Disney is returning to a familiar voice for their next big villain. The studio has turned to Keith David to voice the villain Dr. Facilier for their next hand animated feature The Princess and the Frog, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The feature marks a return to hand drawn animation, something Michael Eisner steered the studio away from. It also represents a return to “old school” Disney storytelling, featuring a princess (voiced by Anika Noni Rose), musical numbers, and now the potential for a memorable villain, which is more than the last few hand drawn Disney movies could claim.
Keith David is no stranger to Disney’s animation. He voiced Goliath, the leader of Disney’s “Gargoyles” animated series. He has also provided a hodgepodge of characters for different Disney spin-off series, from Apollo in “Hercules” to taking over the vocal performance for James Earl Jones’s Mufasa for “House of Mouse”. Just because those characters were all heroic doesn’t mean he’s above villainy however. David has voiced several incarnations of Spawn, the anti-heroic Hellspawn. He also put in an incredibly strong, albeit brief performance in Crash as a Lieutenant who refused to take any guff from Ryan Philippe.
The Princess and the Frog is currently slated for a 2009 release.
