When I was a kid, we never knew the names of the actors in animated films. Snow White was Snow White. Who cared who played her?
Then, Jeffrey Katzenberg took over Disney's animation department, hired some recognizable voices for 1988's Oliver & Company - Billy Joel, Bette Midler, Cheech Marin - and pulled in $74-million (U.S.). In 1991's Beauty and the Beast , Broadway and TV veterans Angela Lansbury, Jerry Orbach and Robby Benson spoke and sang with real emotion, to the tune of $171-million (and some serious Oscar talk).
But the trend really took off the next year with Aladdin . Robin Williams had the animators scrambling to bring his vocals to life, the film raked in $217-million, and ever since, the combination of adult comedians and kids' movies has added up to box-office gold. The Lion King starred Rowan Atkinson, Nathan Lane and Whoopi Goldberg, and made $328-million. Toy Story , with Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, made $192-million.
Then Shrek stomped in, starring Mike Meyers and Eddie Murphy. It made $267-million. Its sequel, Shrek 2 , was the highest-grossing film of 2004 ($441-million). The story was the same for, among others, Finding Nemo , with Albert Brooks and Ellen DeGeneres, $339-million; and The Incredibles , with Holly Hunter and Samuel L. Jackson, $261-million. Not all of the 100 top-grossing animated movies boast name actors, but most do, and together they've pulled in nearly $13-billion.
The trend is getting only bigger and more respectable. Last weekend, the No. 1 movie at the box office (gross: $32.7-million) was Where the Wild Things Are , a live-action family film with animated tweaks, featuring the voices of James Gandolfini, Lauren Ambrose, Catherine O'Hara, Chris Cooper and Forest Whitaker. Based on the beloved children's book by Maurice Sendak, it's a genuine art film, directed by one of Hollywood's most singular grown-up talents, Spike Jonze ( Being John Malkovich , Adaptation ).
Due next month is Fantastic Mr. Fox , another animated family film with a sophisticated pedigree: It's based on the Roald Dahl novel, was directed by indie hero Wes Anderson ( Rushmore , The Royal Tenenbaums , The Darjeeling Limited ), and stars George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Adrien Brody, Michael Gambon, Anjelica Huston and super-chef Mario Batali. Scheduled for March is director Tim Burton's live-action fantasy Alice in Wonderland , starring Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter and Alan Rickman.
So I wasn't surprised to hear a slew of familiar voices in the new animated feature Astro Boy (it opened yesterday), based on a Japanese comic book that first appeared in 1951: Jackson, Donald Sutherland, Eugene Levy, Kristen Bell, Freddie Highmore, Bill Nighy and two Oscar winners: Charlize Theron and Nicolas Cage. What did surprise me was how tiny some of their roles are. Theron's part is only a few sentences long; Jackson's is mostly grunts; and Levy's is a very supporting one as a neurotic robot servant named Orrin. During a phone interview from his home in Pacific Palisades, Calif., I asked Levy, 62, a four-decade veteran of comedy, TV and film, what drew him to a bit part in a kids' flick.
"First of all, these animated projects are great jobs," he said. "They only require a handful of days spread out over a six-month period" - he worked five on Astro Boy - "and if the film is successful, you're pretty well-paid. Second, since I was an actor cutting my teeth in Toronto - Toronto was great for radio commercials; that was a big part of staying alive - I've always loved voice work. It's great, because you don't have to worry about makeup or how you look. You go in, have a little coffee, the script is right there - so there's no memorizing - and you do the job."
As well, Levy continued, he "gets off" on the acting exercise. "You're in there alone, with just the director and maybe a producer or editor, and they take you on a roller-coaster ride," he said. "You go in with nothing prepared, and you do every line at least 10 different ways. When I did my first one, Curious George , I studied the script. I had a whole game plan. And they said, 'That's terrific, now let's try it this way.' So I've learned to keep my mind as open as I can, and let them pull the reins. It's a great collaborative process."
Astro Boy is Levy's fourth voice role in three years, and he's just begun work on another, Gnomeo and Juliet , with music by Sir Elton John. "I play a pink flamingo," he said crisply. "It's about garden gnomes."
He thinks that kids' movies are a natural vehicle for comedians, a chance to "really ham it up in a way you couldn't do in a straight drama. And whether it's a theatre full of kids or adults, to hear an audience laughing is a pretty nice sound."
But Levy's main reason for doing kids' comedies is artistic. "It's getting harder to find comedies that are truly funny, to me," he said. "I've been fortunate over the years to have worked with Chris Guest [on Waiting for Guffman , Best in Show , A Mighty Wind and For Your Consideration ] But some of these other comedies that are coming out, when I watch them I go, 'Phew, boy, how did that happen?' There are too many comedies today that lower the bar of intelligence. They're very satisfied to keep that bar low enough so that people can step over it. I'm fortunate to be in a position where I can do this, but I'm turning down a lot of scripts.
"I've had the experience of being in the wrong hands, and it's not pleasant," Levy continued. "I'm sure if you go back and look over my body of work, you'll be able to pick out a thing or two, whereas with animated movies, you know you're in good hands. They're extremely well-written and extremely funny. The jokes are well set up, the characters are beautiful. You're dealing with people who really have respect for the comedy, and for how great a project they can put together."
And a little child shall lead them - all the way to the bank.
Johanna Schneller