The animation is amazing. Despite working in the field of animation and doing character animation from time to time, it completely amazes me to see what can be produced these days if you have the budget for hundreds of talented artists, and tens of thousands of computers.
The thing that amazed me most however was the character of Rumplestiltskin. The sneaky little baddy that he is completely stole the show. He was the perfect bad guy - genuinely scary, but also a bit cheeky, flawed and insecure. The character comes across as incredibly cohesive - you really believe that the voice you hear comes from the animated character that you see, which isn't always the case in animated features.
I was so taken with the character that I stayed through the credits to see who played him. I was certain I would recognise the actor - I had no problem placing his A-List cohorts - and was sure that I'd seen a movie with him in before, I just couldn't place the voice.
It turns out that Rumplestiltskin is played by Walt Dohrn. I'd never heard of him.
The reason I'd never heard of him is that Walt Dohrn is actually 'Head of Story' on the Shrek 4 production at DreamWorks and isn't technically an 'actor' at all.
A nice featurette on YouTube explains all and shows a bit of what goes on behind the scenes....
Now as Head of Story you would expect Walt to have a comprehensive insight into how the characters of the movie should play and hence be in a good position to develop a voice that integrates so believably into their visual manifestation. Or maybe Walt had more time available to him than the others appearing in the film, or just more inclination to practice and develop the voice of the little rogue that is Rumplestiltskin.
Whatever the reason for his stellar performance, Walt and his character Rumpelstiltskin completely stole the show and alone make the movie worth viewing. Not bad for a behind the camera guy, for whom this appears to be his first acting role.
No comments:
Post a Comment