Voice Actors

New thesping gigs for A-listers

Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy teamed up for the action comedy, The Heat. Now both actresses are prepared for roles in animation films.

Bullock signed on in February to play next to co-star Jon Hamm in an spin-off of the Despicable Me series with the 2014 film Minions. McCarthy, on the other hand, has just joined the cast of B.O.O. (Bureau of Otherworldly Operations), which also stars Seth Rogen. ...

I like both Bullock and McCarthy, and seek out their live-action flicks for viewing and my local AMC.

But I've long had a gripe with big stars being cast in voice parts for animated features. Every time one of them gets the nod for a vocal job (and I understand the publicity angle, the marquee value, and blah blah blah) some mid-list actor trying to make a living ... who can probably bring as much (or more) to the table ... gets shut out.

Until the 1990s, casting big, top-line stars in animated features didn't happen*. Now it happens al the time. My griping about it isn't going to change things, but I'm going to gripe about it anyway.

* Okay, there was one exception I can think of: Bing Crosby in "Ichabod and Mr. Toad." Outside of that, nothing else comes to mind.