Craig Ferguson voices his pleasure at working in animated films

Anybody who watches "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" knows Ferguson has a gift for gab.

But he was making a living with his voice in animated movies long before the talk show came around. Ferguson has voiced characters in "The Legend of Tarzan," "American Dad, "The Angry Beavers" and "Freakazoid!"

You can hear him next in the new animated feature "How to Train Your Dragon" as the voice of Gobber, a one-armed, one-legged Viking who is head instructor at a school that teaches young warriors to fight dragons.

Ferguson enjoys animation because of the freedom it gives him.

"It allows you to do stuff," he says. "You're not constricted by your body. You can be an amputee Viking without having to do all sorts of awful things to your body."

Some actors worry about portraying characters without their hands, faces and bodies to convey emotion. Not Ferguson. He says animated films have made him a better actor because they push his imagination.

Ferguson, also known as the wicked Mr. Wick in "The Drew Carrey Show," likes to keep his acting simple. That's why you'll hear his natural Scottish accent in most of his work.

He takes that approach on his late-night show, too. He wants his talk show to feel like a living room where celebrities are just chatting.

"With me, what you see is what you get. If I make mistakes, they stay in the show. The only time we cut the show is if it runs too long," Ferguson says. "The late-night show is pretty much me. I'm not that cheerful all the time, but you get the idea of who I am."

(c) 2010, The Fresno Bee (Fresno, Calif.).