Respect the Voices – CartoonClack

It’s been over a week since the Oscars and most talk about it has quieted down (unless you’re a Community fan, in which case you’re celebrating Dean Pelton’s best screenplay win for Time Desk!). But for me, the big moment still in my mind is Chris Rock’s rather tasteless joke at the expense of working voice actors:

“I hate when people go on TV and tell you how hard it is to do animation. No, UPS is hard work.  I’ve done some animation … it’s the easiest job in the world.  I go in a booth and I go, ‘What’s the line?’  And the guy goes, ‘It’s time to go to the store.’  And I go, ‘It’s time to go to the store!’ And then they give me a million dollars!”

I’m not sure what’s more infuriating — that Chris Rock thinks voice actors are just parroting lines or that he got a million dollars for his mediocre role in the Madagascar movies. Actually, I think the worst part is he implied that all voice actors have it easy AND get a million dollars for their work. How insulting is that? The best analogy I can think of is if a celebrity starts a fashion line and says, “Oh, it’s easy being a fashion designer. You just doodle a sketch and your sewing people make the dresses. And then you get a million dollars for it!” You can imagine how furious that would make the designers that are making their careers through hard work and talent.

As a fan of cartoons and a fan of cartoon commentaries, I am well aware of the dedication that goes into these roles. I am in awe of the talent in my favorite cartoons, especially from the actors who are able to create distinct characters in the same show — you’d be surprised how many actors are talking to themselves in whole scenes. I do some minor voice overs and impersonations in my webseries, but I am nowhere near the level of talent I’ve seen on these shows. These are awesome actors who I have a huge amount of respect for, and I don’t appreciate them being dismissed like this.

Needless to say, voice actors themselves are pretty mad about these comments. Tara Strong, voice actress extraordinaire and the voice of Twilight Sparkle on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, was especially adamant about her disgust towards Rock’s comments, saying on Twitter, “I challenge Chris Rock to a voice off, since he thinks it’s so ‘easy.’ If I win, I get his million dollar pay check.” Maurice LaMarche (best known for voicing Brain on Pinky and the Brain) also spoke out against the joke, saying on Twitter, “I usually read off actual scripts when I do my V/O, @chrisrock. Aping the engineer’s line-reading generally makes me sound like an engineer,” and “So, wait, @chrisrock, you want us to feel sympathy that you only get to play a zebra, yet you rub a million dollar payday in our faces. WTF?” Other voice actors newer to the industry were similarly upset. I can hardly imagine how the actors from Rango felt … you know, the movie that won the award Chris Rock was presenting. How bittersweet it must have been to have your work in a film disregarded so easily right before the movie wins the Oscar.

This is the problem we see often when celebrities are cast in cartoons, especially in films. There are always exceptions (Mike Myers comes to mind in Shrek), but most celebrities can’t do other voices — too often, they’re brought in for their name only and their performances are not nearly as rich and interesting as experienced voice actors would be. And let’s face it, Chris Rock can only do one voice and that’s Chris Rock’s voice. I actually feel bad for the celebrities that put in effort when doing voice overs because Rock was insulting them as well. My mind goes to Will Arnett in Ratatouille. Did you know he played the German chef? Probably not, since he wasn’t just doing his Gob Bluth voice.

If you watch the clip, you’ll notice he also mentions how in animation, black men can only play “a donkey or a zebra.” Of course, he’s talking about himself and Eddie Murphy. And while I agree we could certainly use more diversity in entertainment (especially when it comes to leading roles), there are many successful black voice actors out there, including but not limited to Phil LaMarr, Cree Summers and Keith David. It’s important to note that all of these actors don’t just play black characters and their different characters have distinct voices, voices they’ve worked years to perfect. It’s quite telling that Rock’s examples of black voice actors are two roles from celebrities doing their normal voices. Perhaps he could play more than a goofy zebra if he had any range as a voice actor.

Folks, I realize he was making a joke, but when it comes down to it, he was making a joke at the expense of a challenging profession full of hardworking actors that already have a difficult time being given validation outside of their industry. Worse than that, I’ve heard media praise Rock’s bit and I’ve seen comments from his fans calling the jokes hilarious. To combat that a little, I’ll be taking next week to talk about a few of my favorite voice actors and my favorite of their roles. I can only hope this doesn’t deter the next generation of voice actors from even getting started.

Clacked by Katie Schenkel
on Mar 05, 2012 @ 14:09 EST5EDT