Man, I haven't contributed a fancast since February! Sorry! Hopefully, I get more (from my queue and out of nowhere) out over the summer.....
Everyone knows how much of a big deal Watchmen has been for most of its existence. On the one hand, it changed the face of the comic book medium as a whole in 1986, alongside Batman: the Dark Knight Returns and Maus. On the other, it unintentionally ushered in the 'Dork Age/Chromium Age' of Comics in the late 80's and early 90's, much to original series writer Alan Moore's chagrin.
Almost everyone also knows the controversey surrounding the rights to the series and all its characters, heavily contested between Moore and DC Comics for decades. It hasn't been pretty, long story short.
Then there's also the fact that, until Zack Snyder's 2009 film adaptation, a film had been gestating since 1986, but for years it was relegated to production limbo. But now, in the famous Marvel vernacular, I ask the question:
What if....An ANIMATED film, animated, produced, and directed by animation legend Ralph Bakshi? (With a release date of 1988, and an R rating?)
Let's take a look in my latest fancast, where in a world of my devising, Moore, Dave Gibbons, DC Comics, Warner Bros., Sam Hamm, and Bakshi collaborate to bring the bestseller to animated life on the big screen. Here, I'll be borrowing a bit of the format style best used by Robert Garlen, aka DoctorAlgernopKrieger.
#Crew (abridged)
Director: Directors are responsible for overseeing creative aspects of a film under the overall control of the film producer. They often develop the vision for a film and carry out the vision, deciding how the film should look, in other words they make their vision come to life. They are responsible for turning the script into a sequence of shots. They also direct what tone it should have and what an audience should gain from the cinematic experience. Film directors are responsible for deciding camera angles, lens effects and lighting with the help of the cinematographer and set design with the production designer. They will often take part in hiring the cast and key crew members. They coordinate the actors' moves, or blocking and also may be involved in the writing, financing and editing of a film.
Ralph Bakshi [Age as of 1988: 50, Notable works: Fritz the Cat (1972), Wizards (1977), The Lord of the Rings (1978), American Pop (1981), Fire and Ice (1983)]: Bakshi, as stated, is an award-winning animation legend, and one of the few animators/directors gutsy enough to bring to life not only the works of Frank Frazetta, but also R. Crumb. He'd be perfect to help bring a work like
Watchmen to the big screen. He'd also act as producer and one of the chief animators of the picture.
Sam Hamm [Age as of 1988: 33, Notable works: Never Cry Wolf (1983), Batman (1989), Batman Returns (1992)] and Alan Moore [Age as of 1988: 35, Notable works: select stories from 2000 AD and Warrior, Miracleman, select DC Comics stories, Swamp Thing, Watchmen, V for Vendetta]: Moore apparently had approved of Hamm's script for the unmade Watchmen film from the time, but hand-in-hand, these two would be able to come up with a script that would have kept the story largely intact. Just so Moore's partner-in-crime on the original miniseries, Dave Gibbons, isn't left out of the proceedings, he'd serve as one of the animators, to help keep the character designs intact.
*For the music score, I would get Vangelis on this--if they could do for this movie what they did for
Blade Runner (1982), this would really make the movie have a pretty unique feel tonally.
#Voice Cast
+The Main Characters
Telly Savalas as the voice of the Comedian/Edward Blake
Why Telly Savalas? [Age as of 1988: 66, notable works: The Young Savages (1961), Birdman of Alcatraz and Cape Fear (both 1962), The Dirty Dozen (1967), On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Kojak (1973-78)] In particular, when casting the Comedian, I knew there was one performance of Savalas's that provided great inspiration--his role as the sadistic, cruel Archer Maggot in The Dirty Dozen, perfect for the nihilistic Eddie Blake.
Michael Pare as the voice of Rorshach/Walter Kovacs
Why Michael Pare? [Age as of 1988: 30, notable works: The Greatest American Hero (1981-83), Eddie and the Cruisers (1983), Streets of Fire and The Philadelphia Experiment (both 1984)] In particular, his role in Streets of Fire, combined with his naturally deep voice (with a bit of added gravel) would qualify him to voice the conspiracy theorist of the story, whose journal writings frame the tale.
Kyle MacLachlan as the voice of Ozymandias/Adrien Veidt
Why Kyle MacLachlan? [Age as of 1988: 29, notable works: Dune (1984), Blue Velvet (1986), The Hidden (1987)] Well, strangely enough, in addition to those three films and Twin Peaks, I was also inspired by his guest hosting stint on Saturday Night Live, where for the Sprockets sketch, he sported a German accent for his role as the guest on Dieter's show. That, combined with his turns in specifically Blue Velvet and The Hidden, and he'd make Ozymandias a memorable character in the film.
Daniel Stern as the voice of Nite Owl II/Dan Dreiberg
Why Daniel Stern? [Age as of 1988: 31, notable works: Breaking Away (1979), Diner (1982), Get Crazy (1983), C.H.U.D. (1984), Hannah and her Sisters (1986), D.O.A. (1988)] Stern was my immediate choice for Dreiberg, especially based on his performance in Diner. He'd really be able to nail the character's optimism and sense of fanboyish zeal, as well as some of the tension he feels when confronted with his own demons.
Stephanie Zimbalist as the voice of Silk Spectre II/Laurie Juspeczyk
Why Stephanie Zimbalist? [Age as of 1988: 32, notable works: The Best Place to Be (1979) , The Awakening (1980), Remington Steele (1982-1987), The Man in the Brown Suit (1988)] First off, I wanted to do a tribute to her father, the great Efrem Zimbalist Jr. (who passed away this year), and secondly I felt her performance in Steele was a good groundwork to lay down for performing the role of Laurie here. (In addition to her father being known around here for being the best voice of Alfred on BTAS, she also guest-starred in a few episodes of that show as Gotham DA Janet Van Dorn.)
Jeff Goldblum as the voice of Dr. Manhattan/Jon Osterman
Why Jeff Goldblum? [Age as of 1988: 36, notable works: The Right Stuff and The Big Chill (both 1983), The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984), Transylvania 6-5000 and Silverado (both 1985), The Fly (1986), Earth Girls Are Easy (1988)] In addition to the guy's many dips into the sci-fi pool, of course it helps that he's played a blue man at least once in his career. He'd be perfectly capable of playing the logical and detached Dr.
+Secondary Characters
Darren McGavin as the voice of Nite Owl I/Hollis Mason
Why Darren McGavin? [Age as of 1988: 66, notable works: Mickey Spillaine's Mike Hammer (1958-60), Kolchak, the Night Stalker (1972, 1974-75), Airport '77 (1977), The Martian Chronicles (1980), A Christmas Story (1983), Raw Deal (1986), Dead Heat and Inherit the Wind (both 1988)] The guy's an acting veteran and legend, and I especially loved his performance after watching the entirety of the Kolchak series on Netflix. He'd be a great fit for the elder Nite Owl.
Madeline Kahn as the voice of Silk Spectre I/Sally Jupiter
Why Madeline Kahn? [Age as of 1988: 46, notable works: Paper Moon (1973), four notable Mel Brooks films, The Cheap Detective (1978), The Muppet Movie (1979), An American Tail (1986)] She's also an acting legend with a good amount of range (despite comedy being so ingrained in her reputation), so I felt she could bring a bit of an 'embittered showbiz type' feeling to Sally in the film. (I also added her because of her lending her voice to a film made by a contemporary of Ralph Bakshi's, Don Bluth.)
Phil Hartman as the voice of Captain Metropolis/Nelson Gardner
Why Phil Hartman? [Age as of 1988: 40, notable works: Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985, also wrote the screenplay), Saturday Night Live (joined in 1986), Three Amigos! (1986), The Brave Little Toaster (1987)] While this may seem like a strange casting, Hartman's voice I feel has the right sound for a stereotypical 'masked crimefighter'-type, which would fit the bill for someone like the ill-fated leader of the Crimebusters and founding member of the Minutemen.
Peter Falk as the voice of Big Figure
Why Peter Falk? [Age as of 1988: 61, notable works: Murder Inc. (1960), Pocketful of Miracles (1961), It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), The Great Race (1965), Columbo (1968-2003), Murder by Death (1976), The Cheap Detective (1978), The Princess Bride (1987)] Yet another acting legend, Falk I know had the right voice for Rorschach's pint-sized nemesis.
Burgess Meredith as the voice of Moloch the Mystic
Why Burgess Meredith? [Age as of 1988: 81, notable works: The Story of G.I. Joe (1945), In Harm's Way (1965), Batman (1966-68), The Hindenburg (1975), Rocky (1976), Rocky II (1979), Clash of the Titans (1981), G.I. Joe: the Movie (1987)] Yet ANOTHER acting legend, I mainly chose him based on the idea that he'd bring a lot of emotional depth to the dying former criminal, especially in the scene where he's confronted by Rorschach.
Ernest Borgnine as the voice of Bernard the newsstand owner
Why Ernest Borgnine? [Age as of 1988: 71, notable works: From Here to Eternity (1953), Marty (1955), McHale's Navy (1962-66), The Flight of the Phoenix (1965), The Dirty Dozen (1967), The Wild Bunch (1969) The Poseidon Adventure (1972), The Black Hole (1979), Escape from New York (1981), Airwolf (1983-86)] Yet ONE MORE acting legend on the list, I knew he'd be the best fit for one of the everyman characters of the saga.
+Additional voices
John Candy as the voice of Seymour
Buster Jones as the voice of Dr. Malcolm Long
Dan Aykroyd as the voice of Richard Nixon (he was known for this impression from his SNL days)
Maurice LaMarche as the voice of Henry Kissinger (he played him on Freakazoid!)
Jon Lovitz as the voice of Laurence Schexnayder
Thomas F. Wilson as the voice of Hooded Justice
Dick Gautier and Dan Gilvezan as the voices of Detectives Steven Fine and Joe Bourquin
BJ Ward as the voice of Janey Slater
And now, before I close out this fancast, there's one thing I want all of you here to know-------I do not care for
Watchmen. DO NOT CARE FOR IT. I finally got the chance to read it last year, and it reaffirmed how much I outright despise it. I can respect its place in the overall historical significance of the comic book medium, but I hate what it did to the archetype of the superhero, I hate what it partially did to bring about the Chromium Age of Comics, and I especially hate the stupid feud that it caused between Alan Moore and DC Comics, if not mainstream comics as a whole. Were I in charge of DC/Warners, I would do everything in my power to surrender all the rights to
Watchmen back to Moore, and end this petty, decades-old squabble once and for all. Why I hate it for what it did to the superhero archetype boils down to this: I like balanced, middle ground styles of comic storytelling, where all the story elements are balanced the way the ingredients in a Neapolitan ice cream sandwich are--black, white and gray, with said gray being a lighter shade (like in BTAS) rather than a darker shade, and
Watchmen had a very, very dark shade of gray that just didn't sit well with me. But as to why I did this fancast anyway? Well, it all boiled down to inspiration from Robert Garlen's Watchmen fancast, which caused my fancasting gears to slowly start turning. And to further paraphrase Peter Griffin in the Family Guy episode "Untitled Griffin Family History", I love Mark Gruenwald's
Squadron Supreme (or will, once I read it)--that is my answer to whatever statements you CBM users will no doubtedly have in response to this small editorial following the fancast. There you go.....
Your critiques of this fancast would be greatly appreciated.
And now, ladies and gentlemen--please give it up for BRUCE HORNSBY AND THE RANGE: