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Canwest News Service
Ask Eugene Levy to do the voice of a sci-fi `droid in the re- invention of Astro Boy – not a problem. In all seriousness, as comic-voice actor, he’s a professional.
"My character is Astro Boy’s family servant," Levy says of Orrin. "But he’s kind of this older houseboy, and they keep him on as a bit of a basket-case relic who has trouble getting things done."
Levy didn’t suffer the same affliction when it came to Orrin. But then again, he’s no stranger to voice work.
Back in 1981, he voiced the space captain in the freaky adult animation Heavy Metal. More than 20 years later, he was the wary patriarch porcupine in Over The Hedge and Clovis, the museum-employee inventor in Curious George.
Granted, this animated motion picture arrives with a great deal more anticipation – although Levy wasn’t aware of its esteemed status.
Opening on Friday, Astro Boy is the 3-D computer-animated film re-invention of Osamu Tezuka’s revered Japanese fable about a boy robot with incredible powers in a world where androids and humans co-exist.
Tezuka first introduced the character in an early 1950s comic, which became a Japanese cartoon series in the 1960s, followed by more complicated animated motion pictures.
In the futuristic new English-language movie version, co-written by Tezuka, Astro Boy is voiced by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’s Freddie Highmore. But Astro is the same robotic child built by a brilliant scientist (Nicolas Cage) who is mourning the death of his son.
Constructed as a memorial likeness, the boy’s installed with super strength, X-ray vision, lightning speed and the ability to fly.
As Astro Boy wanders the globe looking for acceptance among others, he meets up with all kinds of unique beings until he is summoned home to save his friends and family from imminent danger in the floating Metro City.
Besides Highmore, Cage and Levy, other voice actors include Kristen Bell, Donald Sutherland, Nathan Lane, Bill Nighy and Matt Lucas.
As the Astro Boy’s family butler, Levy has some pivotal moments in the comedy scheme of things. But he says his job was really to serve director David Bowers.
"It’s really an anti-acting exercise," notes Levy who still couldn’t resist a few improvs. "You can’t have any preconceived notions about what they want. You just have to give them what they need, even if it means 15 versions of the same line."
That sounds like the creative team player he is and always will be.
Born in Hamilton, Ont., Levy had dropped out of McMaster University there and eventually made his way to Toronto in 1970, where he worked on the production side of Ivan Reitman’s first film Foxy Lady. Shortly after, he found himself headlining a local production of the musical Godspell.
"My first job," he remembers fondly.
Eventually, Second City signed him but a few years later he joined his buddies to create the long-running sketch comedy series SCTV.
After the series went off the air, he had lots of co-starring roles in film comedies throughout the 1990s but it wasn’t until his part as the concerned father in 1999’s American Pie that things started happening for him on the movie front.
In fact, he still has a piece of the American Pie now and then.
"They are still fun to do," says Levy, who’s the only actor to appear in all seven American Pie movies, although most of them have been risque direct-to-DVD films. That includes this year’s American Pie Presents: Book of Love.
"For me, it’s like putting on a great old pair of slippers," Levy adds. "The premises tend to push the envelope but I always make sure my character doesn’t get too close to the sparks when they start to fly."
Of course, he’s had other memorable movie moments, especially with Steve Martin in Bringing Down The House and Cheaper By The Dozen 2. This year he had a cameo portraying Max Yasgar in Taking Woodstock.
But Levy is most celebrated in the 21st century for co-creating and co- starring in a string of improvised mockumentaries with Christopher Guest such as Waiting For Guffman, Best in Show, The Mighty Wind and For Your Consideration.
Certainly, fans want to know when the next one will be released, but Levy can’t say for sure, answering “we’ll see.”
“Well, we’ve taken a sabbatical,” he says.
Chances are Guest and Levy will meet in January to kick around some ideas, but Levy suggests that if they can’t find something fresh, they won’t force the project.
"We might do another movie and a stage piece," he says. "Normally, we’d do one every three years, but we’ve taken a step back to let things ride for a little bit."
