Ten Movies, Three Dimensions of Animation Quiz

Answer: Shrek

One of Dreamworks Pictures' greatest hits, the first "Shrek' film made an unprecedented $480,000,000 at the international box office, resulting in three sequels and an additional $2,500,000,000 in all. The films starred Mike Myers as the voice of Shrek, an ogre who originally only set out to save his swampland but fell in love with the beautiful Princess Fiona (played by Cameron Diaz) while buddying up with a wise-cracking donkey named Donkey (played by Eddie Murphy).

The movie was set in a fairy tale kingdom featuring familiar faces from famous stories and the series spawned a spin-off starring Antonio Bandaras' Puss-in-Boots in 2011.

Answer: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within

"Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within", while not explicitly linked to the rest of the otherwise fantasy series, was made by Square, the original makers of the long-running RPG series. The movie was set in a futuristic world in which evil alien phantoms had the ability to take peoples' life forces; the surviving scientists and humans had to venture out to find a way to save the planet, combining different spirits to save the Earth spirit of Gaia.

While the movie was critically-praised for its technological leaps and bounds, the creators overspent, making only $85,000,000 back and spending 70% more to make it.

It influenced future CGI movies, but Square Pictures folded soon after, merging with Enix and sticking to video games instead.

Answer: Ice Age

"Ice Age" proved to be a successful venture, drumming up over $2,000,000,000 in the series' first three movies (though there were more) between 2002 and 2009, effectively funding Blue Sky's later films (including "Robots" and "Rio"). Starring Ray Romano, Denis Leary, and John Leguizamo, the first film sent the unlikely trio on a journey to find their herds and return a lost infant to his tribe.

The movie also featured Scrat, a popular prehistoric squirrel on the hunt for acorns. The first film was critically praised though this appeal dropped off considerably with each sequel.

Answer: The Polar Express

"The Polar Express" was quite the profitable film, even for a big a star as Tom Hanks (though it obviously wasn't his first animated film...think "Toy Story"). Based on the 1985 book of the same name, the movie took viewers on a trip to the North Pole with a young boy on Christmas Eve. Hanks played the conductor, Santa, the boy's father, etc.

In addition to the major release in theaters in 2004, the movie was also popular in 3D and in IMAX. Hanks would continue to be successful in voice acting, mainly playing Woody the Cowboy in later "Toy Story" sequels (the second of which earned over one billion dollars in the box office).

Answer: Monster House

Created by Robert Zemeckis and ImageMovers (who also made "The Polar Express"), "Monster House" was a different type of film from Zemeckis' earlier release in genre and plot, but featured much of the same motion-capture work in the background -- the actors still acted out scenes, usually using green-screen technology and specialized equipment and the movie was edited in in post-production.

This film involved a clearly haunted house and three kids who set out to uncover the truth behind it. It earned over $140,000,000 in the box office.

Answer: Open Season

"Open Season", perhaps not as popular as the other answer options, still made nearly $200,000,000 in the box office, despite not having Disney or Dreamworks backing it (though, at the time, those also had animal-themed movies in the works). "Open Season" featured Boog the bear, normally in captivity, venturing out for the first time to escape hunters.

He met up with Eliot the deer and, eventually, they banded together with other woodland creatures to win. Boog and Eliot were played by Martin Lawrence and Ashton Kutcher. Two sequels were made -- neither went to theaters and no one from the original cast returned.

Answer: Flushed Away

"Flushed Away" featured high-profile actors like Hugh Jackman and Kate Winslet in voice roles; both played rodents -- the former an upscale pet mouse and the latter a street-wise sewer rat. When Roddy, the mouse, got flushed into the sewers by a sloppy second mouse, he found a whole other world beneath the pipes, ultimately getting embroiled in a nefarious jewel heist in the sewers. "Flushed Away" earned nearly $180,000,000 in the box office and, while popular, it was far from Dreamworks' most profitable film.

Answer: Resident Evil

"Resident Evil: Degeneration" was not the first "Resident Evil" movie ever made (no, that long-running franchise began in 2002, becoming the highest-grossing video game series (of adaptations) ever made) but it was the first to be done entirely in CGI. Bringing "Resident Evil 2" characters Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield back, it visited some events taking place after the destruction of Raccoon City in the game series.

The movie was followed up by "Resident Evil: Damnation" in 2012; both only had theatrical releases in Japan.

Answer: 9

"9", released (cleverly) in 2009, featured the voices of Elijah Wood, Jennifer Connelly, John C. Reilly, and others as rag dolls, all of which also happened to be fragments of a clever scientist's personality, each fulfilling a different aspect of his mind.

In this movie, the characters had to work together to put an end to a horrible dystopia, mainly by rejuvenating it with life. The film had a dark tone seen quite frequently in Tim Burton's other films -- it's unsurprising he produced it. Burton also made "Frankenweenie", "Corpse Bride", and "The Nightmare Before Christmas".

Answer: Rango

"Rango", directed by "Pirates of the Caribbean" helmer Gore Verbinski, was a popular Nickelodeon film released in 2011 to good returns in the box office (up to almost $250,000,000). After success, the movie went on to win Best Animated Film, an award won in previous years by "Spirited Away" (2002), "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" (2005), "Happy Feet" (2006), and Best Picture nominee "Up" (2009). Rango was not Depp's first voice role -- he appeared in one of Tim Burton's stop-motion films.

In this movie, however, he played Rango, a chameleon who ended up becoming the sheriff of an animal-run town in the Mojave Desert.