When you need to rant...

[Oscarfan]

Because SNL cast members' specialties are playing a wide variety of characters? And SNL just happens to churn out a lot of talented people?

 

[D'Snowth]

Be that as it may, what does this do for the people who actually make their careers by doing voice acting? Animated features aside, that is?

 

[fuzzygobo]

Disney helped with that trend. Not just SNL members, but comics in general. After their stand up careers ended, Disney put a number of them to work.
Cheech and Chong (separately, not together), and Denis Leary come to mind.

Robin Williams' stand up days were long behind him by the time Aladdin came along, but helped keep him in the limelight.

Gilbert Gottfried's stand up career never took off, and he was voted the worst SNL member ever. Way to go. Your crusty voice and lack of talent paid off in spades.

Tim Allen's success as Buzz Lightyear (and Santa) killed off his stand up career. I saw him back in 1990, before "Home Improvement", before hitting the big time. His star was rising fast. He was hysterically funny, but incredibly raunchy, un-PC, and maybe even a little drunk. (Still had me in stitches, laughing so hard my jaw hurt).
After the Toy Story movies, he tried his hand at stand-up again. There was a new generation of fans who brought their kids to his shows, but he had to sanitize his act so much, he gave it up after a while. Imagine the shock of the voice of Buzz Lightyear talking about women's parts. GASP!

George Carlin didn't have to worry. His voicing Fillmore in "Cars" was a side trip, then he went right back to telling people to go "F" themselves. Good ol' Georgie.

 

[ConsummateVs]

Disney helped with that trend. Not just SNL members, but comics in general. After their stand up careers ended, Disney put a number of them to work.
Cheech and Chong (separately, not together), and Denis Leary come to mind.

Robin Williams' stand up days were long behind him by the time Aladdin came along, but helped keep him in the limelight.

Gilbert Gottfried's stand up career never took off, and he was voted the worst SNL member ever. Way to go. Your crusty voice and lack of talent paid off in spades.

Tim Allen's success as Buzz Lightyear (and Santa) killed off his stand up career. I saw him back in 1990, before "Home Improvement", before hitting the big time. His star was rising fast. He was hysterically funny, but incredibly raunchy, un-PC, and maybe even a little drunk. (Still had me in stitches, laughing so hard my jaw hurt).
After the Toy Story movies, he tried his hand at stand-up again. There was a new generation of fans who brought their kids to his shows, but he had to sanitize his act so much, he gave it up after a while. Imagine the shock of the voice of Buzz Lightyear talking about women's parts. GASP!

George Carlin didn't have to worry. His voicing Fillmore in "Cars" was a side trip, then he went right back to telling people to go "F" themselves. Good ol' Georgie.

I think DreamWorks really helped with that trend, too. Shrek had Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy as Shrek and Donkey respectively, along with some others as other characters. And don't forget that Bee Movie had Jerry Seinfeld as Barry. And Madagascar had Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Sacha Baron Cohen, etc.

And also, it's not that I don't like hearing comedians' voices in kids movies, it's just that this has been on my mind for a while, and I wondered why they are in so many of them nowadays. But, like Oscarfan said, they are talented people who can play many roles, and I guess they gotta make money somehow...

Oh, and Cars had Larry the Cable Guy AND George Carlin, like Fuzzygobo mentioned. See what I mean? They're in tons of movies!

 

[Old Thunder]

George Carlin didn't have to worry. His voicing Fillmore in "Cars" was a side trip, then he went right back to telling people to go "F" themselves. Good ol' Georgie.

Yeah, reminds me of a quote of his -

"Jesus, he's not gonna attack the children, is he?! Yes he is! And remember, this Mr. Conductor talking - I know what I'm talking about!"

Personally, I'm fine with the whole SNL / comedians voicing characters. I could care less.

 

[Old Thunder]

Robin Williams' stand up days were long behind him by the time Aladdin came along, but helped keep him in the limelight.

I wouldn't say that - as a stand-up, Williams was still huge afterwords, and in fact, I feel that his 2000s work is his all-time best. Weapons of Self-Destruction is one of the funniest albums / specials I've ever heard or seen.

 

[mr3urious]

I'm pretty sure prof. VAs and animation staff are still used for scratch recordings, though there are many instances where the latter is kept because they did such a good job. Also helps that they save a ton of money on the side.

One of the best examples was with Edna Mode in The Incredibles. Brad Bird wanted Lily Tomlin to voice her, but when Bird tried to demonstrate to her what kind of voice he wanted, Tomlin suggested that he would do a better job himself. And that's what ended up in the final product.

 

[D'Snowth]

That's one of things I liked about Brad Bird's movies: unlike other Pixar movies that reel in A-listers for the voices, Brad didn't necessarily follow with that standard; I always enjoyed the anecdote of him bringing that girl who voiced Violet in THE INCREDIBLES after hearing her on the radio, and she wasn't even an actor, she's a historical author (I've seen her books in stores before). Matter of fact, RATATOUILLE is an even bigger example: with the exception of Ian Holm as Chef Skinner, practically the rest of the voice cast was made up of B and C list celebrities.

As for animation staff members doing voices, I think DreamWorks is really the one who does that more than any other studio - the SHREK movies in particular, are a good example of this, how they do have A-listers voicing the main characters, but mostly their own animation staff voicing the supporting characters.

 

[ConsummateVs]

That's one of things I liked about Brad Bird's movies: unlike other Pixar movies that reel in A-listers for the voices, Brad didn't necessarily follow with that standard; I always enjoyed the anecdote of him bringing that girl who voiced Violet in THE INCREDIBLES after hearing her on the radio, and she wasn't even an actor, she's a historical author (I've seen her books in stores before).

You know, I love how Hogarth in The Iron Giant was voiced by a real kid instead of a teenager or an adult pretending to be a kid. It made him sound a lot more believable, in my opinion.

 

[D'Snowth]

Don Bluth used to do that as well.