Having been blessed with a young family (well sometimes afflicted is a better word but I digress) I have some familiarity with childrens TV and video selections.
In Australia, the majority the animated childrens shows are of BBC (UK) origin. One of the main attractions for an adult is the number of (to me) familiar actors who provide the narration or character voices. Off the top, a couple recently seen are:
Bob the Builder - Neil Morrissey
Kipper - Martin Clunes
Preston Pig - Hugh Laurie
The Lost Toys - Joanna Lumbley & Bob Hoskins
Brambly Hedge - Robert Lindsay & Neil Morrissey
Now the US sourced TV seen in Oz tend more towards the hard hitting/special effects/blockbuster genre, so I’m presuming the US has it’s own stable of animated childrens shows.
OK, enough preamble, the question:
Do the US acting fraternity have a tradition/culture of offering their time to programs of this genre in the same way the British do?
You seem to be implying that you think the BBC actors who “offer their time” to cartoon shows are doing it out of the kindness of their hearts.
This, I seriously doubt. They’re doing it for the money, and so do actors in the U.S.
The only exception I can think of is that Robin Williams did the voice for the Genie for Disney’s Aladdin for free, for giggles, (so goes the skinny), but otherwise they all do expect to get paid.
To make amends, Disney hired Williams again for one of the direct to video sequels for almost one million dollars and more art thrown in as an apology.
Most of the cast of Star Trek: Next Generation did voices for the Gargoyles cartoon show; there are a great many screen actors and actresses doing voices for the Batman/Superman series of cartoons (Mark Hamill, Ed Asner, Adrienne Barbeau, Melissa Gilbert, Roddy McDowall, Diana Muldaur, Paul Williams are all in Batman: The Animated Series, for example).
Scatman Crouthers did the voice of “Jazz” on the regular Transformers cartoon series, too. But he’s had a decent record of doing animated voices, among them Hanna-Barbera’s karate-choppin’ canine super-guy, Hong Kong Phooey.
As for Orson Welles, he actually died in the middle of doing voice work for Transformers: The Movie. His remaining lines were done by Leonard Nimoy, whose voice was slowed down to closer match Welles’ voice. As a TF fan, I’m mildly miffed that this never gets mentioned AFAIK in any of Welles’ biographies…
I always felt that Frakes played a better Xanatos than he ever did a Riker; there wasn’t even the “familiar voice, wrong face” discontinuity you often get–Xanatos was drawn to look a lot like Frakes.
Other well-known (non-Trek) voice actors on the show were Ed Asner as Hudson, Jim Belushi as Fang, John Rhys-Davies as Macbeth, and Tim Curry as Dr. Anton Sevarius (Tim Curry as a mad scientist? Who would’ve guessed? )
Tim Curry is the voice of Nigel Thornberry on Nickelodian’s The Wild Thornberrys. I always secretly wish he’d break into “Sweet Transvestite” … but he appears to have a lot of fun with the role anyway. Flea does the “voice” of the feral boy, Donnie.
Famous actors are all over the Disney animated movies. (Just think of The Lion King, for starters – James Earl Jones, Matthew Broderick, Whoopie Goldberg, Robert Guillaume Nathan Lane, Jeremy Irons. There are others but I can’t think of them.
My favorite obscure reference is Donnie Osmond, who does the singing voice for the male lead in Mulan.
Mark Hamill’s on Time Squad, plus he played the cat on the Powerpuff Girls. I don’t remember the episode. And I think he’s been in a couple of other things. It’s so random, him being a cartoon guy.
Bernadette Peters voices Rita the Singing Cat on Animaniacs. I was also going to mention Mark Hamill doing the robot’s voice on Time Squad, but someone beat me to it.
Ed Asner - Cosgrove on Freakaziod
Jim Belushi - Simon on AHH! Real Monsters (what happened to that show?)
Roddy McDowell - Chameleon on Secret Squirrel, The Breadmaster on The Tick
John DeLance (“Q”) - The Yak in the Sack on Angry Beavers
Michael Dorn (Worf) - I.M. Weasel on I Am Weasel
Jason Alexander has done numerous cartoon voices: Aladdin (series); The Hunchback of Notre Dame and its direct-to-video sequel (!); Hercules (series); Duckman; Dilbert (as Catbert); Madeline: Lost in Paris.
As far as Disney features go, every one since The Jungle Book has had celebrity voices, which was a departure from the norm and it’s not a coincidence that this practice began after Walt died. Walt believed that famous voices detracted from the story and I think he had a point. (Also, unknown voice actors work cheaper!)
Another cartoon series that had many celebrity voices was Spider-Man. Get a load of this cast. A few who stand out: Edward Asner, Mark Hamill, Martin Landau, Roscoe Lee Browne, Joseph Campanella and David Warner (who has also done many cartoon voices lately). To answer the OP, I’m sure these actors were all paid for their parts.
They’re doing it for the money, and so do actors in the U.S.
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