How are you doing out there? It's me Tigger. I am Doc Wing
Duck. It's me bouncers keep babcat All right, y'all? Did it ring
your favorite bibly you desire hold old nag. My name is Jim Cummings and
welcome to tune Jim. Welcome to tuned in with Jim Cummings here on the
four Finger Discount Network. I and Brendan Dando joined right now by the professor
of pop culture. He is Guy Davis. Hello, Podcast Pounds, as
well as producer Chris over there. Hey you doing, Chris good? How's
everyone doing? Everyone's doing fine down here in the landown under, and of
course they're the man of the hour. He is the one and the only
Jim Cummings here to talk about Hondo anaka had on SUPERB. Thank you for
asking, how's the life of a scoundrel? You know, it's good.
It's good to be the pirate. Pirates get away with a lot. The
thing is, you can't be the bad guy who's just evil. He's just
this, he's just that. Because I tried to give Hondo a certain sense
of humor about himself and about his coach to it. In fact, this
is the one character him and probably Darkwing Duck are the two characters, but
definitely Hondo that I just ad libbed a ton of tons of things. And
in fact, while we're making a movie, Christopher Robin, one of the
producers, came up to me and says, do you subscribe to Vanity Fair?
And I don't know. He said, well, just pick up the
one on the news stand now and read through it. And I said,
okay, So I did, and right in the middle of the magazine it
had this little tribute to Hondo O Naka and his top twelve most famous lines
that did he had, And he had tons of lines, you know,
like, oh, my goodness, is it a the stories like good Deel,
so many of them true, you know. And he just came up
and I realized as I went down the line there, I made up ten
of them. Ten of them were ad libs. So I felt really good.
So I'm glad Hondo. I'm glad I was here too. You're bringing
him out into the world. I'm guessing that someone at Vanity Fair might be
a bit of a Gyms Cummings fan, because there was also an article in
that magazine around the time Christopher Robin came out saying there is an Oscar worthy
performance and Christopher Robin Chris, were you running for Vanity Fair at that time?
Yeah, but there it was. It was Jim Cummings gives an Oscar
worthy performance voicing Winnie the Pooh. I'm like nice, Yeah, yeah,
I was told about that I and then about that one. So now I
have two. Now I have two Vanity Fairs. You're waiting for the next
one. Why are they talking about me anymore? Yeah? A couple of
years the best podcast online Top twelve episodes of two D with Jim Cummings In
the next episode of Vanity Fair, hopefully. Yeah. But you know you
said you improvise Hondo quite a bit as well as Duck Quen Duck. Have
you ever improvised something when you've gone it's probably a little bit non PC for
Star Wars or do you sort of are you able to sort of get yourself
at the moment and go, no, don't cross that line. There is
there a line you just never crossed with Hondo. Uh hard to say.
I'm sure I crossed it a few times. It just didn't make it to
the Yeah you know, um they went and delete. Yeah, I mean
I could remember silly ones. I mean that this has nothing to do with
Hondo, but just basically, there were these two hillbillies. Um, I
think it was in a I can't even remember what it was, but it
was these two hillbillies and they were going across the desert and they were looking
for something or this and that one and it felt on one guy says this
and that another thing, and I said, well, well that eight man,
it must be Yurin. And I ended up back in the studio redoing
that line. Now you have to say yours. You can't say yurine.
I said, okay, fine, So nothing to do with Hondo. But
I wonder how many gems Disney have to their name because of you that you've
improvised. It could probably be never ending what's linking? For one, you
got the fat joke in oh yeah voice. I'm good at that. I've
done that with two major motion pictures. Thank you, Yes, Ray the
firefly oh scued me and um and then of course uh Kunamatada and I got
down hotter, tell him how did you feel? Every time? Did I
poom? But not in front of the kids. Sorry, Koona Amatata Jess
Harnell and I did the demo for that so that the other two guys could
And then and they kept And I remember going up to Don Han with the
premiere and I went, you kept the fart joke in. He goes,
well, it's funniest thinking of a movie, and I went, oh,
oh good, yeah, I meant to do that. Yeah, okay,
I don't see the fat joke taxing my paycheck though, so yeah I don't.
Yeah, I don't. And where did that? Where's that residual?
That's literally the moment everyone remembers from that song. You did it? You
have no credit to it, that's insane. But yeah. And then I
read it was in at the La Times and I and it was interesting.
They said something about never in a Disney movie has there been a reference to
a bodily function, so blatant and so cleverly done, and blah blah blah,
and then they they quoted me and uh. And of course they gave
it to Nathan Lane because they said that Nathan, oh my, you know,
and I think, oh, yeah, I'm gonna strangle him, and
then uh, and then they and then they also praised the most deliciously demonic,
not demonic but whatever villain song ever. You know, that was be
prepared and Jeremy did the first part and the great guy uh you know,
and his incredible voice that that speaking voice is amazing. But you know I
finished the song. I did little sidestep there, but don't tell anyone whatever
you do. But bringing Hondo to life? What did you want to express
about Hondo? Not just in the dialogue, but the way Hondo just sounds.
It's like you're painting a picture of his history every time that he talks.
Well, you knew Hondo, he was too incredible. Kick that I
does you'le brenna in Charles Bronson, And that's one way to cover your tracks
because that way you're not doing a dead on impression of somebody and um,
and that's kind of one of my philosophies anyway, if you do a bad
impression, it's a new character. So I purposely did a mix of two
pretty strong characters. You'll Brenner and Charles Bronson, excuse me, and you
kind of put him together and out came Hondo, and then you just make
him braggadocious and full of himself. So yeah, I was I just loved
him. I got two Emmy nominations out of out of that, ye know,
one year, and I'm oh for five. By the way, thanks
for bringing it up. What were the other three but two? Well,
Tigger was up, dark Wing was up once. But that year I was.
There were five nominees and I was two of them, and I really
yeah, I didn't win Tigger and Hando and the same with any awards.
You know, I'm really good at presenting and I'm great at being nominated.
There's not all that good at winning. Always a bridesmaid, never a bride.
Yeah, that's okay. Yeah, but you know what the check cleared,
Like my agent said, that's all about okay, it's most of what
matters, Jimmy. We've spoken in the past about the physicality that that you
that comes to the four when you're voicing your characters, and I mean your
name checked. You're Brenner and Charles Bronson, both very dynamic, strong physical
presences. You say you'll bring an automatically thinking him, hands on the hips,
standing up, very Yeah. I'm wondering if you feel that in your
body when you're in the booth and you're voicing Hondo. I mean sort of
pretty much. You gain a couple of inches in stature, and you know,
yeah you shoulders get a bit broader. Yeah, yeah, you know
it helps, It helps, you know, and with characters like that,
a lot of people sit, and uh, you know I sit sometimes,
but I like to stand. You open up the diaphragm. It's probably from
singing, you know. Nobody slumps it over and sings because I started off
singing so long ago, and it's just more natural. Everyone used to work
in radio. We used to have a standing studio and you always founded.
The atmosphere and in the energy in the room was so much better when we're
all standing. Just I guess we get around a bit better. Yeah,
oh yeah, yeah. I remember the last time I was in Australia,
I visited gosh, it must have been five or six eight radio stations and
they were really cool, really great people, and every one of them was
standing. You know. It was awesome, you know, very cool.
We should probably mentioned he coming back to Australie. So you don't you for
super over in June. Yes, I am, come on down on,
gonna be a good time. June seventeenth, I believe is Sydney. And
then you're hitting over the following week to Perth. Perth is gonna be lovely,
very good weather over there in Perth. Oh good, absolutely, well
I was crazy about Brisbane. Couldn't what a beautiful place. Oh my gosh,
too bad. There's no good food. I'm kidding. Yeah, good,
everything down here. But let's go back to the birth of Hondo.
So you've just read the pitch for the character. How close was your first
impression of Hondo to what you eventually settled on for the role. Well,
it's the voice and everything was the same. You know, the audition they
you know what they'll do, uh is because it could be a couple of
months between the audition and the actual show, and it usually is. And
uh so they you know, they said, okay, well here we go.
Here, we're gonna play this for you in blah blah blah, and
there was Hondo and I just jumped right in and started swimming. And it's
it's interesting he uh he was written into two shows, two maybe three?
Yeah, uh and um what happened. And I'm so blessed. I'm so
grateful and thankful. You know, George Lucas liked him really specifically, George
w Yeah, and have you met George once a long time ago? And
then when I got the Emmy nominations, Uh, he wrote me this really
nice letter and uh yeah and he signed it and everything, and uh so
it was great, you know, it was and it was just an honor.
And he was only in maybe like two two and a half shows and
that was it, right, yes, yeah, yeah, and uh,
I guess George saw it and he said, wait, who's this um,
Okay, bring him back. I like this guy, you know, condo
And so I think I finished off the tail end of that first season there
that I was in, and then I was in five or six of the
next one, and then the show concluded. But they went on from Clone
Wars to be a Star Wars Um Rebels the Rebels. Yeah, and he
showed up again and he was a little bit older but still just as big
a con man and uh and he was hanging out with Ezra and you know,
the whole gang. And I just loved it. I could not believe
that they incorporated this guy into yet another of the of their shows. And
I guess it was a universal feeling, thankfully. And I can remember years
after that being invited to go down to Disney on the lot, uh and
okay, and what are we doing? And well, it's apparently it's something
to do with Hondo and Naka. I go, oh, oh, well
that's nice. And there I'm in there and the guys are walking me through
and it's just like with a movie. They storyboard these movies and you you
walk around and there's like a wall of frames and pictures and you know,
storyboard, story blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, you know, and
they walk you through it and then you know, Pooh comes crashing in and
flies away and saves the day and defeats the dragon and you know, the
whole bit. And so um, it was interesting. They're they're showing me
one thing after another, and I'm going, okay, well this is good.
And I go, I mean, gosh, how you know, you're
talking about recording things and you're talking about doing that, which is great.
I'm going to be there. Oh so you like it? And I go,
well, what's not to like? Yeah, of course I like it,
you know, And I said, but isn't this going to take forever
to build? An IgA? Oh we're almost done, I said, Oh,
get out of here. You know, they just started it and too
bad. Yeah yeah, we say no, well yeah, well just I
said, yeah, try and stop me. Yeah, there's a slim chance
I would like to do this, So can we make make that happen?
And here we are, and I can't tell you how cool the ride is.
I really want to delve into Smugglers Run. Everything would be letter in
the show, because that's just that's incredible. The fact that this character that
started up with a couple of episodes in Clone Wars as now the face of
Galaxy's Edge, it's amazing. Well, you know, the big leap for
me was always the fact that he started off in a television show and ended
up right smack dab in the middle of the Star Wars universe. I mean
he's still the Millennium Falcon. Yeah, I mean okay, well, yeah,
let's do that. Then. There's definitely elements of Han Solo in the
role. You can see that he is of the modern style. He's kids
today growing up with their version of Star Wars. Hondo is their Han,
I think could be. Yeah, yeah, he's much better looking. Is
the anti hero. It's much fatter looking at he's indeed, yes, but
Yeah, so you're you're touching on earlier inspiration for the role and things like
that. But who would you say is a Hondo fan? Everybody loves a
good rogue. So what do people like about the character of Hondo and has
their feedback ever shaped the way that you view and play Hondo. Uh,
well, we haven't been recording him much lately, so you know, they're
watching all the you know, the raft of shows that are out there.
Yeah, and uh so it's you know, it's it's a gas you know,
and inevitably the the young men like him, then wow, old man
like me, everybody, everybody, everybody loves a lovable rogue, you know,
and a guy who he's and he's not a bad bad guy. He
kind of used to be, but he's been mellowing with age. And it's
like he once said, I may not be as young as I once was,
but I'm older and you know, and he says, it's like it's
a good thing, because it is a good thing. Yeah, and uh,
you know, I'm just flabbergast that I love the fact that people glom
onto him, and I think it is that everybody loves a rogue. You
know, he's not an evil guy, but you know you don't want to
trust him with your bank card. Don't leave Walt on the table. Yeah,
no, Jim. Hondo wasn't the first Star Wars character that you've voiced.
I mean you've voiced characters like Master a Tag and the General Skylast in
Star Wars the Old Republic, is that right? The APG game? Yeah?
Yeah, I think so. Yeah, but not really anything to sort
of write home that. I mean you, yeah, now you're like a
true central part Star Wars Galaxy with Hondo. And I mean you mentioned the
sort of the material and all the behind st but behind the scenes stuff that
you were privy to when you were first introduced. I mean, was there
a lot of education, a lot of homework that you had to do and
sort of like the who, the what, the why and the why.
I mean, Star Wars is a saga, man, there's a lot going
on. Oh yeah, what's he? Fortunately I was a fan ware before
I was in the universe. I wanted to touch on that to your your
Star Wars fandom. Yeah oh yeah, well you know, I remember I
was living in New Orleans. I want to say it was you were twenty
five when the first film came out. Oh that was okay, But I
don't even think I was at old. Were you fifty two? When are
you born? Well? When when when did Star Wars come out? The
first one? Seventy seven? Okay, so yeah, I would have been
twenty yeah, almost twenty five. Yeah, and uh so old enough to
know better, but didn't. And I just remember being absolutely blown away,
you know. I just couldn't believe it, you know. And uh and
and it's just and it's one of the coolest things not to name drop oops
too late. Mark hamill Um and I were actually talking on the phone the
other day, and I remember it was interesting because we were doing Tasmania as
would happened you you may have heard of that place, um, and I
was, I was up there and I was doing my thing, and uh,
I think Tim Curry took a swing at Batman or the Joker, I
should say, and they said, well, and they moved on to Mark.
And Mark was brilliant as the Joker and the Batman Man cartoon series.
You remember that. I'm sure he is the Joker to a whole generation of
fans. Yeah, Oh, he is the Joker, he really is.
And he's just bloody amazing at it. And one of the producers said,
you know, we're an up in Building B and down and Building A.
They were. They were doing Batman and we all kind of knew that,
and the buzz was that, Oh my god, did you know that Mark
Camil's gonna be the new Joker? Get out you're kidding. Oh well,
I'm gonna have to go down there. And as it turned down, I
was coming up and I was getting out of my car. As it happened,
I had my mother in law, my mother, and my good old
aunt Nan God bless their souls. They were there that day watching Jim go
to work, and uh so they're kind of sitting there in the lobby and
I look out there and like I said, there's, oh my god,
there's Mark Camill. You know, I'm gonna go say hi, and so
my god, oh my god. Yeah, I was kind of like that,
you know, Mark Hamill. And so I walked down and I said
Mark, Mark, and he goes, Jim, I'm Jim, and I
went he knows my name? And and I walked up and I go,
hey, man, I congratulations, I hear you're you're down here slumming with
us. You're gonna do some cartrions. Oh my god, I've been an
animation fami my whole life. Are you kidding me? I love this stuff?
So anyway, give me some dark wing duck. What give me some
dark wing duck? Um? I am the terror that flaps him. And
oh that's good. That see that's good. So it's in the mask.
Uh okay, sure, Oh give me some pooh. Well, I suppose
if I had a smack rel of honey. Oh that's amazing. See it's
not really falsetto, is it? And I go, um no, I
don't, I don't, I don't what? And how about tiggers? Oh,
wonderful thing about tiggers? He goes, Oh my god. See that's
just like Paul Winchell. That's amazing. So it all comes from right right
here. You're not getting to meet me. I'm getting to meet you,
Okay, let's get that straight. I'm the fan fan you're you remember,
you know. But he's just so selfless and self effacing. He's one of
my best buddies in the business. Great, great guy. So when you
first saw the film, where did you Where did you see it? Who'd
you see it? With? Tell Us about your first experience watching Star Wars
film. It just boggled my mind. Well, I you know, that
was all breakthrough stuff. Yeah, you know all that. I mean,
whether it was the green screen, I don't even remember if they had it
fixed then, but you know the way that the speeders went across and it
looked like they were hovering, and it was. It was just one thing
after another. And then I even liked the way the guns sounded. Yeah.
And then subsequent to that I saw the making of the sounds of Star
Wars. Do you guys know how they did that. Well, they would
go out and to the country in America. We got a lot of country
and they would go up to these gigantic telephone poles and there are big steel
cables tied to the top and brought down to the ground, maybe about fifteen
twenty feet awek pounded into the ground tight as a drum and you know,
like a violin string, and they would get the mic, hold it up
to the cable and pound the cable with a hammer. That's the pure fuel.
Yeah, and then they would go home and dip it in reverb.
Okay, we've got we've got a gun sound. That's how guns sound in
the Star Wars long ago in a galaxy far far away. Fund a little
trivia fact there, brilliant. If you're enjoying everything we do, hear it
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becoming a member of the tuned in family today at patreon dot com. Slash
Jim Cummings podcast link is in the description of this show. Do you remember
where you saw the film? What cinema? He was in New Orleans?
You know, I was with friends with a girlfriend. Uh no, I
think it was just with a couple of buddies, just a couple of buddies.
Yeah, yeah, couple of my buddies. You've got a guy.
You would have been how old at the time, would have about eight,
would have been near seven or eight years old. Yeah, I was born
in sixty nine. Yes, you would have had a whole you had had
the kid experience, you know, Yeah, absolutely, yeah. I mean
I always say, you know, I walked into the cinema one person,
I walked out a different person. An absolute mind blower. And of course
this is um this is the day's prior to UM VHS, prior to DVD
all that kind of stuff. Oh. Absolutely, So I must have seen
it like seven times at the cinema because you know, you'd go, yeah,
Sadia, mate, what are we going to do? Let's geese?
Star was that's what you did? It was like a hobby. Well I
had. You know, when I first made my first demo tape, I
was working at a video store in Anna High Mills. My sister and brother
in law owned a few of them with their friends. And that's an episode
in itself. By the way, you managing a video store. I want
to get into some store day. Yeah, I'm afraid it's probably not,
but okay, anyway, yeah we're gonna do. But I remember when Star
Wars was being released. They gave us these placards and it said Star Wars
coming August of blah blah blah, you know, and a guy would come
in once a wee can go so, have you got Star Wars yet?
And I go, George, it's June. Look at the sign. No,
I don't have it. You made the film, you should know this.
Yeah. Yeah, it was a different George. But you know,
and when I came out, you know, we had the big screens such
as they were back then, and I just put it on in the morning
and just let it play all day. Get out another one. I didn't
even real wind it. Put it in another tape to tech to rewind it.
Got a fresh one, put it in there. We'll watching Star Wars
again. And I would have people, you know, the guys from the
pizza joint would down the street would come up and they'd bring slice of to
a pizza. Dude, you mind if we sit and watch? Yeah,
I go right ahead, go alright ahead. There, the cople the squat
there. Man, it's so good, you know, And it was it
was it was Star Wars time. Yeah, so you know, to allow
me to be a little asterisk in that universe is okay, yeah, you
know, not to steal any of Jim Sun because this has tuned him with
Jim Cummings, not with God Davis. But my dad brought home our first
m vcr F first video recorder back in nineteen eighty or nineteen eighty one or
something. I was like, oh, that looks cool. Oh, we'll
be able to record us with the tippy. Then he pulled out from me
on his back VHS of Star Wars. It's like, father, I've never
loved you more that. Oh yeah. Just a quick question, quick question
for you, Jim, just your experienced growing up with Star Wars. Did
that inform any of your performance as Hondo or did that inspire anything inside of
that character for you? Well? Yeah, yeah I did. Actually in
a way, that's a pretty good question because I noticed that if you notice
that, I mean, every now and then there'd be an Australian Star Wars
character or or from you know, Tasmania, and a lot of Brits in
in in the Star Wars universe. One yeah, you know, yeah,
everyone, yeah, I mean, and then Darth Vader whatever, he was
so cool. He didn't you didn't know where it was from. You didn't
care because it was James Earl Jones. I knew that I wanted to make
him sound well, which is what I always say when they get a British
guy or an Australian guy, Well they want him to sound foreign, but
we still would like to understand what the hell he's saying. So and that's
that was kind of my guideline with the Hondo. I said, well,
we got to make sure he sounds foreign, but it'd be still fun to
know what he's talking about, you know. So that's that's kind of where
that came. Man. I think with the Hondo character, you bring you
bring a real chum wit to the Star Wars universe that allows shows like Clone
Wars and Rebels to appeal to viewers of all ages. You know, the
Hondo. The dialogue's clever. However, more importantly, I think just your
delivery is so commedially time to perfection that even though kids may not truly understand
what he's saying, they're still able to enjoy it. It was always obvious
that Hondo was going to be such a generational role. No, not at
all. Like I said, he was in and out two three episodes.
I think it was in two episodes, then out of one, then a
really smile part in the next one, and that's all you thought he was
going to be ever just three episodes. Yeah, yeah, well I had
no idea. I had no idea A little did I know that Jim Cummings
was going to be voicing him and then the whole world was going to change?
Oh yeah, the whole world. Well, the whole world, My
whole world change, that's for sure. Because everybody you want to do I
mean it be associated with Star Wars, Well let me think. Okay,
yea, yeah, let's do that. You know. So it was awesome.
It's an honor and I'd take it very seriously. I don't take myself
seriously, but I take I take the work seriously. Did you audition for
any other roles for Clone Wars before you got Hondo? Was Honda the first
one you went for? No? Uh, you know, I auditioned for
um. I think Boba was it? Boba fat? I didn't I wasn't
feeling it. But but Hondo, I really really liked it because because of
the way he was written. You know, he was clever, and he
wasn't like I said, he wasn't an evil, evil bad guy. Anti
hero yeah yeah, anti hero yeah, and some people have likened him.
To excuse me, a character I did for Tailspin called Don Carnage and they
said Don Carnage in Space and I said, well, he doesn't sound liked
I mean, no, he doesn't sound like it, and I go,
okay, good, you know, but they both they both have a tongue
in cheek and they're kind of self effacing. But you don't want to but
don't turn your back before you did a really good Mark Hamill? Do you
do any good Star Wars impressions? Like can you do the voices? Like?
Have you did? You ever used to do them? Going? I
think everyone's tried to do at least a Yoda at some point, you know
what I mean? Like, do you do any of the Star Wars characters?
She is you know? My throat? Actually? Hope, I can?
You know? You da? You know? That was it? And
oh that's funny. We can all do that one. Pretty scary, huh.
It's like he was in the room. That's what I love about.
There was a film that came out several years ago called Rogue One, and
that's what I felt that the newer Star Wars films might have been lacking.
Was that that hero that's sorry, that villain like Darth Vader where all you
had to hear was the and everybody panics. You know, it's just that
that role was James L. Jones's such a fantastic job with that, with
that role, it was incredible. You know. I had occasion to meet
him a couple of times and were just a giant of a man, a
big, big hearted fellow. And I will tell you this, um this
this a little out of school story, so it's perfect for this. I
was recording many many years ago, but also many many tons at times,
in the place called Buzzies down on Melrose in Hollywood, and I went into
the bathroom did my thing. I'm over there washing my hand and I hear
I hear this incredible voice going, this is cn N. This is c
N N No, that's known, right, this is c n N.
Yes. Then he got to read. He was getting to read in his
head. Wow way yeah, I mean it's like wow, okay. So
I was there when he got the this is CNN, this is c NO,
this is cn N. And of course he went in there and recorded
probably two lines, probably two takes and left and grillions of dollars later,
here we are. That is just astonishing. Now I get to tell us
yet another classy story from Jim Gummings. That's in the bathroom. Thank you,
oh man, oh man. But you know, with the way Hondo
right, the way it was selected to play you mentioned Smuggles Run earlier.
Way it was selected to play such a pivotal role in Disneyland's Galaxy's Edge,
it's pretty obvious how important Disney themselves see the character. Tell us about you
know, you touched on it earli about the story was, But tell us
how they first approached you about making that right and like, did you know
it was going to be more than a right at the time when I were
pitching it too, Like because you got the big animatronic and he was out
at the ground opening and things like that. He's such a it's almost like
the face of Galaxy's Edge. Oh we are, well, very much so,
only it were mine, but I think we look a little alike.
But you know, no, I mean, honestly, it was an incredible
honor I've had over the years. I've had X amount of rides there,
you know, the Winnie the Pooh, the Winnie the Pooh ride right was
on one? Was he not? Yeah? He was for a while.
And now I guess they're going to redo Thunder Mountain as Princess Tiana's something.
Um, but Ray was in any number of shows, you know, the
Fantasmic and Winnie the Pooh and Tiger all over the place, and you know
now with the Galaxy's Edge, and it's just I kind of can't believe it
a little bit. And King Louis and I've done any number of shows for
Disneyland, for the Ride and Tokyo Disney. King Louis got this amazing,
unbelievable show that he anchors, and he's just really going around doing this thing
by bah bah bah bah bah ba. I'm buying. Yeah, I'm the
King of the Swingers. Whoa the johnle v Appy and and it's like everybody's
dancing, everybody's clapping, and it's cool as hell. That's you see me
small because my kids that is their favorite song at the moment. We listen
to it every time you go in the college. Was this thing? You
see? It just makes me small? Oh? And rightly so they're clearly
of young ones of discerning taste. Good job dad, my two year old
joungle book johnle Book. Yeah. And I you know, I work with
Phil uh, you know, the great Phil Harris any number of times.
And that was just I was just threw the roof on that. That was
amazing. That was a bucket list thing. Of course he's no longer with
us. He was a very much older Fellah you're doing they're lead little bridges
and just raciently, do I dare announce this to the world? Um?
No? I Uh. There was a big celebration that they put together Rick
Dempsey and the gang at Disney character voices and they needed and I was on
the phone with him and he was we were talking about it. I don't
even remember. We were talking about it just a couple of months ago.
He said. I said, so what are you guys doing now? He
goes, oh, I'm going nuts trying to find a balloo And I said,
oh, come on there, how are can that be? You know,
you just you gotta use up bare necessities. He goes, oh,
God, now you're gonna be blue. And I said, am I And
he goes, yeah, did I just audition? He goes, no,
you just got a part and I said, oh, look ahead, Yeah,
I ain't meant to do that, you know, and coming to a
theater near yea to be continued. Do you think your ability to just listen
to a voice and then replicate it has anything to do with your musical talents?
No, you just be able to pick up a guitar or anything any
instrument because you were very musical growing up. Do you think that musical element
helps you sort of have the EA for listening and be able to Many musicians
can just pick up a guitar and just hear a song and play it.
Yeah, well that's not me, but I can. I can pick up
a guitar and hand it to someone and then listen. It's I'm really good
at that. But uh but no, I uh, you know, I
was. I was always a singer, you know, like from I don't
know, yeah, sixth grade, seventh grade. And I would I think
I told you this before. What I would do is I would kind of
imitate, because you're never got to do exactly a sound alike, you know,
but I would. I would do a Joe Cocker song and I would
try to sound like him. I'd do a three Dog Night song. I'd
try to hynd like them temptations, you know, and so uh, I
think what happened was along the way, I was um accidentally developing a pretty
good knack for mimicry and and and picking up picking up you know, voices.
You know, I've always said I've had discussions with friends of mine in
the business that a lot of times, you know, there's musicality and everything
and just everyday speech like if I told you, well, I think I'm
gonna go out and hit the road now baby ba ba boo, bad to
a bad to, a bit of boo boom. You know that's that could
have been a Sax solo right there. And you know, and I've just
had that in my head my whole life, and I think it served me
well, you know, it's it's just I don't know, maybe a little
tip for those expiring voice actors, aren't there. Yes, mister Davison,
you have you something to say, something to share with the class. Piqued
me. I'm ever so smart. Getting back to Hondo for a second,
and to Smuggles running Galaxy's Edge. The animatronic there has been described as well
a lot of people have described as one of the best that they ever seen.
I'm wondering how much influence or sway you had in the development of that.
I mean, um, I imagine that I probably weren't as much open
to improvising or was it kind of similar? Was the process similar to when
you were voicing in in other circumstances. Oh, it was very similar.
And I realized because when I go, they're very kind. They provide a
chaperone, if you will, somebody who would certainly sneak, sneak onto the
front of the line, right, no waiting, But unfortunately some hey,
I don't care hear that guy? Yea, yeah, I think you're going
there, mister. But but no, it was fun and and but but
the sad thing what I was going to get at is, unfortunately that takes
you out on the line, and they have things to kind of ameliorate the
agony of waiting for an hour in line. And there's these little vignettes that
pop up on a screen and I remember doing them, and some of them
were really funny, and uh, we didn't get to see them. You
can find a videos of them on YouTube. But you know, I mean,
Jimmy, he's not gonna wait an hour in line for all right,
that's just not gonna happen. But you know, no, it is absolutely
not. You can't find them YouTube and they have very very funny yeah.
Oh okay, oh good. That's what these need to say. Well,
is keeps you enter, It keeps you ento tanged, even when you're supposed
to be bored. Oh yeah, absolutely. Have you ever ridden Smugglers run
yourself? Oh uh yeah yeah. What do you think of the ride?
Oh yeah, yeah, it was great, it was It was really interesting.
I I wrote it before. It was a ride up in Glendale when
they were still developing it, and it was you know, without when you
don't when there's no Millennium Falcon wrapped around it, it looks like this big
sort of like here's the pod where you're sitting in, and here's here's an
arm here, and and you go up and go up there and there's a
screen. You know, have you been on it? I don't know.
I haven't been there. Well, when you get in there and you're in,
you're in the Millennium Falcon. You walk in and uh oh, Chris,
I'll tell you we're gonna and and you know, and you want to
sit out there in the lounch. I want to sit here and play that
hologram chess for a little while, you know. And the problem they had
that was that people were just getting out of line, not even what I
mean, they did the ride, but they were filling up the darn thing.
Because it's like I'm on the Millennium. You know, you're sitting there
like a goober doing you know, love and love and life. Because you're
sitting this in this iconic thing. It's life size. It's boggles your mind.
You know. You turned this corner and you go, oh, wow,
kilk that the real thing. Yeah, that's really good, you know
it doesn't that's very good? Quite Jim Cummings, Yes, that's really good.
And so you know we went up up there and we're playing. And
but like I said, prior to that, I was at the the launching
the developing of it, and they were they said, would you would you
like to go up and give it a look? And I go, try
and stop me. So you climb up this gang plague maybe ten steps and
open it up. Yeah, you know, you shut the door behind it,
and there's a gunner in the there's four people on it or is it
six? No? It's six four people, two in front, one steering
up and down, one's going left and right, the two in the back
are gunners, and the two people in the very back or something. And
I don't remember what it was, but it was boring, so I didn't
want to do it. And I think they were mapping something or tracking the
stars or doing something like that. And I get up there and we're taking
off and and and it's really immersing and you're sitting there and you're going,
oh wow. And then you and you could fear yourself going up and you're
going, whoakay. Then it's all right, everybody, let's goo hondo screaming
that right. So they're talking to myself and off we go, and I
went like this, all of a sudden, we just went yeah, and
you were just and I mean perpendicular to the floor, like you know,
your button, your your head were level with the floor. And then we're
going, okay, this is actual gravity. I'm gonna fall. If I
were not strapped in, i'd be crying right now. I'd be something would
break, and you know, you write it back up again and then you're
going there. And I've I've heard people say that they just do the ride.
Then they get off and they have like they'll rotate friends like throughout the
line, so that Okay, you're like twenty people back, I'm gonna do
the ride. Didn't run around. Then I'm gonna get on it with you,
and then we're gonna run around and get it on the ride with George,
you know, and and it's like it's it's one of those rides.
It's pretty addictive in it. I can't recommend it enough sent you and the
fact that you were the face of it is just incredible. Set Having said
that, I mean, in what is tantamount to a crime against humanity,
you didn't actually attend that. There was a very grand launch party for Galaxy,
which, understandably you will. Absence was felt. I mean, I'm,
oh, yes, is it true that mak him so sort of cold?
And it's like, yeah, wis Jim? Yeah yeah, he's a
good guy. Like I said, I just talked with him the other day
and uh, and he caught me, where are you? I know,
what the heck's going on? And unfortunately at the time, I was involved
in a big to dude down at the card House of all places, and
got that resolved thank you Lord, the good guys one by the way,
and so full speed ahead. But uh, you know that's one party I
would not have minded attending. But you know, it all came out in
the wash. What do you think when you see your phone, it's like
it's Mark again. What does he want this time? It's just amazing to
think that you know, this miss man who you went to see at the
cinema in nineteen seventy seven, Luke Skywalker, and now he's a friend.
Yeah, I thought the same thing. I you know, I've I've had
that a few times in my life. I've been very fortunate to work with
incredible people. I mean, you know, household names, and it's just
one of the perks of you know, I guess because you know, a
lot of a lot of stars like to kind of moonlight and they'll come in
and do something and you know, well it's for the kids. Well you
know, it's for the grandkids, and that's something everything. Yeah, you're
having fun. They're not making a ton of money, but not not like
they used to. But you know, I've I've heard that Bruce Willis did
that, you know, did his little animated film for uh, you know,
for kids and um and I know that Rita Moreno, who told me
not to be a name dropper too late. Anyway, she she just had
the time of her life. You know when we did Bonkers and Ron Perlman,
you know, from the Beast himself. I mean, he's he's an
amazing he's a good buddy. He's a friend of mine, and he kind
of moonlighted for a while and did a few animated characters here and there.
He was on Bonkers and a couple other things. So you know, it's
yeah, I'm skirting. I'm skirting through Hollywood and around the edges of stardom,
I guess you could say, but definitely on the edges. I'm sure
they'll come on this show and have a good chat with you someday. Yeah.
Oh yeah, well we get along now, Disney digs Hondo. The
fans definitely, yes, what's the next move for this guy light action series?
The people demand it's it's surely happening, right, We're not waiting on
me. I can tell you that when Ahsoka Tano popped up in the Mandalorian,
I was thinking, oh wow, there's my old girlfriend. Course she
was everybody's old girlfriend, but that's okay, we don't want to talk about
that. Well, surely they're gonna need Hondo and nothing so far. In
fact, I was hoping you guys could put in a word and see what
you can make happen. Get this cast this pod right up there, and
Bob Baggers, Bob, we know you are listening to this show right now.
Everybody wants a live action Hondo art fooling anyone by. If there's one
show that Bob subscribes to, it is tuned in with Jim Cummings. That
is for damn sure, that's right. We already say you saw you do
Age Harrison forward as Indiana Jones. Frankly, Jim doesn't need it, but
it's the thing. It's funny you bring up Indiana Jones. I feel like
a Hondo series would almost feel like an Indiana Jones kind of series. It'd
be so it'd be had the element of adventurous fun. I think, yeah,
no, I agree. I mean, you know, I've got a
name for it, the Old Knocker Chronicles. Do you like that? Sorted
Disney never have to think of a title. It's ready to go. Lady.
Jim and Chris have already written the scripts you just gotta given and what
hasn't been written the improvise? Yes, yes, they were green light green
light green the early years. That's not bad. We are big on prequels
now, aren't we. Yeah, we are. Would you prefer to do
a prequel series and tap into the element of the character, or do you
think you'd want to expand on what you've already created so going forward into the
future, or do you think you'd like to sort of show how he became
Hondo? What do you think? What would you prefer? Yes to all
of the above? Was about to say the little tark I go, why
don't we have both? Yeah? Well, Hondo as a kid, he
used to deliver pizzas. Did Well that's what Chris wrote, and you have
to change it. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, I don't know what
what would be Hondo's favorite flavor of pizza? Topping m Wookie? No,
I don't, I don't, I don't know, Bogus, Yeah, that's
a good question. I don't know. But you know, when you go
to Galaxy's Edge, they've got you know, there is a cantina there,
and and yes, it's fraught full of all the people that you're used to
seeing in Star Wars cantinas. The CANTEENA was just always so enchanting as a
kid. When when that music hits, it's just takes you to another world,
doesn't it. Yeah. I've got a picture of myself and those guys
uh down to Disney in Disney World. Yeah, I don't know, ten
years ago and it's those guys. They're walking around the band you know what,
the heads whatever, the you know and playing that for Carcter song or
you know and or or you know, from their medley of their greatest hit.
It's funny. I'm not sure if this happens in America, but here
in Australia we have these. I know you obviously got law machines, but
the claw machines for chocolates in Australia using the canteen uses the CANTEENA music.
I'm not sure if they've paid any royalties for that, but you go to
a pub or anything like that and you've got the chocolate claw machine. It's
it's always got the canteen of music. Oh that's cool. Yeah, it
is very cool, very um. It just moves the kids into want to
spend money to get the chocolate of the Klaw Machine. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, well, before all we wrap up today talking about Hondo. Of
course, the final question you to ask you is if you had the chance
to travel two a galaxy far far away and meet Hondo, what would you
say to him? Oh, keep up the good work and try and dig
up a new series for us, you know that might be that might be
cool or anything pretty cool or anything. Yeah, yes, Now before we
let you go, Jim, of course, we're going to promote next week's
show. But before we do that, what are you got coming up in
the next week or so? Like, what's going on a Jim Cummings World.
Well, unfortunately, the Radish strike means that I'm not doing one heck
of a lie, But like I'll be down in Perth and then Sydney,
Yeah, and then I'll do even get at Jim Cummings World dot com to
find up all the future dates for conventions of Jim's appearing like that. You
can also listen to next week's show early and add free on Jim's Pagreon and
finding other exclusive content on there as well, such as behind the scenes videos
of Jim recording some blooper videos which are absolutely hilarious, plus some of Cummings
commentaries where Jim and Guy and Chris myself will sit down and watch something from
Jim's previous catalog on Disney Plus and just chat about it as we're watching it.
A bit of a watch along there. Plus next week we're going to
be doing a bit something a bit different, no topic in particular. It's
going to be asked Jim anything, So we're gonna be asking for your questions.
Oh boy, We'll hand pick some and we will get Jim to answer
them on the show. So make sure you contribute to that. But of
course follow us on social media at Jim Cummings on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube,
TikTok, Instagram wherever you find your social media channels, and Patreon dot
com slash Jim Cummings Podcast if you want to get early and ad free access
to this show and all the extra bonus exclusive content available only on the tuned
in with Jim Cummings Patreon channel. But once again, guys, it's been
an absolute joy to sit back here and banter and chatting delve deep into the
Hondo character. Thank you guys for joining me. Thank you Chris, thank
you, and thank you to the one and the only, the reason we're
all here, The legend, the Disney Icon. Jim Cummings. Thanks guys,
God bless see you next time. Stay tuned.