Voicing Their Creations

It is not uncommon for an animator to be described as an actor with a pencil. Increasingly, however, animators, animation directors, writers and story artists are not just actors with pencils but actors with SAG cards and residual checks.

John Kricfalusi, who created the voice of Ren Hoek for his groundbreaking “The Ren and Stimpy Show”; Mike Judge, whose performance as Hank Hill in “King of the Hill” has garnered two Annie (the animation industry’s big award) nominations; and Traci Paige Johnson, co-creator of the preschool hit “Blue’s Clues” and the voice of Blue, are just a few of the cartoon creators who voice their own creations.

This phenomenon is not exclusive to television, where budgets rarely allow for A-list voice talent or where shows such as “South Park” (whose creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone were actors before becoming cartoonists) and “Beavis and Butt-head” originate in their creator’s dining rooms, voices and all. Animated features are also seeing artists and writers becoming actors.

Take for instance Disney’s hit “Lilo & Stitch,” in which Chris Sanders, the film’s co-director, stars as the voice of Stitch. That was a casting decision that was made early in development, when the character was conceived as mute. “Since he wasn’t going to talk, we imagined the uncomfortable scenario of having a prominent actor in a booth and asking him to make little noises,” says Sanders.

About a year into the production, though, Stitch gained his voice (he’s now become the film’s spokesman in the ads). Since Sanders voiced the role on the scratch track--a temporary voice track that is often recorded by studio personnel to accompany a film’s story reel, which is a taped presentation of the storyboard--co-director Dean Deblois encouraged him to officially take the part. Sanders agreed, with the understanding that if he felt his performance was not up to snuff, he would insist that that part be recast with a seasoned actor (and damn the embarrassment). With Deblois’ coaching, Sanders came through, and he is continuing to voice the character for the spinoff TV series and for talking products, which, he notes, allows him a level of control over how the character is presented.

Chris Wedge, director of 20th Century Fox’s “Ice Age,” says his decision to voice the character of Scrat himself came about almost by accident. “One afternoon in our editing room I just started making sounds to go along with the animation, and we all thought it was kind of funny, so we stuck with it,” he says. Since the character--whose Sisyphus-like quest to crack open an acorn in a hostile environment all but stole the film in the eyes of some reviewers--was added after “Ice Age” was scripted, there were no lines per se, only noises with attitude. But Wedge says it was an attitude to which he could relate.

“Scrat is a character that never sees what’s coming, and he can’t possibly anticipate how impossible his predicament is going to become, so the sounds were easy for me to make in the midst of production,” Wedge says. “I don’t know if I could make those sounds right now, I’m too relaxed.”

Before any scratch track is made, story ideas have to be sold to the filmmakers through pitch sessions. In one such session for “Shrek,” the film’s producers and directors not only bought story man Conrad Vernon’s concept for the tortured Gingerbread Man, but his voice as well. “In order to sell our ideas we do the sound effects and voices and everything,” Vernon says. “If everyone liked it a lot, we’d go ahead and put that on the scratch, and then they would decide, ‘Well, it works well in the reel, let’s go ahead and have him record for the film.’ ”

While not quitting his day job, Vernon has continued to record scratch for other projects, and was even asked to record the voice of the Colonel in “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.” Those tracks were rejected when, in his words, “we all decided I sounded like a teenager coming out of that [character’s] mouth,” and the part was recast with actor James Cromwell.

Occasionally, though, the reverse happens, with the professional actors’ recordings being rejected in favor of those on the scratch tracks. In the case of Paramount and Nickelodeon Movies’ “Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius,” director John A. Davis and co-producer Keith Alcorn took on small roles. “In some cases we went ahead and rerecorded [the roles] with talent,” says Davis, who voiced the unglamorously named “Octapuke Kid,” “but everyone decided they liked it better the way it was, so we stayed in.”

And even though the voice cast of Revolution Studios’ upcoming feature “Li’l Pimp,” based on the Web cartoon by Peter Gilstrap and Mark Brooks, includes such marketable names as William Shatner, Jennifer Tilly and Bernie Mac, the lead characters are being voiced by writers-directors Gilstrap and Brooks. For Brooks, it’s a question of understanding. “A lot of times actors come in and even though they’re doing a great job, they may not understand all the ways it’s going to be implemented through the animation or how it’s going to look,” he explains. “It’s a little more difficult for them to visualize, so they have to record more, whereas I think someone working on it as a director can just do it easier.”

That’s likely true for those new to animation, but how are the top animation actors in town accepting this trend? Philosophically, according to Emmy and Annie-winning voice specialist Rob Paulsen. “There are always folks coming in that are vying for the same jobs we are, but I don’t think they’re trying to take them from us,” he says. “Frankly, [creator voicing] is still in the minority. But Chris Sanders did a great job. He’s got a hit character on his hands and I hope he rides it for all it’s worth.”

While such self-voicing is becoming increasingly common, due in part, perhaps, to Davis’ judgment that “a lot of us are hambones,” there are plenty of historical precedents for it. Walt Disney himself provided the voice of Mickey Mouse from the character’s first sound cartoon in 1928 through the mid-1940s. Legendary cartoon director Tex Avery likewise did voices in his own cartoons, notably “Junior,” a Lenny-like bear; Fleischer Studios story man Jack Mercer became the voice of Popeye for decades; and director William Hanna was responsible for Tom’s shattering screams and gasps in the “Tom and Jerry” cartoons he made with Joseph Barbera.

More recently, animator-producer-director Bill Melendez, the man behind innumerable “Peanuts” TV specials and commercials, has doubled as the voice of both Snoopy and Woodstock.

But in the 1970s the Screen Actors Guild began to take greater notice of the animation industry, and even uncredited voice work came under closer scrutiny. Under the Taft-Hartley Labor Act of 1947, a performer can have a speaking role in one film under SAG’s jurisdiction without being forced to join the union, but for any subsequent work, membership is mandatory. Sanders, Wedge, Vernon, Brooks and Gilstrap have all become members of SAG, though Sanders earned his card in 1999 for voicing an incidental character in Disney’s “Tarzan.”

Many animated series, however, are recorded in Canada with Canadian actors, chiefly for budgetary reasons, and fall outside of SAG’s jurisdiction. Such was the case for Sue Rose, co-creator (with Joanna Ferrone) of TV’s “Angela Anaconda,” who opted to do the voice of the title character herself. “I got paid Canadian scale, so it certainly wasn’t a matter of making more money,” she laughs.

For Rose (who earned a SAG card from doing incidental voices for her previous series, “Pepper Ann”), the move into voice work seemed like a natural. “I’ve been told I have a rather interesting voice,” she says, in tones that sound like a cross fade between Carol Channing and Fran Drescher. “I don’t think it’s a stretch that I would voice a cartoon character.”