I have begun playing the Baldur’s Gate games on PC as well as finishing up Jedi Academy. Because I’m a curious fish—and because I recognized David Warner’s voice as Jon Irenicus from Baldur’s Gate: Shadows of Amn—I looked up the other voice talents from the games.
Now, I thought I was pretty well up to speed on cartoon voice actors, but I was still surprised to discover that I’d heard some of these great voices before.
Did you know that the voice of Jedi Kyle Katarn is Jeff Bennett, the voice of Johnny Bravo, Foghorn Leghorn and Yosemite Sam?
Did you know that Jim Cummings, the voice of Minsc, the brain-damaged ranger with the pet hamster from Baldur’s Gate, is also Winnie the Pooh?
Wow. These guys’ voices are amazing. I have a hell of a lot of respect for people who do voices for a living. They’re everywhere and we don’t know it.
Anybody else have some good video game voice actors they particularly like? Or someone that you were surprised to find out was also the voice of another well-loved character? One ground rule for the thread: nobody gets to call Mel Blanc. (Too talented, too obvious, and too bad he’s dead. ) Heck, you can name your favorite cartoon voice actors too, not just video games.
I just recently picked up the DVD for Looney Tunes: Back In Action, and was pleasantly surprised to see that a big chunk of the cartoon voices was done by Joe Alaskey, who even voiced the two starring toons (Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck).
And I’ll also note that Peter Cullen, who voiced Optimus Prime in the 80’s Transformers cartoon, is now doing the voice of Eeyore for Disney’s Winnie the Pooh projects. Supposedly he’s pledged not to do voices for “violent characters” these days, which must limit his options a bit.
I recently got Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes (the GC remake), so those actors stick in my memory at the moment. Cam Clarke, voice of the lead villain, was and always be Leonardo the Ninja Turtle to this child of the 80’s.
Tara Strong (Rikku in Final Fantasy X and X-2) is a favourite (which goes without saying…I’m a major Rikku fanboy. :p), she’s also Raven in Teen Titans. (For some reason, IMDB has reversed her and Hynden Walch’s credits, listing Strong as Starfire and Walch as Raven. Everything else I can find lists Strong as Raven and Walch as Starfire.)
Also in FFX-2 Yaibal is voiced by Scott Menville (AKA, Robin).
In both games, Khimari and Wakka are played by John DiMaggio, better known as Bender from Futurama.
Rin is played by Tom Kenny, who also does Spongebob Squarepants.
Yeah, I really like FFX/X-2. Hee.
Drizzt Do’Urden in Baldur’s Gate is voiced by Cam Clarke - which amuses me. I haven’t managed to play BG yet (can’t get it working for some reason. >_<) I was reading The Thousand Orcs - the first book in the current Drizzt trilogy - and thought that Clarke would make a great choice for Drizzt. I mentioned this to a friend who hadn’t heard of Clarke - so she looked up his filmography - and noticed he DID play Drizzt.
Cool! I kept thinking Wakka’s voice sounded familiar, but I just couldn’t place it. That’s a lot more range than I would’ve given DiMaggio credit for; his Futurama stuff all sounds mostly the same (but no less well-done).
I’m a fan of Terry McGovern, who’s done a lot of videogame stuff. He was also the voice of the stormtrooper who said, “Look, sir! Droids!” My favorite was as the tutorial voice in Sim Theme Park (or Theme Park World), just for this minor touch: if you clicked on anything while the voice was going, he’d stop and clear his throat, as if you’d interrupted him in a real conversation.
Tom Kane has a cool voice, as well – he’s the voice of Professor Utonium from “The Powerpuff Girls” and Monkey Fist from “Kim Possible.” And, my pseudo-brush-with-fame: I’ve worked on two games for which he did a voice.
Pamela Segal rocks every which way (and I’ve worked on a game with her voice as well!). She’s Bobby from “King of the Hill” and billions of other little boy voices.
And I suppose I should give Raphael Sbarge credit for Knights of the Old Republic. Carth Onasi would’ve been way way too annoying, all up in my business with his light side nagging, if his voice hadn’t been calming.
I was surprised to see who some of the voice actors in Zork Grand Inquisitor were. I mean, you’ve got Lenny and Squiggy, Earl Boen (who’s been in tons of things but best known as the psychiatrist in the Terminator series), Chick Vennera (who does Pesto’s voice in Animaniacs), and I think the singing of the spells was done by Rockapella, who did the singing for Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego? tv series. And that’s just the voice cast.
I was suprised to find out that Madame Sophia Hamilton in Zork Nemesis is also Kate Roberts in Days of our Lives.
I like Billy West, the voice of Fry and Professor Farnsworth on Futurama. I think good voice actors are worth their weight in gold. Nothing ruins a game faster than bad voice acting.
Best game for voice talent I’ve played has got to be Planescape: Torment.
Annah - Sheena Easton
Dakkon - Mitch Pileggi
Deionarra, Fall-From-Grace - Jennifer Hale
Ignus - Charlie Adler
Morte Rictusgrin - Rob Paulsen
Nameless One - Micheal T. Weiss
Nordom - Dan Castellaneta
Trias - John De Lancie
Vhailor - Keith David
Couldn’t find the name, but whoever did the voice for the main character in Sacrifice was great. I saw that Tim Curry participated, but I’m almost certain it wasn’t him…
A lot of the same nominations - Tara Strong, John DiMaggio, and Cam Clarke, particularly, but I’ll also throw in Dan Castelanetta and Scott McNeil (I’ve never, knowingly, heard either of them in a video game, though I know both have done them.). Very talented men with fairly good range.
Animaniacs! Dot Warner, Hello Nurse! Tiny Toon Adventures: Barbara Anne “Babs” Bunny Kiki’s Delivery Service: Osono the Baker Rugrats: Charlotte Pickles
*Hey Ricky! (Weird Al video): * Lucy (voice)
Plus lots of Disney cartoons, in background and lead (Daisy Duck) roles.
(And a few video game roles, just to keep this kind of topic)
I also like Hayashibara Megumi, but I suppose that’d be an acquired taste…
) Heck, you can name your favorite cartoon voice actors too, not just video games.
