In honor of Seth MacFarlane's reboot of The Flintstones, today's saluted voice actor is Alan Reed, the voice of Fred Flintstone. A brilliant character actor, Reed got his start on stage in New York appearing in many Broadway productions. From there he moved into radio working as announcer and actor on such shows as Duffy's Tavern, Life of Reilly, and The Shadow.
Eventually, he moved to Los Angeles, where he could be seen as a regular guest star on practically every show. He was one of those character actors of the fifties and sixties that you'd see all the time and go, "Oh, it's that guy."
Nothing would make him more famous, though, than that burly-sounding, gravely voice coming out of Fred Flintstone. That was his shining moment; he even created the catch phrase "Yabba Dabba Doo" for Fred. He also provided the voice of Boris in Lady and the Tramp.
I know. I know. As if I don't write enough about Walt Disney. But I have been working a lot on my book lately, so I have Walt on the brain at the moment. Walt Disney was certainly an innovator in many regards and contributed to the legacy of animation in innumerable ways, but one that really seems to go unmentioned often is that Walt was the first voice actor, at least in animation.
Cartoons didn't have sound before Mickey Mouse came along, and when Mickey started to talk, Walt himself provided the voice. Walt did Mickey's voice for almost twenty years, and was the first person to provide the voice for an animated character.
So this VAV is is a tribute to yet another feather in the cap of pioneering achievement of Walt Disney.
CG
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
The fate of the ASIFA Hollywood Animation Archive is in jeopardy due to funding issues. Since I moved to Hollywood--before I even had any friends here--the Archive has been one of my favorite places to go. I have volunteered to help cataloging, and the blog has become as much a part of my daily routine as my coffee.
There is no other resource in the entire world dedicated to the art and history of animation, illustration and cartooning like the Animation Archive. It saddens me that we may lose this institution.
This week, May 1 to be exact, Spongebob Squarepants celebrated his 12th year on the air. In honor of this anniversary I decided on today's Voice Actor Vridays to salute the voice of Sponegbob Squarepants: Tom Kenny.
Tom Kenny is the closest thing we have today working today to a Mel Blanc or Daws Butler. I personally think that Tom is the best voice actor working today. If you listen to Tom as Spongebob and Tom as the Ice King on Adventure Time and Tom as Heffer on Rocko's Modern Life you absolutely cannot even tell it's the same guy. He is tremendously versatile and talented. I remember back when I was a freshman in college, I was working at Nickelodeon, and he came in to a promo for Spongebob. I met him and told him that I wanted to be a voice actor. He invited me to lunch and answered questions and offered advice.
Tom has been a sketch performer, and had a memorable stint on the cult sketch show Mr. Show. He also had a successful career as a stand-up comedian, but he actually started out as a musician, and continues to be musically prolific. In fact, the song "The Best Day Ever" on Spongebob was written by Tom.
Since my first meeting with him as a college kid, I have had the chance to hang out with Tom many times, and not only is he extremely talented, he is also a really nice guy. So here's to this week's spotlight voice actor: Tom Kenny.
Most people who know me know that while I am an encyclopedia of cartoon knowledge, I know precious little about comic books. I know that seems incongruous with who I am, but I never got on board with comics as a kid, I didn't know anyone who liked them, and so I just never read them.
The only two comic characters I know anything about are Spiderman and Batman because when I was a kid, there were cartoon shows starring them. Now, not only are many of my friends comic book nerds, but my wife may be chief among them. As they are quick to point out the cartoons are almost nothing like the books, so I have a lot to learn.
While I don't read comics, I do really enjoy learning the stories. I think the story-telling is fascinating and equatable to Greek mythology in its epicness (I'm 99% sure I made that word up). It makes me very happy to see now that there are many new cartoon series out that are bringing these great comic characters to life for me. I really enjoy watching these animated versions of the comics and then discussing the differences with my comic savvy pals. This one looks really cool: the new Green Lantern series. Here's the peek that the public was treated to at a recent comic convention:
Another one that I have been enjoying recently is The Spectacular Spider-man. I enjoy Spider-man quite a lot because above all he is funny. Stan Lee says Spider-man is the Groucho Marx of the comic world. Groucho Marx. Comic World. Done. And this show brings back a lot of the comedy and quipping that the movies seemed to forget. Also the theme song is pretty cool and is a nice nod to the old theme song from the sixties.
The Hellboy animated series is another one that is pretty fun. I enjoyed the movies directed by Guillermo Del Toro very much, and the series brings back the actors from the live action movie to be the voice cast. It is pretty spectacular. Plus any character whose main villain is supernatural Nazis is an automatic win.
Finally, my favorite relatively recent comic book based animated series is Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Batman is probably my favorite comic book character of all time, and this show is one of my favorite versions of Batman that I have ever seen. Now, I only know Batman from the animated series and the old Adam West TV show, so what I like about Batman is the fun campy silliness of it. The darker versions are nice also, don't get me wrong. I love Tim Burton's and Chris Nolan's versions, but the funny, ridiculous take is the tops for my money. Do yourself a favor and watch the first couple seasons of it. Diedrich Bader is great as Batman, and Jon Di Maggio as Aquaman is pretty fantastic. Here's a taste:
And just so you know this is probably the longest I will ever talk about comic books on this blog, ever. I have exhausted all of my knowledge.
I have to admit that my executions were not that high going into the premiere of the new Looney Tunes Show last night, but when I watched it I had several laugh-out-loud moments. Granted there are a couple of cheap jokes in there also, but there are several really cool, smart jokes in there. However, I still maintain my stance that it doesn't really feel like the Looney Tunes. It's a funny show with characters that happen to look like the Looney Tunes.
Daffy Duck comes the closest. With his selfish, me-me-me take on everything, he really does come close to the mark. At least closest to the mark of the 60's-80's Daffy that I really love. They captured Daffy's voice and sense of humor pretty well. Even his voice is a fairly true to Mel Blanc's. I'm sure you're aware that this makes me very happy, as Daffy is one of my favorite cartoon--and even film-characters of all time.
For as much as Daffy is on the mark, however, Bugs is off the mark. They seemed to have turned him into an exasperated straight man for Daffy's antics. Where the old Bugs would egg Daffy on with a wink to the camera, this Bugs rolls his eyes in frustration like Liz Lemon with her co-workers.
All in all, though I enjoyed the show. If you're looking for classic Looney Tunes, this is not the show foir you, but if you are looking for a pretty damn funny cartoons show--a rarity in itself, these days--I say check out The Looney Tunes Show.
Hello, everyone. As I have mentioned, I have been too busy to write anything recently, but that doesn't mean that things haven't been happening. So this week, I'm going to be doing what I call the Cartoon Guru Time Machine, so I can catch you up on some of the things that have happened over the last couple of weeks. Review of Gnomeo and Juliet:
I saw Gnomeo and Juliet a few Saturdays ago, and it was about as good or bad as I expected it to be. The movie is obviously not for me. One of the things I hate is when reviewers write about a movie as if it is trying to be The Godfather and falling way short. This movie is not trying to do that. This is a dumb movie for kids, and I can see where little kids would like it a lot. There are plenty of slapstick gags and funny voices.
The one things that really irked me about this movie were the references. There were "pop" culture references to make the movie hip and edgy. Like references to Forrest Gump, Brokeback Mountain, and Lassie. You know all those things that are fresh in kids minds. There was even hip slang converted to gnome-ness, like "Who's your gnomey?" Who's your gnomey, for shit's sake! And the guy who was in charge of throwing in the "subtle" Shakespeare references--and in case you are as keen on subtlety as that guy is, there are quotes around "subtle"--must have been patting himself one the back up one side and down the other. So there were so many dumb forced Shakespeare puns, I literally said "Oh, come on!" out loud once.
Also the movie is an Elton John musical. Did you know that? I didn't, and I don't think Elton John did either because the lyric changes were crammed into the melody like present day Elton John wearing the 70's "Crocodile Rock" outfit.
I know it sounds like I hated it, but I didn't. It was absolutely fine for what it was. It neither exceeded nor fell short of my expectations. And Jim Cummings once again proves that a good voice actor and play well and have a good time with even a mediocre script.
In honor of Seth MacFarlane's reboot of The Flintstones, today's saluted voice actor is Alan Reed, the voice of Fred Flintstone. A brilliant character actor, Reed got his start on stage in New York appearing in many Broadway productions. From there he moved into radio working as announcer and actor on such shows as Duffy's Tavern, Life of Reilly, and The Shadow.
