r/SipsTea • u/CurvyChristina • 3h ago
Chugging tea Give other artists a chance. It doesn’t have to be a celebrity.
That's Sarah Natochenny. She has been the voice of Ash Ketchum since 2006, over 1,000 episodes, and she just said out loud what animation fans have been saying for years: you don't need a celebrity in the booth, people will show up for a great movie either way.
The example she pointed to was Project Hail Mary, where a working voice actor, James Ortiz, played Rocky, and nobody in the theater cared that he wasn't famous.
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u/LowIqInvestor 3h ago
Invincible has this problem. They spend a crap ton hiring celebrity voice actors when almost no one gives a damn and would rather have better animation.
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u/GriveousDance21 3h ago
Yeah, the animation of Invincible is really mid compared to shows like Vox Machina or Mighty Nein.
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u/Asgermf 3h ago
Granted those shows do have one or two celebrities in them, but not as part of the main cast
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u/GriveousDance21 3h ago
Yeah, I've seen Andy Serkis and Indira Varma in the cast but they play minor or recurring roles. The Critical Role team voice their own characters.
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u/jimjamdaflimflam 3h ago
Also Andy Serkis does tons of voice work already, so it’s not that shocking. The last time I’ve seen him in anything not as a voice was Andor.
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u/Jewel-jones 2h ago
I wouldn’t call Indira Varma a huge celebrity either, she’s always done voice work and is great at it.
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u/SP0oONY 1h ago
Andy Serkis basically is a voice actor. He does other stuff, but voice and mocap work is his bread and butter.
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u/rawspeghetti 3h ago
I blame Amazon for rushing the product. They know how to do great animation on that show, I just don't think the animators have the needed time to put care into it before the studio wants it on streaming.
I think it was season 2 where they had I think the actual creator of the show appear on the show and explain techniques animation departments use to hide flaws in their work.
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u/Key_Salamander_1274 3h ago
That was a reference to the comic where he does a similar thing with reusing panels
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u/GriveousDance21 3h ago
think it was season 2 where they had I think the actual creator of the show appear on the show and explain techniques animation departments use to hide flaws in their work.
I remember, in the comic-con scene. Not sure if that artist was voiced by Kirkman or not.
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u/Beef_Slug 3h ago
100% I find celebrities are often crap compared to vice actores toi. Not all obviously.
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u/ItsAMangoFandango 3h ago
JK Simmons is generally an exception
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u/Iokua113 2h ago
Well yes, but JK Simmons has a decent portfolio of voice roles, he may be a celebrity but he doesn't fall into the stunt cast category.
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u/BadSopranosReference 2h ago
Or Jeremy Irons
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u/SharkoftheStreets 1h ago
Or Mark Hamill
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u/shockwaveo9 1h ago
Mark Hamill is a voice actor through and through, he just happens to have gotten his big start as Luke Skywalker
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u/skyturnedred 1h ago
Getting his big start as Luke Skywalker is pretty much why he is a voice actor.
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u/Crewman_Guy_Fleegman 1h ago
I think character actors and comics that specialize in impressions are generally the exception.
Like Robin Williams was so good at becoming the Genie that he forced Disney to upend their entire decades old approach to animation in order to accommodate him improvising. Those artists were trained to knock out exact copies of the same character, then Robin came along and made them make a Groucho Marx genie, a Schwarzennegger genie, Jack Nicholson genie, De Niro genie, Rodney Dangerfield genie etc etc. Completely threw them for a loop
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u/MKSLAYER97 2h ago
I don't think this applies to anyone from Invincible. Aaron Paul, Seth Rogen, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan all did phenomenal jobs imo
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u/BenjerminGray 1h ago
yeah but thats like 15 percent of the cast.
Look at the cast list.
Mahershala Ali
Sandra Oh
Zazzie Beets
Walton Goggins
Mark Hamil
Gillian Jacobs
Ususally a show animated or otherwise would have 3-5 of the names we mentions.
Not all of em
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u/UnholyDemigod 1h ago
Mark Hamill is a voice actor more than a screen actor. Sandra Oh and Walton Goggins were widely acclaimed for their performances.
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u/ItzDrSeuss 3h ago
In all honesty though, the main cast has been phenomenal voice wise so no one wants them changed. But is there really a reason to have a celebrity for a character that shows up a few times over a few episodes?
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u/GundDownDegenerate 3h ago
This far in, I would be floored if David Goggins (Cecil) or Seth Rogan (Alan) were swapped out
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u/TheHahndude 3h ago
It’s so funny every time I watch an episode I go “Who is that sounds familiar” and I do that pause on Amazon where it shows who’s in the scene and it’s always some big name celeb and I go “Oh I though it was them” then that character never shows up again.
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u/that_dutch_dude 3h ago
its has a stellar cast and they are all going full scenery chewing mode. its great. i find voice far more important than visuals.
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u/Zealousideal-Set3037 2h ago
That's what a lot of people miss... There's a big difference between a celebrity that can and cannot voice act. JK Simmons, Walton Goggins, Sandra Oh, and Steven Yeun are spectacular in their roles, and the show is better for having them.
Conversely, and as good as the actors are, I don't feel like like Aaron Paul and Bruce Campbell did something another voice actor couldn't. That's not even universally the case though... Sure PowerPlex didn't need to be voiced by Aaron Paul, but Todd from BoJack Horseman and Robert from dispatch were in no small part made by his performance.
The problem with invincible is that they seem to use very good voice actors at stunt casting rather than us. They are necessarily the best person for the role. I really can't think of a single bad performance in the show, but did we really need Aaron Paul, Bruce Campbell, Djumon Hounsou, and John Hamm for single episodes?
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u/Coffeekittenz 3h ago
In complete agreement but there is something I do enjoy about hearing seth rogans voice
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u/PhD_Pwnology 2h ago
I actually disagree in your example personally. The only reason I watched the TV show (invincible) when I knew nothing about it was the fact that J.K. Simmons voiced the dad and Steve Y. voiced the main actor. Being a TWD fan i'm still sad about Glen and I watch all his stuff post-TWD because he's a good actor, same with J.K. Simmons
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u/szthesquid 2h ago edited 1h ago
I'm sick of hearing this for years when there's NO PROOF what the celebrities are paid or whether it detracts from animation budget.
Invincible voice role could be a sweetener/rider on other Amazon contracts, some of them could be doing it for minimums for fun or while in the studio anyway because a cameo or short appearance takes just a few minutes to record.
"Bro it's obvious" is not proof.
I'm all for hating on Amazon but at least do it for things we know are real.
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u/wronghed 3h ago
Are you trying to say it wasn't imperative that Donald Glover voice Yoshi?
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u/Inhocooks 3h ago
I wouldn't be able to watch Guardians of the Galaxy without Vin Diesels performance
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u/Cycle-Path-401 3h ago
I see what you did there.... it's because it was Jason Statham that really played Draxx
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u/KerberosMorphy 3h ago
How many actor can voice a character in 15 different languages! Imagine how hard it must have been to learn the perfect pronunciation for so many languages! /s
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u/not_roger_smith 3h ago
I never thought the guy had that much range until Groot. He was really able to put so many different emotions into one phrase.
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u/SharkoftheStreets 1h ago
But have you seem Iron Giant? Vin Diesel has proven he can VO near mute giants.
This is partly a joke but I actually tear up when I rewatch Iron Giant and Diesel says "I go. You stay. No following."
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u/dover_oxide 3h ago
I like Charlie Day as green Mario ( Because his brother's name is banned in this sub) but I really don't care for Chris Pratt as Mario. You could have gotten a bunch of other people a lot cheaper and it have been just as good as Mario
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u/MusicLikeOxygen 2h ago
I remember when Pratt was first announced and the director tried to do some damage control by saying something like "people are going to be suprised when they hear him. He worked really hard to come up with something special." and then it came out and he just sounded like Chris Pratt with a slight New York accent.
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u/dover_oxide 2h ago
Exactly that wasn't Mario, now it is because of saturation but not because the voice fit the character
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u/Objective_Look_5867 1h ago
Charlie Day was insanely good in the role. Funnily enough so was Donald Glover as yoshi. Joy as Peach i found...not a good fit but serviceable. But pratt as mario is just bad
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u/Slow_Bowler8285 3h ago
Howie Mandel was the voice of Gizmo in Gremlins
Andy Richter was the voice of Mort in Madagascar
Both are characters who barely talk, but their celebrity voice actors were featured heavily in promotions.
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u/Prestigious_Fella_21 3h ago
Howie was barely a household name in 1984, he was a supporting actor on st elsewhere, and had a moderately known stand up act. Andy Richter I only learned was in madagascar just now from your comment.
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u/not_roger_smith 3h ago
Howie Mandel was dope on Bobby's World
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u/Friendly-World-5273 3h ago
Howie Mandel created Bobby before Bobby’s World. It was part of his stand up schtick. Also knowing his Bobby skit, casting him as the voice of Gizmo makes sense. That one 100% was not celebrity casting, it was fitting the right person for the role (Zero people knew or cared he did the voice at the time.)
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u/Livid_Advertising_56 3h ago
Howie was popular but he wasn't at his peak yet so he probably didnt cost as much
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u/All_hail_Korrok 2h ago
Both those actors are nowhere near the cost celebrities ask for these days.
Plus Howie was basically unknown when that movie came out. Andy is a comedic actor and doesn't command the amount this post is about.
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u/Select_Ella 3h ago
Honestly, the majority of the time when it’s someone “famous” I just constantly imagine that person’s face and it takes me out of the movie.
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u/No-left-toes 3h ago
This woman was a massive part of my childhood and didn't even know what she looked like till like last year.
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u/GriveousDance21 3h ago
I didn’t even know Ash was voiced by a female VA in the first place.
Same went for when I found out Ben Tennyson in Ben 10 was voiced by Tara Strong, years later.
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u/OhanaRS 3h ago
A lot of young boys in cartoons and anime are voiced by women.
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u/Fickle_Goose_4451 2h ago
My world was rocked the day I learned bart Simpson was a middle aged lady.
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u/loversean 3h ago
Don’t let a certain demographic know about this, they will call it Retroactive woke.
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u/No-left-toes 2h ago
Yeah don't tell them about the voice animated/videogame batman being gay either (Kevin Conroy had a husband)
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u/AmFaeTheGlen94 3h ago
TIL that the voice actress of Ash changed in 2006
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u/No-left-toes 2h ago
I was well and truly out of the anime at that time, I was first wave red/blue, "you're free now butterfree", "you need to pay me back for my back ash!" By 2006 I was trying to sneak into night clubs underage.
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u/YardSardonyx 2h ago
It was a huge deal at the time if you were into Pokemon. They kicked the entire og voice cast to the curb with no warning, they got treated like garbage. I’m still mad for them.
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u/Iggy_Slayer 3h ago
This is something the game industry had to learn the hard way. In the 2000s it was a lot more common to have celebs in games as a selling point until they realized no one was actually buying dishonored for susan sarandon (no shade on her, love her...but I'm not wrong here) or oblivion because patrick stewart's in the game for 5 minutes.
Look at indiana jones a few years ago and how amazing a job troy baker did. Now imagine if they casted harrison ford, especially at his current not giving a fuck age, to do it instead. He would not have done anywhere near as good of a job and the game's budget would have been probably $10m higher to pay for him.
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u/floralbutttrumpet 3h ago
I'm still pissed David Hayter got the boot to slot Kiefer Sutherland in. Like, no shade on Sutherland, he's a great actor and his performance was good, but that change was still 100% unnecessary.
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u/BritishShoop 2h ago
I really wish they’d have pulled a sneaky, and had David voice Ishmael, with Kiefer voicing Venom Snake.
Would have made the plot twist even more interesting, although I suppose it would have been seen a mile off by most fans of the series.
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u/Iggy_Slayer 3h ago
Yeah that's probably the most egregious example of star fucking that led to a worse game. Kiefer was so expensive that he was barely used in the story and was relegated to audio tapes mostly. That whole game's development was a mess because kojima could not restrain himself even a little bit.
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u/YSoMadTov 3h ago edited 2h ago
Eh not sure about that, david hayter was iconic as Snake but tbh his performance was always kinda….one dimensional flat and hammy, lacking the tonal ane emotional nuances of the truly great voice actors like Troy Baker, Nolan North, Steve Bloom. He was considered “good” because back in the 90s the extreme vast majority of Video games especially non Western ones had truly awful voice acting, but by modern standard Hayter doesn’t compete well.
Agreed that they didn’t need to hire Kiefer Sutherland even thought his performance as Snake was great and I actually prefered him to Hayter.
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u/BolognaTime 2h ago
It's not that David Hayter is a "good" or "bad" voice actor. It's that his voice was Snake for twenty years before MGS5. Yeah he's not the best but he absolutely wasn't so bad that he needed to be relieved of his most iconic role after twenty years. Kojima just has a preoccupation with celebrities and saw a chance to put a "real" celebrity in his game.
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u/Terramagi 57m ago
It's even moreso that Kojima doesn't give a fuck about the west. "His" Snake is Akio Otsuka, and the rest of us can get fucked.
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u/Bad-Genie 2h ago
That being said. Jk simmons KILLED IT in bg3
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u/Numbuh24insane 2h ago
TBF, JK Simmons is a voice actor who has done a ton of voice acting roles. I feel like he should be excluded in the discussion
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u/EstablishmentLate532 1h ago
He's like Mark Hamill. He is an Actor and a Voice Actor. Not an Actor who also does Voice Acting.
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u/Bartimaeleus 3h ago
A more recent example is Cyberpunk, gotta wonder if they spent the money used on Keanu Reeves on game testing instead the game might have been in a more complete state at release
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u/eldridcof 3h ago
He was there almost certainly because of Johnny Mnemonic. Based on a story by William Gibson. Maybe not the creator, but very big in the world of Cyberpunk. He probably didn't even cost that much.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Mnemonic_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Gibson
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u/SagittaryX 2h ago
Eh, they only cast 2 roles to famous people, Keanu and Grimes (and her casting does make sense for the character). Everyone else, including both gender versions of the main character, are regular VAs. And then in the DLC they had Idris Elba and everyone else was regular VA again.
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u/iwilldeletethisacct2 2h ago
And those castings were so good, too.
Same with Keith David in Halo.
That said, it's because Keith David and Idris Elba have great voices, really just made for VA work. And Johnny Silverhand was clearly written for Keanu to play the part. They could've cast some other VA, but the character would've been different.
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u/ThemboNRG 3h ago
If not for promoting Keanu Reeves being in the game I might not have played it because I dislike the tabletop version of the game. Gave it a try because Keanu Reeves and it’s one of my favorite games.
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u/MysteriousTravelator 3h ago
You see you made a mistake here because I lowkey agree but the Patrick Stewart Oblivion intro goes so fucking hard bro: https://www.youtube.com/live/-vZM91cw25Y?is=gR21q4jRuKoIZBhb
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u/Aiyon 1h ago
Sarandon was in Dishonored?
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u/Iggy_Slayer 1h ago
Yeah zenimax was really big on celebs for a long time. Here's the notable people in dishonored 1
- Susan sarandon as Granny Rags
- Lena heady as callista curnow
- John slattery as admiral havelock
- Michael madsen as daud
- Chloe grace moretz as emily kaldwin
- Carrie fisher as alternate street speaker/broadcast announcer
Dishonored 2 had rosario dawson, pedro pascal (though back then he was a nobody) and sam rockwell.
None of this helped their sales. I mean dishonored 1 sold ok for the time but didn't exactly light the world on fire, and 2 flat out underperformed sadly.
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u/Nervous-Leg-7570 2h ago
Cod just had that dude from heroes as the mc, stranger than heaven has snoop and Tupac, cyberpunk had Keanu and Idris, death stranding is Daryl and lena headey, far cry 6 had Giancarlo Esposito, the list goes on and on. What exactly did the game industry learn?
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u/Iggy_Slayer 2h ago edited 2h ago
Death stranding didn't sell particularly well, especially the 2nd game, and stranger than heaven is getting mocked mercilessly for the tupac thing. They're going to find out that won't help them sell any more than the average yakuza game does.
Far cry 6 also underperformed and led to ubi finally going back and trying to reinvent how the series works (which they've had a hard time doing if you've been following the rumors of 7's development).
edit: lol wow that was an unhinged reply that showed up in my notifications for such a tame comment.
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u/Slow_Bowler8285 3h ago
IIRC This what Robin Williams was afraid of when he voiced the genie in Aladdin
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u/DSZDBA11 3h ago
Except that robin williams was the perfect casting. Nobody disagrees.
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u/Albinofreaken 2h ago
Mostly because hes very skilled as an voice actor, a lot of the celebs doing voice acting are mid at best
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u/Opening-Cream5448 1h ago
Could be said about a lot of characters so we go back to maybe celebrities are needed
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u/glaewwir 2h ago
While some celebrities are also good actors that can do more than a good job voice acting, most celebrities are hired not for their voice acting but instead to promote the movie. This is true of of movies as well. They are paid for their ability to promote the movie, not just the on-screen appearance.
Robin Williams explicitly stated beforehand that he did not want his likeness used in the promotion of Aladdin, but instead Disney put his picture front and center on many ads. This is was the betrayal that caused the rift.
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u/CannedMatter 2h ago
Robin Williams explicitly stated beforehand that he did not want his likeness used in the promotion of Aladdin
It was even in his contract! Robin's name/likeness/genie was to be used in "no more than 25%" of advertising.
Disney's lawyers decided that meant that Robin/The Genie can take up up to 25% of the area of every poster, standee, commercial, or other advertisement they made. Seriously.
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u/maxman162 2h ago
They also screwed around with production of another film featuring Robin Williams, FernGully, like creating scheduling conflicts for Robin or straight up buying the studio the production was renting and evicting them.
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u/RickSanchez_C137 2h ago
And it's literally the next major disney animated movie where the problem starts. I could never click with Lion King because Simba never stopped sounding like Ferris Bueller.
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u/Slow_Bowler8285 2h ago
Indeed, from The Lion King onward, they've never stopped with the celebrity VAs.
The first time I heard bout James Woods was because he voiced Hades in Hercules
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u/Kitselena 1h ago
Alladin started it, but I think Shrek was the nail in the coffin. All 4 main characters were big stars
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u/purpledragon478 2h ago
Robin Williams could've become a professional cartoon voice actor in his own right if he wanted to.
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u/HBPhilly1 3h ago
Chris Pratt shouldn’t have been Mario. Charlie Day worked though
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u/BengalBean 1h ago
I agree. The whole personal issue thing with Pratt aside, I found it hard to hear Mario instead of just hearing Chris Pratt doing Mario. I find this issue with a lot of celebrity castings for voice actors. Their voices are so recognizable it actually actively detracts from animated movies for me. There's a few that do work for me just because they do fit the character so much more, like Robin Williams as the Genie in Aladdin, but its a very short list.
Just give me great voice actors in instead of conventional actors doing voice work.
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u/Pretend-Literature35 3h ago
and professional voice actors are better than celebrities.
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u/bassman2112 3h ago
except for Mark Hamill
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u/Butwinsky 2h ago
Mark Hamill is a professional voice actor who happened to star in a popular movie in his youth.
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u/rcanhestro 1h ago
Mark Hamill is a voice actor at this point, going through his credits, the majority of his work post Star Wars is basically VA only.
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u/Suitable_Ad_7115 3h ago
You don't pay a celebrity millions of dollars to act in a movie; you pay them millions of dollars to promote your movie.
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u/Dunlocke 2h ago
Bingo. The fact that multiple people are pointing out who this is tells you everything you need to know.
It's almost as though Hollywood is a multi billion dollar business and understands this better than the general public.
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u/Uberbobo7 2h ago
Case in point Vin Diesel as Groot. They obviously didn't need him to say "Groooot" once. It was a publicity stunt which people are still talking about to this day, which means it worked.
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u/Numbuh24insane 2h ago
Even then, if the franchise is big enough you don’t need celebrity voice actors to sell/promote.
Stuff like Pokemon and Mario will sell on its own
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u/joeO44 3h ago
No one will be better than George Clooney voicing a barking dog on South Park. We peaked then.
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u/No_Internal9345 2h ago
Southpark was GOAT for getting guest stars to do crazy roles.
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u/DepartmentNo4747 2h ago
I’ve never understood why studios bring in “celebrity” voices. Who are they marketing to? The kids don’t know who is, or is not, a celebrity voice.
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u/Gitmo314 3h ago
Jack Black and Robin Williams are an exception though. Praise be improv.
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u/SpotCreepy4570 3h ago
Some celebrities are voice actors also though, these two cross over because of that.
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u/Illustrious_Bat1334 51m ago
Hardly the exception. There's a laundry list of fantastic celebrity voice actors. Are we pretending Toy Story and Shrek are ruined because they're voiced by celebrities?
Jack Black takes me out of a film more than Tom Hanks or Eddie Murphy ever did.
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u/Dragonmancer76 2h ago
Both of them had doing funny voices and over the top line reads as part of their skill set before this. Along with that both put actual effort into making the characters shine in every iteration of the character they played. We're not dealing with a ray ramono situation where he just uses his normal flat speaking voice with every line.
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u/Bennu-Babs 3h ago
Voice actors are excellent at voice acting but A listers sell tickets. That's what studios want.
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u/primal_slayer 3h ago
The Little Mermaid saved Disney animation and.....who were the A-list actors in that?
If Pokemon has new movies.....who is bigger than the Pokemon franchise?
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u/Jackal_6 2h ago
The Little Mermaid came out 40 years ago
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u/primal_slayer 2h ago
Your point? There wasnt a point where people went "Im only watching this animated film because this A-list actor is in it"
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u/ChezMere 1h ago
Given that Detective Pikachu underperformed but Mario and Minecraft were megahits: Jack Black, apparently.
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u/im_lazy_as_fuck 19m ago
The point he is saying is not that movies are incapable of selling well on their own merit. The point is that it's difficult to tell ahead of time whether or not a movie will be watched heavily or not. Casting recognizable actors is one of the ways in which they give themselves a better chance at getting people into the movie theatre seats.
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u/Flannel_Panels 3h ago
Chris Pratt to voice Ash, Brock, and Prof. Oak.
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u/blushcloudie_ 3h ago
She’s right but they still did Veronica Taylor dirty
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u/YardSardonyx 2h ago
I will always look at her a little funny, work is work and she needed a job but she must know what they did to Veronica
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u/chaos-blast 3h ago
No hate on the Sonic movies, but they could’ve hired the game VAs for a fraction and they would’ve been 10X better. The only game VA is Tails, and he’s the best sounding one.
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u/SchadYac 3h ago
I mean here at least we can sort of give them the excuse of the movies been an alternate timeline or something
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u/chaos-blast 2h ago
The alternate timeline thing doesn’t really matter when we’re talking about voice actors.
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u/QuailAndWasabi 3h ago
It's literally only to get to have the names on the posters. That's it.
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u/Mushroomer 3h ago
As well as the press tour. You need a star to go on Hot Ones to plug the movie, and get slimed at the Kid's Choice Awards. Marketing is half the battle when it comes to making a movie a hit.
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u/Hufflepuffpassmethej 3h ago
There certainly is a a growing list of very fun films that could potentially be made, but won’t because the actors all want to be paid MORE money
Off the top of my head, Star Trek 4, the entire cast wanted raises on TOP of adding Chris hemsworth at his very high rate, you’re paying your stars 100 million and that’s already half your budget wiped away.
and most recently Barbie 2, because the actors wants raises. ONE (not the only) reason why these two films won’t be made is because the actors are asking for more money. The budgets on these big films is already so totally dominated by actor salaries. And I get it, people deserve to get paid. But the top billing of actors is being paid a LOT, perhaps too much
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u/its_yer_dad 2h ago
C'mon you guys, this isn't about art, lets not kid ourselves. This is about having name recognition that will sell tickets. I'm not saying its right, but it's show business. If I put 100 Million into a project, I'm going to do everything I can to recoup that investment and hopefully make money. I'm not saving money on talent if no one actually goes to the movie. The money/art tension is as old as time.
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u/Nuffsaid98 3h ago
Celebrities sell tickets and subscriptions. It's marketing as well as talent. Sadly for us, it's called show "business" not "create good art that people enjoy".
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u/Wenuven 3h ago
Eh. I think you're pointing out the disconnect between accountants running studios vs actual producers.
Modern Hollywood (and gaming) is what happens when people without vision beyond spreadsheets and quarterly earning statements gets you.
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u/chironomidae 2h ago
Except obviously movies attract more viewers when they have big names attached? Some people will see literally anything with Jack Black in it. Studios wouldn't do it if it didn't make them money.
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u/DocAvidd 2h ago
This is fair but disingenuous. There's no reason a no-name-actor couldn't be great. Same with musicians.
The unknown undiscovered talent is a trope because it's true.
But having Jack Black promote Kung Foo Panda is worth the extra bucks. Tom Hanks as Woody - no you didn't need an Oscar-winner, but it worked.
Going with an unknown, usually it doesn't matter but you could end up with someone so dreadful and it drags your film down. E.g., Hayden Christensen's Anakin.
For a lot of people, the reason we prefer to watch anime in the original language is because of the habit especially in the 90s and 00s of getting untrained newbies to voice main characters.
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u/PomegranateHot9916 2h ago
make voice actors celebrities please
they do such a good job
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u/pinkstrawberryi 3h ago
Honestly, the majority of the time when it’s someone “famous” I just constantly imagine that persons face and it takes me out of the movie.
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u/Grey_Incubus 2h ago
Give any people, voice acting jobs if they can voice act. it shouldn't be locked to a few people, which it seems like it is in animes and stuff.
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u/-i0f- 2h ago
Many celebtrities are good voice actors, though...
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u/CurvyChristina 2h ago
True, but there’s also almost always an undercovered talent that’s right around the corner, and how would we know what that new talent is capable of if we’re not giving them a chance?
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u/MadManMax55 38m ago
Voice acting is a harder industry to break into than on-screen acting, and not because of celebrities "stealing" roles. The nature of the job means that voice actors can take on a much larger range of roles and spend a lot less time on any individual project.
Just look at the voice cast list of any English speaking animated show, movie, or video game. It's the same dozen or so names over and over and over again.
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u/xnightwingxxx 3h ago
I mean… but I want to be able to see the actor voicing the character more than the actual character themselves!
But I wish they would stop this, I get taken out of these films when I’m playing name the actor.
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u/Spirited_Season2332 3h ago
The issue is way to many ppl go see a movie just because X is in it. It's been proven multiple times that if you put someone popular enough into a movie, it makes money
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u/Correct-Quail5743 3h ago
I have never once gone to see a movie based on which celebrity was doing the voice. Also, celebrity voice casting has never once turned me from NOT wanting to see a movie, to wanting to see it.
There are so many insanely talented professional voice actors out there that don’t just phone it in for a paycheck.
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u/JedJinto 3h ago
I mean I agree with her but it's purely for the name recognition. Non animated movies cast celebrities as well to get people interested. Big names attract bigger audiences.
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u/Leviathan117 3h ago
The problem comes when it’s time to market the movie. Trotting out Bradley Cooper as Rocket Raccoon or Chris Pratt as Mario on a red carpet or on Jimmy Kimmel is a lot easier than someone no one knows.
They’ll be able to sell the movie to new and generic audiences. Even if they don’t go to hear that actors voice, they’ll watch tv or go on social media and see the charismatic attractive A list actor chatting up the host and audience and think about giving the movie a shot.
It’s salesmanship.
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u/MayaDaBee1250 2h ago
Yeah this is the thing. They do it for marketing purposes. In PHM, you had Ryan Gosling already so it didn't so much matter who voiced Rocky. I love Jack Black's Bowser and then I get the bonus of getting to see Jack Black play with puppies or eat spicy wings or whatever silly thing he's going to do during the press tour.
Not sure how many views Sarah Natochenny would get on Hot Ones or a GQ quiz promoting the next Pokemon film though anime films can sell on the IP alone so they don't need to rely on big name actors.
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u/StaticSystemShock 2h ago
It's interesting how they so often make the likeness of the drawn or rendered characters to the voice actors.
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u/No-Difference-4418 2h ago
I agree with her take and not just because I agree with cute girls. Professional voice actors are typically far better at their job than celebrities
The exception is what another comment said Jack Black and Robin Williams
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u/maoussepatate 2h ago
Vin Diesel was paid millions to voice Groot.
At that point you have to wonder if its not just money laundering
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u/L3tsseewhathappens 31m ago
Celebrity voice casts IMO make the movie shittier anyways, they have no talent, no range, people only like them cause they recognize the face from a movie they like.
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u/GlowstickConsumption 30m ago
Kids aren't like: "Omg, I want the polar bear to be voiced by Liam Neeson! And the ostritch by Al Pacino."
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u/BigJellyfish1906 17m ago
Those celebrities are usually horrible at voice acting. There are some exceptions, but most of the time, a dedicated career voice actor is going to give you the best performance.
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u/thejourneybegins42 2h ago
I honestly don't care to hear from celebs. It ruins the movie. Their voice is a constant reminder of "oh yeah he/she played blah blah"
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u/lateral_moves 2h ago
Ive never heard anyone say theyre seeing an animated film because of a celebrity voice. We want best voice, not most popular actor you dont even see.
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u/meanwhilejohnnydc 3h ago
I mean in a perfect world yeah, and we enjoyed a lot of this in mainstream American movies and TV up until like the 90s.
But i can see why a soulless exec would prefer “Popeye… voiced by BEYONCE” vs. “Popeye… voiced by Person McNormal you’ve ever heard of”
The cost to hire a celebrity is probably worth the boost in sales
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u/TheFaalenn 3h ago
And hiring some random person off the street would save even more money than hiring a professional voice actor
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u/Capt_Furret 3h ago
Well doesn't this famously go back to when Disney casted Robin Williams as genie? And started the trend of using famous actors to voice characters instead of actual voice actors
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u/straight_lurkin 3h ago
but then how would you sell a mario movie if chris Pratt isnt voicing mario
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u/Pomegreenade 3h ago
I also wish they pay animators a bit more instead of investing that money on a big celebrity
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u/gimmesomespace 3h ago
Disney just comes off as some kind of giant money laundering scheme at this point.
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u/Rrekydoc 3h ago
That’s how I feel… BUT there are a lot of people who go to movies primarily for the actors’ names.
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u/mad_poet_navarth 3h ago
I don't like Billy Joe Thornton and Billy Crystal voicing characters in Ghibli movies. It really takes me out of the movie. I'm all for using non-famous actors in animated features.
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