Celebrity Voices in Animated Films

What is your opinion of the use of celebrities as voice actors in an animated film? Are they necessary for an animated film to be a success? Do you prefer an all-celebrity cast (Dream Works) or only a few? (Disney Renaissance)

Doogal is the greatest animated film of all time for this very reason.

As long as the actor fits the character well, I don't care how much of a celebrity they are.

Celeb stunt casting, as in, casting actors on name alone (I'm looking at you Dreamworks) is a taint upon animation.

Oh, and by the way Chris Rock, you don't know diddly.

Plenty of people here like Dreamworks, so let's not get on a tangent about that.

edited 18th Dec '13 12:14:47 PM by Odd1

Depends on the movie really. Despite how much people bitch about Dreamworks, their recent outputs like Madagascar 3 and Rise of the Guardians shows that "Celebrity Casting" is perfectly fine when they actually fit the role.

In fact, the last movie they actually put heavy emphasis on who they cast for the roles was Kung Fu Panda.

I think celebrity voices are fine, as long as they fit the character that they are portraying. Too often it seems they are chosen just for the star power.

Over the Hedge IMO was also pretty good in that aspect. William Shatner did really good as the uber-hammy Ozzy.

edited 18th Dec '13 8:50:22 PM by XJTordecai

If they can do the role justice, I ain't got a problem with it.

What would you say are some of the best and worst celebrity voices?

The worst definitely was Tiffany in Jetsons The Movie. An actress, she was not.

edited 30th May '14 7:01:59 PM by DS9guy

Didn't she literally replace Judy's normal voice actress in that? As in, all her lines, which had already been recorded, were completely thrown out?

Yup. That's why Andrea Romano, who did voice directing for the movie, asked not to be listed in the credits.

edited 30th May '14 10:35:32 AM by Motyka5

I usually don't mind celebrities voicing characters in animated films as long as they fit the characters well.

There's much to be said in favor of professional actors providing voices for animated characters. Of course, their fee is significantly higher than those who focus on character voicing, but I believe that in most cases, it's worth the difference. In some instances, animators will attend the recording session to get key references of a character's pose and expression at particular points in the dialog, which a professional thespian can provide. In fact, it's a thespian's job to "get" their character, and portray that character convincingly. There have even been times when the actor has an equal or better grasp of the character than the scriptwriters, and the actors' ad lib often gets appended to the production.

Not all SAG actors are competent as voice actors, certainly. However, those that can read an animated character well add much to the overall production.

I myself prefer an actual VA like Mark Hamill (I want him to be known for more stuff than Star Wars, I LOVED his Joker) or Tara Strong doing voice work for an animated than celebs.

That said, I wouldn't mind having like 1,2,or 3 celeb voices, but not as the protagonist.

It's fine as long as I don't hear the celebrity when watching the film, I want to hear the character. Which often never happens. And I hate how they blow a good portion of their budget on celebrities when they could just cast a lesser-known actor for the role and save on tons!

A Goofy Movie has "club member" V As playing the four characters with the biggest parts and I wouldn't have it any other way; no doubt some of the charm of at least three of them would be lost if they weren't played by people who could make their voices sound like anything they wanted. But then again, in a movie like Wreck It Ralph, I think the celebrities they picked fit the characters really well. Really it only becomes a problem when everyone (protagonists, supporting characters, and bit parts) is a celebrity, or when the characters are clearly only there to show off the celebrities.

Tom Hanks & Tim Allen are a perfect example of this.

As well as Phil Harris and Louis Prima, Ed Wynn and Jerry Colonna, even Cliff Edwards... Hell, look at the poster for Make Mine Music and see how many celebrities of the time you can count!

I wonder... Did people back then have the same reaction as we do now?

edited 31st May '14 12:38:37 PM by Aldo930

She wasn’t much of a singer, either.

Was Janet Waldo supposed to do the voice before they found out they could get B-Grade Debbie Gibson for cheap?

As said above Janet Waldo recorded all her lines before the film's producers decided that they'd much rather have Tiffany do the role.

Apparently Ms. Waldo holds no grudges against anyone for this.

edited 3rd Jun '14 4:24:26 PM by Aldo930

She's a bigger woman than I'd be.

Those are examples of actors disappearing into their roles. In which case there isn't much of a conflict of interest.

Dreamworks Animation really kicked off the stunt casting phenomenon though.