#I think the only VA that was celebrated in the film is Jack Black

[imthepunchlord]

Did you find it annoying that they had the OG Mario voice have a Stan Lee cameo using his Mario voice on a character that if I’m not mistaken also looks an awful lot like OG Mario in a scene right next to Movie Mario voiced by the guy who didnt even bother to change his voice in his 3rd animated movie role?

None is talking about it ans its driving me nuts

Oh yeah. Like, I'll give it that that was a cool and fun cameo. But also just, why not just hire him? I've seen some people say that the actual voice of Mario in the games would be annoying in a movie but also, guys, he's a voice actor. They're able to adjust the pitch of their voice.

Like, one of the best examples is the voice actor of Steven Universe. Steven has a very soft voice, but his actual VA does not.

Jack Black himself is another example, to voice Bowser, he had to adjust how he talked to get something closer to a deeper, rumbling voice. Compare Po's voice to Bowser and you can hear that difference.

So, yeah Martinet could've adjusted his voice so it's more bearable for the whole film. As a voice actor, it's a capability that should be up his alley.

Either way, I did get used to Chris Ratt's voice and he didn't take me out of the film that much (trailers he definitely did), but I still think he was miscast. He didn't bring in the right energy for Mario, he spoke very softly. I'd have to rewatch it to see, but a lot of the film almost felt like he was speaking in a monotone. Every now and then there'd be some pep, but I think Mario needed more energy in his voice.

And if they really didn't want Martinet, ok, but surely there was someone else out there that could've filled those shoes better than Pratt. Pratt didn't really deliver voice acting wise, he wasn't bad enough to ruin the experience, for me at least, but I do wish someone else was voicing Mario.

[fawninthewinter]

Feel this is a good time to post this before it gets too late after the Mario movie cast announcement.

The thing about celebrities doing voice overs in animated movies isn't that it is a problem that they are doing it at all or there should be no live action actors doing voices in animated films period.

There are talented camera actors that respect voice acting as another form of acting and are able to apply their talents to the art so well when voicing animated characters like Simon Pegg, Bill Hader, Robin Williams, Ben Schwartz etc. And I think almost everyone would agree Tom Hanks was perfectly cast as Woody and brought so much to the character.

Then you have those actors that have such distinct voices they legit sound like cartoon characters like John Mulaney, Kristen Schaal, Kate Micucci, Wallace Shawn, Gilbert Gottfried, etc. So they are right at home doing voices in animated media (also aside from their voices they also make for good voice actors as well again because of talent).

The actual problem is so much of it in the current times doesn't take people being right for certain roles into account and just casts the most popular stars as of the time said animated movie comes out for all the central characters based on the fact that they are big names alone. And place having an all star cast to sell the movie over every other aspect of it. Like as soon as an animated film is in production they're already thinking 'what popular star should we get to voice this character and that character?' as opposed to 'who is right for this character? Were they written with someone in mind? Do they even need to be voiced by a celeb when a veteran voice actor who's job is actually voice acting could do just as good if not a better job bringing this character to life?' and the fact that vas are rarely even given the opportunity to audition for animated features and are usually only called for additional voices after an all star cast has been filled out for central and supporting roles in of itself is bullshit.

In situations like the Mario movie or any movie based on existing video game or cartoon properties where the vas have been doing it forever, the trend of celeb casting is at its worst. Charles Martinet and the other Mario vas have been the official voices for years now and the fact they are tossed aside for star power just to get butts in seats is such a disservice and so unfair to them. And going back to being right for a role, Jack Black as Bowser and even Seth Rogen as DK sure I can picture them doing well in those roles but Chris Pratt is like one of the least people I would associate with Mario? I guess we'll have to wait and see It's just. I dunno.

[thedornishprincess]

g2k me uncomfortably well

I was tagged by @eatmyshiftsticky thanks sweetie !! :) I’m sorry to answer to this so late but this week at wasn’t home and I couldn’t do it. I’m so sorry to also be less active here but never forget I love you all and I miss you !!! 

1. What is your middle name?

I don’t have any middle name. Just a first name :) Anthea

2. How old are you?

18

3. When is your birthday?

30th May 

4. What is your zodiac sign?

Gemini !

5. What is your favourite colour?

Black, Purple & Red

6. What’s your lucky number?

Uhm well... 7 

7. Do you have any pets?

Not anymore... my cat died a month ago. But my neighbor’s dog really love me and I considere him as my own dog :)

8. Where are you from?

France 

9. How tall are you?

5′5

10. What shoe size are you?

8 US

11. How many pairs of shoes do you own?

Hard question !! I think... 10 

12. What was your last dream about?

I can’t really remember but It was something really weird and at the same time awful. It was actually a fucking nightmare

13. What talents do you have?

I can do some twirl with my drumsticks, I dance pretty well and I think that’s all ! LOL

14. Are you psychic in any way?

I don’t think so 

15. Favourite song?

Dammmmmm !!! I can’t choose !!! It’s so hard !! Who are you, the devil ??! LOL ok so.... Don’t you ever leave me Hanoi Rocks 

16. Favourite movie?

The Lord of the Ring and Forrest Gump

17. Who would be your ideal partner?

A fucking rockstar ! LOL A man open-minded, who loves music, films and he’s really clever, cultured with whom I would speak about philosophy, history and litterature. A man who has long hair would be perfect by the way !

18. Do you want children?

Yeah why not ! But not now 

19. Do you want a church wedding?

In France, you can marry only in a church or in a city hall so... I don’t know now 

20. Are you religious?

No 

21. Have you ever been to the hospital?

Yes like a lot of people I suppose and many many times 

22. Have you ever got in trouble with the law?

nope, I don’t plan on i

23. Have you ever met any celebrities?

Ok... I met a lot of celebrities, some are really famous and some not. This is a short list of celebrities I met : Richard Madden, Pilou Asbaek, Natalie Emmanuel, Eugene Simon, Joe Dempsie, Alfie Allen, Daniel Portman, Gemma Wheelan, Vladimir ‘Furdo’ Furdik, Isaac Hempstead-Wight, Iwan Rheon, Jerome Flynn, Iain Glenn, Jack Gleeson, Jacob Anderson and Duff Mckagan :) ( I met other celebrities but you may not know the name ) 

24. Baths or showers?

both

25. What color socks are you wearing?

white

26. Have you ever been famous?

Not sure ahhaha I’ve been interviewed few times but that’s all

27. Would you like to be a big celebrity?

I would ! maybe as an author or actress

28. What type of music do you like?

Rock ‘n Roll, Punk, hard rock, pop, soul funk...

29. Have you ever been skinny dipping?

I have never.

30. How many pillows do you sleep with?

Only two but I’ve got 5 more pillows on my bed 

31. What position do you usually sleep in?

i’m either on my right or my left side in the same position of a baby 

32. How big is your house?

It’s a single-story but enough big for 4 persons

33. What do you typically have for breakfast?

Orange juice with cake for eating ( in french the brand is ‘’ Bellevita ‘’ )

34. Have you ever fired a gun?

No I only did rifle shooting 

35. Have you ever tried archery?

I’ve only really ever done archery during summer camp and it was a long time ago !

36. Favourite clean word?

Ok in French it’s ‘’ magnifique ‘’ 

37. Favorite swear word ?

In French again it’s ‘’ Va te faire foutre ! ‘’ 

38. What’s the longest you’ve ever gone without sleep?

One day only 

39. Do you have any scars?

Yeah one in the back of my arm because I felt a year ago when I was doing fencing 

40. Have you ever had a secret admirer?

No... 

41. Are you a good liar?

Indeed I am. But I don’t like to lie.

42. Are you a good judge of character?

I’d like to think I’m good at reading people

43. Can you do any other accents other than your own?

British accent, german and spanish just for fun

44. Do you have a strong accent?

No in French and when I speak in English I try to have no French accent at all. My english teacher said that my english accent was a mix of an american, british and scottish accent. I can’t imagine it but why not LOL

45. What is your favourite accent?

British !!!!!

46. What is your personality type?

Crazy, shy, a bit lunatic and open-minded 

47. What is your most expensive piece of clothing?

I don’t really have exepensive piece of clothing... maybe the most expensive is about 90 euros 

48. Can you curl your tongue?

nope

49. Are you an innie or an outie?

Innie.

50. Left or right-handed?

right-handed

51. Are you scared of spiders?

Fuck yeah

52. Favourite food?

Pizza 

53. Favourite foreign food?

Chili !

54. Are you a clean or messy person?

I hate mess ! I’m fucking clean person 

55. Most used phrase?

Even in French I speak in english and I say ‘’ anyway ‘’. In French I say always ‘’ genre ‘’ 

56. Most used word?

‘‘ Fuck ‘‘ 

57. How long does it take for you to get ready?

An hour bc I stay around 20 minutes in my bed 

58. Do you have much of an ego?

No, I don’t.

59. Do you suck or bite lollipops?

Suck them

60. Do you talk to yourself?

All the fucking time ! I’m asking questions to myself, talk in English to myself and having a conversation with myself. Yeah I’m crazy and so ? 

61. Do you sing to yourself?

bitch yes, all the fucking time !!

62. Are you a good singer?

I like to think that I’m okay ( but that’s not true )

63. Biggest Fear?

Being Deaf 

64. Are you a gossip?

Not really 

65. Best dramatic movie you’ve seen?

Forrest Gump !

66. Do you like long or short hair?

I don’t mind either way but long hair....dammmmmmm !! That’s my weakness

67. Can you name all 50 states of America?

You’re funny girl ! Not at all ! 

68. Favourite school subject?

History

69. Extrovert or Introvert?

Introvert

70. Have you ever been scuba diving?

nope

71. What makes you nervous?

A lot of things 

72. Are you scared of the dark?

Nope... sometime yeah but I’m gonna say no bc most of the time I’m not

73. Do you correct people when they make mistakes?

depends what kind of mistakes we’re taking here.

74. Are you ticklish?

yes, and I fucken hate it.

75. Have you ever started a rumour?

I don’t think I ever have

76. Have you ever been in a position of authority?

No LOL maybe few times but I can’t remember 

77. Have you ever drank underage?

yeah maybe a glass but just one 

78. Have you ever done drugs?

No

79. Who was your first real crush?

I’ve never really had a crush on a real person... but when I was a kind I had a crush on Aladdin from tht disney movie 

80. How many piercings do you have?

Just my ears but I want more .

81. Can you roll your R’s?

a little, but only for like two seconds.

82. How fast can you type?

As fast as I can lol

83. How fast can you run?

... i hate running 

84. What colour is your hair?

black, dark brown

85. What color is your eyes?

green and brown 

86. What are you allergic to?

mushrooms and some medicine 

87. Do you keep a journal?

No just a book where I write my ideas for my story I’m currently writting 

88. What do your parents do?

My mother works in a hospital and my father is an electrician 

89. Do you like your age?

Yeah...

90. What makes you angry?

A lot of things, but I’ve learnt to control it ( not always...) 

91. Do you like your own name?

I love it !

92. Have you already thought of baby names, and if so what are they?

I have. Boy names : Peter, Michael, James. Girl names : Arwen, Diana, Alice 

93. Do you want a boy a girl for a child?

I don’t have any preference 

94. What are you strengths?

I don’t know ahahah

95. What are your weaknesses?

I can be very touchy

96. How did you get your name?

Long story !!!!! But my name came from a french metal band and so now I’m the mascotte of the band. ( send me a dm for more details ahah ) 

97. Were your ancestors royalty?

Nope 

98. Do you have any scars?

I’ve seen this question somewhere else... 

99. Colour of your bedspread?

White 

100. Colour of your room?

Grey, purple and white 

I’m not going to tag someone bc I’ve got to sleep right now or tomorrow I’m gonna look like a shit LOL 

Love you all !!! XXX 

[picturebookmakers]

Peter Elliott & Kitty Crowther

In this post, Peter and Kitty talk about their collaboration on ‘FARWEST’ – a wildly original picturebook which is based on an old French expression. First published in French by Pastel–l’école des loisirs, there are more foreign editions to come.

Visit Peter Elliott’s website Visit Kitty Crowther’s Instagram page

Peter: Since I was a kid, I’ve been a musician. I write songs. And since childhood, I’ve received a great deal of pleasure from drawing. So I carried on as a musician and became an illustrator, and then later, an author.

I wrote FARWEST as I write lyrics for a song. It always starts with a simple idea. In this case, it was the French expression, ‘qui va à la chasse perd sa place’ (why this expression, I don’t know). The literal English translation is ‘he who goes hunting loses his place’, though I think ‘move your feet, lose your seat’ works better in English.

I simply asked myself what would happen for real if somebody leaves their place and another one takes it...

I thought it would be nice to welcome the guy back anyway, like: “Hey dude, take a seat; you’re welcome!”

Very quickly, I realised this is a perfect way to meet people. And I love to meet people. So... Thinking of all this, I let the rhythm of the words lead the game. I wanted to make the text sound like music.

And finally (the same night) I made sketches for the illustrations. At that moment, I was making the book on my own.

A few days later, I sent ‘Qui va à la chasse’ to Kitty (only the text, not my sketches). I wanted to know her opinion on what I wrote and if she thought it was good enough to present to Odile, our publisher at Pastel.

Kitty and I have known each other for a long time. We were at the same art school, Saint Luc in Brussels, and we’ve shared the same publisher for over twenty years.

Also, I’d seen Kitty dancing back when I was playing live with my band, Busty Duck. This is the reason why I asked her to illustrate the cover of our album ‘Zoomorphic’ in 2009 (our third and final album; the band isn’t together anymore).

I think that Kitty and I have a particular relationship to music. Maybe this is why she felt the rhythm in my text so strongly.

I was really surprised when Kitty asked me if I was okay to let her illustrate the story. I replied: “you’re welcome!” And Kitty decided to do the story with cowboys and to name it FARWEST.

During the making of the book, Kitty and I were with our publisher Odile at Kitty’s house, to see the sketches for FARWEST. It was amazing to discover how my words had been interpreted by Kitty’s brain. How her imagination had devoured the story.

On that day, I met this magnificent red horse and Jonas, a funny dog who is the link between the humans. I also saw this sketchbook page with Jeff, Jim and Koko playing music around a fire:

Odile and Kitty suggested that I compose the music from that picture. Kitty illustrated my words with pictures, and now I could illustrate Kitty’s picture with music. I loved the idea!

A few days later, my father gave me a tenor banjo. That night, I sat on the floor of my workroom, which is also where I record my songs. I lit a candle (my fire), played a few chords and I started to sing. With the lyrics, I wanted to talk about refugees and all the lost people. And to claim that the only possible answer is “welcome.”

Today, I just can’t believe how beautiful the book is. And I’m dazzled by the strength and the truth that I feel in Kitty’s pictures – just as I was back at art school, when I first saw her work pinned to the wall of the studio.

FARWEST. I wrote a story. Kitty made a world of it.

Kitty: It’s nice to be back on Picturebook Makers. Thank you for inviting us to talk about this wild, crazy cowboy book. I am super-proud of it.

As Peter mentioned, we have known each other for a long time. We often write to each other. I’ve always loved the way Peter writes his emails and I encouraged him to write novels. So one day, he asked me to read one of his texts and tell him what I thought. I fell for it. I loved the rhythm.

He sent it in March 2015, so thank you for your patience, Peter!

When I read a text, I must be able to see the pictures in my head. It has to take me on a journey; I have to travel. And it has to be very different from what I do with my own books. I love writing; I always feel it’s a different muscle that’s working. And I think that one lifetime won’t be enough to write all the stories that I want to tell. So, I’m not usually keen to illustrate other people’s words, even if they’re nice. With FARWEST, I didn’t say yes to please Peter, but because I believe very strongly in this story. I need a lot of freedom and Peter knows this.

I thought it would be too obvious to have ‘Qui va à la chasse perd sa place’ as the title, and Peter agreed to change it to FARWEST. I’m a big fan of Tarantino, old Westerns, trappers, wildlife, Jack London, Calamity Jane, Billy the Kid, and all the others. And now the Westworld TV series.

In this book, there’s an accumulation of people. And it can be read on different levels (I hope).

You could see it as an immigration story. Or the fear of losing your seat. I remember as a child, it was always hard for me to find my seat. To find my place.

During the recent American election, I felt sick. So much hate. So much lack of wisdom. Hardly any empathy. All my bones were hurting, thinking of my ancestors invading America all those years ago. The descendants of those people. Hunger for gold and land. Escaping misery.

Millions of Native Americans died. Pushed out from their lands. Killed or consumed by illness. They were treated the worst way you could imagine.

I recommend reading the beautiful words of Russell Means, a Native American activist and actor (1939-2012): ‘If You’ve Forgotten the Names of Clouds, You’ve Lost Your Way: An Introduction to American Indian Thought and Philosophy’.

It’s frightening that we hardly take care of nature’s guardian tribe. We just create eager people. More is never enough.

The story of FARWEST starts on the title page. A Native American, drawn in charcoal, sitting on his horse. Beside him is his dog. It’s a black and white page, like this would have happened a long time ago.

(I asked Peter to add a horse and a dog. It amused me so much to see this supposedly loyal dog changing master all the time!)

So, you have to create the link between the title page and the following page. I’ve always been fascinated by the passing of time in books. Page one and page two; what happens in-between?

You have three characters at the start of the story. Two white people and one Native American. It made me smile to draw the Native American with a costume – almost like he would be more educated than the other two. Playing with visual language.

I wanted to draw big landscapes. I think it’s very good for your spirit to see far into the distance. It opens your brain up to possibilities.

I had to choose the person who replaces the little hero of the book when he goes out hunting. It was hard to find this person. An African boy? A Native American boy? A Chinese boy? A girl?

Then I was looking at this incredible animation film from Max Fleischer...

I am totally fascinated by how Koko the Clown moves and dances. Such beautiful art!

Anyway, inspired by Koko, this yellow guy showed up.

My Koko has an emoji face, or smiley. People all around the world use them.

With the way he’s dressed, Koko seems to come from the music hall.

Peter insisted on no guns in this book. You think of cowboys and you see guns. But when you see the situation with gun laws in the USA, it’s really frightening. It’s easier to buy a gun than to publish an edgy book for children. Ha! Guns are like drugs/tobacco/alcohol/petrol/human trafficking and all the rest, just to feed the appetite of angry-black-suited greedy men and women (I’m sure these are shortcut thoughts, but hey!).

The next character who arrives is a woman. Rosa Parks.

For the ones who don’t know her, she is a famous African-American civil rights activist. She sat at the front of a bus where African-American people were forbidden to sit at that time. She refused to give up her seat. Very brave her.

With the next ‘names’ that arrived in the story, we tried to find people who work/worked for freedom and humanity.

So there’s Russell Means (read about him earlier in this post).

Then there’s Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman (1864–1922; her pen name was Nellie Bly). She was known for her pioneering journalism, including her 1887 exposé on the conditions of asylum patients at Blackwell’s Island in New York, and her report of her 72-day trip around the world.

Patti Smith. Because she is such a beautiful punk.

Martin Luther King. Because he had a dream.

Calamity Jane. The letters to her daughter – even though it was later discovered that they weren’t really written by Calamity Jane – are amazing.

Django from the Tarantino film, based on the legendary African-American Marshall, Bass Reeves.

I love it that the sweet cowboy says: “At the end of the day, I may have lost my seat, but there’s still plenty of space.”

(You might have noticed that all the characters in FARWEST have something in common: their nose! Little round black noses, like Micky Mouse or in Picsou magazine, the Beagle Boys or Felix the Cat. It made me smile to do this.)

Okay, to finish, I'd like to talk a little bit about the animation I made for Peter’s song (see the video earlier in the post).

Peter suggested we use the picture of the gang singing and playing music, and that we could make the fire move...

But I was afraid we would get bored after a while.

I really love animated GIFs – hypnotic ones, like the bison by Eadweard Muybridge.

Muybridge was an English photographer. I recently discovered that he emigrated to the USA in 1850. And in 1868, his large photographs of Yosemite Valley made him world-famous!

But Muybridge is best known for his pioneering work on animal locomotion in 1877 and 1878. A few years before this, a French physiologist and inventor called Étienne-Jules Marey wrote that a galloping horse had all four hooves off the ground for a brief moment, and that the way horses were depicted in some paintings was wrong. I always find it fascinating when art mixes with science and discovery.

Through his pioneering work, Muybridge proved that Marey was right. So thank you to Mr Muybridge (even if it’s said that he killed the lover of his wife and was never punished). And thank you, Monsieur Marey. Because I think that the horse is one of the hardest things to draw, and I always wanted to try to understand it. In fact, horses run on their nails!

With my animation, I wanted to make it as easy as possible to do, and I used the same technique as the wonderful artist, William Kentridge: repeatedly erasing and reworking charcoal drawings.

That’s all folks!

Content © Peter Elliott and Kitty Crowther. Post edited by dPICTUS.

‘Wonderful People’: Lyrics and music by Peter Elliott. Animation by Kitty Crowther and Sam McCullen. Music recorded by Peter Elliott at Constellation 8. Mixed and mastered by Fabrice Lefèvre at Born2Groove studio.

Buy this picturebook

FARWEST

Peter Elliott & Kitty Crowther

Pastel–l’école des loisirs, Belgium, 2018

The weather was beautiful that morning. “I am going hunting,” I announced. As I went out, followed by my dog, Jonas, I greeted Jeff and Jim. It was my very first time hunting and it wasn’t that easy!

Later that day, I returned home, opened the door... and I realised that someone had taken my place!

Jeff said it plainly to me: “Move your feet, lose your seat! There’s no two ways about it!”