Sunday, February 26, 2012

Voice Director

The Reporter notes:

... [Oscar nominee Chris] Miller will reprise his role as Kowalski the penguin in DWA’s Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted, which opens June 8.

The director also lent his voice to his feature Puss in Boots, playing the roles of Little Boy Blue and one of the guards. ...

Several weeks ago when I inverviewed Mr. Miller, I intended to ask him about his voice work. But during the course of our conversation, it slipped my mind. (Drat!)

I don't know how long the tradition is for feature animation directors to give voice to animated characters, but back in the 1970s, Disney veteran (and feature writer) Larry Clemmons voiced Gramps the swamp turtle in The Rescuers.

(Larry was also a talented voice director. He was adept at getting performances out of seven and eight-year-old actors on The Fox and the Hound. Watching him coach and coax the kids into solid performances on the recording stage was a thing of beauty.)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nowadays it's looked upon as a great way to feather your nest egg since VO acting tends to pay pretty damn good residuals.
Most of the times these director (or storyboard) voices could easily be handled by any voice actor - usually better, but then the director wouldn't get that sweet, sweet mailbox money.

Anonymous said...

And most times, they're far better than the so-called"professional" voice actors--who are often shrill, phony, and bad actors.

Anonymous said...

"The director also lent his voice to his feature.."

That's the funny thing I've read today.

Anonymous said...

It's all about the Benjamins. It's a sweet racket for the already well paid - that takes away work opportunities from actual actors.

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