Celebrity Voice Talent- The Scourge of Animation?

Dreamworks Animation has always stood in the shadow of Pixar. Oh sure, they've had quite a few successes over the years. But their overall quality is second best. Not to mention the fact that their earliest efforts were clearly derivative. If Pixar is Nirvana, Dreamworks is Hole.

But even if Dreamworks has yet to raise the animation bar creatively, they can take the credit for another modern innovation. Their formula for voice talent was a marketing masterstroke that quickly became an industry standard.


Their first feature, Antz, was a poorly written, shoddily animated rip-off of Pixar's A Bug's Life. But it managed to open big thanks to the celebrity cache of Woody Allen, Sharon Stone and Sylvester Stallone (were the 90's really that long ago?). By marketing to the parents rather than the kids Dreamworks was able to bankroll it's animation studios. They later tweaked this formula to perfection with Shrek. Of course this has now led to folks like Brad Pitt and Bruce Willis headlining major animated releases. Because those guys are famous for their golden pipes, right? The stable of old school voice actors who now see their prospects drying up are, naturally, pissed. Billy West, from an Onion AV Club interview-

The minute they mention a CGI film, they're already looking to see what Renée Zellweger is doing. They're already looking to see what Billy Crystal is doing. This doesn't make sense, to do what they do—spend zillions on visuals, and then have this totally fucking flat-lining voice track. You know, "Hey, I'm Will Smith, I'm a clam! I'm Will Smith, I'm a kangaroo!" All you bring to the performance is your own ego. They're just being themselves. Let's put it this way: Cameron Diaz is the highest paid voice actress in history: $20 million for Shrek. Why? Because she has a 9-foot mouth? That works somewhere else, but not on tape.

Stimpy makes an excellent point there. But the fact is Cameron Diaz can get on The Tonight Show and promote Shrek 4: Welcome To The Suck. Whereas outside of Nerdville the name Billy West just doesn't put asses in the seats. But last year Dreamworks learned that name recognition is not always enough. Bee Movie is hitting the shelves next week following a lackluster theatrical run. Jerry Seinfeld pimped the shit out of this thing. Live action trailers, talk show appearances every day of the week, billboards and posters in every outlet. They even hung gigantic fucking bees from buildings in the major cities. Jerry's name was everywhere you looked. But guess what? It turns out kids could give a rat's ass for Jerry Seinfeld. Wow, who could have seen that coming? According to CHUD.com's own box office expert Andre Dellamorte, Bee Movie pulled a profit but failed to live up to investor expectations (who surely had visions of Shrek receipts dancing in their heads)-

It was considered a successful disappointment, if that makes sense. It will be profitable through ancillaries because parents will buy the DVD, but it's theatrical run was not out of the park.

Dreamworks used it's A-list talent to sell to the adults and ended up losing out on a big demographic. It looks as though the studio is cutting it's losses by serving it up as a nice gift to drop in the kids' Easter basket this year. According to Andre the DVD will be able to rake in the dough without much additional marketing-

The film made over 100 at the box office, so Best Buy and Target and Wallmart (etc.) will do the full order, have the display box announcing who's in it and they'll probably move a lot of discs. Just as Madagascar and Shark's Tale did as well, though I'm sure those titles have dust on them in most collections. Would nerds with kids buy it? Probably not, cause I'm guessing better kids films (Miyazaki, Brad Bird, etc.) are watched only slightly more by the kids than the parents. But for an audience that treats a movie like a babysitter, hotcakes.

It looks like they're returning to the proven game plan. Kung Fu Panda, their summer release, follows the same formula of putting celebrities behind the mic*. But the film's star, Jack Black, is definitely a lot more kid friendly. They're also making sure his visage gets out there to the under twelve demographic by putting it on shows kids, not their parents, watch. A very important distinction in the wake of Seinfeld's late night talk show campaign. He's hosting this year's Kids Choice Awards. The commercials running 24/7 on Nick are selling him more than the show itself. And I'm sure it'll help that Kung Fu Panda is chock full of slapstick humor, as opposed to Bee Movie's hilarious plot involving a lawsuit.

Like Antz before it, Bee Movie was basically a movie for adults that also tried to appeal to kids. And like Antz, it ultimately disappointed on both counts. Maybe Dreamworks should just take a creative leap and fully commit to an animated film for adults. Beowulf has already shown American audiences it can be done (European and Asian audiences have known it for years). Or at the very least, just stay the hell away from talking bug movies.


*To the point of absurdity. Jackie Chan?! The guy's name is synonymous with kung fu because he built a career on stunt work, not emoting. His most successful films, the Rush Hour trilogy, were based on the premise that his wacky American partner can't "understand a word comin' outta his mouth!"