Chronologically, we’re at Andrew Rannells’s guest spot on Bob’s Burgers, so let’s look at animated shows he’s appeared on. Once again, we’re talking post-Mormon stuff here: Rannells’s voiceover back catalog is incredibly long, and I have neither the time nor the inclination to dive into all that. But, the animated roles he’s taken in more recent years offer up some fun stuff.
Rannells has been in a pretty good variety of shows since 2016, when he dipped his toes back into his animated roots with a cartoon cameo on The Simpsons. He’s followed that up with other animated shows for adults (albeit playing kids, as a regular on Big Mouth and a guest star on Bob’s Burgers) as well as actual children’s shows (with two different minor roles on Sofia the First, a guest spot on Vampirina, and a recurring role on Welcome to the Wayne.) Naturally, some of these shows are far more up my alley than others, but Rannells has been good on all of them.
One important advantage of these animated TV roles is that all of them have supplied excuses for Rannells to sing, which just doesn’t happen often enough for my liking in his live-action screen projects. Sofia the First and Vampirina both regularly feature songs and took advantage of having a Broadway-seasoned guest star – I dare anyone to dislike Rannells playing a mummy who sings just a tiny bit like Elvis. His Bob’s Burgers episode was one of many on that show to be music-centric, and he joined a lot of other Broadway names – old Book of Mormon pals Josh Gad and Rory O’Malley, along with former Hamilton co-star Daveed Diggs – in crushing it on goofy tunes (side note: it’s so much fun to hear another Josh Gad character referring to another Rannells character as his “best friend,” and then the two of them singing a song about it!) While the others aren’t as heavy on the music, each offers up at least one small moment for Rannells to sing.
I also like that these roles provide quite a bit of variety in terms of character. No, most of them aren’t all that complex, but they’re all pretty different. In live action and, to a lesser extent, onstage, Rannells tends to get cast as similar character types a lot, and while I absolutely adore what he does with these roles and think he differentiates between them much more than he always gets credit for, it’s good to see (well, hear) him stretch different acting muscles.
I’ve said before, Skye on Sofia the First gives me total Reepicheep vibes, and I love it. King Peppy on Vampirina speaks with this slightly lofty air, and Andrei on Welcome to the Wayne is alternately whacky, deadpan, and earnest. Given that Rannells has a somewhat cartoonish quality to his voice anyway, it probably would’ve been fairly easy to coast on these vocal performances and still have them come off perfectly well, so I appreciate the attention he pays to voicing them all differently.
My favorites are his most sizable roles, Matthew on Big Mouth and Andrei on Welcome to the Wayne. Welcome to the Wayne is such a fun, zany show with both kid and adult appeal, and Rannells fits really well into its type of humor. And with Big Mouth, Rannells takes what is definitely a stereotyped character and kills it anyway with his hilariously-withering delivery.
The big question remains: when is someone going to cast Andrew Rannells as a Disney prince? He’s got strong voice acting skills, his singing voice sits in pretty much the perfect place for Disney songs, and he’s previously done Broadway work with two of Disney’s more recent composers, Frozen’s Robert Lopez and Moana’s Lin-Manuel Miranda. I’d love to have him in a Disney movie with songs by either of these two, but I’m especially looking at Lopez. He already has experience writing specifically for Rannells’s voice in The Book of Mormon, plus he’s already brought someone else from that show to Disney, with Josh Gad playing Olaf in Frozen. Come on, Lopez – when are you going to hook Rannells up?
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