Voice Swapping in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Leading up to the release of the new G.I. Joe movie, I had a sinking feeling that something was awry with Cobra Commander.

In all the movie's promotional materials, the only reference to Joseph Gordon-Levitt's portrayal of the character was snuck into the background of a single poster. Even the film's trailers didn't tease us with any glimpses of Cobra's evil leader.

At first I thought they might be keeping him hidden for a big dramatic reveal. But thinking back to Heath Ledger's Joker in The Dark Knight as a counter-example, why would producers who are desperate to build buzz and sell a movie keep something cool under wraps...? Well, because that something actually sucks.

Then a rumor emerged that director Stephen Sommers was fired from the film during post-production. That has since been denied, but either way, it speaks to problems on the set/in the lab.

Now having seen the film, my suspicions were confirmed when Gordon-Levitt's Cobra Commander was strangely absent for most of the film and didn't sound at all like the actor to boot.



It seems the filmmakers (whoever they were) swapped out his vocal performance for an anonymous and uncredited voice actor.

And unlike David Prowse's voice being replaced by James Earl Jones in the Star Wars films, this swap seems to have been unplanned. Consider these comments from Gordon-Levitt before the film wrapped:

"I love that voice [from the cartoon]," enthused Gordon-Levitt. "Chris Latta [the original Cobra Commander] is a fantastic voiceover artist, but if you did that exact voice it would sound ridiculous in a live-action movie. I guess it's half Chris Latta and half me."

Turns out the his half-and-half vocal take didn't impress. Because if this isn't another actor, then there's some serious auto-tuning going on:



I'm not even going to get into the flawed character design of Cobra Commander's mask/helmet, but that disembodied voice really got to me. And further fueling my conspiracy theory, Gordon-Levitt has been conspicuously absent from the films promo interviews and premieres.

Vote For Lando!

Star Wars Film Strip

Do the time warp back to the days of film strips - this Star Wars pictorial rundown is beautiful (kinda long though at 20something minutes).

"Kids today" would never appreciate this. "Kids today" watch horse porn on the internet before they've even played spin the bottle. Rant over.

Collisions of the Real: Fantastic Quotidian

Another photo series chronicling the fantasy's invasion into our lives has been caught in the internets.

Via the always entertaining Kung Fu Rodeo, comes artist Steve Schofield's oddly touching photos of superfans in domestic settings.



Follow link below to see more...





Half upsetting, half inspiring, these photos are reminiscent of Cedric Delsaux's photography and fall into the same category of work that I recently posted about:

there is some kind of need out there to invest in magic and make believe having a place in our physical world.

Is the real world that awful? Probably, yes.

Urban Futurism

Something out of place here?

Yes, that's a Clone Trooper lurking around your local subway concourse. Watch it Trekkies.

Artist Cedric Delsaux created this realm traveling urban Star Wars photoset. Check out Cinematical's photo gallery for the rest.

Song of the Week

Treating you to a Special 2for1 Edition of "Song of the Week" is Mclusky.

The now defunct three-piece from Wales are as hilarious as they are pulverizing. Here's a taste from their final proper LP, The Difference Between Me and You is That I'm Not On Fire.


"Forget About Him I'm Mint" (right click for MP3)
"1956 and All That" (right click for MP3)

They're short little ditties, but the economy is part of the genius (so is the Star Wars reference).