I had just turned 20 the month before and my kid brother really wanted to see it.
That guy definitely had a voice that would be hard for anyone to follow.
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The VA being the soul feels like it depends on the character. Warcraft has already replaced a number of VAs and I haven’t cared.
Though sometimes the voice is just iconic. James McCaffrey died earlier this year and with the Max Payne remakes on the horizon I can’t imagine anybody else playing the role of Max Payne.
Or when Larian replaced Jim Cummings with Matt Mercer for Minsc. Matt did as fine a job as one can expect him to do but it still sounds like Matt doing a Minsc voice, because he doesn’t sound like Jim Cummings.
Definitely. Again, Keith David did a wonderful job, but he also had an impossible job.
There’s a world of difference between “the voice actor is the soul of the character” and “the current voice actor for this character died so I wonder how the character will be altered to accommodate this real world circumstance”.
The writers may come up with the dialogue, but it’s a collaborative effort with the VA being just as important.
Like, for example, look up the Chris Farley recording for Shrek, then compare that with Mike Myers. They ended up taking the movie in a completely different direction because of how Mike interpreted the character and how he should sound.
Another example is Frozen, Elsa was originally the villain in the Snow Queen fairy tale that the movie is adapted from. Idina Menzel helped change her into a more sympathetic character which changed the whole movie.
So VA’s can be a critical part of the creation process, not just someone who reads off the lines.
tbf if Disney didn’t stab Robin the back and go against their agreement, I’m sure Robin would’ve continued to voice The Genie. I mean he came back for the third Aladdin movie after the rift was healed.
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i can understand not wanting to replace old settled in voice roles, but at the end of the day the show must go on.
One thing that’s odd to me is in more recent years, voice actors stepping away from roles just cuz they not the same race as the character, Simpsons: Apu, Dr. Hibbert, Carl, i forget it the black cop too now, then Family Guy’s Cleveland Brown for just a few examples.
i mean by all means step down from those roles if you wanna feel guilty over nothing but nobody was actually mad about it lol
Simply put, the VA is an important part of the creative process. It’s a performance they put on to provide another layer for your senses. The VA touches on your sense of hearing in the same say the artist touches your sense of sight.
For example, can you handle the english dub for Goku’s voice changing? They sound similar enough that the “soul” (as you see it) is retained. But then you swap to the Japanese VA, can you say it feels like the same character? (I personally cannot watch a JP dub for Goku’s voice, it’s like a new character to me.)
A good example of this is the Joker. Heath Ledger’s Joker is damn good for all of the extra personality he gave during the performance. Happy-Go-Lucky, licking his scars, his own “Joker laugh”, etc. But another great example of the Joker is the animated version using Mark Hamill’s voice performances. They are COMPLETELY different performances despite being the same character.
Now, using another iconic character, the voice actor for Uncle Iroh in the cartoon Avatar series. After the original voice actor’s death (Makoto Iwamatsu), Greg Baldwin was informed by Mako’s performance and did not change the character’s voice.
So, “killing off a character” might have to do with a few situations:
- Re-hashing the series and characters? Acting performances should aim to be their own version of the character.
- Original run of the series? Acting performances should aim to change as little as possible.
Not me.
The writer should outline what a good performance feels like. But the writer needs to be aware that a production requires a team. Real people are performing, and they will have their own traits. The casting director needs to understand who the character is, and who would offer the best results for the writer’s vision.
It’s important to remember that a writer’s idea of their own character may not be the best version of that character. The writer might be better informed if a character gained additional traits through the actors. Given it’s not a character contrivance, of course.
The pen will never be more expressive than the voice, but the voice needs a pen to guide it. When they work together, they can create something better than the sum of their parts.