Taylor Swift’s The Lorax + 10 More Musicians Who Have Voiced Animated Characters

Taylor Swift makes her voice acting debut in The Lorax this Friday—but what other singers and musicians have made the jump from music to animation? Find out here!

-Lucia Peters

To be honest, I’m not fully convinced that the film adaptation of Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, which is due out in cinemas tomorrow, is going to be any good. I am fully preparing myself for the possibility that Hollywood will have once again annihilated one of my favorite children’s books. However, I will probably go see it anyway, purely because The Lorax is one of my favorite children’s books, and for what it’s worth, the voice of Betty White will be appearing in it, and anything Betty White does is gold as far as I’m concerned. But you know who else’s voice will be heard in it? That’s right: Taylor Swift’s. Taylor (gee, she sure has been popping up in the celeb sphere a lot lately, hasn’t she?) has hitherto not demonstrated much in the way of acting chops—all we have to go on is an episode of CSI and some horrible-sounding rom com called Valentine’s Day, which I have not seen—but hey, maybe she’ll surprise us!

Taylor, by the way, is far from the only musician/singer/pop star/etc. to have made the jump into voice acting. Who else has done it? Read on to find out!

1. Katy Perry, The Smurfs

Now, I haven’t seen The Surfs, so I can’t really speak to how good it is whether or Katy Perry pulls Smurfette off. If anything, though, no one is ever going to forget the dress Katy wore to the premiere. I mean, if you’re going to wear your character splashed across your body, why not just go all out and wear your own face instead?

2. Justin Timberlake, Shrek the Third, Shrek Forever After, and Yogi Bear

Eh, who are we kidding? No one was surprised when JT branched out into animation. He already does everything else, so why not voice acting?

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3. Mandy Moore, Tangled

You know, I literally just saw Tangled last week (I know, I know—I’m ridiculously late to the party), and I enjoyed it far more than I thought I was going to. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love Disney movies as much as the next girl; but I was extremely and pleasantly surprised by how sharp and funny it was. Mandy Moore’s performance was a large part of that, too. Points for having transcended her bubblegum pop beginnings! Bonus: She also voiced the Final Fantasy VII character Aeris (or Aerith, depending on where you are) in the first Kingdom Hearts video game, which just so happens to be one of my favorite games ever. She was replaced by Mina Suvari in the second game—who was, oddly, much, much worse. Go, Mandy!

4. Beyonce, Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!

Yep: Beyonce appeared as a G-rated version of herself on the Nickelodeon children’s show Wow! Wow Wubbzy!. According to Beyonce, her character Shine is “a very sweet young lady. Whenever Wubbzy needs a little help or a friend, she’s right there with The Wubb Girlz to give him a helping hand. I think Shine is pretty cool.” Think she’ll bring little Blue Ivy up on the show?

5. Fergie, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa and Marmaduke

Oh, Fergie. Fergie, Fergie, Fergie. The artist formerly known as Stacy Ann Ferguson voiced a bit part hippopotamus in the second Madagascar movie before graduating to Jezebel, Marmaduke’s love interest in the live-action film about the infamous talking dog. Wait—live action? Well, yes; but I mean, come on. There had to be some animation going on to make those pooches’ mouths work like that.

More musicians who got their cartoon on, including Miley Cyrus and Michael Stipe, up next!