No Oscar for Voiceovers

Still no Oscar Category for Voice Acting.  

On March 4^th, as the curtain rises on the 90^th Academy Awards ceremony, Host Jimmy Kimmel will probably open with a little light patter and of course the essential, nerve-settling joke!

Glitz and glamour aside, the real joke is that since the inaugural ceremony in 1929, just two years after the introduction of the first “Talkie” movie, there is still no Oscar category for voice acting.

There are of course the Annie Awards where animated productions celebrate male and female categories for voice acting and the television industry presents an Emmy for “Outstanding Voice Over Performance”. But still no Oscar!

The questions remain; why; when and in particular, who?

Who would you nominate to receive an Oscar for Voice Acting?

At the top of a very long list would be Mel Blanc, “The man of 1000 voices”. The late Melvin Jerome Blanc invented and delivered the character voices of Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Sylvester, Tweety, Yosemite Sam, Pepe Le Pew, Foghorn Leghorn, Speedy Gonzales, Woody Woodpecker etc etc.

In 2003 Mel’s son Noel Blanc advocated the recognition of voice actors with an Academy Award named after his Dad. So far, nothing.

A second nominee is Don LaFontaine (vale). Although a man of one voice, in addition to thousands of ads, network promos and video game trailers he recorded over 5000 different movie trailers. Surely the film business is in his debt.

When you hear the words…”In a world…” you can’t help but think of that rich, booming bass-loaded voice. It sounds like it’s been wrapped in barbed wire and flavoured with gravel. The Don’s style was so attention-demanding it’s constantly plagiarised by Australian TV station announcers to promote everything from quiz shows to kitchen cook-offs. 

Who else should be in-line for an Oscar?  James Earl Jones came close with an “Honorary Oscar” for the voice of Darth Vader. Could we overlook Ellen DeGeneres and her forgetful Dory in Finding Nemo? In the Muppets, Jim Hensen as Kermit made us all believers while Frank Oz gave us Miss Piggy, Fuzzie Bear and Animal. He was also the force, I mean voice behind Yoda.

Robin Williams, a great loss, but not surprising given the confused crowd occupying his wit. For the 90-minute film Aladdin he recorded over 16 hours of mostly improvised dialogue delivered in tribute personas to various celebrities. Talent.

Of the cheerful character voices that might deserve the accolade of an Oscar consider “Woody” The Toy Story cowboy by Tom Hanks. Or the loveable “Donkey” voiced by Eddie Murphy in Shrek.

In the category of more sinister voices there’s Jeremy Irons for his treatment of “Scar” in Lion King. Perhaps Leonard Nimoy in Transformers as “Decepticon Galvatron” or Andy Serkis for his indelible “Gollum” from Lord of the Rings.

When 101 Dalmations were puppy-napped we cringed to “Cruela DeVil” played by Betty Lou Gerson and ran screaming from the theatre when Mercedes McCambridge lent her tortured tonsils to the voice of the demon in “The Exorcist”.

While for many, the master of the scary voice will forever remain the inimitable Vincent Price. Even Michael Jackson agreed when he chose him as the opening voice over in the film clip for “Thriller”…

Darkness falls across the land, the midnight hour is close at hand.

Creatures crawl in search of blood to terrorise your neighbourhood.

And whosoever shall be found without the soul for getting down

must stand and face the Huns of hell and rot inside a corpses shell…..can you dig it?