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[bush_cheney2004]

You guys are right. Kids flock to the theaters when they see Asner's name on the bill.

"Kids" don't read the bill, nor do they buy the tickets.

[M.Dancer]

I am with M.Dancer on one point. I don't watch animation for the voice acting. I appreciate awesome voice acting, but for the most part it is the animation styles and such I am after.

I am a big consummer of animation, cause I have a 10 year old and a 5 year old at home.

I know for intance that Mindy Cohn, that bubbly gal who lost her viginity on "The facts of life" (Natalie) is the voice of Velma on Scooby Doo...but I don't wacth scooby do because she is in it. She is bankable in this regard because she is an experianced pro who can hit her mark. (Casey Kassam plays shaggy)

Over the years I have seen dozens of animations....aside from shrek, I couldn't tell you who was in the film...

[bush_cheney2004]

I am a big consummer of animation, cause I have a 10 year old and a 5 year old at home.

Good for them...I have neither but still buy DVDs of my childhood animation and television shows (50's and 60's). Picked up Astroboy volumes last week. I began to notice the actual voice over talent when Ted Knight (also of MTM fame) narrated Super Friends. Your Kassam reference is a classic example.

I know for intance that Mindy Cohn, that bubbly gal who lost her viginity on "The facts of life" (Natalie) is the voice of Velma on Scooby Doo...but I don't wacth scooby do because she is in it. She is bankable in this regard because she is an experianced pro who can hit her mark. (Casey Kassam plays shaggy)

I think that's what counts as well, otherwise anybody could do it for union scale. Jim Carrey probably was paid untold millions for A Christmas Carol, and he is promoting the film as a voice actor.

Over the years I have seen dozens of animations....aside from shrek, I couldn't tell you who was in the film...

True for the most part, but at least for me, age offers the delightful memory of aural experiences that help to recognize voice work in film and television, probably because of repetition (e.g. name that tune in three notes). It's not like I ever saw James Earl Jones in Star Wars, but I knew it was him right away because of The Great White Hope, and the earlier Dr. Strangelove.

I think Asner follows a common path for actors as they age as long as they still have the pipes. Who can forget remembers the voice over talent in Jungle Book or the voice of Mr. Ed ?

"Geeeeeeeeeee Wilburrrrrrrrrrrrrrr !!"

Edited December 10, 2009 by bush_cheney2004

[M.Dancer]

So my son and I just watched Justice League, A New Begining (for what must be the 5th time).

I never noticed the credits before..

Niel Patrick Harris

Lucy Lawless

Kyle Maclachlan

Kyra Sedgwick

Brooke Shields

Joe Mantegna

...my son doesn't know any of these folks...

It is amazing however, how many name actors do voice work on very small projects (batman, superman, the amazing spider-man, X men etc etc) which given the audience, gives very little recognition.

[bush_cheney2004]

...It is amazing however, how many name actors do voice work on very small projects (batman, superman, the amazing spider-man, X men etc etc) which given the audience, gives very little recognition.

JLA...gotta love that going way back. I don't like the sarcastic versions we see on Cartoon Network / Adult Swim with Hawkman having sex with inanimate objects.

...but somebody has to do the voice work until they figure out how to automate it. I'd rather hear a real...familiar voice instead. Who knew that the late Ricardo Montalban did voice work for Kim Possible? His career spanned seven decades.

Edited December 10, 2009 by bush_cheney2004

[Oleg Bach]

Off kilter and off topic - I hate old black and white 40s films..but I did see a very interesting and serialistic bit - it was called Tom Dick and Harry - really qyiet ahead of it's time..should check it out. I believe it starred a very young Bergess Meridith.

[Oleg Bach]

To add - this film was brilliant - It made me laugh in a very astounded manner..so clever and so current. I missed the tail end of it - could someone tell me who the director was?

[August1991]

Really, August... you're now critiquing movies that you haven't even seen based on your assumptions of what they're about? Sometimes I wonder "could August be any more pompous?" and the answer has always turned out to be "yes, he could."

Well, between pompous and self-absorbed sarcastic, I'll accept pompous. As the saying goes, tomorrow I'll be humble but tomorrow you'll still be self-absorbed.

Kimmy, you got me to rent Up! About half way through, with all those ballons, I realized the marketing potential of the 3D version. I watched it at home in 2D. Maybe I missed something.

Did I like it? No. The characters were weak and the story was disjointed. To use a 1990s term, there was no arc. The movie's most interesting character, the wife, died for no reason in the first act.

People on this thread keep talking about Ed Asner. When I heard his voice for the old guy, I kept imagining Walter Mathau's voice. Now Mathau would have made the character interesting, like Eddie Murphy made Donkey a key character in Shrek. Ed Asner, OTOH, is a famous leftist famous for playing right wing types on TV shows. I think he played a cruel slave owner on a TV movie about slavery. Ed Asner (even his voice) is no Walter Mathau.

I know that Hollywood types are hypocrites but do they have to make hypocrisy the single moral failing of humanity? The young boy and girl worship the older adventurer who turns out to be, duh, a hypocrite. And I never quite understood the connection of the young fat boy and the old guy - except that Hollywood always wants to promote "alternative lifestyles".

Kid movie? I suppose that kids would like the balloons.

To add - this film was brilliant - It made me laugh in a very astounded manner..so clever and so current.

Up! a good movie? Oleg liked it.

I rest my case.

Edited December 17, 2009 by August1991

[kimmy]

Well, between pompous and self-absorbed sarcastic, I'll accept pompous. As the saying goes, tomorrow I'll be humble but tomorrow you'll still be self-absorbed.

And to misappropriate another of Churchill's famous lines: If a woman is not self-absorbed at 26, she has no heart... if she is still self-absorbed at 36, she has no ... wait, what was the question?

Kimmy, you got me to rent Up!

Well, if I accomplished nothing else today, at least I bilked August out of $5.

Did I like it? No. The characters were weak and the story was disjointed. To use a 1990s term, there was no arc. The movie's most interesting character, the wife, died for no reason in the first act.

She's not really a character, August. She's mostly just a plot device. Like Curly's Wife in Of Mice And Men was sort of a character, but mostly just a plot device.

She provides the background for Carl. The montage at the start, showing them growing old together, is a beautiful piece of film-making, but it's there to introduce you to Carl, not to Ellie. The background with Ellie tells us what Carl is *really* hoping to find in Paradise Falls (and it's not giant goofy birds or Charles Muntz.)

The opening portion of the movie... from the very start, up to the part where the house achieves lift-off, was wonderful, IMO. They could have made it a short film and ended it right at the part where the house takes off, and that would have been just fine with me.

But they didn't. The rest of the film, while to me not as enchanting as the could-have-been short film that opens it up, is an enjoyable action adventure starring one of the most unique heroes I've ever seen in a movie. And the part near the end, where Carl find's Ellie's adventure scrapbook and finds that she's filled the pages, for me that was waterworks, a genuine 5-kleenex moment.

like Eddie Murphy made Donkey a key character in Shrek.

All EddieMurphayyyyy added to Shrek was schtick. Shrek was at its best when Mike Myers was being Shrek, and it came closest to going off the rails when Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy were doing schtick together.

Asner doesn't do schtick in Up, and the movie is much the better for it.

Kid movie? I suppose that kids would like the balloons.

I gather the kids loved Dug the Dog; I didn't watch it with kids, but I loved Dug. Far more than that obnoxious donkey, for sure.

Up! a good movie? Oleg liked it.

I rest my case.

Yeah, well Oleg HATES Quentin Tarantino!

-k

Edited December 17, 2009 by kimmy