Movie Musings: Disney and More

Dunder Mifflin’s Disney Clientele

On July 9th, 2001, the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) began to air a sit-com about a group of office co-workers who reluctantly work together underneath a tyrannical manager named David Brent, played by Ricky Gervais. The series won two Golden Globes for Best Television Series-Comedy or Musical and Best Actor in a Television Series Comedy or Musical for Gervais. The show ran for two seasons on the BBC. Two years after it went off the BBC, it was reinvented with a cast of American actors on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) and on that network it aired for nine seasons from 2005-2013, winning one Golden Globe and five Primetime Emmy Awards. Many of the stars of this beloved sit-com, have been in films for Disney.

Steve Carrell won a Golden Globe for his performance as Michael Scott, the manager of Dunder Mifflin. In the midst of the show’s 3rd and 4th seasons, Carrell played Dan in Touchstone Pictures’ Dan in Real Life (2007). Carrell departed “The Office” toward the end of the show’s seventh season in 2011, and later portrayed Ben Cooper, father of Alex Cooper in Disney’s Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (2014). He was the voice of Mr. Delancey in the Toon Disney Series Filmore! (2002-2004), Hammy the squirrel in Dreamworks’ Over the Hedge (2006) and Felonius Gru in the Despicable Me series (2010-2017). Steve Carrell is also known for having made three films with Jim Carrey, (who ironically appeared in one of the “Michael-less,” episodes of “The Office,”): Bruce Almighty (2003), The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013) and both lent their voices to Blue Sky Studios’ animated film of Horton Hears a Who! (2008).

John Krasinski played Jim Halpert in all 188 episodes of “The Office.” For Disney, Krasinski and his wife, Emily Blunt, both made cameos in The Muppets (2011). He also provided the voice of Frightening in Monsters University (2013) and narrated the Disneynature documentary, Born in China (2016). Krasinski is also a skilled director, having directed three episodes of “The Office,” the drama comedies Brief Interviews With Hideous Men (2009) and The Hollars (2016) and this year’s horror flick A Quiet Place (2018). Outside of his acting and directing skills, John Krasinski received two Primetime Emmy Nominations for appearing as himself on the show Lip Sync Battle (2015-present).

Phyllis Smith played Phyllis Vance on “The Office,” and Mindy Kaling played Kelly Kapor on the show as well. Smith and Kaling were the voices of Sadness and Disgust in Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out (2015). Kaling also was the voice of Taffyta Muttonfudge in Wreck-It Ralph (2012) and portrayed Mrs. Who in A Wrinkle in Time (2018). Smith appeared in an episode of Disney/ABC’s The Middle (2009-2018), and like Kaling, has reprised her character from “Inside Out,” for the short Riley’s First Date? (2015) and for the Disney Infinity 3.0 (2015) video game.

B.J. Novak played the role of Ryan Howard on “The Office.” He also wrote 15 episodes of “The Office,” and even served as one of the show’s executive producers. The year the show went off the air, B.J. Novak was cast as Robert B. Sherman, brother of Richard M. Sherman, in Saving Mr. Banks (2013), Disney’s biopic on the making of Mary Poppins (1964) in which Novak and Jason Schwartzman played the Academy-Award-winning composer/lyricist team of “Mary Poppins.” His character of Ryan Howard had an on-again/off-again relationship with Kelly Kapor on the show, and that ironically mirrored a real life relationship that Novak had with Mindy Kaling. While they are no longer together, they reunited on Mindy’s show The Mindy Project (2012-2017), in which he acted and was a consulting producer through the show’s first season.

Melora Hardin portrayed Jan Levinson-Gould, a love interest of Michael’s on “The Office.” At just 12 years of age, Melora Hardin made her feature film debut in Disney’s The North Avenue Irregulars (1979). At 24 she played the South Seas Singer in The Rocketeer (1991). She later played Claire Poulet in the Wonderful World of Disney film Tower of Terror (1997) based on the Disney Park Attraction of the same name, Mrs. Carol Spencer in Buena Vista’s The Hot Chick (2002) with Rob Schneider, and Lorelai in Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009). Hardin also played Trudy Monk/Cameron on the Universal/ABC show Monk (2002-2009), and currently stars on Freeform’s drama series The Bold Type (2017-present).

Each of these actors will be best remembered for who they played on “The Office,” though they have managed to achieve versatility with their roles in both Disney films and by writing, producing, directing, etc. They are all truly talented!