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Voice actors are refusing to record any voices until game makers and entertainment companies agree to update a decades-old contract.

The post BREAKING: Voice Actors Go On Strike Against Disney, WB, EA, Take 2, Activision and Other Game Makers appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

Happy 98th birthday to the First Lady of Animation, June Foray, born on this day in 1917.

Here’s just a tiny sampling of the characters that’s she brought to life throughout the years.

To learn more about her life and work, in her own words, watch this expansive two-hour interview. June’s prolific career also includes multitudinous jobs on radio and television, like this role on the The Johnny Carson Show sixty years ago:

The story of how singer and songwriter Peggy Lee took on one of the world's most powerful entertainment companies -- and won.

The story of how pop star Peggy Lee took on one of the world's most powerful entertainment companies -- and won.

The troubled Pixar production ditched many of its original voice actors.

The director worked with Christopher Lee on the animated short "The Fall of the House of Usher."

"Powerpuff Girls" creator Craig McCracken supported the original cast on Twitter.

Mr. Burns, Smithers, Ned Flanders, and Principal Skinner have just lost their voices.

He voiced iconic cartoon characters like Pete Puma, Junyer Bear, and Cecil the Sea-Sick Sea Serpent.

Actress Amy Schumer, of the eponymous Comedy Central show "Inside Amy Schumer," created this segment last season to poke fun at voice acting in animation.

Tom Kenny, voice of SpongeBob, recalls growing up at a time without the Internet.

Voice actress Christine Cavanaugh passed away on December 22 at the age of 51. Cavanaugh was an unforgettable voice of Nineties-era animation, bringing to life Dexter on Dexter’s Laboratory, Chuckie on Rugrats, Gosalyn Mallard in Darkwing Duck, and the titular character in the 1995 feature Babe, just to name a few of her more famous roles. Cavanaugh abruptly retired from voice acting in 2001 at the age of 38, and was not heard from again until the announcement of her death today. No location or cause of death were announced by her family. The death announcement published today won’t do anything to answer the questions about Cavanaugh’s final years. The notice contains numerous cryptic and un-obituary-like comments that only deepen the intrigue, alluding to the “unpleasantness of reality,” “intelligence to…accept what fate had allowed,” and the “evolution in her life”: Many know of her from the roles she played, but in each role there was a part of her showing through that the ones who truly knew her could see. The childlike awe of the world, humor to deal with the unpleasantness of reality, strength to deal with the challenges we all face, and intelligence to know when to act or accept what fate had allowed. Christine lived her life the way she wanted. Accolades, notoriety, and recognition were not the reason for her interest in entertainment, it was for the love of entertainment, to make people smile. When her life changed she found herself needing the quiet of the country and her love changed from entertaining to hiking, reading, writing and living a simple life. Even with the evolution in her life her wit, wisdom and imagination were still alive and well. Cavanaugh did not have any children and was divorced from her husband Kevin James Cavanaugh. Her voice acting colleagues have been expressing condolences on Twitter: The moment I met #ChristineCavanaugh I was star struck & in awe. She had an ethereal beauty & unparalleled other worldly genius. #ripangel — tara strong (@tarastrong) December 30, 2014 Candi Milo, who replaced Cavanaugh as the voice of Dexter, wrote: @lego566 @chickenzach thank you both. very sad at the loss of my friend. I could never hold a candle to her talent… — Candi Milo (@candimilo) December 31, 2014 The animation family has lost a real treasure, sweet lady & great talent. RIP #ChristineCavanaugh! You'll be missed! — Bill Farmer (@GoofyBill) December 31, 2014 HAd lots of amazing adventures with the brilliant #ChristineCavanaugh my buddy "Chuckie" #TheRUGRATS R.I.P Chris pic.twitter.com/x7MxsJjHyL — RealEGDaily (@RealEGDaily) December 31, 2014

In thirty seconds, voice actor Bob Bergen eloquently breaks down one of the most difficult to replicate classic cartoon voices: the stutter of Porky Pig.

The Daws Butler Collection is seventeen-and-a-half hours worth of radio plays, comedy recordings, cartoon scripts, and acting tutorials related to voice acting legend Daws Butler. Butler was the iconic voice of countless Hanna-Barbera characters including Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, Elroy Jetson, and Snagglepuss. He also voiced advertising characters, most famously Cap’n Crunch.

The collection of Butler materials is available as an MP3 download ($18.99) or on 18 CDs ($33.56). For the amount of material, it’s a bargain either way.

Sme of the materials are Daws Butler performing himself, and there are also a series of scripts by Butler that are performed by one of his protégés, Joe Bevilacqua. Here’s a rundown of what’s in the audio collection:

• Daws Butler’s Halloween Happening by Daws Butler: A new production of the classic radio play, this ghostly story was originally written and performed by Daws Butler. Veteran voice actor Joe Bevilacqua teams up with Lorie Kellogg in this new recording, complete with music and sound effects.

What the Butler Wrote by Daws Butler: In this series, Joe Bevilacqua presents performances of several scripts Butler wrote for his 1975 acting workshops.

Rare Daws Butler by Daws Butler, Stan Freberg, Herschel Bemardi, Shep Menken, and Carol Hemmingway: Daws Butler voiced many of Stan Freberg’s greatest comedy records. Here is a hilarious collection of his never-before-released comedy records.

Rare Daws Butler, Volume Two by Daws Butler: A follow-up to Rare Daws Butler, this second collection features another hour of Butler’s rare comedy recordings.

Daws Butler Teaches You Dialects by Daws Butler: Voice magician Daws Butler teaches accents and dialects in this radio production.

Uncle Dunkle and Donnie by Daws Butler and Joe Bevilacqua: A collection of imaginative cartoon scripts, this series of 35 fables was created by Butler in the 1960s. Here his protégé, Joe Bevilacqua, performs all 97 characters with music and sound effects.

Uncle Dunkle and Donnie Two by Daws Butler and Pedro Pablo Sacrista: This second collection of fables features 19 never-before-released recordings of Daws Butler’s stories, as well as two new Uncle Dunkle fables.

The Christmas That Almost Never Was by Daws Butler: It is Christmas Eve at the North Pole when Santa Claus loses his “remembery” and only a child who has been good for 365 days can save Christmas! Written and performed by Butler, this children’s radio play was recorded in the 1940s.

For a nice intro to the man, watch this 1986 video in which Daws gives a personal tour of his office:

Whether it be for lack of budget or a desire to take center stage, series creators lending their own voices to their animated television shows has always been fairly commonplace – Mike Judge (Beavis and Butthead, King of the Hill), John Kricfalusi (Ren and Stimpy), Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy) and Trey Parker and Matt Stone (South Park) immediately spring to mind. However, in recent years, more and more feature directors have started getting in on the trend. From throwaway one-liners to continuous roles throughout entire franchises, here is a list of some animation directors and the characters they brought to life in their own films.

1. Eric Goldberg

As the animation director for Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003), Goldberg not only supervised the animation of the WB’s classic characters but he voiced some of them as well. Goldberg recorded the dialogue of Marvin the Martian, Tweety Bird and Speedy Gonzalez.

2. Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud

The distinctive sputters, spurts and high-speed mutterings of The Minions in Despicable Me (2010) and Despicable Me 2 (2013) belong to the films’ co-directors Pierre Coffin (above left) and Chris Renaud. And as the character’s popularity grows, so does their vocal commitment, as the two will reprise their roles in next year’s prequel Minions.

3. Ralph Bakshi

In his debut film Fritz the Cat (1972), director Ralph Bakshi voiced one of the boorish antagonist Pig Cops, who is also referred to as “Ralph” multiple times in his scenes.

4. Brad Bird

Agnes Gooch, Edith Head, Patricia Highsmith, Linda Hunt – when it comes to figuring out who inspired the character of Edna Mode, people love to toss out many names, but in the end, the cutthroat designer of superhero fashion was brought to life by The Incredibles (2004) director Brad Bird.

5. Rich Moore

Rich Moore, director of Wreck-It Ralph (2012) provided the dreary monotone of acidic jawbreaker Sour Bill, the henchman to the bombastic King Candy.

6. Richard Williams

Even to this day, the toon celebrity cameos in Who Framed Roger Rabbit(1988) remain some of the best nods to the golden age of cartoons, especially that of Droopy Dog, who gets his opportunity to best Eddie Valiant with some traditional ‘toon high-jinks as a tricky elevator operator, sluggishly voiced by the film’s animation director Richard Williams.

7. Chris Wedge

What began as the high-strung snivels and snarls of Scrat in Ice Age (2002) has become a second career for director Chris Wedge who has gone on to vocally personify the prehistoric rodent in 3 sequels, 6 short films, 2 video games and in a walk-on role in an episode of Family Guy.

8. Chris Miller

Royal messengers, tower guards, army commanders, friars and penguins, story artist Chris Miller has lent his voice-over skills to numerous animated films, most notably his returning roles as Geppetto and The Magic Mirror in the Shrek franchise, including Shrek the Third (2007), which he co-directed.

9. Mark Dindal

The often ignored and underrated animated film Cats Don’t Dance (1997) features some beautiful hand-drawn work and stellar vocal performances, including that of director Mark Dindal as the tight-lipped bodyguard/butler Max.

10. Joe Ranft

Pixar story artist, the late Joe Ranft, brought a handful of memorable animated characters to life, including Heimlich (A Bug’s Life), Wheezy the Penguin (Toy Story 2) and Jacques the Cleaner Shrimp (Finding Nemo). But it was in Cars (2006), which he co-directed, that he voiced three characters including the semi-truck Jerry Recycled Batteries.

11. Chris Sanders

In Lilo & Stitch (2002) co-director Chris Sanders takes on the nuanced role of Alien Experiment 626, aka “Stitch,” who escapes from an intergalactic prison only to find himself trapped on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

12. Nathan Greno and Byron Howard

Nathan Greno (above right) and Byron Howard not only paired up as co-directors of Tangled (2010) but also doubled as duos of Thugs and Guards in the animated picture.

13. John Lasseter

With five features under his belt, John Lasseter has had plenty of opportunity to throw himself behind the microphone, however upon review of his filmography, you’ll find he has chosen his roles very carefully, as the role of John Lassetire in Cars 2 (2011) and the hilariously bug-zapped Harry the Mosquito in A Bug’s Life (1998).

Celebrities rarely admit that they only lend their voices to animated projects because it’s easy money. Well, Cloris Leachman comes clean in this interview:

Yes. You were in “The Muppet” movie, you were the voice in two different Miyazaki movies — “Castle in the Sky” and “Ponyo” — you were in “Iron Giant,” “Sky High.” What draws you to these movies?
Cloris Leachman: Money.

Anything else?
Cloris Leachman: I’m free.

Do you ever think of it as broadening your fanbase?
Cloris Leachman: No. I don’t think about that.

What about something like “Iron Giant?”
Cloris Leachman: You’re in a recording studio. I didn’t even know the name of it.

(Photo of Cloris Leachman via s_bukley/Shutterstock)

Cartoon Brew | Permalink | One comment | Post tags: Castle in the Sky, Cloris Leachman, Ponyo, The Iron Giant, Voice Acting, Voice actors

This clip is a pretty good example of why Frank Welker is one of the most skilled, not to mention prolific, modern day voice actors:

Cartoon Brew | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Frank Welker, The Lion King, Voice Acting, Voice actors

What’s better than seeing the bodies of a bunch of voice actors? Seeing the insides of a voice actor. Reader Jeaux Janovsky found this video purportedly showing Mel Blanc’s vocal chords in action. Try not to get turned on.

Cartoon Brew | Permalink | No comment | Post tags: Mel Blanc, Voice Acting