How ‘Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,’ ‘Pinocchio,’ ‘Marcel’ Actors Used Voices to Dig Into Their Characters

variety.com:

Courtney Howard Though there are different styles on display this year in the contest for animated feature Oscar, what unites them is the passionate, intuitive craft and care put into voicing these films by their dedicated talent.

These affable actors have given voice to such colorful creations as a miniscule mollusk, a positive puppy, a desperate dad, a sassy stowaway, a wild wolf and a teen-turned-red panda.

They range in experience behind the mic from newbies to veterans, but they all approach their performances no differently than their live-action work. “I break it down the same way, especially with Perrito and his backstory,” says Harvey Guillén, who voices the unsinkable stray Chihuahua in “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.” “To him, it’s such a funny story, but to everyone else it’s a tragic story.

In one of the first sessions, we found the voice. I wanted to find a contrast to Wagner’s character, who’s basically death.” Wagner Moura sees his first time performing an animated character — specifically one as richly layered as the Big Bad Wolf in pursuit of the hero in “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” — as a learning experience: “I usually take acting too seriously and, this time, I wasn’t that self-conscious.