Billy West Movies
Voice actor Billy West was born in Detroit, MI, in 1950. He started doing celebrity impressions for The Howard Stern Show in the early '90s. He did a lot of commercials, including the voice of the Honey Nut Cheerios bee and various M&Ms. From 1991 to 1994, he provided the voice of Douglas Funnie on the Nickelodeon show Doug. West was also the voice of both Ren Höek and Stimpson J. Cat on The Ren & Stimpy Show for several seasons. Since providing voices for Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny in Space Jam (1996), he regularly voices Looney Tunes characters in feature films and straight-to-video releases. His other new versions of classic characters include Woody Woodpecker (The Woody Woodpecker Show), Shaggy from Scooby Doo (Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island), and Slimer from Ghostbusters (Extreme Ghostbusters). Grown-up audiences may recognize West most for his work on Futurama as the voice of Philip J. Fry, Professor Farnsworth, Dr. Zoidberg, and many others. He's also contributed to Dilbert, King of the Hill, and Crank Yankers. Billy West is also a blues guitarist and vocalist with the band Billy West and the Grief Counselors. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide- 1999
On Nibbler's birthday, Bender gets jealous because nobody is paying attention to him. Even when he tries to get noticed for baking a cake, Nibbler eats the whole thing. Angry, Bender flushes him down the toilet and Leela is heartbroken. Because the uncaring Bender feels no remorse, the Professor installs an empathy chip in him so he can understand how bad Leela is feeling about the loss of her pet. He is overcome with emotion and flushes himself down the toilet to try and save Nibbler. Fry and Leela try to find him, but they end up finding a race of underground sewer mutants. They all save Nibbler and have to fight the sewer monster "El Chupanibre." ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Billy West, Katey Sagal, (more)
- 1999
In this parody of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Fry tries to find a golden bottle cap in his favorite beverage, Slurm. He tries using the professor's latest invention that can see through metal, but he ends up swallowing a golden bottle cap and winning the contest. The crew gets to go on a tour of the Slurm factory and party with Slurms McKenzie, the party slug mascot who is sick and tired of constantly partying. Fry gets thirsty on the tour and falls into the Slurm river, so Leela and Bender try to save him. They all go down a drain and discover that Slurm is really made from the secretions of a giant queen slug. They are captured, but Slurms saves them. Pamela Anderson guest stars as the voice of blonde "Slurm Babe" Dixie. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Billy West, Katey Sagal, (more)
- 1999
Fry is sad about his first Christmas away from his family and Leela is sad because she's the only one of her species in the galaxy. Fry wants to comfort her, but he just ends up making her feel worse. To make up for it he goes out to buy her a present, despite warnings that an evil Robot Santa Claus (voice of John Goodman) is on a killing spree to judge the naughty from the nice. Fry gets Leela a parrot at a pet store, but it flies away out the window of a tall building and she ends up having to save his life again. Meanwhile, Bender pretends to be a hobo so he can get free alcohol at the liquor kitchen for homeless robots. Conan O'Brien guest stars. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Billy West, Katey Sagal, (more)
Warner Bros. attempted to revitalize its animation division with this family adventure that blended live action and animation in the style of Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), reportedly coming in with a price tag of $100 million. Basketball legend Michael Jordan stars as himself, a retired sports hero trying his hand at baseball and failing miserably. Meanwhile, the Looney Tunes gang, led by Bugs Bunny, are kidnapped by aliens called the Nerdlucks. It seems that the Nerdlucks' theme park, Moron Mountain (a barely-veiled dig at Disney) is failing to attract customers. The space invaders are convinced that the appearance of Bugs and his pals Porky Pig and Speedy Gonzalez will beef up business. Bugs makes his captors a deal -- they'll play a game of basketball for their freedom. When the Nerdlucks stack the deck by pilfering the talent of NBA superstars Charles Barkley and Patrick Ewing, the Warner Bros. heroes enlist the aid of Jordan, who returns to the court to help the classic characters. While he prepares to play, Jordan is aided by fellow celebrity Bill Murray. Director Joe Pytka previously created many of the television commercials that featured Jordan as a paid endorser. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, (more)
This film is based on an innovative short film made for MTV about a guy living in a horrible downtown apartment filled with scores of mischievous, smart-alecky roaches. The story chronicles the adventures of Joe (Jerry O'Connell), a hapless rube from the rural Midwest who journeys to the wilds of New York City. Mugged repeatedly on his arrival, his luck seems to turn when he finds an affordable apartment in a very dubious neighborhood. Unfortunately, his landlord (Don Ho) is more interested in evicting or, if need be, murdering his tenants, so that the building can be turned into a (highly profitable) penitentiary. Joe finds the allies he needs in his apartment's cockroaches, who sing and dance their way into his heart. This film should be of interest for fans of 1930s musicals; it makes reference to Busby Berkeley's elaborate dance phantasmagorias and the odd water ballets of Esther Williams. Many of the scenes utilized real roaches who were "choreographed" via tiny filament harnesses and other devices. Animal rights activists will be pleased to note that no roaches were intentionally harmed during filming. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jerry O'Connell, Megan Ward, (more)
Loretta Lynn was one of the first female superstars in country music and remains a defining presence within the genre; with her strong, clear, hard-country voice and tough, no-nonsense songs about husbands who cheat and wives who weren't about to be pushed around, Lynn introduced a feminist mindset to Nashville years before the phrase "women's liberation" became common currency. Coal Miner's Daughter is a screen adaptation of Lynn's autobiography, starring Sissy Spacek as Loretta Lynn. One of eight children born to Ted Webb (Levon Helm), a coal miner raising a family despite grinding poverty in Butcher's Holler, KY, Loretta married Dolittle "Mooney" Lynn (Tommy Lee Jones) when she was only 13 years old. A mother of four by the time she was 20, Lynn began singing the occasional song at local honky-tonks on weekends, and at 25, she cut (at Mooney's suggestion) a demo tape that earned her a deal with an independent record label. Loretta and Mooney's tireless promotion of the record (including a long road trip through the south in which they stopped at every country radio station they could find) paid off -- Loretta's first single, "Honky Tonk Girl," hit the charts and earned her a spot on the Grand Ole Opry. Stardom called and Loretta never looked back, but success brought with it both joy (a long string of hit records and sold-out concerts and a close friendship with Patsy Cline) and sorrow (a nervous breakdown brought on by overwork and a great deal of stress to a marriage that endured -- but just barely). Sissy Spacek won an Academy award for her vivid, thoroughly natural performance as Loretta (she also did her own singing), and Levon Helm (drummer for the legendary rock group the Band) made an impressive screen debut as her father. Ernest Tubb makes a cameo appearance as himself. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sissy Spacek, Tommy Lee Jones, (more)
