The 2000s were the decade comedy stopped picking a single lane. Multiplexes still wanted talking animals and road-trip vans, but the same ten years also made room for a Parisian waitress rearranging other people’s lives, a Brazilian folk trickster arguing his way into heaven, and a Seoul office worker who washes up on a river island and starts a garden. From Shrek and Monsters, Inc. to Amélie, 3 Idiots, and Little Miss Sunshine, the decade treated a laugh as something you could sneak into animation, crime stories, campus satire, and a family that barely fits in a yellow bus.
This list gathers thirteen essential comedy movies from the 2000s — Pixar kitchens, stop-motion foxes, a Tokyo Christmas rescue, and a stolen diamond that will not stay stolen. Every pick uses TMDB-backed metadata and a short guide to why it belongs on a 2000s comedy watchlist.
1. Castaway on the Moon
- Movie Title: Castaway on the Moon
- Release Date: May 14, 2009
- Main Cast: Jung Jae-young, Jung Ryeo-won, Yang Mi-kyung
- Director: Lee Hae-jun
- TMDB Score: 7.9/10
Why We Included Castaway on the Moon on This List
Lee Hae-jun’s Han River Robinson Crusoe story is the 2000s comedy that proves you do not need a desert to get stranded — a tiny mid-river island in a capital city will do. Jung Jae-young’s broke, dumped, jobless Mr. Kim and Jung Ryeo-won’s agoraphobic neighbor turn a failed suicide into a two-person sitcom about watching and being watched. It belongs here because so many 2000s studio comedies chase weddings and workplaces, and this one finds the joke in a man who cannot leave an island he can see from the subway. On a 2000s list it is the international entry that treats urban loneliness as a punchline with a vegetable patch.
Quick Castaway on the Moon Summary
Mr. Kim is jobless, lost in debt, and has been dumped by his girlfriend. He decides to end it all by jumping into the Han River — only to find himself washed up on a small, mid-river island. He soon abandons thoughts of suicide or rescue and begins a new life as a castaway. His antics catch the attention of a young woman whose apartment overlooks the river, and her discovery changes both their lives.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Castaway on the Moon
The film is set on Bamseom, a real islet in Seoul’s Han River that commuters pass every day without thinking of as a desert island. Lee plays the isolation as deadpan physical comedy: Kim learns to fish, farm, and ignore the skyline that makes his exile look ridiculous. Jung Jae-young’s performance is almost silent for long stretches, which is why the later contact with Jung Ryeo-won’s upstairs recluse lands as a second movie starting in the same city. It became a cult favorite on the festival circuit for turning a suicide setup into a romance about two people who are both, in different ways, not leaving the house.
2. A Dog’s Will
- Movie Title: A Dog’s Will
- Release Date: September 15, 2000
- Main Cast: Matheus Nachtergaele, Selton Mello, Fernanda Montenegro
- Director: Guel Arraes
- TMDB Score: 8.4/10
Why We Included A Dog’s Will on This List
Guel Arraes’s Northeastern Brazilian folk comedy is the 2000s movie that opens the decade by sending two con men to their own last judgment. Matheus Nachtergaele’s João Grilo, Selton Mello’s Chicó, and Fernanda Montenegro’s Virgin Mary turn a small-town swindle into a heavenly hearing where the jokes keep working after the crooks are dead. It belongs here because English-language 2000s comedy lists often stop at Hollywood, and this one is the decade’s proof that a picaresque buddy movie can also be a sermon. On this list it is the opening-night pick that treats salvation like a closing argument.
Quick A Dog’s Will Summary
The lively João Grilo and the sly Chicó are poor guys living in the hinterland who cheat a bunch of people in a small town in Northeastern Brazil. When they die, they have to be judged by Christ, the Devil, and the Virgin Mary before they are admitted to paradise. The cons are the first half. The trial is the encore.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About A Dog’s Will
The film adapts Ariano Suassuna’s beloved play O Auto da Compadecida, a cornerstone of Brazilian popular theater, into a two-part television event that was recut for cinemas. Montenegro’s Virgin Mary is the moral center and the comic relief — a celestial public defender who will not let the Devil have the last word. Nachtergaele and Mello’s pairing became one of Brazilian comedy’s defining duos of the 2000s. In Brazil the movie is not a hidden gem; it is closer to a national comfort watch that still scores among the highest-rated comedies of the decade on TMDB.
3. Tokyo Godfathers
- Movie Title: Tokyo Godfathers
- Release Date: December 5, 2003
- Main Cast: Aya Okamoto, Yoshiaki Umegaki, Tohru Emori
- Director: Satoshi Kon
- TMDB Score: 7.9/10
Why We Included Tokyo Godfathers on This List
Satoshi Kon’s Christmas-Eve rescue is the 2000s comedy that proves animation can do slapstick, coincidence, and a found-family weep without turning into a kids’ special. Aya Okamoto’s runaway, Yoshiaki Umegaki’s trans woman, and Tohru Emori’s grizzled alcoholic turn a newborn found in the trash into a citywide scavenger hunt. It belongs here because 2000s animated comedy is usually talking animals, and this one is three homeless adults arguing their way through Tokyo in the snow. On a 2000s list it is the holiday movie that keeps the jokes in the alleys.
Quick Tokyo Godfathers Summary
On Christmas Eve, three homeless people living on the streets of Tokyo discover a newborn baby among the trash and set out to find its parents. The city keeps handing them leads, dead ends, and people who do not want to be found. The baby is the plot. The three of them are the comedy.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Tokyo Godfathers
Kon’s third feature riffs on the Western 3 Godfathers tradition — outcasts stuck with an infant — and drops it into a contemporary Tokyo Christmas. After the identity-horror of Perfect Blue, this is Kon working in a brighter register: coincidence piled on coincidence until the city itself feels like a farce engine. The English-language release later introduced the film to a much wider audience as a seasonal rewatch. Umegaki’s Hana is the movie’s comic and emotional motor, a performance that treats camp and grief as the same survival skill.
4. Mary and Max
- Movie Title: Mary and Max
- Release Date: April 9, 2009
- Main Cast: Toni Collette, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Humphries
- Director: Adam Elliot
- TMDB Score: 7.9/10
Why We Included Mary and Max on This List
Adam Elliot’s claymation pen-pal story is the 2000s comedy that is funny because it refuses to sand the sadness off. Toni Collette’s lonely Melbourne girl, Philip Seymour Hoffman’s New York shut-in, and Barry Humphries’s narrator turn a correspondence into a two-continent friendship about chocolate, anxiety, and the letters you should not send. It belongs here because so many 2000s comedies sell a found family as a montage, and this one builds one out of stamps and awkward honesty. On this list it is the stop-motion entry that treats a laugh as something you earn between the heavier scenes.
Quick Mary and Max Summary
The film is a tale of friendship between two unlikely pen pals: Mary, a lonely eight-year-old girl living in the suburbs of Melbourne, and Max, a forty-four-year-old, severely obese man living in New York. Their letters stretch across years and continents. The friendship is the whole plot. The jokes are how they survive it.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Mary and Max
Elliot’s first feature opened the 2009 Sundance Film Festival — a rare slot for an Australian claymation film that is not aimed at children. Hoffman recorded Max as a gentle, literal New Yorker; Collette voices Mary across the years as the girl grows up and the letters get more dangerous. Humphries’s narration gives the movie the cadence of a storybook that will not stay cute. Elliot has said the Max side of the correspondence grew out of his own long-distance friendship with a pen pal in New York, which is why the trivia never feels like decoration.
5. Snatch
- Movie Title: Snatch
- Release Date: September 1, 2000
- Main Cast: Jason Statham, Alan Ford, Stephen Graham
- Director: Guy Ritchie
- TMDB Score: 7.8/10
Why We Included Snatch on This List
Guy Ritchie’s diamond-and-unlicensed-boxing pileup is the 2000s comedy that treats a crime plot like a pinball table. Jason Statham’s bare-knuckle promoter, Alan Ford’s Brick Top, and Stephen Graham’s desperate thief turn a stolen stone into a London traffic jam of bookies, gangsters, and people who should have stayed home. It belongs here because the decade’s crime movies often wanted to be cool, and this one is funny because nobody in it can shut up long enough to be cool. On a 2000s comedy list it is the hangover from 1990s British gangster farce that still works as a rerun.
Quick Snatch Summary
Unscrupulous boxing promoters, violent bookies, a Russian gangster, incompetent amateur robbers, and supposedly Jewish jewellers fight to track down a priceless stolen diamond. The stone keeps changing hands. The people holding it keep getting worse at their jobs.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Snatch
Ritchie followed Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels with a louder, faster cousin: overlapping jobs, title cards, and a cast that talks as if the camera might cut them off. Brad Pitt’s unintelligible Irish Traveller boxer became the film’s most quoted performance even though the plot is supposedly about a diamond. Statham, already Ritchie’s preferred tough guy, plays the promoter as the one man trying to keep a schedule. Brick Top’s pig-feeding monologue is the scene people warn their friends about; the comedy is how casually the rest of the movie treats that as business advice.
6. Fantastic Mr. Fox
- Movie Title: Fantastic Mr. Fox
- Release Date: October 14, 2009
- Main Cast: George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman
- Director: Wes Anderson
- TMDB Score: 7.8/10
Why We Included Fantastic Mr. Fox on This List
Wes Anderson’s first animated feature is the 2000s comedy that puts a midlife crisis in a corduroy suit and a hole in the ground. George Clooney’s restless Mr. Fox, Meryl Streep’s Mrs. Fox, and Jason Schwartzman’s son Ash turn a chicken heist into a family argument with three angry farmers on the other side of the hill. It belongs here because Roald Dahl adaptations often go sweeter in Hollywood, and this one keeps the theft, the pride, and the dry asides. On this list it is the stop-motion caper that treats a dinner table like a briefing room.
Quick Fantastic Mr. Fox Summary
The Fantastic Mr. Fox, bored with his current life, plans a heist against the three local farmers. The farmers, tired of sharing their chickens with the sly fox, seek revenge against him and his family. The heist is supposed to be one last job. The hill does not see it that way.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Fantastic Mr. Fox
Anderson’s stop-motion debut adapts Dahl’s novella into a full Wes Anderson production: needle drops, Latin names as insults, and a newspaper columnist who happens to be a fox. Clooney and Streep recorded together often enough that the marriage sounds like a real negotiation, not two stars in separate booths. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. The handmade puppets and visible fur movement were a deliberate rejection of the decade’s smoother CG comedy look — the jokes land partly because the characters look like they were built on a table.
7. Ratatouille
- Movie Title: Ratatouille
- Release Date: June 28, 2007
- Main Cast: Patton Oswalt, Ian Holm, Lou Romano
- Director: Brad Bird
- TMDB Score: 7.8/10
Why We Included Ratatouille on This List
Brad Bird’s Paris kitchen fable is the 2000s comedy that makes a health-code nightmare into a pep talk. Patton Oswalt’s Remy, Ian Holm’s tiny tyrant chef, and Lou Romano’s Linguini turn a rat who wants to cook into a farce about who is allowed in the room. It belongs here because Pixar’s 2000s run is often filed as family adventure, and this one is a workplace comedy about taste, gatekeeping, and a critic who still remembers a rural recipe. On a 2000s list it is the food movie that keeps the slapstick in the walk-in.
Quick Ratatouille Summary
In one of Paris’s finest restaurants, Remy, a determined young rat, dreams of becoming a renowned French chef. Torn between his family’s wishes and his true calling, Remy and his pal Linguini set in motion a hilarious chain of events that turns the City of Lights upside down. The kitchen is the stage. The rat is the talent the kitchen did not advertise.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Ratatouille
Bird took over the project at Pixar and rebuilt it around a simpler idea: a rat who can cook and a garbage boy who cannot. Oswalt’s Remy is fast, hungry, and a little vain; Holm’s Skinner is the decade’s great comic middle-manager in a toque. The film won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Anton Ego’s final review — and the childhood flashback that triggers it — became one of the 2000s’ most quoted arguments for trying something that looks beneath you. “Anyone can cook” is the tagline. The comedy is how long the restaurant spends refusing to believe it.
8. Monsters, Inc.
- Movie Title: Monsters, Inc.
- Release Date: November 1, 2001
- Main Cast: John Goodman, Billy Crystal, Mary Gibbs
- Director: Pete Docter
- TMDB Score: 7.9/10
Why We Included Monsters, Inc. on This List
Pete Docter’s scare-factory buddy movie is the early-2000s comedy that turns a punch-clock job into a chase across closet doors. John Goodman’s Sulley, Billy Crystal’s Mike Wazowski, and Mary Gibbs’s Boo make a scream-processing plant look like the funniest workplace in either world. It belongs here because 2000s animation comedy often leaned on pop-culture winks, and this one builds its laughs on a blue monster who is good at his job and a one-eyed best friend who will not stop talking. On this list it is the Pixar entry that treats childcare as an industrial accident.
Quick Monsters, Inc. Summary
Lovable Sulley and his wisecracking sidekick Mike Wazowski are the top scare team at Monsters, Inc., the scream-processing factory in Monstropolis. When a little girl named Boo wanders into their world, it is the monsters who are scared silly, and it is up to Sulley and Mike to keep her out of sight and get her back home. The factory runs on fear. The comedy runs on how badly they hide a toddler.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Monsters, Inc.
Docter’s film was Pixar’s fourth feature and a box-office smash that made Mike and Sulley as recognizable as any live-action 2000s comedy duo. Crystal’s Mike is all timing; Goodman’s Sulley is the straight man with fur. Randy Newman’s “If I Didn’t Have You” won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. The door-vault climax is still the movie’s signature set piece — a visual gag about commuting that happens to be a rescue. Boo’s garbled monster-speak, recorded by then-toddler Mary Gibbs, is the sound the whole factory cannot schedule around.
9. 3 Idiots
- Movie Title: 3 Idiots
- Release Date: December 23, 2009
- Main Cast: Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan, Sharman Joshi
- Director: Rajkumar Hirani
- TMDB Score: 8.0/10
Why We Included 3 Idiots on This List
Rajkumar Hirani’s campus satire is the late-2000s comedy that turned an engineering college into a referendum on what school is for. Aamir Khan’s Rancho, R. Madhavan’s Farhan, and Sharman Joshi’s Raju make a prestige Indian university look like a pressure cooker with better set pieces. It belongs here because 2000s American college comedies often stopped at parties, and this one is about a dean nicknamed Virus, a friend who vanishes, and a teaching method that treats curiosity as insubordination. On a 2000s list it is the international blockbuster that still works as a hangout movie.
Quick 3 Idiots Summary
Rascal. Joker. Dreamer. Genius. You have never met a college student quite like Rancho. From the moment he arrives at India’s most prestigious university, Rancho’s outlandish schemes turn the campus upside down — along with the lives of his two newfound best friends. Together they make life miserable for Virus, the school’s uptight and heartless dean. When Rancho catches the eye of the dean’s daughter, Virus sets his sights on flunking out the “3 idiots” once and for all.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About 3 Idiots
Hirani and writer Abhijat Joshi drew on Chetan Bhagat’s novel Five Point Someone and then freely rebuilt it into a broader comedy about exams, parents, and the fear of being average. Khan’s Rancho became a 2000s pop figure well beyond India; “All is well” escaped the movie as a coping slogan. Madhavan and Joshi play the two friends as the audience — talented, terrified, and stuck with a roommate who will not take the ranking system seriously. The film was one of the decade’s biggest Hindi hits and a rare campus comedy that traveled as both a laugh and a lecture.
10. Up
- Movie Title: Up
- Release Date: May 28, 2009
- Main Cast: Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai
- Director: Pete Docter
- TMDB Score: 8.0/10
Why We Included Up on This List
Pete Docter’s floating-house adventure is the 2000s comedy that earns its later gags by surviving one of the decade’s saddest prologues. Ed Asner’s Carl Fredricksen, Christopher Plummer’s explorer, and Jordan Nagai’s Wilderness Explorer Russell turn a grief-stricken balloon launch into a buddy movie with a talking dog. It belongs here because a 2000s comedy list that only files Pixar as “for kids” misses how much of this film is a grouchy odd-couple routine at altitude. On this list it is the adventure comedy that treats a house as the getaway car.
Quick Up Summary
Carl Fredricksen spent his entire life dreaming of exploring the globe and experiencing life to its fullest. But at age 78, life seems to have passed him by, until a twist of fate — and a persistent eight-year-old Wilderness Explorer named Russell — gives him a new lease on life. The balloons are the escape plan. Russell is the part of the plan Carl did not approve.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Up
Docter and Pixar opened the 2009 Cannes Film Festival with Up, a first for an animated feature in that slot. The wordless married-life montage became the scene people warn first-time viewers about; the rest of the movie is a comedy about what you do after that montage ends. Asner’s Carl is all gravel and stubbornness; Nagai’s Russell is the wilderness badge that will not take a hint. The film won Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Score. Dug the dog’s “I have just met you and I love you” line is the 2000s talking-animal joke that still works on adults.
11. Little Miss Sunshine
- Movie Title: Little Miss Sunshine
- Release Date: July 26, 2006
- Main Cast: Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carell
- Director: Valerie Faris
- TMDB Score: 7.7/10
Why We Included Little Miss Sunshine on This List
Valerie Faris’s yellow-van road movie is the mid-2000s comedy that made a beauty pageant into a family stress test. Greg Kinnear’s failing motivational speaker, Toni Collette’s exhausted mother, and Steve Carell’s suicidal Proust scholar pile into a dying Volkswagen to get little Olive to California. It belongs here because 2000s indie comedy found a sweet spot between cruelty and kindness, and this one never pretends the Hoover family is functional — only that they will push the van together when it stalls. On a 2000s list it is the ensemble that treats a child pageant as the least important thing in the movie.
Quick Little Miss Sunshine Summary
A family loaded with quirky, colorful characters piles into an old van and road-trips to California for little Olive to compete in a beauty pageant. The van keeps breaking. The family keeps getting in its own way. Olive is the reason they do not turn around.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Little Miss Sunshine
Faris and Jonathan Dayton’s debut feature premiered at Sundance 2006 and became the rare indie comedy that crossed over without sanding off the bitter jokes. Alan Arkin won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor as the grandpa who will not behave at a pageant; the film also won Best Original Screenplay. Carell, then coming off The Office, plays the quietest person in a loud car. The Volkswagen Microbus that will not stay in gear is the decade’s best comic prop: a family that can only move forward if everyone gets out and pushes.
12. Shrek
- Movie Title: Shrek
- Release Date: May 18, 2001
- Main Cast: Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz
- Director: Andrew Adamson
- TMDB Score: 7.8/10
Why We Included Shrek on This List
Andrew Adamson’s ogre fairy-tale roast is the 2001 comedy that taught the decade how to kid a genre without abandoning it. Mike Myers’s Shrek, Eddie Murphy’s Donkey, and Cameron Diaz’s Fiona turn a rescue mission into an argument about who gets to be the handsome prince. It belongs here because 2000s animation comedy is unthinkable without this movie’s pop soundtrack, swamp real estate, and a dragon who will not play the villain. On this list it is the DreamWorks smash that made “happily ever after” sound like a punchline you could still mean.
Quick Shrek Summary
It ain’t easy bein’ green — especially if you are a likable (albeit smelly) ogre named Shrek. On a mission to retrieve a gorgeous princess from the clutches of a fire-breathing dragon, Shrek teams up with an unlikely compatriot, a wisecracking donkey. The swamp is supposed to stay empty. The fairy-tale creatures have other plans.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Shrek
Adapted from William Steig’s picture book, the film was DreamWorks Animation’s statement that Pixar would not have the 2000s to itself. Myers recast the ogre with a Scottish accent after an earlier pass; Murphy’s Donkey is the motor-mouth sidekick every later CG comedy tried to hire. Shrek won the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature when the category debuted. “All Star,” the onion metaphor, and Fiona’s ogre reveal became the decade’s default language for a fairy tale that wanted to be in on the joke. Lord Farquaad is the short joke the movie never gets tired of. The swamp is the punchline that stuck.
13. Amélie
- Movie Title: Amélie
- Release Date: April 25, 2001
- Main Cast: Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, Rufus
- Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
- TMDB Score: 7.9/10
Why We Included Amélie on This List
Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Montmartre daydream is the 2000s comedy that treats a shy waitress like a secret agent of other people’s happiness. Audrey Tautou’s Amélie, Mathieu Kassovitz’s photo-collecting Nino, and Rufus’s grocer-father turn a café into a workshop for pranks, matchmaking, and one delayed romance. It belongs here because the decade’s rom-coms often announced every feeling, and this one is funny in glances, lists, and a garden gnome on tour. On a 2000s comedy list it is the international smash that ends the ranking: a movie people still quote when they want the 2000s to look like a warmer city.
Quick Amélie Summary
At a tiny Parisian café, the adorable yet painfully shy Amélie accidentally discovers a gift for helping others. Soon she is spending her days as a matchmaker, guardian angel, and all-around do-gooder. But when she bumps into a handsome stranger, will she find the courage to become the star of her very own love story? The neighbors are the practice run. Nino is the assignment she keeps postponing.
Interesting Facts or Trivia About Amélie
Released in France as Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain, Jeunet’s film became a global 2001 phenomenon and one of the most successful French-language comedies of the decade. Tautou’s wide-eyed timing made Amélie a 2000s pop figure; Kassovitz’s Nino is the rare rom-com love interest defined by a scrapbook of photo-booth leftovers. The film won four César Awards, including Best Film and Best Director, and earned five Academy Award nominations. The saturated Montmartre palette and Yann Tiersen’s score became shorthand for a certain early-2000s European comedy mood — the one where a shy person can still rearrange a whole neighborhood.
The 2000s comedy map runs from a Han River island and a Northeastern Brazilian courtroom to a Paris kitchen, a Tokyo Christmas, and a yellow van that only moves if everybody pushes. If you want the decades next door, try our lists of the best comedy movies of the 1990s and the best comedy movies of the 1980s — or stay in the same ten years with the best fantasy movies of the 2000s and the best horror movies of the 2000s.
