Monday, January 12, 2009

15 Notable Celebrity Narrators

In proto-Jack Donaghy form, Alec Baldwin has the right level of haughtiness and entitlement to chronicle “The Royal Tenenbaums.”

Do you like your Australian talking-pig pictures with a side of nasal southern drawl? Then check out “Babe,” with narration by Roscoe Lee Brown.

Tech-blogger/British actor Stephen Fry lends his quizzical-yet-meaningful voice to the tutorial levels of the Playstation 3 game “LittleBigPlanet.”

As a way of underlining their artificiality, Jean-Luc Godard often narrates his own films. “Bande à Part” is as good a pick as any.

Perhaps the gaudiest combination on this list is Charlton Heston and “Armageddon." A sampling (read with extra gravitas): “This is the earth at a time when the dinosaurs roamed a lush and fer-tyle planet.” And, “It will happen again. It's just a question of when.” Can’t we get a better actor? I know it’s a small part.

Trusty pal Ron Howard is as much a character as any other member of “Arrested Development’s” ensemble cast. He’s needed to explain all of the bizarre flashbacks and in-jokes.

Jeremy Irons is not even credited on IMDb for his uncredited work in “Hamlet 2.”

The first thing that people remember from the goofy “The Dukes of Hazzard” is Waylon Jennings as “The Balladeer.” *freeze frame* “Them boys are trapped like two foxes in a hen house with a sack fulla eggs.”

In the very first—and best, discuss—Simpson's "Treehouse of Horror,” James Earl Jones gives the grandest possible audiobook reading of Poe’s “The Raven.”

Sean Penn’s “Dogtown and Z-Boys” voiceover includes a flubbed line and do-over, ingeniously left intact.

Who else but Vincent Price could read Tim Burton’s “Vincent?” He’s also memorable in Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” as the zombies clamber out of their graves.

The Sticky Bandit himself, Daniel Stern, learns many lifetimes of lessons on “The Wonder Years.”

Orson Welles just reads the names of the actors and their characters in the trailer for “Star Trek: The Motion Picture.” It’s better than the advertised film.

Joanne Woodward in “The Age of Innocence” and Elisabeth Shue in “Tuck Everlasting” narrate as stand-ins for Edith Wharton and Natalie Babbitt, respectively.


2 comments:

Stephen said...

There's some argument as to whether Jeremy Irons really is in "Hamlet 2" or if it's just a flawless impersonation by star Steve Coogan.

Phil G said...

wow.just wow.