Joan Cusack's Abby Mallard

Being the mother of two, Joan Cusack knows the importance of family entertainment. Her animated film "Chicken Little" debuted in the top spot at the box office over the weekend.

This is Cusack's second major starring role as an animated character for Walt Disney, following her alternately hilarious and heartbreaking turn as Jessie the Cowgirl in the Disney/Pixar hit "Toy Story 2."

"It's fun to be in those projects because they're interesting and different and easy in some ways, which is nice when you're trying to be a mom," Cusack tells The Early Show co-anchor Hanna Storm.

As Chicken Little's sensible pal, Cusack plays Abby Mallard, who is a voracious reader of magazines and quick to share a bit of advice with her friends.

The work was done over a year in a recording booth all by herself, Cusack says. Director Mark Dindal was not even present, only one of the animators.

"They don't give you the entire script. They give you your lines and the lines of the other characters in your scenes," she says. "They show you a picture of what your character will look like and show you a couple of scenes on a computer on how she moves. Then they film you as you read your lines and try to animate the character to your personality and make them connect. It's actually so much easier. You become much more focused on your lines and you can try it so many different ways. It's very liberating as an actress."

Abby Mallard, a.k.a. Ugly Duckling, has bucked teeth and not very pretty eyes. "At first, I thought, 'Oh, sweet!' " Cusack says. "But it's just great. It's like, you know, depth."

On the screen and off, looks are not important to Cusack, or "how much money you have, or how successful you are. Those are nice things. But the nicest things are the ordinary things. I think those are extraordinary," she says.

Having started her acting career when she was young, the actress says what she holds dear is her family.

"After a while, you kind of get to know the business a little bit, and what's in it, and how it works, and you get older and realize, my god, this is just part of life. You want to really have a life, too," she says.

Now that her boys Dylan John and Miles are 8 and 5, she says she is fortunate to be able to work and be a mom, especially on projects her children enjoy.

"They thought it was cool I was in a movie with Buzz Lightyear. Not my character," she says with a smile.

Cusack can be seen next in a project she shot in Vancouver with her brother, John Cusack, over the summer called "The Martian Child." Her kids were with her and they got to hang out with their uncle, she says.

This would be their seventh collaboration. The others were "Sixteen Candles," "Class," "Say Anything," "Grosse Pointe Blank," "Cradle Will Rock," and "High Fidelity."

Click on page 2 to track her career.

About Joan Cusack:

• Born in Evanston, Ill. on Oct.11, 1962.
• Attended Piven Theater Workshop in Evanston, Ill. She majored in English in 1985 from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
• In 1980, she made her feature debut in "My Bodyguard," and went on to appear sporadically in films while attending university.
• In 1984, she worked with her brother, John Cusack in John Hughes comedy "Sixteen Candles"
• After college she joined the cast of NBC's "Saturday Night Live" for the notable 1985-86 season, in which original producer Lorne Michaels made his much heralded return.
• In 1987, she was the sprinting, harried production assistant in "Broadcast News," who utters the memorable line to her boss (Holly Hunter): "Except for socially, you're my role model."
• In 1988, she was a Long Island Mafia wife in Jonathan Demme's "Married to the Mob," and she gave an Oscar-nominated performance in Mike Nichols' "Working Girl," as a big-haired Staten Island secretary who can't fathom why an executive (Sigourney Weaver) paid thousands of dollars for a dress when "it's not even leatha."
• In 1989, she teamed up with her brother again as his on-screen sister in Cameron Crowe's glowing romantic comedy "Say Anything."
• In 1990, she continued to build her reputation with an atypical dramatic portrayal of a mature seductress in "Men Don't Leave."
• In 1992, pigeonholed as a comic sidekick or supporting player, Cusack continued to impress with roles in "Hero" and "Toys," and particularly in "Addams Family Values" (1993) as a voluptuous blonde nanny who is less benign than she seems.
• In 1997, she was a secretary to a youthful hit man (John Cusack) in "Grosse Point Blank." And she took the leading lady role in Frank Oz's "In & Out."
• In 1999, she appeared as Tim Robbins' wife in the paranoiac thriller "Arlington Road," and worked with Robbins the director in "The Cradle Will Rock." The film also featured her brother John, though they did not appear in scenes together. Also that year, Cusack played Julia Roberts' best friend Peggy in director Garry Marshall's "Runaway Bride." She also received kudos for her voice performance as the lonely cowgirl puppet Jesse in Disney/Pixar's winning CGI-animated sequel "Toy Story 2."
• In 2000, Cusack re-teamed with her brother again in "High Fidelity," and she followed up with a character turn as a hard-boiled talent agent in the meandering comedy "Where the Heart Is."
• In 2001, she worked on the ABC sit-com, "What About Joan?" The series failed to lure in many viewers and, even after a creative revamp, was axed just a few months into the full fall season. Cusack next appeared in NBC's "It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie," playing miserly banker Rachel Bitterman, who gives the Muppets until Christmas Eve to come up with the money they owe her or else she'll foreclose on the beloved Muppet Theater.
• In 2003, she was back in the big screen in the comedy "School of Rock," playing a seemingly stern and imperious private school principal.
• In 2004, she also provided a brittle comedic edge to the lightweight comedy "Raising Helen," playing the disapproving older sister of Helen (Kate Hudson), a party girl who finds herself raising the three children of their late sibling.