Welcome to the first installment of a new weekly feature here at the Voice Coaches Blog. With Voice Overs of the World, each week we’re going to take a look at a notable new voice over, whether it be from a commercial, a movie or TV show, a video on the internet, or anywhere we find something of interest. These aren’t all going to be the “Best Of” voice overs, just different types of delivery and content that are interesting enough to draw your attention to.

This week, I’ve selected the Caribou Coffee‘s first-ever commercial, which features two marionette puppets. Caribou Coffee is the second-largest coffee retailer in the U.S (after Starbucks, of course), located primarily in the midwest and eastern parts of the country. For this 30-second spot, they’ve chosen to go the more humorous route, and I think the commercial is quite funny.

The commercial skewers the “Hollywood Starlet/Vain Pretty-Boy” stereotypes pretty cleverly with the witty dialogue and the well-designed and costumed marionettes, but the voices they cast are perfect as well. The male character has that dead-on Brad Pitt-Ashton Kutcher “too cool for school” delivery, while the female marionette perfectly captures that Paris Hilton-Megan Fox style of blase’ trendiness. What’s especially noteworthy is how animated (pardon the pun) the two puppets appear to be when, if you watch them closely, their faces are actually moving very little. All of the character and humor of the two primary characters are coming from the voice over deliveries.

I also want to point out the “announcer” of the piece. While this would be an easy place to an inject a deep, male announcer-style voice to sing the praises of Caribou Coffee’s hot chocolate, instead the voice belongs to a friendly, conversational female voice. In fact, the announcer’s voice is warm, smooth, and–dare I say it?–creamy. Hmm… sounds kind of like their hot chocolate, doesn’t it? Or at least that’s the impression I get when I hear her voice and see a mug full of steaming hot chocolate at that same time.

All in all, this commercial spot from Caribou Coffee is a fun, effective, humorous commercial that really comes together thanks to some dynamite VO work.

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2 Responses

1. 11.30.09 04:15 pm

   Voice123 - Voice Overs said:

   Its great VO work, the puppets are not even doing so much animation, but through their voice they are transmitting a lot. Its a perfect example of how much a good voice can do on an animated character, although you must give credit to the character’s creator who chooses the VO for the work.

2. 12.03.09 05:07 pm

   MikeSpring said:

   An excellent point, Federico! The casting director or producer who chose the three voices for this commercial did a terrific job. They obviously had a clear picture in their head of what they were looking for!

   Thanks for reading, and keep the comments coming!