The movies have given us so much. Epic adventures, swoon-worthy love stories, stunning outfits, and some of the best looking food I’ve ever seen. But I’m not talking about live-action movies. No, I’m talking about the hidden gem that is animated movie food. Like most kids, I grew up watching cartoons, and although the memory that sticks out the most in my childhood is the fateful day my sisters and I decided to donate our DVD of Brother Bear (a choice we still regret to this day), I also remember spending tons of time daydreaming about the delicious food featured in my favorite animated movies.
No animated movie or tv show says food-lover quite like Scooby-Doo. In fact, my favorite bonus feature from one of my old Scooby-Doo DVDs was just a ton of recipes inspired by Mystery Inc. While Shaggy and Scooby may be afraid of ghosts and ghouls, they’re never afraid to try new foods, including a crawfish boil in Scooby-Doo On Zombie Island.
Scooby-Doo isn’t the only franchise known for having incredible onscreen food. You can’t talk about animated food without talking about the monolith, Disney. From classics like the grey stuff from Beauty and the Beast (which is still a mystery to me) to Tiana’s famous beignets and gumbo from The Princess and the Frog, Disney food just hits different. I still plan to recreate the breakfast bowl Mushu makes in Mulan one day, just as soon as I get over my fear of frying bacon.
Although Disney definitely has the largest menu of animated food, Studio Ghibli is home to my favorites. The ham and ramen bowl from Ponyo is another dish I want to reach through the screen and eat, and Kiki’s Delivery Service is home to some of the tastiest looking pies and cakes I’ve ever seen. And yes, I’m not technically drooling over food, just animated drawings of food, but I don’t care. It always looks delicious and I wish I could eat it all in real life. In fact, one time I did.
One of my all-time favorite movies is Coraline, despite it scaring me so much as a child I would hide under my covers to sleep for weeks after seeing it. The stop-motion is incredible, the story perfectly eerie, and features one of the best meals ever. And I should know, last year my family recreated it for my birthday. The welcome home dinner in Coraline features roast chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet peas, corn on the cob, fluffy dinner rolls, and a pink cake that says “Welcome Home, Coraline” across the top.
Now, there were some changes made to my version. I don’t love roast chicken, so my father made chicken katsu instead, and I’m a cheesecake girl to my core, so my sister made me a pink cheesecake rather than a traditional cake. And if you’re reading this and want to try it out for yourself, I highly recommend heading to TikTok and checking out @gabby.jaye, a TikToker with multiple videos featuring movie meals. And yes, she included the pizza from A Goofy Movie.