaurant.

Why it’s a truly delicious food movie: You may see pizza in a whole new, more intimate light after watching one of Julia Roberts’ best rom-coms, Mystic Pizza.

How to watch Mystic Pizza

• Stream Mystic Pizza on Max
• Stream Mystic Pizza on MGM+
• Rent or buy Mystic Pizza on Amazon
• Buy Mystic Pizza on Blu-ray on Amazon

Waitress (2007)

Director: Adrienne Shelly

Starring: Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion

What it's about: Southern restaurant server Jenna Hunterson contends with an unhappy marriage, an unwanted pregnancy, and an unexpected romance with a local doctor.

Why it’s a truly delicious food movie: Also one of the best Nathan Fillion movies (he plays the doctor), one of the major appeals of the sweet and clever dramedy Waitress is seeing what kind of pie Jenna whips up in reference to her life’s latest pivotal event.

How to watch Waitress

• Stream Waitress on Hulu
• Rent or buy Waitress on Amazon
• Buy Waitress on DVD on Amazon

The Menu (2022)

Director: Mark Mylod

Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult

What it's about: A young woman, her date, and others participating in a special dining event discover the celebrity chef curating the meal has sinister intentions.

Why it’s a truly delicious food movie: While the overall outcome of the unique dining experience in The Menu certainly proves unfavorable for most, it does not take an experienced foodie to tell that the courses prepared in this instant classic horror-comedy movie are to die for.

How to watch The Menu

• Rent or buy The Menu on Amazon
• Buy The Menu on Blu-ray on Amazon

Delicious (2021)

Director: Éric Besnard

Starring: Grégory Gadebois, Isabelle Carré

What it's about: A recently fired personal chef, aided by a talented young woman, manages to turn his life around and make a groundbreaking change at the cusp of the French Revolution.

Why it’s a truly delicious food movie: The French-language historical dramedy Delicious tells the story of how the world’s first public restaurant came to be, so you can imagine there is quite a selection of specials to gaze upon.

How to watch Delicious

• Stream Delicious on Amazon Prime
• Stream Delicious on Peacock
• Buy Delicious on DVD on Amazon

The Taste Of Things (2023)

Director: Anh Hung Tran

Starring: Benoît Magimel, Juliette Binoche

What it's about: The relationship between a gourmet chef and his renowned employee develops into something greater in 1889 France.

Why it’s a truly delicious food movie: Based on Marcel Rouff’s novel, The Taste of Things is a beautiful, infectious exploration of the connection between culinary arts and romance.

How to watch The Taste of Things

• Stream The Taste of Things on Hulu
• Stream The Taste of Things on AMC+
• Rent or buy The Taste of Things on Amazon
• Buy The Taste of Things on Blu-ray on Amazon

Burnt (2015)

Director: John Wells

Starring: Bradley Cooper, Uma Thurman

What it's about: An American celebrity chef attempts to turn a low-rated London restaurant into a high-class hot spot after his destructive tendencies place him at the bottom of the food chain.

Why it’s a truly delicious food movie: A decade after starring as a chef in the short-lived sitcom Kitchen Confidential (based on a memoir by Anthony Bourdain) Cooper returned to the world of culinary arts in Burnt – a compelling dramedy from Oscar-nominated screenwriter Stephen Knight, which creates an authentic kitchen atmosphere thanks to hands-on cooking experts.

How to watch Burnt

• Stream Burnt on Netflix
• Rent or buy Burnt on Amazon
• Buy Burnt on Blu-ray on Amazon

No Reservations (2007) 

Director: Scott Hicks

Starring: Catherine Zeta-Jones, Aaron Eckhart, Abigail Breslin

What it's about: An intimidatingly precise and temperamental chef butts heads with her restaurant’s latest hire as she unexpectedly becomes a guardian to her young niece.

Why it’s a truly delicious food movie: If the chemistry between Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart does not compel you, the food will, in No Reservations – a charming romantic comedy based on the 2001 German film Mostly Martha.

How to watch No Reservations

• Rent or buy No Reservations on Amazon
• Buy No Reservations on Blu-ray on Amazon

Chef (2014)

Director: Jon Favreau

Starring: Jon Favreau, Sofia Vergara

What it's about: After his furious reactions to a harsh food critic ruin his career, the former head chef of a high-class restaurant invests in a food truck to reignite his reputation and relationship with his estranged family.

Why it’s a truly delicious food movie: Art imitates life in a more metaphorical sense for Iron Man helmer Jon Favreau’s return to more intimate films with the underrated food movie, Chef, which would later become a more literal part of his real life as host of the Netflix original cooking show, The Chef Show.

How to watch Chef

• Stream Chef on Paramount+ with Showtime add-on
• Rent or buy Chef on Amazon
• Buy Chef on Blu-ray on Amazon

Big Night (1996) 

Director: Stanley Tucci, Campbell Scott

Starring: Campbell Scott, Tony Shalhoub

What it's about: Two Italian-born brothers make one last attempt to save their restaurant on the night that a famous singer is scheduled to visit in 1950s New Jersey.

Why it’s a truly delicious food movie: Another example of a Marvel movie veteran directing himself in a food movie is the acclaimed dramedy Big Night, which is the directorial debut of Oscar nominee Tucci (who co-writes with Joseph Tropiano), who also indulges in culinary arts in real life outside of his film career.

How to watch Big Night

• Rent or buy Big Night on Amazon
• Buy Big Night on Blu-ray on Amazon

Ratatouille (2007) 

Director: Brad Bird

Starring: Patton Oswalt, Lou Romano

What it's about: A smarter-than-average rat receives the chance to live out his dream of cooking fancy food with the help of a young, talentless kitchen worker as his “avatar” at a prestigious Paris eatery.

Why it’s a truly delicious food movie: I think we can credit the Pixar movie classic Ratatouille with getting more young audiences interested in the world of fine dining, especially with its inspiring message that claims anyone (or even any species) may have what it takes to prepare great food.

How to watch Ratatouille

• Stream Ratatouille on Disney+
• Rent or buy Ratatouille on Amazon
• Buy Ratatouille on Blu-ray on Amazon

Good Burger (1997) 

Director: Brian Robbins

Starring: Kenan Thompson, Kel Mitchell

What it's about: A teenage slacker is forced to take a job for the summer at a local fast food place but ends up teaming with his overly enthusiastic co-worker to keep a corporate-run burger joint from running them out of business.

Why it’s a truly delicious food movie: Another great food movie for kids with another inspirational message (this one about standing up for local businesses) is Good Burger – one of the first Nickelodeon movies, and one based on a bit from the channel’s popular sketch comedy series, All That.

How to watch Good Burger

• Stream Good Burger on Paramount+
• Stream Good Burger on Pluto TV
• Rent or buy Good Burger on Amazon
• Buy Good Burger on Blu-ray on Amazon

Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle (2004)

Director: Danny Leiner

Starring: Jon Cho, Kal Penn

What it's about: An investment banker and his slacker best friend and roommate are desperate to cure their serious case of the munchies, only to see their quest interrupted by a series of increasingly bizarre circumstances, including a surprise meeting with Neil Patrick Harris (played by himself).

Why it’s a truly delicious food movie: White Castle – a restaurant famous for serving up sliders for the past century – is not for everybody but you might get a craving while watching the acclaimed comedy classic Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, especially if you happen to be under the same influences as its titular heroes.

How to watch Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle

• Rent or buy Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle on Amazon
• Buy Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle on Blu-ray on Amazon

Chocolat (2000) 

Director: Lasse Hallström

Starring: Juliette Binoche, Johnny Depp

What it's about: A single mother and daughter's chocolate business stir an uproar in a devoutly Catholic, French village, until the product causes a change of heart and spirit in the townsfolk.

Why it’s a truly delicious food movie: Now is the time to move on to dessert, which has rarely looked as satisfying as it does in Chocolat – an Oscar-nominated romantic dramedy about learning how to rediscover the sweeter things in life by giving into your sweet tooth.

How to watch Chocolat

• Stream Chocolat on Paramount+
• Rent or buy Chocolat on Amazon
• Buy Chocolat on Blu-ray on Amazon

Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (1971) 

Director: Mel Stuart

Starring: Gene Wilder, Peter Ostrum

What it's about: A poor boy becomes one of five lucky children who win the chance to tour a renowned candy factory owned by a mysterious, eccentric recluse who has plenty of bewildering surprises in store

Why it’s a truly delicious food movie: The classic kids movie Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory stars the late, great Gene Wilder in the title role of a man who makes the candy business look like a wild, unbelievable fantasy in ways that only author Roald Dahl could imagine.

How to watch Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

• Stream Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory on Max
• Stream Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory on Tubi
• Rent or buy Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory on Amazon
• Buy Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory on Blu-ray on Amazon

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs (2009)

Director: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller

Starring: Bill Hader, Anna Faris

What it's about: A wannabe inventor creates a machine that causes food to fall from the sky, which saves his financially starving town before causing even more problems.

Why it’s a truly delicious food movie: Another wild, unbelievable fantasy about food based on a classic children’s book is Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs – an inventive twist on Judi Barrett’s original story that also boasts a stunning, star-studded voice cast

How to watch Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

• Rent or buy Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs on Amazon
• Buy Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs on Blu-ray on Amazon

Sausage Party (2016)

Director: Conrad Vernon, Greg Tiernan

Starring: Seth Rogen, Kristen Wiig

What it's about: A sausage learns the horrifying truth about his existence as a grocery store item and vows to warn his other edible friends before they end up on the menu.

Why it’s a truly delicious food movie: Another star-studded, animated fantasy story about food (but one that is certainly not for children) is Sausage Party – an inventive look at the world from the perspective of sentient food, which has a series continuation called Sausage Party: Foodtopia on Amazon Prime.

How to watch Sausage Party

• Stream Sausage Party on Hulu
• Rent or buy Sausage Party on Amazon
• Buy Sausage Party on Blu-ray on Amazon

It may seem a little messed up (and almost inhumane) to include a title like Sausage Party on a list of movies about delicious food but what is wrong with throwing in a little extra variety for good measure? Either way, all of these titles should have exactly what food lovers and movie lovers alike need to satisfy their appetites.

Readers, we’ve made it! At least, we’ll have made it to 2021 by time the titles we’re about to discuss come online. While we can pat ourselves on the back for getting to December 2020 as alright as we could, Netflix is here to provide even more rewards for seeing 2020 out in style-- and in one piece. If you’re curious what movies and TV shows have made their way into the December 2020 lineup, you can read the full rundown included below, as well as a highlighted roster of movies that make up some of the best and brightest titles to come online in the past month. But now it’s time to look a little into the new year, and see what’s coming into the Netflix library for January 2021.

Week of January 1

Dream Home Makeover: Season 2 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 1/1/21

Headspace Guide to Meditation - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 1/1/21

The Minimalists: Less Is Now - NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY – 1/1/21

Monarca: Season 2 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 1/1/21

What Happened to Mr. Cha? - NETFLIX FILM – 1/1/21

17 Again (2009) – 1/1/21

30 Minutes or Less (2011) – 1/1/21

Abby Hatcher: Season 1 – 1/1/21

Blue Streak (1999) – 1/1/21

Bonnie and Clyde (1967) – 1/1/21

Can't Hardly Wait (1998) – 1/1/21

Catch Me If You Can (2002) – 1/1/21

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) – 1/1/21

Cool Hand Luke (1967) – 1/1/21

The Creative Brain (2019) – 1/1/21

The Departed (2006) – 1/1/21

Enter the Dragon (1973) – 1/1/21

Gimme Shelter (2013) – 1/1/21

Good Hair (2010) – 1/1/21

Goodfellas (1990) – 1/1/21

Gothika (2003) – 1/1/21

The Haunted Hathaways: Seasons 1-2 – 1/1/21

Into the Wild (2007) – 1/1/21

Julie & Julia (2009) – 1/1/21

Mud (2012) – 1/1/21

Mystic Pizza (1988) – 1/1/21

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988) – 1/1/21

Eddie Murphy: Raw (1987) – 1/1/21

Sex and the City: The Movie (2008) – 1/1/21

Sex and the City 2 (2010) – 1/1/21

Sherlock Holmes (2009) – 1/1/21

Striptease (1996) – 1/1/21

Superbad (2007) – 1/1/21

What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) – 1/1/21

Asphalt Burning (Børning 3) - NETFLIX FILM – 1/2/21

Week of January 3

Gabby's Dollhouse - NETFLIX FAMILY – 1/5/21

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) – 1/5/21

History of Swear Words - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 1/5/21

LA's Finest: Season 1 – 1/5/21

¡Nailed It! México: Season 3 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 1/5/21

Ratones Paranoicos: The Band that Rocked Argentina - NETFLIX FILM – 1/6/21

Surviving Death - NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY – 1/6/21

Tony Parker: The Final Shot - NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY – 1/6/21

Pieces of a Woman - NETFLIX FILM – 1/7/21

Charming - NETFLIX FILM – 1/8/21

The Idhun Chronicles: Part 2 - NETFLIX ANIME – 1/8/21

Inside the World’s Toughest Prisons: Season 5 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 1/8/21

Lupin - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 1/8/21

Mighty Little Bheem: Kite Festival - NETFLIX FAMILY – 1/8/21

Pretend It’s a City - NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY – 1/8/21

Stuck Apart (Azizler) - NETFLIX FILM – 1/8/21

Week of January 10

Spring Breakers (2012) – 1/10/21

CRACK: Cocaine, Corruption & Conspiracy - NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY – 1/11/21

The Intouchables (2011) – 1/11/21

Last Tango in Halifax: Season 4 – 1/12/21

An Imperfect Murder – 1/13/21

Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer -- NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY – 1/13/21

Bling Empire - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 1/15/21

Carmen Sandiego: Season 4 - NETFLIX FAMILY – 1/15/21

Disenchantment: Part 3 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 1/15/21

Double Dad (Pai Em Dobro) - NETFLIX FILM – 1/15/21

Henry Danger: Seasons 1-3 – 1/15/21

Hook (1991) – 1/15/21

Kuroko's Basketball: Season 1 – 1/15/21

The Magicians: Season 5 – 1/15/21

Outside the Wire - NETFLIX FILM – 1/15/21

Penguins of Madagascar: The Movie (2014) – 1/15/21

Pinkfong & Baby Shark's Space Adventure (2019) – 1/15/21

A Monster Calls (2016) – 1/16/21

Radium Girls (2020) – 1/16/21

Week of January 17

Homefront (2013) – 1/18/21

Hello Ninja: Season 4 - NETFLIX FAMILY – 1/19/21

Daughter From Another Mother (Madre solo hay dos) - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 1/20/21

Sightless (2020) – 1/20/21

Spycraft - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 1/20/21

Call My Agent!: Season 4 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 1/21/21

Blown Away: Season 2 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 1/22/21

Busted!: Season 3 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 1/22/21

Fate: The Winx Saga - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 1/22/21

Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous Season 2 - NETFLIX FAMILY – 1/22/21

So My Grandma’s a Lesbian! (Salir del ropero) - NETFLIX FILM – 1/22/21

The White Tiger - NETFLIX FILM – 1/22/21

Love (ft. Marriage and Divorce) - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 1/23/21

Week of January 24

Go Dog Go - NETFLIX FAMILY – 1/26/21

Accomplice – 1/27/21

Penguin Bloom - NETFLIX FILM– 1/27/21

Below Zero (Bajocero) - NETFLIX FILM– 1/29/21

The Dig - NETFLIX FILM– 1/29/21

Finding 'Ohana - NETFLIX FILM– 1/29/21

We Are: The Brooklyn Saints - NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY– 1/29/21

Available January 31 / January TBD

Fatima (2020) – 1/31/21

50M2 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL - TBD

Bonding: Season 2 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL - TBD

Cobra Kai: Season 3 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL - TBD

June & Kopi - NETFLIX FILM - TBD

The Netflix Afterparty - NETFLIX ORIGINAL - TBD

Netfiix’s Movie Highlights For January 2021

January sees the extended season of awards contention hit the Netflix platform early, as Pieces of a Woman makes its way to the streamer after its limited theatrical run. Seeing Vanessa Kirby and Shia LaBeouf playing a couple who navigate a personal tragedy, the movie has ridden a tide of critical raves from the festival circuit. But if you’re looking for a little android action-adventure instead, Netflix has you covered there as well. Early in this new year, Anthony Mackie gets to go bionic and kick some ass, in the film Outside The Wire. The Marvel Studios star playing an android with special skills, on a mission of utmost importance to the future of humanity and machine alike.

Netflix’s TV Highlights For January 2021

If you think Nicolas Cage and profanity go together like peanut butter and chocolate, you’re going to love one of Netflix’s latest offerings in his canon of work. The series History of Swear Words does exactly what it says on the tin, as it allows Mr. Cage to introduce the world to the origins of some of the words that have made his colorful performances all the more amazing. And if you’re looking for another reason to enjoy the big red streamer in January, the long awaited return of Cobra Kai sees the former YouTube Original fully become a Netflix newcomer.

But if you were one of the many viewers that jumped into the world of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous and were left hanging by that promising cliffhanger, your wait is almost over. In the backend of the month, the next batch of episodes chronicling the adventures of the campers on Isla Nublar will be delivered to the masses hungry to keep their Jurassic fandom satisfied.

January 2021 looks like a promising debut for the year ahead, and Netflix subscribers can see why. But always keep in mind that titles are subject to change and availability, so make sure to check these listings in case something shifts from its intended point of debut. Happy holidays, readers; and be sure to stream responsibly during this time of celebration and binge watching!

The year 2020 is a paradox that seems to have both rushed and dragged us through at the same time. Out of nowhere, Netflix is already confirming that November is imminent. We could have sworn October had just started last week, but that's how time works, and I'm not going to question it. Besides, with a new month of the calendar arriving comes a new crop of titles that are both familiar and new, waiting for eager viewers to partake in the delights ahead. If you're still looking for some spooky seasonal delights, you can jump over to the October 2020 lineup for Netflix provided below. But should you want to get a jump on the new holiday season that's fast approaching, here's what November has in store for you lucky subscribers!

Week of November 1

M'entends-tu? / Can You Hear Me?: Season 2 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL – 11/1/20

60 Days In: Season 5 – 11/1/20

A Clockwork Orange – 11/1/20

Boyz n the Hood – 11/1/20

Casper – 11/1/20

Christmas Break-In – 11/1/20

Dawson's Creek: Seasons 1-6 – 11/1/20

Easy A – 11/1/20

Elf Pets: A Fox Cub’s Christmas Tale – 11/1/20

Elf Pets: Santa’s Reindeer Rescue – 11/1/20

Elliot the Littlest Reindeer – 11/1/20

Forged in Fire: Season 6 – 11/1/20

Jumping the Broom – 11/1/20

Knock Knock – 11/1/20

Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath: Seasons 1-3 – 11/1/20

Little Monsters (1989) – 11/1/20

Mile 22 – 11/1/20

Ocean's Eleven – 11/1/20

Paul Blart: Mall Cop – 11/1/20

Piercing – 11/1/20

Platoon – 11/1/20

School Daze – 11/1/20

Snowden – 11/1/20

The Garfield Show: Season 3 – 11/1/20

The Impossible – 11/1/20

The Indian in the Cupboard – 11/1/20

The Next Karate Kid – 11/1/20

Wheels of Fortune – 11/1/20

Yes Man – 11/1/20

Prospect - 11/2/20

Felix Lobrecht: Hype - NETFLIX COMEDY SPECIAL - 11/3/20

Mother - NETFLIX FILM - 11/3/20

A Christmas Catch - 11/4/20

Christmas With A Prince - 11/4/20

Love and Anarchy - NETFLIX ORIGINAL - 11/4/20

A New York Christmas Wedding - 11/5/20

Carmel: Who Killed Maria Marta? - NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY - 11/5/20

Midnight At The Magnolia - 11/5/20

Operation Christmas Drop - NETFLIX FILM - 11/5/20

Paranormal - NETFLIX ORIGINAL - 11/5/20

Citation - NETFLIX FILM - 11/6/20

Country Ever After - NETFLIX ORIGINAL - 11/6/20

La trinchera infinita / The Endless Trench - NETFLIX FILM - 11/6/20

The Late Bloomer - 11/6/20

Week of November 8

Undercover: Season 2 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL - 11/9/20

Dash & Lily - NETFLIX ORIGINAL - 11/10/20

Trash Truck - NETFLIX FAMILY - 11/10/20

Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun - NETFLIX COMEDY SPECIAL - 11/11/20

The Liberator - NETFLIX ORIGINAL - 11/11/20

Nasce uma Rainha / A Queen Is Born - NETFLIX ORIGINAL - 11/11/20

What We Wanted - NETFLIX FILM - 11/11/20

Fruitvale Station - 11/12/20

Graceful Friends - 11/12/20

Ludo - NETFLIX FILM - 11/12/20

Prom Night - 11/12/20

American Horror Story: 1984 - 11/13/20

Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey - NETFLIX FILM - 11/13/20

The Life Ahead - NETFLIX FILM - 11/13/20

The Minions of Midas - NETFLIX ORIGINAL - 11/13/20

Week of November 15

A Very Country Christmas - 11/15/20

America's Next Top Model: Seasons 19 & 20 - 11/15/20

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 - 11/15/20

The Crown: Season 4 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL - 11/15/20

Hometown Holiday - 11/15/20

Survivor: Seasons 20 & 28 - 11/15/20

V for Vendetta - 11/15/20

Loving - 11/16/20

Whose Streets? - 11/16/20

The Boss Baby: Back in Business: Season 4 - NETFLIX FAMILY - 11/17/20

We Are the Champions - NETFLIX ORIGINAL - 11/17/20

El sabor de las margaritas / Bitter Daisies: Season 2 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL - 11/18/20

Holiday Home Makeover with Mr. Christmas - NETFLIX ORIGINAL - 11/18/20

The Princess Switch: Switched Again - NETFLIX FILM - 11/19/20

Alien Xmas - NETFLIX FILM - 11/20/20

Flavorful Origins: Gansu Cuisine - NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY - 11/20/20

If Anything Happens I Love You - NETFLIX FILM - 11/20/20

Voices of Fire - NETFLIX ORIGINAL - 11/20/20

Week of November 22

Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square - NETFLIX FILM - 11/22/20

Machete Kills - 11/22/20

Hard Kill - 11/23/20

Shawn Mendes: In Wonder - NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY - 11/23/20

Dragons: Rescue Riders: Huttsgalor Holiday - NETFLIX FAMILY - 11/24/20

El Cuaderno de Tomy / Notes for My Son - NETFLIX FILM - 11/24/20

Hillbilly Elegy - NETFLIX FILM - 11/24/20

Wonderoos - NETFLIX FAMILY - 11/24/20

The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two - NETFLIX FILM - 11/25/20

Great Pretender: Season 2 - NETFLIX ANIME - 11/25/20

Larry the Cable Guy: Remain Seated - 11/26/20

Mosul - NETFLIX FILM - 11/26/20

A Go! Go! Cory Carson Christmas - NETFLIX FAMILY - 11/27/20

The Call - NETFLIX FILM - 11/27/20

Dance Dreams: Hot Chocolate Nutcracker - NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY - 11/27/20

Don't Listen - NETFLIX FILM - 11/27/20

Sugar Rush Christmas: Season 2 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL - 11/27/20

Überweihnachten / Over Christmas - NETFLIX ORIGINAL - 11/27/20

Virgin River: Season 2 - NETFLIX ORIGINAL - 11/27/20

La Belva / The Beast - NETFLIX FILM - 11/27/20

The Uncanny Counter - NETFLIX ORIGINAL - 11/28/20

Week of November 29

Wonderoos: Holiday Holiday! - NETFLIX FAMILY - 11/29/20

The 2nd - 11/30/20

A Love So Beautiful - NETFLIX ORIGINAL - 11/30/20

Finding Agnes - NETFLIX FILM - 11/30/20

Rust Creek - 11/30/20

Spookley and the Christmas Kittens - 11/30/20

November TBD

ARASHI's Diary - Voyage - ep 15-17 - NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY

Mismatched - NETFLIX ORIGINAL

Supernatural: Season 15

Trial 4 - NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY

Netflix’s Movie Highlights For November 2020

Two of Netflix's most special seasons are about to kick off on the movie front. In the awards season corner, Ron Howard's anticipated adaptation of J.D. Vance's memoir Hillbilly Elegy will debut to subscribers close to the Thanksgiving holiday. A tale of growing up with the challenges of family, the film boasts performances by Academy Award nominees Glenn Close and Amy Adams, both of whom could land themselves another nod in this uncertain awards cycle. But, if you're looking for something more upbeat and festive, the holiday season offerings that Netflix has come to be known for are about to welcome a couple new titles to the fold. Families can marvel at the adventure and pageantry of both the musical Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey and the Kurt Russell/Goldie Hawn-starring sequel The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two; while hopeless romantics can enjoy the Vanessa Hudgens-fronted follow-up to The Princess Switch, The Princess Switch: Switched Again.

Netflix’s TV Highlights For November 2020

Fans of Olivia Colman's portrayal of Queen Elizabeth on The Crown are going to be both saddened and delighted, as Season 4 marks the end of her time in the role. Focused on the years of 1977 and 1990, both Princess Diana and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher will factor heavily in this latest season's events. Back to the seasonal route of entertainment on Netflix, there's a new season of Sugar Rush Christmas that promises a fresh batch of holiday bakers competing for top honors, and sweet victory. And if you've missed an episode of Supernatural's final season on The CW, or if you just want to relive the memories of Sam and Dean's final rides into the sunset, you can catch Season 15 in its entirety. Prepare your tissues accordingly.

Netflix is prepared to bring us all closed to the end of 2020, with all the entertainment it can muster! So make sure your subscription is up to date, and that you keep a close eye on the full schedule above, as titles are subject to change and availability. You never know when a particular title is likely to switch up its scheduled debut, and it'd be a shame to miss any of the fun. Until roughly this time next month, we'll be decorating for the holiday season to come! So stream responsibly, and we'll see you back here for December 2020's bumper crop.

There are plenty of streaming platforms to turn to when looking for animated movies, but there are few that have as large of a library of the latest and greatest in the world of animation than Netflix. In addition to having an ever-expanding collection of reality television, original movies, and some of the best sitcoms in the history of the format, Netflix also boasts a robust list of animated features like the eye-catching Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, the criminally underrated Batman: The Mask of the Phantasm, and Academy Award nominees like The Breadwinner. And that's barely scratching the surface…

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse (2018)

Two years ago, who would have thought that an animated Spider-Man movie not in the Marvel Cinematic Universe would become one of the most highly decorated depictions of the friendly webslinger? Well, that's exactly what happened with 2018's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which featured not one, but a half-dozen different versions of the character teaming up to save the multiverse from total collapse. Add some amazing writing, an animation style that seems like a strange mashup of stop-motion, computer-generated, and comic-book animation, and some of the best performances in a Marvel movie yet, and you have a recipe for success. And let's not even get started about the hyped-up sequel and its wild visuals coming out in the next couple of years.

Stream it on Netflix here.

Song Of The Sea (2014)

The art of hand-drawn animation seems to be lost a little more with each passing year, but the studio behind the Academy Award-nominated Song of the Sea not only paid tribute to the great animation houses of the past with their 2014 fantasy epic, but they also paid tribute to their ancestry. Centered around a 10-year-old Irish boy who discovers his mute sister can do some pretty remarkable things, the story follows the pair as they set out to find her missing voice. If the touching story and meaningful cultural references aren't enough, the painstaking animation that went into this feature should hold anyone's attention. And plus, it also happens to be one of the best movies on Netflix right now.

Stream it on Netflix here.

The Little Prince (2015)

The 2015 animated film The Little Prince isn't the typical film adaptation of a beloved children's book, and that's part of what makes this ambitious feat in animation so extraordinary. There are two animation styles utilized throughout the movie with traditional CGI being used for the main narrative revolving around a young girl and her new neighbor who reads about a "Little Prince," and then stop-motion for what happens in the book. By mixing these two very distinct styles, The Little Prince offers something new for audiences, even those who grew up reading Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's timeless novella.

Stream it on Netflix here.

Lupin The Third: The Castle Of Cagliostro (1979)

Before Hayao Miyazaki made a name for himself with gems like Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, or any of his other projects with animation house Studio Ghibli, the acclaimed director got his start with Lupin The Third: The Castle of Cagliostro, a 1979 film adaptation of the iconic manga series. Centered around legendary thief Lupin III, the film follows the crook as he tracks down the source of counterfeit money that he stole from a casino, only to find himself part of something much larger. Full of thievery, action, and some light romance, this classic Japanese animated movie is as fun as it gets.

Stream it on Netflix here.

The Princess And The Frog (2009)

Disney doesn't make nearly as many hand-drawn movies as it used to, but that doesn't mean that the studio's efforts are for nothing when its animation team goes back to the basics. That's exactly what happened with the 2009 release of The Princess and the Frog, a reimagining of the classic fairy tale set in the swampy marshes of southern Louisiana. Everything from the depiction of New Orleans and its surrounding areas to the culture (all that gumbo) and even the songs made this an instant classic. It's just a shame that there haven't been any sequels or spinoffs from this breath of fresh air.

Stream it on Netflix here.

Despicable Me (2010)

There are few films that have had as much of an impact on animated movies as Despicable Me, and it's not just because of the Minions (though they don't hurt). Since the release of the 2010 animated juggernaut, Illumination has gone on to release some of the most successful franchises, but it all comes back to Gru and his army of tiny yellow Minions. With clever writing, an impressive voice cast led by Steve Carrell as the evil genius, and some of the best revolutionary animation practices outside of Pixar, it's no wonder this little movie because one of the hottest properties in show business.

Stream it on Netflix here.

Batman: Mask Of The Phantasm (1993)

Since Batman: The Animated Series, aka, the greatest version of the Dark Knight, isn't streaming on Netflix, the next best thing is the 1993 theatrical release from the iconic franchise, Batman: The Mask of the Phantasm. The movie essentially plays like an extended episode of the classic 1990s cartoon series, which should be enough for any diehard fan of the series to enjoy. There are some darker elements to the story which centers around Batman taking on the mysterious Phantasm (as well as The Joker), but those familiar with The Animated Series should be used to that by now.

Stream it on Netflix here.

Mirai (2018)

This next movie probably isn't one that too many people have heard about despite it being nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2018, but the Japanese film Mirai is one that you should watch. Centered around a young boy who feels forgotten by a family, the story picks up when he runs away and stumbles into a magical garden with the power to transport people through time. Add in some emotional elements about connecting with your family through space and time and you have yourself a new way of seeing the world.

Stream it on Netflix here.

All Dogs Go To Heaven (1989)

There are few movies that pull on your heartstrings more than the 1989 animated fantasy All Dogs Go to Heaven. This funny, yet emotionally grueling story about a canine casino owner who sets out for revenge against his killer after returning from the afterlife makes you wonder how this was passed off as a children's movie when it was first released. Nonetheless, this true classic has withstood the test of time and remains just as enjoyable and poignant as it was on that worn-out VHS tape back in the 1990s.

Stream it on Netflix here.

Ralph Breaks The Internet (2018)

Anyone who thought Wreck-It Ralph was a one-hit-wonder for Disney was in for some bad news when the film's 2018 sequel, Ralph Breaks the Internet stormed into theaters, bringing in a ton of cash and stellar reviews for the video game baddie and pint-size sidekick. The movie packs a similar punch as its predecessor in terms of cultural references but it turns it up a notch with the embodiment of the internet which looks like a sophisticated civilization on crazy pills. The varying styles of animation for each of the core characters is a nice touch and the movie has plenty of eye candy to keep even the most jaded parents entertained.

Stream it on Netflix here.

The Breadwinner (2017)

There are a lot of funny and exciting animated movies on Netflix, but there are also poignant and emotional explorations of the human spirit like 2017's The Breadwinner. Despite its basic animation style, this feature is rich and full of life in its depiction of a young Afghani girl who resorts to cutting her hair and dressing up like a boy in order to support her family after her father is arrested by the Taliban. Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2018, The Breadwinner is a raw, yet empowering story of the bond shared between a family and how far a family will go to protect their own.

Stream it on Netflix here.

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs (2009)

Since we started with a movie from the minds of Phil Lord and Chris Miller, why not end it with one of their first projects, the 2009 big-screen adaptation of the 1978 beloved children's book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Watching how Lord, Miller, and their animation team translated the story about a strange event where food fell from the sky like rain and snow. In the film version, the event is caused by a failed science experiment, which does nothing but help push the plot forward and provide for some highly entertaining and inventive situations. Seriously, this movie is a lot of fun, even for those who lost touch with the wonder of their childhood.

Stream it on Netflix here.

That is just a dozen of the great animated movies available for streaming on Netflix. With more titles getting added each day, there is surely something for everyone (well, at least everyone who likes to have a little fun). If there was something you think I should have included, make sure to drop the title in the comments below.

I'm a sucker for something different when it comes to Blu-ray and DVD sets, especially if they come with a fun cover or collectible figurines. Luckily, if you are a lover of sets like these, the major studios often release some really enticing movie and TV releases around the holidays. This year, we've culled through the outstanding sets that the various companies have released and have put together a list of awesome Blu-ray, DVD and even 4K sets that would look good in any home. Check out our 2016 Holiday Gift Guide, below, and let us know if you've already bought any one of these expensive beauties for someone you really, really like.

In addition, if you'd like to take a look at a few of the cool sets that might be available from last year, head here.

The Walking Dead Season 6 Limited Edition Blu-ray

Through the duration of The Walking Dead's run, Anchor Bay Home Entertainment has released special sets for each of the seasons that come with grotesque yet awesome packaging that focuses on some of the most horrific aspects of zombie decay. The Season 6 Limited Edition set is among our favorites, as it features a zombie with its entrails hanging out clinging to a chain on the back of a large vehicle. It's super creative, really and it is based on an original walker design by executive producer Greg Nicotero. The disc itself is the regular Season 6 Blu-ray set, which pops out from underneath the fun plastic packaging; it should be noted this set has a special cover created just for this release. Bonus features include deleted scenes, in memorium segments, a feature on Negan, an extended version of "Last Day on Earth" and more. The set runs on the expensive side, but it's truly delightful. If you'd like to get your own hands on a copy of the Limited Edition release, head here.

Who It's Perfect For: People who relish artwork featuring faux rotten flesh, those who need to relive the "Glenncident" a.k.a the dumpster incident, those who love Negan and anyone who wants to check out some extra special bonus features.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens 3D Collector's Edition

Over the past few years, Blu-ray sets have gotten a little bit away from the use of holographic covers, but I still love it when a Home Entertainment set uses one of these excellent covers. Luckily, that's not the only extra that Walt Disney Home Entertainment's Collector's Edition has to offer. Not everyone has 3D TV in their homes but that doesn't really matter. If you are a superfan of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, this is honestly a great set filled with a slew of bonus features, including commentaries with J.J. Abrams, new deleted scenes, a feature looking at the inside of the armory that talks about how weapons were created for the movie, and segments on artistry, the costumes and even the sound in the film. They sound more generic than they are, as they are actually chock full of information, which we've discussed here and here and here. Whether or not you own a copy of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, this one is more spectacular in every way. The 3D disc is just a bonus, as A Blu-ray, DVD, Digital and Bonus disc are also a part of the set. Order your own copy of the collectible release here.

Who It's Perfect For: Avid Star Wars Fans, casual Star Wars fans, fans of J.J. Abrams' work, anyone who thought The Force Awakens was alright but is pumped for the future of the franchise, fans of Star Wars newcomer Daisy Ridley.

Person of Interest: The Complete Original Series DVD Set

While many would agree that Person of Interest ended too soon---indeed the disc for the fifth and final season is even slimmer than the others---Warner Bros. Home Entertainment is giving fans the gift of the season: a fun 5-DVD set featuring every single moment from the entire series, plus some bonus features. One of them, "Finale For The Fans," features some of the crew and Michael Emerson meeting up around the show's 100th episode (which came just before the end of the show) to talk about what they are proud of with the series and what they regret. This includes wishing they had had time to explore "Dark Finch" and more. John Reese and Harold Finch will be missed, but maybe there will be more Person of Interest down the line, if we should be so lucky. For now, we can relive our favorite memories with this set. You can order Warner Bros. Home Entertainment's set here.

Who It's Perfect For: Hardcore fans of Person of Interest, plus anyone who likes to listen to Jim Caviezel sounding like Batman. Tech lovers, Bad Robot lovers, Jonathan Nolan lovers and more should all love this comprehensive set, as well.

Game of Thrones: The Complete Seasons 1-6

Now that we know Game of Thrones will be wrapping up after Season 8, the end seems nigh. However, there's an easy way to relive all of your favorite episodes, and to also buy in to some collectible packaging that will look great on any shelf. The new Game of Thrones set features six Blu-ray discs in tidy packaging with a Digital HD copy and exciting dragon cover art. If you know anything about HBO Home Entertainment's sets, you should know they are pretty much the gold standard in terms of bonus features. There are too many across multiple seasons to name, but there are episode guides, there are deleted scenes and there are segments walking us through some of the show's most iconic episodes, as well. There are hours and hours of bonus features to peruse on each of these discs. You can order the full Game of Thrones: The Complete Seasons 1-6 here. If you're only looking for a particular season of the HBO drama, we also highly suggest checking out the Steelbook editions of Game of Thrones, which are solid buys, as well.

Who It's Perfect For: Game of Thrones fans, Game of Thrones fans who want the convenience of a full set of seasons, fans of the show who enjoy slimmer packaging as some of HBO's sets take up more space per season.

Sony Pictures Animation Collection DVD Lunchbox Set

What's cuter than giving your kids a slew of fun, animated movies for Christmas? Giving them a bunch of Sony animated classics packaged in an adorable lunchbox would be the correct answer. The Sony Picture Animation Collection comes with 10 movies: Arthur Christmas, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2, Hotel Transylvania, Hotel Transylvania 2, Open Season, The Pirates! Band Of Misfits, The Smurfs, The Smurfs 2 and Surf's Up. While a lot of sequels are involved, this set comprises most of Sony Animation's recent releases for kids of all ages, and incorporates them into packaging most people can smile over. Give the lunchbox a looksy, here.

Who It's Perfect For: Animation lovers, kids who need lunchboxes, kids who don't need lunchboxes, anyone who enjoys hearing Adam Sandler say "blah blah blah, and fans who like to spice up their DVD shelves.

Star Trek Beyond: 4K Ultra HD Gift Set

Paramount Home Media Distribution made it really easy to enjoy Star Trek Beyond when it hit Blu-ray and DVD earlier this year. One of the most enticing sets was its 4K Ultra HD release, which included more than an hour of bonus features and came with a Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray and Digital copy of the film for all of your viewing needs. If you're the type of person who only has one of the 3D or 4K formats, that's OK. It never hurts to have a back-up format, and this set also comes with the added benefit of a USS Franklin Collective. The little ship looks adorable on any work desk, and we can verify that it's equally fun to play with.

Who It's Perfect For: Trekkies, People who enjoy Justin Lin's take on the franchise, people with 4K technology, people with 3D Blu-ray technology, people who generally enjoy playing with toys---err we mean, collectibles.

Independence Day: 20th Anniversary Attacker Edition

Want a Blu-ray copy of Independence Day? Check. Want a large version of an attacker from the film to show off to your friends? Check. Twentieth Century Fox's set revisits the classic film starring Will Smith with some exciting extras, including a large version of the famous alien ship at the heart of Roland Emmerich's film. Two versions of the movie are also available on the Blu-ray: The Theatrical and Extended cuts, not to mention brand new bonus features. If you don't need the collectible, the home entertainment company also released a cheaper version for homes. But again, it's the gift set that really makes this one fun. Order your own copy here.

Who It's Perfect For: Independence Day superfans---especially those who love to quote, "We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight. We're going to live on! We're going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day." Yeah, for those people, this set is perfect.

Dexter: The Complete Series Blu-ray Set

It's been a couple of years now since Dexter finished its eighth and final season on Showtime. The long-running series ended on a polarizing note for some fans, but we've had some time to take a step back from the drama and the new complete series set really helps us to appreciate the series as a whole. CBS Home Entertainment essentially took all eight seasons worth of discs and repackaged them into a concise Blu-ray set. There are more expensive Dexter series sets out there, but this one is exciting because it comes at a more reasonable price. You can order your own copy of Dexter: The Complete Series here.

Who It's Perfect For: Anyone interested in binge-watching Dexter, fans who haven't caught the series in a while and anyone who just needs a giant picture of Dexter Morgan staring at them from their shelf.

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs has already gone from a beloved children’s book to an animated movie franchise, and now it is being reworked for television. On Thursday, Sony Pictures Animation announced it was in the early stages of developing an animated comedy based on the popular film franchise, called Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs: The Series. Here are the details.

First, it’s important to know that Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs: The Series will not be a sequel to either of the animated films. It won’t be a straight-up reboot, either. Instead, it will follow film lead Flint Lockwood as a high school student. Sam Sparks, who also appears in the movies, will be the new girl in town. (Unsurprisingly, she also has ambitions to be a reporter.) Sony also mentions that plenty of other movie-related characters, including Flint's Dad Tim, Steve the Monkey, Manny the head of the school's audiovisual, pre-cop Earl, Brent and Mayor Shelbourne will all pop up in the animated series. It has yet to be determined whether Bill Hader, Andy Samberg, Anna Faris and others will return for the animated series.

My one big concern with Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs: The Series is that it will be set before the events in the first movie, which means there will be no giant food sources raining down from the sky. It also means that there will be no foodimals. Just look at how cute those suckers are.

Both concepts seem so integral to both of the movies. While I like Flint’s weird inventions and Sam’s spunk, I’m not sure how their pre-teen versions will spice up a town that has a booming economy based around sardines. You would think Sony must have some food-based concepts up its sleeve.

Despite my concerns, the company clearly feels the new show will be a hit. The franchise is going big with the new series, signing on for 26 episodes of Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs the series. Sony will distribute the new show in the U.S. and DHX media will distribute the series in foreign markets, although no network or streaming service has currently picked up the animated comedy.

Both Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs and Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2 were big box office successes for Sony. I have no doubt a TV series based on the franchise could find an audience with the right storyline, but we’ll have to wait and see whether or not a prequel series has the right magic.

What’s the best way to get people’s minds off of the fact that Mr. T didn’t come back for Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2? By reminding people that he was replaced by the badassery that is football player-turned-actor Terry Crews. The Expendables 2 actor does a great job of playing over-the-top without dipping into straight camp, and this promotional clip utilizes those talents to the fullest. But I never trust a man wearing a neck tie and a smoking jacket at the same time.

It isn’t entirely clear why Sony Animation would choose to go this way with any pre-release ads, as barely anything new is shown, and it seems to serve only as a vehicle for and even more terrible food puns. Did I say terrible? Because “fruit cockatiel” makes me laugh. Exactly once, though. Crews comes close to selling me on it though, just by picturing him taking on a Sasquatch.. er.. a Sasquash. Okay, nothing is selling me on that one.

As soon as directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord – the guys who made MTV’s Clone High USA, one of the best animated series of the 1990s – came on to the original Cloudy… film, I was hooked, and the film did not disappoint in the least. It’s comforting that the sequel’s directors Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn were a major part of the story-forming process for the first film, but they have some large, weird shoes to fill, and not even Terry Crews can fill those. He can beat them up or blow them up, however.

In case you missed the first trailer, here you gouda. Food pun!

The inventive animated feature inspired by Judi and Rob Barrett's charming children's book, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs centered on Flint Lockwood, a wacky scientist whose innovations fail to catch on until he solves his town's food shortage by manipulating the weather to make it rain their favorite treats! The results were at first enviable, then dangerous but ultimately hilarious and entertaining. So what could its sequel Cloudy 2: Revenge of the Leftovers have in store for Lockwood and his chipper Gal Friday, Sam Sparks? The short answer is mutants. Delicious, delicious mutants.

EW reveals that the leftovers of the sequel's title are food that has evolved into strange new animals, like watermelephants, tacodiles, shrimpanzees, apple pie-thons, and a nonsensical chattering strawberry called Barry. But not every munchable mutant is so sweet. Some—like a giant, french-fry-legged bacon cheesespider—threaten to destroy what is left of Swallow Falls!

Bill Hader and Anna Faris are back on board to reprise their roles as Lockwood and Sparks respectively. And Hader's former Saturday Night Live co-star Will Forte is also returning. But while Forte played a minor role in the first Cloudy, he'll be bringing his unique and absurd comedic gifts to the creation of world-famous super-inventor Chester V (as in the letter, not the Roman numeral), a figure described by the film's producer Kirk Bodyfelt as "Steve Jobs, Richard Branson and Indiana Jones rolled into one.” The character will serve as Lockwood's foil, and thus requires a primate pal of his own. So while Flint has his loyal but dopey pet monkey Steve, V has Barb, a sassy and smart talking orangutan played by quirky comedienne Kristen Schaal.

Also new to the voice cast is The Expendables star Terry Crews, who'll be taking over for Mr. T, voicing the beleaguered local policeman Earl Devereaux, as T opted not to return. However, James Caan, Andy Samberg and Benjamin Bratt are back, playing Flint's briskly flustered father, local celeb 'Baby' Brent and the ever-handy cameraman Manny respectively. In short, it sounds like a really excellent ensemble!

Cloudy 2: Revenge of the Leftovers will open in 3D on February 7th, 2014.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs was an unexpected delight. The 2009 film from Sony Pictures Animation, nominated for several Annie Awards, was based on the children's book from by Judi and Ron Barrett and brought to the big screen by the duo of Phil Lord and Chris Miller. And while co-writers/directors Lord and Miller won't be back for the sequel, Cloudy 2: Revenge of the Leftovers, the talented cast including Bill Hader, Anna Faris and Andy Samberg (and, please, Mr. T), are all on-board as well as a great new voice in comedian Kristen Schaal.

THR reports that Schaal has just joined the developing animated sequel at Sony. She should be a great fit as a now seasoned voice-actress. Schaal supplied her voice for Pixar's Toy Story 3 but the actor really shines in her current gig as youngest daughter Louise on Fox's animated series Bob's Burgers. She's also well known for her recent stint on 30 Rock as well as being a correspondent for The Daily Show, not to mention her breakout performance (for me anyway) as the Flight Of The Conchords number one (and for the most part only) fan Mel.

The article includes limited details about the role that Schaal will be playing in C2L, only that she'll be playing an orangutan. Perhaps that means that Steve, the talking, gummy-bear-obsessed monkey from the first film (voiced by Neil Patrick Harris), is getting a love interest in the sequel? Who knows what new writers John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein (Horrible Bosses) and directors Cody Cameron and Kris Pearn (animators and story artists on the underrated Surf's Up) have in sitting in the fridge for Leftovers?

It's been confirmed that the second installment will not follow the Barrett's second novel, "Pickles to Pittsburgh," but the first was such a loose adaptation that this isn't a cause for concern, and makes complete sense. The film will simply follow Flint Lockwood (with pals Sam Sparks and Baby Brent) on a new adventure in Swallow Falls that includes the creation of 'sentient food beasts' that then wreak havoc on the island. Cloudy 2: Revenge of the Leftovers was originally scheduled for December 20, 2013 but has since been pushed for a February 7, 2014 release.

Welcome back to FlixWorthy, your weekly guide to Netflix streaming. Yet again we're bringing you a handful of new or notable selections from Netflix's streaming catalogue. Some will be classics, some will be little-seen gems, some will be shows you might have missed, and some...some will be crap so awful they simply has to be seen to be believed. Here's what's FlixWorthy this week, kids.

District 9

(2009, Rated R, 112 min.)

2009 was a good year for genre movies, with two instant classics entering the genre -- Moon (which I raved about here) and District 9. D9 has a lot of fun playing with the mocumentary format, introducing us to a world very much like our own, with one important difference: in 1982 a huge alien mothership descended above Johannesburg, South Africa. After the ship was breached, it was discovered to be full of lobster-like aliens -- apparently manual labor for whomever built the ship. The "prawns" were given sanctuary and herded into a camp dubbed District 9. Three decades later, nebbishy bureaucrat Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley) is tasked to assist private-military company Multinational United by overseeing the relocation of the prawns to the new, more remote District 10. Naturally, things don't go smoothly for poor Wikus, and he soon finds himself on a journey that gives him new insight into humanity's racism toward the aliens. Shot by co-writer/director Neill Blomkamp for a reported budget of $30 million, District 9 is a stunning visual accomplishment that rides on the back of a compelling, well-crafted story. District 9 uses its visual effects not to show off, but to create a detailed, immersive world in which to tell a story that is, like the best genre fiction, not really about aliens or motherships or ray guns so much as it's about us. In other words, it's the anti-Transformers.

Double-Feature It With...

American Zombie

(2007, Not Rated, 91 min., HD)

American Zombie applies the fake-documentary structure District 9 often uses so well to that most well-trodden ghetto of horror films, the zombie movie. AZ takes a darkly comic approach as two filmmakers tour a Los Angeles zombie community and get to know America's latest marginalized minority, who turn out not to be all that different from the rest of us.

Up

(2009, Rated PG, 96 min.)

Pixar's latest Oscar-winning feature tells the story of an old man reconnecting with the dreams of his youth with the help of a chubby Asian kid, a giant bird, and a talking dog named Dug. Like all of Pixar's films, it's filled with stunning sights, plenty of humor, and more heart than the cardiac wing at Johns Hopkins. It also includes, hands down, my favorite thing Pixar has ever done: the elegant and touching "Married Life" montage. Without a word of dialogue, Pixar takes us through all the happiness and heartbreak of two people sharing a life together...up until they're not anymore. Your kids will love the talking dogs, the silly bird, and the thrilling blimp battle, and those of us with bills to pay will appreciate the reminder that it's never too late to start living your life again, even if it seems like it's already over. Ed Asner is the definitive Crotchety Old Man as Carl Fredricksen, but props must also be give to young Jordan Nagai as the hyperactive Russell. If you're bemoaning the fact that we're only halfway through the work week, sit back and let Pixar lift your spirits Up, Up, and away.

Double-Feature It With:

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

(2009, Rated PG, 90 min.)

Our own Katey Rich loved Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and she wasn't the only one. The animated adaptation of the children's book about a town plagued by food raining from the sky brought in around $239 million worldwide. For best results watch while eating.

Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths

(2010, Rated PG-13, 75 min., HD)

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies may have has the bragging rights of reuniting many of the voice cast from the '90s animated series -- notably Kevin Conroy as Batman, Tim Daly as Superman, and Clancy Brown as Lex Luthor -- but this latest DC Animated release was a vast improvement over that empty, extended action sequence masquerading as a movie. Despite the absence of Conroy or Daly, Crisis on Two Earths feels like the good old days of the Diniverse...and with good reason. Crisis was supposedly once intended to bridge the Justice League cartoon with its successor series, Justice League Unlimited. While there are differences that place it outside of the official canon, Crisis does nearly as good a job getting these iconic characters right, combining great animation with clever set pieces and solid character work. It's everything you could want out of a classic comic premise: fan-favorite superheroes going up against evil-goateed-universe versions of themselves. And James Freakin' Woods as the nefarious Owlman? How the hell can you not love that?

Double-Feature It With...

Aeon Flux: The Complete Animated Collection

(1995, TV-MA, 16 eps.)

No, not the godawful live-action version starring Charlize Theron. The deeply weird series of animated shorts that aired as part of MTV's "Liquid Television" back in the '90s. Created by Korean animated Peter Chung, Aeon Flux is set in a future dystopia where the lanky title character runs around doling out violence and agenting in secretive manner.

Chapelle's Show: Season 1

(2003, TV-14, 12 eps.)

Ah, Chapelle's Show. Rarely has a pop-cultural phenomenon skyrocketed so swiftly and then collapsed so precipitously. A few years past all the weird rumors, theorizing, and South African psychiatric hospitals, all we're left with is two full seasons and change that, fortunately, are just as funny today as they were back then. Granted, the show peaked early with the story of Clayton Bigsby, the blind white supremacist who doesn't realize he's black, and it was also responsible for every popped-collar asshole you've ever met screaming "I'm Rick James, biatch!" every 15 minutes for a two-year period. But honestly, that's a small price to pay for the Wayne Brady sketch. Both full seasons of the show are available streaming, as well as the so-called "Lost Episodes" they cobbled together after Chapelle bailed.

Double-Feature It With:

Richard Pryor: Here and Now

(1983, Rated R, 95 min.)

Last week I sang the praises of the on-screen pairing of Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder, but as magic as those two were together, Pryor was never better than when he was on stage in front of an audience. It's only fair to pair Chapelle with the ground-breaking comic who paved the way for him. This performance is from 1983 in New Orleans, three years after Pryor's infamous fiery freebasing accident.

Drawn Together: Season 1

(2004, Not Rated, 7 eps.)

Drawn Together always seemed like an also-ran in the ever-expanding "raunchy cartoon" field, constantly overshadowed by titans like Family Guy and South Park. Still, you have to respect the show for its sheer commitment to going over the top and attempting to offend any and all comers. This is a show where the Disney-esque Princess Clara assumes Josie and the Pussycats reject Foxxy Love must be a servant because she's black. Where that selfsame princess is incapable of having sex because her evil stepmother cursed her vagina. Where the super-heroic Captain Hero accidentally gives Foxxy a brain tumor with his x-ray vision. The concept is surprisingly clever, albeit not as timely as it originally was: a pack of animation archetypes are locked in a house together as part of a Real World-style reality show. In addition to the three above, you've also got Wooldor, an insane escapee from an equally insane children's show; the far-past-her-prime, black-and-white Toot; Ling-Ling the homicidal psuedo-Pokemon; Xandir the gay elf; and Spanky the lecherous pig (voiced, appropriately enough, by Adam Carolla). It ain't high art, but it is frequently hilarious. All three seasons are available streaming, but the movie is only available on disc.

Double-Feature It With:

Crank Yankers: Season 1

(2002, Not Rated, 10 eps.)

Speaking of Carolla, he produced this puppets-and-prank-calls show for Comedy Central alongside Man Show partner Jimmy Kimmel. It's a concept that no one would believe could ever actually make it to TV if not for the fact that, well, it did. Still, if you're in the mood for crass, sophomoric humor delivered via puppet -- and who amongst us hasn't been at one point or another -- the first three seasons are at your (plush) fingertips.

A few other recent additions:

The Guild: Season 3

The State: The Complete Series

Stella: Season 1

John Oliver: Terrifying Times

Lewis Black's Root of All Evil: Season 1

To read the FlixWorthy archives, click here!

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs hits Blu-ray and DVD January 5th, so even though you won't be able to put it under the tree for your kids this Christmas, at least they've got something to spend those gift cards on. Based on the children's book by Judi and Ron Barrett, Cloudy stars Bill Hader as unlucky inventor Flint Lockwood, who invents a device that can transform water molecules into food. One misadventure later, the device has malfunctioned and is raining food from the sky down onto his home town.

Things eventually get really out of hand in the form of a spaghetti tornado, which you wouldn't think would do much damage so long as the pasta is cooked properly. Thanks to the fine folks at Sony, we've got this exclusive clip from the DVD's special features. In it, visual effects supervisor Rob Bredow explains how they created the pasta twister, but fails to answer the most burning question: would there have been less damage if we'd ordered the meat sauce?

It’s not easy being an animated movie these days. Unless you’re from Pixar or sequel to something established like Shrek or Ice Age, you can bank on having a rough road ahead. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is the latest entry trying to turn obscurity into popularity and despite the fact that 9 out of 10 critics like it, the movie barely managed $30 million. That was easily enough for the number one spot and not bad for a September release (the third highest ever September opening), but a long ways from turning a profit against its $100 million production budget.

Neither having a big name like Damon in the lead or having an exclamation mark in the title was enough to draw a big crowd for Soderbergh’s offbeat drama The Informant!. The movie landed a very distant second place with $10 million, the lowest wide-release opening Soderbergh has suffered since Solaris bombed in theaters back in 2002.

Love Happens didn’t happen to get much love, bowing in at fourth place with only $8 million. That’s a poor showing for a Jennifer Aniston rom-com, especially one co-starring a presently popular figure like Aaron Eckhart.

But there was a Jennifer that did even worse. Horror flick Jennifer’s Body drew a sheepish $6.8 million. Clearly audiences didn’t go to see Transformers 2 on account of Megan Fox’s…er…talent. It’s also a low blow for writer Cody Diablo whose first screenplay, Juno slunk its way to more than $100 million over a lengthy run in theaters. Don’t expect Jennifer’s Body to have such a long appearance in theaters. In fact, don’t expect to see it in the top ten next week.

For the full weekend top ten check out the chart below:

When you see Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs this weekend, you may think the voice of the main character, hyper inventor Flint Lockwood, sounds a bit familiar. You may not recognize it, though, since you're probably more used to hearing the owner of that voice pretending to be Daniel Plainview, Al Pacino, Vincent Price, or dozens of other people other than himself.

SNL's man of many voices Hader is just one part of the brilliant voice cast for Cloudy, part of what helps elevate the movie from standard-issue children's movie to something truly absurd and great. I sat down with Hader at the end of a long junket today to talk about a lot of things, including his favorite movies of the summer, how he developed a voice for Flint that wasn't quite his own, and what it feels like to return to SNL at the end of the summer. Check it all out below.

Is there anything you haven't been asked today that you want to talk about?

I don't know. No, we've gone through the whole thing I think. I liked District 9. I liked Up and Anvil, were my two favorite movies so far this year. Drag Me to Hell was kick ass. I can't think of anything else.

What all were you in this summer?

I was in Adventureland and Night at the Museum and Year One.

It took me about 5 minutes to realize that was you in Year One.

Yeah, I had the flu. I was wearing basicaly no clothes, super super cold outside. And I was running a fever. It was four days of shooting. The whole thing where I'm like screaming. It was so crazy shooting that. But it was fun. It was nice having Michael and Jack there, and just to get to work with Harold Ramis, it's kind of one of those once in a lifetime moments.

You've done voices for a couple of other animated movies, but this seems like by far the biggest?

This is technically my first leading role in a movie.

Did it feel different being the voice of the lead?

It was much more work, and I thought doing the voices for a movie would have ben kind of easy, but instead it was one of the toughest jobs I have ever had.

Is it just draining because you're in there by yourself?

Yeah, you're just kind of there by yourself, working through stuff. It is draining, no doubt about it.

The directors talked about the opportunities to improvise, but I imagine that would be hard whe you're by yourself.

Yeah, improvising is only really works 100% when you're with somebody. But they wrote a really funny script. If anything it was just switching up the words a little bit, or adding a little thing at the beginning or the end, minor stuff.

Was the script the first thing you got?

No, I actually went to a conference room, and in the conference room was just a wheel of Sam Sparks walking on Jello, and then it was a shot of my character kind of reacting. Then a thing of the snowball fight where I'm hitting people with snowballs. When I saw the snowball scene, I thought, oh, that's funny. But I knew these guys' work from Clone High. I was like, I just want to work with them. I had met them through Andy Samberg and WIll Forte, because they're friends with them. I was ready to say yes based on Clone High and knowing them.

When you think of an animated kid's movie, you never really know how it will turn out, and this is so much funnier than you would expect.

Yeah, so much funnier, and that as the nice thing about this, that these guys were allowed to have their sensibilities in the movie. A lot of times I think people, when they're doing a movie that's a family movie, they're woried about this being too esoteric or too dark or too weird. It's nice that they let them have their sensibilities in it.

Were you involved in the collaboration of putting the script together?

Yeah, sometimes. For some reason I remember a day when they showed me a cut of it. They showed me the first act, then they kind of walked me through the story. And they were like, so what do you think? Then we'd sit and talk about it. I've never had that asked of me before. They're very open. Greg Mottola is this way [too], they let you do your interpretation first and see what you're doing. It's very relaxed, like yeah, try this. As opposed to, before you even step on your mark, or before you even utter your first word, they have you in your head so much. I've had that happen before too.

Did you do a voice for this character, or is it just you?

I want to say we scrapped my first session, if I remember it right. Because I thought, oh, well I've got to do another voice. Then they called me and said, they animated some stuff to it, and we kind of want more of your own voice. What kind of got me the job is they animated Flint to me in an interview on a talk show, just to see what the character looked like with that voice coming out of it. I'm someone so used to disguising the way I talk, it was oddly harder to kind of relax and enjoy my own voice, which was just awkward. It is my voice, but it's a heightened version of my voice. It's not as relaxed, because the character is so hyper. I couldn't just use my normal voice, because I'm naturally kind of laid-back and low-energy, and this guy needs to be hyper all the time and nervous.

Are you guys going to be hiring anyone to play Michelle Obama on SNL this year?

I don't know. I just came back. It's funny, people always feel like we're all clued in with the show. It's like summer camp and coming back to high school. Oh, we have a new teacher. Oh, I have a new student in class. Someone got a haircut.

You may have already heard by now that Cloudy WIth a Chance of Meatballs is far, far funnier than you're expecting, packed with absurdist humor and goofy cartooniness that entertains kids and allows adults to feel silly along with it. And while there's amazing voice talent going into the film, and a huge team of animators contributing to its caricatured style, Phil Lord and Chris Miller get a lot of the credit for making the film the crazy wonder that it is.

The two young animators, who created the short-lived MTV animated series Clone High and also wrote for a time for How I Met Your Mother, seem as baffled as anyone that a studio as big as Sony put them in charge of an animated adaptation of a beloved children's book, with the blessing of creators Judi and Ron Barrett. I sat in on a press conference with the two of them and also had a chance to interview them on my own later in the day, after we'd all had our share of the free candy at Dylan's Candy Bar, which was hosting the junket.

Read the interview below, combined between the press conference and the 2-on-1, for Miller and Lord's feelings about being the young kids who snuck on the Sony lot, making a caricature that wasn't ridiculous, and how they resisted the punny urge to have a character voiced by Mr. T say "I pity the food." It sounds like it took a lot of willpower.

We've heard this movie went through a lot of directors and versions. Can you talk about how you got involved?

Phil Lord: Gosh. these movies go through a lot of iterations, you know. Thye are born and they die and they're born again. We came on about six years ago to write a version of the script. We were invited to direct it in February 2006. Why did they not fire us? That's kind of what you're asking.

Chris Miller: Great question.

Phil: That's a great question. That's a mystery to me. They certainly showed great faith in us, and had a lot of confidence.

You guys seem to have just snuck onto the lot to make the movie.

Phil: Such negligence on their part.

Did you feel that way when you were working on it?

Chris: For sure.

Phil: Like, I can't believe they're letting us do this! At some point they're going to realize.

Did you come up with the idea of the machine in the sky?

Chris: Yes, actually. We had actually come in on a meeting for a different project at Sony, and found out they had the rights to this book. It was our favorite kids book, both of us. We basically just grabbed them by the lapels and forced them to let us make this movie because we loved it so much.

Phil: We kind of approached it like, what if this story were a Jerry Bruckheimer movie. How would a big Hollywood studio approach this thing. That's why, OK. If you're going to follow the disaster movie paradigm, they always have the scientist, they always have the reporter and the cop.

You would figure you would have trouble with the studios given the absurdist level of your jokes. But it doesn't feel compromised.

Chris: In the comedy sense I don't think it is. We never got those notes, like, this is too funny, or this is too sharp, this is too smart. The studio would give much broader notes than that. We lost plenty of jokes because of those notes, but it was all in service of the greater story.

Phil: But to their credit, they were in favor of the tone of the movie and the progressive comedy voice that we wanted to give it from the beginning and throughout the process.

Chris: I think that might be the reason we never got fired. Every single time they'd be like, this movie needs work in this way or that way, but we really like the feel of it, we really like the voice and the tone.

Were you ever tempted to make it weirder?

Chris: I mean, the movie is very weird. We fought very hard to keep it this weird. It had been weirder at certain points.

Phil: I think it's at the right level of weirdness right about now.

There's tons of pop culture references all through this. How did you pick them?

Phil: We tried not to do any current pop culture references, because we wanted it to feel timeless. Flint uses machinery from the 780s and 80s because the town's been on hard times for a while, and he doesn't have a lot of equipment. We wanted that to be a subtle background element.

Chris: When we approached this movie we rented every disaster movie from the 70s and 80s, all the Irwin Allen movies. We also watched Armageddon, which is really fun, by the way.

Phil: A lot of that technology in there seems hilariously outdated. We wanted him to be aspiring to not have all the latest gear. That was a great way to marry our affinity for all that cool-looking old technology and fold it into the movie in a way that supported the movie.

Chris: Aesthetically we were trying to be somewhere between Fantastic Voyage and Tron.

You have a lot of big names in the voice cast, and they actually get to be funny. How did you work that much character development into the screenplay?

Chris: To the extent that we are good, to the extent that the script is funny, we did as much as we could to write to the voice of the people we hired.

At what point did they get hired?

Phil: All throughout. Mr. T was a suggestion from our casting director. The relationship between him and the son changed dramatically, because we were like, Mr. T loves kids, and he's only going to tell them to do the right thing all the time. So we changed it to be like, wow, he's the best father in the world. I think Mr. T wanted to do that even more, because he's literally the best person I have ever met. So there's that. Then we really wanted to pack it full of our comedy friends and heroes, and we didn't want someone to have a part and waste them. Unfortunately there was other awesome stuff that wouldn't fit into an 87-minute movie. But we wanted to make sure we gave everyone their moment in the sun.

Chris: You want to hire people and let them do what they're good at. It's sort of a philosophy we had generally with all of our cast and crew. That their intuitive place to go is the thing that you want.

Phil: Then improvising a lot of the dialogue. A few times we got people to do scenes together, we got Bill and Anna to do scenes together a few times, and we got Bill and Jimmy Caan do their phone conversation about sending an e-mail over the phone together, Bill here in New York and James in L.A. That was great, because they were able to improvise a lot of stuff. Everybody added a bunch of hilarious stuff that was not in the script. It made it feel a little less canned having people talk the way that they do.

There's a level of cartooniness to the food and to the people. The Pixar people talk about how caricature is so hard for them. How did you decide on the level of caricature you have here?

Chris: We have an affinity for pushed design and really stylized animation. We didn't want anything to be really necessarily lifelike or rotoscoped looking. Phil: There's no parallel lines in the movie, to give it a more manmade feel. The characters were probably the most cartoony, and the food probably the most realistic, but it needed to fit in a world with these characters. We really wanted to make sure the food looked appetizing.

Chris: So as stylized as possible while still appetizing.

There was a subtlety to the food animation. I expected to see a lot more meatballs and food flying out of the screen. How tempting was it to go old school with the 3D?

Phil: I'm impressed and psyched that you think we held back. We knew that this movie was going to be 3D two and a half years out, and we also knew that there would be 3 or 4 big 3D movies coming out before ours. We had a feeling that the 3D ridiculousness would be played a little bit. We wanted to play it a little on the safe side. The good thing about the new 3D is it immerses you in the story. Don't get me wrong, we did indulge in some ridiculous in-your-face gags.

What was the most challenging food to animate?

Phil: Broccoli, you may notice, is not in the film.

Chris: It's hard to render convincingly, the little mini tree of broccoli.

Phil: I'm sure the Imageworks guys would want us to say, and it's true, that they really can do anything. It's just a matter of what you're putting the focus on. Because broccoli wasn't a huge factor in the movie, we decided to cut bait and do other things.

Chris: Cheeseburgers were actually very difficult, because when they fell they had to break apart convincingly, and not like a rubber chew toy cheeseburger. That meant that they had to model separately, the lettuce had to have the characteristics of lettuce, and the floppiness of lettuce, and the buns had to squish a little bit and the tomato slices and the ketchup and the mustard, all the many different parts of the cheeseburger. Also the spaghetti tornado was a huge, huge project of software building and design.

You seem to have a good rapport. What was your working experience like on this film? Chris: We were friends in college.

Phil: We actually had an animation professor there, I tricked Chris into quitting an important government class and taking an animation course our freshman spring. We got really into it to the exclusion of all our other course work.

Did you move to LA together? Did you live next door to each other?

Phil: We shared a bedroom, and had side by side Bert and Ernie beds. It was a little too much time together. And we carpooled to work. It was sad.

How do you divide the work?

Phil: It would be way more convenient if one of us did one part and one of us did the other part, but we work in the least effiicent way possible . We both try to do everything. So it is sometimes a very long process.

Chris: if there's an arc to our working relationship, it started out that we were both individual filmmakers asking each other advice, and now we're in this position where we're collaborating constantly all the time. That's become a little like a marriage.

It seems like you guys were really caught up in how many people it took to put this together.

Chris: Oh yeah, it's a collaborative process. The scale of it, and also our philosophy is to be as collaborative as possible. We really believe that these are 500 filmmakers we were working with it. For us we really feel like the experience of making one of those movies is you're part of a huge team, and everybody's contributing stuff all the time.

Phil: And with the philosophy of the best idea wins. Early on, with the storyboard artists and the animators, they learned they could pitch something, like a crazy joke that wasn't intended in the shot, and it would make us laugh, and it would get in. And then suddenly they were all trying to top each other to add a lot of stuff. Not all of it would obviously work for the story or make it in, but just the fact that they were engaged in trying to participate creatively made an embarrassment of riches of great stuff.

Chris: You get better work out of everybody, because everyone is invested and they have an ownership stake in the movie and how it turns out. That's literally what a film by a lot of people means.

Are you planning on going forward in animation?

Chris: I think we'll want to stay involved in animation to some degree. I don't know what our next project is going to be. It could be live-action, it could be bagging groceries at Ralph's on Wilshire Boulevard.

Did you bring the joke pacing from your career on TV? And how do you sustain that pace over a 90 minute movie?

Phil: When we started out, the first version of the movie, it was sort of almost Airplane! in tone. A a lot of jokes, and it was relentless in that you checked out after 40 minutes or so. We realized the story needed to have a lot more emotional heft to it. We weeded out some of the stuff that was getting in the way, and brought out some of the real emotion, so hopefully by the end you're emotionally invested. That was a long process getting us to that place.

Why didn't you use a mohawk for Mr. T's character?

Phil: We thought about it, and said OK, it's intuitive to do the mohawk. And we were like, I think all that is, it's not really a joke. It's just-- remember, Mr. T has a mohawk? We wanted to be more clever than that. So we gave him a reverse mohawk.

Chris: There were many times where people were saying and we had him saying, I pity the food.

Phil: Another one people implored us to do was "You had me at Jello."