What's the deal with Disney musical movies? (Voices vs. Singing Voices)

[FOAnatic]

Posted: 7/28/05 at 3:26pm

Ok...for some movies...I get it.

For instance, having someone else sing for young Simba in "The Lion King" because Johnathan Taylor Thomas probably wouldn't have been that great.

But with "Pocahontas," "Mulan," and "Aladdin"...why didn't they do the same thing they did with "The Little Mermaid"?

Jodi Benson was a great Ariel, as both the speaking and singing voice.

Why couldn't Lea Salonga be the speaking voice for Jasmine and Mulan? Why was she only the singing voice? She speaks well, as far as I'm concerned.

Same thing with Judy Kuhn. How come she only sang for Pocahontas? Couldn't she speak the role as well?

And why couldn't B.D. Wong sing for Shang in "Mulan"? Did they need to bring in Donny Osmond? I figure if B.D. Wong can star on Broadway in a musical...he can sing well enough for "Mulan."

Just something that I can't seem to figure out.

[lildogs]

Posted: 7/28/05 at 3:43pm

i'm not exactly sure, but i would imagine it's at some level a money issue. Maybe having JTT sing Simba would be too expensive, given rehearsals, coaching, etc., that a trained singer wouldn't need.

OR

maybe they are looking to sell CDs and feel like they need more of a name to sell a song.

It could also be a timing thing: I'm sure alot of animated movies record vocal tracks WAY before the film is finished. Perhaps the same people aren't available to do both...

just some ideas

[Marquise]

Posted: 7/28/05 at 4:23pm

it's just one of those things....

[manders]

Posted: 7/28/05 at 4:25pm

In some cases I think it might be because they want a big name to do a voice-over, but the big name can't sing so they'll bring in a "nobody" to sing the songs. That way, they can still have their big name do the voice. For example, JTT.

[Broadwaygirl22]

Posted: 7/28/05 at 4:26pm

Fot The Lion King 2 Simba's Pride they should have had Matthew Broderick sing the song that Simba sings to his daughter. I agree with Foanatic about why Lea Salonga couldn't have been the speaking voice for Mulan or Jasmine. She sang the songs well and speaks well too. Also, why couldn't Roger Bart do the speaking voice of Hercules? He speaks well and sang "Go the Distance" really well. Maybe they needed an actor with a more tough-sounding voice. But Roger Bart could have done the speaking voice of Young Hercules as well as the singing voice. I think they had two different people playing Hercules.

Updated On: 7/28/05 at 04:26 PM

[Marquise]

Posted: 7/28/05 at 4:30pm

I wouldn't exactly call Lea Salonga and Donny Osmond "nobodys"

Posted: 7/28/05 at 4:37pm

No offense, but B.D. Wong is an actor who can sing. Donny Osmond is a singer. Why not have someone with a better voice take on the songs? It used to be common even in live action movies- when you are casting simply voices, why not try to get the best?

And Marquise is absolutely right-- Donny Osmond is a much bigger name than B.D. Wong.

[Garland Grrrl]

Posted: 7/28/05 at 6:18pm

some celebs can't sing ala meg ryan in ANASTASIA (sometimes she claims she did the singing...what a MAROON) i think perhaps BD was the best or most appropriate actor for the dialogue but that donny had the pop sound they wanted. does lea have an accent? perhaps that's why she didn't speak as jasmine. again, the actress they chose had the ooomph they wanted. anyway--they get two for one--the fans of BD will buy the film for him and the fans of donny will buy it for him. i know i wouldn't own ANASTASIA if it weren't for liz...

[StephanietheStar]

Posted: 7/28/05 at 6:22pm

Garland girl? Meg claimed she did the singing?! bwaha. now THAT'S funny

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 7/28/05 at 6:49pm

Animated films are no different then Live Action films -- they require "Star Power" to help sell them. Why else do you see so many cartoon pics featuring the voice talent of Matt Damon, Renee Zelwegger, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt - yes the biggest movie stars in the world. And yes, most of them don't sing.

In the case of films like POCAHONTAS, Disney felt like they "needed" to include American Indians in the cast (I assume to be completely PC as only Disney can) and thats why Irene Bedard was chosen to voice the speaking of the title role (she also was the inspiration for the drawing of the character).


Updated On: 7/28/05 at 06:49 PM

Posted: 7/28/05 at 6:52pm

I never understood why Lea Salonga couldn't be the voice of Mulan: both singing and speaking, but I dont' really understand Disney in general...

[ForTheLoveOfLea]

Posted: 7/28/05 at 6:55pm

The movies are directed to children, why should they care about star power? As long as they sound good it shouldn't matter if they are a "star" or not.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 7/28/05 at 6:57pm

The adults who take the children and pay for their tickets apparently care.

[kangaroo]

Posted: 7/28/05 at 7:02pm

I don't see why they would really care... from what I've seen, the kids almost take the parents/grandparents to the movie theatre. I never understood why there needed to be star power in Disney movies, especially when Disney movies were so prominent.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 7/28/05 at 7:05pm

Well there must be market research studies that indicate that having star names attached to voices significantly improves ticket sales, or else I can't imagine they would pay the salaries.

Plus it's a prestige thing now between rival studios. "You may have Tom Hanks in TOY STORY, but we have Brad Pitt in SINBAD.

[Beergoggles]

Posted: 7/28/05 at 7:32pm

I would have loved it if Lea had done the voice too... but no point complaining now. Susan Egan did both singing and speaking for Hercules and i think she did a good job!

[wickedrentq]

Posted: 7/29/05 at 1:19am

I think the "names" thing can be attributed to and started in Aladdin. If you go back to Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, the names they had really were associated with broadway. Jodi Benson, Paige O'Hara I thought did great jobs with Ariel and Belle. Especially in Beauty and the Beast, you also had great theatre actors in Angela Lansbury and Jerry Orbach. I think their first institence of two actors playing one character singing and acting started here w/ Gaston. They wanted a really snotty voice but a really great bass voice, so had two actors do it.

Then came Robin Williams in Aladdin, who I think everyone agrees was amazing. Since then, animated movies have had names do the parts. I don't think anyone has done as great as Robin, though Eddie Murphy did give a very comedic performance in Mulan and even Shrek. And unfortunately the names do bring people in, though I often don't think it's the best artistic choice.

Sorry this post is all over the place, diff. thoughts entering my head. Come to think of it, I remember I think on my Aladdin DVD Scott Weigner essentially being cast of Aladdin but admitted he couldn't sing, so they brought someone in. I think they essentially go after what they want in the voice, and assess their singing talent, and bring in someone to sing if necessary, not start with the singer, so it's not like Lea came to mind as the singer and then they went for the voice.

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 7/29/05 at 2:00am

I never understood why Lea Salonga couldn't be the voice of Mulan: both singing and speaking, but I dont' really understand Disney in general...

I'm assuming they wanted someone with a deeper voice, since Mulan is a cross-dressing role. Or maybe they specifically wanted a Chinese actress, like Ming-Na Wen.

I'm glad they chose Ming-Na, because I think she gave one of the best voice performances in any recent Disney movie (her impressively restrained performance in MULAN probably got her the job to do the voice work in the FINAL FANTASY movie).

Updated On: 7/29/05 at 02:00 AM

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 7/29/05 at 2:14am

I always thought the BD Wong/Donny Osmand combo was interesting, considering you couldn't find two more opposite people.

I don't understand why the "names" make a difference, since I can't remember Disney ever marketing the movies based on the actors behind the singing voices back when they were released. The only hype I remember was about Buddy Hackett in The Little Mermaid and Robin Williams in Aladdin, but it wasn't until years later that I learned of the other instances of using different actors, because it was only mentioned in teeny-tiny print in the credits.

Aladdin was also the first movie where they started using separate speaking/singing voices for the same characters, so I just wonder why they suddenly changed their strategy halfway through the early 90s streak of movies. Interestingly enough, the quality of the movies significantly dropped after The Lion King, and not even the Big Name Voices could help them.