Stars Shoot to the Top of the Animation Game

LOS ANGELES — Is it not enough that Angelina Jolie was kissed on the lips by the God of Good Looks, gets to play with Brad Pitt and shoot bad guys in $100 million movies? Must she also take food out of the mouths of people who use those mouths to make a living?

Jolie's role as the voice of Tigress in the animated flick "Kung Fu Panda," which also features the dulcet tones of Jack Black, is yet another example of the Hollywood Star-ization of the animated voicework industry. Last year brought Jerry Seinfeld and Renee Zellweger in "Bee Movie," this year heard Steve Carell and Jim Carrey in "Horton Hears a Who!" and Friday comes Disney's "Wall E," with the voices of Sigourney Weaver and Fred Willard.

And it's not just the starring roles. Look at the list of voices on the Internet Movie Database for "Panda" or "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" (coming this fall), and you'll find the first 10 or so actors are household names.

"When the 'The Lion King' came out, there was no big deal made about who was in an animated movie," says Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media by Numbers, which tracks box-office figures for the industry. "But you see now with 'Kung Fu Panda' — it's all about star power and Jack Black."

So are microphones manned by big-name actors becoming a must for animated movies?

"I think if the brand is good, if it's a Pixar movie or a DreamWorks movie, kids, families, they don't care about who's voicing the characters," Dergarabedian says. "On the other hand, I think DreamWorks has said that 70 percent of the audience for 'Kung Fu Panda' was over 17."

The conclusion: Stars are expanding the reach of animated films.

Yet they're not necessarily wowing the critics. It's curious how many reviewers of "Kung Fu Panda" went out of their way to trash the vocals — by Angelina Jolie, Seth Rogen, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu and David Cross, who play the movie's "Furious Five."

"It's not her voice that makes Angelina Jolie distinctive," wrote the Newark Star-Ledger's Stephen Whitty, "so it's unclear why she was given the part."

"Despite all that marquee vocal talent, (the characters) have next to no personality," said NPR's Bob Mondello.

"Star names for the Furious Five have relatively few vocal opportunities to shine," wrote Variety's Todd McCarthy.