Ponyo English Voice Actors

While it’s no secret that I’m not a big fan of English dubs for foreign movies I have great respect for the reverence that Disney has shown for Hayao Miyazaki’s films. In fact the only dub that I really didn’t care for is the Totoro dub. The majority of the time I still prefer listening to the original version and reading the subs but Disney has done a great job of making the films more accessible to western audiences.

Now with that being said I am a little bit worried about the Ponyo dub. It seems to me like Disney has just tried to get the biggest name actors in Hollywood for the English dub. Here’s the list.

Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Cate Blanchett, Liam Neeson, Lily Tomlin, Betty White, Frankie Jonas, Noah Cyrus and Cloris Leachman.

I am still of the opinion that just because you are a good actor does not particularly mean you are a good voice actor. I think this is one of the many factors that set Pixar apart from competing animation studios. They go more for unknowns, whereas the competition loves to tag as many famous actors on their posters as possible. I honestly don’t care how big the actor is, I’m not going to be seeing them on the screen. I just want them to have a good voice. Now I would be happy to be proven wrong by all of these actors and I’ve only heard Liam Neeson provide a voice to an animated character (Aslan), and of course I was proven wrong by Christian Bale in Howl’s Moving Castle. I just hope Disney isn’t trying to cash in on all of these big names.

Miyazaki’s films are held in pretty high regard in Hollywood and it could just be that all of these actors wanted to be apart of one of these movies. I know I’ve heard other voice actors say that about previous Ghibli films.

Either way I can’t wait to see it in the theaters in the near future and supposedly summer is looking good for a US Ponyo release.

-Dane