Animated Lookalikes Of The Week: Stuart Broad and Willow Smith

A few months after the release of Toy Story 3, England cricketer Stuart Broad was asked via Twitter whether he saw the resemblance between himself and Andy. To be honest it was not even a question that needed asking - the answer is clearly that Pixar had based Andy's appearance on the blonde bombshell.

Just have a look for yourself:


So the real question is just how many more of these animated lookalikes are there?

Well to my mind, there is at least one other blatantly obvious one. Whereas Andy seemed to grow into his real life counterpart, the opposite seems to have happened to Willow Smith. As she gets older each day, her resemblance to her father's character in the Dreamworks animation Shark Tale is uncanny. See here:

This leads to a worrying conclusion. If animation is going to start capturing the appearance of real people so successfully - how are we going to tell the difference?

I, for one, already feel the urge to smack Fresh Prince Jr over the head with a wooden oar (though I'm unsure whether that has anything to do with the lookalike thing).

What's Coming Up in 2011?

Last year ended with an underwhelming blockbuster extravaganza. Harry on Camping and Tron putting bums on seats before eventually numbing them. Luckily with award season on the way it usually means the year begins with a few films with eyes on Oscar nominations.

The hype from over the tectonic divide seems to be that the Coen Brothers are making a strong case with their remake of the classic True Grit which has already garnered a vast amount of critical praise. The brothers already having Oscar pedigree with No Country for Old Men in 2007 as well as Fargo in 1996. The remake sees Jeff Bridges playing the infamous role of Rooster Cogburn tracking down the murderer of a young girl's father. Bridges fresh from his triumph at last year's Academy Awards looks set to possibly earn himself another nomination here.

With similar award winning form is Danny Boyle who follows up the acclaimed Slumdog Millionaire with the eagerly awaited 127 Hours. The true story of Aron Ralston already comes with a sack full of nominations and awards so don't be surprised to see James Franco and Boyle both getting Oscar nods.

The film I'm most looking forward to is Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan. Described by Mark Kermode as "like Argento on crack" it has already whet my appetite. It's hard to not be extremely excited by the grouping of Aronofsky, Portman and Cassel. Furthermore another soundtrack by Clint Mansell who most certainly deserves some credit for his brilliant scores over the past decade. Having been a massive fan of Aronofsky's entire body of work, including The Fountain which I wholeheartedly believe to be a work of unmatched vision, beauty and ambition, this is the one that I'm busting a gut to see.

Judging from the critical buzz alone it seems as those these three films will be putting their hands out for the awards rationing to begin. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see them split fairly equally between these films as well as Toy Story 3 and The Social Network. With internal politics probably deciding the outcome in the case of the Oscars and going the way of The Social Network.