Sometimes I think I'm a Genius

[author_abz]

As some of you pointed out in your own LJs and/or twitters, there's a sentence-fic meme over in the Nick RPF comm (which I also just discovered exists. I joined. Fun times). I requested a Jerry/Jennette long!distance fic that was totally filled, and it was adorable and vaguely smutty, but I decided to fill my own prompt, which I'm sharing (plus at

Comments

[author_abz]

Clearly, I have zero voice acting training, or any kind of schooling.

And to be honest, I don't know half of the Disney movies' actors off-hand, or know which sang and which don't. I mean, I know and LOVE that Mel Gibson sang for Pocahontas, but I didn't know that David Ogden Steirs was the both the singing and speaking voice for Ratcliffe. Which goes for some of the other Disney songs I love (and have on my iTunes from the actual soundtrack I bought) and recognize singing names, but I don't know if the speaking actor is the same or different.

And I'm fine with not all voice actors singing for their characters, although it probably doesn't seem like it from my comments, but I remember just being so ridiculously happy that they made sure in The Princess and the Frog that the actors did their own singing, which might have just been a happy coincidence.

The Donny Osmond thing, it's really just jarring, and makes me laugh, because I'm just so used to him being Joseph from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and so many other wonderful things, and I just never thought to recognize his voice. And I clearly do not look at my iTunes often enough or closely enough to remember the correct spelling of his name.

And I wasn't praising Mulan for the singing/acting voices... it's more about the style and the music and the facial features (appropriate to the story's characters, not just a different skin tone like Aladdin) and the pure, proud woman power and pride that is absent in so many Disney Princess movies, and what's more is that it's in China, which to this day does not value women that highly. And the only other Disney princess movies that do a good job of having a good feminist role model character would be Pocahontas, The Princess and the Frog (Tiana), and possibly Belle, depending on how you interpret her character.

[technicallysane]

Ha. It's just that in six years of training/study, I have continuously heard people complain about how seemingly easy the Disney producers would "replace" an actor in one of their movies and it raises my hackles like nothing else. I may have jumped the gun a tiny bit but for me, describing it as an "issue" was a bit on the offensive side if only because it was so very far from being so. An issue would be if the producers forced the actors to take substitutes which was most certainly never the case. Calling it an issue degrades the work put into each performance by actors and singers alike.

The thing is, I've met absolutely brilliant actors, and while some of them have beautiful voices, some of them didn't. And having to see them be denied a role because of that is painful. But in voice acting, you're given the option to say "yes, I would like someone to come in and sing for me." I'm lucky enough to be a competent enough singer that I have the shot of not running into that problem, but I do have fellow actors who might. And for you to insinuate, unknowingly or not, that their not singing a role is an "issue" is an insult to them and to their talent.

I never suggested you were praising Mulan for its acting, I merely found it ironic that it too had a character whose actor was substituted. And on that note, I tend to stay out of the debate on feminism/misogyny in Disney movies in general, so I'll leave that right there where it is.

And as a former performer of Joseph, I can say that his voice as Shang was mildly jarring to me at first too, though at that point I was far more used to our Joseph than I was Osmond. Regardless, hearing Shang sing about his beautiful multicolor coat and called for many laughs in our cast. c:

[author_abz]

Yeah... saying it is an issue is bad. Maybe I should say it's a .... practice? idk. Connundrum? And actually, because I'm such a Disney fanatic, I generally flail like crazy because of all the amazing voice acting choices that they do make. I remember watching the behind the scenes for Meet the Robinsons and being shocked just by the differences between the voice of the character and the voice of the actor that voices the character. But it's always perfect.

So. I think we're on the same page. Except you're an actor and I'm not and are obviously more in tune with that world than I am.