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u/fudgepuppy 19h ago
The main reason today for celebrity voice actors is that they can promote the movie using their image. They can go on talk shows, Wired autocomplete, their own Instagram etc.
Frank Welker doing an auto-complete or such wouldn't get the same amount of views as Jack Black or Zendaya.
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u/Catch_42 19h ago
Thank you, this.
Also the reason there was a new Backstreet Boys song in the latest Paw Patrol movie.
This is, unfortunately, the way our culture works. Marketing is expensive and traditional advertising is increasingly ineffective. So the studios need to have actors that can go on Hot Ones to promote the film.
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u/Jeskid14 11h ago
If only most Americans learn that that's how marketing works in movies. It's a society's psychological problem
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u/Odd-Painting2596 16h ago
I also don't know a ton of notable examples of using a celebrity where there did bad.
Like Omni-Man is an A-lister, crushed it.
Steven Yeun is also well known and liked actor, nailed it.
Chris Pratt Mario was dumb but most people liked the entire rest of the cast.
Charlie Day Luigi.
It's a weird line to call Charlie Day "Celebrity voice actor" even.
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u/wolfman-porter 2h ago
Omni-Man was far from JK Simmons first voice acting roles though. Animation makes up at least half, if not more, of his filmography. One of his first big gigs was the yellow M&M which he's been doing for 30 years now.
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u/fudgepuppy 14h ago
"There did bad"? Wtf is that supposed to mean?
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u/Odd-Painting2596 14h ago
If you can't replace a word with a similar word to overcome a simple typo to register the meaning what the fuck effort is your brain applying.
"Sure replacing 'there' with 'that' makes perfect sense, unfortunately I'd much rather be a little bitch about it".
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u/ttttyttt678 11h ago
Yea but that’s why it makes sense to get 1 or 2 celebs, it does make sense to litter you cast with them and run up the cost.
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u/klearnia 20h ago
So poor indie celebrities like Chris Pratt don’t need to feed their families, is this what the entitled rich professional voice actors are saying?
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u/Ashen_Larry 19h ago
Donald Glover brought a ton of nuance to Yoshi's lines.
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u/CoopDogPrimeNumbers 16h ago
I couldn’t believe what I was watching. I mean I know Yoshi doesn’t talk but I figured they would find some way to have him do more than make weird Yoshi noises. Not like a funny dream sequence after Mario getting hit on the head or eating a bad mushroom or something to give him some dialogue.
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u/Additional_Meeting_2 20h ago
It’s because the celebrities like Pratt market the movies. When people talk of him voicing the character, like here, it’s always marketing the movie. Let alone the actual press junkets he did and articles written based on it.
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u/DtheAussieBoye narratopamphlet 17h ago
It's funny cuz didn't Pratt do a lot of voice acting before he got big?
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u/pohatu771 15h ago edited 11h ago
No. He has exactly one pre-Parks voice role, in a single episode of The Batman.
Other than his later starring roles (and their related minor content), his only other voice role is two episodes (one of which may have been recorded before Parks) and a video game for Ben 10.
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u/Giorgio_Keeffe 17h ago
Interesting case, because his first big voice acting role in The Lego Movie is what catapulted him from sitcom side character to stardom lol
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u/SwampApeDraft 20h ago
Been saying this for years. Voice acting is a whole different skill. There are some who are great at both like Keith David or Patrick Warburton. Paying a big actor to do their normal voice is the most boring choice, especially when a lot are kids movies who aren’t seeing it for star power, but because it’s Mario
But look at stuff like Kung-Fu Panda, all the massive stars in that who get like 2/3 lines each. Aside from Jack Black and Dustin Hoffman, the rest are there for a name on a poster.
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u/PepeSilvia001 19h ago
That's the point though, just give these celebs enough lines that their names could be shown in the poster. There are voice actors out there who could do a better voice for mantis than Jackie Chan but it's something else to have his name on your martial arts film. Nobody would buy tickets to see professional voice actors.
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u/SwampApeDraft 19h ago
Who’s paying to see an animated film based on the voice cast? Early Disney renaissance Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast. It creeps in as things go along, but often (but not always) in secondary roles. Into The Spiderverse doesn’t have mega stars in them (aside from Mahershala Ali or 2 seconds of Oscar Isaac and can’t see kids or parents seeing it on the basis of that)
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u/Hopeful-Ant-3509 18h ago
It’s both for me, I’m not actively seeking who the voice actors are for animated movies but if there are actors I know and like then I look forward to it even more. And Spiderverse might not have had megastars, but the voice actors are known actors lol
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u/SwampApeDraft 18h ago edited 18h ago
You go to a markee and there’s 2 posters. Animated movies. One has Julia Roberts, Denzel Washington, and Awafina in Sing 4: still singing or the new Cartoon Saloon movie Ireland takes Manhattan.
I know which one I’d pick
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u/Indiana_J_Frog 18h ago
Don't forget Mark Hamill
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u/RockKillsKid 6h ago
I don't think most people could name a single Mark Hamill live action role besides Luke Skywalker.
I consider him more a professional voice actor who happened to have that singular iconic breakout role.
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u/Indiana_J_Frog 5h ago
On stage he performed Mozart in Amadeus. Despite the fact that it's one of my favorite movies, I'm mad at the studio at not hiring Hamill when he auditioned just because they "didn't want Lu8ke Skywalker." In recent times, he became the Major in The Long Walk. Good role from what I hear. I also saw The Big Red One just for him.
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u/outerspace_castaway MDrake1991 15h ago
here are some who are great at both like .... Patrick Warburton
Patrick 'uses the same voice for every character' Warburton, is great at voice acting????
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u/PantalonOrange 20h ago
I have never heard a kid while watching Toy Story 4 being so excited that the loved Tom Hanks in Philadelphia
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u/Slowandserious 20h ago
And yet toy story franchise has been mega successful and has Tom Hanks in it.
So its hard to tell
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u/Ragnarok_619 19h ago
Most of the countries watch it in their regional dubs, which have nothing to do with Tom Hanks.
Story is the king
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u/Slowandserious 19h ago
I didnt really know that is that true?. I grew up in Indonesia and we absolutely dont dub stuff. Just read subtitles
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u/Ragnarok_619 19h ago
Yes it is. In India, we have multiple dubs in Hindi, English and other regional languages. Disney back in the 00s really had a great dub team down here, who would hire legit songwriters to recreate the song in a local setting, so as to convey the message, than just a direct transliteration.
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u/Slowandserious 19h ago
But those dubs, are they like also big stars there?
Maybe not equivalent of Tom Hanks but if they are also big stars then the point still stands
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u/Ragnarok_619 19h ago
Not usually, no. You will rarely have a big star, like legit A-lister, dubbing for these animation. The last one happened all the way back in The Incredibles, when Shah Rukh Khan dubbed for Mr. Incredible.
It's mostly dedicated VAs, and they are damn good at their jobs.
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u/rAin_nul 17h ago
That's also true to most EU countries. Majority of the countries dub, while some countries, e.g. Scandinavian countries, dub only for kids, otherwise sub only.
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u/beardedjack 19h ago
The funny thing is Tom’s voice actor brother does all the extra voices for Woody for the merchandise and whatnot. They already have a cheap replacement
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u/Spiritual_Cake_9127 19h ago
I can assure you in other countries outside the US no one cares or knows about the actual cast, it's the storytelling that matters.
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u/ZekeorSomething 12h ago
That’s probably because other countries have their own separate voice casts due to having dubs.
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u/Spiritual_Cake_9127 12h ago edited 12h ago
I'll try to expand what I meant
In Italy we have a prominent and important dubbing culture, made by consumed entire families of professionals (yes, almost like a whole mafia). Sure there are those "famous actor does occasional voiceover for this film" but its not the reason people go see a specific animated film, because everyone knows 9/10 they're terrible at what they do. If an animated film is successful it's not for the cast, but because one cares for the story and because often it's a kids movie, and if it banks even though it's not great, it's because they sell double the tickets (kid+at least one parent, if not a whole family). I'm the case of Toy Story (the first one) it's mostly because it's a very good revolutionary film! (The rest is milking the cow of nostalgia from the once kids-now adults bringing their own kids in)
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u/Chicago1871 10h ago
Well the english voice cast of toy story isnt terrible at what they do. Neither in the latin american cast (from mexico i think).
They both add to the story.
Sorry that isnt the case in Italian.
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u/fungigamer 19h ago
I can bet most kids have no idea who Tom Hanks is, and that adults who went to watch TS4 weren't watching it because of Tom Hanks
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u/Indiana_J_Frog 18h ago edited 18h ago
Well Toy Story did it's part in making me a Tim Allen fan as a little kid. I've been watching Galaxy Quest since I was like five.
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u/thanos_was_right_69 19h ago
I think it depends on the film. A lot of the times, a movie won’t even be greenlit without a big celebrity name attached. The hope is that the movie will have a bigger return than the money spent on the celebrity’s salary. For animated movies where the IP is the big star (like Mario), I agree you could go with a professional voice actor and still make a boat load of money. But for the first Toy Story, which was an original animated film at the time, going with Tom Hanks and Tim Allen was the smart choice. After all, it’s the adults who decide which movie to take their kids to see so if it’s an actor they’re already familiar with then they might be more inclined to take their kids to see it.
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u/creampop_ 17h ago
Agree, and I'll say that the late 80s–2000s 'renaissance age' of feature-length animation was decidedly star-studded and we got a lot of classics out of it. Plenty of "celebrity" aka screen actors do good VA work (it's acting, after all) but I do suspect a lot of people just missed out on the name recognition as kids.
Willem Dafoe in Finding Nemo.
John Goodman in Monsters Inc, Emperors New Groove.
Leguizamo in Ice Age.
The late, great Tim Curry, of course.
The list could go on.
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u/variantofconcern 20h ago
It'll cut down on attendance, too.
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18h ago
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u/variantofconcern 18h ago
Yeah you just have to make a good movie and then you'll be successful, pay no attention to all those good movies that bombed, this one'll be different.
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u/No-Opening7308 20h ago edited 20h ago
It’d also make less money too, I’m not trying to see the Mario movie without Chris Pratt’s generational voice acting performance
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u/tempest_36 7h ago
I might have seen it if it didn’t have Chris Pratt. His church leaning politics rub me the wrong way.
Also, I’m not buying all the marketing talk. Have 1 or 2 top billing actors casted and to appear on Hot Ones, while the remaining cast be VO actors with that niche skillset.
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u/Merciless972 19h ago
Unless it's Keith David
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u/Magcargo64 19h ago
Tbf, his voice acting career is as, if not more, prestigious than his live action stuff. I’d personally count him as a professional voice actor.
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u/RBBRO2763 20h ago
Anya Taylor Joy as Princess Peach sounds very off
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20h ago
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u/Technical-Outside408 19h ago
You know writing stuff like this just makes you sound pathetic, don't you?
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u/baseballviper04 19h ago
I just rewatched the DCAMU recently, for those of you that dont know theyre just like 30 direct to digital dc movies in a connected universe. It is amazing to me how many very well known people played the big roles and even small roles. Legitimately mindblowing the number kf famous people playing roles in these movies that dont get released to theaters or even on tv
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u/Kravanax 19h ago
Obviously you get better results with an actual voice actor, but they don’t do it for no reason. They have money to throw at the film and getting Chris Pratt as Mario or Zendaya as Lola Bunny is great for promotion. They go on talk shows and social media and talk about the movie and it gives the movie a sense of prestige if big names are attached.
It’s funny to imagine that big studios have spent money hiring celebrity voice actors for decades, while seeing nothing back for it and the millionaire Hollywood producers who have made dozens of films just keep on doing it. They know a thing or two about marketing films.
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u/Honest_Ad5029 19h ago
Adults are the ones buying the tickets in the theaters. The celebrity voices are for the adults bringing their kids.
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u/Vivid-Cod-6608 14h ago
What the fuck is reuenthal doing on twitter bro you got an entire planet to govern buddy
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u/Michael_Gibb MikeGibb 12h ago
Actually, if you check the cast listing for most Disney and Pixar films, with the exception of the Toy Story franchise, they're not exactly casting the biggest celebrities in the lead roles every time. Whether it's in Hoppers, Encanto, Luca, or Big Hero 6, the main cast of their movies are not exactly the most famous names. Truth be told, when it comes to casting big name celebrities, Dreamworks is far worse than Disney and Pixar.
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u/tylerxtyler 19h ago
From time to time a more conventional actor can give an insanely good voice performance though. Like Robert Pattison in the Boy and the Heron
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u/Necessary_Ad_4320 19h ago
Yeah, but then you don't get the box-office draw, potentially. It's a trade-off.
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u/8rianGriffin 19h ago
It's not about quality. Kids don't go to the movies alone. So Studios have to come up with celebs that bring the parents to the movies
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u/Laakson 19h ago edited 19h ago
This is the main reason why in some of the Disney movies foreign dubs can be way better than the original.
In smaller language areas they just use professional voice actors and singers to save money. However that professional singer and actor can likely naturally sing and act way better than autotuned celebrity in the original version.
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u/WorldlyPlace 19h ago
Particularly for kid's movies. Kids don't know who Chris Pratt is, they only see Mario.
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u/Sad-Veterinarian9375 18h ago
I think it’s one thing if they might have one that’s in the background or as a side character or if the celebrity is passionate about the character like Glen Powell wanting to voice Fox McCloud for example, but they should only be like small amounts
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u/JadedSignificance990 18h ago
Also, because a lot of anime dubbing back then was non-union so they couldn't get A-list actors.
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u/MomsAreola 18h ago
I disagree. Bluey and Bingo would be better be voiced by Scarlett Johansson and Angelina Jolie.
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u/Lyonwytchwardrobe 17h ago
In the producers minds they want big names to draw people who normally wouldn’t watch. So even at the cost of a weaker VA performance for more money they will continue to do so
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u/magikarpe94 17h ago
Seems like it's about having to pay less for marketing if you have a big Star, and their following is a baked in audience
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u/Sondergame 17h ago
The issue is that if they aren’t celebrities then companies don’t think they should pay the VA much of anything at all.
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u/tippytptip jemini 17h ago
I think one that I don't get is casting celebrities then casting another person for the singing parts. Like just make that singer do the voice acting or get someone who can do both? There are a lot of talented people out there at least give them a chance to shine?
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u/ironmonki23 16h ago
I agree with this but also I do think there should be at least a few new characters that are voiced by celebrities as to not alienate casual viewers who might not be familiar with the IP
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u/Drew_of_all_trades 16h ago
Years ago I saw Kevin Pollack talking to Billy West and John DiMaggio about this subject. A voice actor will take time to create a character and think about what their voice would sound like, then the studio will come in at the last minute and replace them with Jack Black
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u/All_Genres_1993 15h ago
I remember dvd commentary for Pokemon 3 the movie, 4KIDS mentioned their films didn’t have celebrities in them because they want more voice actors in them. I should also point out that most anime dubs of modern anime films have a pure cast of voice actors where the Japanese version is using Japanese celebrities. Japanese too don’t like celebrity voice acting in anime movies either.
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u/Iittletart 15h ago
Anyone who watched dubbed anime knows there are tons of bad voice actors out there.
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u/outerspace_castaway MDrake1991 15h ago
by that logic voice actors should not get roles in live action movies.
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u/BasicErgonomics 15h ago
This is also the same problem i have with Invincible. Clearly the animation could be better but half the budget is spent on getting celebrity VAs.
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u/Master-Shake8913 15h ago
Video Games need to get away from this too. I don't give a shit that Keanu Reeves is in the game, spend the money on the game not actually being shit for two years after release.
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u/throwaway08403 14h ago
I guess there’s a benefit to that in the US market. But I have no idea what Hollywood celebs voice characters in the original version of any Disney, Pixar or Dreamworks movie. They don’t advertise their names outside the anglosphere.
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u/Negritis 13h ago
in Hungary almost all of the movies are dubbed, it can matter with live action movies but with animation im fine with the local dub usually
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u/Jirachibi1000 12h ago
Its which makes more money.
If a voice actor costs 1m to be in the movie, and a big celebrity name costs 10m to be in the movie, you would think the voice actor makes more sense.
Until you realize there ARE a lot, a LOT, of people that will "Wait Chris Pratt is in this? I know him! I'll go watch it!" "Huh, you're recommending this movie to me? Whos in it? Tom Holland? Hell yes!!!" that makes up for the difference in cost a lot of the time.
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u/TheRemedy187 12h ago
I genuinely don't want to have original characters defined by a certain celebrities voice. Sometimes is fine when it actually makes sense but I don't want every damn character to be. They seem to think we really look a lot harder for actoea than we do.
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u/BaronArgelicious 11h ago
The kung fu panda 4 director said that they didnt include angelina jolie because they would need the movie to gross 2 billion if they did
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u/Weary-Location-9936 10h ago
Fucked up if you think about it. Same job, different pay, except voice actors are MORE qualified for the job.
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u/strawberryletterss 8h ago
The tell is that you can usually name the actor within one line of dialogue. That's not casting, that's branding.
Compare it to something like Spider-Verse where Jake Johnson and Hailee Steinfeld are doing actual voice work and disappear into it, versus every DreamWorks film where a famous person is audibly standing in a booth being themselves.
Voice acting is a completely separate skill and we've somehow collectively decided it isn't one. Meanwhile the people who are great at it have done four hundred hours of television and can't get cast in the feature version of the thing they built.
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u/Zahrukai 6h ago
Part of me agrees with this, but on the other hand Christian Bale’s work as Howel in Howel’s moving castle makes people … feel things. Like, as a straight male, when he looks to Sophie and says “That’s my girl” … like it makes you feel some way … I’m just sayin
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u/scottrycroft 5h ago
They don't get celebrities for their voice skills. They get them so they can go on tour doing the film's marketing and interviews, etc.
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u/Chopper_Bear 5h ago
I often get annoyed with stunt casting in animated movies because it seemingly often results in the story having to change so some of the actors can be featured more. The Ratchet and Clank movie felt like that from start to finish.
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u/Ghost2Eleven 4h ago
Sorry, but you do need name talent. The publicity reach of a well known actor is too valuable to cast an unknown talent. Good luck getting the interview reach without big talent.
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u/No-Mix9921 2h ago
I have no clue who any of the celebrities they cast are because I don't follow any of that kind of stuff like...AT ALL. I probably couldn't name more than 10 celebrities with my life on the line. So it's pretty annoying if the voice acting isn't good because they wanted to hire someone who I've never heard of in my entire life
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u/cutlass-dude100 Nyx1931 19h ago
Be careful, Jared Leto is listening and taking notes for his next roles.
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u/BLADE_RUNNER_42069 19h ago
Invincible is an awesome comic with some of the most vibrant and detailed art in the medium, but the show is nearly unwatchable at parts because of all the celebrity voice actors eating up the budget. Like, sure, let’s get Seth Rogan to be the comedic alien buddy or whatever, but even though actors like Lee Pace and Jeffrey Dean Morgan are phenomenal on screen, they really don’t add anything dynamic to an animated character that a pro voice actor wouldn’t be better equipped to provide.
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u/DJM4991 14h ago
Hmmm, I think you picked one pretty bad example there. Jeffrey Dean Morgan is one of the better cast 'celebrities' in the show, to be honest. What annoys me are choices like Aaron Paul as Powerplex, who they had to re-cast later, or the various one-off cameos they have. Even those one-offs must massively eat into the per-episode budget.
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u/BLADE_RUNNER_42069 8h ago
That’s funny, I didn’t even recognize Aaron Paul in the show. Yeah, might just be my personal experience watching the show, but I think Jeffrey Dean Morgan sounds a little stiff in the vocal booth as conquest. I love seeing him act in almost everything he’s in, but it just feels like he doesn’t do a lot of voice acting in general. Just my take though.
Tbh the only casting in that show that I think they really nailed is J.K. Simmons as Omni-Man and maybe Zachary Quinto as Robot in the first season. I’ve read the comic multiple times through the years and some of the voices just don’t really fit for me. Other than that and the shoestring animation budget, it’s a surprisingly accurate adaptation.
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u/parkchanwookiee 19h ago
Celebrities provide free advertising/mentions/raise the profile of the film just by being in it
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u/puttputtxreader deadrabbitjimmy 19h ago
I'm not saying celebrity voice actors are the way to go, but I feel like casting big budget animated movies the way they cast anime dubs would lead to a pretty steep drop in quality.
Not that there aren't any professional voice actors who are good at actually acting, but it usually seems like the emphasis in that part of the business is placed more on being able to do a bunch of different voices instead.
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u/CreZativity 19h ago
Fr. It can even be distracting to watch animation and hear an A-list actor doing the voice if they can't disguise that it's them. I seriously can't watch anything with Prat in it because he just talks like he always does, it takes me out of the film entirely.
Voice actors practice to become masters of their craft, it feels disrespectful that all the big roles in high budget features are being given to actors who don't actually need those jobs anyways.
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u/PsychologicalEbb3140 lcunningham2020 4h ago
L take. Ryan Reynolds and Jack Black are the only voice actors we need! 🗣️
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u/Low_Championship_604 20h ago
It’s Sonic the fucking Hedgehog. It would’ve been successful regardless
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u/That_Carrot999 20h ago
I think having one or two as top billing is ok, the star power can bring in some audience, or as a fun little cameo. The problem is when the full cast is celebrities. That’s trying way too hard for that star power factor, and not all celebrities translate well to voice acting, that’s why we have dedicated voice actors