If you haven’t been keeping up on all of DC’s animated straight-to-videos you are seriously missing out. The whole crew here at Big Shiny Robot! practically drools over each one. All-Star Superman, based on the excellent Grant Morrison comic, will be available on February 22nd. You can probably expect to see a Big Shiny Review! of the movie soon after, if not before.
As always, the art style for this new addition to the DC Animated library is amazing. Just look at that picture above. The composition of the shot is fantastic. If that doesn’t convince, just look at the emotion in Superman’s eyes in this one:
But the animation is just the tip of the iceberg. What always impresses me about these is the voice-acting. I expect All-Star Superman to be no different. The stellar cast includes James Denton (Superman), Christina Hendricks (Lois), and Anthony LaPaglia (Lex Luthor). And that’s just the stars, you also get Ed Asner as Perry White and Six Feet Under’s Frances Conroy as Ma Kent. Rounding out the ensemble are Matthew Gray Gubler (Criminal Minds), Linda Cardellini (ER), Arnold Vosloo (The Mummy), Catherine Cavadini (The Powerpuff Girls), Finola Hughes (General Hospital), Alexis Denisoff (Angel), Obba Babatunde (That Thing You Do!), Michael Gough (Batman) and John DiMaggio (Futurama). That’s some serious talent.
And who better to direct that talent than Andrea Romano, eight-time Emmy Award winner with the experience to make this great. She’s directed the first 10 animated films from DCU along with everything else you’ve ever thought was cool. Seriously. Batman: The Animated Series, Animaniacs, The Boondocks, and the Smurfs all had her involved in some way. Which is my long-winded way of saying you should read what she had to say at a recent Q&A about her experience with making All-Star Superman. It was a rather lengthy interview, so I’ll just post the coolest highlights:
Are there certain writers’ scripts you find easier to direct or get an instant feel?
There are several writers I’ve worked with over the years whose wordsI can recognize without even seeing a title page, like Stan Berkowitz, Alan Burnett, Bob Goodman and especially Dwayne McDuffie. And because I’ve worked with them for so long over so many different projects, and once they know I’m on a project, it’s almost as though they write for me – because they know exactly what information I need to know to give to the actors. So I love working with all those guys. Dwayne works so hard on being true to the source material, and yet translating it into something that can be acted. He’s really good at making that transition of honoring the material, but bringing the words off the page to make it actable and dramatically interesting.
You’ve directed your share of voices for Superman. How did James Denton rank in his first foray in animation?
Jamie was a voiceover virgin, or he hadn’t done much, but he was outstanding to work with…. He reminded me of Jensen Ackles…. Jamie was a really interesting choice – it can be difficult to cast some of these Superman films – and he brought some unique interpretations and sensitivities to the role. And that’s interesting for a director – to hear somebody else’s thoughts on what a man like Superman would sound like.
On Christina Hendricks as Lois Lane
It was cute because she was quite nervous coming in with no prior voiceover experience, but her acting instincts are so good, she has the ability to adjust to acting to a microphone as opposed to camera very quickly. I always give people positive feedback, but I was telling her “terrific job” and you’ll see the evidence when you see the piece…. I would use her again in a minute.
On Anthony LaPaglia
The actors I tend to bring in are people I’ve admired from afar and have been looking for a specific character for them – as with Anthony LaPaglia for Lex Luthor. He is such a versatile actor, and his dialect work is so good.
At one point in the LaPaglia session, he wasn’t understanding your direction no matter how many different ways you worded it – and Brcue [sic] Timm was able to communicate your direction with a simple drawing of Lex’s face. Has Bruce done that previously/often over your 20-plus years working together?
When Bruce did that for Anthony, I thought that was one of those great moments where a picture is actually worth ten thousand words. One of the things Bruce has done a million times before is, when someone comes in to play a role, he’ll draw the character right there on the spot. That almost always helps an actor establish a voice.
On the casting of the smaller roles
I think Matthew [Gray Gubler] is such a talent… He’s a perfect Jimmy Olsen – sweet, endearing, slightly nerdy. If I had a role for him in every project, I would always hire him.
Frances Conroy – first, let me say that she is not related to Kevin Conroy, which is kind of funny because they know each other very well, and they even went to Juilliard together. …when I heard she was doing voiceovers, I was so jealous somebody else got her before I did. …what she did with such few lines of dialogue was wonderful and exactly what I was hoping to get.
Alexis [Denisof] has such an interesting quality to his voice. I loved Dr. Quintum, he’s such an odd character, and the voice matches perfectly. I’m never 100 percent sure when doing the casting if I made the right decision. It’s not until it comes back in animation that we really know that it actually did work. Alexis as Dr. Quintum is definitely one of those circumstances that worked well.
Beyond the on-camera actors, you tend to appear to have the best times directing when you have a room full of full-time voiceover actors – like on this project with John DiMaggio, Kevin Michael Richardson, Robin Atkin Downes, Steve Blum, Fred Tatasciore, Michael Gough and so on. What’s that group session like?
Often when I cast my ensemble players for some of the secondary characters, and that is to say secondary characters by the number of lines they must perform, I treat it almost like a casting party. I want to put together people who enjoy being in a room together, that are going to bring something to the party, and that they’re somebody with whom I want to spend a few hours locked in a room together. Okay, sometimes it should be a padded room. I find that I get a core group of actors and I almost want to carry them with me to every different project I’m working on – the end credits of my films and series probably back that up. When I get the chance, I also like to cast those guys in major featured roles, like John DiMaggio as the Joker in Batman: Under the Red Hood. The thing about these actors is that they’re so versatile that I could assign three roles to each before they walked into the room, and I could change it when we walked into the room and they’d have no problem playing the other characters instead. It’s always fun to work with that group, but sometimes it is like being a kindergarten teacher with an over-crowded class.
Andrea Romano will be at the New York premiere on Valentine’s Day and the LA premiere on February 17th. All-Star Superman is available for preorder now and comes out February 22nd on DVD and Blu-Ray.