Once Upon A Studio: Who Does Alan Tudyk Voice In Disney's Short?
Disney has been cranking out whimsy and magic for 100 years now, and to celebrate the centennial milestone, the company is putting out "Once Upon a Studio," a short film commemorating everything Disney has accomplished over the years. This involves Mickey and Minnie Mouse rounding up numerous animated characters throughout the company's history to get together for a group photo. Everyone's favorite is bound to make an appearance, and it just wouldn't be a Disney project without Alan Tudyk involved in some way.
Pretty much every animated Disney film in recent memory has Tudyk in the cast. Some of his more memorable roles for the studio include the Duke in "Frozen," Duke Weaselton in "Zootopia," and Heihei the chicken in "Moana." He'll also play Valentino the goat in the upcoming "Wish," but it's safe to say he's the GOAT (Greatest of All Time) when it comes to Disney voice acting.
Tudyk doesn't voice any of his previous characters in "Once Upon a Studio." Instead, he takes on the role of the Mad Hatter from 1951's "Alice in Wonderland." Ed Wynn originally voiced the part, but as mentioned in a Q&A session attended by Looper, some soundalikes were used to fill in for actors who are no longer with us. Absolutely zero AI was used to replace any actors, and the casting gave Tudyk the opportunity to fill in for a legendary Disney character.
The creative team behind Once Upon a Studio had bigger plans for Alan Tudyk originally
Alan Tudyk is a versatile voice actor. Many of his characters sound completely different, although there is a humorous vocal similarity between Valentino in the "Wish" trailer and Clayface from the "Harley Quinn" series. For Mad Hatter, he does an impeccable impression of Ed Wynn, honoring Disney's past. But the team who made "Once Upon a Studio" initially wanted to do a more meta gag with Tudyk.
The short film is mostly comprised of quick scenes with characters from different properties interacting in humorous ways. For example, Moana and Flounder both emerge out of water, but since Flounder is a fish, Moana has to find him a place to breathe right away. Some of these bits ended up on the cutting room floor, and one idea that got scrapped involved a ton of Tudyk's characters from Disney movies getting together. As mentioned in the Q&A, "Early on, in the studio, we sent a request form of 'Who would you like to see in the short?' And there were a lot of requests of having an Alan Tudyk room that someone walks into." It would've been great to see Tuk Tuk from "Raya and the Last Dragon" interacting with Toucan from "Encanto," but sadly, it wasn't meant to be.
They confirmed that Tudyk only has one role in the short, but it's perfect in a way. It involves a merging of Disney's past and future by taking an older character and getting them voiced by the current Disney animation good luck charm.
"Once Upon a Studio" premieres on ABC on October 15 at 8/7c.