Angell Sound Takes on UK Remake of 'The Unbeatables'

At some point a job comes along that is so challenging, intriguing and exciting that you just can’t say no to it.

It was a job like this that Nick Angell embarked on some 20 months ago. An old friend and client, David Burgess, approached Angell with an Argentinean animated film about a table football team that came to life called ‘Foosball’.

David, an experienced Producer, had joined forces with Victor Glynn, who had worked closely with the Argentine Executive Producer Jorge Estrada, who in turn was funding what would be Argentina’s most expensive animated production to date.

369 Productions was formed to create a UK version of the film and David had come on board to facilitate its production.

The film required a total adaption for the UK market. In its original form there were multiple characters speaking Spanish, which needed recasting, dubbing and syncing without the option or facility of changing any animation. A further issue was that the film, at the time, was not entirely finished. This was going to be quite a challenge!

So after initial negotiations and brain storming with his trusted Sound Engineers at Angell, Nick decided to take on the film and work began on creating the new version of ‘Foosball’, which would soon become known as “The Unbeatables”.

Nick’s role was to not only manage the entire recording process and play an instrumental role in the casting, but to direct the UK cast.

First things first and a translation of the original script was needed. Jokes that seemed hilarious in Argentinean were lost on British ears. Michael Smith, a renowned scriptwriter, was drafted in to ‘English up’ the story and introduce another level of character development and humour.

The films’ Oscar winning Director, Juan Jose Campanella, was insistent that a test scene be created to show how the translation and dubbing would work. The full casting process had not yet begun, so Actor friends of David were bought in to fulfill the demand. Fortunately Campanella was delighted with the result.

To add a further level of humour, writer Richard O. Smith entered the frame and with his comedic skills and enthusiasm for sport, he helped to develop the script even further.

Several weeks of Tim O’Donoghue of Angell, along with David Burgess, sitting in a sound studio commenced. Their goal was to match mouth movements to the new dialogue. Detailed syllable counts were listed to determine how words could be broken down to match the lip sync of the original film.

Casting Director, Jeremy Zimmermann and Nick began the task of finding and securing the best actors for the numerous characters that needed casting. As well as trusted favourites, Nick wanted Performers that took direction well, who would bring a level of empathy to the script and create their own interpretation, and have the capacity to be patient, as the process was going to be time consuming.

As a version was also being post-produced in Madrid, Nick travelled there to see how they were managing the Argentinean script for Spain. He was surprised to see that the versions differed greatly. Again what was funny in Argentina wasn’t always funny in Spanish. The trip helped Nick to finalise his own thoughts on the different characters and bring them to life in the UK version.

On returning to London he decided he would follow in the tradition of Disney and record each Performer separately. In this way he would be able to mix recordings more easily and make changing them later simpler, if required. It would create a more complex process, but one, which ultimately would give him total creative control.

For the first actor’s in, this was always going to be a challenge, as there would be no other characters for them to play off. Setting the tone, energy level, interpretation, reactions etc was key to the success of this brick building exercise and required the artists to be at their peak.

Nick would soon be spending hours giving direction to Actors, developing and encouraging their performances to fit with his vision of each character. His considerable experience at directing voiceovers for commercials came to the fore as he squeezed the best reactions from each Artist. One of the challenges was lip syncing, which demanded, in places, intriguing breathing patterns and the elongating or compressing of certain words in sentences. All very interesting! 

Tim O’Donoghue worked as the sound recordist for later mixing in the Dolby 5.1 domain by Engineer Dave Robinson.

The final cast made up of such esteemed Actors as Rupert Grint, Rob Brydon, Ralf Little, Peter Serafinowicz, Anthony Head, Alex Norton, Alistair McGowan and Eve Ponsonby, to name a few, pulled out all the stops to create real and energised performances. Nick even managed to get a number of the Angell squad into the film with himself playing one of Flash’s young gang!

The end result demonstrates a real labour of love and dedication to a project, which ultimately has produced a thrilling and flawless UK release for this exciting film that will be adored by children and adults alike.

 

The films’ UK release date is the 15th August 2014, so do make sure you book your tickets to view this triumphal film, and view the trailer below.