My obituary for Janet Waldo brought a number of questions about the 1990 film, Jetsons: The Movie. Most folks wanted to know why —
Well, let me quote this paragraph again…
She continued voicing Judy Jetson in many incarnations of The Jetsons but in the 1990 animated feature, a controversy erupted. Janet recorded the speaking role of Judy and it was expected that the then-current pop sensation, Tiffany, would only supply the singing voice. Tiffany was signed but she and/or her managers reportedly insisted that Tiffany also replace the spoken lines. At the insistence of Universal Pictures, which was releasing the film, this was done. Janet was upset, though comforted by an incredible outpouring of support from her many fans. In 1997 at a retirement party for her frequent co-star Don Messick, Joe Barbera spoke and took the opportunity to apologize in front of most of the voiceover community to Janet for letting that happen. She forgave him and that more or less buried that matter.
So I got a lot of messages asking me why Joe Barbera would allow such a thing to happen. The explanation I heard was pretty simple, along the lines of: "The studio that was financing and distributing the film gave me two choices: Make the substitution or cancel the whole thing." That's close to a direct quote.
In a perfect world, you'd find some way around this but sometimes there isn't one. I argued this point a few years ago with an animation buff who was enough of a purist to insist that Barbera should have told the studio to take a flying something and find some other deal to make the movie. This kind of thing is easy to say when you don't have to go out and find a perfect deal.
There might have been one but I doubt it. Hanna-Barbera wasn't good at such deals and didn't get many of them. While I was there, I saw dozens of features developed with scripts and art and even sample animation and then go nowhere.
When you make a movie and you don't have the clout of a top star or filmmaker — and in that arena, Joe Barbera did not — you usually have to make compromises. I don't like the compromise that Hanna-Barbera agreed to in this case. It hurt Janet and it hurt the film. But if I were in the position of having to agree to Tiffany or kill the whole film and hope I could place it somewhere else and soon…
Well, I'm glad I didn't have to make that decision. I like to think I'd have said no.