NO VOCAL YOKELS WHEN ANIMATED CHARACTERS NEED THAT EXTRA DIMENSION, STARS STEP UP TO THE MIC.Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer SOME THREE SESSIONS into her work for ``Stuart Little 2,'' Melanie Griffith - future voice of Margalo the bird - called producer and longtime friend Lucy Fisher and begged to be fired. Basically, the voice work wasn't happening, and Griffith was convinced her career in animation was over before it could even begin. ``You would think it would be so easy to be a voice, but it's not,'' Griffith says in that distinct little girl chirp, which, somewhat surprisingly, had never previously been tabbed for an animated movie. ``If you have your face on camera or your body, you know what you're doing, especially if you've been working for a long time. You can figure out how to get by. But, boy, when it's just your voice and you have a camera on you, with no makeup on. ... ``It freaked me out that I wasn't going to be a cartoon character. I figured if I couldn't do a cartoon character, I'd really have to hang up my career.'' Although she acknowledged there was some studio concern over Margalo, Fisher recalls not being particularly worried. She gave Griffith a tough-love pep talk and sent her back to the sound booth. ``We just told her to shut up and go back and try it again because she was great,'' Fisher says. Sound and motion No, it isn't easy being a voice - not for first-timers like Griffith or vocal old pros like Michael J. Fox and Nathan Lane Nathan Lane (born February 3, 1956) is a Tony Award- and Emmy Award-winning actor of the stage and screen. Biography Early life Lane was born Joseph Lane in Jersey City, New Jersey, the son of Irish American Catholic parents. , both of whom reprised their roles (as plucky pluck·y adj. pluck·i·er, pluck·i·est Having or showing courage and spirit in trying circumstances. See Synonyms at brave. pluck mouse Stuart and bitchy bitch·y adj. bitch·i·er, bitch·i·est Slang 1. Malicious, spiteful, or overbearing. 2. In a bad mood; irritable or cranky. feline Snowbell snow·bell n. Any of various shrubs or trees of the genus Styrax, especially S. japonicus and S. obassia of eastern Asia, having bell-shaped white flowers. Also called storax. Noun 1. ) from the first ``Stuart Little.'' You're in a room alone, with a camera trained on your face to get your mannerisms and gestures. You've got lines to deliver, but no scene partner, since your work will be dubbed in later. You don't even necessarily know what your character looks like. If you're a voice rookie, your direction may seem both basic and maddeningly unattainable: ``Do it bigger.'' ``Be louder.'' ``More energy.'' ``There was a real concern about getting the tone right on Margalo,'' agrees producer Douglas Wick, who is also Fisher's husband. ``We're dealing with a character who does bad things. If she's too saccharine sac·cha·rine adj. Of, relating to, or characteristic of sugar or saccharin; sweet. , you don't believe she's doing bad things, and that's a lot to get into a voice.'' And you can have the strongest, most distinctive vocal chords on the planet, but if it isn't working ... well, as Wick contends, ``the voice doesn't lie.'' Case in point: the actor originally cast to voice Snowbell in the first ``Stuart Little'' lasted up through early previews. ``He was a well-known comic who was going through some very tough things in his life,'' says Wick, who declines to give the actor's name. ``Snowbell kept seeming depressed. It was a real energy hole in the movie, and we finally had to face it and add further to his depression by getting rid of him. ``Then almost from the beginning when Nathan Lane came in and did it, there was this kind of brilliance and energy. It's really tricky and if you get it wrong, boy do you know it.'' He produces results Lane, of course, gets it deliciously right. The stage-trained actor, who film critic/animation expert Leonard Maltin labels a ``one-man cartoon industry'' - allows Snowbell to walk off with every scene he's in. And if it sounds like Lane might be improvising now and then, well, he is. ``Very often, it's about making it funnier,'' says Lane. ``Sometimes you just have to say something neurotic to fit while the cat is walking from here to the food bowl. Sometimes it's amusing to hear a big fat Persian cat Persian cat: see cat. Persian cat Breed of stocky, round-headed domestic cat that has a long, silky coat (many colours possible), large round eyes, snub nose, and thick ruff. The breed is often referred to as the longhair. walking across the screen saying, 'Oy, I try to eat right, but I still feel bloated.' It still feels human.'' Rob Minkoff, the veteran Disney animator, directed Lane in both ``Stuart Little'' films and in Disney's ``The Lion King.'' Possessed of a memory bank that can match voices for potential characters, Minkoff knows that an intriguing name on paper doesn't necessarily translate to animated splendor. That's when you start auditioning voices. Pre-casting usually consists of a sketch of the character on the wall while casting directors play voices of actors from various movies. Sometimes voices are spliced together so the casting crew can hear interaction between two or more characters. Click, Margalo is a Valley Girl. Click, now she sounds like the Duchess of Windsor Noun 1. Duchess of Windsor - United States divorcee whose marriage to Edward VIII created a constitutional crisis leading to his abdication Mrs. Simpson, Simpson, Wallis Warfield Simpson, Wallis Warfield Windsor . Either way, the ``SL2'' team needed someone who would blend well with Fox's Stuart. In the early stages of ``SL2'' casting, the villainous Falcon spoke with a German accent, or with Tony Soprano's wise guy gruffness. ``You start out with the most arch kind of tough voice you can find,'' says Wick. ``That's not that interesting. Then you start to hear different kinds of voices. Then we heard James Woods' voice, and we started to get the possibility of a performance. He's a hustler. The Falcon is just doing what nature tells him to do which is take what you need in order to survive.'' Minkoff, who hit pay dirt stirring the disparate voices of Jeremy Irons, Matthew Broderick, Lane and James Earl Jones Earl Jones may refer to:
``I think it really is all about technique, but it's where the intersection of acting and singing sort of meets,'' he says. ``There has to be a musicality to the delivery of a line of dialogue that gives it impact. ``Somebody like Nathan Lane understands that. It's in his bones really. He can deliver a line five different ways, and each one has incredible impact and intonation and rhythm.'' ``It's like radio acting,'' adds Lane. ``Very often people will say, 'That seems like bad acting. That seems over the top.' But, as you know, I have a condo over the top. That's never bothered me.'' Get out the A-list The recognition factor (``My God, that salamander salamander, an amphibian of the order Urodela, or Caudata. Salamanders have tails and small, weak limbs; superficially they resemble the unrelated lizards (which are reptiles), but they are easily distinguished by their lack of scales and claws, and by their moist, sounds just like Charlton Heston!'') is often a source of amusement, but it doesn't necessarily guarantee an animated home run. On the other hand, it's a rare big-budget animated film that won't contain one or more celebrity voices. For the character of Stuart, Fox's star wattage wattage the output or consumption of an electric device expressed in watts. was a bonus, but not necessarily the deciding factor. The producers knew they wanted to cast an adult as Stuart Little, even though the character is supposed to be a child. And they needed somebody who projects a ``can do!'' spirit. ``Youthfulness has been Michael J. Fox's stock in trade for many years,'' says Maltin, film critic for ``Entertainment Tonight.'' ``Stuart Little is indeed young, and I think we accept from Michael J. Fox a kind of optimism and stick-to-it-iveness.'' ``SL2's'' Fisher recalls trying noncelebrity voices at some of the characters and quickly coming to the realization that stars are stars for a reason. ``The voice guys would deliver the gags just fine, but they wouldn't have that extra depth,'' says Fisher. ``I didn't really realize it until I worked on this movie when we taped the voices, and videotaped the performance. Even though the actor is just doing their voice, you could see Jimmy Woods moving into the microphone and doing the gestures of Falcon. Maybe a shuffle would be something Stuart will do or the way Melanie would cock her head.'' Now, of course, the animated character will frequently have several of the physical characteristics of the person supplying the voice. That practice goes back more than half a century, to the days of Disney actually filming actor Hans Conried Hans Conried (April 15, 1917 – January 5, 1982) was a comic character actor and voice actor. Born Hans Georg Conried, Jr. in Baltimore, Maryland of Jewish descent. He was raised there and in New York City. before assembling the animated Captain Hook
``The first time Disney really flaunted it was in 'Alice in Wonderland,' when they cast really well-known people,'' said Maltin, author of ``Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons.'' ``The moment that movie came out, everybody knew who they were. It was a deliberate blurring of the line.'' Maltin recalls being singularly unimpressed by the voice work in Don Bluth's star-studded ``Titan A.E.'' (``Those were the dullest readings I've ever heard.'') By contrast, he was blown away by John Leguizamo John Leguizamo (born July 22, 1964) is an Emmy Award-winning and Golden Globe-nominated Colombian comedian, actor and producer. Biography Early life Leguizamo was born in Bogotá, Colombia. as Sid the Sloth sloth (slōth, slôth), arboreal mammal found in Central and South America distantly related to armadillos and anteaters. Sloths live in tropical forests, where they sleep, eat, and travel through the trees suspended upside down, clinging to in Fox's ``Ice Age,'' a voice he didn't recognize as he was watching the film. ``He gets it,'' Maltin says of Leguizamo. ``I didn't know it was him and I'm glad I didn't know. It was fun listening to a wonderful characterization.'' Sounds like ... Presenting the go-to pros of animation voice work Remember Robin Williams as the genie (in Disney's ``Aladdin''), Woody Allen Noun 1. Woody Allen - United States filmmaker and comic actor (1935-) Allen Stewart Konigsberg, Allen as the insect (``Antz'') and Jeremy Irons as a prideful lion (``The Lion King'')? Well, duh. They were all screen-burning wild cards Symbols used to represent any value when selecting specific files. In DOS, Windows and Unix, the asterisk (*) represents any collection of characters, and the question mark (?) represents one single character. In SQL, the percent sign (%) and underscore (_) are used for matching text. in hit movies. And they were largely one-shot deals (although Williams spun off the ``Aladdin'' role into a franchise). But if you're looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. the cartoon nine-to-fivers, look to folks like Eddie Murphy, John Ratzenberger and the ubiquitous David Ogden Stiers David Ogden Stiers (born October 31, 1942) is an American character actor, voice actor and musician, most noted for his role in the television sitcom M*A*S*H, and the science fiction drama The Dead Zone. . Hey, even if you can't be everywhere, there's no saying your voice can't. Eddie Murphy He was Mushu the mini dragon in Disney's ``Mulan,'' an ass with attitude in ``Shrek'' and its upcoming sequel and a whole bunch of ``PJ's.'' Sign up those pipes, and you're all but guaranteed comic gold. Good luck getting someone - or some species - to share the screen with him. Michael J. Fox Many say that, owing to his battle with Parkinson's, animation has become an ideal medium for the former ``Family Ties'' star. Even before voicing the title character the two ``Stuart Little'' flicks, Fox lent his voice to a bulldog in a pair of ``Homeward home·ward adv. & adj. Toward or at home. home  wards adv. Bound'' movies. He's also Milo Milo, athlete of ancient GreeceMilo (mī`lō) or Milon (mī`lŏn), fl. 500 B.C., athlete of ancient Greece, b. Crotona. Thatch in Disney's ``Atlantis.'' David Ogden Stiers Best known as ``M*A*S*H's'' Maj. Winchester, Stiers is the man without whom no Disney animated film is complete. He was Jumba in ``Lilo 1. (operating system) lilo - Linux Loader. 2. lilo - first-in first-out. & Stitch,'' Cogsworth the Clock in ``Beauty and the Beast'' (and all its sequels), Governor Ratcliffe in ``Pocahontas'' and the Archdeacon in ``The Hunchback hunchback, abnormal outward curvature of the spine in the thoracic region. It is also known as kyphosis and humpback, and in its severe form a noticeable hump is evident on the back. of Notre Dame.'' We could go on. Stiers certainly will. John Ratzenberger ``Cheers' '' Clifford Clavin is a Pixar mainstay, twice voicing the piggy bank Hamm (``Toy Story'' and ``Toy Story 2''), P.T. Flea in ``A Bug's Life'' and the Abominable Snowman in ``Monsters, Inc.'' June Foray The Valley's own animation immortal. From Rocky the Flying Squirrel Rocket J. Squirrel, usually called by the nickname "Rocky", is the name of the flying squirrel protagonist of the 1959-1964 animated television series Rocky and His Friends and The Bullwinkle Show (both shows often referred to collectively as in Jay Ward's ``Rocky and Bullwinkle'' franchise to Looney Tunes' Granny and Witch Hazel witch hazel, common name for some members of the Hamamelidaceae, a family of trees and shrubs found mostly in Asia. The family includes the large genus (Corylopsis) of winter hazels, and the witch hazels (genus Hamamelis), sweet gums (Liquidambar , her work has delighted cartoon fans for decades. Catch her reprising her role as the voice of Grandma Fa in the upcoming, direct-to-video ``Mulan II.'' - E.H. CAPTION(S): 5 photos, box Photo: (1 -- color -- cover) mouth to mouse Celebrity voices such as Michael J. Fox's breathe life into `Stuart Little 2' and other animated films (2 -- 5) Top to bottom: Michael J. Fox reprises REPRISES. The deductions and payments out of lands, annuities, and the like, are called reprises, because they are taken back; when we speak of the clear yearly value of an estate, we say it is worth so much a year ultra reprises, besides all reprises. 2. his role as mighty mouse Stuart Little and Melanie Griffith gives Margalo the bird her distinctive chirp in ``Stuart Little 2.'' Box: Sounds like ... (see text) |
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