Best Voice Acting in Animated Movies + Movie Review: Speak No Evil + Trailer Park:Piece by Piece

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to Movie Mike's movie podcast. I am your host Movie Mike. Today I want to share with you my top ten best voice acting in animated movies. You saw the news last week that sadly James Earl Jones passed away, a n iconic legendary actor with the most powerful voice in Hollywood, a true legend. We're gonna honor him, and we're gonna also talk about more actors who have delivered just amazing performances in animated movies. Only in the movie Review, we'll be talking about a new horror movie starring James McAvoy called Speak No Evil, Full On Go in Spooky Season as we head into October, and in the Trailer Park, we'll kick it back to animation and talk about Peace by Piece, which is the lego adaptation of Pharrell. So thank you for being here, thank you for being subscribed, Shout out to the Monday Morning Movie crew. And now let's talk movies.

00:00:52
Speaker 2: In a world where everyone and their mother has a podcast, one man stands to infiltrate the ears of listeners never before in a movie podcast, a man with so much movie knowledge, he's basically like a walking IMTB with glasses from the Nashville podcast Networks.

00:01:12
Speaker 3: This is Movie Mike's Movie podcast.

00:01:15
Speaker 4: James L.

00:01:16
Speaker 1: Jones passed away last week. He was ninety three years old. He was the voice in Mufasa Zimba's dad in The Lion King in both animated movie from nineteen ninety four and the live action remake.

00:01:27
Speaker 4: He was also the voice of Darth Vader.

00:01:29
Speaker 1: If he only did those two roles, he would be a legend already. But he was also the dad in Coming to America. He was Terence's man in Field of Dreams. He had an amazing performance even though it was a smaller role in the Sandlot, and that was one that hit me in a different way as far as celebrity deaths. I saw it posted and he just kind of punched me in the gut. He was a pillar in the movie industry. So I wanted to do this episode to honor his legacy and talk about some other accomplishments in animation when it comes to voice acting, which is still mind blowing to me that there is no oscar for voice acting, and a lot of people argue that if they made one, it would lessen the impact of winning an Oscar, because if you're winning an Oscar for voice acting, therefore it takes away from Best Actor, Best Actress supporting. I think that is ridiculous. I think so much work goes into voicing animated movies that people don't realize. And I think the reason it's lessened a little bit is because sometimes actors will just take voice acting roles and not really give a whole lot of dynamic range in their voice. They're like, I'm a celebrity already, I'm gonna do this because it's easy and I get paid. But there are other instances where actors go above and be on to at times alter their voice so they are completely unrecognizable, which I guess sometimes movie exactly with not like that because you're paying for the A list star, we want it to sound like that person. But that is the entire reason that voice acting exists. That is why it is so significant. And there are other cases where an actor just has a great voice on their own and they don't really have to do a whole lot to change it. But because they are such great actors, they still put in the emphasis and the range of emotion that they would if they were on screen and just because they're in recording booth doesn't take away from that same practice.

00:03:32
Speaker 4: So that is why I decided to.

00:03:33
Speaker 1: Come to you with my top ten best voice acting in animated movies only, so not looking at anything live action, not even word. There's a character who's animated and there are humans. This is pure animation. Although it will range in different types of animated movies, We're only focusing on animated movies for this list. Kicking it off with number ten, I have Trey Parker's performance in Bigger, Longer and un Cut, which is the South Park movie from nineteen ninety nine. Trey Parker is just one of my favorite minds in Hollywood in animation, and I think he goes unrecognized a lot because a lot of people just associating with South Park being an overly vulgar show. But if you look at the significance of his impact in TV with South Park alone, but also in movies, who has consistently been pushing the barriers on what you can do in film in a movie, and I think the biggest test to that was in nineteen ninety nine with the South Park movie, which at the time was just seen as the ultimate thing that you could not watch as a kid because how bad it was. And I love the story that went into this movie that also mirrored a lot of parents' worries about kids watching that TV show. Because what this plot does in the movie is it follows the four main kids who want to see this movie by Terrence and Phila, who are these two animated characters who, just like south.

00:05:03
Speaker 4: Park, are very vulgar and over the top.

00:05:06
Speaker 1: And then by them watching this movie, they are now exposed to cursing, and they curse all the time. So they go from being innocent kids to being these little vocal terrors, and then of course it escalates from there. But why I put Trey Parker on my list is because he voices four of the main characters in south Park. He does two of the main kids, Stan Marsh and Eric Cartman. He also does Stand's dad Randy mister Garrison. He also does in this movie Gregory Mulnead mister Mackie, Philip from Terrence and Phillip and Moore, and doing that many voices is just impressive in itself. Here's just a little bit of his performance as Cartman in the south Park movie.

00:05:45
Speaker 3: Somebody Doesn't Dark.

00:05:46
Speaker 4: I can't say the KNA. What are you guys doing here?

00:05:51
Speaker 5: Dead?

00:05:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, So what they do with their voice is they do manipulate it a little bit because obviously they are grown adults and in order to sound like kids, they pitch.

00:06:03
Speaker 4: It up just a couple of octaves.

00:06:05
Speaker 1: But for the most part, he can do that voice on his own without any alterations, and it is fascinating to watch. If you've never seen the documentary Six Days to Air, which is all about their process on making the TV show. A lot of behind the scenes of them recording the voices because they would be working on an episode in one week that had to come out in six days, so you see how stressful it is for them to have to write it, record it animated, make a bunch of changes. And I think that is the main reason that they do so many of the voices, is because they just need.

00:06:38
Speaker 4: To be around all the time.

00:06:40
Speaker 1: So it's also astonishing to me that at the same time that they were making this movie, they were also working on the TV show. So it is a fascinating process and that is why I put Trey Parker in South Park, Bigger, Longer, and Uncut at number ten. At number nine, I have Shamik Moore as my Miles Morales in both of the End of the Spider Verse and across the Spider Verse movies, and for the most part, when we think about Spider Man and the best Spider Man of all time, we always go to the live action ones, even though there have been different iterations not only in the movies but also in the TV shows. But you probably think of Toby Maguire, Andrew Garfield and Tom Holland before you think of Shamik Moore. And Shamik Moore is somebody that I first discovered when I watched a coming of age movie called Dope back in twenty fifteen, which is a fantastic I would actually put it in my top five coming of age movies of all time. And it was because of that movie that a few years later he got a call from some of the people working on Spider Man into the Spider Verse, and they got in touch with this team that they potentially wanted him to be Miles Morales in this movie that they were working on, and they had him send a voice note and that ended up being his audition to be Spider Man, and he became Miles Morales.

00:07:59
Speaker 4: After that I would have still loved to have.

00:08:02
Speaker 1: Seen Donald Glover aka a childish Gambino to voice the character. But you cannot deny how great of a performer that Shamik Moore is, and he is somebody now that I'll see him do interviews and I can only picture Miles Morales as he is talking. Here's one of my favorite deliveries of his as Miles Morales in across the Spider Verse.

00:08:23
Speaker 6: Everyone keeps telling me how mad story is supposed to go.

00:08:28
Speaker 3: Nah, I'm gonna do my own game.

00:08:33
Speaker 1: And I think that is a true example of voice acting being taken up a level because you are not just reading lines off of a page. I can feel his performance in that moment, and that was such a significant part of this movie that the emotion is not lost because it is animated. In that moment right there that I just played, I was completely unaware that I was watching something animated, And in this case, I attributed it to the amazing animation style that is just so encompassing and really engulfs you in this world.

00:09:05
Speaker 4: But also it.

00:09:05
Speaker 1: Has fantastic acting between Shamik Moore, Oscar Isaac, Jake Johnson, Hayley Steinfeld, Brian Tyree Henry. This movie goes above and beyond in its voice acting. But at number nine I have Shamik Moore as Miles Morales in both of the Spider Verse movies. At number eight, I'm going with George Clooney as Mister Fox in Fantastic Mister Fox. This is my favorite animated Wes Anderson movie. And this is one of those examples of actors I was talking about earlier who are just great actors and they're gonna put their all into her performance, whether it be live action or animated. And George Clooney I wouldn't watch in a movie, say like The Oceans movies, or even him as Batman and think, ah, he has a great, fantastic voice, but it is undeniable that he is a great actor, one of the best in our lifetime. But this movie really changed how I saw him as an actor by completely rounding out all his capabilities of not only being able to be a great fantastic lead while on screen, but having that exact same effect when you only hear his voice. And also just to play such a unique stop motion Fox, you had to have somebody like George Clooney and the rest of this amazing cast to really pull it off. Here's my favorite example of his performance as mister Fox in Fantastic Mister Fox.

00:10:29
Speaker 4: Honey, I'm seven, non Fox years old now.

00:10:31
Speaker 5: My father died at seven and a half. I don't want to live in a hole anymore, and I'm gonna do something about it.

00:10:42
Speaker 1: And not only do you have George Clooney in this Wes Anderson movie, you also get the entire list of reoccurring actors from Wes Anderson movies, with Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Meryl Streep, Owen Wilson, Willem Dafoe, and it's so fun to hear George Clooney behind them in this adaptation of a role doll story. I also wanted to include this movie on my list because I feel sometimes stop motion doesn't get the credit it deserves in the world of animation because it has such a unique style, and to some people it's a little bit off putting because it doesn't have that same flow. It's not as pretty as all of the other styles of animation. But I've always just been instantly drawn to it because of the handmade quality that it has. It feels like something you can touch. I love the fur on mister Fox that moves throughout, and that is a really hard thing to do when it comes to stop motion, because they have to move all these little hairs and all these.

00:11:40
Speaker 4: Little positions to get it just right.

00:11:42
Speaker 1: But this movie feels alive in its animation, and it has the voice acting at an entirely different level than I would expect in anything animation. To have this elite level of talent behind the mic Oscar nominated Oscar winning talent all in ste this movie and only made for a mere forty million dollars. That's why I included at number eight George Clooney as mister Fox. At number seven, I have Steve Carell as grew in the Despicable Me franchise. And Steve Carell is somebody who I would say just has a funny voice on his own. If you look at clips of the office, he is very animated in his delivery, even going back to forty year old Virgin. He has this comedic range just in his voice that he could easily just have went into the booth for Despicable Me and just done his normal regular voice and it would have worked. But would it have been as memorable if he didn't completely change it and turning to Grow, which has this very obscure super villain accident.

00:12:46
Speaker 4: I don't think so.

00:12:47
Speaker 1: Would it have sparked an entire franchise if he didn't give the performance that he did completely altering the voice we know as Steve Carell. Here's just a little bit of his voice, indespicable me Won.

00:13:00
Speaker 3: We are going to.

00:13:01
Speaker 4: Steal ja this for a thing?

00:13:12
Speaker 3: He's fine it Wald, who give me whatever I want? Other than that?

00:13:18
Speaker 4: And I will be tried to sculling of all time.

00:13:26
Speaker 3: That's what I'm talking bout.

00:13:31
Speaker 1: So it's this vaguely Eastern European accent, and at times he talks a mile a minute. Perfectly fits the character design of Grow, which I think that is the method that a lot of actors do, is they get the sketch of the character and think, what does this person sound like? I know that sounds so basic, but that's really what you have to do to give the performance that matches the actual character, and not just oh I have this voice that I normally do, maybe it'll work here A number seven. I have Steve Carell as Grew indespicable me one, two, three, and four at number six. I have Jeremy Iron's voicing Scar in The Lion King from nineteen ninety four. Scar was a villain that I hated as a kid and also feared a little bit, even though he was an animated character. But that was largely due to Jeremy Iron's performance creating this menacing character who had a really low tone, very menacing, very ominous, and at times this level of rage that would just shout out. And that is the same level of acting that you would expect in a live action movie. Best scene, hands down, when it comes to Scar in The Lion King has to be the fight between him and Simba at the very end of the movie. And this scene by Jeremy Iron still gives me chills.

00:14:51
Speaker 5: Now, this looks on me. Where have I seen this? Beforn to me? Wo sight of him?

00:15:02
Speaker 4: This is just the way your father looked before he died. Oh no, he has my little secret.

00:15:13
Speaker 5: Guilt falser.

00:15:19
Speaker 1: I mean that tone in his voice right there is my little secret I can't like. Oh my gosh, that still gives me choked. But Jeremy Irons took it a step above in The Lion King. I have him at number six. Ass Scar at number five, getting into the top five. Now would it be a top five if I didn't include one of my favorite animated movies of all time, my hands down favorite Disney movie of all time at number five. I have Chris Sanders ass Stitch in Leelo and Stitch. So not only is he the voice of Stitch in this movie, he is also the creator of Li Lo and Stitch, which is getting a live action movie next summer that I'm actually excited for. I think the character design a Stitch actually translates pretty well into live action, but I can't wait to see the full trailer to that. But I didn't just include it on my list because it is my favorite Disney movie. I put it on here because you think about the actual energy it takes to voice Stitch in this movie and the toll that it actually took.

00:16:27
Speaker 4: On his voice.

00:16:28
Speaker 1: Because the more you do the voice of Stitch, the more it shreds your vocal cords. He has to go into this weird, nasally mischievous voice that does a number when you're just sitting in a vocal mood, take after take trying to get it perfect. And if you think about the times that Stitch speaks in this movie. It is often a little burst of energy like.

00:16:51
Speaker 4: This one now much.

00:16:55
Speaker 1: Fare and the one time that he really had to dig in to his soul and actually have a little bit of acting on his part, which you don't really look at the character of Stitch and think, oh, he's gonna have to give a really great performance. And that is the hard thing about some animated characters that have a very unique voice, but you think are you going to be able to carry that throughout an entire film. An example I think of this was during the Super Mario Brothers movie, where everybody was outraged about Chris Pratt voicing Mario. They wanted the original actor who did Mario in the video games. But the problem with that is in the video games you only hear Mario talking for seconds at a time. He has some catchphrases here and there, but is that going to carry out through an entire movie. You're probably gonna get sick of it in ten, maybe twenty minutes. So that is why they went with Chris Pratt, and it actually worked pretty well in that movie. Leelo and Stitch would have been along those same lines. I don't thing you could have this same type of movie if Stitch had to speak as much as Leelo, but he speaks in these very quick bursts that when they happen, they are so memorable and so great and so much fun that it's almost like in monster movies, where you don't see the monster a whole lot, but it adds to his impact. So every time Stitch opens his mouth is very significant. And then later in the film, the scene where he gets captured and they're gonna take him back, he actually has to act a little bit, and you really get the range of Chris Sanders here having to take this character that has just been in these little fits and outbursts and really hone it in and give up performance.

00:18:42
Speaker 4: Here's that moment.

00:18:44
Speaker 6: This is my family. I found it all on my own. That's little and broken but still good. Yeah, still Grudt.

00:18:59
Speaker 4: Still gets me every single time. Just for that scene.

00:19:02
Speaker 1: I've put Chris Sanders at number five as Stitch and Lilo and Stitch, and I can't wait for his new movie, The Wild Robot to come out later this month on September twenty seventh. At number four, I have Tom Hanks voicing Woody in the Toy Story franchise one two three, and four and soon to be five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten. And Tom Hanks is one of those people who, unlike George Clooney, I do watch him in movies and thinks, man, he has just a great voice, because not only does he have great facial expressions and mannerisms and just a great presence on screen, he has a voice with.

00:19:41
Speaker 4: A lot of range.

00:19:43
Speaker 1: Particularly when Tom Hanks gets excited is my favorite thing, and not often do we get it. But when he gets angry is also really great. But he usually doesn't really play characters that get angry a whole lot. He is primarily the good guy in movies. Whenever he as a villain, it's like, oh weird Tom Hanks as a villain. But I think this particular moment in Toy Story one where he is fighting with buzz Lightyear and shows how much control he has with his voice to really make you feel that emotion. Here's the scene I'm talking about.

00:20:18
Speaker 4: What what are you talking about?

00:20:21
Speaker 3: You are toy, You weren't the real buzz light You're you're an accent fig yard.

00:20:28
Speaker 4: You are a child plaything.

00:20:32
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, well, good.

00:20:33
Speaker 1: Ridden Sillney because you hear him getting mad, but it also has a comedic tone to it.

00:20:39
Speaker 4: I don't know what he gets really frustrated.

00:20:41
Speaker 1: That is just voice acting at its finest, and the range he has with what you a loan to make you laugh, to make you feel something there that maybe has a little bit more of a tone of anger, but then also to make you feel that sadness. The ending of Toy Story three so long, partner, Ah, that is so good. I can't believe that they almost made Woody a ventriloquist doll in Toy Story. That was the original design of the character. Then they thought, oh, this looks a little bit too freaky, and they decided to change Woody and make them a cowboy instead, because, Ah, kids would probably be more inclined to want to play with a cowboy than a creepy ventriloquist doll. I think if we would have been the ventriloquist, it would have reminded me of Slappy from Goosebumps, and I would have been terrified. Every kid in the nineties would have been terrified, and Toy Story probably would have tanked. So I'm glad they switched Woody to be a cowboy.

00:21:36
Speaker 4: At number three.

00:21:37
Speaker 1: I have Eddie Murphy voicing Donkey in the Shrek films, which they are coming out with a new Shrek movie, not for a couple of years. I think it's supposed to come out July first, twenty twenty six. I kind of forgot about Shrek four, one, two, and three.

00:21:51
Speaker 4: Were so big.

00:21:52
Speaker 1: Four it came a little bit later, so I feel like my excitement was a little bit watered down to the fact that Shrek four it exists. But even more so than Mike Myers's performance as Shrek, I think the true standout star is Eddie Murphy along the same lines of Tom Hanks. Eddie also has such great control over his voice. But the reason I rank him just a little bit higher is because I think Eddie Murphy on his own is just funnier. He has the stand up experience, he has all the characters he played on SNL, and I think he was born to do comedy and I wouldn't have thought that his best work would come in the world of animation. But he is just so dynamic as Donkey. This is still hands down my favorite performance of his out of any of the movies.

00:22:40
Speaker 3: Night Only, Oh It's gonna be fun. We can see m late swapping manless stars and in the morning, I'm making waffles, we do a sleep outside.

00:22:55
Speaker 4: Oh well, I guess that's cool.

00:22:57
Speaker 7: I mean I don't know you and you don't know me, so I guess as sad as best you know.

00:23:03
Speaker 1: Yeahcho, that clip right there encompasses everything, the comedy, the sadness, the range of Adie Murphy. Steven Spielberg actually bought the rights to the book that Shrek is based on. Even though Shrek is just a big parody of all the Disney fairy tales and that's kind of what these movies served as in the two thousands, but he originally wanted to make a little bit more of a traditional animated film, and he wanted Bill Murray to be the voice of Shrek and Steve Martin to be the voice of Donkey. I think that would have been fine, but it would have had a much different just overall feeling, and no way that Steve Martin would have done as good a job as Donkey. And the other casting change that they had was Chris Farley was actually originally going to be Shrek, and there's test footage with him. Even the character of Shrek is modeled to look like Chris Farley. If you look at them side by side, which the design did change from the first iteration, it kind of resembles what Chris Farley look like. And I think it was a role that Chris Farley was really interested in doing because he was seen for the majority of his career as being the big dumb, fat guy. And as a former big dumb, fat guy, I know what kind of an impact that can have on you. Where you have been celebrated for all the wacky things you do, falling down, getting hurt, saying ridiculous things. Sometimes you just want somebody to take you seriously. And I think Shrek was going to be that for him. And if you listen to this clip of him and Eddie Murphy doing some early lines with some very rough animations, you can really hear that in his voice.

00:24:41
Speaker 3: Oh this is one of those onion things.

00:24:43
Speaker 4: No, this is one of those drop it and leave me alone things.

00:24:48
Speaker 3: Well, why don't you want to talk about him?

00:24:50
Speaker 4: Why do you want to talk about it?

00:24:52
Speaker 3: Why you answer the question with a question?

00:24:53
Speaker 4: Why are you asking questions I don't want to answer?

00:24:55
Speaker 3: Why are you I'm not blocking?

00:24:56
Speaker 5: Then?

00:24:56
Speaker 3: Why do you have problems expressing your wonts?

00:24:58
Speaker 5: I don't.

00:24:59
Speaker 4: I you just shut up, see no problem.

00:25:02
Speaker 3: You're just displacing your anger.

00:25:04
Speaker 4: Believe me, it's properly placed.

00:25:05
Speaker 3: You're really mad. Whoever did this to you? No one did anything to me. Yes, yes, someone hurts you so bad. Someone hurts you many years ago. Leave my parents out of.

00:25:12
Speaker 2: This right through.

00:25:14
Speaker 1: And I would have paid to see that movie more so than I would have paid to see Mike Myers version, even though that is the version we know and love. But he has like this weird iron accent that I think is still an interesting choice on Shrek. So that's why I didn't include Mike Myers on this list. I included Eddie Murphy. But if you would have had the version with Chris Farley and Eddie Murphy, I think Chris Farley would be on this list just from that performance alone, and again that is very raw, but you hear that real acting ability in his voice and also him getting angry there is like classic Chris Farley. I think that would have been amazing. But on the list at number three is Eddie Murphy as Donkey in Shrek. At number two is one that also hits me in the gut was another so death that was just oh my gosh kind of rock me and also one that I just go back and think about and gets sad because of how great of an actor he was on screen, but even a better actor in my opinion when it came to his voice acting.

00:26:15
Speaker 4: At number two, I have Robin.

00:26:18
Speaker 1: Williams voicing the Genie in Aladdin back in nineteen ninety two. The best part about this performance is that the filmmakers allowed him to improvise almost all of his performance.

00:26:30
Speaker 4: In those initial recordings.

00:26:33
Speaker 1: He had about fifty two different types of characters in different ways that he portrayed the Genie, which he transforms into different characters throughout the movie doing all these funny things. The filmmakers had to go and just pick out which were the funniest bits to use. That is the best way to get an amazing performance from an actor who has the comedic abilities like Robin Williams. Youah to just let him run and do whatever they want, and that is what you get from Robin Williams as the Genie, who I would say is a masterclass on how to do comedic work in voice acting. It has his signature wit, that rapid fire delivery, talking a mile a minute, and that endless range of voices and impressions that Robin Williams was known for. Here is the scene where he was first introduced in Aladdin.

00:27:24
Speaker 7: Ten thousand years will give you such a crick and then.

00:27:28
Speaker 4: Net hang on a second?

00:27:31
Speaker 1: Whoa, whoa?

00:27:33
Speaker 4: Does it feel good to be out of there?

00:27:36
Speaker 1: Tell you nice to be back, ladies and gentlemen, Hi, where are you're from?

00:27:39
Speaker 4: What's your name?

00:27:41
Speaker 6: Aladdin?

00:27:42
Speaker 8: Laden?

00:27:42
Speaker 2: Hello?

00:27:43
Speaker 5: Aladden?

00:27:43
Speaker 4: Nice to have you on the show. Can we call you al or maybe just didn't? I'll have about a lot of it sounds like, hey, boy, listen.

00:27:51
Speaker 1: To that chaotic nature of Robin Williams just being all over the place. That is somebody who I see you just having fun, really taking the role seriously, even though it sounds like he's not.

00:28:04
Speaker 4: It sounds like him being totally ridiculous.

00:28:06
Speaker 1: But that is the true nature and the true legacy that Robin Williams has left behind. Rip I have him at number two as the genie in Aladdin before we get to number one. I do have a lot of honorable mentions because my list just ran longer and longer as I was trying to pick apart all these best performance in animation.

00:28:28
Speaker 4: I also had Vin Diesel as the.

00:28:30
Speaker 1: Iron Giant in The Iron Giant, which is an underrated animated film. I thought Ben Diesel did a great job in that and is also probably the reason he got the voice Groot in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. I also have Mark Hamill as the Joker in Mask of the Phantasm, which is the animated Batman movie from the nineties. You always think about all of the live action Jokers. I don't know why it sounded like I was from New York there the live action Jokers, but Mark animal has truly delivered some of the best performances as the character in the animated world. You also have Kristen Bell and Frozen ed Asner and up Phyllis Smith, who I think does an amazing job and Inside Out Too, which also has just a lot of great voice acting in both parts one and parts two. I thought about putting Pat and Oswald as rad Atuwey from two thousand and seven. John Lucazamo as Sid in ice Age is also great, and one that really surprised me was Will Arnett voicing Batman in the Lego Batman movie. That one almost made my list, but at number one. The entire inspiration behind this episode is James Earl Jones as Mufasa.

00:29:43
Speaker 4: In The Lion King.

00:29:44
Speaker 1: He was cast as Mufasa because of his deep, powerful, booming voice that was similar to that of a lion's roar. James Earl Jones, much like Mufasa in this movie, really commands your attention, making you feel every time Mufasa gave advice to Simba. And as I was pulling some of these examples for this episode, it kind of hit me how Mufasa's death in that movie now kind of mirrors some of how I feel about him passing in real life. And I got a little emotional listening back to some of these clips, like this one in the opening scene of the movie.

00:30:24
Speaker 5: Look simpler. Everything the light touches is our kingdom.

00:30:30
Speaker 8: Wow.

00:30:31
Speaker 5: A king's time as ruler rises and falls like the sun. One day, Simba, the sun will set on my time here and will rise with you as the new king.

00:30:44
Speaker 4: What about that shadowy please.

00:30:46
Speaker 5: That's beyond all borders. You must never go there, Simba.

00:30:49
Speaker 4: And I thought, a king can do whatever he wants.

00:30:51
Speaker 5: This more to being kingdom getting your way all the time.

00:30:55
Speaker 1: Yes, more, I mean they're him talking about once his time is done, or this scene wherever Simba got in trouble and he had to give some advice to him.

00:31:04
Speaker 5: Again, Simba, I'm very disappointed in you.

00:31:08
Speaker 3: You could have been killed.

00:31:09
Speaker 5: You deliberately disobeyed me, and what's worse, you put Na in danger.

00:31:15
Speaker 1: I was just trying to be brave like you.

00:31:18
Speaker 5: I'm only brave when I have to be Simba, being brave doesn't mean you go looking for trouble.

00:31:28
Speaker 1: I didn't realize how many lessons this movie taught me as a kid. Oh, it's hit me right now. And then later after he passes away and he emerges in the clouds to Simba giving him even more advice. I didn't realize how much advice he gave to Simba.

00:31:45
Speaker 5: Who you are. You are my son and the one true key. Remember who you are.

00:31:57
Speaker 3: No, please don't leave father, don't leave me.

00:32:08
Speaker 4: I'm gonna hear that in my sleep tonight.

00:32:09
Speaker 1: Remember who you are and that's why I have him at number.

00:32:14
Speaker 4: One, my dad. Don't we eat the antelope?

00:32:16
Speaker 5: Yes, similar, But let me explain. When we die, our bodies become the grass, and the antelope eat the grass, and so we are all connected in the great circle of life.

00:32:30
Speaker 4: Rip James Earl Jones. You are now the grass. Let's get into it now. A spoiler free movie review.

00:32:42
Speaker 1: Of Speak No Evil, not to be confused with See No Evil. Hear No Evil one of my favorite eighties movies with Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder. Also not to be confused with See No Evil from two thousand and six, one of the first WWE movie starring Kin the Wrestler, who was one of my favorite it's growing up. This movie is completely different, although it is a remake of a twenty twenty two Danish movie with the same name, Speak No Evil. The movie stars James McAvoy, who I believe and have been saying he is a very underappreciated actor from director James Watkins. That also stars McKenzie Davis, who I really enjoyed and happiest season and I feel like she really fits into a suspense thriller movie like this. Them two together was probably my favorite part of this entire movie. But what the movie is about. You have this family they get invited to spend a weekend now in the countryside. They meet this couple on vacation having fancy dinners staying at a fancy resort and they're going through some things as a couple. They have an eleven year old daughter who has this attachment to this stuffed animal. They're trying to get her to grow up. So a lot of family dynamics going on. Obviously, why they went on vacation was trying to relax and get away from that. And then they meet this couple. They hang out. You know, sometimes you go on vacation, you have these vacation friends, and this movie is kind of about letting all the intrusives ons win. And even though you have everything in your body telling you not to do something, you're shutting that off and you're saying, why not, Let's do it. Because they go on vacation, they have a good time. And then this couple, James McAvoy and his partner, they send him a postcard and say, hey, we were serious about that. Come out to the countryside, come hang out with us, disconnect from your life in the city. You'll love it. And they decide, you know what, let's go. There are a lot of moments in this movie.

00:34:47
Speaker 4: Where they're just like, all right, let's go, let's do it. Let's not think about it.

00:34:51
Speaker 1: It's one of those movies when you're watching it, you're like, you idiot, don't do that. I think that's also what added to some of the enjoyment in the theater while watching this movie, because I don't necessarily believe it's a movie you have to rush to the theater to watch, because.

00:35:06
Speaker 4: It's not really a horror movie.

00:35:08
Speaker 1: Everything that happens in this movie could happen in real life, and maybe sometimes that makes it scarier than a traditional what you would think of as a horror movie, because the only really scary force in this is James McAvoy's character being maniacal, and that could really happen, probably happens every day more than you think. There wasn't anything about it that the big screen enhanced. The only thing that made it a little bit more enjoyable was the fact that it was, at least in my theater relatively full, and I went to an early showing and there were a lot of people in the audience reacting. And sometimes I like that, sometimes I don't, but with a movie like this to hear people talking and being like oh no, no, no, don't do it, or laughing too, because I think if this was a movie that I watched at home. There are some dead pan comedy moments that kind of come out of nowhere, very dry, not too intentional. But because of the audience reaction, I found myself laughing and enjoying certain parts of this movie that if I were watching it at home, I might not have had that same reaction. But I do believe if this was a movie I watched at home on a Friday night with all the lights off, nobody else home, it maybe would have been a little bit scarier, just because I think, oh man, again, everything in this movie could actually happen if you encounter some people that are a little sketchy, a little weird. That is exactly what James McAvoy and his partner are in this movie. If you've ever hung out with people that just take a joke a little bit too far and just make you feel a little bit uncomfortable, where if I were to play a joke on you, the payoff would be in like five seconds.

00:36:44
Speaker 4: I'd make a joke and be like, I'm just kidding real quick.

00:36:47
Speaker 1: In this case, in this movie, they just keep going for like thirty a minute, two minutes too long, where it feels so uncomfortable that you can't tell if they are joking, you can't tell if they are actually being just jerks, and it comes off as very unsettling, And there are cringe worthy moments in this movie, just because it really allows you to kind of stew in that uneasiness of being in a situation where you don't really feel comfortable with these people who are so dominant and very opinionated and very in your face. They can't let one thing go. They just keep pounding you and pounding you and pounding you until you feel so uncomfortable that you want to scream at them. I think I did enjoy that aspect of the character development, of just seeing the couple on one side, with Mackenzie Davis really being the dominant force there. I thought she was so charming and I really want to see her in more suspense and horror movies.

00:37:47
Speaker 4: I think she's.

00:37:47
Speaker 1: Probably make a great lead in a full on horror slasher movie, because you had a really great presence to her and her personality clashing against James McAvoy's personality was just this very uny tention. And there are some things that both of their characters do that you have to be like, come on, why would you do that? But again, in a movie like this, if a person said no to things, you wouldn't have a movie. If they decided, nah, let's not go hang out with them on the country side, you wouldn't have a movie. So everything in your being is good to think these people are dumb for allowing certain things to happen, for saying yes to things. So if you're somebody who watches horror movies or suspenseful movies and think that is stupid, I hate them.

00:38:32
Speaker 4: I want to turn this off. This might not be the movie for you.

00:38:35
Speaker 1: But if you like laughing at people's expense and think, oh, I'm glad I'm not in that situation, I think this is a pretty fun and decent watch, and I ended up enjoying it a lot more than I was expecting to. The real main reason I decided to go watch this movie is because they've pounded that trailer in my head every movie I've seen for the last at least two months, I've seen this trailer, and I thought that I was at a point where the trailers really don't affect me a whole lot. I'm gonna go see what I want to go see. I kind of know what's gonna be good and what's gonna be bad, and very rarely does a trailer sway me. But this movie had the perfect trailer that really enticed you to want to see it, very well produced, and just had that hmm, I'm curious about that movie after watching the trailer. So it really worked on me. And I'm somebody who goes to the movie theater every single week, and I could imagine if you went in the last two to three months and saw this trailer, you would see it and think maybe I have to come back for that one. So movie trailers in their most traditional sense, I think work. I think they spent all the money on promotion just making sure that people saw this trailer, because it was beaten to my brain that I was really just going to see it because I was like, all right, I'll go see it. Shut up, stop playing the trailer, and then I was like, Okay, this is actually pretty good and enjoyable. I do think there's a little bit of a threshold for a movie like this, even if it did everything perfect, I still don't think the formula of this movie and it being something that I've kind of already seen before. Also with it being a remake, in my head it would peak at about a four. Overall, the story on its own it's probably a three. I haven't seen the original Danish film, but I can only imagine that it was so much better than this one because this happens a lot. A movie does well in another country and instead of pushing that movie here, they're just like, let's remake it and give it to an American audience.

00:40:39
Speaker 4: So I feel like that is probably the better movie here.

00:40:41
Speaker 1: So I'm definitely gonna check that out now that I've been exposed to the story. But what really drives this movie to another level and shows you how important it is to cast the right actor is James McAvoy's performance. He earns his paycheck every single movie that he is in, and I think it was after watching Split, where he's playing different characters with different personalities.

00:41:05
Speaker 4: That movie really solidified.

00:41:07
Speaker 1: Him in my mind as Oh, he can really do it all, and when he's on screen, it is just so commanding, and he does the exact same thing in this movie. Because this character is so dominant, is this force to be reckoned with, And it would not have been the same movie if it was not him in that role. The entire cast just worked really well together that took what could have been just otherwise kind of a throwaway movie to put out in September and really made it something noteworthy. So this movie really proved to me that it does matter who you cast, even if you have a great story already that has worked in another country, unless you get that right cast for an American audience, it's not going to work. Because it was the performances that really drove this movie home. Because on surface level, there's nothing too outlandish or too crazy or anything that comes out of left field that really.

00:41:58
Speaker 4: Captivates you as the viewer.

00:42:00
Speaker 1: But it's all the tension that James McAvoy's character in particular really creates and really makes you want to see this movie from beginning to end. The movie is right under an hour and fifty minutes, which if they would have cut it off a little bit and made it a straight ninety minute movie, I think it would have packed a little bit more of a punch. This movie was made for a relatively low budget fifteen million dollars. It opened to about eleven point five million dollars, so I think it's going to make its money back in its theatrical run, although again I still don't think it's a movie you have to see in theaters. I still think if you streamed it at home, turned off all the lights, silence your cell phone, and completely allow yourself to take in this movie and create that same vibe at your house, I think the same kind of energy will come across of you, probably feeling a little bit more freaked out. The only thing you'd probably miss out on is that audience commentary if you're into that, and if you're not, then you're perfectly fine watching this movie at home.

00:43:00
Speaker 4: Or Speak No Evil a.

00:43:01
Speaker 1: Very surprising score for me, a lot higher than I thought I was going to give it.

00:43:05
Speaker 4: I give it three point five out of five.

00:43:08
Speaker 2: Tesla's It's time to head down to movie Mike Traylor Paul.

00:43:16
Speaker 1: I love it when people think outside the box. I hate using the term thinking outside the box because you're trying to describe something that is creative and that it's one of the most cliche things you can say. But this movie is thinking outside the box. I'm talking about Pharrell's new documentary called Piece by Piece. He is telling his story with lego pieces, and I just think that it's such a fantastic idea from when I saw the trailer, because oftentimes, when it comes to documentaries, I'll even put biopics in this same category regarding musicians. It always has the same format and it becomes very formulaic. That's why I just lean towards not watching a whole lot of biopics. But I think this is a truly novel idea because something as simple as a documentary could be so self serving, but Pharrell is flipping that around and making his story a fun, family friendly movie. Because this movie is rated PG, it's coming out on October first. Before I get into more details about piece by piece, here's just a little bit of the really fun, colorful trailer.

00:44:28
Speaker 4: Hey how you doing man? You know it'd be cool is if we told my story with Lego pieces. Seriously, yes, Lego just be open.

00:44:39
Speaker 8: When I was a kid, I knew I was different and people would say, oh, that's an odd child, and that crushed my spirit to all I cared about was making my own music, but people just said no, I wasn't ready.

00:44:54
Speaker 1: So this movie is going to be just that. His story from childhood in Virginia to his success in the music in fashion industry. It's going to feature interviews with Gwen Stefani, Kendrick Lamar, Timberland, Bust the Rhymes, Jay Z, and Snoop Dogg. The thing about all these interviews in here, Normally in a traditional documentary, you know you're shooting, you're filming them. They know exactly what it's going to be used for. When it came to conducting all of these interviews with all these great antidotes about working with Pharrell, they didn't tell them that it was going to be a Lego movie. And Farrell said they did this because if they told them that, it would have an influence on the stories they told, especially ones that maybe weren't asked family friendly. They would think, oh, this is going to be for kids. Instead, they did the interviews and then afterwards told them about it. I love in the trailer Snoop Dogg talking about working with Pharrell on Drop It Like It's Hot, and I think that probably really helped keep the authenticity and you can feel that in the trailer. But then it looks completely different than anything I've seen before because it.

00:45:57
Speaker 4: Very much resembles all the Lego movies that we know.

00:46:00
Speaker 1: In Love the Batman, Lego movie, the original Lego movie, and now they even have a Lego line coming out with Pharrell. It is a fantastic tie in. And I wanted to share this on the trailer part because even though it is a documentary, I don't normally talk about documentaries a whole lot. I think this is the bridge to another level, because if you can make a documentary like this, why not make a full on feature film in the style of Lego or even just animated. I think that would really create, at least for me, more curiosity to see more biopicks. We've had a couple of biopicks come out recently that just tanked, and they were iconic musicians, the Amy Winehouse movie, the Bob Marley movie.

00:46:45
Speaker 4: That we just get the same thing over and over.

00:46:47
Speaker 1: Again, and none of those trailers, none of the casting there, really had people wanting to rush to the theaters to watch that because you weren't creating a moment, you weren't creating any kind of spectacle. For missing out on what made these people great, the reason they are so significant in music history, the reason that people were drawn to their music, drawn to their style, drawn to everything about these artists gets ripped away because you're making such a bland movie that's just copy and paste. So I feel like with Pharrell doing this, maybe it inspires other people to say, we don't need to make a full on, normal Hollywood movie. Let's look into different genres. Doesn't have to be a lego animated movie, but any kind of animated movie I think would be way more interesting, especially in the way that he is making this movie PG therefore catering to a younger audience. Kids who need inspirational figures in their life can go and watch a movie like this, be entertained by the animation, but also learn about somebody who was different as a kid, somebody who may look like and resemble them, come from a back like they did, And they're getting exposed to Pharrell in a way that otherwise maybe they wouldn't have because if it was just a full log documentary, why would a kid want to go see that? But you throw legos in there, and suddenly it becomes interesting, It becomes a spectacle. It becomes a reason for maybe a parent who's a fan of Pharrell and maybe wants to share a love of his music and his artistry with their kid.

00:48:22
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, that's such a great idea.

00:48:25
Speaker 1: And then it goes back to what I was mentioning earlier that they were releasing a Lego collaboration with Pharrell to go along.

00:48:31
Speaker 4: With this movie. So it goes full circle there.

00:48:33
Speaker 1: But by the way, I never really got full into Legos as a kid, which I guess in the nineties and two thousands it didn't really get to that stage they are in now where you go to the Lego aisle at Target or go to the Lego store and they are all these amazing sets you can buy. I went into one recently, and the thing that blew my mind.

00:48:54
Speaker 7: Is they are so expensive. Even the smaller ones are fifty sixty dollars. The coolest ones are easily one hundred dollars. I saw this Avengers tower I wanted to make.

00:49:05
Speaker 1: I think it was like two hundred, maybe even four hundred, five hundred dollars.

00:49:09
Speaker 4: Why are Legos so expensive?

00:49:11
Speaker 1: Back in twenty fourteen, the Lego movie had a budget of sixty million dollars, which is basically the cost of one set of the Lego store.

00:49:18
Speaker 4: I guess that's why I never had him growing up.

00:49:20
Speaker 1: But this movie also reminds me of one of my favorite documentary shows called Tales from the Tour Bus by Mike Judge. He is the creator of King of the Hill. He also did movies like Idiocracy and he would take interviews from different people talking about artists. The first season is entirely focused on a lot of outlaw country music artists.

00:49:39
Speaker 4: Fantastic series, that is.

00:49:41
Speaker 1: What This Lego movie trailer for Pharrell reminded me of the Johnny Paycheck episode and the Billy Joe Shaver episodes are probably my favorite from season one. You can check that out on the Roku channel. As you can tell, I'm a huge fan of animation, so I'm definitely gonna check out this movie when it comes out on October first.

00:50:00
Speaker 2: Y was this week's edition of movie Line Tramer.

00:50:03
Speaker 1: Bar and that is gonna do it for another episode here of the podcast.

00:50:07
Speaker 4: But before I go, I gotta.

00:50:08
Speaker 1: Give my listeners shout out of the week. You can get a listener shout out of the week by commenting on my reels on Instagram, on.

00:50:16
Speaker 4: TikTok x Facebook.

00:50:18
Speaker 1: All the links to my socials are always in the episode notes. This week. Going over to Instagram shouting out Elliott King, who commented on My reel about Beetlejuice and talking about last week's episode of eight eighties Movies. I think need sequels, Elliott wrote, aren't they giving a sequel to the Goonies? Boo my mind that I published that episode last Monday at midnight, and later that morning, this story dropped from the Sun saying that the original cast of Goonies is coming back and returning for a sequel.

00:50:52
Speaker 4: It still hasn't.

00:50:53
Speaker 1: Been fully confirmed at the time of recording this episode. If it happens again, I'm gonna my mind. But again, the Sun isn't that credible of a source. But I think that came out because, like I did with last week's episode, I focused on eighties movies because I thought the timing was right. I think they did that exact same thing putting out that story, and I won't fully believe it until I either see the studio or actual members of the cast posting about it. It's not real in my mind until that happens. Very rarely does it get announced from a source like the Sun, So unless it's Deadline or the Hollywood Reporter, I'm not fully buying that report yet.

00:51:33
Speaker 4: But again, at the.

00:51:34
Speaker 1: Time of recording this, nothing like that has been fully confirmed yet, but I appreciate that, Elliott, for you listening to last week's episode and also checking me on that. But it would be my look to do an entire episode surrounding that and then the news drops on a Monday. So thank you, Elliott, thank you right now for listening wherever you are, and until next time, go out and watch good movies and I will talk to you later