"I was convinced there as only one actor to play Templeton the Rat, and that was Tony Randall"
About this Quote
Joseph Barbera is revealing how decisively he thought about voice casting and how central a performer can be to the identity of an animated character. Templeton the Rat, the gluttonous, sardonic foil in E. B. White’s Charlotte’s Web, needed a voice that could carry sly intelligence, self-interest, and a droll comic rhythm. To Barbera, Tony Randall embodied that mix. Randall’s persona, especially as Felix Unger on The Odd Couple, fused crisp diction, urbane fussiness, and prickly wit. Imagine Templeton’s schemes filtered through that precise, slightly exasperated delivery: the rat becomes a connoisseur of scraps, a fastidious opportunist whose vanity is as funny as his appetites.
The remark also hints at the stakes of adaptation. Charlotte’s Web (1973), produced by Hanna-Barbera for the big screen, depended on voices to translate literary nuance into animated life. Barbera’s certainty that there was “only one actor” underscores the belief that the right voice does not just fit a character; it crystallizes the story’s tone. Casting, in animation, is world-building by sound.
History adds a twist. Templeton was ultimately voiced by Paul Lynde, whose acid, camp-inflected sarcasm turned the rat into a flamboyant scene-stealer. Compare the two possibilities and a lesson emerges: different actors would have delivered different moral shadings. Randall might have leaned into fussy, neurotic gourmandise; Lynde made Templeton sharper, nastier, irresistibly theatrical. Both serve the role, but they spin it in distinct directions.
The line also reflects a 1970s trend toward celebrity voice casting to anchor animated features, and the practical reality that ideal choices can yield to availability, studio preferences, or marketing calculus. Above all, it testifies to Barbera’s meticulous ear. For him, voice was not an afterthought but the engine of characterization, the element that lets an audience hear the soul of a drawing and believe it is alive.
The remark also hints at the stakes of adaptation. Charlotte’s Web (1973), produced by Hanna-Barbera for the big screen, depended on voices to translate literary nuance into animated life. Barbera’s certainty that there was “only one actor” underscores the belief that the right voice does not just fit a character; it crystallizes the story’s tone. Casting, in animation, is world-building by sound.
History adds a twist. Templeton was ultimately voiced by Paul Lynde, whose acid, camp-inflected sarcasm turned the rat into a flamboyant scene-stealer. Compare the two possibilities and a lesson emerges: different actors would have delivered different moral shadings. Randall might have leaned into fussy, neurotic gourmandise; Lynde made Templeton sharper, nastier, irresistibly theatrical. Both serve the role, but they spin it in distinct directions.
The line also reflects a 1970s trend toward celebrity voice casting to anchor animated features, and the practical reality that ideal choices can yield to availability, studio preferences, or marketing calculus. Above all, it testifies to Barbera’s meticulous ear. For him, voice was not an afterthought but the engine of characterization, the element that lets an audience hear the soul of a drawing and believe it is alive.
Quote Details
| Topic | Movie |
|---|
More Quotes by Joseph
Add to List
