Syncro-Vox (sometimes spelled Synchro-Vox) is a filming method that combines static images with moving images, the most common use of which is to superimpose talking lips on a photograph of a celebrity or a cartoon drawing. It is one of the most extreme examples of the cost-cutting strategy of limited animation. The method was developed by cameraman Edwin "Ted" Gillette in the 1950s in order to simulate talking animals in television commercials. Gillette filed the technique on February 4, 1952, and obtained patent #2,739,505 on March 27, 1956.[1]
Because animating a mouth in synchronization with sound was difficult, Syncro-Vox was soon used as a cheap animation technique. The 1959 cartoon Clutch Cargo produced by Cambria Studios was the first to make use of the Syncro-Vox technique.[2]Clutch Cargo, along with fellow Cambria shows Space Angel and Captain Fathom, superimposed actors' lips voicing the scripted dialogue laid over the animated figures.[3]
Comedic uses
The Syncro-Vox technique is considered noticeably cheap and unnerving, so it was short-lived in serious form. The three Cambria Studios cartoons listed above were some of the few examples of the technique being used straight, and the fourth and final Cambria Studios cartoon, The New Three Stooges, did not use it.[citation needed]
Although Syncro-Vox has long since fallen into disuse as a serious animation method (other than when a computerized version was used in the short-lived, and ultimately controversial,[4]Mrs. Munger's Class shorts of the 1990s), it has survived sporadically in comedic form, most notably on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, where a celebrity's face is superimposed with live video of the moving lips of Conan's writer Robert Smigel. This comedy bit was reused on Conan O'Brien's 2010 talk-show Conan[5] and the "In Hot Water" podcast on Compound Media.[citation needed]
Painty, the talking pirate painting that asks "Are you ready, kids?" in the introduction to SpongeBob SquarePants cartoons, imitates the Syncro-Vox technique with modern animation technology. It was also featured in standard episodes of the series, including (but not limited to), "Karate Choppers", "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy VI: The Motion Picture", and "Moving Bubble Bass".[citation needed]
A variation of the technique, animated mouths on actual toy action figures, is used on Robot Chicken. In the first Star Wars special of the aforementioned show, the segment Mid-Nite with Zuckuss (a parody of the aforementioned Late Night with Conan O'Brien, whose host voiced the titular character) featured an actual use of the Syncro-Vox technique on an "interview" with Emperor Palpatine as a means to mock the latter; it was also used in the sketch "The Annoying Mjolnir", which spoofs both the aforementioned Annoying Orange and The Avengers.[citation needed]
The Smosh character Charlie the Drunk Guinea Pig is portrayed using the Syncro-Vox technique, superimposing actor Ian Hecox's lips onto live-action footage of the guinea pig; this also applied for archived footage used to portray Charlie as a ghost following the character's in-universe death.[citation needed]
Director Richard Elfman paid tribute to Syncro-Vox in a scene from his 1980 cult film Forbidden Zone, during the scene wherein a character mimes to Machito and Miguelito Valdez' novelty dance song, "Bim Bam Boom"; the usage was necessary because the actor hired to lip sync the song suddenly developed stage fright and froze on-camera.[7]
See also
Chuckimation, another notoriously low-budget animation shortcut
Deepfake, a more elaborate adaptation of the same concept
^Perlmutter, David (2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 130. ISBN978-1538103739.
^"Don't believe your eyes! How 'Clutch Cargo' cuts corners as a television comic strip", TV Guide, December 24, 1960, pp. 28-29.
^"Disney sued for using photos without permission," Syracuse Post-Standard, December 26, 1998, p A-5; "Defamation suit filed", The Stars and Stripes, December 27, 1998, p. 13
