The last movie I saw from the studio was Secret World of Arrietty.

Puss in Boots is my favorite of Senor Banderas roles. Growing up, I also liked him as Zorro and in the Spy Kids trilogy.

Hearing her sing takes me back to when her music was on Radio Disney. And I’m loving both Tangled the Series and This Is Us on NBC. Plus she’s equally beautiful blonde or brunette. Tangled and Bolt are equally good movies from co director Bryon Howard along with Zootopia.

I love Mandy Moore! I’m so glad to see she’s making a comeback with the shark movie!

Never thought of it much before. So I guess that could be a wise way to cast a character. Kristin wasn’t the only star that lured me to Frozen. There was of course the other half of the sister act behind the movie Idina Menzel as Elsa. I have heard her sing way before Frozen entered the picture. The first time was the Wicked Original Broadway Cast recording. At first when I heard Defying Gravity, I thought I was hearing Stephanie J. Block who originated the role of Elphaba on tour singing. But what I heard was an equally showstopping voice. I even wore one of my Wicked T Shirts when I went to see Frozen at the El Capitan in Ms. Menzel’s honor as well as at the time the show’s 10th anniversary on Broadway.

Well how about we talk about another voice that worked? Mandy Moore as Rapunzel who was my first celebrity crush as a kid.

Here’s a recent example that actually made me a bit mad: Hasbro’s “My Little Pony: The Movie” already has a huge fanbase (thanks to the rebooted FiM series, now on its 7th season) that is excited for its movie debut, and yet on the trailer and the poster, A-List stars that play one-shot characters for the movie ended up with top-billing instead of the cast of the actual main characters (the Mane 6 and Spike) of the movie. Granted, some of the A-Listers are actually decent actors and have done voicework (Kristen Chenoweth), and what the trailer shows is actually good… so maybe they just had good training? I’ll give it a chance, mainly because I am a pony fan myself.

But there’s ways that having a big name can just… FAIL. I’m looking at you, “Epic”. Honestly, mostly all the voicework in that film was great… except for Beyonce as Queen Tara. This was probably one of the only times when I liked a character’s personality but HATED the voice. I know they were trying to get star power, but she was weak sauce and was only there to be Soundtrack bait.

Also, is it just me or do comedians do some of the best voicework as non-professional VAs in animated movies? Eddie Murphy had a couple of great roles as Donkey (the Shrek series) and Mushu (Mulan); Robin Williams was a breakout star as Genie (Aladdin) though he also debuted as a VA as Batty Koda in “Ferngully”; Dom Deluise was in many roles for Don Bluth – Jeremy (Secret of NIMH), Tiger (all the “American Tail” things), Stanley (A Troll in Central Park) and Itchy (all the ADGTH things); Ellen DeGeneres and Larry the Cable Guy are two of Pixar’s stars as Dory and Tow Mater, respectively; and the list goes on…

That’s a good point about the press tour. I bet the celebs help get the movie more noticed.

There’s a Bancroft Brothers podcast — the exact episode of which I cannot remember — where one of Disney’s 90s animators explicitly stated that the use of celebrities as voice-actors was upped post-Aladdin ‘for the films’ press/PR tours.’

Shows like Entertainment Tonight and The Tonight Show were faaar more likely to repeatedly feature segments about recently released Disney cartoons if they could book an appearance by Mel Gibson or Demi Moore than, say, the more talented voice acting of a Jodi Benson or Paige O’Hara.

(That said, Disney had been using high-profile celebrity voices since as far back as Pinocchio. Most notably, Cliff Edwards as Jiminy Cricket.)