Marty Grabstein is loved for his role as Courage the Cowardly Dog and now he has joined the Scooby Gang to solve a mystery. There are giant and terrifying cicadas attacking Nowhere, Kansas and on September 14, 2021, the New York actor reprises his role as the adorable pink dog. “Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo Meets Courage The Cowardly Dog” welcomes back so many of our favorite Scoobies and solving a mystery in Nowhere, Kansas is definitely entertaining for the entire family. Many know him from this sketch comedy act in New York called “Lab Rats.”
Along with Grabstein’s voice talents, he made frequent appearances on “Law and Order,” “Law and Order Special Victim’s Unit,” “Third Watch,” and “Blacklist.” Watch the trailer and then get to know “Courage the Cowardly Dog” Himself, Marty Grabstein in our exclusive interview.
Colleen Bement: What was your reaction when you found out that you would be reprising your role as Courage the Cowardly Dog?
Marty Grabstein: I was absolutely blown away. The casting director from Warner Brothers reached out to me and said Marty, we’re putting together a movie–a crossover with Scooby-Doo and Courage the Cowardly Dog. It’ll be a feature film. I was so excited. I wanted a movie to happen for Courage 20 years ago. Thank God for Scooby-Doo, which is kind of an empire in this world. From 1969 it’s been part of American history. Courage is kind of an iconic character in the modern world, and these two being together and I’m going to get to reprise it, it’s so exciting. They did say that they’re offering it to you with a caveat. It’s not an audition, but we do need to hear a little bit of the voice of Courage. So I did it and everything was fine. They said it was great!
CB: You really are Courage, and that leads me to my next question. How did you transform yourself into Courage again?
MG: I kind of got to reprise it earlier on about three years ago I started doing the convention circuit where I appeared as the voice of Courage. I got to do the voice a lot and I was kind of already in the zone. I don’t know that I ever stopped doing it because it was such a wonderful thing. People would periodically approach me, I’m on Cameo. I never let it go.
CB: Courage will always be a part of you.
MG: You know why? What a wonderful thing that I got to create a character out of literally nowhere. There was nothing but this adorable pink dog and I was told that I would be the voice of this character. John Dilworth didn’t exactly know how this voice should sound. It’s kind of a cool story. I got a call from a friend of mine who said to me I’m working for this guy John Dilworth and he’s putting together this new cartoon series and he’s listening to every voiceover artist in the city and he’s been doing this for the last four months. He’s heard about 300 voices. I figured I may as well go audition to see how it goes, and sure enough after two minutes, he said yes. Yes, that was it! I did it in my natural voice, but once I went up, that sealed it for him. This low-pitched guy–raspy voice doing ultra-high, out of my range vocalization, and that’s what nailed it for me.
Check out a clip from the original “Courage the Cowardly Dog.”
CB: What is the recording like during the pandemic? Do you even get a chance to interact with your castmates?
MG: Just in the studio. Not very different than the way I did it anyway. Contrary to the potential romantic element of everybody sitting around in a circle sharing coffee, it was just me in one of the booths from the beginning. All of my Courage recordings it was just me in the studio alone, in a booth, with a storyboard in front of me, and a vocal script. That was it. First of all, when I recorded the pandemic hadn’t happened, by the way. I recorded it in December of 2019.
But when I went in, in December 2020 to do the AVR work on it, the redos and stuff like that, it was the same thing. The only thing was…usually they’d have a nice spread for me…and this time there was no spread. (laughs) That’s the only thing that was different.
CB: Do you have any other projects in the works that you’re allowed to tell us about?
MG: Yes, good things happening. I just produced and starred in a short film, shot on location at beautiful Lake George, about Hunter S. Thompson. Have you ever heard of him? Famous Rolling Stone journalist. “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” a very wild and crazy guy. It’s a short film, 18 minutes long, it’s being edited now, and then it’s going to go to the festival circuit. The name is called “Hunter Is “F**ked.” Also, I just did a cartoon with this really talented animator and filmmaker who just graduated from college a year ago, and it is in the festival circuit, and it’s getting very nice responses. It’s called “Cats of New York.”
Of course, I’m in this Warner Brothers movie with Scooby-Doo (laughs), and the fact that I get to work with Frank Welker and Matthew Lillard and Jeff Bergman and Thea White who just passed away a few weeks ago. I’m saddened by the loss of her, and glad that she go to do Courage one more time means a lot. Just to say I’m really impressed with what I’ve seen of the film. I won’t sit down and watch the whole thing, because I want to see it when everyone else is seeing it. I want to have a get-together with my friends and see the whole thing that way.
I’m really impressed. It’s not easy to marry those two universes together. Doing justice to both of them is not an easy thing to do, and these filmmakers did a wonderful job of making this happen. Filing down a couple of the edges here and there and putting Scooby in a slightly more edgy environment. Giant cicadas! I mean, cicadas have arrived! 17 years, cicadas are back just as the movie comes out. They really feature Courage in this. They featured most of this in Courage’s universe, in Nowhere.
CB: Were you this much fun and a comedian as a little kid?
MG: Yes, I was. God bless you for saying that I’m so much fun. Yes, I always have had that comedic sense. It seems that I was put on this earth to kind of disarm people and turn things upside down, usually using a certain comedic sensibility. It was always my thing and it got me through difficult times, and it continues to get me through difficult times.
“Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo Meets Courage The Cowardly Dog.” will be available on Digital and DVD Sept. 14, 2021, for $14.99 (US) and $19.99 (Canada). It will be available to download on Amazon Video, iTunes, Google Play, Vudu and others.
Written by Colleen Bement
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