Say Goodbye to Voice-over Artists

Article posted Wed Dec 8 14:29:27 2004

There was an insightful article in the November 26 issue of Entertainment Weekly that discussed the gradual decline of voice actors in animated films. Time was, animated characters were brought to life with the help of animators, ink and cels, lots of tedious work, and, of course, voice-over artists. The greats, like Mel Blanc, Daws Butler, Don Messick, and countless others, showed us what George Jetson’s yell sounded like and just how canine Scooby Doo’s “Ruh-ro!” sounded. Where would Pinky and the Brain be without Rob Paulsen and Maurice LaMarche, respectively? Or Spielberg’s Animaniacs without Rob Paulsen, Tress MacNeille, and Jess Harnell? (Paulsen, by the way, won an Emmy for his work.) Or The Simpsons cast: Dan Castenella, Nancy Cartwright, Harry Shearer, Hank Azaria, and the rest.

Screen actors have often branched out into voice work. Jim Backus (Gilligan’s Island’s Mr. Howell) did Mr. Magoo; Scatman Cruthers was Hong Kong Phooey; and of course Scooby Doo’s Shaggy was voiced by Casey Kasem. But times, they are a-changing. More and more, the plum roles in big films are going to marquee actors—think of Jeremy Irons in The Lion King, Will Smith in Shark Tale, Robin Williams in Aladdin, and Mike Meyers in Shrek. Or Tom Hanks in Polar Express, or Tom Hanks and Tim Allen in Toy Story. In fact, over the past few years, it’s hard to find stars who haven’t voiced an animated character at some point.

Big stars can mean additional box office drawing power, but there is a price to be paid. While most actors can enunciate and project, voice talents bring, well, voice talent to the production. They take direction well and can offer a wide range of different styles, accents, and tones for a director to choose from. Just as thespians have quietly groused about fresh-faced rappers making unearned inroads into acting (that’s you, Ice Cube! Snoop Dogg! Will Smith! Queen Latifah! Eminem!), voice-over talents have reason to resent movie and TV stars who think they can do what voice talent does. Compare the bland voice that Ray Romano brought to Ice Age with the range and dynamism of any character on The Simpsons and you’ll see what I mean.

And it’s not only voice-over artists who are feeling the pressure: with a few exceptions, animation jobs in general are drying up. Part of this has to do with computers taking over all aspects from coloring to in-betweening jobs (even South Park, with its low-tech look, is animated by computers). But straight animation work is also getting exported overseas, to Asian countries such as Korea. Films like Spirited Away are rare gems, lush and lovingly hand-animated.

First the voices, then the actual animation. Though with each passing film, cutting-edge computer-generated animation gets more and more amazing, there are some elements that still need the human touch. At this pace, the cartoons and animation our grandchildren will watch may well be visually exciting but lifeless and devoid of humanity. Humans gave the illusion of movement to drawings and photographs (remember, all films are essentially animation: tens of thousands of single, individual photographs shown at high speed). The human touch is integral part of the process, and studios should be cautious about stripping it away in pursuit of profits.