The Brief

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in Moana. Antonio Banderas in Puss in Boots. Ellen DeGeneres in Finding Nemo. Chris Pratt in The Lego Movie, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Garfield, and… a couple others.

All these big-name actors and comedians have lent their voices and talents to lead roles in animated features. And they’re just a handful of the many, many examples.

So when did this phenomenon start happening?

As the story often goes, the practice of casting celebrity-level actors rather than trained voice actors in animated films can be traced back to Robin Williams’ casting in the 1992 Disney hit Aladdin.  

The idea is that the popularity of the character led other producers and directors to want big-name actors in their films too — in an effort to draw in more adult viewers. The consequence, so the argument goes, is that the practice led to a decrease in opportunities for trained voice actors (similar to actors and celebrities replacing models on magazine covers.)

But according to Eric Goldberg, the supervising animator for the Genie and co-director of Pocahontas, and veteran animation casting director Mary Hidalgo (The Lego Movie, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse): that’s not exactly how it happened. (The two recently spoke with The Academy Museum Podcast host Jacqueline Stewart, for an episode focused on casting in animation.)

The history of casting celebrities in animation

Goldberg says that while many people do point to Williams’ casting in Aladdin as a turning point, “being an animation geek, I know of many other cases where they did cast famous people.”

Ed Wynn and Lucille Ball in a photo from May 18, 1953. The caption reads, "'Best young comedienne we have,' said Wynn after she made TV debut in his show."

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Los Angeles Herald Examiner Photo Collection / Digital Collections of the Los Angeles Public Library

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A few examples:

“Cliff Edwards, the voice of Jiminy Cricket [in Pinocchio] was already a well-known recording star, known as Ukulele Ike. And everybody knew Ukulele Ike back in 1940. In the 1950s, they cast Ed Wynn and Jerry Colonna as the Mad Hatter and the March Hare, respectively [in Alice in Wonderland], and they were both vaudeville and radio comedians. Very, very well known,” says Goldberg.

“So it certainly has had its history,” Goldberg says. “But I think in this particular case, because the humor was so linked to Robin's rhythms and Robin's style of delivery, I think that made it a turning point for an awful lot of people.”

How Robin Williams’ Genie did change things 

According to Goldberg, what was new in Williams’ portrayal of the Genie was his style of humor.

“Disney humor was not exactly ‘gut-buster’ humor. It could be a little bit tame,” Goldberg says.

“And truth be told, Disney films went more for the characterization than the gut-busting laugh, let's put it that way. Hopefully with a character like the Genie, we got both. And with this humor, there had never been that kind of humor in a Disney film before. So we all kind of felt a little subversive, you know, sticking this stuff in a Disney movie and just wondering if we're going to be be allowed to keep it in.”

Robin Williams recording the voice for his character in the 1996 sequel "Aladdin and the King of Thieves."

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Courtesy of the Everett Collection

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For casting director Mary Hidalgo — who didn’t work on Aladdin, but cast other Disney films like Tarzan and Finding Nemo — Williams’ casting had a wide-ranging impact in another way.

“I think that triggered something,” Hidalgo says. “That kind of set the bar — his comedy and his presence — he really, totally ‘plussed’ that character and that role. And I think from that moment there was a lot of high demand for that kind of actor. Somebody that will come in and read your words, but also really plus it, you know? That's why we go a lot of times for comedians.”

A push for “names”

But Goldberg and Hidalgo both say that there’s no denying that there has been — and still is — pressure from studios and producers to cast big big-name actors in animated films, particularly when it comes to lead roles.

Hidalgo recalls recommending actor/comedian Will Ferrell for the character of Sully in the 2001 film Monsters, Inc.

“He was so great, but they didn't know who he was. They knew like, ‘Oh, that guy on Saturday Night Live.’ But that's part of the whole job is trying to sell them on this thing that they don't know about, you know? And then they do always go kind of for the bigger star.”

The role ultimately went to actor John Goodman, who Hidalgo calls “the most perfect voice in animation.” And Ferrell was cast in The Lego Movie, which Hidalgo worked on, years later.

The drawbacks of celebrity

There are some times, Goldberg says, when casting a celebrity in a role can take something away from the magic of an animated character.

“You always want the characters to be their own characters,” Goldberg says. “You don't just want them to be a paper-thin carbon copy of who the voice actor is, for example."

In that sense, Goldberg says, casting lesser-known actors can help, because "you aren't necessarily referencing the persona of a previously known actor."

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Lines stretched around the block Sunday at the Original Saugus Cafe in Santa Clarita. It was supposed to be the restaurant's last day before closing after 139 years — making it the oldest continually operated restaurant in Los Angeles County.

But earlier this week, a sign was posted on the door saying, "Reopening under new ownership soon," although there were few details about who would be running it.

The sign was a surprise to the Mercado family, who have operated the restaurant for nearly 30 years. The family now is in a legal dispute with the Arklin family, who owns the property, about the potential re-opening and who owns the historic name.

The background

Alfredo Mercado worked his way up from bartender to restaurateur, purchasing the business in 1998. Since then Mercado and his daughters have operated the restaurant, leasing from the Arklin family. For most of that time, according to the Mercado side, the two families maintained good terms. Property owner Hank Arklin Sr., a former state assemblyman who owned other properties in the area, kept a verbal month-to-month agreement with the Mercados — no written lease required.

That changed when Arklin died in August at age 97.

New terms, failed negotiations

Larry Goodman, who manages multiple properties for the Arklin family's company, North Valley Construction, took over the landlord relationship. In September, the Mercado family say they were presented with a new written month-to-month lease.

Yecenia Ponce, Alfredo's daughter, said the new terms included various changes to the existing agreement, including a rent increase and charges for equipment.

Months of back and forth negotiations about different options, including selling the business, ultimately fell apart. Their attorney, Steffanie Stelnick, says they are being forced out, without proper legal notice, and has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Goodman saying the family has plans to continue running the business.

LAist reached out to Goodman for comment repeatedly Wednesday and Thursday by phone but did not hear back.

Goodman told The Signal, a Santa Clarita valley news outlet, that Alfredo Mercado had changed his mind several times in recent weeks about keeping the business.

“I said, ‘Fine,’ then I got out and got someone to take it over,” Goodman said.

He said he'd been in contact with Eduardo Reyna, the CEO of Dario's, a local Santa Clarita restaurant, and that the cafe could re-open as soon as Jan. 16.

Who owns what?

The dispute also focuses on who owns the rights to the Original Saugus Cafe name.

Ponce said when her father purchased the restaurant in 1998, it was called The Olde Saugus Cafe, but the name was then changed to The Original Saugus Cafe. State records show that name registered as an LLC under Alfredo Mercado.

After Arklin’s death, however, the Arklin family filed a pending trademark application to lay its own claim to the name.

The Mercado family is resisting.

"As long as they don't buy the name from us, we're not handing it over," Ponce said.

Ponce said the family had no idea the landlord planned to continue operations.

"We truly did think we were closing," she said. "We were not aware that they had plans to continue."

She apologized to customers for the confusion.

Whether the decades-old restaurant name survives — and under whose control — may ultimately be decided in court.

Community leaders and politicians in Los Angeles are responding in outrage after an ICE agent shot and killed a woman in Minnesota on Wednesday.

The fatal ICE shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good has sparked anger and fear in Los Angeles, which has been an epicenter of federal immigration enforcement since the summer.

Jorge-Mario Cabrera with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, or CHIRLA, says the killing was upsetting but not surprising.

" Los Angeles has been witness of the escalating aggressiveness of these federal agents against the community," he told LAist.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has defended the shooting, saying Good was trying to run agents over with her car. That account has been disputed by eyewitnesses, the mayor of Minneapolis and other officials. Bystander video also challenges the federal narrative, according to MPR News.

L.A. politicians have joined a chorus demanding justice for Good. Mayor Karen Bass posted on X, saying that ICE agents are waging "a purposeful campaign of fear and intimidation" on American cities.

"The senseless killing of an innocent and unarmed wife and mother by ICE agents today in Minneapolis is shocking and tragic and should never have occurred," she said in the post.

L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn called on Noem to withdraw ICE from U.S. cities.

“These ICE agents are undertrained and trigger happy and everyone who has seen this video knows ICE murdered this woman,” she said in a statement.

Some protesters also gathered outside the federal building in downtown L.A. Thursday morning to condemn the killing.