Return of an Old Friend

MouseStation 342 – Return of an Old Friend

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Show run time 0:24:10

On today’s show, Steven surprises Mark and Mike with another intervew of Mark Silverman, the Tower of Terror’s voice of Rod Serling.

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MousePlanet at D23 Expo, September 10-13

It’s official: MousePlanet will be part of the Fan Forum at the upcoming D23 EXPO, September 10-13 at the Anaheim Convention Center. The MousePlanet Lounge is the place to come mix and mingle with MousePlanet readers and staff, and where you can meet other members of our MousePad discussion board. Kick up your feet and relax in our comfortable lounge, and be sure to pick up a special MousePlanet button designed just for the EXPO. We have a few other surprises in store, so keep checking for details.

Feature: Return of an Old Friend

On today’s show, Steven surprises Mark and Mike with another intervew of Mark Silverman, the Tower of Terror’s voice of Rod Serling. Steven caught up with Mark at July’s NFFC All Disneyana Show and Sale.

Last year, Mark performed at NFFC with Margaret Kerry and Terri Hardin in a skit for the convention. They rehearsed and did a great job. Margaret coordinated the whole thing.

Mark is the voice of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disneyland, Walt Disney World and part of Disneyland Paris. While the primary voice at Disneyland Paris is in French, when there is a certain percentage of English speakers on the elevator the bellhop throws a switch and Mark’s English recording is used instead. (If any of you Disneyland Paris folks knows how this works, please let us know.)

Mark has also recently narrated a Lost mockumentary that will be included in the box set, using a voice that was a mix between Rod Serling and Paul Frees.

Mark got started with impressions by imitating his teachers. He would pass time by drawing pictures of Pirates of the Caribbean and imitating his teachers.

He has done some good work on Disney’s English dubbing of Hayao Miyazaki films. Mark talked a little about the difference between doing English films that haven’t been animated yet and dubbing to already-animated Japanese films. Steven and Mark got into a discussion of dubbing Japanese animation and films, including Speed Racer and old monster films like Godzilla films. Steven mentioned that Peter Fernandez, who does the voice of Spritle in Speed Racer: The Next Generation, was also the voice of Speed Racer in the original series. [Note: He was also the voice of James Racer and Racer X in the original series, and portrayed a local announcer in the live-action Speed Racer last year. In addition, he has more voice director/dialogue director credits in dubbed films than acting credits.]

Mark recently had dinner with Ed Asner, who was thrilled to be a part of Up.

Mark discussed how voice acting is solitary work, and how you never actually meet the people doing the other voices. Recording sessions are generally one actor at a time. He gave a little insight into what is necessary to do voice acting.

After Mark mastered the voice of Don Adams as Maxwell Smart in Get Smart, he decided that he might be able to make something from it, got an agent and started getting jobs.

Mark recently completed the voice for an upcoming Cars video game.

For more interesting stuff with Mark, check out Mark’s page on Interviewing Hollywood. Mark also apparently has a CD out, but we can’t find it online so we’re assuming that you can only buy it at NFFC (or now, Disneyana Fan Club) events.

What do you think? Let us know by sending us an email or calling our toll-free feedback line (1-866-939-2278)!

Twitter/Facebook poll questions

Here are the responses to some questions that Mark was asking on Twitter and Facebook in the last week. If you’d like to get in on answering these questions in the future, you can follow Mark on Twitter or friend him on Facebook.

Now that everyone has had time to mull it over, is Disney buying Marvel good? Bad? A little of each? Why?

• It’s Great! Excellent long term oportunities; not to mention revenue streams. Perfect Fit for the XD channel and tweener male mkts.
• I think it’s a good match but I worry that they paid too much for it. But if someone can milk it for cash flow we know Disney can!!!
• I think it will be good as long as for the Marvel folks, they don’t try to sanitize any of the story lines. Plus, this definitely gives good fodder for a theme for a 5th gate!
• I think it’s great! Assuming they don’t tweak story lines.
• Look to how Pixar relationship impacted both for your model.
• The main potential with Disney buying Marvel is for developing movie, TV, video, and theme-park projects. I think Disney will let the comics part mainly run itself as it has been doing. I’ve been expecting this ever since Time-Warner bought DC years ago.
• As long as I dont start seeing Marvel Comics characters within anything Disney related (parks, merch, etc) Im fine with it.
• I think it’s great in terms of movies. I don’t think that their characters fit in with disney’s characters.
• As long as they keep the them park aspect seperate. I would hate to see Marvel Characters inside a Disney Park. I think Mickey is already the main superhero. But with the economy the way it is I think it’s a good thing financially. Guess I’m in the middle right now.
• I think people are over reacting thinking that all of a sudden Disney is going to make Marvel its main property line or that the we’re going to see things like “X-men of the Caribeean”…I’m actually looking forward to some of the merch like they’ve done with the Star Wars charcters… Perhaps Goofy as Spidy tangeld in a web big fig…
• As long as Disney doesn’t mess with Marvel and vice versa. Disney should keep putting Marvel movies out and keep the Marvel characters separate from Disney characters. I don’t mind seeing Spiderman in the park as long as it’s in context. A Marvel area in the studios would be cool. Islands of Adventure pulled it off well. I would like to see a Marvel area redone in the hands of Imagineers. And does this mean that awesome Spiderman ride will be taken out of Universal??
• Disney buying Marvel is good. Disney will be in a better position to go after the young male demographic.
• all good to me. can’t wait to see what comes out of it!
• I don’t forsee anything changing (parks or merchandise) in the near future, so I’m neutral about it.
• Good for Disney. More of a licensing deal than a comic book deal. As a CB fan not sure if Disney will take edge off story lines.
• My fear is Disney will make Marvel characters more “family friendly”. Also, copyright law is hopeless now (Winnie the Pooh?).
• It will be years before anybody knows for sure since the prime properties are tied up already.
• Disney/Marvel deal will be good in the long run
• I think in the long run this will be a good deal for Disney.
• Should be a positive if it provides a revenue stream so they can stop draining Parks and Imagineering.

What do you think?

Again, if you’d like to get in on answering these questions in the future, you can follow Mark on Twitter or friend him on Facebook.

MouseAdventure at Walt Disney World, November 14

Don’t forget that registration is now open for MouseAdventure Walt Disney World! Get your team ready and register now!

Also, don’t forget to sign up for the MouseAdventure Newsletter, which will keep you informed as more details about MouseAdventure and the MouseAdventure on the High Seas cruise are announced!

Wrapping up

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Thanks to our audio engineer and sound editor Steven Ng and to announcer Andrew Rich.

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