Last night, a batch of June Foray's friends gathered at the new screening room at the Dreamworks Studio for the world premiere of a new documentary called (I think) The One and Only June Foray. This is not a Dreamworks project. It was the long-time effort of an artist and filmmaker named Gavin Freitas. You may recall that we previewed it back here.
Gavin did a Herculean job assembling audio and video clips of June's marathon career, telling the story of a sweet little girl from Springfield, Massachusetts who grew up to become the preeminent female voice artist of film and television. As some of you may know, I assisted June in writing her autobiography. She asked me because she figured I knew more about her career than anyone else alive. And even if that was true…well, once we got into the book, I became aware of so much I hadn't known about all the work she's done.
The documentary covers all the major points. It would have to be about ten hours to cover everything. Narrated expertly by Gary Owens, it's quite a love letter to the First Lady of Cartoon Voices, and you should have the opportunity to see it soon.
Those who saw it last night had a grand time…and June, of course, was there. She recently sustained an injury to her arm and shoulder but she's an amazing trooper and so was present to feel the love. In the mob of folks from the animation community last evening, there sure was a lot of it.