Welcome to the 2nd episode of the new FanboyNation podcast: Toon-In-Talk, your rendezvous for animation interviews. Toon-In-Talk is hosted by Whitney Grace and is dedicated to bringing you great stories straight from the animation industry. In the premiere episode, Whitney interviews famous voice actors Jim Cummings and Carlos Alazraqui. Jim has a resume as long as it is fantastic. He has voiced Winnie the Pooh, Darkwing Duck, Raymond from The Princesss and the Frog, and more. Carlos Alazraqui is known for voicing Rocko on Rocko’s Modern Life, Mr. Crocker from Fairly Oddparents, and many live action roles.
Show Notes
- Carlos got started in voice acting from his stand up comedy career, where he did a lot of character voices.
- Nickelodeon loved his Australian character voice so much they cast him as Rocko in Rocko’s Modern Life.
- Carlos is extremely proud to have worked at Nickelodeon during its Golden Age.
- He also confirms that the Nicktoon was written for a more mature audience and is very happy that there is still a very big fan following.
- A fan comes up and compliments Carlos on his performance in Reno 911, which is quite the opposite of of the innocent Rocko.
- Daniel Tosh doesn’t have a vendetta against Carlos for taking his job away as the Taco Bell mascot. Carlos was the voice for the “Yo quiero Taco Bell” chihuahua.
- The Fairly Oddparents character Denzel Crocker combines Gene Wilder, Montgomery Burns, and Richard Dreyfus in one kooky voice.
- He says he’s recycle voices for different roles but altered the voices a little bit for each one. He’s a genius at playing different accents.
- Having worked at many of the major studios, Carlos says Disney is more familial, Nickelodeon is more subversive, and Cartoon Network is the most “out there.”
- When he’s working, Carlos prefers group recording sessions because they’re fun.
- Carlos came up with the Al Pacino voice for Ernesto the penguin in Happy Feet and he also did his own singing.
- Carlos explains Lazlo’s character from Camp Lazlo and what happened to Rocko when the series ended.
- John DiMaggio and Carlos were riffing in a session one day and created an entire improv cartoon series on Mondo Media from it.
- He loops voice for Billy Crystal.
- Compared to the 1990s, Carlos thinks cartoons aren’t as subtle and are made weird for weirdness’ sake.
- He plays El Chupacabra in Planes and General Posada in The Book of Life.
- To hear about how Jim Cummings started in voice acting, check out Rob Paulsen’s Talkin’ Toons Podcast.
- Jim is most well known for voicing Darkwing Duck on the Disney Afternoon.
- He doesn’t collect voices, but he does a lot of impressions of people.
- Jim became a Disney go-to voice actor, because he started out around the same time the Disney Channel and the Disney Afternoon started.
- He never got the chance to meet Sterling Holloway, but he did encounter him in a restaurant from a distance. He now follows in Holloway’s footsteps by playing Winnie the Pooh.
- Jim discusses his take on villains and sometimes they’re a bit more fun for him to play.
- Whitney asks what would happen if some of his characters faced off.
- He discusses voice Scar’s singing voice on The Lion King and his character Ray on The Princess and the Frog.
- He loves working with Rob Paulsen and considers him to be one of the voice acting greats.
- If he was stuck on a desert island, he’d want Darkwing Duck to be with him.
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