Exclusive: Ron Funches And His Love For Voiceover Work On ‘The One and Only Ivan’

Now playing on Disney+ is an adaptation of the award-winning book about one very special gorilla, Disney’s “The One and Only Ivan,”  an unforgettable tale about the beauty of friendship, the power of visualization and the significance of the place one calls home. 

Ivan is a 400-pound silverback gorilla who shares a communal habitat in a suburban shopping mall with Stella the elephant, Bob the dog, and various other animals. Ivan has few memories of the jungle where he was born, but when a baby elephant named Ruby arrives, it touches something deep within him. Ivan begins to question his life, where he comes from and where he ultimately wants to be. The heartwarming adventure, which comes to the screen in an impressive hybrid of live-action and CGI, is based on Katherine Applegate’s bestselling book, which won numerous awards upon its publication in 2013, including the Newbery Medal. 

The movie stars Sam Rockwell as the voice of Ivan; Angelina Jolie as the voice of Stella; Danny DeVito as the voice of Bob the dog; Helen Mirren as the voice of Snickers the poodle; Brooklynn Prince as the voice of Ruby; Ramon Rodriguez as the mall employee George; Ariana Greenblatt as George’s daughter Julia; Chaka Khan as the voice of Henrietta the chicken; Mike White as the voice of Frankie the seal; Ron Funches as the voice of Murphy the rabbit; Phillipa Soo as the voice of Thelma the parrot; and Bryan Cranston as Mack, the circus attraction’s owner. “The One and Only Ivan” is directed by Thea Sharrock from a screenplay by Mike White based on Applegate’s book and is produced by the late Allison Shearmur.

For Funches, the gifted comedian known for his work on NBC’s Undateable, he’s no stranger to the world of animated voiceover. In fact, he’s had a full share of work from BoJack Horseman, The Adventures of Puss in Boots, and Adventure Time. He’s been the voice of Cooper in the Trolls franchise films and recently has been voicing the role of King Shark in the DC Comics TV series Harley Quinn. 

BlackFilmandTV.com recently caught up with Funches and he spoke his love for the film, meeting the cast via zoom and finding time to balance the many projects he has.

You’re no stranger to doing animated films. With as many projects that you do, what led you to say yes to this?

Ron Funches: Well, I just had to look down at the breakdown of the cast. Angelina Jolie, Bryan Cranston, Helen Mirren, Danny Devito and then I saw Chaka Khan. i said myself that if Chaka Khan said yes, then I know I have to be in this film. 

What if the film had John Doe, Jane Doe and Jonathan Doe?

Ron Funches: Then I would have read the script a bit more. I knew it was a beautiful story. I grew up in the Northwest so I had heard about Ivan before. I hadn’t read the book but I knew the story. It wasn’t a hard choice. It’s a Disney movie and that was one of my goals. I wanted to be in a Disney movie since I was a little kid and then to see the cast and then find out what the story was about. Sure absolutely. 

What goes into voicing the rabbit?

Ron Funches: A little bit mostly me being myself but there was a little bit of putting a little bit of rabbit essence into it. It was mostly just real acting. I think that's why there's lot a good voice actors in the movies and also just really good actors in this movie because they wanted people to just portray and convey the emotion and convey the story and not necessarily be this cartoony thing with a bunch of different cartoony voices. That's very reigned in and it's very realistic, I think at some point. You forget that you're watching animals. It just seems like you're just watching a story.

You've been doing this for such a long time. Do you put a lot of thought into the voices the way you're doing it so that you don't sound the same as you did in your other projects?

Ron Funches: I play with energy levels, I don't have a lot of voices. It's mostly either me with a lower register or my high register. I just play with the energy of what that character would have. So it's like Murphy, he stays in his fire truck all day, but he's always moving. So he's a little bit more of a high speed thing. And Cooper is just this wild out of control characters that I play in Trolls, and just things I do in between and the more I do it, I get better at finding different ways to be different characters while still being my voice. I don't do dialects or different type of regions. I just happen to have a voice that has a unique range.

Where did the love for doing animated voices come from?

Ron Funches: From watching what I loved as a child. I’ve been a big fan of cartoons as a kid and never stopped watching. I still watch them. I just am a big child. I just like playing around and working with my imagination. I love it and comedians who I grew up loving, they’ve also done the same type of stuff. I loved Robin Williams as the Genie in Aladdin and Chris Rock and his work in Madagascar and in many other films. I just love being a comedian that can do different things and voice different characters.

Because everyone does their voiceover work at different times, what was that feeling like when you got to see the whole cast on zoom?

Ron Funches: It was overwhelming because there was so many people I had only seen movies and TV shows. I even tweeted out that I was in a zoom room with Helen Mirren. It was just really inspiring and to see Chaka Khan and see that she still looks very young, beautiful and amazing. I never let it be like, "Oh, I don't belong here." I go,  "Oh, I talented andI belong here like these people do.” This is the beginning for me and I need to continue to work if I've gotten here. If I continue to work hard, let's see how far I can go.

Between the comedy shows, the podcast and the projects you do animated voices for, how do you balance your time?

Ron Funches: I love working hard. When you love what you do, it doesn't necessarily feel like work. There’s a balance to it. I do the voiceovers in the morning. I pick up my son when he's in school andI go off and I do set at night and I come back home. I get ready for the next day and I write. I'm passionate about it because I love doing it. When I was a cashier, I had to work eight hours a day in a job I hated. Now I can put in 10 hours a day in a job I love.

What do you think is the takeaway that people are going to get from seeing this movie?

Ron Funches: Well, I think there's several things. It's a big movie discussing environmentalism, the treatment of animals and circuses and whether they should still be going on. But I think one of the most simple stories is that it's a story about the power of friendship and what inspiration can do for you and it’s the story about your home and the power of knowing your history, knowing your past and also just carrying your home with you and not being defined by these things and not being able to know where you are and realize what you're doing and get yourself out of bad situations. Ivan realizes that he's oppressed, and this world that he thought that was his home becomes his depression because he becomes aware of who he is. I think there's a self power and a lot of deep messages. I hope people really like it.

Since we've all been homebound for some time, have you been able to do voiceover from home?

Ron Funches: Yes. I built a voiceover studio in my closet. I can do work there. I have a couple other shows that I'm working on. I'm in my own live stream comedy events since I can't go on the road. I'm going to do a live stream event on YouTube from in town. We'll have a small audience of 10 people and then we'll be streaming it out on September 5. People want to watch that. I'm just writing my own stuff. Oh, I'm also hosting a game show coming out on Quibi on Wednesday, August 24. So I stay busy.