Toon Zone Talkback - Eddie Murphy, Mike Myers Top Forbes' "Animation A-List Actors" List

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Gfeyjkuid

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This is the talkback thread for Eddie Murphy, Mike Myers Top Forbes' "Animation A-List Actors" List.

Ed, I appreciate your pointing out the other Hollywood stars omitted from this list, especially when it didn't jive with the reporter's own explanation of how the list was compiled. I noted other inaccuracies and inconsistencies in this article as well which I covered in my VA News blog.

It's just odd that a reporter (and even other of Forbes' staff involved apparently with the mention of "we") would spend that much time researching for an article like that, only to offer what to me is subjective commentary, and repeatedly make contradictions and factually incorrect statements.
 
Yet Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy's live action careers have been suffering since Shrek. Almost as if they're in competition to get the most Razzies. Some exceptions (Murphy in Dreamgirls, likely Myers in Inglorious Basterds), but you'd think there's some sort of "Shrek curse" (it killed Antonio Banderas as well).
 
Well, it seems other "real" voice actors have respect for Eddie Murphy and Myer's go at VAing. I know Billy West actually said that they were celebs who knew what they were doing when they VAed.
 
:lol: QFT.

Some are naturals because they have background as singers and in stage performance -- that kind of training and experience is of great benefit in voice acting.

Also, I would credit the voice directors for pulling great performances out of "celebrities," especially where Pixar is concerned. Dan Whitney, aka Larry The Cable Guy, is a perfect example because he's a pretty lousy actor. If you compare his performance doing stand-up and his attempts at acting on film and TV with what he is able to do as Mater in Cars -- it's a completely different type of performance for him. It's genuine voice acting, and if you listen closely to his performance in that film, you can tell he got great coaching and voice direction. Otherwise, his performance would have likely fallen flat, since he doesn't have the acting chops, he's not a native southerner (he lived in Nebraska until he was 16, for crying out), and his whole persona is a redneck southern stereotype.
 
I would have to say, of the myriad of celebrities that have been cast as voice actors in animated features, Myers and Murphy are pretty darn good at it, better than I'd expect them to be. I still favor the use of professional voice actors over celebrities, though, since most of the time, studios tend to "cast first and ask questions later", as it were. (Pixar is the happy exception, casting celebrities but looking for ones who actually fit the part.)
 
Coraline wasn't that great anyway. It was just okay but it felt kinda weird hearing a 15-year old Dakota fanning doing the voice for a blue-haired, spunky heroine.
 
Totoro was never given a wide theatrical release in America.

Fanning did the Lilo and Stitch cheapquels but didn't do the original movie. That was Daviegh Chase.
 
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