Animated Voices

Just like Billy West told me, the first of three Futurama straight to DVD movies has been released today.

Bender’s Big Score (which is an homage to Shaft’s Big Score) brings back the cast of Futurama for a whole 88 minutes. The movie has all the voice actors reprising their roles from the TV show and even has some fan favorite characters showing up during the movie such as Fry’s dog Seymour, Al Gore (as himself) Morbo and many more.

There are even a couple extras with the DVD including a full length episode of Everybody Loves Hypnotoad and the animated short “A Terrifying Message From Al Gore” that was used to help promote his film An Inconvenient Truth .

This movie will be split up into four parts and will be sold to Comedy Central to be played as separate episodes.

When the other three movies are released they too will be split up into different parts and all the “episodes” from the four movies will be season five for the series.

Last night, while out shopping for groceries, I remembered that the new Pixar DVD of short films was released so before I left the store I bought a copy.

I highly recommend at least renting this DVD. While it is a little under an hour long, it is worth every penny. The DVD includes every short film ever made by Pixar. And as an added bonus there is audio commentary by the director for each short. The directors usually talk about their inspiration for the shorts and how they were able to put them together.

The videos are charming, sweet, and very funny. And with the holidays coming up soon it would make a wonderful gift for any young child (or college student who enjoys those types of movies.)

As much as fun as talking to Sonny Strait was this past weekend, what I consider to be the best time at the convention was when I got to interview and talk with Angus Oblong.

Angus Oblong (which I learned is not his real name) is the creator of the TV show The Oblongs . The Oblongs is based off of the books Creepy Susie and 13 Other Tragic Tales For Troubled Children which he wrote and illustrated.

He always wears face paint and paints his face up like a clown and goes by the fake name “Angus Oblong” for two reasons. One reason is that it hides his face so when he is out in public he doesn’t get swarmed with fans. He told me that the major reason why is does it is because “It’s simple psychology, the less you tell people the more they want to know.”

When I asked him when he was younger what did he want to do for a living he told me that he always knew he was going to be an artist and draw when he got older. He likes to be known as an illustrator first and a writer second.

His dedication to his work is inspiring and motivational. Whether he is working on his illustrations or writing he goes for quality not quantity.

Currently Oblong is trying to pitch his idea for a The Oblongs Halloween DVD movie.

Angus Oblong is just a real easy going, down-to-earth, funny guy and a blast to talk to. I’m really glad I got to talk to him and I highly recommend everyone to go talk to him if you get a chance.

Well I was able to go to the Wizard World Texas convention and it was a lot more fun than I thought it would be.

When I first arrived I went to the information desk and asked if Sonny Strait was there and what booth he was at. For the first couple hours he was nowhere to be found and the people behind the desk said he didn’t show up on Friday.

Luckily he arrived around 2 o’clock and I was able to get a very long interview with him for myself and for a possible article for the OSU paper.

Sonny Strait was just so much fun to get to talk to and provided me with a lot of really good information. He also spoke in his character voice a couple times which was such a treat to get to hear. It was nice for him to have done it on his own because I don’t like asking people to perform because I bet they get asked that all the time.

Strait gave me some really good advice on how to train my voice for “yelling” parts and provided me with help on how to have a good audition.

I have posted some links below to a couple of songs/videos found on YouTube.

The first song is “Rainbow Connection ” sung by Kermit the Frog(Jim Henson) This is the opening part of The Muppet Movie and was nominated for an Academy Award. It also happens to be one of my favorite songs thanks to Jim/Kermit.

The next song is called “A Boy and His Frog ” by Tom Smith. It is a tribute song to Jim Henson that is written as if Kermit himself wrote it for Jim Henson after he passed away and done in Kermit’s voice. It’s a very touching song.

In my mind Jim Henson is one of the best puppeteer/voice actor of all time with Frank Oz coming in second.

There are a very few number of puppeteers/voice actors who have made as big of an impact on others on a global scale as Jim Henson. His greatest clam to fame would have to be none other than creating and voicing Kermit the frog. Along with creating, co creating, and voicing so many other muppets.

Kermit the frog is one of the most recognizable “celebrities” in the world.

Henson’s other creations/voiced puppets consist of: Gonzo, Rolf the dog, The Swedish Chef, Erine (of Bert and Ernie) Cookie Monster, Scooter, Dr. Teeth and so many more.

Cartoons aren’t just for kids these days.

With the launch of Adult Swim back in September 2, 2001, studios and animators have increased production of animated shows that target audiences of 18-34 year-old males. The majority of the station’s viewers are college students.

Adult Swim started off as a “spin off” from Cartoon Network. It first aired episodes of many different anime shows such as Dragon Ball Z, Big O and more. It would run on Saturday nights only. After it became more popular it aired on Sunday nights and Thursday nights.

Adult Swim now airs at 10:00 p.m. central time with an encore at 2:00 a.m. on weekdays and Saturdays although the Saturday shows are often action oriented. It also airs on Sundays at the same time but the Sunday lineup has shows that are more comedy oriented.

Adult Swim still shows anime shows but has also added American animated shows to their lineup. The only difference is instead of only showing anime, the American shows are usually shown at the front of the lineup with the anime shows closer to the end.

Adult Swim is responsible for the rise of popularity for shows such as Futurama, Family Guy, Venture Brothers, Aqua Teen Hunger Force and many others.

Weeks ago NPR had an article and audio clip about video game voice actors who are asking for a bigger share of money from the game sales and rentals. The union actors who are doing the voices for games are also asking for residuals from video game rentals, just like when movie actors get money every time a movie is sold.

After the release of Halo 3 it is not surprising that the voice actors are looking for more money.

According to Microsoft, Halo 3 made $170 million in the U.S. This broke and set the new record for highest gross of an entertainment product within 24-hours of its release. The previous record was held by Halo 3’s predecessor, Halo 2, which earned $12 million in the first 24-hours it was released.

Halo 3 also set the record for the fastest pre-selling game in U.S. history with more than 1.7 million copies pre-ordered. Also, over a million gamers played Halo 3 on Xbox Live within the first 20-hours of the release day making it the biggest day for Xbox Live gaming in history.

With the success of Halo 3 and games that are soon to come, it is easy to see why video game voice actors are asking for increased pay for their jobs. It seems fair enough to give them the same kind of payment that actors in movies get, but I don’t see that happening for a while. I believe that the companies such as Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony will hold out for as long as they can until there is some kind of voice actor strike.

While growing up the majority of the cartoons I watched were all drawn and created in America. There were very little “anime” shows that were on the air when I was a young kid. The only ones I can remember watching were Transformers, Speed Racer, and Astro Boy. And little did I know that every episode of the Power Rangers franchise have all been made in Japan and are voiced over by American actors for the American episodes.

Nowadays it seems like every major network targeted at a young audience has some kind of “anime” show or a TV show with major Japanese influence. Nickelodeon has Avatar: The Last Air Bender, Fox Kids shows Yu-Gi-Oh and they have a lot of cartoons drawn with the same style as most anime cartoons, and Cartoon Network has been airing Japanese cartoons for over eight years. Some of the shows they air are Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, Full Metal Alchemist, Naruto, Bleach and many many more.

The most popular shows in America that are viewed by kids age 8-14 are anime cartoons. While I think that American animated shows such as Sponge Bob and Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends will continue to grow and their style will be replicated, I don’t think it will become as big as the anime style in America.

As most of you all have heard the Writers Guild went on strike this week. Some TV shows are already airing re-runs during their time slot, while other shows are coming down to the last couple of new episodes already filmed.

While this is a harsh reality to many people (myself included) that closely follow certain shows, it’s not such a bad thing for people who watch animated shows.

To the best of my knowledge most animated shows have the episodes for the upcoming season written, drawn, and voiced before the start of the next season. That way all of their episodes are ready to go on the air and the writers can begin work on the next number of episodes for the next season.

So for everyone out there who watches cartoons on a regular basis I wouldn’t worry too much about the strike unless the strike goes on for a couple months. But if the strike goes on too long, when it’s over there might not be enough time to put together another season of episodes for the upcoming season.