Golden Globes Nominees Announced

The toonzone reports (via GoldenGlobes.org) that the nominees for the 67th annual Golden Globes have been announced.

While the nominees do include a few celebrities who have had voice roles, none of their voice acting roles were nominated so I’m not mentioning them here.

However, nominated in the category for “Best Animated Feature Film” are:

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Coraline

Fantastic Mr. Fox

The Princess and the Frog

Up

Additionally, James Cameron’s Avatar — the big-budget live-action/computer-animated/motion-capture epic — has surprisingly received four nominations: Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director – Motion Picture, Best Original Score – Motion Picture, and Best Original Song – Motion Picture.

Yes, you read that correctly: Best Motion Picture – Drama.

I know. Shocking, isn’t it?

And 20th Century Fox is touting Avatar as “the next generation of 3D” and furthermore (and rather presumptuously, I must say) as “the greatest adventure of all time.” Cameron even says in an interview, “It doesn’t look like anything you’ve seen before.”

I’m reserving my judgement until I see it, but if you believe the advance hype, this movie is some sort of life-altering event that will change everything: the way films are made, the way sandwiches are made, and the way babies are made. Next comes people painting themselves blue and thinking they can jump off cliffs and not be injured.

It’s just beyond rare for this sort of special FX, sci-fi/fantasy extravaganza to get such accolades from an organization like the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (host of The Golden Globes).

And you might be wondering, as I am, why Avatar received four nominations and yet none involve the cast, nor is a single actor from the film even acknowledged… like Sam Worthington who performs triple duties in this film: live action, motion-capture and voice actor (and likely did some of his own stunts too).

Aussie blogger Giles Hardie with The Sydney Morning Herald makes a great case for this. Give it a click. It’s well worth the read.

James Cameron’s Avatar opens in theaters Friday, December 18th and stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, Giovanni Ribisi, Joel Moore, Wes Studi and Laz Alonso. Also look/listen for CCH Pounder as Moat. Pounder has voiced characters in such animated series as Justice League, W.I.T.C.H., Static Shock, Batman Beyond and Gargoyles.

IMDb.com has a full cast list as well as a video link with a behind-the-scenes featurette interviewing Cameron and members of the cast and crew.

On a related topic, the toonzone blog has been doing a series reflecting on the worst and best animation of this past decade: Toons of the 2000s, and among them is a spotlight on the Top 5 Animated Features.

Voice Actor Dopplegangers: Mike Myers

Following up on the success of my first entry in this series (it’s one of this blog’s top 5 most-viewed pages — 1,400+ and counting)…

Separated at birth? Attack of the clone? Evil nemesis?

You decide…

Mike Myers (Shrek movie series) as Austin Powers:

Mike Myers as Austin Powers in 'Goldmember' (screencap courtesy New Line Cinema)

…and singer-songwriter Ben Folds (judge on NBC’s The Sing-Off):

Ben Folds on NBC's "The Sing-Off" (image courtesy NBC.com)

Celebrity Voice Acting Round-Up

I’ll be posting additions to this article over the next couple weeks, so please keep checking back for updates.

Update: 12.16.2009, 4:30 PM:

- Guinness World Records has posted highlights of their “Top 100 Records of the Decade”, proclaiming Samuel L. Jackson as the “Highest Grossing Actor” of the last decade, which includes Jackson’s roles in the animated features Astro Boy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars and The Incredibles. He also has an upcoming role as the voice of “Fear” in the computer-animated feature Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey (previously reported here).

This news comes courtesy of Entertainment Weekly’s Popwatch Blog, which challenges Guinness’ claim with what the blogger calls a “silly assessment of box office power” but it’s an interesting read with the *real* top grossers if you’re interested.

- Following up on my previous coverage of Spike TV’s Video Game Awards, the winners in the four voice acting-related categories are as follows…

No. I can’t post them. It’s just too disappointing. For starters, Jack Black beat Mark Hamill. If that doesn’t depress you as a voice actor fan, you don’t deserve to call yourself one.

And none of the nominees I personally voted for won, but that’s not why I’m disappointed.

The winners are depressing because they are all celebs who basically won due to their current popularity, and the fans who voted for them are too short-sighted to realize that. The categories were supposed to be based on the “best performance,” not the most popular. And even objectively, none of the winners legitimately qualified and I believe the gamers who played these games know that too. Unfortunately, this was an open poll.

If you want to read the poll results, click the link. I just can’t bring myself to type them here. And you can’t make me do it either.

- Firstshowing.net reports that Leonardo DiCaprio will voice Jack Frost in DreamWorks Animation’s The Guardians, an adaptation of the upcoming book series by author William Joyce. The plot involves “an Avengers-like assembly of imaginary icons like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny who protect children from the forces of evil.”

It’s currently slated for a 2012 release.

- From TheHollywoodNews.com:

Owen Wilson is set to play the voice of a dog in canine comedy ‘Marmaduke’.

The movie, based on a popular comic strip, will follow Marmaduke’s owners as they relocate to Florida with their Great Dane.

Other dog voices will be provided by Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie, comedian Steve Coogan and [Damon and Marlon Wayans], whilst humans are played by Judy Greer, Lee Pace and William H. Macy.

‘Marmaduke’ is set for a June 2010 release.

- Here’s an unintentionally amusing excerpt I found in a local paper (The Barrow County Shopper: Entertainment Spotlight) from a feature article on Robert Zemeckis’ computer-animated adaptation of the Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol:

[Jim] Carrey joins a host of notable actors who have played Scrooge, including Alastair Sim, George C. Scott and Mr. Magoo, to name a few.

Funny, I didn’t realize that Mr. Magoo was considered an actor.

On a related note, while I still haven’t seen this film (but plan to, having been a fan of Carrey’s work since he first starred on the sketch comedy show In Living Color in the 90s) it’s worth noting that the supporting cast includes Cary Elwes and Robin Wright. I don’t know if “reuniting” these two was a deliberate nod to the fantasy cult classic film The Princess Bride, but either way the fans (like myself) certainly appreciated it.

I’m also curious to see this film for the performances by Ryan Ochoa, who has a recurring role as Chuck on the popular Nick tween series iCarly. IMDb credits him with 6 voices in the film, and I’m very intrigued to hear that from an actor barely into his teens being entrusted by Zemeckis with so many roles.

Originally posted 12.11.2009, 7:11 AM:

- USA Today reports that Martin Sheen (West Wing, Wall Street) will lend his voice to the video game “Mass Effect 2.” Other cast members include Shoreh Aghdashloo (Fast Forward, 24), Keith David (Gargoyles, Spawn), D.C. Douglas (Resident Evil series), Michael Hogan (Battlestar Galactica), Seth Green (Family Guy, Robot Chicken), Yvonne Strahovski (Chuck), Adam Baldwin (Firefly, Chuck), Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix Trilogy, Fido) and Lance Henriksen (Aliens, Transformers Animated).

In a bit of related news, ShockTillYouDrop.com reports that Lance Henriksen has signed on to appear in the still-untitled “Aliens VS Predator” video game which is scheduled for release in February 2010:

Lance Henriksen will play Karl Bishop Weyland, a descendent of Charles Bishop Weyland (who Henriksen appeared as in AvP), the founder of the infamous Weyland-Yutani corporation from the Aliens universe. He will lend his likeness and voice to the production.

“They’ve made me look very good,” said Lance Henriksen, “This is the first time I’ve been fully represented in a game, with my voice and how I look, and the Rebellion guys have done a great job. I might score from this game!”

Additional source: Gamespot.com

- Wes Anderson talks with The National on the voice cast for “The Fantastic Mr. Fox”:

Even though he has used animation in other movies, taking on a full film using stop-motion would always be a challenge, and it has brought up a new appreciation of voice actors for Anderson. “The main thing I learned while making the movie is what the voices give the animators,” he says. “You record the voices first and the animators then animate the puppets based on those performances … their inspiration comes from those moments with the actors.”

- Jesse McCartney revealed via Twitter that he is “recording yet another Kingdom Hearts game.” Although he doesn’t say which character, he states that “first recordin [sic] was in 2005 for game 1.” (He’s technically incorrect since the 2005 game was “Kingdom Hearts II” in which McCartney voiced Roxus for the English dub.) Kindgom Hearts Insider has confirmed a few other voices for the English dub of Kingdom Hears: Birth by Sleep (as of this posting): Bret Iwan as King Mickey, Russi Taylor as Minnie Mouse and Chris Sanders as Stitch. IMDb.com has a list of other cast members speculated to be involved in the game but they have not been officially announced to date.

The game is currently scheduled to release January 10th, 2010 for the PSP.

Michael Bell Talks New Transformers, G.I. Joe Animated Series

Voice actor Michael Bell revealed to Transformers fansite Moonbase 2 in a Dec. 8th interview that he recently auditioned for both a Transformers and G.I. Joe animated series Hasbro has in development.

For the TF series, Bell says he auditioned for Ratchet and another character named “General Fowler” and added that the series is being cast by Susan Blu (who served as both voice actor and voice director for three TF series to date).

Bell says he auditioned for the role of General Hawk for the G.I. Joe series: “I’d love to get it. It’s 26 [episodes]. I’d absolutely love to get it, but I’m not going to kill myself if I don’t get it. But I’d love to get it, it’d be great fun.”

Bell did not disclose the actual title of either series during the course of the interview.

You can listen to the complete interview with Bell on Moonbase2.libsyn.com.

Sources: TFW2005.com; MTV.com

Related post: 7.30.2009 — Happy Birthday, Michael Bell!

SMACKDOWN: Union Voice Actors VS Video Game Companies

A Dec. 7th article from The LA Times from Dec. 7th discusses the contract dispute between The Screen Actors Guild and video game companies, with interview quotes from voice actors Dave Whittenberg and Dee Bradley Baker (the article also includes a photo and audio clip of Baker performing).

The article reveals some interesting facts which are related to some of this blog’s top searches, such as “what do voice actors earn” which Whittenberg states as “roughly $30,000 a year from his video game work and, like most of his peers, supplements that income by doing voice work for animated TV shows.”

And even in a sluggish US economy, the Times article states that the “U.S. video game industry revenue has more than doubled since 2005 to $21 billion in 2008 — about twice the amount of movie ticket sales in Canada and the U.S.”

But video game developers are largely hiring non-union voice talents which make up 80% of the work available, leaving a significantly smaller percentage to union talents.

“The concern going forward is that as these games become larger and larger and generate more income, we as actors won’t see any more money when we walk out the door,” said Wittenberg.

In response, The Times interviews Attorney Scott Witlin, “who represented video game publishers in the recent labor negotiations, disputes the notion that actors are being shortchanged”:

If you look at the total contribution either in terms of hours that go into the creation of a game or the earnings of the people who make the games, voice talent represents a minute percentage.

Casey Hudson, director for Electronic Arts’ Mass Effect 2 says:

It used to be that there wasn’t very much data available for voice acting, and what we had tended to be cartoonish.

Later, with the advent of higher-capacity compact discs, characters started to speak a few dozen or hundred lines in games. But voices were still often performed by amateur actors or even the game developers themselves, because many companies didn’t think spoken dialogue was important enough to merit spending money on professionals.

In the last decade, however, as the video game industry has transitioned to DVDs and the storytelling ambitions of many game developers have blossomed, hiring experienced actors has become routine.

Hudson adds that Mass Effect 2 has a massive cast, with “90 actors playing 546 characters who speak about 31,000 lines of dialogue.”

The greatest issue that SAG is addressing in this contract dispute is the pay scale for actors performing “atmospheric voices — words and sounds for the incidental characters — bartenders, soldiers, elves, random monsters — in war and fantasy games that involve large crowds.”

What SAG is proposing is that “actors would receive a fee of about $800 for performing up to 20 atmospheric voices (up to 300 words per voice) in a four-hour session. Actors who perform ‘principal characters’ — defined as those that drive the story — would fetch the same fee for doing up to three character voices, and more than double the amount if they do six to 10 voices during a six-hour session.”

The video game companies countered by offering only a 2.5% wage increase. And according to the LA Times, the voice actors don’t seem to be pleased with either option, stating that “an influential group of Hollywood voice actors has strongly opposed the contract”:

They contend that the provision would require them to do substantially more work for roughly the same pay and put undue stress on their vocal cords, notwithstanding a provision in the agreement to protect actors against “vocal stress.”

“Before, you were doing three characters dying a horrible death. Now you’re doing 20 characters dying a horrible death,” said Dee Baker, a veteran voice actor who has worked on such games as Halo 2 and Spore, in which he voiced entire races of evolving alien creatures. “Not only will this mean less money for more experiences, it’s also going to be a lot more vocally difficult.”

But SAG’s primary goal in the negotiations is “to give the companies more incentive to hire union talent”:

“One of the things we’d like to do is improve the union’s footprint in this area of production,” said Mathis Dunn Jr., an assistant national executive director of AFTRA. “A lot of employers are not signatories to our contract, and part of the reason is that we can’t accommodate their budget. . . . This will keep us in the game.”

If you’re waiting for the inevitable editorial commentary, I’m sorry to disappoint you. I must bow out of the discussion on this one, since I’m a non-union talent living in a right-to-work state who unfortunately cannot find enough union work available in the state to merit joining the union. But I’ll definitely be keeping a close eye on the developments with this story.

And if you’d like more informed and insightful opinions on the subject, here are some I dug up for your perusal:

- From animation/comics writer and voice director Mark Evanier:

Actors who do voices for video games are concerned about the pay scales for what they do…and rightly so. Some of those jobs involve doing literally thousands of lines of dialogue and/or screaming for hours on end. I have one friend who spent two days recording a game…for not-wonderful money. And at the end of the second day, his throat was so raw that he couldn’t talk (i.e., work) for almost a week.

- Comment thread from Kotaku.com.au: Paid Less to Die More: The Actors’ Union’s Beef with Video Games.

- Discussion on Voice-Overs.com with posts by veteran video game VO pros J.S. Gilbert and Bob Bergen.

- A Joystiq.com news post on the LA Times article ignites a rather heated comment thread between gamers, industry professionals, and aspiring voice actors.

- Video game writer Jeff Spock guest blogs on Gamasutra.com with his thoughts on the LA Times article.

Meep Meep-Meep-Meep!

The Muppets are at it again, this time with The Swedish Chef, Beaker and Animal attempting to sing “Carol of the Bells”:

Thanks to ForcesofGeek for the heads-up via Twitter.

Related post: 11.29.2009 — Muppets: Queen’s Singers

Vote for Voices in Spike TV’s 2009 VGAs

Spike TV currently has open polls for fans to vote on their nominees for the 2009 Video Game Awards.

Voice-related categories include:

- Best Performance by a Human Female
Nominees: Eliza Dushku, Kristin Bell, Megan Fox, Tricia Helfer.

- Best Performance by a Human Male
Nominees: Bill Murray, Hugh Jackman, Samuel L. Jackson, Shia LaBouf, Vin Diesel.

- Best Cast
Nominees: Brutal Legend, Ghostbusters: The Video Game, Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard, South Park: Let’s Go Tower Defense Play, X-Men Origins: Wolverine Uncaged Edition.

- Best Voice
Nominees: Arleen Sorkin, Claudia Black, Jack Black, Mark Hamill, Nolan North.

You can view the complete list of categories and nominees with accompanying trailers at Spike.com. Winners will be announced on December 12th at 8:00 PM (PST) via exclusive webcast on Spike.com.

Source: StarWars.com Blog

Muppets: Queen’s Singers

I saw this linked on AOL’s homepage today and felt compelled to share it here — The Muppets spoofing Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” featuring the voices of Muppeteers Dave Goelz (Gonzo), Bill Barretta (Pepe), Eric Jacobson (Miss Piggy) and Steve Whitmire (Kermit) [just to name a few]:

‘Justice League: Crisis’ Voice Cast Interviewed

Buried in a recent “collectors edition” of the print magazine Life Story: Film Fantasy is a 4-page feature article on the upcoming animated feature Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, co-produced by Warner Premiere, DC Comics and Warner Bros. Animation.

There’s no mention of the Justice League movie on the cover. The magazine targets Tw*light fans on the release of the glittery vampirish feature film N*w M*on. [If you're wondering why the censorship, it's to avoid coming up in keyword searches by fans of that series. Nothing against them personally though, since my wife's a diehard fan. I just don't want them overruning my blog.]

I’d link a cover image here, but again I’d like to avoid keyword searches related to the movie. If you want to see it, do a Google search on the magazine title plus the movie title. (But I don’t think you’ll have any trouble finding a copy.)

The magazine’s hidden feature on Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths includes preview images, storyboard art and interviews with writer Dwane McDuffie and celebrity voice cast Billy Baldwin (Batman), Mark Harmon (Superman), James Woods (Owlman), Gina Torres (Super Woman) and Chris Noth (Lex Luthor). (Additional voices confirmed as of this writing are Vanessa Marshall (Wonder Woman), Josh Keaton (The Flash) and Bruce Davison (The President).

SPOILER ALERT! The following excerpts from the cast on voicing their respective characters may include spoilers, so you can’t say you weren’t warned. Please scroll down to continue reading.

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- Billy Baldwin on Batman:

I enjoyed [Batman] as a child, and the character still resonates for me. Plus, my [7-year-old] boy…just loves superheroes. We watch Justice League together. When I told him I was playing Batman, his jaw dropped.

I was looking at the script on a plane, and I was really attracted to the character and the piece based on my understanding of Batman. He doesn’t have long monologues so there wasn’t a lot of memorization necessary. [There wasn't *any* memorization necessary, Billy. Voice actors read from a script in the studio, and thankfully never have to memorize their dialog. -- Ed.] I was mostly focused on getting into the rhythm of how the character speaks, because a lot of his dialogue can be incredibly challenging emotionally. That’s the thing about Batman — his spectrum of emotion is fairly narrow, for a number of reasons. He’s always in command, he’s always in control, he’s always holding it together.

- Mark Harmon on Superman:

I’m actually a little uncomfortable playing Superman.

I don’t think you [can just] play him as the guy with the red S on his chest. You’ve got to play the human values of that or the values that connect to a human audience.

To me, growing up watching Superman on black and white television or reading it in the comic books, all the superhuman things he did were cool. But the things that attracted me are really the human part of the character, or at least the part that was more real. Hopefully that’s what I brought to that. He’s a leader. He’s a quarterback. He can be tough when he needs to be. He can certainly be direct. [He] tries to speak honestly. I understand those values.

- Chris Noth on Lex Luthor:

I was extremely excited to be playing the ultimate villain from my youth, so I was very suprised to see that in this world Lex is actually on the right side of the law. That required a whole new thinking on my part on how to approach him. I mean, he’s a superhero in this very complex story about parallel universes — he’s actually trying to save all of reality…from being destroyed. So when I read it, I was thinking, “Wow, I need to get up to date on this new world of superheroes.” I guess I’m a little bit retro.

- James Woods on Owlman:

If Ultraman is Superman’s dark doppelganger, the Owlman is Batman’s dark side. Owlman is… a very dangerous character. [His] extraordinary brain power… [which] I think [causes] him to have incredibly dark, existential reservations about his acts. [And] he becomes a [threat], not only to the Justice League and to Earth as we know it, but also all the other alternate Earths… the future of the multiverse may be in his hands.

Owlman and Super Woman, who’s Wonder Woman’s dark side, have this strange power-hungry kind of — I won’t call it love affair, but certainly a strange attraction. And it is the dark side of love, so it involves a kind of power and domination. [Their] love is sort of a really brutal, bitter kind of love. And to get that kind of tone into it was kind of strange, because it’s not what love would be about. So you have things that are kind of counterintuitive, but it’s fun to try it.

- Gina Torres on Super Woman:

I’m so glad they called me to do Super Woman, because she’s another badass (laughs), and I wsa in the mood to get back in there and be a badass. She’s one of those superheroes that knows her power and is comfortable in [it].

There is no trick to caputuring villainy. Everybody has different sides to them. Everybody has that inner villain that you want to sort of break out and express. It’s a good time going out there and letting her come out. Lock good Gina in the closet and have evil Gina come out and play!

To read the full interview, you’ll have to purchase the magazine (because I don’t want to get sued for copying it verbatim). And it’s pricey at $9.99, but if you buy it at Wal-Mart it should scan at $8.95. The cover says it will be available on newsstands through 2.08.2010.

Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths is slated to release on DVD and Blu-ray early Spring 2010.

Related post: 7.23.2009 – ‘Batman/Superman: Public Enemies’ Voice Cast Interviewed

Sources: IMDb, Wikipedia, World’s Finest

Anika Noni Rose Talks ‘Princess and the Frog’

Canada.com has an extended interview with Anika Noni Rose who voices Princess Tiana in Disney’s traditionally-animated The Princess and the Frog which opens in theaters Dec. 11th.

Rose says when she saw the first official image of the character whose voice she had been recording, “I couldn’t even breathe. I just started to cry. Even to talk about it now, I’ll be crying. It was the most amazing, awesome – I don’t even know that I have real words for it.”

Here’s another excerpt from the interview:

Rose, 37, grew up watching Disney movies, and as someone who knew from an early age that she wanted to perform, she dreamt of one day participating in a Disney film herself. But as an African-American child, she was also realistic.

“I was just watching the movies and enjoying them. But I do remember wondering to myself whether there would ever be a chocolate-brown Snow White!

“But I didn’t necessarily feel deprived. When you’re a child, you don’t know; you’re living in your world.”

So working for Disney was had been this compelling dream. But, she giggles, “I didn’t dream of being a princess. I could have been a dandelion and I would have been really happy. So this is like when your dreams take off and become bigger than what you had imagined. It’s amazing.”