You know what’s really weird about that? Whoever voices Cartman actually raises the pitch of the character’s voice in postproduction. I don’t think it was always done that way, but it is now. It’s weird because in the United States today, everybody under the age of 40 knows at least half a dozen people who can do that voice on their own. I hate South Park but picked this up on some Comedy Central Special. Maybe the whole thing was a joke and I didn’t get it, but I don’t think so.
Pochaco, you are being brutally unfair by holding out on us like this.
This wasn’t Finding Nemo was it? I ask because I’ve heard the rumor that Albert Brooks was brought in as a last minute replacement to voice Marlin. Supposedly some well known actor had been cast for the part but it turned out he couldn’t handle voice acting. Brooks was hired as a quick substitute because he was available and had voice performance credits. Pixar supposedly refuses to confirm this or identify the original actor because they feel he shouldn’t take the blame (or Brooks not be given the credit he deserves) for a problem that was beyond anyone’s control.
I watched “Superman: Doomsday” on Cartoon Network a couple of weeks ago and I was more interested in Tom Kenny (as Superman’s Fortress robot) and John Dimaggio (as Toyman) than I was in the lead actors, Adam Baldwin and Anne Heche, who did a competent job (Baldwin, anyway).
And I notice Patrick Warburton all over the place. He’s had some live-action acting roles, such as Elaine’s boyfriend, Puddy, on Seinfeld, and as the Tick. But he’s also Swanson in Family Guy, Kronk in The Emporer’s New School, Barkin in Kim Possible, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, Brock Samson of the Venture Brothers, of course, and was also recently in Space Chimps. And probably in a few others I missed. Very impressive body of work. One of the best right next to West, La Marche, Shearer and company.
One voice actor, not mentioned yet, who impresses me is Dave Willis. While he is mainly a writer he does the voices of Meatwad, Carl and Ignignokt the Mooninite on Aqua Teen Hunger Force (and for those unfamiliar with the show, the three characters have very different voices).
It was for a videogame. And it wound up being killed a few months later, so all the work was wasted anyway. I still have the final cut of the animatic with the voice tracks overlaid … sigh.
This thread is as good a place as any to mention the fact that I would give a whole lot of whatevers to be able to do the voices that Chris Latta did. That’s right bitch, I’m Starscream.
He’d be my guess, too, from the hints - male, multiple CN shows (and non-CN shows shown in repeats on CN), a potentially whiplash-inducing number of different vocal types… (On Spongebob Squarepants alone, he’s Spongebob, the French narrator, and Patchy the Pirate (IIRC, he also does the voice of the guy in the theme song).)
I like him a lot, but to be far, he’s only got one voice and one character type. He’s not a guy of a thousand voices - he’s a guy who does one thing very well.
I dunno that I’d agree with that. Warburton’s voice really doesn’t change among his characters - he’s pretty well instantly recognizable. He doesn’t change pitch, or inflection, or whatever. Not that he doesn’t do a very good job - he does - but he’s no Shearer or West or MacNeille. (:smack: shoulda previewed - Marley23 said the same thing 2 posts earlier).
Another pretty common voice actor is Cree Summer - she played Freddie on A Different World, and has done a lot of cartoon work. Foxxy Love (I think that was the name) on Drawn Together was the most recent thing I’ve heard her in. Good, but not A-list either. Sometimes I have to work a little harder to recognize her voice but I usually can pretty quickly.
In South Park they speed up all of the children’s voices in post.
Also re: the OP - For the most part he doesn’t have any trouble switching from one character to another to have a conversation amongst themselves. Although I have noted certain scenes where the characters are actually talking over each other at the same time and in those instances it is surely done with separate tracks.
I’ve heard that one of the most challenging tings for a voice actor to do is doing impressions while remaining in character. In other words, a good voice actor might be able to do a credible job of sounding like Elmer Fudd or Bugs Bunny but not be able to do Elmer Fudd sounding like Bugs Bunny.
On the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVDs, there are special features which have audio footage of the original “man of a thousand voices,” Mel Blanc, doing voices for wraparounds for The Bugs Bunny Show. The way he does it is rather interesting: rather than go through the entire script with all the characters, he does all of Bugs Bunny’s lines, then goes back to the start of the script and does all of, say, Sylvester’s lines, etc. I don’t know if this is how Blanc normally did his voices, or if he had to do it this way by the '60s since he couldn’t switch between them, but it’s a rather interesting way of doing multiple characters.
As a minor note, some of my favourite Simpsons bits are the characters imitating each other, involving a voice actor imitating another voice actor. When Castellenata’s Homer imitates Kavner’s Marge, and on one occasion when Cartwright-as-Bart imitated Dr. Hibbert, it cracks me up, for some reason.
Just throwing out a little love for Japanese voice acting.
They tend to not have as “cartoony” of voices and a lot less variety in their tone (though they do still have it), but they are the stronger at putting through drama and emotions into their voice. And the female actors, at least, do get a pretty decent amount of fame.
Megumi Hayashibara is of course the standout in terms of fame and fortune.
You’re right, Warburton pretty much does the same voice, but if another actor did Brock Samson, no matter how well, it just wouldn’t be the same. Warburton owns that role.
