Some People Can Talk Gooder Than Others

by cscales13 on Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Voice acting is something I find extremely fascinating. I think I first became interested in voice acting when I looked up Tom Kenny’s name on the Internet Movie Database a few years back an found that, in addition to Spongebob Squarepants, he did voices in almost all the cartoons I watched as a kid. For one person to have that much versatility with their voice completely blew my mind. After that, I looked up just about every cartoon and video game from my childhood and realized the same group of voice actors and actresses appeared in almost every single one. Making ridiculous voices all day and getting paid for it? That’s what I want to do for a living. To this day, I still watch cartoons just to see if I can distinguish which voice actor plays which character (at least, that’s what I tell myself).

But it seems that there’s some kind of glass ceiling in the field of voice work. No matter how many cartoons, video games, or television and radio commercials a voice actor does, it seems they are always overlooked when it comes to doing a voice for an animated feature film. It’s not like I don’t understand why, either. Studios would rather go with a marketable, A-list celebrity to voice the protagonist in their movie rather than the guy who played “Cow” on a cartoon called “Cow and Chicken.” However, here’s where the problem lies.

When it comes to acting, a great actor is able to convincingly convey emotion visually through the combination of dialogue, subtle movements, carefully chosen gestures, and facial expressions. When that same actor is cast in an animated role, however, you’re taking away the visual aspects of their performance. And not all actors can emulate their dramatic performances through just the voice. It’s like approaching a world renown concert pianist, taking all the white keys off his piano, and then still expect a fantastic performance.

By contrast, the only performance you get from a voice actor is perceived audibly. So all of the subtle movements, carefully chosen gestures, and facial expressions HAVE to be portrayed through the voice alone. It’s their main instrument. This is what makes a voice actor the ideal choice when it comes to casting an animated film. An “onscreen” actor may be emoting like crazy behind the microphone in the studio but, unfortunately for them, all that is going to be seen is a cartoon. Essentially, now you’re just hearing them talk. And, more often then not, most actors give bland, monotone voice over performances. The movie is now an animated audiobook. So, even though a voice actor’s credits may include “Various Background Noises” or, a step up from that, “Guy #4,” they have the knowledge and the capacity to give riveting, emotionally charged performances with just the voice.

*Just a quick, personal side note, but after watching interviews with the Japanese voice cast of “Street Fighter IV,” I found it interesting that a majority of the voice actors were avid fans of the Street Fighter series. Those who didn’t play the games were at least aware of the series and its popularity. In contrast, in the interviews I’ve seen, most English speaking voice actors rarely, if ever, play the games they do voices in nor do they express any interest in doing so.

I’m not saying all actors are bad voice actors. It seems that comedians usually give the best voice over performances because they have a tendency to over act, which is great because it’s giving the performance life and personality. However, because acting is all about the physical choices one makes, most actors have a hard time shedding that mentality when recording a voice over role, giving a boring, lackluster performance. Actors should leave the voice over work to the professionals and studios should cast experienced voice actors for animated features. Think about it, they wouldn’t cast a voice actor for a live action film, would they? Oh wait, they don’t do that either. Maybe it’s time for me to consider a different career path…

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