The Cult of Cummings

He’s a clip of Jim Cummings taking on popular choice for impressionists: former President Bill Clinton.

Watch the clip below and then let us know what you think. Of all the Bill Clinton impressions out there, where does Jim’s rank?

Thanks to Voice Chasers for bringing these two videos to my attention. They are older but a must watch for fans of voice actors. They star Jim Cummings, Maurice LaMarche, Billy West, and Danny Mann.

Part 1:

Part 2:

If you’ve never watched a motion comic before, they are something between a comic book and a straight cartoon. Some of them are really slick. These upcoming Jonah Hex motion comics are here to whet your appetite for the upcoming live action Jonah Hex movie starring Josh Brolin and Megan Fox. They are releasing these motion comics in several episodes leading up to the release of the live action movie.

But the good news for Jim Cummings fans is that he plays Jonah Hex in these motion comics so fans will definitely want to check them out.

The first episode is available right now from Amazon where you can also subscribe to the entire season and automatically get every episode as they come out. It’s also available from places like iTunes so wherever you prefer to get your digital media, an episode is only a buck so you can’t go wrong!

The newest press release for The Clone Wars contains an interview with the one and only Jim Cummings! Enjoy the whole thing below:

In a rural and remote corner of Felucia, Anakin, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka form an uneasy alliance with four deadly bounty hunters to protect a local village from Hondo Ohnaka and his band of pirates. But Hondo – always the opportunist and never willing to play fair – has plans of his own in “Bounty Hunters,” an all-new episode of STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS airing at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT Friday, April 2 on Cartoon Network.

Though he may be unprincipled, corrupt, self-serving and deceitful, Hondo represents a return to classic Star Wars archetypes – including rogues and scoundrels such as Han Solo and Lando Calrissian. These intergalactic icons forged their reputations – within that galaxy far, far away as well as among fans – by playing by their own rules and distorting perceptions of right and wrong.

“People want to be seduced. People like a rascal. People like pirates…sort of, as long as they’re not totally pillaging and wreaking havoc,” says Jim Cummings, the voice of Hondo in The Clone Wars. “There’s a certain fascination we have with these bad guys – bikers, pirates, scoundrels, all the Robin Hoods of the world. And Hondo’s so much fun; I really dig him. He’s not a master villain, but he won’t be growing a halo anytime soon, either. The lovable rogue, the lovable rascal. You don’t mind inviting him over for dinner, but you’d better count the silverware after he leaves.”

Though he tends to cause problems for the Jedi Knights and the heroes of the Republic, Hondo is nonetheless a relatively sympathetic baddie – despite his penchant for double-crossing, cheating, back-stabbing and outright wickedness. Besides, that’s all just part of his charm.

“Hondo’s P.T. Barnum. He’s got a little Charles Bronson in him. He’s Harry Mudd, always glad-handing – and the next thing you know, you’ve lost your watch. He’s a conjurer and a maneuverer, and he gets the job done. If he has to a do a little heavy lifting now and then, so be it – but rather than go the way of the bicep, he prefers to develop a little craft. At the end of the day, when everyone counts their stacks, his will be a little bigger than yours – and you won’t even know how it happened. He’s an opportunist, but if there’s a nickel holding up a dime, he’ll move on. He weighs his results against the effort it takes to get them; if one outweighs the other…NEXT!”

Cummings – whose voice-acting credits run the gamut from Winnie the Pooh (and Tigger, too) to Robot Chicken and comic book superheroes – found himself reveling in the Clone Wars production process, which has allowed him to fully articulate, expand and embellish what might otherwise have remained a mere supporting role in the Star Wars galaxy.

“The process in Clone Wars is so great; I just love it. It’s unique, because there aren’t too many productions that put the whole cast in the room. It’s so rare. Sometimes there’s a production assistant, but they’re just reading the lines off the page – like a robot. But when you have other actors in the room and you’re really working it, you can bounce back and forth. It makes the process what it should be and what it is – which is a live, organic thing. If you can come up with something within the story, which contributes to the story, that’s always welcome. This is gumbo where everyone gets to put in an ingredient. Coming from the theater especially, coming from a million plays – well, it’d be tough to do Okalahoma standing on the stage alone. This is simply so much more rewarding.”

As for honing in on Hondo’s signature voice – that cool and confident combination of snake-oil salesman and hardened mercenary – Cummings looked to the icons of his childhood for inspiration.

“There are indistinct accents that are familiar, to an extent, but still sound foreign – like when Roman centurions have British accents in gladiator movies. It lets the audience know that this is an Other, and yet we can still identify. It’s relatable,” he says. “Coming up with Hondo’s voice, I looked to one guy who had always fascinated me: Yul Brynner. As a kid, I’d think, ‘Where the HECK is this guy from?’ But you could buy him as the King of Siam, or as a cowboy in The Magnificent Seven, or as a robot in Westworld. I don’t do a great impression of Yul Brynner – but if you do a bad impression of someone, it becomes a new voice, a new character. So I just poured a lot of sand on my bad Yul Brynner – for texture – and that’s Hondo. But I don’t try to think about it too much; I always say that instincts are the best-stincts.”

Ultimate Disney did a great article with Interview with John Musker and Ron Clements: The writing-directing duo behind The Princess and the Frog where they said some wonderful things about working with Jim Cummings. I’ve just pulled out the quotes specifically about Jim Cummings below but I do encourage you to read the whole article here. It is a great read!

Q: I had the pleasure of interviewing Ray’s animator Mike Surrey a few months back. He said Jim Cummings made his job easy. What made you choose him for Ray? 

John Musker: Jim Cummings was a riot to work with. We have worked with him in the past but what we didn’t know was that he had spent years in New Orleans where he worked alongside Cajuns whose speech patterns he picked up.

Q: Being a Louisiana native, it’s eerie and extremely entertaining how well you got the Cajun character down. Was there a lot of research involved in Raymond and the film as a whole?

John Musker: We wanted to do right by Louisiana and the culture there including the great Cajun populace. John Lasseter really wanted authenticity, so we took several trips down there. We met with a number of people including a man named Reggie who was our bayou tour guide. We noted his speech patterns, and picked up more phrases at jazz Fest. We also did research where we read stories written in a “Cajun” voice and found Cajun glossaries online. Best of all though, we cast Jim Cummings as our firefly. When he auditioned, he did a great Cajun accent and we learned he had a home there for several years and had worked with Cajuns in the Merchant marines. He was able to improvise in his Cajun speak, so he added a lot of flavor to our gumbo.

I wanted to give you a sneak peek at Jim Cummings’ two songs as Ray in the upcoming The Princess and The Frog.

I have been trying for a while to get my streaming audio player to work and I just can’t get it to cooperate so I am posting these on the honor system. These are meant for you to listen to as a preview so listen to them and enjoy but then, please, delete the file and support Jim Cummings’ career by purchasing the music yourself.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

performed by Jim Cummings featuring Terrance Simien on Accordion

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

performed by Jim Cummings featuring Terence Blanchard on Trumpet

If anyone knows of a good plugin or other tool for posting audio on WordPress, please let me know. The search has been frustrating!

Here is a little trick or treat for Jim Cummings fans. The Halloween episode from the Disney Channel classic Dumbo’s Circus.

Look for Jim Cummings as Lionel the Lion (dressed like a skeleton for most of the episode).

Happy Halloween!

I’m sorry for getting “The Day the Spooky Circus Came to Town” stuck in your head.