Last evening, most of the folks in Los Angeles who do cartoon voices for a living descended on the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood for a gala event. One of the few who wasn't present was Frank Welker and someone (I think it was me) was heard to mutter, "If a bomb went off here tonight…Frank would still have all the work." One who was there was the First Lady of Cartoon Voices, June Foray. When they mentioned on the post-screening panel that she was in the room, the entire assemblage jumped to its feet for a heartwarming standing ovation.
The screening was of I Know That Voice, a new documentary on the trade and I can summarize it as follows: 95 minutes of close-cut interviews with folks who either do cartoon voices or work with such people, all taking about the profession, the art and the intersection thereof. If you have the slightest interest in this area, either as a fan or wanna-be, you're going to want to see this. I'll tell you in a moment where you can do that.
A lot of skilled hands worked on this film but the three main ones were voice actor John DiMaggio, whom many of you know best from Futurama; director Lawrence Shapiro and producer Tommy Reid. They conducted interviews with hundreds of actors, producers, engineers, directors, etc. The audience last night at the Egyptian loved it for two reasons — one noble, one shallow. The shallow one, of course, was that an awful lot of us were in it…me, fortunately, for not very long. The noble one was that it celebrates — and nicely explains — this world. If nothing else, you will take away from it the following observation: "My God, some of those people are amazing!"
Throughout, and especially in one funny section, the film debunks the notion that it's easy, that anyone can do it if they can make a funny voice, etc. As a guy who sometimes does casting, I encounter this. Sure, you can do an impression of Christopher Walken that your friends all tell you is dynamite. But that doesn't put you near the level of a professional voice actor anymore than being able to throw the occasional strike makes you ready to suit up and play for the Yankees. (One other revelation you'll take away from the film, by the way, is that every single person in the voiceover business can do Christopher Walken. The few who didn't do so in the movie were doing theirs either on the panel that followed or at the cocktail party that followed the panel. Christopher Walken should do half as good a Christopher Walken as Rob Paulsen.)
At the afterparty, there was much happiness and congratulating, though one could note a bit of grumbling and forced smiles by those who got cut out or barely cut in. If the filmmakers did anything wrong, I suspect it was that they interviewed about five times as many people as they needed…but that just speaks to the devotion and care that went into this project. There is talk that those hundreds of hours of unused video will surface somewhere on the 'net.
More relevant is where you can see the 95-minute version we saw last night. If I heard and remember correctly, it'll be on In Demand at the beginning of December, on iTunes at the beginning of January and available as a DVD purchase shortly at this website. I'd keep an eye on that site for more accurate info on all of this…and I'm sure it'll turn up in other places.
I'm glad the producers had this big screening/party. There was something so right about seeing all those voice actors not only on camera but on an actual movie screen. They really are stars and they sometimes aren't regarded as such. Every working voice actor I know is as proud as they can be of what they do…but last night, some of them actually seemed to be even prouder than ever of their profession.