Thanks for reading.
Best Female Voice Artist: Bea Benaderet (I think she was just a notch
above June Foray)
Best Male Voice Artist: Mel Blanc (sorry, gotta be conventional)
Worst Voice Artists: Whoever did the voices on "He-Man." The acting, as
far as I remember, was not only as bad as the rest of the show but even
worse.
Jaime J. Weinman
> Anyone out there in InternetLand have a candidate for the best and/or
> worst cartoon voice artist of all time?
Best:
Maurice LeMarche or Rob Paulson
Worst:
Not sure. The guy who does Darion (Sp?) on Sailor Moon is pretty lousy.
--
______ ___________________________________________________________
|__ __ |. . __ ___.__._ \ mex...@island.net |
||_)|_)||\/|\\ /| \ / | | |_| / - - - - - - - - - - |
||--| || |_|\/ |- \/ | |- | \ \ Pith-Head Productions |
|| | || | |/\ \|__/\ | |__| \/ http://www.island.net/~mexter/ |
|______|_____/__\____/__\_________\________________________________|
Star Trek: No Fear - Star Trek meets the point system.
[]Bob Nunes wrote:
[]>
[]> Anyone out there in InternetLand have a candidate for the best and/or
[]> worst cartoon voice artist of all time?
[]Best: Mel Blanc, of course.
[]
[]Worst: If I remember a name, it's because the person _doesn't_ suck.
It's hard to choose based on such a complete absence of criteria, but
if I were to pick "range" as the baseline for the best and worst awards,
I'd probably pick Blanc in the "all time" 'best' category, and Paulsen if
we were confining the choices to the land of the living (though I still
find it virtually impossible to believe that "The Tick" and MWS's
TMNT "Michaelangelo" emanate from the same dude - Townshend
Coleman)
Based on the "range" thing again, I think I'd have to nominate either Cam
Clarke, Thom Adcox Hernandez or Robbie Rist in the "worst" category, but
even that's horribly misleading. In the case of Hernandez, he just doesn't
seem to lend anything noticeably different to Film Roman's "Felix" (since
replaced) as opposed to his characterization in "Gargoyles". Cam Clarke
is all kinds of fun to listen to, but no matter if he's on Robotech, Denver
the Last Dinosaur or Ninja Turtles, he always sounds essentially the same.
Robbie Rist should have a category all to him/herself (is the "Robbie"
short for "Robert" or "Roberta"? I've heard both!). This individual
voices buckets of old CBS bumpers, "Federal Express" commercials,
"Michaelangelo" from the TMNT theatrical flicks, "Star" from Ambliimation's
"Balto" and so forth. All in exactly the same voice, and now so
recognizable *for* that voice that he/she's had to add "TM" to the byline
on the credit roll to stop imitators. That said, Robbie's one of my
favourite voice artists, but is the kind of actor that doesn't lend
him/herself easily to "best/worst" pigeonholing. Same goes for people like
Tony Jay ("Megabyte", "Virgil", "Shere Khan").
Also gotta mention a few others in my "favourite" pantheon that may or may
not have a great range, but are simply outstanding *actors*. The first is
Jim Cummings. Cummings has one of those voices you wished yours evolved
into once you were too old for the choir in Grade 5, and he's done more
voice-overs and characters than I could name in half an hour. Still, I
specifically mention him in this post for his performance as "Steele" in
"Balto". Cummings played "Steele" sort of coolly malevolent through most
of the picture, but there were some scenes where he appeared to give just
that little bit extra that defines the difference between a merely able
performance and a memorable one. I just can't imagine any other artist in
the role without diminishing the character incalculably (which, BTW, is
just about as close to 'gush' as I can get without insulin).
The remaining two are Charlie Adler and Barry Gordon. Though both
seem only able to alter their voices by varying the gruffness quotient
to-and-fro (see Gordon's 'Donatello' vs. 'Razor', and Adler's
Thunderlizards 'Bill' character as compared with SwatKats' "T-Bone"),
they both seem to lend their characters a 'depth' I don't see all that
often on Sat-AM.
Ehh...short questions deserves long answers. Look at Congress.
chance (who would've included the voice artist for CINAR's "White Fang"
in there somewhere for that role - that is, if I could find
a way to put a name to the voice sans side-by-side credits...)
> Also, Bill Thompson had plenty of voices other than the two you
> mention. He did the Wolf in many of those Droopy cartoons, also...and
> did all the pirates in Disney's "Peter Pan." There are a number of
> videotapes of 50's TV shows around that show him playing a wide range
> of characters.
Geez, really? I had no idea...OK, I take it back like a shot. My
mistake stemmed from the fact that I can only recognize Thompson when I
can connect a voice to one of his "Fibber McGee and Molly" voices, and
on that show the ones that aren't Wallace or the Old Timer sound like
variations thereof...
Anyway, we can agree that Thompson was great. I especially love him in
Wallace Wimple's monologue about the dastardly effects of tea:
"Tea stimulates me too much...the other day I was in an 'I don't care'
mood and I guzzled down three cups. Straight. No cream or sugar. And
then I took a jar of caviar that was marked 'Keep in a cool place,' and
deliberately set it right on the stove. Sometimes I hate myself for
losing control like that."
Jaime J. Weinman
> But "range" is more than the number of voices you can do; it's also
>actorly range. Music isn't a good example in that, being a sitcom writer
>turned voice actor, he doesn't have much acting range either (however,
>that one voice of his is so good that I'm willing to forgive him
>anything if he'll just do Carleton the doorman again). But a good
>example is Sterling Holloway, who had only one voice but was a
>marvellous vocal actor. Bill Thompson had basically two voices, his
>"Wallace Wimple" voice (used for Droopy and that park ranger) and his
>"Old Timer" voice, and he was so good with both of them...
ME: I agree with you that acting is more important than voice range,
but I would disagree with you that Lorenzo Music is limited in the
former. I've directed about two-thirds of the "top" voice folks in
the business and I would place Lorenzo in the top few in acting
ability, especially in his skill at delivering a punch line.
Also, Bill Thompson had plenty of voices other than the two you
mention. He did the Wolf in many of those Droopy cartoons, also...and
did all the pirates in Disney's "Peter Pan." There are a number of
videotapes of 50's TV shows around that show him playing a wide range
of characters.
---------------------------
Mark Evanier - 363 S. Fairfax Ave., #303 - Los Angeles, CA 90036
> If you are strictly basing it on range, Lorenzo Music (SP?) has only one
> voice, so he would be "worst."
But "range" is more than the number of voices you can do; it's also
actorly range. Music isn't a good example in that, being a sitcom writer
turned voice actor, he doesn't have much acting range either (however,
that one voice of his is so good that I'm willing to forgive him
anything if he'll just do Carleton the doorman again). But a good
example is Sterling Holloway, who had only one voice but was a
marvellous vocal actor. Bill Thompson had basically two voices, his
"Wallace Wimple" voice (used for Droopy and that park ranger) and his
"Old Timer" voice, and he was so good with both of them...
Jaime J. Weinman
The only thing that could be even worse was the female generic characters
in all of the Filmation library. Will someone take credit for the
lifeless, flattened substitute for a human female?
-Otter
--
Wonderous is our great blue ship
that sails around the mighty sun,
and joy to everyone that rides along
--Jeff Lynne
Best: Daws Butler
Second Best: Mel Blanc
Worst: too many to count, especially these days.
Dan Zarin <danz...@worldnet.att.net.SPAMLESS> wrote in article
<33E783...@worldnet.att.net.SPAMLESS>...
> Bob Nunes wrote:
> >
> > Anyone out there in InternetLand have a candidate for the best and/or
> > worst cartoon voice artist of all time?
> >
> > Thanks for reading.
> >
> > Bob
> > cspa...@cdsnet.net
>
>As a side note, has anyone noticed the abundance of live-action films which
>contain bits of Paul Frees dubbing?
He did the narration in "Hardware Wars," if I remember correctly.
He did the on-screen part of one of the scientists in "The Thing From Another
World," the original release. He also did the opening narration in "War of the
Worlds," along with the on-screen part of the Radio Newsman.
Jerry
[]As a side note, has anyone noticed the abundance of live-action films which
[]contain bits of Paul Frees dubbing? He provided the voice of the dwarf in
[]"The War Lord" with Charlton Heston, and he replaced all of Toshiro
[]Mifune's voice tracks in "Midway" (also with Charlton Heston)
Do you have a source for this "Midway" statement? I'm quite familiar
with the flick, have heard Mifune in a number of projects since, and
can't really say there's a marked difference between the sound of his
voice in "Midway" as opposed to later efforts.
chance (who fears he has done little more than awaken a sleeping giant...)
>If we really need to delve to the bottom of the proverbial barrel, one
>name comes to mind - Lou Scheimer (sp?). He was the big cheese at
>Filmation, a company with the dubious honor of producing the *cheapest*
>animation in town. Lou himself, would provide one or sometimes many of the
>voices, to avoid that nasty scale SAG/AFTRA wage to some voice actor. The
>best example comes to mind with Fat Albert's Dumb Donald voice--I'm almost
>certain that was Lou's as well as any other male "one-shot" character that
>walked into Albert's neighborhood with his special problem the boys had to
>solve.
I'm not sure about all the "other male `one-shot' characters," but
according to Bill Cosby, he personally did all the voices for Fat Albert
and the Cosby Kids characters, i.e., Fat Albert, Dumb Donald, Rudy, etc.
Not that he did the voices for all the charcters in the show. Mr.
Scheimer may very well have done many of the male walk-ons.
>The only thing that could be even worse was the female generic characters
>in all of the Filmation library. Will someone take credit for the
>lifeless, flattened substitute for a human female?
Oh, I don't know, how about the poor guys who did the voices for Race and
Dr. Quest also doing the voices for guards, henchmen, villains, innocent
passerby, and even the monsters not only on Johnny Quest, but for
practically every cartoon HB produced in the 60's.
>-Otter
Mayn
--
Maynard R. Svor
Western Washington University
msvor@.cc.wwu.edu
Maurice LaMarche also does a fine Frees. BTW, did you ever get the
feeling (as I have) while watching Paul Frees do on-camera roles that it
still seems that Paul Frees is dubbing the voice. I guess it's because
we're so unused to hearing that very recognizable voice emanating from the
man himself.
gjb
>Maurice LaMarche also does a fine Frees. BTW, did you ever get the
>feeling (as I have) while watching Paul Frees do on-camera roles that it
>still seems that Paul Frees is dubbing the voice. I guess it's because
>we're so unused to hearing that very recognizable voice emanating from the
>man himself.
ME: Maurice does indeed do a fine Frees, as does Joe Leahy. And Frank
Welker once did a Boris Badenov spot that was so good, it fooled June
Foray.
And I should mention one other person who has replicated Paul on a
number of occasions, and that is Walker Edmiston. He did Ludwig Von
Drake for dozens of Disney records and educational films and such, and
he matched Paul's voice to perfection. In fact, Walker did a lot of
those while Paul was still alive, but living in San Francisco, and
each time Disney tried to hire him, Walker insisted on getting Paul's
okay first. Paul always said yes, he didn't want the job, but even
the thirtieth or fortieth time they called Walker to do the voice,
he'd always say, "I have to check with Paul first." And he did.
I know what you mean about thinking Frees himself was dubbed. I used
to feel the same way, talking in person to June or Daws Butler or Mel
Blanc. It was strange to hear a magical voice coming out of a human
being like that.
chance <timbe...@lynx.bc.ca> wrote in article
<33ec7cfc....@news.lynx.bc.ca>...
As for Paul Frees soundalikes, does anyone know who did a Ludwig von Drake
voice for narration for the Disneyland Railroad about ten years ago? I
believe it was shortly after Paul Frees' death, and I was very impressed
with the quality of the voice (especially compared with Wayne Allwine's
miserable attempts for The Disney Channel). The narration was only
temporary, and I believe it was while Splash Mountain was under
construction.
Thanks for all the information about my favorite voice actor.
--
Jeff Peterson
zeni...@cts.com
Mark Evanier <eva...@ix.netcom.com> wrote in article
<33ecee8a...@nntp.ix.netcom.com>...
> On 9 Aug 1997 03:26:35 GMT, "Jeff Peterson" <zeni...@cts.com> posted:
>
> >As a side note, has anyone noticed the abundance of live-action films
which
> >contain bits of Paul Frees dubbing? He provided the voice of the dwarf
in
> >"The War Lord" with Charlton Heston, and he replaced all of Toshiro
> >Mifune's voice tracks in "Midway" (also with Charlton Heston), in
addition
> >to many smaller bits in other films (like the garbage man in "The Ugly
> >Dachshund" with Dean Jones).
>
> ME: There are a lot of those. He looped quite a few actors in "Gigi."
> If you get the tape, check out a scene about ten minutes in where
> Louis Jordan is talking with three men. They're all dubbed by Paul.
> By the way: Corey Burton has recently done a number of excellent
> simulations of Paul's voice, most notably for the latest Stan Freberg
> CD, and for the "Pirates of the Carribean" ride at Disneyland. But
> there's a new voice artist who lately has been doing Paul for some
> small parts...his son, Fred Frees. I think Fred is the one doing
> Boris Badenov on some spots on Cartoon Network.
>As for Paul Frees soundalikes, does anyone know who did a Ludwig von Drake
>voice for narration for the Disneyland Railroad about ten years ago?
ME: I think that was Walker Edmiston.
Tress MacNeil (obviously the best nowadays)
April Winchell (now doing a ton of stuff for Disney, plus she does
hysterical bank commercials here in LA)
Samantha Newark- she played Jem, and man did she do a great job and
she was only 18 !
The Best? Well, June Foray comes to mind immediately, as does Stan
Frieberg. Going back a fair distance, how about Mae Questel, voice of
Betty Boop, Olive Oyl and, for a few cartoons during World War II, Popeye.
I don't do worst.
Brent McKee
It anyone wants to see a photo of the event, go to:
http://www.cybergraphix-anim.com/Comedy-O-Rama/joe-photo.htm
It is towards the bottom of the page.
I may put up a recording of the show someday in RealAudio (with ASIFA's
permission.
--
| Joe Bevilacqua joe...@ibm.net
| creator of the
| COMEDY-O-RAMA WEBSITE !
| COME VISIT FOR Comedy, RealAudio, New Comics
| & the Official Site of the Daws Butler Webpages !
| http://www.cybergraphix-anim.com/Comedy-O-Rama/
| site e-mail: comed...@ibm.net
|_________________________________________________
Mark Evanier <eva...@ix.netcom.com> wrote in article
<33ed1012...@nntp.ix.netcom.com>...
> *Otte...@earthlink.net (Jay Sabicer) writes:
> >The only thing that could be even worse was the female generic characters
> >in all of the Filmation library. Will someone take credit for the
> >lifeless, flattened substitute for a human female?
>
> Oh, I don't know, how about the poor guys who did the voices for Race and
> Dr. Quest also doing the voices for guards, henchmen, villains, innocent
> passerby, and even the monsters not only on Johnny Quest, but for
> practically every cartoon HB produced in the 60's.
Those people were Doug Young (aka Doggie Daddy) and the late Vic Perrin
(who did the wonderfully evil Dr. Zin as well as every other major bad guy
in the H-B repetoire). I agree Young's range was pretty weak, but Perrin's
voice work was quite good, in comparison to the previous posted.
Females
June Foray
Janet Waldo
Verna Felton
Mae Questal
Jean Vanderpyl
Sara Berner
Sara berner
Sara Berner-the best,..
I remebember Mark telling me that on CompyuServe (under my real name Steve
J.Carras).Corey Burton and Fred Frees hopefully can follow in his
footsteps. (Now with Janet Waldo aka JUDY JETSON seemingly retired,leave
us just hope TIFFANY doesn't get to do any more of HER toons!)
I think Tiffany only did Judy so they could have her singing in the film
as well.
>I think Tiffany only did Judy so they could have her singing in the film
>as well.
ME: The story that circulated around H-B at the time was that they
originally wanted to have Tiffany only sing for Judy Jetson, with
Janet Waldo still doing Judy's speaking voice. Supposedly though,
Tiffany or her managers said that she wouldn't do the part unless she
had the entire role, and someone acquiesced.
I'll bet, if today you polled all those involved in the project, you
couldn't find anyone who'd admit to ever thinking it was a good idea.
(That would include the H-B exec who then wanted to dump all the
already-recorded tracks of the original voices, and re-record it with
all celebs. I believe he wanted Chevy Chase to play George, Cloris
Leachman to play Jane, Ricky Schroeder to do Elroy, Joan Rivers to
play Rosie and Dabney Coleman to redo Spacely. Fortunately, this
never got past the discussion stage.)
Has anyone anywhere ever gone to see an animated feature because they
were fans of someone doing a voice? Maybe YELLOW SUBMARINE but that's
about it...
(Or Bill Scott?)
Best: Mel Blanc, Arthur Q. Bryan, Clarance "Ducky" Nash
Worst: can't think of one
-Jon
I think Robin Williams was probably a big draw for "Aladdin", but
the Genie was more than just the voice... Still, would "Aladdin" have
done nearly as well if Dan Castellaneta had been doing the Genie's voice
from day one?
I'll also admit that I may not have seen "The Swan Princess"
without John Cleese and Stephen Wright as Jean-Bob and Speed.
--
To...@Fred.Net
http://www.fred.net/tomr
"That post is gonna haunt me till I die, isn't it?"
- Catherine 'TCurryFan' Johnson
If I recall right, Peter Cullen (Optimus in THE TRANSFORMERS) was credited
with the role of KARR, the Knight Automated Roving Robot.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
To resist spam, I don't accept E-mail. To reply, post it in public.
Who else was in the JEM cast? I know Susan Blu voiced Pizazz shortly
before entering her "I vant to direct" stage, and I believe Bobbi Block
(Rock-1 in THE BIONIC SIX) was one of Jerrica's foster kids.
99 per cent true, Webb (I dont know where she is from or where she was
born) was a radio actress in 30s and 40s,who did most females (regardless
of the sameness of them all!),except TV show (BRADY KIDS,STAR
TREK,GILLGIAN'S ISLAND rerecreations and actress Lola Fisher-what happened
to her?-in MISSION MAGIC and a few others) in all of the Filmation shows
(another was studio head Louis Scheimer-his [partner in crime Norm
PRescott was a washed up DJ-had a daughter who also did females.)
Here's the Jem cast
Jem/Jerrica Samantha Newark
Aja/Kimber Cathianne Blore
Shana Cindy McGee
Raya Linda Dangill
Rio Mike Sheehan
Synergy Marlene Aragon
Pizzazz Patricia Albrect
Stormer Sue Blu
Roxy Bobbi Block (aka Samatha Paris)
Jetta Louise Dorsey
Eric Charlie Adler
Riot Townsend Coleman
Rapture Bobbi Block
Minx Kath Soucie
Video Noelle North
Sean Dan Gillivesan
Jeff Michael Horton
Anthony TK Carter
Howard Neil Ross
Astral Cathy Cavidini
Zipper Walker Edminston
Harvey Gabor Wally Burr
Singing Voices
Jem Britta Phillips
Pizzazz Ellen Bernfield
Additional singing voices
Anne Bryant
Ford Kinder
Florence Warner
Ullanda MacCullough
Lani Groves
In the 1964 version,these were the voices
Johnny Quest........Tim Math(i)eson (i added in adult years later on)
Race Bannon/minor characters...........Mike Road
Bandit the dog/minor characters/Dr.Quest.....Don Messick
Dr.Quest/minor characters........John Stephenson
Hadji,Indian boy...Danny Bravo
Mike was also in the Star Trek; TNG pilot, he played Gropler Zorn.
>Speaking of Don Messick, anyone know how he's doing, I heard he had a
>stroke and wasn't able to speak well anymore.
ME: One of Don's agents told me that he is resting comfortably, but
that he is not expected to be able to perform ever again. They hope
this is wrong, as do we all.
However, there's ONE voice actor whom I simply cannot stand... whose voice
has irritated me for years. His name is MICHAEL BELL. He also goes by
the name MIKE BELL. I can't exactly put my finger on what it is that I
hate about his voice, I just know that my skin crawls when I hear it. He
was Riddler and Zan on "The Superfriends," plus dozens of other
characters, including Plastic Man and Handy Smurf. His voice is easy to
pick out, since his range is so limited all of 'em sound alike. He did a
whole lotta voice-over work for Hanna Barbera, and I still don't
understand why they kept hiring him.
My dislike of Michael Bell, you must understand, is completely irrational.
There's just something about his voice that bugs me.
--Joe--
--
To respond, remove all the consonants from my e-mail address. Then add
your grandmother's maiden name and the square root of your shoe size.
Then ask yourself if it's really worth the effort.
> Hm? What? If you mean the frantic mile-a-minute narrator of "The
> Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle/Bullwinkle and Rocky", that was
> William Conrad (yes, the same WIlliam Conrad who played Cannon and the
> Fat Man, generally listed in the _Bullwinkle_ credits as `Bill').
Frees narrated many, if not most (if not all?) of the Dudley Doo-Rights,
and a few of the (earlier?) R&B serials, as I recall.
Paul Penna
------------------------------------------------------------------
To reply by email, remove "antispammo" from the address in header.
> Frees narrated many, if not most (if not all?) of the Dudley Doo-Rights,
> and a few of the (earlier?) R&B serials, as I recall.
No, William Conrad was the sole narrator for all the Rocky & Bullwinkle
entries, but Frees was the narrator for all of the Hoppity Hooper
episodes.
Since this thread has mentioned in previous posts the passing of the baton
from Paul to his son, Fred, could someone post a sound file of some of
Fred's voicework? I'd like to hear it for myself, since so many successors
in the past haven't quite met with their originals. Nobody has come close
to Mel Blanc's repetoire, or Bill Scott, Daws Butler, Don Messick and of
course, Paul Frees, IMHO.
Hm? What? If you mean the frantic mile-a-minute narrator of "The
Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle/Bullwinkle and Rocky", that was
William Conrad (yes, the same WIlliam Conrad who played Cannon and the
Fat Man, generally listed in the _Bullwinkle_ credits as `Bill').
: and Bullwinkle. Corey also did a fine job that day picking up most of Don
: Messick's roles for our Hanna-Barbera live show.
--
Matthew Miller -- mattm (at) infinet (dot) com
Rat's rue, Rodie! Rin rat ROOBY-ROO reunion repisode rof RONNY RAVO, re
rasn't re roice! Rank Relker rand Reather Rorth rid recreate reir
raracters, rowever...
I meant in the dudley DooRight part of the show. That was Paul Frees not
Conrad.
BTW, Corey also did a great Bill Conrad at the show.
--
| Joe Bevilacqua joe...@ibm.net
| creator of the
| COMEDY-O-RAMA WEBSITE !
| COME VISIT FOR Comedy, RealAudio, New Comics
| & the Official Site of the Daws Butler Webpages !
| http://www.cybergraphix-anim.com/Comedy-O-Rama/
| site e-mail: comed...@ibm.net
|_________________________________________________
>I meant in the dudley DooRight part of the show. That was Paul Frees not
>Conrad.
ME: There were a few Dudley Do-Right cartoons narrated by Conrad --
the first few, I believe. Frees narrated most of them.