The only celebrity voice that absolutely drove me insane was Thornton in Mononoke. Inexcusably miscast.
I actually liked what they did with Spirited Away.
Him and Gillian Anderson. They made it very easy for me imagining them in the sound isolation booth reading their lines.
I also don’t get why a movie like Despicable Me would bring in two relatively well known celebrities (well, one at least, Jason Siegel’s the nicest celebrity I’ve ever met*, but he’s probably not quite up there with Steve Carrell) and then instead of having them use their normal voices instead has them use crazy accents, so you can’t even identify them for who they are. If you’re going to do that, why drop the big paycheck on Carrell at all? Why not just bring in Billy West or Jim Cummings.
I guess it’s just to have the name on the poster. Which is kind of sad. Farrell vs Pitt works, it seems.
*The worst was Scott Stapp. True story.
[QUOTE=Bahimiron;2302013Why not just bring in Billy West?[/QUOTE]
This is always the right answer.
I agree… we avoided How To Train Your Dragon for a few weeks because the trailer was really iffy. I couldn’t cope with them screwing up a movie about vikings and dragons. Totally blown away at how good it ended up being. It was competitive with Pixar (though I’m biased towards it because of vikings and dragons. The addition of dry sarcastic humor just sent it over the top). In fact, as wonderful as Toy Story 3 was, I’m probably looking forward to HTTYD on DVD more.
Just saw this movie today. Wow.
Spoilers:
I was incredibly moved. What a movie. Absolutely loved the way they got us to know Bonnie (was that her name?) when Woody is accidentally grabbed and taken home by her. And the furnace scene was just amazing. It is truly amazing that in a movie called “Toy Story 3”, they actually got me to believe that they were going to kill off all the main characters, and that there truly was no hope left. But that it was okay, because they were together. Man. Just … so incredible. I think I’m a pretty jaded movie watcher by now, but they got me to let go of my cynicism at that moment. And then their rescue is just such a triumphant moment that I completely was not expecting somehow, even though I had been expecting it up to 10 seconds before that moment.
Loved that movie.
P.S. I loved that the opening sequence is a nice revisiting of the scenario Andy plays out in the first Toy Story movie, but with the addition of Buzz and Jessie and Mrs Potato-head and other newer characters introduced in the two movies so far.
I never really cared for Toy Story 2 all that much, but this one was a masterpiece.
Finally saw it this morning. First of all, the bluray was a bitch to get working. I have 4 bluray players and it was impossible to get working in 3 of them and the 4th one took over 15 minutes to load. Anyone else have similar issues with the Bluray? I have a few Bluray movies that don’t work in specific players but never one that was so difficult.
The movie, while the ending was as wonderful as everyone said it was, the actually movie left me cold. It felt so much like a retread of the first two movies. Another abandoned toy who was actually evil. Another dark place where toys are abused and tortured. Another conveyor belt chase. The only addition that felt original and good was the clown.
I’ve had no issues in my standalone player or the PS3, but both are Sony hardware so I’d expect similar results.
Also, I just saw this when it released this last week on Blu-ray and holy crap I was just floored by much of it. My kids think spanish Buzz is the funniest shit ever, and the entire end section (post conveyor belt) was pure gold.
I think Pixar could make the exact same movie 50 times and I’d watch it every single time as they’d still do it better than everyone else.
I’ll take your spanish Buzz and raise you a <spoiler removed> Potato Head. THAT has me in stitches. And all of Ken’s lines/scenes. And…and…and…
Lest we forget, The Lion King starred Jonathan Taylor Thomas for the first half of the movie. Talk about flash-in-the-pan. The whole movie is loaded down with big-name celebrity talent. Kids at the time would have been familiar with Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane, James Earl Jones, Whoopie Goldberg, and Rowan Atkinson. Jeremy Irons not so much, but his presence could have encouraged parents to take their kids.
Because of its success, The Lion King could partially be to blame for the celebrity-laden casts of animated movies these days.
And even Beauty and the Beast has Angela Lansbury, David Ogden Stiers and Jerry Orbach. I don’t really get the problem people have with famous actors doing voice acting. A good actor’s a good actor, whether you know who they are or not. Obviously sometimes an actor’s voice can be so distinct that they overpower whatever character they’re trying to play, but I really can’t think of a time that’s happened in a Disney film. Genie in Aladdin is basically a superpowered version of Robin Williams, but it’s also arguably Williams’ best comedic performance of the last quarter century.
I believe though it was Shrek which first put the voice actors front and center. The ad campaign showed the CGI characters along with “Mike Myers,” “Eddie Murphy,” etc. Although Disney/Pixar have used well known actors, they don’t seem to highlight them in trailers and posters.
And Toy Story 3 is awesome.
I didn’t read that thread because I don’t listen to the podcast and didn’t want the movie spoiled at the time. After reading yours and Deans comments here, I looked it up.
Wow, just wow. What you said and with a really heavy dose of Tom at his most condescending to boot.
Just for the record I’m both old and jaded and the movie still made me tear up (I blamed the 3D-glasses, though).
Those 3D glasses are killers. Hard on the eyes. Especially in the scene where Andy gives the toys to Bonnie.
thread Necro due to Franchise Necro:
“The panic is attacking me!”
I nearly teared up watching this, because I realized that my super young son, probably 2-4 years old, couldn’t get enough Toy Story and Toy Story 2 and I associate those movies with watching them with him, and now we’ll all be seeing the 4th one the summer before he goes off to college. If he isn’t too busy to watch it with us, of course. Sigh.
I was just thinking about this movie again today and how amazing it was. I guess, judging by this thread it was almost 13 years ago. The incinerator scene is still fresh in my mind even today, and the emotions at the heart of it.