Bad Bunny on pizza in Toy Story 5: a real question arises

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No animated film is now made without its 5-star cast of stars. With Toy Story 5Hollywood takes the concept a little further by giving an absurd role to a celebrity. Ultimately, is this really necessary?

It’s been 30 years since Toy Story was born. And since Hollywood obviously never leaves a cash machine alone, Toy Story 5 will be released next month. In the casting: Bad Bunny in the role of a “pizza with sunglasses”. Yes, really. The Puerto Rican singer will lend his voice to a “mysterious and cool” forgotten toy effortless“, which looks like a slice of pizza wearing sunglasses.

This is by far not the most absurd star appearance in an animated film. The title undoubtedly goes to Sir Patrick Stewart, who in 2017 dubbed the poop emoji in Emoji Movie — and who seemed to be having a lot of fun.

He explained that he loved dubbing animated characters: “It’s very liberating, you can do so much stupid stuff.” This probably also applies to many other stars who have fun in cartoons. But not all celebrity voices are just a joke.

Bad Bunny as ‘pizza with sunglasses’.image: capture d’écran/bluesky

Robin Williams remains legendary to this day for his role as the Genie in Aladdin in 1992 – a character whose dialogue he improvised practically all of. Two years later, Disney did it again with The Lion King. Even Swiss newspapers of the time excitedly mentioned which celebrities were lending their voices to the characters: Matthew Broderick, Whoopi Goldberg, James Earl Jones, Jeremy Irons and, of course, Rowan Atkinson, aka Mr. Bean.

More stars, less content

The 2019 live-action remake attempted to replicate this formula. With even more celebrities, but much less soul. This is precisely the problem. Shark gang already pushed the concept to the extreme in 2004: Will Smith, Angelina Jolie, Renée Zellweger, Jack Black, Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese were not content with lending their voices, the animated fish had even been drawn in their image.

Patrick Stewart in poop emoji.image: Sony Pictures

Still, real voice actors probably would have done a better job. Because a good actor is not necessarily a good dubbing actor.

Sure, a cameo can be fun. Like Michael Schumacher in CarsBill and Tom Kaulitz of the Tokyo Hotel group in the new film The Minionsor Martin Scorsese as a robot in the present Star Wars.

And some stars are even really convincing. Besides Robin Williams, already mentioned, we can think of Eddie Murphy in the role of the donkey of Shrek. In the French-speaking world, Alain Chabat in Shrek or Emmanuel Curtil, the cult French voice of Jim Carrey and Chandler in Friendsin the role of the dragon Mushu in Mulanalso left a lasting impression on the public.

It’s also impossible not to mention the actor Alan Tudyk, who played the rooster Heihei in Vaiana. Because the clucks and cries of the bird did not come from an animal, but from him!

The hilarious and crazy cock of Vaiana.image: disney

“Children don’t understand”

The balance is fragile: taking the risk of no longer talking about the film itself, but only about the celebrities who lend their voices. Or, for the viewer, to spend their time trying to recognize who is speaking during the session, instead of focusing on the story.

In the case of Toy Storythe producers obviously relied from the start on the notoriety of Tom Hanks in the role of Woody. In the fourth part, Keanu Reeves was even entitled to three sentences. And now, Bad Bunny. Perhaps so that parents can also benefit from it?

Because even if adults obviously have the right to like animated films, they remain above all intended for children. And, ironically, younger people often don’t even know the celebrities in question.

Tom Hanks himself said a few years ago: “I often meet parents with their children in elevators, and the father or mother enthusiastically says: Hey, it’s Woody! But the children don’t understand.”

(translated and adapted by mbr)

Have the actors in our favorite series changed?

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Have the actors in our favorite series changed?