Danny DeVito Goes Multilingual For The Lorax

Danny DeVito not only lends his voice as the Lorax in DR. SEUSS' THE LORAX for the English version but he dubbed the foreign version of the Lorax in Spanish, Castilian, German, Italian and Russian without being a fluent speaker in any of those international languages. 

Danny may be the first actor to record his part in four different languages, Spanish, Italian, German, and Russian.  He not only dubbed in Spanish but he also went back and redid his part in Castilian.  Only a few actors dub their foreign voices such as Antonio Banderas in Spanish, Italian, and French versions for the Shrek movies and his spin-off Puss in Boots but the Spanish-born actor is fluent in those languages whereas the "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" actor didn't speak any of the languages except for a little Italian.  He admits he took on more than he could chew.                        Win DR. SEUSS’ THE LORAX Movie Tickets

"I committed and said I'm going to do it then I said 'Oh my God! That mountain is really high.'"

The producers preferred to have DeVito voice the Lorax in other languages because he could only deliver the same performance opposed to other actors trying to imitate him. When Universal approached him he jumped at the chance to do it thinking that it would be a simple task. He was assigned voice coaches in each of the languages but during the recording process he realized it wasn't as easy as he thought.

"What I would do is tackle one at a time and Universal brought in people from that country. I had two Italians with me to help me out. It was one of those things that I got it in my head to do. Once I said I would do it, I didn't want to back down."

Danny admits he thought each version would take two days but he realized that it really took him a week to conquer the foreign languages.  And now Mr. DeVito's voice can be heard globally.

In the video below, Danny DeVito rehearses his Spanish lines with a voice coach.

DR. SEUSS' THE LORAX is in theaters March 2, 2012.