A voice-over reward on The Apprentice
I don’t watch a lot of TV shows, primarily because I choose to pursue my own goals and spend quality time with my husband. However, I do like to watch The Apprentice for a number of reasons. Sure, I like to get decorating ideas from the occasional glimpses of Donald Trump’s ostentatious living quarters. More importantly, though, I respect his opinions about business deals. I have read a couple of Trump’s books (The Art of the Deal and How to Get Rich), and I find his way of thinking BIG and his resulting accomplishments to be very inspiring.
During each episode, Trump offers his savvy business advice in a short segment. Watching the group dynamics of the teams as they work through the tasks is quite interesting, and I always imagine the approach I would take, especially with the marketing aspects of each task. Prior to the judging, I also try to critique the teams’ efforts as if I were representing the sponsoring company to see how well the teams meet their objectives. Analyzing the show in this manner helps me in marketing my own business and listening to my clients’ needs.
On the show which aired Monday, 15 May 2006, the winning team was rewarded with an awesome prize: a flight on a private plane from New York to Los Angeles to meet with Jeffrey Katzenberg, one of the co-founders of the famous DreamWorks movie studio, and the producers of the upcoming animated movie Over the Hedge.
Once at the studio, Sean and Lee (not Michael, as the linked page indicates) actually had the incredible opportunity to become voice-over actors for small roles in the film! Viewers were treated to scenes of Sean and Lee performing at the microphones. Katzenberg noted, “When we’re making these animated movies, people think that the voice acting in them is no big deal because you don’t see the actors in it. In fact, it’s every single bit as important as a live action movie.”
Meanwhile, back in New York, Allie said, “I want to be in a cartoon.” Roxanne agreed with her, saying “I know. Our voices would be grrrreat”, emphasizing the word great ala longtime celebrity spokesanimal Tony the Tiger. She then said, “that bums me out”. Roxanne further commented that if there was one reward that she didn’t get that she would have liked, it would have been this one. “It’s pretty darn cool”, she said.
I think a lot of people secretly have the dream of being a voice for a cartoon character. Let’s face it – it IS pretty darn cool! Of the people who have that dream -- or any dream -- how many of them actually DO something about it?
As for me and my dreams of voicing a major character in a DreamWorks picture, I base my actions everyday upon the words of Henry David Thoreau:
If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
