The Onion AV Club interviews Billy West

[on:]

Yes, he mentions the movies.
 http://www.theonionavclub.com/feature/index.php?issue=4124

[Reply #1 on:]

As Mr. Dynomite would say,"Freakin' Sweet!"

[Reply #2 on:]

YES!!!!! LOL

[Reply #3 on:]

yyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaa a!but i cant understand: There had always been rumors that executives at Fox didn't like Groening, so they were burying Futurama.

[Reply #4 on:]

Here's where I'd like to say fuck the DVD's for now. Billy West has officially became one of my altime heroes for totally dissing those "Cartoon actors."

[Reply #5 on:]

This is gonna be the start of a beautiful comeback!

[Reply #6 on:]

Hey, welcome fryfan! Enjoy it here.

Er, anyway, that was a great interview. I can totally see where Billy is coming from. He's always brought something special to his work. (I mean, just look at Fry...the writers and Billy West developed that character as a team--the writing was fantastic, but without someone to bring it to life like West did, you've got nothin'.) It's unfair that they'll pay some big-name celebrity millions to do a plastic voice for a character who could be so much more, while a man who is really dedicated to his work is stuck at the bottom of the ladder. He's been around so much longer than any of these celebrity voice-over "artists" who don't have anything on Billy West. It's always great to see a man who loves his job (as West obviously does), and it's really awful to see him gettin' screwed by the medium he loves, like that.

Also, I'm going to do my Happy Dance of Joyous Glee...Futurama might be coming back! Not like we didn't already come to that conclusion ourselves, but it's always great to see someone who's pretty much on the inside track giving us even more hope.

[Reply #7 on:]

Although he comes across as a bit arrogant and angry in that interview, let's face it, he's entitled. Let's all cross our fingers for the hopeful return of Futurama.

[Reply #8 on:]

Sweet!!!

[Reply #9 on:]

Nice find.  The date on that also shows that it's really recent, which is good.  I wonder when exactly that interview was done?

[Reply #10 on:]

Awesome, thanks for letting us know! CGEF have some news on this too.      

[Reply #11 on:]

Good Find DtB; Thanks for posting it.

Hopefully F*X will see the error of their decision to cancel fail to renew our favorite show.

It's good to get this information from a reliable source(Billy West) who's close enough to know, but just far enough away to have the freedome to say something.

I'll shut up now...

[Reply #12 on:]

I have to wonder: is the Onion AV Club actually real, or is it made up like the rest of The Onion?

[Reply #13 on:]

The Onion AV Club is completely real.  It's all reviews of movies, music, books, video games, etc, with a few extra columns and usually an interview or two.  On actual physical copies of The Onion (which is only printed in a few cities, luckily for me Denver being one of them) they print it in the back to differentiate the fake/satirical articles from the real ones.

And yeah, I'd have to second a lot of what West says in the article.  Even just as a movie watcher, I've gotten sick of animated movies where they just put in a bunch of lame jokes and write characters to fit celebrities, instead of the other way around.  Of the CGI films I think Pixar is the only one that really gets it; they know to write a good story and characters first, and then get the people that can play those characters well (whether or not they're famous), instead of having the entire movie revolve around the celebrities the way Dreamworks' and Fox's movies always do.

[Reply #14 on:]

I so agree with your last paragraph. The only person I notice in The Incredibles was Samuel L. Jackson. I hated Shark Tale, not only because the characters were so..."down wit' the'r bad sel's", but because I didn't like the characters based on the actors. And Shrek seems to be the only movie outside of Pixar to get it right, though it seems like they're trying to cash in on their success fast instead of doing slow paced brilliance, but who can blame them for that? It was pretty much their first (and only, at least to me) hit.

Fox, on the other hand, I've only see do Ice Age. It was funny, but not great. How many CGIs has Fox done?

Oh, and good to hear that The Onion AV Club isn't fake in any way.

[Reply #15 on:]

I thought Ice Age was great. It's among my favorite animated movies.

[Reply #16 on:]

Pixar actually has A LOT of movie stars doing characters. Tom Hanks, John Goodman, Ellen Degenerous, Billy Crystal, the list goes on and on.

[Reply #17 on:]

Pixar's is guilty of using celebrity voice-actors for their starring roles, but generally have been pretty good at using non-names or voice actors for their supporting parts (Jim Varney isn't exactly A list material when Toy Story came out.) But still, West is right in that the celebrity cult takes away from the enjoyment of the movie. Shrek was made even more unbearable for me because of the constant reminders that it was Eddie Murphy, Mike Meyers, and Cameron Diaz in a booth doing schtick. I'd rather have a Billy West instead.

I found that article today (I believe the Onion updates every Tuesday, so that interview is fresh off the presses.) I was a bit surprised by how much West talked about Futurama...I was almost certain he'd spend his time on Ren and Stimpy or other stuff. Good for him, and it's good to hear that there's some concrete details concerning the direct to DVD films. I can't wait.

[Reply #18 on:]

Pixar uses celebrities, but they generally get ones that are perfect for the roles, instead of fitting the roles around them. They still use professional voice actors too, when it works for the roles at hand.  So while you could say they're sort of guilty at it, it's not the same as what Dreamworks does with shittastic movies like Shark Tale and Ice Age.  In films like that, as West points out, they're pretty much just playing themselves, as opposed to playing a character.  And anyway, perhaps Pixar will be even more inclined to do tone down the use of celebrities when they're free of Disney soon.

[Reply #19 on:]

Good old billy

[Reply #20 on:]

Im behind Billy 100%
That's so asinine to belive that hiring celebrity actors to do voice overs is going to be bankable,
and if you're going to hire celebrities, why the hell would you pick Jack Black, don't get me wrong I love Jack Black, but he's not even that big of a celebrity

[Reply #21 on:]

He just sounded like Jabberjaw in Shark Tale. Why not get Frank Welker insted?

[Reply #22 on:]

yes,sweet, freakin sweet, lol, billy

[Reply #23 on:]

Loved the article! Felt bad for all the voice actors not getting into the Space Jam preview in the big theater , I love all the voices Billy does, and have a great deal of respect for voiceover actors.  As a rare gimmick celebrity voiceovers would be acceptable, but their over used so much that I just don't care which celebrity did the voice in a movie anymore.

[Reply #24 on:]

It's kinda funny, I had a very similar discussion with one of my friends lately about CGI movies just cramming in as many celebrities as possible, sacrificing what is commonly referred to as plot. So it's way past awesome to hear a voice acting god like Billy West saying the same basic thing. I truly hope that Billy and all of the other incredible voice actors out there get the recognition they deserve someday, preferably sooner than later.

[Reply #25 on:]

rule of thumb: Celebrities have no talent and deserve nothing, let alone mounds of riches.

[Reply #26 on:]

Not true. Some celebrities are really good and deserve almost everything they get.

[Reply #27 on:]

I've heard a couple of radio interviews with Billy (there are two good ones at http://www.harrisonline.com/audio/listings/billywest.htm)
and he usually manages to get in a rant about celebrities dominating voiceovers for cartoon movies.  I guess he's trying to inform the general public about what a shame it is that real voice actors get overlooked for these parts.  And I think really that's the problem - the general public has no idea about what kind of talent is out there.  (A number of my friends have been astounded when I tell them that the same guy does the voices of Fry, the Prof., and Zoidberg.)  So instead they just settle for the celebrities.