Cartoons have been good to John Goodman, not least because he made the smart choice to hitch his wagon to Pixar early on (Monster’s Inc) and have also voiced characters in the underrated Emperor’s New Groove for Disney and will be heard in Jerry Seinfeld’s Bee Movie.
He clearly enjoys the fact that ‘toon voice work means you can just show up in a recording booth wearing your scruffiest outfit, because he’s nabbed a role in yet another CG animated outing.
Bunyan & Babe will update the classic American folklore tale of Paul Bunyan (a legendarily massive lumberjack most recently – and slightly inaccurately - portrayed by Homer Simpson the Simpsons Tall Tales episode), and will find Bunyan working with two adventurous sprogs to rescue his sidekick Babe the Blue Ox (Eddie Griffin, clearly after some of Eddie Murphy’s cartoon cash) from an evil circus owner.
LOTR effects expert Jim Rygiel is directing the pic for Exodus Film Group, which seems happy to have landed Goodman. “John is a dream casting for us," Exodus president and executive producer Max Howard blabbed to The Hollywood Reporter. “He epitomizes the true American spirit of Paul Bunyan." Dream casting? Tell that to the producers of Pope Joan!
