Beware of spoilers: minor, animal-centric plot points are sprinkled throughout this article. 

Right up there with quality lighting, charming animal actors are a top-tier cinematic staple. 

From Judy Garland’s Toto to Melanie Griffith’s IRL pet lion, Hollywood has been historically fascinated by the furry friends who make our human stories come to life. 2018 continued that industry tradition with an array of talented performers who made audiences laugh, cry, and occasionally meow during dozens of this year’s best films and shows.

Using professional stage names whenever possible, here are the top 10 animal performers of 2018, all responsible for stealing the scene and our hearts. 

10. Hot Dog the English Sheepdog in Riverdale 

Riverdale‘s goodest boy debate may rage on (#TeamVegas all the way), but you’ve got to hand it to Jughead Jones’ pal Hot Dog. That pup went through a lot for the Southside Serpents this year.

Season 3 of Riverdale saw the kidnapping of Hot Dog by rival gang, The Ghoulies (gasp!) Episode 1 captured the harrowing journey surrounding his rescue with Hot Dog naturally featured quite heavily. Unfortunately, co-star Cole Sprouse may prevent Hot Dog from returning to Riverdale‘s spotlight.

“We got this dog and this dog was the worst actor I have ever worked with,” Sprouse said in an interview with Seth Meyers. “It barks the whole time, it didn’t hit its mark, it broke fourth wall consistently, it was just no good.” 

Poor, sweet, maligned Hot Dog. Your fans will not forget you.

Most award-winning moment: Chained to a stake on The Ghoulies’ lawn, Hot Dog channeled a deep-seeded, pain-fueled need for belly rubs only previously attempted on-screen by Academy Award nominee Willem Dafoe. Breathtaking. 

9. Freddie Mercury’s cats in Bohemian Rhapsody 

2018’s Freddie Mercury biopic wasn’t good for much, but it did resurface a fun, feline fact about the late rock icon. This dude loved cats. Really, really loved cats. 

To wit: the song “Delilah”—off of Queen’s 1991 album Innuendo—is about Mercury’s tabby of the same name. If singing about your cat’s pee on a global stage (yup) doesn’t say love, then I don’t know what love is. 

Most award-winning moment: Not swatting at Rami Malek’s mustache during every take. It is a temptation only consummate professionals can withstand. 

8. Kelly the Yorkie in The Meg 

Image: warner bros. / The meg

Kelly the Yorkie portrays Pippin the Dog in The Meg, a creature whose surprising survival has spurred an onslaught of debate and theory from viewers.

More than just a pretty face, Kelly channels Pippin with a surprising level of gravitas. The reunion with her owners towards the end of the film is a spectacularly layered and nuanced take on the craft of acting. Only a cold-blooded, prehistoric killing machine (trapped deep in the Marianas trench by a thermocline cloud of hydrogen sulfide) could escape those tear-jerking moments unmoved. 

Most award-winning moment: Yes, you guessed correctly. Kelly the Yorkie did in fact perform all of her own stunts. Brava, madame!

7. Uncredited pelican in Homecoming

Put simply, what a bird.

If you witnessed the barrage of Homecoming advertisements plastered all over the place, both IRL and online, this autumn, then you are already familiar with this avian artist. (His stunningly handsome visage was heavily featured for many of the series’ promotional materials.)

Performing alongside Academy Award winner Julia Roberts in her small-screen debut, this uncredited pelican wasn’t awarded much screen time, but he did steal a number of critical scenes in the mysterious, tense drama. 

Most award-winning moment: Making the most of his one line, our feathered friend repeatedly delivered his loud squawk with a range rivaling Seinfeld’s infamous “These pretzels are makin’ me thirsty.” A remarkable, revolutionary feat.

6. That one kitten in The Haunting of Hill House

Image: Steve Dietl / Netflix

Such heavy work from an actor so very young.

This uncredited little kitten is just beginning to gain industry attention, but his iconic and nightmare-inducing performance in that cockroach scene from The Haunting of Hill House carries the knowing severity of an artist twice his age. 

Most award-winning moment: Every scene with this kitten is so enormously disturbing, this reporter still cannot tell how much of it was CGI. Fingers crossed for… all of it? Please?

5. Bradley Cooper’s dog Charlie in A Star is Born

Image: warner bros. / a star is born

Indeed, a star was born. 

The cinematic masterpiece that is A Star is Born took theaters by storm this past year—and will likely raise the same enthusiasm at the 91st Academy Awards in February 2019. Unfortunately, most of the movie’s well-deserved acting praise will go to its human stars, Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. 

Let us then take this time to honor Charlie, Bradley Cooper’s on and off-screen dog, responsible for 2018’s biggest heart-wrench. A reserved, but unquestionably precious performance, this Goldendoodle is showing us what rescue dogs are made of.

Most award-winning moment: If you’ve seen the movie, you know exactly what moment this is. If you haven’t seen the movie, see the movie. Charlie’s work must speak for itself.

4. Zeus the Husky from Dogs 

Okay, so this dog isn’t technically an actor, but his prominence in the 2018 entertainment landscape cannot go unrecognized.

Zeus the Husky was one of Netflix’s many canine subjects for the docuseries Dogs. While each of the six episodes was touching, Zeus and his owner Ayham’s battle to reconnect over international borders in Episode 2 was uniquely impactful. 

Highlighting the humanitarian crisis resulting from long-standing conflict in Syria, “Bravo, Zeus” is as important as it is heartwarming. Naturally, Zeus excels as the story’s star.

Most award-winning moment: Nothing beats a dog video chatting with his owner. Absolutely nothing.

3. Salem the cat from Chilling Adventures of Sabrina 

Image: Diyah Pera / Netflix

Revitalizing a role previously held by the voice of Norbert from Angry Beavers, Salem the cat shined throughout Season 1 of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. The highly-anticipated Netflix series required the feline artist lounge composedly, run after stuff, and you know transform into a demon. Clearly: the part of a lifetime.

But it wasn’t all kibble and yarn on-set. In an interview with Seth Meyers, Sabrina star Kiernan Shipka revealed that while filming she discovered her previously unknown cat allergy, a major obstacle for the two entertainers’ working relationship. (Although we continue to seek comment from his representation, we do not yet have word on how Salem took the news.)

Most award-winning moment: Salem’s most dazzling Season 1 performance occurred off-screen at the series’ world-premiere event in Hollywood. Alongside his Sabrina co-stars, Salem pranced down the red carpet, occasionally stopping to pose for photos. Of course, he wore black.

2. Towne the cat from Can You Ever Forgive Me? 

It is a rare cat that can get the highly-praised Melissa McCarthy to claim she was “out-acted.”

Towne portrays the real-life pet of author and forger Lee Israel, named Jersey, in Can You Ever Forgive Me? The dramatic biopic of Lee’s life required a well-trained companion join McCarthy in a number of scenes. Towne subsequently delivered in spades.

Director Marielle Heller went so far as to describe Towne as “the Marlon Brando of cats.” A higher endorsement simply cannot be conceived. 

Most award-winning moment: Once you have observed the bond between Towne and McCarthy, it’s difficult to pick just one of their encounters as a favorite. However, in the context of the film’s events, their last exchange is uniquely moving.

And the Milk-Bone goes to…

1. Olivia the Westie from Widows, Game Night, and Insatiable

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: no one had a better year than Olivia the dog. 

Appearing alongside industry icons like Viola Davis and Jason Bateman, Olivia cleaned up on the pooch castings for 2018—and then exceeded expectations on every front. 

For her ensemble piece: a small, but poignant role in Netflix’s Insatiable. Showing off her comedic chops: a hilarious (and gory) character study for Warner Bros’ Game Night. Finally, making her dramatic debut: a gripping, harrowing, and starring role in Steve McQueen’s Widows.  

Creating a body of work worth barking about, Olivia used 2018 to answer an age old question. Finally, heading into the new year, we know who is a good dog. 

Most award-winning moment: The stand-off between Olivia and Atlanta‘s Brian Tyree Henry in Widows is startlingly upsetting. Thank goodness they made up.  

Honorable mentions: Paddington and Pooh

Image: studio canal / disney

IRL animals will always trump animated ones, but you’ve got to admit—this was one great year for fictional bears. 

Paddington 2 hit theaters in early January, giving audiences a compassionate lesson on empathy and understanding. Christopher Robin brought Winnie the Pooh back to the big screen in August, reiterating just how immensely adorable this little no-pants bear can be. 

Let’s hope for some more unbearably delightful performances in the new year… perhaps with a few of these real-life bears looking for a break centerstage. 

Image: lili sams / mashable

Instagram is taking new steps to woo some of its highest profile users. 

The app is testing “creator accounts,” which would add new analytics and messaging features geared toward influencers and other power users of the photo-sharing app.

The update is currently being tested and will roll out more broadly next year, according to The Hollywood Reporter.  It will offer influencers an alternative to Instagram business profiles, which the company introduced in 2016, Instagram wrote in a statement.

“Increasingly, creators rely on Instagram to connect with followers and grow their personal brands, however the tools that are currently available to businesses today make it difficult for them to track their growth and engagement over time. We’re building the new Creator Account to help solve some of those challenges and make it easier for creators to grow their personal brands on Instagram,” the announcement reads.

The profiles will come with new ways to customize contact information on profiles, as well as tools for filtering messages.

Though many Instagram influencers rely on the service to make connections with potential sponsors and other business contacts, it can be challenging to do so with existing tools. Features like message filtering would make it much easier to separate important messages from the fan mail and spam that often clutters the inboxes of high-profile accounts.

THR reports that influencer accounts will also come with the option to get more advanced analytics, which would provide “weekly and daily data around how their follower count has changed.” Instagram currently provides some analytics to business accounts, but not in the detail that would be available to creator accounts. This is especially important, not just because it allows account holders to gauge the effect of their content more accurately, but because the lack of sophisticated analytics has indirectly made some accounts more vulnerable to being hacked. 

Right now, there are a number of (unsanctioned) third-party tools that purport to provide the kinds of in-depth analytics Instagram doesn’t. But clever hackers have taken to spoofing many of these sites and tricking people into entering their account credentials in order to steal their account. So, by offering more in depth analytics of its own, Instagram will be able to provide an alternative to these sometimes shady services.

Kids, if you need someone to cover your tracks these holidays, Jimmy Kimmel has an idea.

“Huckabee in a Tree” is the latest holiday adornment cooked up the show, inspired by the long-standing watcher Elf on the Shelf.

Kimmel’s version of the surveilling ornament comes in the form of the White House Press Secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, helping “kids to spin their bad deeds and make Christmas great again,” as Kimmel puts it.

Inadvertently painting the dog? Blame Obama.

House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer met with Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Tuesday, and uh, the meeting did not go smoothly.

So, naturally, Stephen Colbert unpacked the whole thing, hardly containing his delight and running videos of cat boxing to represent the encounter with the president.

The Late Show host ran through the highlights of the tempestuous meeting, in particular, Trump’s threat to shut down the government in order to fund his border wall, and his remarkable ability to spring to action on hearing his own name.

“He’s like Alexa, he only wakes up when he hears his name,” joked Colbert.

An Ode to… is a weekly column where we share the stuff we’re really into in hopes that you’ll be really into it, too.

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Getting ghosted by skaters is a subculture in itself — there’s a whole poetry account dedicated to it.

They’ll make eye contact with you at a party without actually approaching you, and then DM you three seconds after you leave with “Hey, saw you around.” They’ll invite you over to “just hang” but you’ll just end up watching their skate compilation videos before an underwhelming hook up. They’ll offer you a hit of their Juul before you go home, and then only text you back after they see your Instagram Story days later. They’ll probably brush off the casual ghosting with a “Sorry, I’m bad at texting,” and then ghost you again once you strike up a conversation — only to hit you up several weeks later and ask if you want to come over after their friend’s DIY show. 

Instagram account @theboyandhisdickies calls out trash skater men through tongue-in-cheek parodies of minimalist poetry. Like a bitter Rupi Kaur, the two writers behind the account dissect modern relationships and heartbreak through line work doodles and cynical wordplay. 

The account is the work of two roommates who started writing “Tumblr-poetry satire.”

“We’ve always gotten a kick out of skate culture, and found that this was a fun way to rant about our experiences,” @theboyandhisdickies said over Instagram DM.

The account is almost too on-point with its callouts, poking fun at self-proclaimed “woke” men who are emotionally unavailable, a bit misogynistic, and still don’t have a bed frame. It also calls out the women who are tragically attracted to them. 

Instead of Kaur’s Milk and Honey — the collection of poetry often screenshot, shared, and quoted all over Instagram — think PBR & clove cigarettes. The account’s creators admit that it’s a nod to the “social media oriented poets” who’ve shifted the way poetry is written. 

“While poets historically focused on producing a few highly thought-provoking poems in a given period of time, social media seems to have changed that,” @theboyandhisdickies said. “Poets are now expected to produce an absurdly high quantity of poems just to keep readers happy.”

The account isn’t even a month and a half old, but has churned out 30 cheeky poems — with illustrations — since its creation in the beginning of November.

“We believe our account reads as a satirical commentary on the current state of creative writing,” the creators said. “Our decision to focus on skate culture is a play on stereotypes in our community.” 

So if your love life has been a mess thanks to some guy wearing checkered Vans and a grungy mustard yellow beanie, maybe you can find some solace in this poetry.

Some people have crazy sex fantasies — no judgment. However, doing it, or portraying yourself doing it, on top of one of the seven wonders of the ancient world may be crossing the line. Danish photographer Andreas Hvid did exactly that, which instantly pissed off a lot of people and caused Egyptian officials to launch an investigation. He doesn’t plan to travel to Egypt again anytime soon. Check out our video to see the controversial image.

Image: hertz/clear

Why take out your wallet and photo ID if a camera and software program can scan your face, verify your identity, and send you on your way in 30 seconds?

That’s what Hertz rental cars is asking with its new partnership with Clear, the biometric face and fingerprint scanning company you’ve seen at airport security checkpoints. 

At the Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport this month, you can check out and drive off in your rental car with just a scan of your face (or a fingerprint reading). The offer only applies, however, if you’re a Gold Plus Rewards program member who’s signed up for Clear. Instead of showing an ID, you just look up at the camera from the car window and after scanning your face it matches the images against the database where your info is already logged.

The Fast Lane service will expand to 40 other airport rental locations in the next six months.

Hertz and Clear executives emphasized in a phone call Tuesday how this was about speeding up the check-out process. Instead of a two-minute average exit time to leave with your rented vehicle, the scan brings it down to 30 seconds, a 75 percent reduction in time. 

“Consumers expect less friction and more convenience,” Clear president Ken Cornick said.

“How it works, I don’t know, but I’m just glad it does,” a woman said in a testimonial video taken at the new check-out lanes last week.

It’s able to work so quickly because the software and cameras identifies you almost instantaneously. Ignorance around how it works, however, can be dangerous, especially if people don’t realize the unintended consequences of having their face or fingerprints trackable and potentially hackable.

“Biometrics are the best way to prove one’s identity,” Cornick said, adding that plastic ID cards are “outdated.”

The rental car scans come less than a week after Microsoft president Brad Smith warned about the dangers of facial recognition tech. Privacy issues — like situations recently seen in China with publicly shaming law-breakers — discrimination, and government misuse are all possibilities that stem from this convenience. 

Granted, the Hertz use-case is fairly harmless. But that’s how it always starts. Live Nation started using face scanning at its venues earlier this year, in yet another situation ripe for abuse and misuse. 

On iPhones the pervasive use of facial recognition is becoming mainstream and essentially priming a society for the tech in our everyday tools and devices. Even Facebook uses facial recognition to tag photos and posts.

But as Microsoft warned, “The facial recognition genie… is just emerging from the bottle,” and it might be driving off in a rented Ford Taurus. 

Image: Pete Pachal/Mashable

Doctor Who fans are especially hard to shop for.

Like many franchises, Doctor Who has a plethora of official and unofficial material that directly relates to the show — Blu-rays, comics, books, audio adventures, and more — but in the case of Doctor Who, there’s just so much of it. The show has had 55 years to build itself, which is wondrous, but as a gift-giver, you can pretty much toss all of that out since you never know what they already have.

However, Who also has an advantage: The show renews itself every few years, creating a ton more new merchandise in the process. And this past year has been a doozy, with Jodie Whittaker taking over as the Doctor, the first woman in the title role. That means a lot more interest, and plenty of new merchandise.

Still, you need to be selective. For this list, we did our best to provide a selection of Who-themed gifts that were least likely for a fan to already own, and if they did, there would be little to no complaints about receiving an extra.

Here are some great — and reliable — holiday gifts for Doctor Who fans new and old in 2018:

Whatever you may think of Barbie, there’s no question she’s a cultural institution for young girls, so it makes complete sense that the BBC would partner with Mattel to create an official Barbie version of the 13th Doctor, complete with Whittaker’s signature bob. The coat, rainbow shirt, and sonic screwdriver are spot-on, too. The doll doesn’t debut until Dec. 16, so it’s a fairly safe bet the fan on your list doesn’t have it yet.

Price: $49.99 at Mattel

Image: Pete Pachal/Mashable

A Doctor Who fan’s Christmas tree isn’t complete without various monsters from the show, and this set definitely has those, comprising a Dalek, Cyberman, Adipose, and Weeping Angel. The monster gallery is a few years old now, but the price is Secret Santa-friendly, and no Whovian ever complained about having too many Doctor Who-themed Christmas ornaments.

Price: $11.12 at Amazon

Image: Pete Pachal/Mashable

Ornaments aren’t just for trees — spread your Doctor Who-themed Christmas spirit around the house with this cute mini TARDIS adorned with holiday decorations. The layer of snow and wreath on the door look so cookie-perfect your party guests will wonder if gingerbread comes in blue.

Price: $14.98 at BBC Shop

Jodie Whittaker already has many firsts under her belt, one of them being the playing first Doctor that builds her own sonic screwdriver onscreen. If that challenge sounds a little above your skill level, the BBC sells a very good replica, complete with authentic lights and sounds from the show. Constant state of crisis not included.

Price: $29.98 at BBC Shop

The popular Doctor Who Mr. Men books are great fun for kids and adults alike, and collectors will love extending the collection with the latest volume, which adds Whittaker’s Doctor to the mix. Though she’s neither a mister or a man, Doctor Thirteenth is definitely ready to be as excitable and fun as any of her predecessors.

Price: $5.99 at Amazon

Indeed she is! Even if you’re not a female superfan who could use a well-deserved latte after finishing your PhD, this mug will showcase your appreciation for the Whittaker’s status as the first female Doctor in the show’s history.

Price: $11.77 at Etsy

Lava lamps go in and out of style depending on the current taste of retro culture, but this TARDIS-ified take on the idea is definitely more timeless. If the funky lights from the central tube don’t start a conversation, the classic TARDIS console styling of the exterior will. The true fan won’t mind having one of these in every room.

Price: $57.99 at Amazon

If there’s one thing you need to go adventuring with the Doctor, it’s plenty of clean socks. From running through alien forests to wading knee-deep through trouble on a daily basis, being part of the TARDIS crew can be hard on your footwear, so fans will definitely appreciate these cleverly designed Who-themed socks helping fill their drawers.

Price: $14.95 at Amazon

A favorite decoration of the Capaldi era gets a makeover for Whittaker’s Doctor: Her ghostly figure subtly occupies this crystal reproduction of the TARDIS, but it really comes alive when you switch on the blue LED in the stand (complete with the updated logo), which turns a dark room into an alien world. We’re pretty sure it’s Metebelis 3.

Price: $99.98 at BBC Shop

Image: Pete Pachal/Mashable

There’s no shortage of cute interpretations of Doctor Who, but the chibi-style characters on this Loungefly bag are definitely one of the most adorbs. At 10 x 7 x 7.5 inches, it’s generously sized for a handbag, making it all the better to store sonic screwdrivers, psychic paper, and TARDIS keys that every adventurer needs. The detachable crossbody strap lets you drape it over your shoulder when you need hustle away from some Daleks.

Price: $64.98 at BBC Shop

Let’s be honest, spacewalks, as a whole, can be pretty boring to watch. 

Yes, it’s one of the most dangerous things an astronaut or cosmonaut can do in space: floating out into the void with just a relatively thin spacesuit to protect them.

But at the end of the day, these spacewalks usually amount to some pretty tedious tasks performed in the name of routine maintenance on the International Space Station.

However, this week, things got a little more interesting.

On Tuesday, Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Sergey Prokopyev ventured outside of the station to perform a little rocket surgery. 

The cosmonauts headed out on the spacewalk to inspect a Soyuz capsule — used by the astronauts and cosmonauts to fly to and from the space station — to make sure it was well-fixed after an earlier repair. 

Sounds pretty easy right? Wrong. At various times Kononenko and Prokopyev had to use what looked like garden shears and knives to actually cut through the tough insulation on the outside of the Soyuz. 

It looked pretty dang dramatic. 

All that cutting and chopping — which is pretty intense considering the only thing protecting the crewmembers from the vacuum of space was a pressurized suit — created a whole bunch of debris. 

NASA expects that this won’t be a problem, however, and most of it should fall harmlessly through the Earth’s atmosphere, burning up in the process, in the next few days.

The cosmonauts were so focused on their tasks that they all but refused to take even a 2 minute break as they were working in tough conditions for more than 7 hours.

While the spacewalk made for some entertaining NASA TV, it was all in the name of safety. 

Russia felt that the cosmonauts needed to cut through the tough insulation on the Soyuz to figure out more about what caused the air leak before the ship brings a crew back home to Earth on December 19. 

The actual leak was discovered in August when mission managers noticed a dip in pressure on the station that was traced to the Soyuz, NASA said. 

Crewmembers patched the leak and since then, pressure hasn’t been a problem on the station. 

Kononenko and Prokopyev took photos and inspected the problem part of the Soyuz, so hopefully now mission managers will have enough information to get to the bottom of what actually caused the craft to spring a leak.

Initially, managers thought that the Soyuz could have been hit by a meteor, but further inspection caused some speculation that a drilling mishap on the ground could have punched the hole.

Hopefully this spacewalk will get to the bottom of exactly what happened.

This badass lady didn’t let her age stand in the way of a thrill. 

Irene O’Shea became what seems to be the oldest person to skydive at 102 years old and 194 days. The previous oldest skydiver, according to news reports, was Kenneth Meyer, who landed a jump in 2017 at 102 years and 172 days. 

On Sunday, O’Shea bundled up, boarded a helicopter, and while strapped to her instructor, she jumped out at 14,000 feet — all for a good cause.

After her daughter died of motor neuron disease — a degenerative disorder also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease — 10 years ago, O’Shea began raising awareness and funds for research. This is her third dive for the Motor Neurone Disease Association of South Australia. Her first was on her 100th birthday in 2016. 

According to a report by SA Skydiving, the dive went perfectly. 

O’Shea and her instructor Jed “completed a smooth, beautiful freefall … through wispy clouds, before a smooth parachute opening.” 

“They then cruised around the beautiful skies above Langhorne Creek, enjoying the views of Lake Alexandrina, the Coorong, and the Murray Mouth,” the report adds. Her grandchildren and great-grandchildren were waiting for her at the landing area with hugs. 

Though O’Shea and Meyer beat the previously held world records, they aren’t recorded in the Guinness World Records for respective female and male oldest tandem parachute jumpers. It’s unclear why, but as Business Insider notes, there’s an application process for the organization to review attempts at breaking records before they officially record it. 

O’Shea doesn’t think she’s an “extraordinary adrenaline junkie.” During an interview with Channel 9, she shrugged off the stunt with “As far as I’m concerned I’m the same as everybody else, just a normal person.”

You can help O’Shea reach her $10,000 fundraising goal here.