Just had another movie spoiled by actors. To me, there is a huge difference between someone who has honed their craft as a voice person and someone who has trained and worked hard to be an actor. And the two are completely different.
I saw Fantastic Mr. Fox last night. I think the film has more problems than the voices, but it was the voices that ruined the film for me. An actor is trained to act with the entire body, especially the face. A voice artist must convey everything with only one tool. Rarely can one do the other’s job effectively. George Clooney is a fine actor, in certain roles. But he’s no voice artist. I’ve seen enough Wes Anderson movies to understand that many of the characters in his movies act in an understated, almost deadpan way, but this wasn’t that. This was an actor who, for all I know, never even saw the animations his voice went with. (Does anyone know? Or did they all go into the studio one at a time and read off their lines like Krusty the Klown?)
And Meryl Streep as Mrs. Fox! What a drag on a movie that barely limped along without a soul to begin with. She sounded like she was an Ambien delivering her lines.
I wanted so badly to like this movie. I love Wes Anderson movies, the puppets were excellent, and the visual scenery was gorgeous…rich and vibrant.
Another film ruined by voices for me was Up. Ed Asner just couldn’t pull it off in my mind.
The worst, recently, was Where the Wild Things Are. Again, big name “actors” reading their lines with no heart or soul into the microphone. That’s another movie that I really, really wanted to like.
An exception could be the Shek movies. (I only saw the first and part of the second…the second one was dreadful so I stopped.) Cameron Diaz is awful, but Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy bring their characters alive. But Myers and Murphy are performers, not actors. I can’t stand the Donkey character, but I think Murphy does a LOT with the inane lines he’s handed.
And I think THIS is why Finding Nemo was the most popular Pixar movie. It starred Albert Brooks, someone who is probably better known for his voice acting than his live-action roles.
Funny, Cameron Diaz is the first one I thought of when I saw this thread title.
Princess Mononoke is a perfect example of this. Claire Daines was a dry, dull monotone. And Billie Bob Thornton’s slow southern drawl representing an old samurai warrior was so disconcerting I can’t think of a worse possible casting.
It’s a shame that voice talent is being pushed out by celebrity stunt casting, because the movie ultimately suffers.
It depends. I had no problem with the casting of Fantastic Mr. Fox – Clooney was quite good. And Michael Meyers is the reason why Shreck works. Asner was perfect in Up – hell, the character was written for Asner to play. On other films, Hoodwinked was great using big name actors, and Woody Allen was an inspired choice to voice the lead in Antz (as was Gene Hackman).
But things like Home on the Range would have been better without the star actors, while The Princess and the Frog was just fine using more obscure actors in the roles.
There just too much variation to make a general rule about it.
I wonder if it’s significant that Myers and Murphy are known for playing multiple roles in their movies (and, before that, on SNL). One thing the great voice actors are known for is their versatility.
Recently I listened to an interview - well, more like a one hour talk show with Kevin Pollak hosting with Billy West and John-somethingI’msorryIforgot-avoiceonSpongebobSquarepants. It was a fascinating lesson about the distain VoiceOver actors have for celebrities in animated features. I really admire great voice talent and I totally agree with them. Just because you’re famous doesn’t mean you can do VoiceOver. I do think Asner did a great job, but that’s an exception to the rule. Another surprise for me was Tina Fey as the mother in Ponyo, along with Betty White, Cloris Leachman and Lily Tomlin as the old women. In the same movie, Matt Damon was awful as the father. I think Tom Waits would be a fantastic VoiceOver actor, but I don’t recall his having done that. It truely is hit-and-miss, but I’d prefer established VO talent to stunt casting any day.
I think the OP is selling both voice actors and screen actors short. I understand you’re drawing a distinction between skillsets when you pit “voice artists” against “actors”, but I find that terminology almost insulting to the former group.
In my completely uneducated opinion, the difference between a good voice performance and a poor one has fuck all to do with whether the actor is used to being seen when they act, and everything to do with the level of character information they can convey to the audience using the tools provided by the film makers. Voice acting is just not a skill unique to specialists.
I think the reason Shrek worked so well for you is the exaggerated voice mannersims of the principle actors. Myers, Murphy and Lithgow are all known for their over the top characterizations. And at least to my ears Diaz did a creditable job overacting for the animated medium as well.
If Fantastic Mr. Fox and Princess Monoke fell flat in that respect (I’ve seen neither, so I’ll have to trust you), I’d question the directing before I’d blame the actors. Have you seen O Brother, Where Art Thou? or Burn After Reading? -Do you really think Clooney isn’t capable of giving a broad scenery chewing performance? And Streep just portrayed Julia Child for Og’s sake! If their voices were understated, it’s because that’s what the director either wanted or allowed.
All IMHO of course, and YMMV. But I disagree with the general assumption that ‘voice artistry’ vs. ‘acting’ is a distinction with a real difference.
Hrm…the only John who does a semi-regular voice on Spongebob is John Rhys-Davies, but as he’s mostly known as a Live Action actor, that seems odd - and his character is fairly minor, so announcing him as a Spongebob actor would seem strange, too. Are you sure it wasn’t ‘Tom’? If the guy in question was skinny with big glasses, that would be Tom Kenny - who plays Spongebob, and the pirate…he does more voice acting than live action…and he’s pretty much a living cartoon himself.
Not all animated films require a broad performance, but essentially, you’re right. There have been plenty of face actors who did fine providing the voices for an animated films. There are also many “voice actors” who switched nicely into regular acting. I don’t think there’s that much difference between the two (or with radio plays or podcasts, either). An actor can be good in the part or he can be bad in the part.
Looking at the top animated films in the IMDB:
WALL·E – no names prominent
Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (e.g., Spirited Away) – several face actors in the US version.
Up – Ed Asner and Christopher Plummer
Le roi et l’oiseau – unknowns
Mononoke-hime (1997) – used regular actors for the voices.
Mary and Max (2009) – big names
How to Train Your Dragon (2010)-- regular actors primarily.
Hadashi no Gen (1983) -- doesn't seem to have an English version
The Lion King (1994) – name actors (e.g., Jeremy Irons)
Hotaru no haka (1988) --no names
The list continues with plenty of films that used established face acting talent, so I don’t see where you can make any generalization that voice actors produce better animated films.
This John was a big burly blond guy who was particularly adroit at an African-American dialect. I’m on my my iPod, which makes searching Pollak’s website impossible, but you may be able to find it at kevinpollakschatshow.com, I think. You ought to seek that interview out anyway - it is a delight for any VO afficianto.
I’ve worked with Tara Strong, Tom Kane & Fred Tatasciore, among others. A good voice actor is worth their weight in gold on an ADR stage. The level of vocal control these guys have is amazing.
Of course they do, the celebrities cost them jobs. It’s natural for them to want to think that the celebrities can’t do a good job. They’re wrong (well, a lot of the time, it’s case-by-case).
If it wasn’t John DiMaggio, could it have been John Kricfalusi, the creator of Ren & Stimpy and voice of Ren (until Billy West took over)?
Speaking of Spongebob, I’ve gotta give props to Clancy Brown, who can both live-act and voice-act (and do straight neutral narration) really well. It never fails to tickle me that Mr. Krabs, Capt. Hadley, Brother Justin, and Lex Luthor are all inside the same guy.
The use of well-known actors in animated features drives me nuts for a number of reasons. One is that they are so often miscast and the other is that I can’t get into the character as much knowing the history of the voice behind it.