April Winchell Meets Judge Judy

Cartoon voice actor April Winchell (Tak & The Power of Juju, The Legend of Tarzan, and the voice of Disney character Clarabelle Cow for more than a decade) shares an anecdote and photos on her blog about getting to meet TV star Judge Judy.

April also mentions, “I was invited to sit in the front row of the audience for two cases, which means you’ll actually be able to see my pale and sweating face when they air that episode in September.”

[Caution: Other of April’s blog posts do have adult language and content.]

April also revealed via Twitter on July 28th: “First day of work on an animated Batman movie at WB and don’t know one person in the cast. WEIRD.” [Note: I am trying to confirm with April if this might have been for the upcoming Batman/Superman: Public Enemies DVD/Blu-Ray release, or some other animated Batman movie.]

Elsewhere, GeekPropaganda.com has an interview with April. [Caution again on adult language in the interview.]

And here’s a video clip I’ve been meaning to post since April (the month, that is), when April (the actor) appeared on The Martha Stewart Show as part of an April Fool’s Day prank:

April also blogged about the event here.

Rick Astley Launches Voice-over Career

A representative for 80’s pop singer Rick Astley announced today that the singer is officially launching his career as a voice-over artist via his new website: RickAstleyVoiceovers.com.

Astley has quietly been lending his voice to a variety of animated projects over the last decade, with uncredited roles on King of the Hill, Family Guy, The Venture Bros., Transformers: Cybertron, Ben 10, and The Powerpuff Girls, as well as providing voice matches for such Hollywood actors as Sean Penn, Zac Efron, and Scarlett Johannsen. He has also been the image voice for McDonald’s, VH1, and ExtenZe.

The representative described Astley’s decision as a natural extension of his work as a pop music artist, and that his fans need not worry that he will retire from singing and performing.

In fact, Astley will be providing the singing voice of Prince Naveen for the Disney animated musical, The Princess and the Frog, slated to make its theatrical debut December 11, 2009. Disney has a behind-the-scenes video preview of Astley in a recording session on the film’s official site: PrincessandtheFrog.com.

Tom Kenny Hosts ‘The Tom Kenny Awards’

SpongeBob SquarePants voice actor Tom Kenny is hosting the first-ever Tom Kenny Awards at Hollywood’s Chinese Mann Theatre on July 13th, 2009 (which coincidentally also happens to be Tom Kenny’s birthday).

Kenny, who has already been declared winner in the category for “Best Day Ever,” said in a press release: “Since I’ve hosted so many award shows in the last year, I just decided to create my own.”

Nominees for the 2009 Tom Kenny Awards are as follows…

The Curious Case of Frank Welker

DreamWorks has hired Steven Spielberg to direct what is described as a “fantasy biopic” based on the life of voice actor Frank Welker.

The Curious Case of Frank Welker tells the true story of how Frank as a young boy befriends a leprechaun who for reasons unknown stabs him in the throat with a magical dagger. The injury causes Frank to develop magical superpowers which cause his voice to move forward and backward through time, and even to change genders. As he enters puberty, he begins to morph into various monsters, monkeys, robots, and other species.

Danny DeVito guest stars as The Leprechaun, and Andy Dick as the voice of the magical dagger.

The film is slated to open in theaters October 2010.

Apple Releases New ‘VoiceKill’ Technology

Following the recent release of Apple’s new “VoiceOver” iPod feature which features a digital voice reading song titles and artists to users too lazy to look at the screen, Apple has announced a new downloadable app for the iPod called “VoiceKill.”

“VoiceKill” is a revolutionary new nano-technology from Cyberdyne Systems which is designed to hunt down and kill voiceover actors complaining about digital voice technology’s potential to put them all out of work and thus put them out of their misery.

In completely unrelated news, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has been arrested for attempting to break into Apple’s California headquarters, naked and armed to the teeth with explosives.

Seth MacFarlane Pays Off U.S. National Deficit

Family Guy creator/writer/voice actor Seth MacFarlane met with U.S. President Barack Obama at The White House in Washington, D.C. yesterday to deliver a fleet of garbage trucks filled with enough cash to pay off the trillion-dollar national debt.

“Well,” MacFarlane said in yesterday’s press conference, “I just had all this money laying around the mansion from all the giggity-gazillion dollars FOX pays me to keep cranking out animated pop culture references, racial jokes, and religious slurs. I just wanted to do my part to help stimulate the economy.”

When asked what he expected to get in return for such ludicrous generosity, MacFarlane said, “Oh, nothing much… just that I be named the official Supreme Ruler and King of The United States. And, that the remaining cast members from The Facts of Life dress up like French maids and clean my mansion. For the rest of their lives. And that includes George Clooney.”

George Clooney could not be reached for comment.

Al Yankovic No Longer ‘Weird’

Weird Al Yankovic released a statement Tuesday that he is tired of being labeled “weird” and is retiring from his career as a musical comedian to pursue a “normal” profession as a bus driver, which has been his dream since childhood.

In related news, the artist formerly known as Weird Al Yankovic has been hit by a bus.