Through the marvel of modern technology Mako, the Oscar-nominated actor who died July 21, 2006, will be heard in his final performance as the voice of Master Splinter, the Sensei rat, in the upcoming animated TMNT, based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise.
Director Kevin Munroe said that the production uses archived recordings of Mako’s voice because the actor died a day after his announced involvement in the project.
“We had done a couple of pickup sessions with him,” Munroe said in a SciFi Wire interview. “We got what we needed, and he is still in it.”
Mako loved doing voice acting work, as well as live-action and may be familiar to many as the voice of Uncle Iroh in “Avatar: The Last Airbender” series, as well as several characters in the Rugrats films, Duck Dodgers, Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! and video games such as Samurai Jack: The Shadow of Aku.
Mako, who’s successful career spanned 45 years, was nominated for an Academy Award for the 1966 movie “The Sand Pebbles” opposite Steve McQueen and co-starred in “Highlander III: The Sorcerer,” “RoboCop 3,” “Conan the Destroyer,” “The Green Hornet” and “Conan the Barbarian.”
Expect to see “TMNT” in theaters by March 23, 2007.
Mako died in the future?! Says he died July 21, 2007, whats up with that?
It should be July 21, 2006. It’s a misprint.
That’s those wonders of technology at work. 🙂 Typo has been corrected.