Penelope Cruz: Guinea Pig
Filed under: Animation, Comedy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Casting, Disney, Family Films
If you remember back to my post from last November, Juarez isn't the only guinea pig in the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced movie. There's also Blaster, a Cavia porcellus (aka guinea pig) voiced by Tracy Morgan. Other animals and their respective voices include a mole named Speckles (Nicolas Cage), a hamster named Bucky (Steve Buscemi) and some humans (Will Arnett, Bill Nighy, Kelli Garner and others).
The humans are, of course, live-action and played by real-life actors. The animals, on the other hand, are computer-generated toons (like Alvin and the Chipmunks, I guess). And they're super-smart commandos that work for the government. And they're out to stop a evil billionaire from taking over the world (isn't it enough to be a billionaire?). As we've told you before, the script for the family-friendly action pic was written by National Treasure team Cormac and Marianne Wibberley (aka The Wibberleys) and it will be helmed by first-time director Hoyt Yeatman, who has two Academy Awards -- one for his visual effects work on The Abyss and one Technical Achievement Award "for the identification and diagnosis leading to the elimination of the 'red fringe' artifact in traveling matte composite photography." We'll have to see if the guy can score another Oscar someday for directing, though I doubt he'll manage that goal with G-Force.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-22-2008 @ 1:30PM
kevjohn said...
BAH!
I love the sound of her voice too, but I don't like the way modern animated films are made. Time was, they would hire 'vocal talents' to supply character voices these types of films. Now they seem to hire only 'big names'. I can't for the life of me name a single actor from "Secret of Nimh", "The Hobbit", or any non-Mel Blanc Saturday morning cartoon. Next thing you know we've got Tom Hanks doing Woody, Jaleel "Urkel" White doing Sonic, Brad Pitt doing Sinbad, Val Kilmer doing Moses, and now P. Cruz being a guinea pig. I know big names sell tickets, but what the hell, man?
There's been a sea change in the way animated features are made, and it seems to have gone unnoticed.
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1-22-2008 @ 1:46PM
Christopher Campbell said...
What, you don't watch NIMH specifically for Dom DeLuise? I just noticed, btw, that Shannen Doherty and Wil Wheaton were voices for some of the young mice. Also, the great character John Carradine ('The Grapes of Wrath') played the Great Owl.
The Hobbit also has its share of star voices, such as John Huston as Gandalf.
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1-22-2008 @ 4:41PM
kevjohn said...
Yeah yeah, I imdb'ed all those films I mentioned as I was writing that. They did indeed have some bonafide star power on their casts, but they weren't hired on just so they could have their famous names splashed all over the advertising. Modern animated films seem to having a "how many major stars can we get?" contest.
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