# Voice artists vs. actors in animated movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 23, 2010, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-artists-vs-actors-in-animated-movies/540499 "2010-05-23T21:05:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-artists-vs-actors-in-animated-movies/540499/21 "2010-05-24T15:56:51Z")
> [@xenophon41](#): > > If _Fantastic Mr. Fox_ and _Princess Monoke_ fell flat in that respect (I’ve seen neither, so I’ll have to trust you) I wouldn’t trust him if I were you. I haven’t seen Princess Monoke but Fantastic Mr. Fox was indeed fantastic, one of my favorite films from last year. You may or may not like it, but judge for yourself. > [@xenophon41](#): > > 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. Exactly. Wes Anderson directed the voices and they were perfect, absolutely perfect for the characters. I’m sorry for the OP that he let whatever his problem was ruin a wonderful film for him, but it was his problem, not the voices or actors or direction. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-artists-vs-actors-in-animated-movies/540499/22 "2010-05-24T16:04:55Z")
> [@Runs\_With\_Scissors](#): > > 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?) No actor ever seens the animation their voice goes with. Animation is always done later, so as to let the performance be as natural and uninhibited as possible at the beginning of production. Trying to synch dialogue after-the-fact is the best way to get a limited and uninspired performance. Though they may not rattle off their lines like Krusty, virtually all voiceover performances consist of the actor in isolation with a script and a recording booth. And for the record, I couldn’t disagree more with you about the fantastic _Fantastic Mr. Fox_. All the performances were dry, wry, and lovely. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2010, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-artists-vs-actors-in-animated-movies/540499/23 "2010-05-24T16:07:18Z")
> [@gallows\_fodder](#): > > 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. Don’t forget The Kurrrgan and Sergeant Zim! ---
**Author:** ![minlokwat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minlokwat/32/2844_2.png) [@minlokwat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minlokwat)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-artists-vs-actors-in-animated-movies/540499/24 "2010-05-25T00:14:54Z")
Let me take a crack at this by way of example. Here’s a voice acting tour de force with Pat Carroll as Ursula in the Little Mermaid singing [Poor Unfortunate Souls](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=autCy-bgz6o&feature=related) for our purposes, you can probably get more from just the audio alone. Here every note is hit perfectly from both dialogue and song and not one inflection or nuance is missed. Since the scene and the character both call for and equal sense of bravado and menace, I can’t imagine too many others pulling this off as triumphantly. And this is why I thought **Fantastic Mr. Fox** sucked since the voice talent demonstrated none of these. I echoed the same sentiments as the OP in the thread devoted to reviews of the film that I am too lazy to find and repost here. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-artists-vs-actors-in-animated-movies/540499/25 "2010-05-25T00:24:30Z")
> [@The\_Hamster\_King](#): > > 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. Good lord…that’s practically the modern VO pantheon right there…How’d you get that job? Why? ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-artists-vs-actors-in-animated-movies/540499/26 "2010-05-25T06:00:39Z")
> [@minlokwat](#): > > Let me take a crack at this by way of example. > > Here’s a voice acting tour de force with Pat Carroll as Ursula in the Little Mermaid singing [Poor Unfortunate Souls](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=autCy-bgz6o&feature=related) > > for our purposes, you can probably get more from just the audio alone. > > Here every note is hit perfectly from both dialogue and song and not one inflection or nuance is missed. Since the scene and the character both call for and equal sense of bravado and menace, I can’t imagine too many others pulling this off as triumphantly. > > And this is why I thought **Fantastic Mr. Fox** sucked since the voice talent demonstrated none of these. I echoed the same sentiments as the OP in the thread devoted to reviews of the film that I am too lazy to find and repost here. You’re comparing classic Disney with Wes Anderson. They both may be animated, but it’s still apples and oranges. I love both movies, but they’re in very different styles (and I don’t mean animation styles). ---
**Author:** ![cactus\_waltz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@cactus\_waltz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cactus_waltz)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-artists-vs-actors-in-animated-movies/540499/27 "2010-05-25T12:46:33Z")
When it comes to Fanastic Mr. Foc, you really ought to see the “behind the scenes” DVD feature. The voice acting was anything \*but \*standard studio recordings. The actors were outside, running around, spitting things, eating, yelling, all in character. In one scene where Mr Fox has a conversation with his lawyer, George Clooney and Bill Murray acted the scene in a makeshift office. The end result is something that is very Wes Anderson and coherent with the rest of his movies. As for the whole voice actors vs actors discussion, I think there has definitely been instances during the past years where actors were brought to a movie simply because they were big names, rather than appropriate talents for the job. The quintessential example of this would be _Shark Tale_, which indeed was a horrible movie from start to finish. Movies like the ones weve seen from Pixar, typically involve actors that are so good at what they do that they can work with a different medium. But I think even then, it might be more attractive to lure in an actor like Ian Holm for merits and recognition than an unknown voice actor of comparable calibre. ---
**Author:** ![minlokwat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minlokwat/32/2844_2.png) [@minlokwat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minlokwat)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-artists-vs-actors-in-animated-movies/540499/28 "2010-05-25T13:29:40Z")
> [@Yookeroo](#): > > You’re comparing classic Disney with Wes Anderson. They both may be animated, but it’s still apples and oranges. I love both movies, but they’re in very different styles (and I don’t mean animation styles). Uh, o.k. then. The OP cites Fantastic Mr. Fox (apples) and then Pixar’s Shrek (oranges) so I’m not sure where you’re going with this. If we’re evaluating just the vocal performance –as others have stated- it is shortsighted for filmmakers to think that if they can get Meryl Streep, Bill Murray!, GEORGE CLOONEY!!, then they have a can’t-miss success on their hands. I mean these guys can do anything, right? Where some no-name schlub like Pat Carroll isn’t even considered, I mean, who the hell is Pat Carroll? As to determining what others like and don’t like, that is indeed comparing the tastes of apples and oranges. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-artists-vs-actors-in-animated-movies/540499/29 "2010-05-25T17:26:20Z")
> [@](#): > > When it comes to Fanastic Mr. Foc, you really ought to see the “behind the scenes” DVD feature. The voice acting was anything but standard studio recordings. The actors were outside, running around, spitting things, eating, yelling, all in character. In one scene where Mr Fox has a conversation with his lawyer, George Clooney and Bill Murray acted the scene in a makeshift office. The end result is something that is very Wes Anderson and coherent with the rest of his movies. Maybe that was a bad idea. None of the physical acting the performers were doing was going to show up on the screen. Anderson might have been better off putting them in front of a microphone and having them concentrate on giving the performances with just their voices. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-artists-vs-actors-in-animated-movies/540499/30 "2010-05-25T17:27:32Z")
> [@](#): > > The OP cites Fantastic Mr. Fox (apples) and then Pixar’s Shrek (oranges) so I’m not sure where you’re going with this. A nitpick, but the Shrek series is made by Dreamworks not Pixar. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-artists-vs-actors-in-animated-movies/540499/31 "2010-05-25T17:51:18Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > Good lord…that’s practically the modern VO pantheon right there…How’d you get that job? Why? I’m a game designer at Sony. I work with external teams developing titles for the PS3 and PSP. Sometimes that involves casting or directing voice sessions. We recorded Tara Strong and Tom Kane for the roles of the princess and the king in _Fat Princess_. Both were a pleasure to work with and extremely talented. Tara had to record all her dialog four times since the princess has four different weight states ranging from tiny to enormous – not an easy task for an actor to pull off. Imagine doing several hundred lines in character, then doing the same several hundred lines again in the same character but “slightly fatter”. I once spent an excruciating two days in the studio with a “name” actor who hadn’t done voice work before. Oh, my God, what a nightmare! Sitting there in the booth all by himself with no one to play off, he couldn’t get into character to save his life. Every line would run into double digit takes and there was hardly any variation from take to take – they were all crappy in the same way, meaning that we couldn’t even cobble together a performance in post. We eventually had to rerecord his entire role with a professional voice actor. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-artists-vs-actors-in-animated-movies/540499/32 "2010-05-25T20:08:54Z")
I’ve mentioned him before but one person whose voice work impresses me is Dave Willis. He was one of the producers of _Aqua Teen Hunger Force_ but he also did the voices of Meatwad, Carl, and Ignignokt the Mooninite - three completely distinct voices. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2010, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-artists-vs-actors-in-animated-movies/540499/33 "2010-05-26T04:50:44Z")
> [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > No actor ever seens the animation their voice goes with. Animation is always done later, so as to let the performance be as natural and uninhibited as possible at the beginning of production. Trying to synch dialogue after-the-fact is the best way to get a limited and uninspired performance. Except in the case of Anime, which is always animated first and voiced after, even by Miazaki. I’ve been baffled why they can’t use the technique pioneered on _Steamboat Willy_. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2010, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-artists-vs-actors-in-animated-movies/540499/34 "2010-05-26T15:01:46Z")
> [@The\_Hamster\_King](#): > > I’m a game designer at Sony. I work with external teams developing titles for the PS3 and PSP. Sometimes that involves casting or directing voice sessions. > > We recorded Tara Strong and Tom Kane for the roles of the princess and the king in _Fat Princess_. Both were a pleasure to work with and extremely talented. Tara had to record all her dialog four times since the princess has four different weight states ranging from tiny to enormous – not an easy task for an actor to pull off. Imagine doing several hundred lines in character, then doing the same several hundred lines again in the same character but “slightly fatter”. > > I once spent an excruciating two days in the studio with a “name” actor who hadn’t done voice work before. Oh, my God, what a nightmare! Sitting there in the booth all by himself with no one to play off, he couldn’t get into character to save his life. Every line would run into double digit takes and there was hardly any variation from take to take – they were all crappy in the same way, meaning that we couldn’t even cobble together a performance in post. We eventually had to rerecord his entire role with a professional voice actor. That’s really cool! Also why be coy? Who’s the “name actor”?? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/voice-artists-vs-actors-in-animated-movies/540499.md?page=1)