Okay. It's time for a little audience participation here at
JHM. Normally, I'm the guy who answers your questions (Speaking of which: I'm
working on a new "Why For" for Friday. So if you have any Disney-related
questions that you'd like to see answered on this site, please send them along ASAP
to whyfor@jimhillmedia.com. Anyway
…). But – this time around – I need you guys' help.
To preface this question … Everybody knows now that Billy
Crystal was Pixar's original choice to voice Buzz Lightyear. But even after
this then-fledgling animation studio prepped an animation test in the early
1990s (which used Billy's wagonwheel-coffee-table rant from 1989's "When Harry Met Sally" as its soundtrack) to show Crystal, he still passed on the project.
(To be fair, Billy claims that – at that time – he just didn't
understand CG and/or the animation production process. Which is why – when Crystal
saw this extremely rough test – he really didn't have a clue as to what the
final product might look like. Which is why he took a pass on Buzz and Tim
Allen eventually wound up with this role. But as soon as "Toy Story" came out
and became this monster hit, Billy immediately realized that he'd made a huge mistake.
Which is why – the very next time Pixar came calling – Crystal immediately said
"Yes." Which is how Billy wound up voicing Mike Wazowski in "Monsters, Inc."
Anyway … )
Billy Crystal and John Goodman recording dialogue for "Monsters, Inc."
Copyright Disney / Pixar. All rights reserved
It's also fairly well known that Al Pacino was Pixar's first
choice when it came to voicing Hopper in "A Bug's Life." And just like they did
with that footage from "When Harry Met Sally," Pixar's animators took one of
Pacino's best known screen rants and then turned that into an animation test.
But Pacino allegedly wasn't interested in doing animation. Which is why Kevin
Spacey wound up voicing that evil grasshopper in this 1998 Pixar Animation
Studios release.
Beyond that … There have also been actors who have been
hired to voice characters for Pixar films that – for one reason or another — didn't
quite work out. William H. Macy (who was the original voice of Marlin in "Finding Nemo." Only to then be replaced by Albert Brooks) comes to mind. As does John
Cusack (who was originally supposed to voice Sulley for "Monsters, Inc." But
after this character went from being a Woody-Allen-like loser to a Big-Man-on-Campus
, the studio then brought in John Goodman to voice this role).
But my question today deals with a somewhat different
situation. In that – on "A Bug's Life" – Pixar had supposedly already hired a
celebrity to come voice Heimlich the caterpillar. But then – after listening to
the recordings that this actor created for this character – the studio opted to
go with Story Supervisor Joe Ranft's voice instead.
Copyright 2010 Disney Editions. All rights reserved
As animation historian John Canemaker tells this story in
his excellent new book, "Two Guys Named Joe: Master Animation Storytellers Joe Grant & Joe Ranft" (Disney Editions, August 2010) …
Ranft often supplied "scratch" or temporary voice tracks for
films in progress. He voiced bit parts going back to The Brave Little Toaster
.
As Igor in The Nightmare Before Christmas, he salivated and said, "Master, the
plans" and was thrown a dog biscuit.
Often (Ranft's) scratch voice ended up in the (finished
versions of these films). He had five lines as Lenny the Binoculars in Toy
Story, but his first "star" part was Heimlich, A Bug's Life's jolly, gluttonous
Bavarian caterpillar who yearns to fly. A professional actor had been cast, but
Nancy Lasseter (John's wife) "laughed really hard at my scratch over the other
guy's stuff," said Ranft.
Joe Ranft pitching storyboards from Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before
Christmas." Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved
Which (finally) brings me to today's audience participation
question: Who was this "professional actor" that Pixar Animation Studios hired
to voice Heimlich the caterpillar? Only to then take a pass of this performer's
work and go with Joe Ranft's voice for this character instead?
Mind you, over the past 12 years, I've heard a number of theories
about who Pixar initially wanted to cast in this role. One version had this
animation studio approaching "Cheers" star George Wendt come voice Heimlich.
Which only made sense, given that Pixar had previously had such success with
John Ratzenberger. Who played Cliff to Wendt's Norm on that long-running NBC
sitcom.
And speaking of NBC sitcoms … I'd also heard that "Seinfeld"
's Jason Alexander and Michael Richards were also considered as possible voices
for this caterpillar clown. But in all the versions of this story that I've previously
heard, Pixar had never actually got around to casting someone of stature to
voice this role.
The above story sketch for "A Bug's Life" was actually done by Joe Ranft. Back
when Heimlich the caterpillar really was supposed to be the clown in
P.T. Flea's Circus.Copyright Disney / Pixar. All rights reserved
And yet the version of this story that John Canemaker is now
telling in "Two Guys Named Joe" not only has some unnamed name actor cast in
this part, but they then lose this role because Nancy Lasseter thinks that their
vocals for Heimlich aren't nearly as funny as the "scratch" track that Joe
Ranft did for this character.
And given that Canemaker is one of the preeminent animation
historian working today … Well, I'm going to now assume that John's take on
this tale is correct. That Pixar did actually hire some professional performer
to come record vocals for Heimlich. Only to then chuck all of these recordings away
because – in the end – the voice that this name actor came up with for the
caterpillar clown just wasn't as funny as one Joe Ranft did for this film's "scratch"
track.
So does anyone out there (perhaps some former Pixar employee
from the Studio's old Point Richmond days who's no longer bound by an NDA) have
a definitive answer to this question? And while I'm shooting for the moon here …
Does anyone out there know which Al Pacino movie Pixar pulled dialogue from in
order to create that Hopper animation test?
Copyright Disney / Pixar. All rights reserved
Again, I've heard two different versions of this story. One has
Pixar pulling one of Pacino's "***-a-roach" rants out of "Scarface
" and
then animating test footage of Hopper (which then shows this grasshopper aggressively
bullying some ant) to that. While yet another version of this "A Bug's Life"
animation test story has Pixar's animators taking a piece of Pacino's
performance in "Glengarry Glen Ross." Which then reportedly resulted in this
prototype version of Hopper mouthing some of David Mamet's more
profane dialogue. Which is a pretty funny idea, when you think about it.
Anywho … If anyone out there has any definitive answers to
these Pixar-related questions , I'm sure that I (along with hundreds of JHM
readers) love to hear about them.
Soooo … Your answers?