Amazon & MGM, Chris Pratt Mario Accent, Fraggle Rock, Barney Doc

Hi there and welcome to Vox Talk, your weekly review from the world of voice over. I’m your host, Stephanie Ciccarelli from Voices. In today’s show, you’ll hear about union groups who are trying to stop Amazon’s plan to buy MGM, more details about Chris Pratt’s Mario voice, a new reboot of Fraggle Rock, an upcoming 3-part documentary about Barney the Dinosaur, how kids in Tampa Bay have better things to do than be on their phones and the Voiceover Couple joins us in the Vox Talk Community Spotlight.

News 1: Union group says U.S. should reject Amazon's plan to buy MGM

Just how big can one company get?

According to Reuters, four big unions, including the Service Employees International Union and the Teamsters, urged the U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Monday to oppose Amazon.com's plan to buy Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, saying it would reduce competition in the streaming video market.

Amazon announced the $8.45 billion deal in May, saying the purchase of the fabled U.S. movie studio, home to the James Bond franchise, would give it a library of films and TV shows to compete with rivals like Netflix and Disney+.

The unions, in a report by an entity they support called the Strategic Organizing Center, argued that the deal would bring Amazon's industry-leading streaming library to more than 55,000 titles, with more under development, which would give the company greater incentive to discriminate against rivals. Netflix has the second-greatest number of titles at just under 20,000, the letter said.

For more on this story, be sure to visit the Vox Talk show notes.

News 2: Chris Pratt’s Mario Will Not Have an Italian Accent

Remember back in episode 92 when we covered the Super Mario Bros voice cast announcement? New details about Chris Pratt’s Mario voice have just been revealed.

The film’s co-producer, Chris Meledandri, raised a few eyebrows November 24th after he defended the decision to cast Chris Pratt in the title voice role in the upcoming animated movie while admitting that there will be no Italian accent from the lead.

Asked by TooFab about the divisive casting, Meledandri explained: "All I can tell you is the voice that he's doing for us in Mario is phenomenal. Yeah, I can't wait for people to hear it."

Referencing Mario's famous "it's-a me!" accent, he added: "We cover [that accent] in the movie, so you'll see we definitely nod to that—but that's not the tenor of the performance throughout the film."

If you’re a Mario fan, how important is it to you that Mario have an Italian accent? Be sure to let us know in the poll Voices is running on social media.

News 3: Fraggle Rock

Need some nostalgia?

Apple TV+ recently unearthed the teaser trailer for the highly anticipated reboot of the beloved classic series “Fraggle Rock,” titled “Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock.” Debuting on Apple TV+ on Friday, January 21, 2022, the new 13-episode Apple Original series from The Jim Henson Company in association with New Regency follows last year’s celebrated Apple Original shorts “Fraggle Rock: Rock On!”

Jim Henson’s fun-loving, musical Fraggles are back! Join Gobo, Red, Wembley, Mokey, Boober, and new Fraggle friends on hilarious, epic adventures about the magic that happens when we celebrate and care for our interconnected world.

The Muppets wiki on Fandom states that pre-production on the series began in fall 2020 under the working title Raphanus (the Latin word for "radish"). Filming commenced on January 25, 2021, in-studio at the Calgary Film Centre in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and wrapped in June.

Are you looking forward to a new Fraggle Rock? Be sure to let us know by tweeting at @voices on Twitter!

Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock — Official Teaser | Apple TV+
News 4: 3-Part Barney Documentary Coming in 2022
Missing your favorite 1990s dinosaur?

Since 1992, children have enjoyed the family-friendly lessons of the purple and green dinosaur named Barney. Maybe that includes you!
Movie Guide reports that streaming service Peacock announced a three-part documentary series about Barney the Dinosaur, which has cemented itself in pop culture.
“Barney the Dinosaur was a ubiquitous character for children and parents alike and we are thrilled to work with the Scout Productions team to bring this three-part series to Peacock,” Rod Aissa, executive vice president of unscripted content for NBCUniversal Television & Streaming, said. “This documentary is bound to captivate audiences like Barney has over the years.”
The documentary will feature interviews and archival footage that explore the character created by Sheryl Leach.
The yet untitled documentary will debut on Peacock in 2022.

News 5: Tampa Bay Kids, Teens, Find their Voice at New Voice Acting Institute

ABC Action News reports there’s a new institute that’s urging kids to stop texting, put down the phone and instead use their voice. The Voice Acting Institute is not only passionate about building careers but life skills and they are accepting new students across Tampa Bay.

The new Voice Acting Institute was founded by Stanley Fisher. After spending more than 20 years doing professional voice-over work, Stanley Fisher decided he wanted to give back by sharing his experience and knowledge with the next generation of vocal talent.

“I now want to give it back in a very powerful way to the community, to the kids and to teens most importantly,” said Fisher. “People think it’s about the voice and it’s so much more, you are truly embodying a moment, you are taking on the perspective of a writer.”

Students of the Voice Acting Institute said the lessons go way beyond preparing you for auditions, they prepare you for life.

To watch the video and get to meet Stanley and some of his students, visit the link the Vox Talk show notes.

Vox Talk Community Spotlight: Delaware voiceover family gets success with Nike and Netflix

Stephanie Ciccarelli: Welcome to the Vox Talk Community Spotlight. This week in the Community Spotlight, Dominick and Nicole Draper from Delaware join us and share about their business, The Voiceover Couple. Dominick and Nicole have received some great press, maybe you read it, most recently in the Washington Post. Here they are.

Dominick Draper: Hey Everyone, I’m Dominick Draper,

Nicole Draper: and I’m Nicole Draper,

Dominick and Nicole Draper: and we are The Voiceover Couple.

Dominick Draper: It all started back in 2009 when I majored in communications at Del State University. I think that’s where I really found my love for broadcasting because I had a radio show there that actually did really well. When I left, I continued to work in radio. I just was doing promotions, but I got to see the inner workings of everything and really fell in love with it, so one day in 2017 I was talking to my mom and she said I had a really good voice and should consider looking online for a platform to do voice over work. At that time I had no clue that’s how you could get into voice acting. My first ever voice over was only for $10 which is crazy to think about now, but that’s really when my love for voice acting began.

Nicole Draper: So when Dom told me about the whole voice acting thing I was really interested because I was already an actress and I actually minored in musical theater at a small Catholic college in Pennsylvania called Neumann University. After college, I became a teacher and didn’t really have time for rehearsals or shows, so I decided to give voiceovers a shot, and I was like, “Why not? Let’s do this!” I really already loved performing and using my voice and talking (laugh) and it really filled the void of performing on stage for me because I got to still perform, just behind a microphone.

Dominick Draper: The Voiceover Couple was created after we thought about how marketable and efficient it would be to have a male and a female voice under one umbrella. So before the pandemic hit, I was working a 40-hour a week job and with that I couldn’t really take the time to build the business the way I wanted to, I mean we were literally getting home and doing whatever voice over orders we had, so when the pandemic hit it really was a blessing in disguise because we really had to sit home and we used that time to build the foundation of our business. We had used other platforms in the past, but Voices was the one platform that really gave us the ability to audition for the bigger projects with bigger budgets and get paid what we deserve as professional voice over actors.

Nicole Draper: We love this work. Our tagline is actually ‘diverse voices for a diverse world,’ and when we say that we mean that we want all voices to be heard, specifically people of color because we know it’s no surprise there’s a huge disparity in the voice over industry for people of color. We really hope to use our platform to help others and we want to help our people build generational wealth and legacies like we’re doing today for our son and our future family.

Dominick Draper: You can check us out www.TheVoiceoverCouple.com and on Facebook and LinkedIn, Instagram at thevoiceovercouple, and we just want to thank Voices again for having us. We are thankful to be on this episode of Vox Talk and appreciative to Voices for everything they have done for us.

Dominick and Nicole Draper: Thanks for having us!

Stephanie Ciccarelli: Thank you, Dominick and Nicole! You have such an amazing story and we’re grateful to play a part in it.

Wrap Up

And that’s how we saw the world through the lens of voice over this week. Thank you for listening and for staying subscribed! One of the best ways to show support for Vox Talk is to leave us a 5-star rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. Before we go, I want to wish all our American listeners a very Happy Thanksgiving with family and friends. Thank you again for listening. I’m Stephanie Ciccarelli from Voices. We’ll see you next week.