Transforming an animated classic into something that features flesh-and-blood actors is something that takes skill and no shortage of love for the animated medium — just look at failed projects like Aeon Flux or this year’s big-budget Snow White for proof. But before How To Train Your Dragon blazed its way into the audience’s hearts by obeying the rules and remaining true to the heart of the story, there were other trailblazers that showed the way. For your consideration, cartoon lovers: three earlier success stories translating drawings into live-action.

This is For Your Consideration, in which we try to come to terms with the inescapable fact that, honestly, there’s too much out there to have time to watch, read, or hear everything — by making some suggestions about things that you might have overlooked but would enjoy, anyway. Think of it as recommendations from a well-meaning friend.

Popeye is the animated Sailor Man who sailed a path for others to follow

Sure, technically, '80s Popeye is based on the newspaper strip by E.C. Segar rather than the animated adaptations of the character… but the reason the movie got made was because the studio owned the rights to the character because of its animated shorts, so we’e counting it. Whatever its source material, there’s no denying that Robert Altman’s classic — starring Robin Williams and Shelley Duvall, with music by the great Harry Nilsson — is one of the most cartoonish live-action movies of all time, in all the best ways. The movie creates its own inner reality and logic that is at once inexplicable and utterly charming, with a plot that runs entirely on cartoon logic and is all the better for it. To watch Popeye is to watch a cartoon made with real people, and it’s a disorienting, and completely rewarding, experience.

Available to stream on Kanopy

Speed Racer offers a rush for anime fans eager for a live-action thrill

Again, Speed Racer existed as a manga series before the anime, but there’s absolutely no chance that the 2008 Wachowskis-created movie is anything other than a love-letter to the animated series from the 1960s; take a look at the breathless edits and dizzying, relentless motion of the whole thing, the garish, colorful visuals, and the sense that the whole enterprise is just seconds away from either complete collapse or a commercial break at any moment. There’s a plot about Speed trying to keep his family and their business afloat in a corrupt world of racing, but within minutes of starting this movie, it’s clear that the plot is the least important part of this — it’s a cinematic experience, baby: a recreation of the overwhelming rush that Saturday morning cartoons had on your brain the first time you discovered them that will leave you dazed, confused, and wanting more by the time it’s done.

Available to stream on Prime Video

Scooby-Doo is the animated-to-live-action crossover that shouldn’t work, but did

It shouldn’t have worked. Can we all just admit that to begin with? There’s no reason that a live-action version of Scooby-Doo — a cartoon that has been part of the childhood of multiple generations by this point — should have worked, given that the lead character is an outrageously large, sandwich-eating dog that investigates supernatural goings-on… and yet, the 2002 adaptation (in part written by now DC Studios head James Gunn) is kind of amazing, even decades later. Let’s thank a genuinely stellar cast that’s game for the camp thrill of it all — especially Matthew Lillard as Shaggy, but Linda Cardellini is pretty stellar as well — and everyone involved understanding the assignment: this really is an episode of the cartoon brought to life with extra meta gags for the grown-ups in the audience, and the sincere love for the source material is what remains irresistible even today.

Available to stream on Peacock

Learn about the big improvement the new How to Train Your Dragon movie made from the original, as well as the key differences between the original animated movie and the live-action remake. Finally, here's how to watch the How to Train Your Dragon movies and TV series in order.