The thing that riles up film fans the most, however, is the fact that not a single animated performance has been nominated in the acting categories. There's a few reasons for this, not least of which is that I'm not 100% certain animated performances are even eligible for an Oscar nomination. Vocal actors don't have the same range of tools at their disposal when they're not onscreen. We don't get to see their faces, their eyes, their quivers and their reactions. Even with stop-motion performances, it's difficult to figure out what is the actor's work and where the animator or visual effects artist is responsible for that tug of your heart or that lump in your throat.
This isn't to say, of course, that animated work can't be excellent, and perhaps even Oscar-worthy. It's just that you're grading on a curve. This has led some people to foolishly state that we should have a separate category for animated vocal work, as it is in some ways a different beast than physically acting onscreen. To this, I scoff, again for a couple of reasons. For starters, it would be too easy to watch big stars take roles in large-scale films from Disney, Pixar, and Dreamworks to score an easy Oscar nomination (Oscars shouldn't just be handed out willy-nilly). Secondly, there isn't enough great work each year in this category. Even in a year like last year, with a relatively strong animated film race, there were no vocal performances that came close to what Jessica Chastain was doing in Zero Dark Thirty or what Jennifer Lawrence was commanding in Silver Linings Playbook. Every category you add to an awards show takes away the honor of winning that award, and so I vehemently oppose adding this category (really, any category outside of something to recognize Stunt Work, I'm against for Oscar).
But on to the show here-I wanted to chronicle the ten best vocal performances in animated films. I'm not going to say whether someone should have received an Oscar or not for that year (I haven't seen all of the acting nominees in the categories for most of these)...except I will say that I have a hard time believing the Top 2 shouldn't have been included. I'm also not going to include motion capture work (because we all know that Andy Serkis would win, and that takes away my suspense). These are the best pieces of vocal work I've seen in animated films, period.
Yes, you read that right, but hear me out if you haven't seen the film and are basing your reaction on a low opinion of Hatcher. Hatcher, best known as Lois Lane and Susan Meyer, is definitely a good actress (her work on Housewives occasionally got a bit stretched or "annoying," but she had some wickedly awesome moments as well, says someone who actually watched the full series instead of just stopping watching after the first season and then complaining about how it's not as good as it used to be even though you hadn't watched the final six seasons). Her Other Mother is creepy, manic, and the casting director deserves recognition for finding someone who has such a thin, tight voice that comes across with both menace and maternal instincts. Hatcher's work here is amongst the best of her career, and in a year brimming with great animated films, outshines every other animated actor.
In the best film Walt ever created (Snow White obsessives, the comments section is just a click away), Jiminy Cricket is a conundrum of a fellow-ornery, cranky, morally upstanding, and totally smitten with the comely Blue Fairy. He helps the Blue Fairy mostly due to his crush, though also to become a true conscience for the soon to be real-boy Pinocchio, and as a result, becomes our own guide through the film. Edwards beautifully singing during "When You Wish Upon a Star" lands him a spot in my top ten, but his comic timing and great, quick turn of phrase adds to the richness of this character. There's a reason Disney so willingly adopted him as one of their chief mascots.
Is the basis Mary Quant? Is it Lotte Leyna? Is it Edith Head (probably)? Whomever it is, Edna Mode transcends imitation and becomes something all-her-own with Brad Bird behind her, guiding her quick wit and flares for the dramatic. I love the way that he keeps what is easily the best part of his film on the skirts of the movie (Bird being both director and an actor in the film), with only a pinch of Edna Mode's deadpan delivery and never finding the ridiculous in her comments serving as a brilliant, full meal. Edna is not someone to be trifled with, but she's also not stand-offish, and in a good message to children watching, Bird lets her passion come through. It may seem ridiculous, but she never succumbs to it being silly, and as a result she is someone to be admired, as well as comic gold.
I'm cheating a teensy bit here, both by having two people for the price of one character (thus further illustrating the complication of an Oscar for this genre, which frequently has multiple actors playing the same part) and by allowing a film that isn't entirely animated, but it's clearly not the same deal as motion capture. Jessica Rabbit is one for the ages, and I can't decide whether it's Turner's deadpan delivery (why doesn't she get more vocal work with that Bacall tenor she sports around) or Irving's Peggy Lee-style introduction to the woman that makes her more than just drawn that way. Combined, they give a rich, delicious character her iconic status.
"Anita darling!" You know you just thought it. We've (or at least I've) walked around a room trying to be her (sans the puppy-killing, obviously), thrusting around an extended cigarette and a martini glass like I'm a cross between Miranda Priestly, Wallis Simpson, and the Cryptkeeper. Garson's work makes you both enchanted with the villain and terrified of her-to see her is to take a certain chill, indeed. Due in no small part to Garson's successful work, that magetism of the villain, that they aren't just a foil to our main protagonist but really the central attraction, is a Disney formula that has been used with much success by everyone from Geraldine Page to Jeremy Irons to, most recently, Donna Murphy.
Wright's vocal work is truly a triumph in a film brimming with them. Sebastian the Crab is that assistant you always wanted-loyal, quick with advice, hard-working to a fault, and constantly putting his neck on the line, even if it means he may end up as an appetizer. His finest moment in the film is his "Kiss the Girl" song ("Under the Sea" is blissful, but the fact that it won the Oscar has always seemed strange to me, considering it's the fourth best song in that movie, much less for the entire year), where he sets the mood and makes you believe in love, and that they will kiss, because who wouldn't want to with Wright serenading you while you're "floating in a blue lagoon?"
Lansbury's Mrs. Potts is partially this high due to sentimental reasons, as I both adore this film more than all other Disney pictures and I adore her more than almost all other actors. But still, her work is warming, as her great big number (there, the Academy correctly identified the best song in the movie). It may have been fairly easy for Lansbury, but that doesn't mean she doesn't nail the part, the way that she believes in love before almost any other characters, but remains weary of staying in her position forever (think of the tenuous way she handles the Beast as opposed to her coworkers). This is an actress who could push around John Iselin like nobody's business, and she can also be the maternal grandmother we all want to tuck us in at night.
Don't give me that look, you know I'm right! Williams commands the screen in Aladdin, and while he may have been borrowing from this same schtick for the next couple of decades of stand-up, that doesn't negate that this performance was so alive, so full of energy and humor, and is absolutely wall-to-wall funny as only Robin Williams can command. The character was clearly meant to always be played by Williams, and while typecasting is oftentimes dismissed as lazy, perhaps we should rethink such a practice when it's clear that from 1989-95, when Disney was perfectly casting its characters rather than striving for "stuff-the-film-with-stars," a practice Dreamworks made popular, it worked so well.
Degeneres's Dory owns the entire movie the moment she arrives. Comic acting always seems to be the best template for animation, and Degeneres's timing has always been her greatest asset as a comedian and an actress (and a talk show host, for that matter). She can convey the late in the film confession with Marlin ("I look at you, and I'm home") without giving up any of the character's sense of whimsy or memory loss. She takes every moment to sell her lines, and to sell her character, and for that, she deserved an Oscar nomination, just like the woman who is in Number One...
I have yet to see a performance that has made me rethink that Carroll deserved the Oscar in 1989 (the nomination, I'm convinced, should have been a done deal). Carroll's work is so iconic-imagine ANY other actor taking on Ursula, and you would have had someone who was too comic, too dark, too toothless. Instead, her Ursula is someone you can be suckered in by-she's seen it all, she knows what she wants, and she has the resonant basso profondo to get her point across. She has that terrific laugh at the back of her throat, but she only employs it when she needs to really instill a sense of fear or foreboding in the audience. The Little Mermaid has been borrowed from and stolen from so many times that few people today can make successful retellings of classic fairy tales without trying to be hip or cool or throwing in a pop culture reference or a bunch of sight gags. They keep forgetting what a menacing diva Ursula was-Carroll plays her as a woman who has found her shot, and knows this is the moment to seize (a timeless maneuver). And "Poor Unfortunate Souls"-try not bellowing "what is idle prattle for" while listening to Carroll sing.
And that's my Top 10, but I want to hear yours-what are the best animated vocal performances? Do you think any of them should have been honored by Oscar? And which ones? Share in the comments!
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