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.

For those of you that just can’t wait to get Jim Cummings’ latest feature film performance home with you, I have some good news! The Princess and the Frog will be on DVD and Bluray as early as March 16th, 2010.

You can pre-order your copy today!

Just a friendly reminder from your friends at The Cult of Cummings that Jim Cummings’ new movie, Disney’s The Princess and The Frog opens nation wide tonight. From the people who got to see it when it was in limited release, it’s getting great reviews with many review citing Jim Cummings as the best part of the film so it is very exciting.

You can read all the reviews as they come in over at Rotten Tomatoes.

But I want to know what YOU think! Did you see the movie? Did you like it? Let us know and share your thoughts below!

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.

Gonna Take You There
performed by Jim Cummings featuring Terrance Simien on Accordion

Ma Belle Evangeline
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.

There is a great, 15 minute interview with Jim Cummings available to listen to in full here.

Defying all conventional Emmy Award logic, Jim Ward took away the Emmy prize which, considering he was the least famous and least recognizable name in the batch is no small feat!

Congratulations Jim Ward! Jim Cummings, you’ll just have to show them next time!