Sunday, July 26, 2009

Voiceover Hornets' Nest?

As most readers of this blog know, my son Adam is a voice actor. Also, most (but not entirely all) readers of this blog are familiar with Matt Groening's Futurama animated series.

Here's the connection: Futurama, having taken a lengthy hiatus from production for tv, is in the works for new episodes. However, there's trouble in labor-land. The studio recently released a statement which said, in part:

" We love the 'Futurama' voice performers and absolutely wanted to use them, but unfortunately, we could not meet their salary demands. While replacing these talented actors will be difficult, the show must go on." (For "these talented actors" you can probably just read "Billy West," who does most of the characters.)

This has stirred up a bit of a firestorm among Futurama's fan base. Click here to see hundreds of comments on the "Can't Get Enough Futurama" website, virtually every one of which is a variation on "if this happens I'll never watch the new episodes, ever," or "Cthulu will devour the loved ones of whoever replaces Bender's voice," or something like that.

At any rate, an audition's an audition, and in these times ya gotta respond to a call. Click on the character image below to hear Adam's audition therefor:





6 comments:

Ronnie said...

He should get all the parts!

ronnie said...

I liked all of them but his Bender kicks ass :)

Brian Fies said...

I think they're all quite good, capturing not just the characters' sound but their personalities. Sadly, Adam's work is just a pawn in someone else's contract-negotiating game of chicken, but it's always good to get it out there. Never know who's listening.

Adam said...

Thanks so much Ronnie n ronnie. I was given about two hours to prepare, record, and get these sent out to my agent. That may sound like plenty of time to most, but when you're as obsessive as I am, it feels like a blink. I am at peace with the Zapp and Kif reads, but really wish I had more time for the Bender and Zoidberg.

Brian: you hit the nail on the head. Even if I wasn't being used as a human bargaining chip, read: had a legitimate shot at this, I'd be competing with every every able mouthed male voice actor in the country (and possibly Canada). But the chance of someone "important" hearing my voice down in La La Land is exiting enough for lil' ol' me.

Besides, thanks to Dad, I now know at least one influential person already has. Can anyone say "WHTTWOT The Animated Motion Picture".

Let's do lunch. Have your people call my people. ;)

Brian Fies said...

I have people?!

Mark Evanier reports today that the original Futurama cast has been signed. Our long national nightmare (and, unfortunately, Adam's window of opportunity) is over. I really did enjoy the clips, though. Keep shouting out into the universe.

Nostalgic for the Pleistocene said...

I'm still stunned by the fact that Adam put that together in 2 hours! Demonstrating that ability has got to be worthy of notice by somebody important.