“Mufasa: the Lion King”: 3 questions to William Cloutier and Patrick Emmanuel Abellard

William Cloutier, winner of Star Academy 2021, has transformed into Zazu, the funny little bird who accompanies Mufasa on his wanderings in the new feature film from Disney studios. And Patrick Emmanuel Abellard, Quebec voice of the majestic Mufasa, also revealed to us all the secrets of dubbing… And the two actors also sing in the film!

How were you chosen to voice William, the character of Zazu, and Patrick Emmanuel, that of Mufasa?

William: I went the same route as everyone else and auditioned for Taka [l’ami de Mufasa, futur Scar] and possibly Mufasa. But Disney was interested in my voice for a more sunny and lighter character, which makes me very happy to do, especially at the moment since I play Johnny Rockford in Starmania. With Zazu, we are at the opposite extreme.

Patrick Emmanuel: The audition process lasted five months. I did four different auditions for two characters. I didn't know it was an original story, I didn't have too many details when I auditioned.

How much work did you do to find the character's voice?

William: Zazu is a character who speaks quickly, who has a lot of breaks in his words. He will start with an idea and will change completely, he will go in another direction. In the same sentence, there can be four different emotions and that's what we worked with the dubbing director, and that's where her job is essential, is to remind us to pay attention to emotions of the character. It's not a job only in relation to English, you have to find your voice by trying, by making mistakes so as not to fall into caricature. It's so much fun to be the little guy who listened The Lion King back then when he was a child. Now my voice is going to be in the film forever. Even for my children, it's special to have a dad who plays Zazu, it makes them proud and it makes me proud too!

Patrick Emmanuel: It's funny, because in the first audition, I made a proposal in my high notes. For the second audition, I received notes from Disney asking me to stay in my bass. I had to go find a presence. Mufasa is an orphan, but he's still going to be the king, so he must already have this kind of presence, leadership, royalty and presence.

Dubbing is an extremely technical profession. Why do you like it?

William: You have to get started, it's almost improvisation, but you also have to be very sensitive to what the person in English is doing or the person you are overtaking, so you have to be very closely aligned with the intention of the game This is the voice actor's challenge. And Zazu is a great challenge, very fun. Dubbing is like karaoke with codes.

Patrick Emmanuel: It's something I always wanted to do which ultimately became a very big part of my career which I love in fact, if I'm not on a set I'm in a studio . It's another rhythm of life that I really like. The first person who gave me a chance in dubbing was Terrence Scammell [pour la série d’animation OUM le dauphin blanc]. Every time I arrived at a dubbing session, he asked me to squeeze out my energy. In animation, it's a much higher energy. Even if we think we are overplaying, on the contrary, we are right there, because children need this energy. You need to have your coffee before going to the entertainment!

Mufasa: the Roi Lion will please movie-loving families from December 20.