When Aladdin first arrived in theaters it changed the world of animation forever. While up to that point the medium largely relied on professional voice actors to bring characters to life, the 1992 Disney film was the first to ever have a major movie star be a main focus in a project's advertising. Animation hasn't been the same since, as studios now regularly turn to big name actors to voice the leads in their projects, be it Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy in Shrek, Tom Hanks and Tim Allen in Toy Story, or Jack Black and Angelina Jolie in Kung-Fu Panda. Now the cast list for the upcoming DreamWorks Animation project Turbo has been announced and it's clear that tradition is still alive.
THR is reporting that Paul Giamatti, Michael Pena, Luis Guzmán, Bill Hader, Richard Jenkins, Ken Jeong, Michelle Rodriguez, Maya Rudolph, Ben Schwartz, Kurtwood Smith, Snoop Dogg and Samuel L. Jackson will all be voicing characters in the animated film. The film follows a garden snail (voiced by Ryan Reynolds) who dreams of racing and moving fast. While his desire has resulted in him becoming an outcast in the snail community, when his wish is granted he begins on a path that will lead him to the Indianapolis 500. The article doesn't specify who any of the new actors will be voicing in the film. David Soren, who has served as a story artist for years under DreamWorks, is directing the project based on a script that he wrote with Robert Siegel and Darren Lemke.
I've seen some pretty outstanding casts in animated films before, but this may very well be the best I've ever seen. Let's hope that the finished product is just as solid.
