"First, why did they substitute Tiffany for Janet Waldo as Judy in this movie? Was JW unavailable, or did they want to use a famous singing star."
Janet Waldo recorded all of Judy's lines, but then Universal foolishly thought that if Tiffany voiced Judy instead, it would attract a younger crowd, which it really didn't. I mean, they used her songs in the film which should have done the job, but I guess either her agent or Universal wanted her voicing Judy. Tiffany isn't an actress, so it stands to reason why she did such a poor job.
However, in a few scenes, the editor forgot to dub over Janet Waldo's voice, so she can be heard here and there.
"Second, I can't help but notice that even though they used the original actors for all the other roles, their voices didn't sound quite the same as on the series. Was it the way they were recorded, or the fact that they were older, or what? My guess would be that because all the actors had gotten older, along with their voices, they had to do some electronic manipulation to approximate how they sounded in the series."
From what I've heard, George O'Hanlon recorded all of his lines before he passed away. He actually died in the recording studio on February 11, 1989. Mel Blanc died later that year in July. I believe Blanc also recorded all of his lines, however there are times when making animated movies or any kind of movies, but mostly animated, that often some of the dialogue needs to be re-recorded to synch up with the animation. Since O'Hanlon and Blanc were unavailable at this point, they recruited Jeff Bergman (who actually does a better Spacely than George) to loop any lines that didn't match the animation. Either that, or at times the producers or directors will look at the finished product and say, "it needs to be x-minutes (or x-seconds) longer", so they write in new scenes or add lines. In the instances where, say, Mr. Spacely begins a line as Mel Blanc and ends it as Jeff Bergman, that could be evidence that a line was added at the last minute.
And THAT is why the characters sound so funny.
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defleppardvanhalen
12 years ago
I can understand getting a replacement when the original voice actor dies (which was eventually evident in the case of George, Spacely, and Elroy). However, I believe replacing Janet with Tiffany as Judy was not necessary and was a mistake. I believe Universal forced a hand in that and Hanna-Barbera's hands were tied.
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ExplorerDS6789
12 years ago
I absolutely agree, but Universal stupidly thought it would attract extra dollars and people who might not have come otherwise. That's really how most movies are made these days, they cast a big-name star PURELY for the revenue that having them in the movie is bound to generate. This is why Samuel L. Jackson is in the Star Wars prequels, why Natalie Portman was in V for Vendetta, and so on. It's all about the money, dude.
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mtw120
10 years ago
And don't forget Daws Butler passed on before the voice recordings began. Patric Zimmerman took over for Elroy during this period, as well as for some of Daws' non-Jetsons characters (Augie Doggie, Dixie).
In addition to at least one Judy line, Janet can be heard as the voice of a robot secretary.
Like everyone else, I agree that replacing Janet Waldo was a mistake. From what I understand, Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera fought with Universal to keep Janet in. Nobody at H-B liked Universal's decision. Voice director Andrea Romano was so unhappy with the change that she requested her name be removed from the credits. Needless to say, Janet was hurt.
On the plus side, at least most of the original cast was on board. If done today, a Jetsons movie would have featured an all celebrity cast.
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