Celebrity Voiceovers

[Lebowski]

Does anyone else think celebrity voiceovers in commercials is a giant waste of money?

I tend to generally recognize a lot of voices on commercials, but many people don't. It seems like a costly expense for the possibility of someone realizing that's George Clooney on the beer commercial and thinking since they like George Clooney's movies, they must like that beer too.

I'll even take it a step further and say even most of the animated movies bloat their budgets by having a lot of celebrity voices, which don't really sell the movie. These movies are generally targeted at a younger audience who probably have no idea who there actors are.

I find it hard to believe many adults rushed to see Bee Movie because Seinfield was the voice of the lead character. Would Shrek have been worse off if his voice was done by an actual voice actor who probably needs the work a lot more than Mike Myers?

The newest thing is voice overs in games. Let me tell you, having Kiefer Sutherland yell things like "maybe next time" adds a whole new level of interaction when I play Call of Duty 5.

A good example of using voice actors is Grand Theft Auto 4. Heard of it? I think there's some celebrities mixed in, but all the main characters (Niko, Roman) are unknown voice overs actors, which I thought did a great job.

Then again, this is the same country where we pay people to play sports thousands of times more than people who do something productive, like police officers/fire fighters. And import soccer playing, non-English speaking people from other countries, pay all their expenses and give them full rides through college, most of which go back to their country, but hey, we went 7-4 this season. While everyone else takes out giant loans they'll be paying on most of their adult life.

[TheShoe]

I really agree. I hate celebrity voice overs. They aren't voice actors, they're just plain actors. Lebowski, what do you think about voice actor celebrities like Dan Castalanetta or Billy West?