Broderick then won the role of the charming, clever slacker in the 1986 film Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
In the 1990s, Broderick was the voice of the adult Simba, in Disney's successful animated film The Lion King, and also voiced Tack the Cobbler in Miramax's controversial version of The Thief and the Cobbler, which had originally been intended as a silent role.