What Bugs Me About Voice Acting for Cartoons

[volcomxreckless]

The thing of it is when a certain voice actor quits and their voice is the one we've all grown to love -- WHY do they find a new voice actor with an extremely annoying voice?

Like if it's a boy (and his voice hasnt changed) why in the world do they find some guy with a voice thats COMPLETELY deep?

&& if it's a girl who's voice already got out of that totally high pitched stage ... why do they pick a girl who has an EXTREMELY high pitched voice?

I just wanted to know what anybody else thought because this happens a lot on TV lately.

[Lt. Dan]

This could be an interesting topic.

I hadn't really noticed this. Any examples?

[Tungsten]

Well some examples of replacing voice actors. . . . .

Iroh: Mako -> Greg Baldwin
* Switch caused by death of Mako. Greg good but the second you hear the original, you know that's Iroh.

Superman: Tim Daily (Superman TAS) -> George Newborne (Justice League)
* Tim Daily had to conflicting schedule and could not do Superman for the Justice League
* Same idea as Iroh, the second you hear Tim Daily play superman you know George is second rate. He's good but not as good as Tim Daily.

Batgirl: Batman TAS => Batman TNA (great switch to the wonderful Tara Strong)
* Here's an example of a good switch. If I recall correctly the original VA died and they had Tara Strong take over. It was one of her first roles, and she just nailed it. Loved her voice more than the original.

Those are a few I can remember off the top of my head.

[Hama]

I believe Code Lyoko had a bit of this, or at least changes in performance.

I'm not really a religious watcher of the show so I can't tell you which ones, but there are some episodes where Jeremy(?) sounds stuffy and geeky and some where he doesn't.

[nymphadora]

I used to religiously watch Pokemon and hadn't seen it for a while. When I watched it the other day, the voice changes were so obvious that I could pick them up after years. Ash's voice is just so different, as well as James. I know there were others that I can't remember, but it was really annoying!

[Chibi Chan-o]

nymphadora said:

I used to religiously watch Pokemon and hadn't seen it for a while. When I watched it the other day, the voice changes were so obvious that I could pick them up after years. Ash's voice is just so different, as well as James. I know there were others that I can't remember, but it was really annoying!

The new voice actors kill me on the inside. I'm so glad that the first season is out on DVD so we can enjoy the original VAs.

[volcomxreckless]

Yeah like how they made Ash's voice SUPER deep! XD
I don't mind Greg as Iroh (he's probably the best replacement out there) but I do miss Mako=[
What I don't understand is, why they can't put a little effort into finding a voice actor who actually sounds like the original!

[Sakura]

chibichan said:

nymphadora said:

I used to religiously watch Pokemon and hadn't seen it for a while. When I watched it the other day, the voice changes were so obvious that I could pick them up after years. Ash's voice is just so different, as well as James. I know there were others that I can't remember, but it was really annoying!

The new voice actors kill me on the inside. I'm so glad that the first season is out on DVD so we can enjoy the original VAs.

I know! You turn it on and watch some of D&P, then you have to turn it off because your ears start bleeding! Darn Cartoon Network! They could've just hired the old guy! But noooo, they had to go and make us deaf!

[goten0040]

Yes, Code Lyoko has a lot of voice changing. But I never liked Lyoko's dub anyway. The charcter's voices always annoyed me either way.


I think probably the biggest voice change to me was in Dragonball Z, when FUNImation took over the dub. Personally, I prefer this dub. I think Sean Schemmel does an excellent job with Goku, and though Vegeta sound like he's been smoking since he was born, I like Chris Sabat's rendention of the character too. I admit at first the character's voices seemed a little blander - mainly because of lack of experience, but now that many of the episodes have been revoiced and remastered, I think they really still capture the series in a good light.

Cell sounds like a Patrick Stuart impression though...

[Sheogorath]

nymphadora said:

I used to religiously watch Pokemon and hadn't seen it for a while. When I watched it the other day, the voice changes were so obvious that I could pick them up after years. Ash's voice is just so different, as well as James. I know there were others that I can't remember, but it was really annoying!

If you remember about Pokemon, they've actually changed James's voice twice. He sounded one way, I can't really describe his voice, but I'll say he sounded like a stereotype villain in the first episode or two, but after that, they got the guy who was doing his voice to change it to what we had grown to know and love, but around the time Ash went to Hoenn, it could have been Johto, I, too stopped watching for a while and just don't know when, they got the guy who's doing James now. The same goes for Meowth, they changed his voice from the first few episodes, but it was a change for the better, as he just sounded completely wrong at first, and he's had the voice he has now since.

And the thing about Ash is, it's been a few years since he first left home, you can see it in the fact that he's slightly taller than he used to be, his features are a bit better defined even if the original animators had been able to keep drawing, and that his voice is deeper. Remember, he was 10 when he first left Pallet Town, and now, he's roughly 13 or 14, it's hard to tell, so of course they're going to get someone else to do his voice for episodes later in the series. He's older, so it would be really odd to have the same voice he did three or four years ago, when his voice hadn't broken yet. So I say, it's not so odd that they'd have a different voice actor. Me, I like the new guy better than the old one, anyway. I mean, Ash sounded kinda babyish after a while, and the guy doing him now sounds, to my ears, at least, the way he should at this point in his life.

I mean, think about this. If they had made Avatar about Avatar Roku, and after his story, took the story and focused it on Aang, and that first story about Aang's predecessor had a younger Avatar Roku in his days, young enough to necessitate a completely different voice actor than the one we know, then the Avatar Roku in Aang's story was an old man as he is now and the actor voicing him in his own story couldn't believably sound older, wouldn't you, as a casting director, allow the first voice actor to fulfill the contract he signed with the ending of that first outing and pursue other ventures and bring in another person to voice an older Avatar Roku? I say yes. If the one voice actor just doesn't have the acting skills to change their voice to sound believably younger or older later in the show's lifetime, then you should bring another person in for the desired effect.

I can't say I really noticed this outside Pokemon, Superman, Avatar, DBZ, and One Piece.

And One Piece, I think, is the most obvious and annoying. You get used to hearing them all one way, then Funimation gets hold of it, and they let their actors do their own thing and don't even try to sound like they did before. Case in point, you who watch One Piece remember their original voices, and they had them up unto the conclusion of the Rainbow Mist arc, then the very next episode, which is where Funimation took over, everyone else had completely different voices. I don't know about everyone else who watches that show feels about him, but Zolo never struck me as a deep-voiced guy, but I think Luffy sounds more like he should have all along. To my ears, anyway.

[username]

tmmfangirls said:

I know! You turn it on and watch some of D&P, then you have to turn it off because your ears start bleeding! Darn Cartoon Network! They could've just hired the old guy! But noooo, they had to go and make us deaf!

It's not cartoon network, 4kids just stopped dubbing Pokemon. Which is too bad seeing as it was their best job.

(Speaking of 4kids, way to go funimation, coming to salvage One Piece and messing it all up by having it sound exactly like the old awful dub.)