characters who look like the voice actor Options

[joncow]

I was watching La Bamba and my 8-year old son walked into the room.
I told him the girl in the movie, Elizabeth Pena, was the voice of Mirage in The Incredibles,
one of his favorite movies. I know, he said. It looks like her.
And it did look like Mirage.
And I wondered how often the director tries to have the character look like the person
who does the voice work. (I know that sometimes years of work go into a movie
before the final voice track is recorded – but it is an incredible resemblance!)
I know in the lean Disney years, the characters often looked like the voice actors
(I’m thinking of Andy Devine in Robin Hood in particular).
Chris Rock and David Hyde Pierce in Osmosis Jones also comes to mind.

I think some of the most effective voice work is when the actor is cast against type.
Does anyone else have an opinion?

[Saneguy]

That seems to be the standard practice to match the character's look with the actor/actress doing the voice, especially the Disney flicks. It works most of the time, but sometimes I think they rely too much on it.

[Guest_JackSpit_*]

Rip Taylor was the Grump, I notice similarities there--and Paul Winchell and Dick Dastardly as well... And that's TV not theatrical.

[Cartoon Fan]

In "Wackiki Wabbit", Michael Maltese and Tedd Pierce voiced two castaways and their designs are caricatures of them.

This post has been edited by Cartoon Fan: Jan 1 2006, 03:41 AM

[Daff Doc]

Sterling Holloway was plump like Winnie the Pooh.

[jazzman]

The most ovious one is Arthur Q Bryan to looks like the fat Elmer Fudd.

[Ken Layton]

Arnold Stang looks like Shorty in the 1940's Popeye cartoons.

[Brandon]

The 50's Bugs Bunny had a little bit of Mel Blanc in the face.

Also, in Broomstick Bunny, when Witch Hazel becomes the beautiful red-head at the end of the film, it's a caricature of June Foray.

Disney/Pixar's A Bug's Life, for the most par, all the characters are caricatures of their voice actors. Flick looks like Dave Foley, Atta looks like Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Rosie looked like Bonnie Hunt, Slim looked like David Hyde Pierce, and the two pill bugs Tuck & Roll kinda look like Mike McShane (the way he does now. McShane has changed considerably in appearence over the years).

[Steve Carras]

Leaving out the ENDLESS examples at DIsney AND ALSO.. Rankin/Bass..memntairy..
and obvious caricature parodies..

Hanna Barbera
ANY Joe (EITHER E Ross OR BESSER!) or Paul Lynde voiced character.


Warner
Dodsworth the fat cat (McKimson's KIDDIN' THE KITTEN, 4/5/52, and PECK' O'TROUBLE,3/28/53) Sheldon Leonard (Debatle for his other Wb role, MacKImson's banty rooster guest in SOCK A DOODLE DOO,?/?/53)


UPA
Magoo=Jim Backus (it could also be argued W.C.Fields for the above two)


Disney had a lot of examples mentioend..I'll move to RB--

THE DAYDREAMER June 1966
(UNDERRATED and their BEST animaiton feature)
(animated characters only)
The Little Mermaid=Hayley Mills
Her Father the kin=Burl Ives
Ursula=Tallulah Bankhead
The Tailors=Terry-Thomas & Victor Borge
The Emperor=Ed Wynn (IIRC his LAST role)
Thumbleina=Patty Duke (the YARDSTICK IMO for Thumbelinas everywhere.)
The Rat=Boris Karloff
The Mole=Sessue Hayakaya
The Sandman=Cyril Ritchard

RUDOLPH 1964
Snowman=Burl Ives

FROSTY THE SNOWMAN 1969
Snowman=Jackie Vernon
Magician=Billy DeWolfe (Messy, Messym, MESSY...)
Narrator=Jimmy Durante

THE YEAR W/O A ST.NICK 1974
Mrs Claus=Shirley Booth
Mr.Claus/narrator9I could be wrong)=Mickey Rooney
(Unsure about "Heat Miser' (Total TV;'s George S Irving and Cold Miser (Dick Shawn)..)
Too many others to list

[Bobby Bickert]

Supposedly the Indian chief in Disney's Peter Pan is modeled after voice actor Candy Candido, right down to the thumb-twiddling.

[bigshot]

Candy Candido was a short stocky Italian guy. He looked nothing like the Indian Chief. And Sterling Holloway wasn't fat. You're thinking of Sebastian Cabot who was the narrator in the Pooh pictures.

The first cartoon to really base the character on the personality, mannerisms and look of the voice actors was Jungle Book. They used it as a crutch. With a famous personality that everyone already knows, they didn't have to create one from the ground up in animation. It was a horrible idea that's foisted upon us in every animated feature to this day.

See ya
Steve

This post has been edited by bigshot: Jan 3 2006, 08:49 AM

[joncow]

The first cartoon to really base the character on the personality, mannerisms and look of the voice actors was Jungle Book. They used it as a crutch. With a famous personality that everyone already knows, they didn't have to create one from the ground up in animation. It was a horrible idea that's foisted upon us in every animated feature to this day.

Thanks, Bigshot -- that's what I was aiming at. Why create a character if you can draw a "charicature" of Andy Devine as Friar Tuck as a badger, and tap into everybody's memories of Andy Devine from over 150 live action movies.

I always thought it was a crutch to mimic the voice actor in the animation (Whoopi Goldberg in The PageMaster), so I was surprised when I recognized this in The Incredibles.

The Arthur Q Bryant/Elmer Fudd doesn't bother me because AQB was not a "familiar face" actor that you would recognize on the street. I don't mind "in-jokes" like Tedd Pierce & Mike Maltese as the two castaways again for the same reason. I do like when they are caricaturing famous people as in he Coo-Coo Nut Grove, etc because that is the point -- that you do recognize them.

If the actor is talented enough to have a great voice that portrays the character you have in mind, why undercut their performance by telegraphing to the audience how they should react to this character?

Maybe I am just splitting hairs, but maybe this is why animation has always been considered something of a step-child in the movie business.

[Russell H]

One of the earlier "celebrity voice characters" in an animated feature may be of Peggy Lee in LADY AND THE TRAMP, (1955) where she voices the dog singing "He's a Tramp." The character's design and movements during the song imitated her well-known singing style.

[frizilardi]

In "Wackiki Wabbit", Michael Maltese and Tedd Pierce voiced two castaways and their designs are caricatures of them.

Funny, I know that is the standard line (see Jones' "Chuck Amuck") and in the promotional and story board artwork they DO look like Maltese and Pierce, but the final ANIMATED figures look much more like Ken Harris and Mel Blanc...to ME, that is.
And as stated by joncow and others, its okay to base the design of the character on a non-well known figure, and its something else if you're lampooning a live-action person as a gag, but there's no question that to base a major character's design on their well-known voice actor is a crutch.

[JoNL07]

Don´t forget Robin Williams as The Genie in Aladdin