George Lopez Voices 'Speedy Gonzales', Jonathan Winters To Voice 'Papa Smurf' in Upcoming Films

George Lopez to Voice Speedy Gonzales in New Line Movie

(from Animation Magazine.net)Thursday, February 25, 2010
By: Ramin Zahed

It looks like another Looney Tunes character will be getting his own live-action/CG hybrid movie. A story in The Hollywood Reporter announces that New Line will be making a new feature based on Speedy Gonzales, penned by Garfield writers Alec Sokolow and Joel Cohen. Comic George Lopez is also attached to voice the fast-moving rat.

Known as “The fastest mouse in all Mexico,” Speedy (voiced by Mel Blanc) made his first official appearance in Friz Freleng’s Oscar-winning short, Speedy Gonzales in 1955, in which he saved the other mice from Sylvester the cat at the Mexican border. The cartoon was the source of some controversy because of the way it promoted negative stereotypes about Mexicans. However, the new producer Anne Lopez assures fans that the new incarnation will be politically correct.

"We wanted to make sure that it was not the Speedy of the 1950s—the racist Speedy," Lopez is quoted in the article. "Speedy's going to be a misunderstood boy who comes from a family that works in a very meticulous setting, and he's a little too fast for what they do. He makes a mess of that. So he has to go out in the world to find what he's good at."

Speedy joins Yogi Bear, The Jetsons, The Smurfs and Marvin the Martian on a growing list of 2D cartoons that are being used as source material for live-action/CG hybrid movies. Let’s hope the movies are at least watchable and honor the memories of the talented animators who created and worked on them.

Jonathan Winters to Voice Papa Smurf

By Rick DeMott | Thursday, February 11, 2010 at 10:47 am | AWN News

Posted In | News Categories: CG, Films, People, Visual Effects, Voice Acting | Geographic Region: All | Site Categories: CG, Films, People, Visual Effects, Voice Acting

UGO reports that Columbia Pictures has hired comic legend Jonathan Winters to voice Papa Smurf in their live-action/CG animated THE SMURFS. SCOOBY-DOO director Raja Gosnall is helming.

Winters would be joining Wallace Shawn as Gargamel. John Lithgow and Julia Sweeney are also rumored to be involved.

J. David Stem and David N. Weiss have adapted a script from the characters created by Belgium cartoonist Peyo.