Celebrity Voice Actors In Theatrical Movies Based On Established Properties

SweetShop209

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When it comes to theatrical movies based on established properties, there are some trends I've noticed:

1. When it comes to theatrical movies based on tv shows, the regular voice cast will reprise their roles, but they'll add in at least one celebrity to the mix (whether they've done voice acting or not) . The SpongeBob movies, the Rugrats movies, Recess: School's Out, The Simpsons Movie, Teen Titans Go To The Movies, and the 2017 My Little Pony movie are a few examples of this. Two notable exceptions involve Jetsons The Movie and The Powerpuff Girls Movie. For the former, most of the regular voice cast reprised their roles (with voice actor Patrick Zimmerman taking over as Elroy because Daws Butler died), while Janet Waldo's dialogue for Judy was dubbed over by pop singer Tiffany (who originally was only going to sing for the character), a rare occasion for a voice actor to be replaced by a celebrity in a movie based on a TV show they worked on. For the latter, it's the only theatrical movie based on a TV show that I can think of that had no celebrity voice actors. It was purely professional voice actors.

2. When it comes to movies based more on a specific franchise, but not a TV show within the franchise, don't be surprised if there is celebrity casting and in some cases, recasting.

One example is with the 2011 Winnie The Pooh movie. While it did have Jim Cummings reprise his roles as Pooh and Tigger, alongside Travis Oates as Piglet, and Rabbit was at least voiced by veteran voice actor Tom Kenny, the rest of the cast did not have their regular voice actors. Sure, some of them have done voice acting, such as Craig Ferguson as Owl and Bud Luckey as Eeyore, they're either known more for on camera acting (the former) or are known for a profession outside of acting (the latter was a Pixar animator, who usually only did voice acting in Pixar projects). Unlike most of the other Pooh movies, which were usually made by Disney Toon Studios, which are generally consistent in keeping the regular voice actors, this was made as part of the Disney Animated Canon. It's the first Pooh project in the DCA in 30 something years. The latter probably thought "Get some big name actors for this project."

And then there's something like Spirit Untamed. Even though it's based on the Netflix series Spirit Riding Free that also brings back the showrunner, it recasts everyone with celebrities. One could attribute this to how the movie was made by the regular DreamWorks studio without the involvement of DreamWorks Television Animation, and thus the former thought to get celebrities. When Trollhunters got a Netflix movie, that kept the regular voice cast since it was specifically produced by the television side of things.

There's also some recent Warner Brothers examples, such as with SCOOB and Space Jam A New Legacy. For the former, the only regular Hanna Barbera characters to have their regular voice actors are Frank Welker as Scooby Doo and Billy West as Muttley. Everyone else got a celebrity voice with varying degrees of how many voice roles they did. For the latter, while it does have many of the regular Looney Tunes voice actors such as Jeff Bergman, Eric Bauza, Bob Bergen, Fred Tatasciore, and Candi Milo, Lola was voiced by Zendaya and Speedy was voiced by Gabriel Iglesias. I believe early articles said Kath Soucie would voice Lola, so she was most likely dubbed over. If the two franchises got theatrical movies based on specific TV shows (like if Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated or The Looney Tunes Show got theatrical movies), then the regular voice cast would probably be kept. I mean, Teen Titans Go To The Movies was based on Teen Titans Go, so the regular voice cast returning was no surprise. Plus, this movie was made by Warner Brothers Animation, not the Warner Animation Group (which worked on the former two).

What do you think though?
 
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Low Spark of Lyman

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I assume this is more about recent movies (i.e. those released in the past 25 years, which would include everything mentioned above except Jetsons: The Movie). Nevertheless, I have one from much earlier.

It doesn't look like The Man Called Flintstone (1966) had any celebrity voice actor additions. The cast, from what I see, had all appeared in the original show, most on a regular/recurring basis. Yes, there was a song by Louis Prima (one year before his appearance on The Jungle Book), but even then, he wasn't associated with a character (AFAICT, as I don't recall watching the movie).

The PPG film ended up being a major box office bomb. Although I don't think having celebrity voice actors or not were relevant, what with other factors that have been noted. Still, that didn't help with making more exceptions likely.

Regarding Jetsons: The Movie, Tiffany voicing Judy full-time was due to corporate pressure, with H-B not in a position to decline w/o jeopardizing the movie. Mark Evanier has occasionally written about the matter on News From ME, including that Joseph Barbera gave a public apology to Janet Waldo at Don Messick's retirement party.
 

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