"David Ogden Stiers' voice really made the Harcourt character work," says Pruiksma. "The sound quality is very rich and beefy with a full jowled quality. His tone actually dictated the design of the mouth shapes I would use. David is an amazingly versatile actor and his voice is different every time we've used him in one of our films. Packard was a hoot to animate. Even with all hell breaking loose all around her, with emergency lights flashing and people running for their lives, she remains calm while she finishes up a phone call with her friend Madge. Florence Stanley provides this great monotone delivery which indicates the same level of disinterest in everything she does."
Tony DeRosa, a 19-year Disney artist who most recently oversaw the sprite character in "Fantasia / 2000's" "Firebird Suite" sequence, supervised the character of Gaetan Moliere (aka "Mole") and Corey Burton lent his voice to this dirt-loving deviant.
"Moliere is out there in a world of his own," says DeRosa. "He has this love for dirt and the only thing he loves more than dirt is digging. He wears this wonderful helmet which has binocular- like goggles and all sorts of gadgets that pop out like a lamp, tweezers, and even a brush and dustpan. The biggest challenge in animating him was making this round, fat character fit into the angular Mignola style. I basically kept the shape real simple, especially the face. He found many ways to get the personality across with his voice."
The character of Helga Sinclair, Rourke's smooth and shadowy second-in-command, was animated at Disney's Paris Animation Studio under the supervision of Yoshi Tamura. Claudia Christian brought spirit, sensuality and sarcasm to the vocal persona.
"Graphically, the Mignola style worked very well for Helga," says Tamura. "She plays very well in silhouette and her key poses became very important. In my imagination, I pictured her as someone like Veronica Lake or the other great actresses from those great old black-and-white film noirs."
Christian adds, "Helga is a strong and spirited woman who isn't afraid to give orders and is quite tough and slightly loud at times. I certainly wouldn't call her demure or subtle. She is rather sensual when you first meet her. It was a very fun role to play and the whole film is extraordinarily exciting."
Supervising animator Russ Edmunds, who most recently supervised Tarzan's loving ape mother, Kala, had the choice assignment of animating the explosives-loving Vinchenzo Santorini (aka Vinny). The inimitable Don Novello provided the vocal performance.
"Mike Mignola's drawings were the starting point for Vinny's design," explains Edmunds. "He is very stylized and has triangles for eyes, bowlegs and a giant comb of a moustache. Don Novello's fantastic delivery gave me all kinds of ideas and I could visualize how I was going to animate him as I listened to the recording. The character uses his hands and eyebrows a lot and has a very dry sense of humor."
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