THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 26, 1995 TAG: 9511230095
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
TOM HANKS, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, Annie Potts and Jim Varney. The voices of the new movie ``Toy Story'' are as varied as they are loud.
It wasn't hard to predict that Don Rickles, the voice of Mr. Potato Head, would be the loudest.
``I was very surprised,'' the comedian said at the film's premiere a few months ago. ``I thought this would be very Mickey Mouse. I did it just for the money. I thought I'd just hear my voice coming out of this doll, but look, this thing looks like no other movie. I thought when they called me, it would be like Popeye and Olive Oyl or something.
``They wanted the character of Don Rickles, so they asked me not to act. My motivation was the money, so I said, `Fine, I won't act.' I wanted the Tom Hanks part, but they would have had to pay me more for that. They're no fools.''
Rickles is also in Martin Scorsese's ``Casino,'' starring Robert De Niro.
``I carry De Niro through the film,'' Rickels said. ``In the first scene with the guy, I said: `This guy is a great actor? He can't even talk right.' Actually, De Niro is a good laugher. Between scenes, he was my slave. I could get him laughing right away.''
Jim Varney - Ernest in ``Ernest Saves Christmas'' and all the other Ernest movies - provides the voice of Slinky Dog, the toy with the stretch waist.
``They wanted him to be Southern. That's easy,'' said Varney, who lives near Nashville. His family is originally from Virginia. ``My father is from Wise County, a place called Stoney Lonesome. I don't think it's even there anymore. It was so small there was hardly anyone there when he was there.''
Varney said he had a Slinky Dog toy when he was a kid. Now he has four real dogs, and he thought of them in voicing the character.
``I have three terriers who think they are pit bulls because they were raised by Maggie, my pit bull,'' he said. ``I think pit bulls get a bad name. It's only the ones who are bred that way who are mean. Maggie couldn't have pups of her own and she raised these terriers.''
Annie Potts was dismayed that she is the only woman in the cast. She's the voice of the porcelain lamp, Bo-Peep.
``I think it's sad that little boys won't go to movies about girls,'' she said. ``That's why there are so many more movies about little boys. I have three boys myself, and they wouldn't go to see `The Little Princess.' I need a daughter to take to movies like that.''
Potts, a veteran of the hit TV series ``Designing Women,'' added that her Bo-Peep is a repeat.
``The first job I got in Los Angeles was as Bo-Peep,'' she said. ``I played a hooker who was dressed up as Bo-Peep. It was in the series `Night Court.' I guess this is coming full circle. But, no, there are no hookers in this film. This is the REAL Bo-Peep.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Don Rickles says he didn't even have to act in role of Mr. Potato
Head.
by CNB