The voice acting industry has grown its fair share of A-list celebrities. Howie Mandel, Fergie, James Avery and Michael Cera all started their careers in the field of animation voicing.
It’s easy to slap an attention grabbing name on the cast list of a new film and watch the viewers pour in and sure, a celebrity guest star is fun every once in a while, but it’s much more beneficial to put the time in to find new talent.
Back in the 90s, when the idea of big names in animation was introduced, the involvement was low and still based on talent and relevancy, not just a commercial cash grab. Examples include “Star Wars” actor Mark Hamill in “Batman: The Animated Series” and “American Psycho”’s Christian Bale in “Pocahontas.”
However, this wasn’t always the case. The major success of Robin Williams’s performance as Genie in “Aladdin” caused a complete shift in the animation voice over field.
Dreamworks was born and thus films like “Shrek” with celebrity names filled to the brim in every advertisement.
This isn’t to say Shrek is a bad movie, it’s great. The problem is the centering of the names of the voices instead of the movie itself and its plot.
The more people noticing this phenomenon, the more its taking away from the animation.
The release of the “Super Mario Bros. Movie” was completely overshadowed by discourse over the casting of Chris Pratt as Mario. I never saw the movie and I can’t tell you a thing about it besides who voices Mario and that Jack Black sings.
The same thing can be seen happening now with the trailer of the “Garfield Movie” and Pratt’s role as the beloved cat.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t let Pratt in movies. I enjoyed his acting in “The Lego Movie” and “Parks and Recreation,” but there should be more caution when casting characters who have distinct voices and personalities that audiences have loved for years.
Mario without an Italian accent? A Garfield with no grump and distaste? No wonder there’s controversy.
Die-hard fans of the franchise, the audience that the movie should truly be trying to appeal to, are beyond disappointed with the choice especially after the great casting choices that came before. In mine and the opinions of many others, Lorenzo Music, Frank Welker and Bill Murray did an amazing job carrying the personality and essence of the character.
When talks of a new animated film brew, the priority of the audience is on the casting and making sure it satisfies the fans rather than the plot and the cinematic aspects of the movie.
Casting celebrities purely because of the attention and cash revenue it provides is an abandonment and disregard to the hearts of the fans that made these movies possible. Furthermore, it’s an insult to the team behind the writing and animation of the movie because it distracts from the work they put in.
