Disney (and others) at the Box Office - Current State of Affairs

[Disney Irish]

Nope, I'm not an expert at anything really, except for Disneyland Trivia (don't even try it, you'll lose). I'm just a man who likes to keep up on the latest mainstream news. And I've read several great articles about it lately.



I doubt there's any industry were A.I. has taken over yet. It's still in its infancy; about where Henry Ford was with his Model T around 1910. I have noticed the airport announcements have gone to A.I. lately though, and it's obvious they can take into account the changes in gates or departure times automatically and then announce that info in perfectly clear English devoid of human pauses or dialect or poor grammar while the gate agent tends to passengers at the desk.

A.I. is by its very name designed to take over intellect and intelligence duties from many human tasks, and do those tasks cheaper and faster than humans do them today. The medical field, customer service, editing, writing, graphic design, the spoken word, etc., etc. are all in the pathway of A.I. in the 2020's and beyond.

Including the voice of a cartoon squirrel.

AI, despite the name is not actually intelligent. Its not creative, it has no thoughts, it has none of the characteristics which we would traditionally identify as intelligent. It can do tasks, pattern recognition being a primary part of that. But it is far from intelligent. And it still cannot be creative on its own. It cannot create something new out of nothing. It can recognize a pattern and make a derivative of it, this is the basis for generative AI. But it cannot create something on its own, ie its not intelligent.

The airport announcements that you keep using as an example is not intelligent. It takes prompts from a human to make that announcement, it doesn't do it on its own. Same with customer service, or anything else that AI is currently being used for. Again that is not really intelligent.

The term is misused a lot, as shown by your use of it.

 

[brideck]

But how many voiceover roles were in Wish, aside from the Princess and the Evil King guy? Who was the voice of the goat?

Alan Tudyk voiced Valentino. He's in tons of stuff, including a bunch of other Disney voice work, none of which sounds particularly the same.

 

[Disney Irish]

AI is already being used for international dubbing and doing voiceovers with one actor being able to play multiple ages, genders, etc.

That ship has already sailed over the horizon….

And that is in assistance to the voice actor, not a complete replacement.

 

[DKampy]

This is an interesting topic to be sure. I'm surprised by how many folks here are so worried about it.

But if you apply that template to any job a human has traditionally done, what makes voiceover work so special?

Why does a voice actor working on TV commercials or Disney movies get preferential treatment over a steelworker in Pittsburgh or an assembly line worker in Detroit or a lady wiring a new Whirlpool refrigerator in Iowa? All of those jobs have, and are, actively being outsourced to cheaper foreign (and often Communist) countries or being automated fully into oblivion.

Not to mention the jobs humans used to do that were simply replaced because the new technology was faster, better, smarter than any human could ever be.

An email from the boss to the team is infinitely easier and faster and more efficient than a stenographer taking dictation, then typing out a memorandum on a Selectric, then sending it to the Mimeograph department for duplication, so the mail room boy could distribute it to all department heads the next day. Three humans no longer needed, replaced by a single email.

After 300 years of technological change and progress, why would the voice of a cartoon squirrel be sacrosanct?

I don’t necessarily agree with any of that either… but there is way more creativity and nuance with voice over than those jobs… that AI would never be able replicate that

 

[Disney Irish]

The point is if you don't draw the line somewhere there will be no jobs, no way of income, and no way to make a life. We are reaching a point where AI can soon be capable of anything. And if greedy billionaires decide to completely cut humans out of the picture, our entire civilization falls apart as humanity is replaced by robots. I know that sounds absurd and extremist and like something out of the Terminator, but it's a growing concern. I don't think we'll be at that point in the next five years, but in 15 years or so I'd be very very worried!

TP doesn't care about what happens 5 let alone 15 years from now, he is retired. He doesn't have to worry about his job being replaced by AI or anything else.

 

[TP2000]

Alan Tudyk voiced Valentino. He's in tons of stuff, including a bunch of other Disney voice work, none of which sounds particularly the same.

Honest question: Is there a reason why Mr. Tudyk's voice work as the goat in Wish could not have been done by AI? Did he bring some sort of intonation or unique sound that AI couldn't replicate?

I ask that because the name Alan Tudyk is not a household name, and if you polled the theater lobby of people heading in to see the 7:15 showing of Wish I would bet almost all of them couldn't identify him by name or face.

Aside from a current union contract that has a few years left on it, what would prevent them from getting A.I. to do the voice of the goat for Wish II in 2028?

 

[Disney Irish]

Honest question: Is there a reason why Mr. Tudyk's voice work as the goat in Wish could not have been done by AI? Did he bring some sort of intonation or unique sound that AI couldn't replicate?

I ask that because the name Alan Tudyk is not a household name, and if you polled the theater lobby of people heading in to see the 7:15 showing of Wish I would bet almost all of them couldn't identify him by name or face.

Aside from a current union contract that has a few years left on it, what would prevent them from getting A.I. to do the voice of the goat for Wish II in 2028?

Alan Tudyk is a name that many Disney fans of the last 20 years would know. He has voiced no less than 24 roles in various Disney movies.

 

[TP2000]

TP doesn't care about what happens 5 let alone 15 years from now, he is retired. He doesn't have to worry about his job being replaced by AI or anything else.

Correct, mostly. As I'm no longer working I don't have to worry that I'll be replaced by A.I., or a desktop computer, or a Xerox machine, or a faster typist from the 23rd floor, or a prettier secretary with a shorter hemline.

But I'm fascinated that for some reason, the career of "animation voiceover actor" is where some folks are drawing the line on technological progress making human jobs obsolete. Much less human legislation and purposeful policy decisions making American jobs obsolete by sending them overseas to foreign countries.

A.I. is here already. A.I. is going to make many creative and humanities based jobs currently done by humans obsolete in the next decade or two (jobs like technical writing, HR, legal compliance, training and documentation, etc.). And for 300 years advancing technology has replaced human labor in every job and every field. But getting rid of the "Voice Actor for Wacky Cartoon Squirrel" is where we suddenly draw the line? You're at least a hundred years too late on that, gang.

 

[DKampy]

Honest question: Is there a reason why Mr. Tudyk's voice work as the goat in Wish could not have been done by AI? Did he bring some sort of intonation or unique sound that AI couldn't replicate?

I ask that because the name Alan Tudyk is not a household name, and if you polled the theater lobby of people heading in to see the 7:15 showing of Wish I would bet almost all of them couldn't identify him by name or face.

Aside from a current union contract that has a few years left on it, what would prevent them from getting A.I. to do the voice of the goat for Wish II in 2028?

wish Is now available on Disney plus… find out for yourself

 

[TP2000]

Alan Tudyk is a name that many Disney fans of the last 20 years would know. He has voiced no less than 24 roles in various Disney movies.

What would prevent Disney from replacing him with A.I. for the voice of the goat in Wish II for a summer, 2028 release?

Aside from a current union contract, of course. But what prevents them from changing A.I. rules in the next union contract when A.I. is even cheaper and easier to use than it was in 2023 when the current contract was drafted?

 

[Disney Irish]

What would prevent Disney from replacing him with A.I. for the voice of the goat in Wish II for a summer, 2028 release?

SAG/AFTRA

 

[Disney Irish]

Correct, mostly. As I'm no longer working I don't have to worry that I'll be replaced by A.I., or a desktop computer, or a Xerox machine, or a faster typist from the 23rd floor, or a prettier secretary with a shorter hemline.

But I'm fascinated that for some reason, the career of "animation voiceover actor" is where some folks are drawing the line on technological progress making human jobs obsolete. Much less human legislation and purposeful policy decisions making American jobs obsolete by sending them overseas to foreign countries.

A.I. is here already. A.I. is going to make many creative and humanities based jobs currently done by humans obsolete in the next decade or two (jobs like technical writing, HR, legal compliance, training and documentation, etc.). And for 300 years advancing technology has replaced human labor in every job and every field. But getting rid of the "Voice Actor for Wacky Cartoon Squirrel" is where we suddenly draw the line? You're at least a hundred years too late on that, gang.

The problem here is that what you're talking about is AI effectively taking over every job on the planet. As once you replace creative jobs with AI then there is nothing left. The entire planet would be out of work. So then what? With no one working then society falls apart, the end of humanity.

So what then?

 

[TP2000]

wish Is now available on Disney plus… find out for yourself

I heard Wish wasn't very good. It was certainly a box office bomb, from a hard data and statistics perspective.

In the trailers I saw for Wish, the goat had a deep baritone voice that was funny coming from a little goat. Is there some specific reason why you couldn't use A.I. to make a deep baritone voice for a funny goat sidekick?

The union contracts will be rewritten in the future. And non-union voiceover jobs will be replaced by A.I. anyway. So what makes the voice of the goat in Wish so sacred that it had to be done by Mr. Tudyk?

Why Disney's Wish Isn't Enchanting the Box Office

Disney's Wish isn't becoming a star at the box office, and the reasons are many, especially given the current aura surrounding the company as a whole.

www.cbr.com

 

[TP2000]

The problem here is that what you're talking about is AI effectively taking over every job on the planet. As once you replace creative jobs with AI then there is nothing left. The entire planet would be out of work. So then what? With no one working then society falls apart, the end of humanity.

So what then?

There will still be many jobs that A.I. can't do, or that will need to directly supervised by a human with A.I. assisting. But it's obvious that A.I. can put a lot of white collar middle management out of a job, or dramatically reduce the need for those roles within an industry or specific company. Lots of cubicles will go unfilled in some industries in the next 10 years.

But it seems wise to limit this to the topic that started this fascinating conversation this afternoon; Voiceovers for Disney/Pixar Animation.

It doesn't seem like some folks here gave much thought to the topic of job loss when millions of manufacturing and blue collar jobs were lost in the USA to robots and shady Communist countries overseas in the last 25 years. Or when emails and cheap desktop printers replaced the Typing Pool and the Mimeograph department 40 years ago.

So we're drawing the moral line in the sand at the guy voicing the cartoon squirrel for Pixar movies, huh?

 

[brideck]

But I'm fascinated that for some reason, the career of "animation voiceover actor" is where some folks are drawing the line on technological progress making human jobs obsolete. Much less human legislation and purposeful policy decisions making American jobs obsolete by sending them overseas to foreign countries.

I'm not old enough to have drawn the line on offshoring and racing to the bottom on wages, but I certainly would have at the time. [Did you?] Just because we've done things that don't actually benefit us in the past, doesn't mean we should have carte blanche to do more of the same now.

 

[Disney Irish]

There will still be many jobs that A.I. can't do, or that will need to directly supervised by a human with A.I. assisting. But it's obvious that A.I. can put a lot of white collar middle management out of a job, or dramatically reduce the need for those roles within an industry or specific company. Lots of cubicles will go unfilled in some industries in the next 10 years.

But it seems wise to limit this to the topic that started this fascinating conversation this afternoon; Voiceovers for Disney/Pixar Animation.

It doesn't seem like some folks here gave much thought to the topic of job loss when millions of manufacturing and blue collar jobs were lost in the USA to robots and shady Communist countries overseas in the last 25 years. Or when emails and cheap desktop printers replaced the Typing Pool and the Mimeograph department 40 years ago.

So we're drawing the moral line in the sand at the guy voicing the cartoon squirrel for Pixar movies, huh?

Nope, because once AI can take over creative jobs what does it need humans for? It would be able to create anything and replace any human. That is literally the very definition of the creation of the singularity.

I'm not drawing the line at voice-over work. I'm drawing the line at all creative jobs being replaced by AI, and that includes acting.

You're really way over your skis here.

 

[LittleBuford]

Guys, take a step back and recognise what’s going on here: you’re arguing with someone whose sole intent is to make Disney look like they don’t know what they’re doing, an aim that’s reached such absurd proportions that he now has us defending Disney for not ditching real-life actors in favour of AI. This is not a sensible discussion or one started in good faith, and we should not be fuelling it more than we already have.

 

[TP2000]

I'm not old enough to have drawn the line on offshoring and racing to the bottom on wages, but I certainly would have at the time. [Did you?]

Yes. I never voted for Bill Clinton. I donated to and voted for Perot in '92. I still have two bumper stickers left!

 

[TP2000]

Guys, take a step back and recognise what’s going on here: you’re arguing with someone whose sole intent is to make Disney look like they don’t know what they’re doing, an aim that’s reached such absurd proportions that he now has us defending Disney for not ditching real-life actors in favour of AI.

If anything, Disney seems to disagree with me and agree with you. So I'm obviously the one out of the loop here. At least so far in 2024, but I'd check back on this topic in a year or two.

They have not yet, to my knowledge, used A.I. to create voices for their animation. But will they in the future? That's the question. Especially if they are being asked by Bill Hader's agent to pay him a few million bucks for Inside Out 2.

The technology is clearly capable of doing that for them, at much cheaper costs than humans currently need. It would seem to me that it's only a matter of time before A.I. takes over many voice acting roles for Disney and Pixar. Especially those background and supporting roles.

 

[Disney Irish]

Guys, take a step back and recognise what’s going on here: you’re arguing with someone whose sole intent is to make Disney look like they don’t know what they’re doing, an aim that’s reached such absurd proportions that he now has us defending Disney for not ditching real-life actors in favour of AI. This is not a sensible discussion or one started in good faith, and we should not be fuelling it more than we already have.

Its also funny the contradictions made here, the same poster who over in the DL forum is against Autopia turning electric is somehow for the advancement of AI to replace voice actors. Its funny really.