Celeberty Voice Acting

I'm mixed on getting A-list actors to do voices for animated films. On the one hand, I think it can work if they can make the character their own or if their voice is distinctive enough. However, it can be a problem if the actors have a bland voice or they don't care about the roles and just see it as a quick paycheck.

Also, it annoys me when they over-stuff an animated film with celebrities right down to the minor characters. This problem is perfectly illustrated by the Monsters vs. Aliens TV series since NONE OF THE ORIGINAL MOVIE CAST CAME BACK TO REPRISE THEIR ROLES!

In conclusion, I don't mind having a celebrity in the cast as long as they can contribute with something other than getting a name on the posters to attract moviegoers.

What is your opinion on this? What is your favorite role done by a celebrity who rarely does animation? What is your least favorite? Was there an instance where you thought the professional voice actor did a better performance with the character than the original A-list actor?

edited 20th Jul '13 1:22:20 PM by DS9guy

Dreamworks gets a lot of flack for this, but IMO there's two ways you can go about it, The Shark Tales way (i.e. using the Actors as the selling point to make a quick buck) or the Rise Of The Guardians Way (where the Actors actually mesh well with their characters.)

Dreamworks has gotten a lot better with this (though Turbo looks pretty shaky).

They had more important roles to film, assumedly, as most A-listers do.

I do think it's interesting how many former big-name celebrities are now in voice acting and how nobody seems to have any issues with them doing that (e.g. Mark Hamill, Tim Curry, others that I know I'm forgetting...)

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I know. My point is that if you are trying to build a franchise, cast at least one character actor or voice actor that you know will have time to do spinoffs and the like. Just saying.

Fair enough, but from a marketing perspective, they want to get the big names in there. Even if they aren't promoting the hell out of the actors, word-of-mouth will still spread it around and draw in a crowd, and, like you said, if the person brings something good to the character, why not?

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Oftentimes, the big names can get the butts in the seats for a brand or movie the audience would otherwise be unfamiliar with. Though Pixar moved away from that practice, even Toy Story had Tom Hanks and Tim Allen (who was a big TV star at the time).

I can understand people preferring professional voice actors, but I can see why studios go with celebs.

But that doesn't mean you don't have to cast Every Single Role with a celebrity (like Dreamworks sometimes does) when just casting them for main and major supporting characters will be enough to grab audiences. In fact, from a business perspective, it would be a waste of money to hire a A-List actor to voice a character that serves little to no barring to the plot, has only like 1 to 10 lines and is FAR from a One-Scene Wonder when you could have hired a voice actor for much cheaper. I'm thinking of roles like the Captain of the Guards that Jim Cummings played in Shrek when we are first introduced to Donkey. ("Well, that's good for ten shillings... if you can prove it.")

edited 21st Jul '13 6:07:02 PM by DS9guy

I adore movies that predominantly star voice actors and character actors. Celebrity casting can be done well, but it doesn't guarantee more people will watch. As Rob Paulsen has said, compare the box office performances of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and The Ant Bully.

I guess Rob said that on his podcast, huh? Well, he makes a great point.

There's no problem with using celebrities for voice acting, as long as you don't try to milk the movie into a drawn out television series for no reason other than money. That's why you get the Monsters Vs Aliens show. Unless you luck out and get the original cast, like the Riders of Berk did, there's nothing that can be done.

Animated movies have used voices from well known actors and entertainers as long as they exist. A lot of people who are nowadays considered Disney Legends were famous for something else beforehand, they are just the most remembered for their voice acting nowadays. It's a little bit annoying that nowadays so many people automatically scream "celebrity voice" just because a studio cast an actor for a role.

Thus said, there is a right and a wrong way to do things. Advertising with the celebrity voice is questionable (it's better if the audience doesn't know who speaks the characters) and Will Smith Fish is just wrong. *shudder*

I might be the only person on here who didn't (and doesn't) find anything disconcerting about Will Smith as a fish. Hell, when I saw the movie, I didn't think the characters looked anything like their actors.

In fact, from a business perspective, it would be a waste of money to hire a A-List actor to voice a character that serves little to no barring to the plot, has only like 1 on 10 lines and is FAR from a One-Scene Wonder when you could have hired a voice actor for much cheaper.

On that note, would Master Monkey have been harmed any by not getting Jackie Chan to voice him? My money is on "no", given he had like two lines or something like that, and not that much more screen time in general. (Talking about the first one, haven't seen the second movie or the TV series.)

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Casting stage and screen actors for animated roles has had some noted positive effects. In the Monsters vs. Aliens example, many of the characters' best lines weren't scripted; that was professional actors "getting" their characters, and mining them for delicious comedy material. Plus, unlike pure character voice actors, who prefer to work alone, and take a lot of coaching from the production team, SAG actors often work together in the recording studio, and play off each other. Further, many times, the key animators are drawing faces and poses from the actors to infuse lifelike qualities into the drawn characters.

One of the best examples of a stage actor "selling" his character, to my mind, happened with Chris Rock voicing the titular Osmosis Jones. "You're looking at a genuine white blood cell, baby." His devilish grin really sells the gag: the whole world gets the joke. Could it really have clicked as well with anyone else?

And what about casting William Shatner as Ozzie the opossum in Over the Hedge? Normally, casting Shatner is a mistake because of his instantly identifiable hammyness. For Ozzie, though, it works, because Ozzie's character is a hopeless haywire ham. An Imperial-class ham. So the voice matches the character. There's much to be said in favor of professional actors in animated works. Not in every case, of course; nonetheless, I regard this as a wise production choice.

Um, most American voice actors ARE part of SAG (unless you count a good number of them who dub anime). Plus, celebrities rarely meet each other in the recording booths for animated films. In fact, where did you get the idea that voice actors prefered to work alone?

edited 21st Jul '13 6:15:16 PM by DS9guy

The VA side of that story is the opposite of what I've consistently heard from guests on Talkin' Toons with Rob Paulsen. You do make a good point about some celebrities bringing their characters better than anyone else could, though. I think a lot of celebrity casting is done well, but just that it's not inherently better.

In fact, I'm much more likely to care about familiar voice actors playing in movies than I am about screen actors. When I saw Wreck It Ralph I scanned the credits for names like Maurice LaMarche and Jess Harnell.

edited 21st Jul '13 8:33:55 PM by PPPSSC

Yeah, the majority of voice acting is done in a room by yourself, double so with celebrity voices because their schedules don't always align. There is precedence for "all in the same room" (like the DCAU) but that is more on the style of the production and not the whims of the performers.

Celebrity voices only tend to be a problem when their voice is too iconic that it takes you away from the story, which is what some people have commented on in movies like Shark Tale and Bee Movie. But on the flip side that kind of voice can be a form of Meta Casting, just in Toy Story Tim Allen OWNS Buzz Lightyear and Don Rickles was the perfect choice for Mr. Potato Head. In Batman The Animated Series no one besides Adam West could have made the Grey Ghost such a fan favorite. Literally! The Production team said if they didn't get West the episode wouldn't have been made.

edited 22nd Jul '13 10:19:07 AM by KJMackley

For reference, I'm recalling that most of the voice actors from Monsters vs. Aliens were interviewed for the DVD release, and mentioned being in the recording studio together, and working both scripted and ad lib lines among themselves. I'm fairly certain that Dreamworks Animation prefers to do this because the interactive chemistry carries into the work so very well, as opposed to the man-in-a-box method. In contrast, an interview with the legendary Frank Welker has him record his material alone, getting all his cues and coaching from the director. I also recall that Kevin Bacon, who recorded the voice of the titular Balto likewise taped all his lines in three days, mostly alone, with only the sound staff coaching him. Obviously, different studios have different methods.

Bump.

I notice that the celebrities who are usually the most successful at making the leap from live action to animation are comedians. I can understand why and not just because most animated films are comedic in nature. Some animated characters need to exude a lot of energy and personality which comedians can definitely provide. In fact, comedians have been in cartoons since the beginning of voice acting. Makes you wonder if these A-listers would have been successful voice actors had their careers gone down in a different path. And yes, I know that it can fail as well since the results can sometimes be all you can hear is the comedian and not an actual character.

It's important to note that a lot of voice actors are involved in stand-up comedy themselves.

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I could mention Tom Kenny, who was a stand-up comedian before he got into entertainment, worked on Mr Show with David Cross and Bob Odenkirk, and was in Bobcat Goldthwait's Shakes The Clown (as the villain)...

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Or John DiMaggio, who used to be in a comedy duo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgRO0XO51yY

(Why yes, it is young Jon Stewart at the beginning of the video.)

edited 7th Jul '15 12:59:05 PM by Motyka5

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And John Stamos!

My mother honestly doesn't really believe that Celebrity Voice Acting is generally a negative trend in animated movies. For the main reason being that the studios need to get asses in the seats. She also "disproved" the claim that all or most Dreamworks posters list all their celebrity voice actors. Though she for some reason decided to include sequels like Shrek 2 even though you should not count sequels when looking at posters that name all the lead actors.

Of course, she also doesn't believe that 2D animated films truly died after Shrek even though they pretty much did with Lilo and Stitch and Simpsons Movie being the only real major successes for 2d animated movies after Shrek, so what does she know?

Back on topic:

Dreamworks is a lot more guilty of using celebrity voices than Disney and Pixar are. While Disney and Pixar tend to basically have ONE celebrity (and they're generally not even that major for everyone that's not Tom Hanks. And I know there are exceptions like Lion King), Dreamworks uses mostly A-list celebrities while the other two usually will have one A-lister and several B-Listers.

As for why Mark Hamill doesn't get flack for doing voices after being a screen actor: That might be because he is far more well known as Luke Skywalker than any of his voice roles. That's probably why in Family Guy's A New Hope retelling,Blue Harvest, they had the joke where Peter as Han says, "The only actor whose career wasn't destroyed by this movie."

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Two obvious reasons for this phenomenon:

1. Obviously this is of course a big marketing ploy that they wouldn't miss out on.
2. Voice actors who don't have any major live-action roles tend to be obscure to people who aren't animation enthusiasts.

edited 7th Jul '15 2:47:03 PM by AHI-3000