--- ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) # How John Cleese Found His 'Planes' Voice > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with Ally. Ally is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: July 2026. ## Ally: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Ally is a digital financial services company offering online-only banking, including checking and savings accounts, through Ally.com and its mobile apps. Launched in 2009 as an original disruptor in financial services, Ally was built to challenge outdated banking norms with a simpler, more convenient way to bank. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Aug 5, 2013 5:00 PM UTC  John Cleese, Martin Short and Russell Howard announce the start of the very first Just for Laughs at Sydney Opera House on August 31, 2011 in Sydney, Australia. John Cleese, Martin Short and Russell Howard announce the start of the very first Just for Laughs at Sydney Opera House on August 31, 2011 in Sydney, Australia.Getty Images—2011 Getty Images by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Aug 5, 2013 5:00 PM UTC In the upcoming _Planes_, Disney’s take on what goes on “above the world of _Cars_,” Monty Python legend John Cleese voices Bulldog, a veddy British airplane. The move should come as no surprise to his fans: his voice has become a bit of a shorthand for Englishness. And the actor has also been gravitating toward voice roles lately. Aside from _Planes_, he’s done several _Shrek_ installments and narrated 2011’s _Winnie the Pooh_. “I love doing animated movies,” Cleese tells TIME. “I think if radio were a bit better paid I’d have probably spent my life in radio. You don’t have people rushing up to you and dabbing you because there’s a spot of sweat on your nose or a little bit of fluff on you. It’s just about the script and the performance. That’s lovely.” (**MORE**: [The Wishful Environmentalism of _Cars 2_](http://business.time.com/2011/06/28/the-wishful-environmentalism-of-cars-2/)) Of course, the actor is aware that the movie’s producers don’t want John Cleese to sound _exactly_ like John Cleese. “There’s an awful lot of variation, even in an ordinary middle-class English voice,” he explains. So how did Bulldog’s voice come about? After reading a script, Cleese doesn’t do a huge amount of preparation until he gets to the studio. “The most important work is done in about the first hour, because that’s when you find the voice that they want.; they probably don’t know exactly what they want,” he says. “That’s the most time consuming bit but also obviously the most important bit.” He looks at storyboards that show information—like the location of his character relative to other characters—that help determine how he will deliver a line. But in Bulldog’s case, there was a very specific inspiration. “I went and did the sort of voice that the RAF pilots did during the Second World War, or at least the way they were portrayed in British films of that time, and that seemed to be pretty much it,” he says. So, rather than taking an hour to find the voice, Cleese estimates that it took 20 minutes. For example (the guy in the chess game is a pilot): Could become: Cleese says he’s always been able to do accents—though an American one is the hardest, he says, because Americans don’t stay in one place long enough to get pure regional voices—but there is one thing he’s not planning to do any time soon: actually piloting a plane. “I’m one of those people who leaves things like that to the experts,” says Cleese. “I have absolutely no desire to be able to fly a plane. I detest flying. That’s the politest thing I can say about it.” (**Q&A**: [_Cars 2_ Director John Lasseter](http://entertainment.time.com/2011/06/22/a-qa-with-cars-2-director-john-lasseter/)) John Cleese on 'Planes' ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7118153/how-john-cleese-found-his-planes-voice/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7118153/how-john-cleese-found-his-planes-voice/"},"headline":"How John Cleese Found His 'Planes' Voice","datePublished":"2013-08-05T17:00:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-25T05:55:06.201Z","description":"In the upcoming Planes, Disney's take on what goes on \"above the world of Cars,\" Monty Python legend John Cleese voices Bulldog, a veddy British...","url":"https://time.com/archive/7118153/how-john-cleese-found-his-planes-voice/","keywords":["Disney","Planes"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ec790c7de6d5494/698a8e93011682211498b5a6/j10.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7ec790c7de6d5494/698a8e93011682211498b5a6/j10.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Just For Laughs Launch At Sydney Opera House","caption":"Just For Laughs Launch At Sydney Opera House","creditText":"Getty Images—2011 Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7118153/how-john-cleese-found-his-planes-voice/","name":"How John Cleese Found His 'Planes' Voice"}}]}] ```