NC: Please describe your work as editorial manager on Ratatouille.

AR: I worked on Ratatouille for over four years. I was basically the yin to my film editor Darren Holmes's yang. We had a creative partnership that worked very hard to get the director Brad Bird's vision of Ratatouille to the big screen. Editorial is one of the true hubs of production. We deal with every department on the production, working toward achieving the final cut of the film. It's a giant team effort. My basic concern is that everyone is happy and healthy, especially the director. I spent most of my days directing information and running interference for my edit team so that they could get their work done.

NC: You did the voice of Edna Mode's guard in The Incredibles and the voice of the big RV in Cars. How does casting work at Pixar?

AR: As we develop our stories and try to build our story reels, we create storyboarded versions of our film that are filled out with scratch dialog and sound work. All of the scratch voices at this stage are done by Pixar employees. Before we cast our talent, we are trying to make sure we have a story or character worth casting, so we fill out the voices with talent from the studio. Sometimes what happens is that lesser character scratch is left in for the final movie. This was the case for me with Edna's security guard. I have a pretty deep voice and it worked with the character, so the director left me in The Incredibles.

For Cars, it may have been a little different. Not only do I have a deep voice, but I am 6' 4" and 300 pounds, so casting me as McQueen's Biggest Fan and the largest RV in the race stadium wasn't a giant leap for John Lasseter, the director. They had designed this RV and I did the scratch and then Travis Hathaway, who is an animator at the studio, animated my voice with this character and it got a lot of laughs at animation dailies. And so I got the part and even got a few more shots in the film. The funny thing is that Travis also did my security guard animation in The Incredibles. Thanks, Travis.

NC: The animation industry has the reputation of being a very tight-knit group, from writers to animators to voices. What does it take to be successful in this part of the business?

AR: Pixar believes in education. We have our own university at work called PU and all employees are provided with an opportunity to explore their talents -- everything from beginning painting and drawing, to beginner UNIX and Brazilian Samba. One of my favorite classes in PU is Improvisation and one of the most important rules of improv is to always accept the offer. I really believe that being open to offers is critical to success. We bounce ideas and offers off of each other every day. It's really fun to make an offer, have it accepted, and see where it takes you.

Reibli voiced Edna's bodyguard in The Incredibles and the RV in Cars. © Disney/Pixar. 

NC: If I were an animation artist, how would I get a job at Pixar?

AR: Art School doesn't hurt -- Cal Arts, RISD, Academy of Art in San Francisco, Sheridan, just to name a few. If you are just starting out, reading The Illusion of Life by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnson is a good start. I would say learning to make a proper bourbon old-fashioned would help, but I would be lying.

NC: It used to be that voice-overs merely supplemented an artist's desire to act on camera. Nowadays, you can't watch an animated film without seeing the name of a celebrity. What are your thoughts about this trend? Should there be a special acknowledgement for "non-celebrity" talent?

AR: Star power never hurts, but I think the character should come first, before the name. The voice needs to work with the character, otherwise it fails the character. What if Bart Simpson was voiced by Ving Rhames? Would it work? Ving has a great voice, but it is not a good fit. Funny, but not a fit. There are quite a few movies out there where the star power is large and the performance is forgettable. I don't think that non-celebrity talent needs special acknowledgement. They should just know that their voice was the best voice for the job and made the character come to life in a way that was believable for the audience.

Lou Romano and Pete Sohn are two very talented artists that work at Pixar. They also happen to play two of the main characters in Ratatouille. Lou played Linguini, the lead human character, and Pete played Emile the rat, Remy's brother. Both of these gentlemen gave great performances, their non-celebrity status notwithstanding. The characters worked because they were well served by great animation, and voices that were true to their characters.

NC: And, finally, what is your proudest artistic achievement?

AR: Without a doubt, my proudest artistic moment is sharing a film credit with my son on Finding Nemo. Starting back on Toy Story, Pixar began giving children born during a production cycle a "production baby" credit during the end-credit screen crawl in our films. This tradition has continued through all our films and, luckily for me, my son, Arnold Joseph IV (credited as A.J. IV), was born on February 21, 2003, just making the Finding Nemo credit deadline by seven days. Not bad for a rugby-playing, shot-pouring, history-teaching, editorial-managing recreational vehicle. It puts a smile on my face to know that Finding Nemo will be in the Library of Congress someday, and my son and I will be an historical footnote.

Nancy Cartwright is best known as the voice of spiky-headed Bart Simpson on The Simpsons. She has voiced dozens of cartoon characters in a career that has spanned more than 20 years. Currently, she can be heard as the voice of Rufus the Naked Mole Rat on Disney's Kim Possible and Todd Daring in Disney's The Replacements. To learn more about Nancy's career, listen to her audio book My Life as a 10-Year-Old Boy or visit her website.