DVDizzy Forum

http://www.animated-movies.net/SharkSlayer.html

I didn't want to hijack the Bug's Life thread so I decided to start a new discussion about this...and I know it's not a Disney Film or DVD but I thought it might get lost in Off Topic.

Check out the cast assembled for this one. Apparently James Gandolfini was gonna voice the "Don", but has been replaced by Robert DeNiro. The storyline itself sounds a bit fishy (I know, bad pun) but I'm amzed at the folks they've lined up to do this. And how is it that Dreamworks always seems to fall in line with Pixar??

Well, if I am correct, it was DreamWorks who first proposed the "Fish" story, and Pixar followed. Then Dreamworks delayed it...And Pixar released first...

I believe this is true, although not really!

Yeah... I don't know about that movie. No doubt, it will probably be successful, I just can see where it is going and don't care for the sublinal little things they put into the movie...

Oh and whoever, in whatever post, said Katzenburg was sucking up to Pixar I think your right on the money...

Jeffrey Katzenberg, a co-founder of DreamWorks, has spearheaded the trend[or casting high profile actors in animated movies], casting Ralph Fiennes and Sandra Bullock in The Prince of Egypt, Woody Allen and Sharon Stone in Antz and Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz in Shrek. While rivals have grumbled about Jeffrey Katzenberg's "trick casting," other studios have followed suit. Not every one of them, mind you: "The star of the Pixar movies is Pixar," admits Terry Press, the marketing chief of DreamWorks.

coughsuckupcough I think little Mr. Ratzenburg has his eye on the company...

psh if katzenberg gets a hold of pixar we'll see Spirit look a like nemo, Moses look a like woody and buzz light year

That's true about the casting... all their movies try to cram in as many celebs as they can. I saw on some webpage the line up for their next three movies and its like an animated movie star jamboree.

Prince Phillip wrote:Oh and whoever, in whatever post, said Katzenburg was sucking up to Pixar I think your right on the money...

Oh... it was Indiana, author of this post

i think sinbad bombed cause of Katherine Zeta-Jones! she cant act! that's why i dont go see dreamworks movie cause i dont care who voices the character's voices dont make the movie! HEAR THAT MR KATZENBERG!!!!

MickeyMouseboy wrote:i think sinbad bombed cause of Katherine Zeta-Jones! she cant act! that's why i dont go see dreamworks movie cause i dont care who voices the character's voices dont make the movie! HEAR THAT MR KATZENBERG!!!!

Are we suffering from selective recall here? Don't forget it was Disney who started the celebrity voice thing with Robin Williams in Aladdin (under Katzenberg's stewardship though no doubt) and has continued more or less to this day (although Treasure Planet was light of 'named' voices). Plus talking of Dreamworks getting big names to do voices, you don't get much bigger than Tom Hanks (who need I remind you does the voice of Woody in Pixar's Toy Story films).

As for Sharkslayer, from what I've read about it, it's a spoof on various 'mob' movies and as such would be linked to those voices anyway. I suspect if the originals hadn't been cast, they would cast soundalikes anyhow. I'm not a big fan of getting stars to do voices for animated characters but in the case of Sharkslayer I think it may be justified - in order to get the spoof to work better.

However what I dislike about Dreamworks is that they seem to throw money at their voice artists - like they do think the voices are more important than the animated characters. Here's a novel idea for Dreamworks, how about on the next film you get the actors to work for scale (like Disney often does) and throw all the money at the animators?

2099net wrote:
However what I dislike about Dreamworks is that they seem to throw money at their voice artists - like they do think the voices are more important than the animated characters. Here's a novel idea for Dreamworks, how about on the next film you get the actors to work for scale (like Disney often does) and throw all the money at the animators?

I'm afraid this ultimately makes things tougher on Pixar down the road when they want to get their one or two "big names" to do voice overs. But we've seen time and time again it's not so much who does the voice ....

I have heard so much lately (not in this thread) that Aladdin only succeeded or owes most of it's succees to Robin Williams! and to those people or whatever, I would like to say a few ugly words . Aladdin succeeded because it was good and not because of goof ball RW, who I like, but who can take it too far. Infact I think Aladdin would have done just as well with out him as the Genie, if there are new scenes from the original, in abandoned concepts on the Aladdin disc, I hope they are scenes that were filmed with a different voice.

2099net wrote: Are we suffering from selective recall here? Don't forget it was Disney who started the celebrity voice thing with Robin Williams in Aladdin

Celebrity cartoon voices go way further back than that. Is anybody here old enough to know who Jack Benny, Jim Backus, Hans Conried, Eva Gabor, Maurice Chevalier, Phil Harris, Jimmy Durante, Edward Everett Horton, Sterling Holloway, Mia Farrow, Orson Bean, John Huston, Ringo Starr, Ruth Buzzi, Don Knotts, Bill Cosby, Mel Brooks, Phyllis Diller, Sonny & Cher, Don Knotts, Tom Bosley, Danny DeVito, Dom DeLuise, Paul Ruebens, Billy Joel, etc., etc. are?

herman_the_german wrote:

2099net wrote: Are we suffering from selective recall here? Don't forget it was Disney who started the celebrity voice thing with Robin Williams in Aladdin

Celebrity cartoon voices go way further back than that. Is anybody here old enough to know who Jack Benny, Jim Backus, Hans Conried, Eva Gabor, Maurice Chevalier, Phil Harris, Jimmy Durante, Edward Everett Horton, Sterling Holloway, Mia Farrow, Orson Bean, John Huston, Ringo Starr, Ruth Buzzi, Don Knotts, Bill Cosby, Mel Brooks, Phyllis Diller, Sonny & Cher, Don Knotts, Tom Bosley, Danny DeVito, Dom DeLuise, Paul Ruebens, Billy Joel, etc., etc. are?

Robin Williams was the first time a voice artist who couuld literally demand millions for his film appearances did the voice for an animated films. And Aladdin was the first time Disney "promoted" the voice as much as the character (even if doing so was against Robin Williams' wishes, meaning some of it was sort of sly promotion). And yes, I think we can blame Katzenberg for that.

I think Robin would have been cool with the advertising if it wasn't up against his stinker "Toys." In retrospect, he probably should have preferred being associated with "Aladdin."

Luke wrote:I think Robin would have been cool with the advertising if it wasn't up against his stinker "Toys." In retrospect, he probably should have preferred being associated with "Aladdin."

Well I quite like Toys - it's gets a airing every Christmas time in our house. Are you beginning to detect a pattern here Luke? - I tend to support the underdogs. For crying out loud I like The Country Bears!

Part of the reason is excessive hype biases me against a film before I see it, so I suppose that's prejudice but only in a positive way!

Re: Toys. It tried to do something different and while not 100% successful was more original than the bulk of Hollywood's output.

http://www.sharktale.com/

The Website for the newly renamed SharkTale is up and... all they seem to care about is the voice cast. Who needs to bother with little things like the story, the character design or least important of all, the animation?

2099net wrote:http://www.sharktale.com/

The Website for the newly renamed SharkTale is up and... all they seem to care about is the voice cast. Who needs to bother with little things like the story, the character design or least important of all, the animation?

That's the whole movie right there - just cast photos, accompanying name credits, and WHOOSING sound effects. Sure hope DreamWorks wins another Oscar for their awesome animated output!

(And the unpaid interns who made that site should be congratulated on such a fine Flash movie.)

I know this was like three months ago.....

Maerj wrote:That's true about the casting... all their movies try to cram in as many celebs as they can. I saw on some webpage the line up for their next three movies and its like an animated movie star jamboree.

.....but i thought id give some info anway!

check out the celebs that dreamworks got doing some of the voices:

Shrek 2:

Mike Myers (Shrek)
Eddie Murphy (Donkey)
Cameron Diaz (Fiona)
Antonio Banderas (Puss-In-Boots)
Julie Andrews (Fiona's Mother: the Queen)
John Cleese (Fiona's Father: King Harold)
Rupert Everett (Prince Charming)
Larry King (The Ugly Stepsister)
John Lithgow (Prince Farquaad)

Shark Tale (formerly known as Sharkslayer):

Will Smith (Oscar)
Robert DeNiro (Don Lino)
Renee Zellweger (Angie)
Angelina Jolie (Lola)
Jack Black (Lenny the Shark)
Martin Scorsese (Sykes the Pufferfish)
Peter Falk (Don Brizzi)
Michael Imperioli (Frankie the Shark)
Vincent Pastore (Willie the Killer Whale)
Kevin Pollak (Luca the Octopus)
Doug E. Doug (Ernie the Jellyfish)
Ziggy Marley (Bernie the Octopus)

Madagascar:

Ben Stiller (Alex the Lion)
Chris Rock (The Zebra)
Jada Pinkett-Smith (Gloria the Hippo)
David Schwimmer (Melvin the Giraffe)
And apparently Jason Alexander will be playing some supporting role...

Over the Hedge:

Jim Carrey (RJ the Raccoon)
Garry Shandling (Verne the Tortoise)
Gene Wilder (Norbert the Owl)

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Damn..... that's a hell of a variety of stars in there! including some of my faves! Myers, Murphy, Cleese, Lithgow, Zellwegger, Black, Stiller, Rock, Schwimmer, Alexander, Carrey and Wilder!!!

Personally.... im most looking foward to Madagascar, then Over the Hedge, followed by Shrek 2, and last but least- Shark Tales.

2099net wrote:http://www.sharktale.com/

The Website for the newly renamed SharkTale is up and... all they seem to care about is the voice cast. Who needs to bother with little things like the story, the character design or least important of all, the animation?

How could DreamWorks possibly have any $$ to invest in story, character design and/or animation when all the dough has got to be tied up in the cast. That is unreal.

Looking over the website not ONE of those characters looks well done or even remotely interesting. NOT ONE. Pixar's characters, for the most part, have a certain "look" to them that draws you in and is aesthetically pleasing. These characters look completely dull and uniteresting...dar I say, cheap?

And while Sharkslayer was a dull name, Shark Tale is even duller.

indianajp wrote:And while Sharkslayer was a dull name, Shark Tale is even duller

no argument there! i actually thought Sharkslayer was a cool name...but Shark Tale???? UGH!

Shark Tale... oooh... How wonderfull... haha