The Cult of Cummings

By Karen Lindell
Sunday, August 23, 2009
[SOURCE]

When Jim Cummings is sick, Winnie-the-Pooh disappears.

Cummings’ vocal cords give life to Disney’s animated Winnie-the-Pooh, the Bear of Very Little Brain created by A.A. Milne.

“Pooh is not quite a falsetto; he’s kind of like a high tenor, or a low tenor with a lot of rasp in there, just like a wind blowing through the cattails sort of sound,” the voice actor crooned in perfect Pooh timbre. “If I get an allergy or a cold, Pooh goes away, so I have to eat my vitamin C.

Pooh might suggest a remedy that soothes both the throat and tummy: honey.

Agoura Hills resident Cummings, 56, is a cartoon chameleon. He has been the voice of Pooh for Disney since 1988, then took over as Tigger.

Pooh and Tigger, however, are just two of the characters listed on Cummings’ 10-page “voiceography.”

You might have heard him as Kaa the snake in “The Jungle Book 2,” Ed the hyena in “The

Lion King” and assorted characters in “Aladdin,” “Antz,” Babe: Pig in the City,” “Bee Movie,” The Little Mermaid,” Pocahontas,” “Shrek” and “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.”

For Warner Bros., he’s Taz the Tasmanian devil (“the anti-Pooh,” he says). Other credits include “Animaniacs,” “Pinky and the Brain,” ”Curious George,” “King of the Hill,” “The Simpsons” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”

And wildfire-prone California is proud to call him one of the voices of Smokey Bear.

“I do all the better bears,” said Cummings during an interview at his home.

Next up is his role as Ray, a laid-back, lovesick Cajun firefly in “The Princess and the Frog,” a new, traditionally 2-D animated Disney film set in New Orleans. The film, a musical, will have a score by Randy Newman and, in a first for Disney, a black princess. The movie, also featuring the voice of Oprah Winfrey (as the princess’ mom), is still in postproduction and scheduled for a December release.

This week, however, Cummings’ attention is on a certain boisterous tiger.

As the free-spirited Tigger on Disney Channel’s “My Friends Tigger and Pooh,” which airs each morning, Cummings has received a 2009 Daytime Emmy Award nomination for outstanding performer in an animated program. The winner will be announced Saturday during the Creative Arts portion of the awards at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles; the more mainstream awards (such as honors for soap opera stars and talk show hosts, etc.) will be handed out Aug. 30 at L.A.’s Orpheum Theatre and televised on The CW.

Notice the Emmy category is titled “outstanding performer in an animated program,” not “outstanding voice.”

Cummings and his brethren truly are actors, not just script readers.

Brian Hohlfeld, executive director of “My Friends Tigger and Pooh,” said that, to be a good voice actor, “you have to be an actor. People forget that. It’s not just the voice. There’s such a small group of people who do this because it’s really hard.”

With Cummings, he said, “you can see the physical changes in his face and body as he’s doing the voices.”

Cummings calls his work “acting for the ears.” Cartoons, he said, “are not called ‘animated’ for nothing.

“A lot of people think they draw the movie or cartoon first, but the fact is they record the voices first, then they animate to that,” he explained. “You can’t really draw comic timing out of thin air; you’ve got to hear it and go, ‘Oh, that I can draw.’”

Finding his voices

Cummings started out at the top of the cartoon chain, landing at animation exemplar Disney in the 1980s. Born and raised in Ohio, Cummings said he listened to Paul Winchell (the original voice of Tigger) and Mel Blanc (voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and many others) as a kid and thought, “Man, they’re having a great time.”

He didn’t have any formal stage or voice training, aside from a book about ventriloquism, but did act in plays as a child.

Onstage, he said, “I would rather be the wizard than the prince because the wizard was a little more interesting and had more cool stuff to do. I was doing accidental research for my career later in life.”

At age 19, after attending Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Cummings moved to the Big Easy. He worked as a deckhand on riverboats, and fulfilled his artsy side by designing and painting Mardi Gras floats, and performing as a drummer and singer in bands.

In 1979 Cummings, his first wife and their two daughters moved to California, where from 1979-84 he ran a video store in Anaheim Hills. While there, he made a demo voice tape, and was fortunate to get it into the right hands: a customer who was a movie producer.

“I got an audition out of that without an agent,” Cummings said.

He first real role was a plum Disney one, playing Lionel the Lion in “Dumbo’s Circus,” a TV show featuring live-action puppets.

Halfway through his 120-episode stint on “Dumbo’s Circus,” Cummings hired an agent and started working in radio and TV. (He also does voice-overs, movie trailers previews and commercials, everything from J.C. Penney to AutoZone.)

He moved from Anaheim to Westlake Village and the Santa Rosa Valley, then to Agoura Hills about three years ago. He and his wife Stephanie, who’ve been married for eight years, have two daughters, Gracie, 4, and Lulu, 2; Cummings’ older daughters are in their 20s.

Ducks and dust bunnies

Cummings is proud of some of his lesser-known roles, such as the title character in “Darkwing Duck,” an Emmy-nominated animated Disney program that aired in the early 1990s. Darkwing, “the terror that flaps in the night,” was a bumbling superhero in the town of St. Canard.

He’s also fond of a monster named Mr. Bumpy from “Bump in the Night.”

“He was this funky little guy who lived under the bed and thought eating dust bunnies was a delicacy,” Cummings said. “He was as cool as he could be, and ate dirty socks.”

In 1995, Cummings received an Annie Award nomination for voice acting as Mr. Bumpy but was beaten by Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson.

The competition is stiff for this week’s Emmy Award, too, with celebs better known for their live-action work nominated in the animation category. Cummings is vying for the award with Amy Poehler (as Bessie Higgenbottom in “The Mighty B!” on Nickelodeon), Joan Rivers (Bubbe in “Arthur” on PBS), Vanessa Williams (Mama in “Mama Mirabelle’s Home Movies” on PBS) and Jim Ward (Eyemore in “Biker Mice from Mars” on Fox).

“This year I’m going with either Vanessa or Amy,” Cummings said, summing up his competition. “I think folks go down the line and go: ‘Jim Cummings? I don’t really know who that is. Oh, Joan Rivers, Vanessa Williams, I love her; let’s vote for her.’ You can’t fight that. I understand why they do it.”

What does he think about the trend of celebrities taking on the lead voice roles in animated movies?

“I have some calls out to Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Eddie Murphy,” Cummings said, laughing. “I said, ‘I won’t star in any blockbuster films if you stay out of animated films.’ They just won’t call me back.”

Cummings does get feedback, however, from another telephone venture, this one for charity.

Hundreds of sick children each year receive a phone call from one of the Hundred Acre Woods’ (and Agoura Hills’) famous denizens, Winnie-the-Pooh or Tigger, aka Cummings. He works with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which grants wishes to children with life-threatening illnesses, and Famous Fone Friends, which connects sick kids to entertainers and athletes via phone.

Cummings recalled one such phone session with a little girl with cancer, not quite 3, who had been on chemotherapy for six months. “I had to gear up for that one,” he said. “‘I love you, Winnie-the-Pooh,’ she said. Stuff like that is so rewarding; it’s the greatest thing in the world.”

Keeping it fresh

Cummings models his Pooh and Tigger voices after the men who first voiced the characters: Sterling Holloway and Paul Winchell, respectively.

(Holloway died in 1992. Winchell, a Moorpark resident when he died in 2005, lived in Ventura County for more than 15 years.)

“That’s one thing I think Disney is right on the money with — they keep their characters sounding the same,” Cummings said. “They could run a Winnie-the-Pooh from the ’60s and one from 2008 and have the consistency there.”

Still, he said, “you don’t want to stagnate. You ad lib and do different things to keep it fresh.”

“My Friends Tigger and Pooh” director Hohlfeld said Cummings is “true to Sterling vocally, but he’s made it his own as well. Pooh is still the befuddled bear. Jim just brings more heart to it; his Pooh has a little more warmth.”

One thing you might not want to hear, however, is Pooh as pugilist.

Cummings “does a fantastic Mike Tyson imitation,” Hohlfeld said. “Sometimes he’ll do Pooh’s lines using Mike Tyson’s voice.”

He doesn’t even need to alter Pooh’s “I am a Bear of Very Little Brain” line.

Jim Cummings holds daughters Grace, 4, and Lulu, 2, near a garden statue of Taz the Tazmanian devil — he calls him “the anti-Pooh” — for which he also provides the voice.

In his 25 years being often heard and seldom seen, Jim Cummings has voiced a host of characters and won many honors. He’s up for a possible Daytime Emmy this year as outstanding performer for his work as Tigger’s voice.

Jim Cummings, a voice actor who´s done numerous animated characters since 1984, carries his daughter Lulu 2, out of their Curious George playhouse July 23, 2009.

Voice actor Jim Cummings rehearses a current project in his home studio in Agoura Hills. He’s been the voice of Winnie-the-Pooh for Disney since 1988 and does Tigger, too.

Steve Fritz, Newsarama.com
August 11th, 2009
[SOURCE]

“It’s a tough job,” says the recognizable voice from the other end of the phone, “and somebody’s got to do it! It might as well be me. Hoo Hoo!”

To 40 years of fans the bouncy bravado can come from one of A.A. Milne’s most beloved creations, Tigger. The spring-tailed super-feline has been charming the socks off of kids since he exploded on the big screen in the Oscar-winning Disney short “Winnie The Pooh & The Blustery Day” back in 1968.

Of course, in those days, Pooh and Tigger were voiced by two legends in the acting field, Sterling Holloway and Paul Winchell, respectively. Holloway passed away decades ago while Winchell left this plane in 2005.

So who is the voice on the other end of the line? Why the man who replaced both of them, a man who is not exactly considered a lightweight in the voice world either, Jim Cummings.

“I feel pretty honored to be walking in their footsteps,” says Cummings, back in his natural voice. “I honestly feel I’m the torchbearer for the trail they blazed. One thing I’ve learned is a generation, when you talk in terms of Winnie The Pooh and Tigger, is only about three years. After that amount of time, the last batch has grown to more mature things and you have a whole new batch of sweetie pies out there all enamored with Winnie The Pooh. I’ve got some of my own, so I know what it’s like.”

Indeed, Cummings does. He started in animation in the mid-80s, quickly picking up work on Transformers (Afterburner), Duck Tales (El Capitan) and Chip’n Dale’s Rescue Rangers (Monterey Jack).  His incredible range and versatility was noted by no less than Mel Blanc, who was quoted as telling the industry to look out for Cummings.

“This guy’s really got something,” Blanc said, a line Cummings likes to use a lot these days. Who can blame him?

His real breakthrough into lead work came in 1988, when he did his first job as Pooh in Winnie The Pooh Friend-ship: Tigger-ific Tales. As intimated before, Holloway was long gone from this planet, but Paul Winchell was still Tigger at that time. Cummings would first step into the role of Tigger in 1996 with a Pooh Halloween special entitled Boo To You, Too. Things started to get interesting after that.

“I absolutely did know Paul,” says Cummings. “I knew him well during the last years of his life, when he was going back and forth from South Africa, doing research. He was really like Da Vinci. He designed one of the prototypes for one of the first artificial hearts. He was also going back and forth to Africa to try and solve some of the hunger problems there. In fact, how I got the role of Tigger is initially when he would go I would pinch hit for him.”

Indeed. In 1998, on A Winnie The Pooh Thanksgiving special, both Cummings and Winchell are credited on the role of the terrific tiger. By 1999, it was handed over completely to Cummings with The Tigger Movie. From that point on, Cummings would voice both Pooh and Tigger. There’s some controversy over the transition. Rumors said Winchell didn’t take losing the job too well, apparently. Cummings has his own point of view.

“What actually happened is they decided to recast the entire cast,” he says. “They then did some tests and I came in first as Pooh and second on Tigger. Now when Paul was around, he was certainly Tigger. Then in 1999 he apparently decided to retire and I’ve been the voices of Tigger and Pooh since then, full time.”

If you want to see just how stellar Cummings’ work (with or without Winchell) truly is, you’d find no better example than the just re-released, 10th Anniversary edition of The Tigger Movie.

Originally released in 2000, the film revolves around Tigger realizing he really is, as his song about himself declares, “the only one” of his kind. As far as he knows, he has no family, no family tree. This sets him on a quest that is probably one of the darkest in the Pooh universe, actually putting the characters in the equivalent of life-threatening situations.

Of course, it gets resolved; it’s a Pooh movie after all. Still, with songs from the legendary Sherman Brothers, solid directing and screenplay by Jun Falkenstein and a voice cast that includes the likes of the late John Fiedler (Piglet), Peter Cullen (Eeyore) and John Hurt (Narrator), it stands as one of the best of the post-60s Pooh films made.

Another reason, obviously, is Cummings work on both Tigger and Pooh. The DVD includes some earlier Pooh projects; ones where Winchell and Cummings worked together. The amazing thing is Cummings’ Tigger is almost indistinguishable from Winchell’s. Then again, it seems Cummings has created a solid routine about both these characters.

“Actually, I would do Winnie first,” says Cummings. “Then I would bounce over to do my Tigger chores. Pooh is a little bit easier to do. He’s a little higher in register, which is another reason why I address him first. Actually, the voice of Pooh comes from a different spot in the instrument than Tigger.

“Then again, I think it’s important to keep the performances pristine. I don’t want any spillover. I’m one of those guys who doesn’t take himself very seriously, but I do take my work very seriously. As a result I try to put out the best that I can because–My gosh!–they go out and stay out there forever.”

Apparently this kind of work habits have truly paid off for Cummings. If you look under his name on the IMDB, he is listed in over 300 different animation projects.

“I don’t know who at the IMDB puts all that I’ve done on there, but bless their hearts because I wouldn’t have done it,” Cummings says with tongue firmly planted in cheek. “Then again, I’m glad someone did. What can I tell you? It was the stuff that used to get me kicked out of class. The joke’s on them now. The dog barking in the back of the room was always me. Now I get paid to do Tigger.”

In fact, he’s still being paid to do Tigger, and that willy nilly silly old honey loving bear, Pooh, too. During the interview he also did a mean version of Eeyore (although one gets the impression Peter Cullen’s job is safe in that department). His more recent work in that arena was a TV movie entitled Tigger & Pooh and a Musical Too, and before that a Disney CGI series entitled My Friends Tigger & Pooh. In between he’s appeared in everything from Star Wars Clone Wars (Hondo) to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (Pete), subbed for Dustin Hoffman on The Secrets of the Furious Five D2D and will be in the upcoming Disney feature film The Princess and the Frog.

In other words, we shouldn’t be surprised if, at this rate, he is rapidly approaching his 500th or so job.

“…Well, someone’s gotta do it!” Cummings again says in his Tigger voice…and it feels right when he says it, too.

By Mark Pattison, Catholic News Service
July 24, 2009
SOURCE

Catholic voice actor Jim Cummings is pictured in an undated publicity photo. Cummings is up for a Daytime Emmy for outstanding performer in an animated program for his work on the series “My Friends Tigger & Pooh.” (CNS photo/handout)

WASHINGTON – Jim Cummings didn’t exactly study his chosen career field during his 12 years of Catholic schooling, but he certainly honed his craft.

The thrice-Emmy-nominated voice actor was a relentless mimic when going to Immaculate Conception and St. Columba grade schools and Ursuline High School, all in Youngstown, Ohio.

“I’d be doing dolphin sounds in the background,” Cummings recalled during a July 22 telephone interview from Los Angeles with Catholic News Service. Cummings then proceeded to do some dolphin clicks and chatter straight out of the old “Flipper” TV series.

“Sister Mary Agnes would say, ‘We don’t allow dolphin sounds in the classroom, Mr. Cummings,’“ he said.

Cummings, a member of St. Jude Parish in Los Angeles, got reprimanded over the course of his scholastic career for his mimicry. But he doesn’t hold it against his teachers or principals. The feeling is apparently mutual.

“I have a scholarship at my old school in my dad’s name, so they don’t seem to mind me anymore,” Cummings said.

It wasn’t all trips to the principal’s office for Cummings. He also parlayed his talents into championships for Ursuline during state and regional speech and oratory contests.

Cummings has been plying his trade for 20 years in Hollywood. He’s been involved in more than 300 different animation projects, performing multiple voices on many of the shows, according to the Internet Movie Database.

He’s up for a Daytime Emmy for outstanding performer in an animated program for his work on the series “My Friends Tigger & Pooh” – although he’s up against bigger names such as Joan Rivers, Amy Poehler and Vanessa Williams.

You probably wouldn’t know him if you saw him. Because he has been a voice actor, his face has rarely been on screen. “I’m a stealth celebrity,” he joked.

Cummings created the voice of title character Darkwing Duck, a popular Disney cartoon series of the 1990s. He also has moved into more hallowed territory, taking on the voice of Taz, the Tasmanian Devil originally voiced by cartoondom’s original man of a thousand voices, Mel Blanc, but also the voices of Tigger and Winnie the Pooh, the latter’s voice originally done by actor Sterling Holloway.

It’s a challenge to stay true to the voice created by another actor a generation or two earlier, Cummings admitted.

One of his biggest challenges was to record practically every conceivable child’s name for a talking Winnie the Pooh toy. “Esquire magazine gave it a prize for ‘most interesting name’: My Interactive Pooh,” Cummings told CNS.

At the end of a long day, when Cummings said he must have done “25,000 names where Winnie the Pooh would mention your name,” he came home, answered the phone when it rang, and slipped into his Pooh voice. It’s been the only time he’s slipped into character when he wasn’t supposed to play one, he said.

One of Cumming’s upcoming projects will hit the silver screen later this year. It’s a new Disney movie called “The Princess and the Frog,” in which Cummings plays a frog with a Cajun accent named Ray. The project – which also features the voice talents of Oprah Winfrey, John Goodman and Terrence Howard – will be Disney’s first cartoon movie to feature African-American lead characters.

“It’s a steady gig,” Cummings noted, and if he has any regret, it’s for being too sick to audition 20 years ago when a new cartoon series called “The Simpsons” was auditioning actors who could do multiple voices. “Other than that one, I’m a happy camper. I don’t look back in frustration and anger,” he said. “I hope for the best, expect the worst, and take what comes.”

Cummings’ TV debut came much earlier than his online resume would suggest.

“I was in sixth grade and I remember that Mother Rosemary – who was going to be my speech teacher (in high school) and sort of one of the great shining lights of our scholastic career – she had written and directed a play that they had put on television,” he said. “It was called ‘The Catholic School Story.’ It was in black and white and I didn’t know what to do with myself, I was so happy.”

Another Ursuline grad also performed in the TV special and went on to bigger and better things: Ed O’Neill, who, even after it’s been off the air for a dozen years, is probably still best known for playing put-upon dad Al Bundy in the TV sitcom “Married With Children.”

“I keep meaning whenever I run into him to say I suspect we made our TV debut together. He was a senior in high school,” Cummings said. “Ed played Father O’Neill and I played the cute little kid.”

Kelly Jane Torrance, The Washington Times
July 3rd, 2009
SOURCE

Talking to Jim Cummings is like being in a reverse “Enchanted” — you feel like a real person who somehow has stepped into an animated world.

Mr. Cummings has been a voice actor for a quarter-century, playing some of animation’s best-known characters. He just received a Daytime Emmy nod for his work as the gregarious Tigger on Disney Channel’s “My Friends Tigger and Pooh” — he also voices Pooh. He was Darkwing Duck on the series of the same name and has appeared in films from “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” to “Shrek.” In “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian,” his voice brought a number of characters to life, including Abe Lincoln. In this fall’s highly anticipated “The Princess and the Frog,” he voices a “lovesick Cajun firefly,” as Disney describes his sidekick role. He does movie trailers, commercials and video games.

The genial Mr. Cummings sounds like a man who loves what he does. But how does one get into such a distinctive line of work?

“You start by getting kicked out of class a lot when you’re in grade school. You’re back there doing dolphin noises in the back of the room,” he says. “Sister Mary Agnes knows who that is. Next thing you know, you’re out in the hall.”

He loved cartoons as a child. “I was the guy watching and thinking to myself, ‘This Mel Blanc guy sounds like he’s having a pretty good time. It usually gets me in trouble when I act like that,’ ” he says. “I always knew as a kid I’d be doing something like that. I knew I wouldn’t have a time clock in my future.”

He did at first, though. As he says, “You gotta eat.”

Born and raised in Youngstown, Ohio, he started in a steel mill as soon as he graduated high school. “It must have been three in the morning; I was walking down with snow up to my thighs, and it was 20 below. It was as if God was saying, ‘What do you want, me to drop a piano on your head? Get out of here.’ ”

So he hoofed it to New Orleans, where he created Mardi Gras floats and worked as a riverboat deckhand. It was the perfect place for a voice actor and musician. “It was where I heard so many accents,” he says. “I just treated it as fertile ground for the imagination, accidental research. You put all that together, and you get something new. Besides, if you do a terrible impression of somebody, you get a brand-new character.”

He finally made his way to California, where his very first demo tape made it into the hands of his idol. “It was the sweetest thing,” he recalls of having a friend who shared an office building with the late Mr. Blanc play the tape for him. “He looked up at the ceiling, shut his eyes, and smiled. At the end of the tape, he said, ‘Tell the kid he’s got it.’ I wasn’t there, but I’ll never forget that one.”

He’s been working steadily ever since.

If you’ve seen anything in animation, chances are you’ve heard Mr. Cumming’s voice — even when you think it’s someone else’s.

“I jokingly refer to myself as a stunt singer,” he says. “A lot of great actors don’t sing, and I’m a pretty good singer and a pretty good mimic, and I put those two together and sing in character for them.” He’s sung for Ed Asner, Danny DeVito and Christopher Lloyd. When Jeremy Irons’ voice gave out while recording “The Lion King,” Mr. Cummings filled in for him — seamlessly.

He gets to combine his love of music and acting again in “The Princess and the Frog.” It sounds as if the Cajun character Ray was pretty easy for Mr. Cummings to create, having lived in New Orleans for most of the 1970s.

“Randy Newman, the poet laureate of New Orleans, he’s doing the music. It’s set in the jazz age. It’s so up my alley, I can’t even begin to tell you. I’m a jazz guy,” he says. “I’ve been singing my whole life. You combine that with Cajun culture, my favorite city, the first African-American princess in a Disney movie ….” He really knew he had to get the part, though, when he realized his children would be watching the DVD for years to come. He reportedly beat Harry Connick Jr. for the role.

That the film features Disney’s first black princess has put the movie under intense scrutiny – the heroine’s name was changed when critics thought “Maddy,” short for Madeleine, was too close to “Mammy.”

“Some people are in the business of taking themselves too seriously,” Mr. Cummings comments. “It pushes us apart; it doesn’t draw us together.”

Incredibly, one columnist even called Disney insensitive for setting the story in New Orleans, “the setting of one of the most devastating tragedies to beset a black community.”

“Can you believe that?” Mr. Cummings says. “Where would you set a movie that was the birthplace of jazz if it wasn’t going to be in New Orleans? My hometown of Youngstown would have volunteered, but it just wouldn’t be the same.”

Mr. Cummings has played many memorable roles, but his favorites have been the musical ones — he loved playing King Louie. “Speaking of New Orleans jazz, Louis Prima was the original,” he says of the great who first voiced the character in “The Jungle Book.” He also loved doing Don Karnage of “TaleSpin,” “the first Monty Python character in a Disney cartoon” and Darkwing Duck.

He’s enjoying playing Tigger and Pooh, too. “Pooh is kind of the eye of the storm, and Tigger is the storm, so I can keep them separate that way,” he says. “It’s just an honor to me; I feel like I’m a torchbearer for a new generation of kids.”

His own younger daughters, 4 and 2, love it — though his older daughters, 27 and 22, weren’t always his biggest fans. “I remember when the oldest was 5, I was reading voices, and she’d say, ‘Dad, it’s getting late; don’t do the voices, just read.’ ‘That’ll put you through college, missy!’ ” he’d respond.

It isn’t just his own children he talks to in character. One of the joys of the job is getting on the telephone as Tigger or Pooh a few times a week. “I can call up little kids in the hospital over Christmas or their birthdays if they’re ill and put a smile on their faces and make their mom and dad happy again,” he says.

Mr. Cummings has seen a lot of changes in the industry. There’s one that affects him more than any other.

“A lot of big-time celebrity movie stars are throwing their hats into the ring, that’s for sure,” he says. Case in point: Three of the five nominees in his Daytime Emmy category are Hollywood heavies — Amy Poehler, Joan Rivers and Vanessa Williams. Mr. Cummings has a simple solution to the problem plaguing him and his colleagues. “I’ll make a deal with Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. If they don’t do any cartoons, I promise I won’t be the lead in any blockbuster films. Is that too much to ask for?”

Very special thanks go to Ashley Wool who was kind enough to send us the following little treat.

Since we just rolled into July, it’s pretty safe to say that everyone who is attending school is definitely out for the summer. Please enjoy this fantastic version of Jim Cummings singing School’s Out as Mr. Bumpy from Bump in the Night.

As Ashley says:

I was an avid fan of Bump in the Night back in the day (I recorded literally every episode on VHS), and today I unearthed Mr. Bumpy’s Karaoke Cafe cover version of “School’s Out” by Alice Cooper. It’s pretty awesome and, at eight years old, it was my introduction to rock ‘n’ roll. If anybody wants to hear Jim Cummings being a total rock star, I highly recommend this.

You can listen to the MP3 of this song in our Media Section soon when I fix it back up (it was lower on the list of priorities than, say, the homepage). In the meantime, enjoy the music video below:

I must confess that Rob Paulsen’s background singing raises this song to a whole new level of hilarity.

Let me start this by saying that I am a massive Disney fan. I usually give them much more benefit of the doubt than any other studio because I love so much of what they have produced. I am totally pumped about the return of classic animation and the classic Disney movie format. I also have been clamoring for a new princess movie for a really long time.

Let me also remind you that I am a huge Jim Cummings fan. I know that this role is important for him both because it is a pretty large, new role for him in a time when he’s mostly been sitting back and only playing his standard characters (Pooh, Tigger, etc) and we already know that he said this role is his favorite in his career. There are both big things for him and big news for us fans.

The official trailer was released a few days ago (as I tweeted when it came out) and I immediately popped over to Apple to watch it in High Definition. If you haven’t done so already, I recommend visiting http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/princessandthefrog/ to do so. My pumped level for this movie was high as heck.

So, taking all of that into account, what I am about to say is going to be total blasphemy but here we go.

I didn’t think it looked very good. This has got to be the first Disney animated trailer I have ever seen that I didn’t think looked good. Mind you, their trailer department is really good. They have made many a terrible movie look good in the trailer. But my reaction after seeing this trailer was just disappointment. It just looks…dumb.

Now, I am willing to reserve judgment until I see the film. Maybe they just did a terrible job with the trailer and the movie is really awesome. But I must say, after seeing this trailer, instead of getting me more excited, my spirits are a little dampened. The frog prince was so smarmy. I hope he’s not like that all movie, I will smack him. And the “funny” parts were…not funny. I actually rolled my eyes twice. That is never a good sign. I laugh at paint drying. Well, I do if it’s a funny color.

I hate to be a Debbie Downer but this is just my honest opinion. Am I alone in this? Did you think the movie looked awesome?

Let me know below.

(Sorry I didn’t post these yesterday. I was at the coolest Sesame Street 40th Anniversary event EVER!)

36th Annual Annie Award Nominees and Winners (2008)

Winners in bold*

PRODUCTION CATEGORIES

Best Animated Feature

• 
  Bolt – Walt Disney Animation Studios

• 
  Kung Fu Panda – DreamWorks Animation*

• 
  $9.99 – Sherman Pictures/Lama Films

• 
  Wall·E
  – Pixar Animation Studios

• 
  Waltz With Bashir – Sony Pictures Classics, Bridgit Folman, Les Films
  D’ici, Razor Films
  

Best Animated Home
Entertainment Production

• 
  Batman: Gotham Knight – Warner Bros. Animation

• 
  Christmas Is Here Again – Easy To Dream Entertainment in association
  with Renegade Animation

• Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs –
  The Curiosity Company in association with 20^th Century Fox
  Home Entertainment*

• 
  Justice League: The New Frontier – Warner Bros. Animation

• 
  The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning – DisneyToon Studios

Best Animated Short
Subject

• 
  Glago’s Guest – Walt Disney Animation
  Studios

• 
  Hot Dog – Bill Plympton Studio

• 
  Presto – Pixar Animation Studios

• 
  Sebastian’s Voodoo – Joaquin Baldwin

• 
  Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death – Aardman Animations Ltd.*

Best Animated
Television Commercial

• 
  Giant Monster – Curious Pictures

• 
  Long Legs Mr. Hyde – Curious Pictures

• 
  Rotofugi: The Collectors – Screen
  Novelties/RSA Films

• 
  Sarah – Z Animation

• 
  United Airlines “Heart” – Duck Studios*

Best Animated
Television Production

• 
  King of the Hill – 20^th Century Fox TV

• 
  Moral Orel – ShadowMachine

• 
  Phineas and Ferb – Disney Television
  Animation

• Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II –
  ShadowMachine*

• 
  The Simpsons – Gracie Films/Fox TV

Best Animated
Television Production Produced for Children

• 
  A Miser Brothers Christmas – Warner Bros. Animation in association with
  ABC Family & Cuppa Coffee Studios

• 
  Avatar: The Last Airbender – Nickelodeon*

• 
  Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends “Destination Imagination” – Cartoon
  Network Studios

• 
  The Mighty B! – Nickelodeon

• 
  Underfist: Halloween Bash – Cartoon Network
  Studios

Best Animated Video
Game

• 
  Dead Space – Electronic Arts

• 
  Kung Fu Panda – Activision*

• 
  Wall·E
  – Heavy Iron Studios, a division of THQ, Inc.

INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT
CATEGORIES

Animated Effects

• 
  Alen Lai “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears A Who” –
  Blue Sky Studios

• 
  Li-Ming Lawrence Lee “Kung Fu Panda” – DreamWorks Animation*

• 
  Fangwei Lee “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa” –
  DreamWorks Animation

• 
  Kevin Lee “Bolt” – Walt Disney Animation Studios

• 
  Enrique Vila “Wall·E” – Pixar Animation Studios

Character Animation in
a Feature Production

• 
  James Baxter “Kung Fu Panda” – DreamWorks Animation*

• 
  Jeff Gabor “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears A Who” – Blue Sky Studios

• 
  Philippe Le Brun “Kung Fu Panda” – DreamWorks Animation

• 
  Victor Navone “Wall·E” – Pixar Animation Studios

• 
  Dan Wagner “Kung Fu Panda” – DreamWorks Animation

Character Animation in
a Television Production or Short Form

• 
  Sandro Cleuzo “Secrets of the Furious Five”
  – DreamWorks Animation

• 
  Joshua A. Jennings “Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II” – ShadowMachine
  

• 
  Pierre Perifel “Secrets of the Furious Five” – DreamWorks Animation*

Character Design in an
Animated Feature Production

• 
  Valerie Hadida “Igor” – Exodus Film Group

• 
  Sang Jun Lee “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears A Who” – Blue Sky Studios

• Nico Marlet “Kung Fu Panda” – DreamWorks
  Animation*

Character Design in an
Animated Television Production or Short Form

• 
  Bryan Arnett – Mighty B! “Bat Mitzah Crashers” – Nickelodeon

• 
  Ben Balistreri – Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends “Mondo Coco” –
  Cartoon Network Studios

• 
  Sean Galloway “The Spectacular Spider-Man” – Sony Pictures Television

• 
  Jorge Gutierrez – El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera “The Good,
  The Bad, The Tigre” – Nickelodeon

• Nico Marlet “Secrets of the Furious Five” –
  DreamWorks Animation*

Directing in an
Animated Feature Production

• 
  Sam Fell, Rob Stevenhagen “The Tale Of Despereaux” – Universal Pictures

• 
  Ari Folman “Waltz With Bashir” – Sony
  Pictures Classics, Bridgit Folman, Les Films D’ici, Razor Films
  

• 
  Tatia Rosenthal “9.99” – Sherman Pictures/
  Lama Films

• 
  John Stevenson & Mark Osborne “Kung Fu Panda” – DreamWorks Animation*

• 
  Andrew Stanton “Wall·E” – Pixar Animation Studios

Directing in an
Animated Television Production or Short Form

• 
  Bob Anderson – The Simpsons “Treehouse of Horror XIX” – Gracie Films/Fox
  TV

• Joaquim Dos Santos – Avatar: The Last
  Airbender “Sozin’s Comet Pt. 3” – Nickelodeon*

• 
  Craig McCracken, Rob Renzetti – Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends
  “Destination Imagination” – Cartoon Network Studios

• 
  Chris McKay – Moral Orel “Passing” –
  ShadowMachine

• 
  Alan Smart – SpongeBob SquarePants “Penny Foolish” – Nickelodeon

Music in an Animated
Feature Production

• 
  Kevin Manthei – “Batman: Gotham Knight” – Warner Bros. Animation

• 
  John Powell – “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears A Who” – Blue Sky Studios

• 
  Max Richter – “Waltz With Bashir” – Sony Pictures Classics, Bridgit
  Folman, Les Films D’ici, Razor Films
  

• 
  William Ross – “The Tale Of Despereaux” – Universal Pictures

• 
  Hans Zimmer & John Powell – “Kung Fu Panda” – DreamWorks Animation*

Music in an Animated
Television Production or Short Form

• 
  Carl Finch & Brave Combo – Click and Clack’s “As the Wrench Turns” –
  CTTV Productions

• 
  Henry Jackman, Hans Zimmer & John Powell – “Secrets of the Furious Five”
  – DreamWorks Animation*

• 
  Kevin Kiner – “Star Wars The Clone Wars: Rising Malevolence” – Lucasfilm
  Animation Ltd.

• 
  Guy Moon – Back at the Barnyard “Cowman:
  The Uddered Avenger” – Nickelodeon/Omation

• 
  Guy Michelmore – “Growing Up Creepie: Rockabye Freakie” – Taffy
  Entertainment LLC

Production Design in an
Animated Feature Production

• 
  Ralph Eggleston “Wall·E” – Pixar Animation Studios

• 
  Paul Felix “Bolt” – Walt Disney Animation Studios

• 
  Tang Heng “Kung Fu Panda” – DreamWorks Animation*

• 
  Evgeni Tomov “The Tale Of Despereaux” –
  Universal Pictures

• 
  Raymond Zibach “Kung Fu Panda” – DreamWorks Animation

Production Design in an
Animated Television Production or Short Form

• 
  Andy Harkness “Glago’s Guest” – Walt Disney Animation Studios

• 
  Tang Heng “Secrets of the Furious Five” – DreamWorks Animation*

• 
  Seonna Hong – The Mighty B! “Bee Patients”
  – Nickelodeon

• 
  Dan Krall – Chowder “The Heavy Sleeper” – Cartoon Network Studios

• 
  Raymond Zibach “Secrets of the Furious Five” – DreamWorks Animation

Storyboarding in an
Animated Feature Production

• Alessandro Carloni –
  “Kung Fu Panda” – DreamWorks Animation

• Ronnie Del Carmen –
  “Wall·E” – Pixar Animation Studios

• Joe Mateo “Bolt” –
  Walt Disney Animation Studios

• Jen Yuh Nelson –
  “Kung Fu Panda” – DreamWorks Animation*

• Rob Stevenhagen –
  “The Tale Of Despereaux” – Universal Pictures

Storyboarding in an
Animated Television Production or Short Form

• 
  Butch Hartman – Fairly OddParents “Mission: Responsible” – Nickelodeon

• Andy Kelly – Ni Hao, Kai-Lan “Twirly Whirly
  Flyers” – Nickelodeon Productions/Nelvana

• Andy
  Schuhler
  – “Secret of the Furious Five” – DreamWorks Animation

• 
  Eddie Trigueros “The Mighty B! “Name Shame”– Nickelodeon

• 
  Chris Williams “Glago’s Guest” – Walt Disney Animation Studios*

Voice Acting in an
Animated Feature Production

• 
  Ben Burtt – Voice of Wall·E
  – “Wall·E”
  – Pixar Animation Studios

• 
  Dustin Hoffman – Voice of Shifu – “Kung Fu Panda” – DreamWorks Animation*

• 
  James Hong – Voice of Mr. Ping – “Kung Fu Panda” – DreamWorks Animation

• 
  Ian McShane – Voice of Tai Lung – “Kung Fu Panda” – DreamWorks Animation

• 
  Mark Walton – Voice of Rhino – “Bolt” – Walt Disney Animation Studios

Voice Acting in an
Animated Television Production or Short Form

• Ahmed Best – Voice of Jar Jar Binks –
  “Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II” – ShadowMachine*

• 
  Seth MacFarlane – Voice of Peter Griffin – Family Guy “I Dream of Jesus”
  – Fox TV Animation/Fuzzy Door Productions

• 
  Dwight Schultz – Voice of Mung Daal – Chowder “Apprentice Games” –
  Cartoon Network Studios

Writing in an Animated
Feature Production

• 
  Jon Aibel & Glenn Berger – “Kung Fu Panda” – DreamWorks Animation*

• 
  Etan Cohen and Eric Darnell & Tom McGrath –
  “Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa” – DreamWorks Animation

• 
  Ari Folman – “Waltz With Bashir” – Sony
  Pictures Classics, Bridgit Folman, Les Films D’ici, Razor Films
  

• 
  Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio – “Dr. Seuss’
  Horton Hears A Who” – Blue Sky Studios

Writing in an Animated
Television Production or Short Form

• 
  Joel H. Cohen – The Simpsons “The Debarted” – Gracie Films/Fox TV

• 
  Scott Kreamer – El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera “Mustache Love”
  – Nickelodeon

• 
  Paul McEvoy and Todd Berger – “Secrets of the Furious Five” – DreamWorks
  Animation

• Tom Root, Douglas Goldstein, Hugh Davidson,
  Mike Fasolo, Seth Green, Dan Milano, Matthew Senreich, Kevin Shinick,
  Zeb Wells, Breckin Meyer – “Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II” –
  ShadowMachine*

• 
  Chris Williams – “Glago’s Guest” – Walt Disney Animation Studios

JURIED AWARDS

• Winsor McCay
  recipients – Mike Judge, John Lasseter and Nick Park for career
  contributions to the art of animation
• June Foray award
  – Bill Turner for significant and benevolent or charitable impact on the
  art and industry of animation
• Certificate of Merit
  award – Amir Avni, Mike Fontanelli, Kathy Turner, Alex Vassilev

Having seen Kung Fu Panda and coupling this with the fact that the Annie’s have STILL never honored Jim Cummings, I think the Annie’s are becoming something of a joke. Kung Fu Panda was cute in a, OK, I can watch this with my kid and not want to gouge my eyes out kind of way but it wasn’t very good. To give it the Best Picture award, let alone all the others is just plain stupid. Frankly, they were pretty far off on a lot of categories so one can only imagine what they were thinking.