Pixar’s dinosaur movie lost most of its original voice cast. Here are the new ones.
The dinosaurs might have gone extinct and potential audiences of Pixar’s dino film might be dead to its charm, too.
“The Good Dinosaur” has been surrounded by controversy since its original director, Bob Peterson (co-director of “Up”), was pulled from the film in 2013. Since then, a new director has been named and the release was pushed back to later this year causing more people to believe the film won’t be Pixar’s best.
To further that thought, Pixar today announced a whole new voice cast that got rid of many of the major talent that agreed to do that film like Neil Patrick Harris, Bill Hader, and John Lithgow.
The new voice talent includes:
- RAYMOND OCHOA (NBC’s “The Night Shift,” TNT’s “Rizzoli & Isles,” “Disney’s A Christmas Carol”) provides the voice of an Apatosaurus named Arlo.
- JEFFREY WRIGHT (“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay” – parts I & II, HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire”) was tapped as the voice of Poppa, Arlo’s father.
- STEVE ZAHN (“Captain Fantastic,” “Ridiculous Six,” “Rescue Dawn,” “Mad Dogs”) provides the voice of a pterodactyl named Thunderclap.
- AJ BUCKLEY (TNT’s “Murder in the First,” FX’s “Justified”) voices a T-Rex called Nash.
- ANNA PAQUIN (HBO’s “True Blood”) is the voice of T-Rex Ramsey.
- SAM ELLIOTT (FX’s “Justified,” “I’ll See You In My Dreams,” “Grandma”) was called on as the voice of a tough T-Rex named Butch.
- FRANCES MCDORMAND (HBO’s “Olive Kitteridge,” “Fargo”) was tapped as the voice of Momma, Arlo’s mother.
- MARCUS SCRIBNER (ABC’s “black•ish”) voices Arlo’s brother Buck.
- JACK BRIGHT (“Monsters University”) provides the voice of Arlo’s unlikely human friend, Spot.
They seemed to have lost their major talent like Harris, replacing him with not-so-well-known talent like Wright and Ochoa. Some speculate creative differences, while others internally have cited losing the talent due to the massive changes in the production schedule.
Nevertheless, first time Pixar feature film director Peter Sohn is confident in the new cast’s ability to tell the story of if dinosaurs didn’t go extinct. “We were lucky to work with a number of incredible pros along the way and our story ultimately led us to this amazing and talented group,” he said. “We’re all taking this journey with Arlo, and it’s been a privilege to see these performers bring our characters to life.”
“The Good Dinosaur” hits theaters on November 25, 2015.
“potential audiences of Pixar’s dino film might be dead to its charm, too.”
Why are you putting such a negative spin on this? This is just the nature of the creative process, especially for an animated film. As they developed the story, changes happened. This news does not automatically mean that the film is in trouble. Directors and voice cast changes are not uncommon during the production of an animated film.
“causing more people to believe the film won’t be Pixar’s best.”
Who are these people? Do have a source for that claim? Quotes?
“replacing him with not-so-well-known talent like Wright and Ochoa.”
What’s wrong with unknown talent?
Like I said, this is just the nature of the creative process. It is entirely possible that as the characters developed, the original voices just did not match the characters’ personalities anymore. Any changes that have occurred are for the good of the story.
In an interview with Yahoo Movies UK, Peter Sohn stated:
“It was all about finding a younger Arlo, it was really about finding a boy [to play Arlo], so that we could push into that idea of him growing up and becoming a man, so the actor previous – who is a great actor – he was already a man, and so I needed to push that arc and find that compassionate kid, so that was the major kind of change. Then everything else, all the other characters that supported that story came in and out and changed and evolved and through that evolution, some of those performers changed out of it.”