Dan Castellaneta isn’t just the voice of Homer Simpson. He also does characters like Barney, Krusty the Clown, Mayor Quimby, Groundskeeper Willie and many others. Bringing them all together for "The Simpsons Movie" has been a hard day’s work for the voice actor.
"I do about eight to ten regular characters so I guess about 80% of it is me doing other voices," he said.
Also, he has a major film director supervising the film. "It’s much more intense. We did very long record sessions and Jim [Brooks] was there to direct us. Jim was there at the very beginning when the show was airing and he directed a little bit, but for the most part it was directed by one of the writers. This time, Jim has been there along with Al and Matt to direct all of the voice sessions. It’s been like working on a dramatic movie. Jim would stop the take and he’d say, ‘Remember, you really want this to happen. You’re really sad about this.’ Whatever it is, ‘Get this in your head how much you love Marge’ and that kind of stuff."
Don’t worry, you’ll still recognize Homer. "It’s basically the same as the television show. I just think some of the emotional levels that we reach in the film are not always what you get in a television show. We have reached moments like that in the television show but we really, really took a lot of takes to give it that visceral emotion besides all the really funny stuff."
To give you some perspective, Pixar voice actors do about five or six sessions over several years. "I can’t even keep count. It could be upwards of 20 or more and there’ll probably be more up until we open. We may be there behind the screen looping in the voices."
