Tbh, I didn’t even think about the voice acting the spiderverse movies because they sounded like *real* people to me. And I think that’s a testament to the voice acting in itself.
The main difference between good and bad celebrity casting: passion. If the actor cares and does research to better understand the characters, then obviously they’re going to do a good job. But also like you said, iconic voices help present characters too, it makes the character feel unique and stand strong amongst the main ensemble.
Exactly why the ego thing was so on point will smith doesnt give a fuck about the character hes doing a voice for. He knows hell get payed and people will just hear his voice and see his name and be satisfied.
true, even in non animated movies, actors need to deliver lines with emotion behind their voices so the problem isnt that they arent good at voice acting or that they cant be good. its just they have to put in the extra effort and most people only do that if they care about the character and their role
also i think the biggest problem with the mario movie was that there already is a voice actor and there has been for so fckin long. if no mario game had any voice work done for mario it wouldve given chris pratt leeway and it might notve gotten all the backlash but instead everyone already knows what mario sounds like and in that movie, that was not it however bro bowser was perfect casting i love jack blacks performance, that was a W choice of a famous name for an iconic role
Yes, I mostly agree. But I do think it's often not even the celebrity's fault that their lines lack passion. When Hollywood producers cast a celebrity over a voice actor, it's for their fame, not for the acting itself. Thus nobody in that production line requires the celebrity to show passion. They are just not cast for that. It takes so much time to teach the celebrity how to do voice acting, and every second taken in teaching is an increase in expense. Producers really should learn just how relevant the quality of the voice acting is and actually care who they cast for which role.
Fr you need to understand you characters motives so you know when to shake your voice or prolong a certain word it’ll just come to you if you understand the story and characters
@@s-wo8781 I'm gonna have to lightly disagree with that. Video game-based movies have had notoriously bad production and poor box office results, and that stigma followed the new Mario movie before its release. Without the marketing of a family-friendly / recognizable cast (especially Jack Black and the Peaches song), it likely wouldn't have had the impact that it had. Everything would've fallen to the script and the visuals, which weren't exactly its strongest points either.
a mark of bad celebrity voice acting: when you can't hear the character and can only hear the celebrity. a mark of good celebrity voice acting: even if the voice is incredibly recognizable you hear the character more than the actor.
Exactly! Like Bradley Cooper as Rocket. Not distracting at all, he put a whole twist on the character and then later when you find out you go 'Oh cool!' instead of sitting there wondering who it is the whole time.
Much as I like some of Jon Favreau's films, his Jungle Book is an egregious example of how to do it wrong. You shouldn't have to work that hard to imagine the voice is coming from the characters on screen. And it's not just that they're celebrities, it's that there's no connection between the voices and the characters onscreen. It seemed like a bunch of semi-retired actors just phoned in all the film dialog in a single afternoon, and then animators were given the unenviable task of trying to make that recording sound like it was coming from photo-real CG animals. It was all the wrong choices.
I get what your saying but the point of the studio hiring a celebrity is to bring the “star power”. Like when they hired Benedict Cumberbatch to play the Grinch but he didn’t even sound like himself. I was disappointed. So maybe it wasn’t so good.
@@eqonxi nahhh, once you get really into it, you can differentiate people's voices by ear and it's like a fun easter egg to figure out who is voicing who
I think we should also bring up Hailee Steinfeld. She was in the Spider-Verse movies, and in Netflix's Arcane, playing Vi. She does a FANTASTIC job getting into her characters, but she's also what you would consider an A-List actor, with her performances in Pitch Perfect, Dickinson, Hawkeye, etc.
I was stunned when I found out she played Vi. I never would’ve placed her voice because it just fits so well. She nails all the subtle emotion. Gwen Stacy has a similar vibe and she rocks that role too. Hailee is an example of why good VA goes under-appreciated. Her performance sounds so natural that it you don’t think about it as a performance, all you hear is the character.
@gettingfairest5622 Not really! I’m talking about actually going into her work. The most she was “brought up” was at 4:32 which only her name was said as a very brief example.
Unrelated but I always though that she would be an amazing Barbara Gordon live action(come to think of it in voice acting acting too) but now she in Marvel so prob wont happen
What really blows my mind is how Tara Strong is not an A-list celebrity, and how few people know who she is. Her Wiki filmography page goes for miles, she voiced literary hundreds of beloved characters, and her voice acting work is outstanding. EDIT: my point is the voice actors should get MUCH more recognition for their work. Tara Strong deserves to be a household name more than many A-list actors.
as far as voice actors go she is as close to an A-list actor as you can get, she is of course not as popular as big hollywood celebrities but she is usually put as one of the big voices if she is working in a project and while she isnt mainstream those who like animation know who she is
Timmy Turner, Twilight Sparkles, Bubbles, Raven… I found her through MLP and haven’t really watched the other shows she’s acted in and yet I know these easily Ask me what Chris Pratt has been in and I won’t be able to tell you whatsoever. And I wanted to see the Mario movie
Comedic actors seem to do better at voice acting, and I wonder if it's because comedians are already used to altering the tone/pitch/energy of their voice in a way that most dramatic actors don't. I just wish more specialized voice actors got these big roles more often because they deserve that recognition.
They are. Comedians play characters during there shows so they change their voice usually. They also are usually screen writers because they know how to have a story play out.
I think a large part of it is also because comedic actors are more used to and comfortable putting themselves out there and looking 'silly' for the sake of selling a bit. Voice acting is a very different kind of performance, and to get the intended emotion to read in a person's voice, there's usually a certain level of over-acting required. Having tried it myself, you really do feel like you're making a fool of yourself at first, and it's a very different mindset to a regular acting performance. You have to get out of your own head and realize that it doesn't matter how goofy you look as long as you're selling the performance, and that mindset has a lot more crossover with comedy than it does serious acting.
Jack Black is incredible. He brings so much enthusiasm to everything he does. Yeah he’s gotta make his money, but it always seems like he’s just having fun. Bowser was by far the best part of the Mario movie for me. If it weren’t for Jack Black… I feel like with the popularity of anime coming to America, voice acting will become more important. Also Mark Hamil is incredible too. Even though he’s a celebrity because of Star Wars, I think it’s safe to say he’s a voice actor before he’s a live action actor.
Don't discount Mark Hamill's live action work, he gave the best performance in the sequel trilogy for TLJ. He convincingly portrayed the widest array of emotions, expressions, and attitudes in an earnest, lightly campy way only Hamill himself could pull off. If you check out the behind the scenes, he's in the zone. He's locked in. Thoughtfully reading the script, discussing it with Rian Johnson, absorbing his surroundings in a very zen way. There have been some great performances in Star Wars and Mark's is up there for sure.
@@camerondempsey8990Mark did all that while hating the material he had to work with for TLJ. It's one thing to give a performance like that for something you are passionate about, it's entirely another to do it for something you dislike. Mark is just that good
As mentioned, the ENTIRE cast of both Spiderverse movies are great, but my standout in both is Brian Tyree Henry as Miles' dad. He just nails this naturalistic take on an empathetic father who is still really funny while being intimidating and incredibly vulnerable.
Eartha Kitt as Yzma in emperors new groove is one of the best of all time!!! The role was literally made for her! Really all of the voice acting in that movie is fantastic
Wait, do you mean literally literally or metaphorically literally? Because sometimes it is literal, like the video said genie was made with Robin Williams in time
Love that you mentioned the Japanese market for voice acting because it really is the ideal world. The thoughtfulness that actress showed for doing Raven's voice in Teen Titans is usually displayed in a lot of the work done in anime. I remember specifically this one video that showed Yuuki Kaji doing some lines for Eren, and the freaking creator of the manga was there at the studio to help the voice actor to better understand what the character's emotions should be in the particular scene.
I’m so happy for Hailee, she’s come a long way in her career and for her to nail voice acting in Spiderverse and Arcane, it’s a huge deal. She’s an incredible actor, she always gives 110%
!!! Her performance in Across the Spider-verse is just so impressive and outstanding to me, she enhances Gwen's character so much, her pain and unsureness... My first time watching this movie was in Ukrainian so I was so pleasantly surprised to hear how great Hailee is on my English rewatch :D
i honestly prefer her AS a voice actor! She gives a strong and emotional vocal performance to the characters she plays. Same with Ella Purnell (actor playing Jinx in Arcane)
If you haven't seen Arcane yet, the voice acting there is SO good. They have a mix of less-big celebrities and exclusively voice actors that nail everything from jokes to complicated emotional moments
@@melindawolfUS I’m just throwing to the fact that arcane didn’t really do anything special. Considering the VA on it are unionized they get all the jobs 😭 they’re more guilty than the movies named here is what I’m getting at
They surely focused a lot on voice acting. For example,the characters from Piltover have a more "posh" accent. It's a great example of considerable casting and good performance.
@@badazzkaz The fact they're unionized doesn't lessen anyone's enjoyment of the voice acting. Sure, every performance is subjective... but the range the characters had? How some characters had break-downs or lost their minds without going melodramatic or becoming caricatures of themselves? *Chef's kiss. Most people I talk to were super impressed with the acting quality. Somebody just sounds a little jealous ;)
When you mentioned professional VAs as main characters in theatrical films, you missed a HUGE one. Colleen O'Shanessy as Tails. While yes, she did already voice him before, most people expected a recast with a famous actor like Tom Holland or something. Seeing an actual VA get to be in a major motion picture was refreshing AF.
@@kidanarchy2105 well after the enormous backlash original sonic design got why would they risk another one by replacing the actress why do you think in sonic 2 post credit scene shadow didn’t talk
The point about Scarlett Johansson being fine casting on paper for Kaa but not giving a great performance is such a good distinction! Especially when you compare the performance to Michelle Pfeiffer playing Eris in Sinbad - despite both roles being written as manipulative and seductive, Pheiffer is giving her all and seems to be having the time of her life leaning into it!
I think Jungle Book was a failure all the way around because it was a live-action director thinking of it as a live-action movie, and it was actually a cartoon. When a CG character in a live-action movie works, it's because the director understands that they are actually, always cartoons. Gollum was a cartoon character in every way, with the huge, expressive eyes, the huge hands and feet, all contributing to a cartoon's exaggerated expression. The other actors didn't know what to make of Andy Serkis' voice performance, until they saw what it looked like on the character. It was a cartoon voice. It's the same with Rocket Raccoon, a cartoon voice performance on a cartoon character. Because Rocket's design is supposed to look like a real raccoon, you don't notice that he's a cartoon character until you realize he gets the most expressive closeups, and turns in the most exaggerated physical performance (even in a film series designed around exaggerated physical performances meant to evoke comic books). It's all in the service of forcing the audience to read this little animal as effortlessly as we read the human actors. That's what cartooning is.
@@rottensquidthat’s such a good point. Apparently an executive actually got mad that Cooper was making up a voice for Rocket, because “why get a big actor if it’s not gonna sound like him?” Thank God they ignored him and let Cooper be an ACTOR, and we got the wonderful Rocket we have. Also reminds be of Benedict Cumberbatch’s performance as Smaug. It probably helped that he got to use MoCap and slither around like a freak to get in character. You could tell he was giving it 100%.
@@Fantallana I really didn't think much of the Hobbit films in general, and Smaug's design in particular (just in general, the scale of the the Lonely Mountain went far past the point of being remotely believable, and Smaug himself was literally the size of the 747. It all evoked the grandiose inflation of a fragile ego.) But Cumberbatch couldn't have been more perfect. What a plummy dragon he made. A voice like boiling mulled wine.
The sad thing about Peter Cullen is that he had to really fight to be able to voice Optimus Prime in the live action movies. They had wanted Liam Neeson to do his voice and Peter had to audition multiple times before they decided he could voice them. And for Bumblebee they had forced him to imitate Jon Bailey’s imitation of Optimus Prime since he was originally in it. Luckily they let him do his thing for Rise of the Beasts. It’s a shame that when a voice actor is able to get this chance, it’s still not easy for them. Edit: just wanted to clarify some stuff. Even though Peter Cullen had to audition to voice Optimus Prime in the movies, the studio and Micheal Bay were actually interested in hiring him. The producer Lorenzo however, didn’t think he was up for the challenge. It seems like Lorenzo is the one responsible for all the misteps of the franchise
@@stwormmarkus ah ok my source was a Corey Burton interview in which that’s how it was described. Of course he never auditioned as he wasn’t really interested in the process so how would he know
@@stwormmarkus That's a tough call, not because Neeson would have been good, far from it. He's a terrible voice actor, as the Narnia movies proved. No disrespect to the guy, he just needs his face and his body to do his thing. But most filmgoers are drawn to films because of their familiarity with stars. That's why stars get the biggest bucks. It's a sad truth about the industry, that it runs on the power of celebrity more than anything else. So it must have been a huge financial risk to drop a big celebrity name from one of the main characters and replace it with a nameless voice-actor from a mostly forgotten cartoon series. My hat's off to everyone who made that decision.
@@rottensquid I think shiea labeaouf was big enough to get people in the theatre. And it's a big action movie with explosions, robots, and women. In 2007 this would be enough to get people to watch it.
@@stwormmarkus Right, and it obviously worked. But that's not how execs think. They look at spreadsheets and data reports, and track predictable profit patterns. I don't know if there's some number next to every movie star's name that indicates how much money they can reliably bring in by starring in a movie, but it wouldn't surprise me. So taking out a known star and replacing him with a nobody seems like a brave choice, and absolutely the right call. I don't have much nostalgia for Transformers, as the rise of anime ultimately eclipsed its appeal for me back in the mid-80s. but Peter Cullen's voice is definitely one of the few things I remember fondly about the show. And even now, it adds gravitas to what is otherwise a pretty shallow film series.
Something that’s telling is how I was surprised to find that Hailee Steinfeld, Oscar Isaac and Brian Tyree Henry were a part of Spider-verse’s cast. The voices just fit the characters, it doesn’t feel forced.
I think Issa Rae did a great job too! Even with such a distinct voice, I think she made a great Jessica Drew. It wasn’t “Issa Rae” to me, when I watched Super Mario Bros, I did enjoy the movie but every time Donkey Kong spoke I was just like, “Seth Rogan”. Jack Black did AMAZING though, he has a lot more range than he’s given credit for.
Just because someone is good at acting doesn't mean they'll be good at voice acting, but a lot of actors just happen to be good at both. It's important to test that beforehand, and make sure the voice direction can make up for their lack of experience
Easier and cheaper to just cast actual voice actors. They have the experience in giving the whole performance with just their voice, screen and stage actors do not. That doesn't mean they can't, many can certainly learn, but some people are just better at certain things.
@@PaulGuy Unfortunately, movies are made to make money, regardless of the passion that went into making it, and a part of money making is good marketing. Telling audiences Yuri Lowenthal is gonna be in Across The Spider-Verse isn’t gonna really matter to most people, but telling them Oscar Isaac is will. People just don’t know VAs quite the same and it does matter despite how unfortunate it may seem.
@@jwroot Jonah Hill also did a great job as Hal/Titan. People in Hollywood slept on his acting range for years because they viewed him as the overweight comic relief guy, but he's done an amazing job of knocking almost every film he gets out of the park.
The Spider-Verse movies feel like an act of love from every aspect of it and it shows. You can tell from the animation, the music, and to the casting of these characters. Every actor sounded perfect for their roles and I can’t think of a single actor that gave a half-assed performance in either movie. I only wish and hope that future movies have that same passion going forward and sets a new benchmark not just in animated movies but for movies in general.
Mel Gibson's voice acting was superb in Chicken Run, he was one of the standout performances. It goes beyond just being good or bad at giving performances. While some are bad, some are just a misfit. If you want to see a masterclass in voice acting there is no better place to look than Dreamwork's "Prince of Egypt". Every single character was astounding and worked so hard to deliver that movie in its final state.
See, that's the thing. They cast him in Pocahontas because John Smith is a handsome white guy, and Mel is a handsome white guy. They "pictured" him in the role, instead of listening to him. While Rocky in Chicken Run couldn't look less like Mel, or sound less like him. You hear that voice and you're not thinking of Mel at all. The character and the voice matched perfectly. Meanwhile, I think execs who insist on celebrity casting want the moviegoers to hear Mel, to imagine Mel, because that's what they paid him for. They're not thinking like animation makers, they're thinking like execs selling a product, and a part of that product is the very expensive inclusion of Mel Gibson, to get fans of Mel Gibson to the theaters. So when those fans show up and see no sign of Mel Gibson in that rooster, the execs aren't happy. Prince of Egypt is excellent too, perhaps even better. I think again, it's so good because you forget who's voicing the characters. You get swept up in the great story (and that's coming from a strictly non-religious person, so...) I think though, the biggest problem that animation faces is that the studio system is set up to sell celebrity rather than films. And animation remained a second-tier medium because it's way harder to sell celebrity. I think we're always going to get these mediocre animated films trying to sell on star power rather than quality, and they'll always do pretty well, because quality is subjective, while star power can be nailed down to predictable profit margins. The quantum leap forward that Spider-Verse takes just demonstrates to me how tied down animation tends to be, sticking with formulas to squeeze out any kind of predictable profit rather than experimenting at all. Even Pixar has lost its edge in innovation. So when a major studio actually dares to let animators actually innovate as much as they please, The result leaves the rest of the industry in the dust.
Was looking for someone to mention Prince of Egypt! It was one that blew me away when I looked at the cast list afterward. Excellent performances by all!
Comparing the Tara Strong clip about Raven at 10:41 with the horrible Matt Damon performance at 1:31 is absolutely wild. Why aren't we casting Tara Strong in more movies?!
Maybe it’s her ties to NFT’s, which sure executives love, but I’m also sure many directors with artistic backgrounds are really REALLY not fond of. And I can’t disagree with the directors.
@@corrinflakes9659 she’s in so so so many beloved shows and movies already, i don’t personally think NFTs is the biggest reason. if you look her up, most google images show up with her face surrounded by 30+ of her most popular character roles (all ongoing) including some harley quinn roles, several raven’s from teen titans iterations, twilight sparkle (including equestria girls “human” twilight), bubbles from power puff girls, melody from the little mermaid (one of the sequels), ben ten, some hello kitty. (these names im pulling from the images, its likely she doesn’t play every instance of all of these characters but popularly a main actor for them). honestly i think it’s just that she plays in so many (target kid-teen audience) tv shows that directors are more likely to choose her for episodic tv shows than movies. i looked into it a bit more and she also primarily plays only kids/teens/specifically child-relatable types of young adult characters. this may contribute to her staying in the background of movies which feature usually deeper themes of young adult characters. but idk, maybe she’s fallen off in recent years because of NFTs and other social issues? i haven’t seen her become less popular and you’re actually the first i’ve heard of her being related to NFT issues-but i don’t know much about her popularity in general.
after thinking on it i think the main reason she’s not in more movies is that her BEST work is done in light-hearted shows. even as Raven she really reached for that monotone voice and in dramatic scenes; while it was played really really well, her acting was better known for Raven when she was being comedic. Tara Strong has a really wide vocal range but it all works best when it is overly exaggerated to a cartoon-ish effect, which many young adult targeted movies aren’t going to look for. but many cartoons are. again though, she could do almost any role. she’s just going to be picked for the most comfortable/expected roles until she herself chooses to branch out. she’s in several movies, just kids ones! or as kids in the background.
As a huge voice acting nerd, one of my favorite things has always been the shock of two characters sharing a voice actor despite sounding nothing like eachother. Like finding out ice king and SpongeBob share a voice actor, or raven and bubbles, I could go on.
I'm from Spanish speaking Latin America, and I also kind of a dub voice actor nerd, especially from Mexican dub actors, since they're the most iconic. There's some incredible voices in Across the Spider-Verse Neutral Spanish dub who have voiced other characters: - Miles (Emilio Treviño): Ben 10 in the '16 series, Robin in LEGO Batman Movie, Denji in Chainsaw Man, Mikey in Tokyo Revengers, Akira in Devilman Crybaby, Lloyd Garmadon in Ninjago, Norman in Paranorman, Timothée Chalamet in various movies - Gwen (Alondra Hidalgo): Hinata Hyūga in Naruto, Jolyne Cujoh in Stone Ocean, Rem in Re:Zero, Lisa Loud in the Loud House, Clara Núñez in Trollhunters - Peter B. Parker (Miguel Ángel Ruiz): Panda in We Bear Bears, Caiman in Dorohedoro, Shaggy from Scooby-doo! since 2016, Franky in Spy × Family, Toad in the SMB Movie - Pavitr Prabhakar (Tommy Rojas): Cat Noir in Miraculous, Jake the Dog - Peni Parker (Alejandra Delint): Asuna from Sword Art Online, Ashe in OverWatch, Sai in Hikaru no Go
Calling Mark Hamill a "Celebrity doing voice acting" feels like a crime. Mark Hamill is obviously a household name for Luke Skywalker but is arguably more prolific as the voice of some of the greatest cartoon villains of all time. Firelord Ozai, Joker, Chucky, and hundreds of side villains like Stickybeard (CN:KND) and Undergrowth (Danny Phantom). He is up there with Tom Kenny and Tara Strong for voice actors that seem to be in every cartoon I loved as a child.
@@bryanwoods3373 Nope, he did a fair bit of VA work in the 70s, including one role as a protagonist in a cartoon show, but he didn't do anything in the 80s and only one TV episode in 1992 before becoming the Joker. So it was more like his reintroduction to VA work, I guess.
The biggest problem I have with celebrity voice acting is that it takes roles that could've been filled by more unknown actors that probably would've fit better. The best VA's are the ones you don't recognize.
One of my favorite movies growing up was The Iron Giant. Imagine my shock when I found out years later he was voiced by Vin Diesel. I can see why they casted him as Groot.
That kind of reminds me that in the Latin American Spanish dub of The Iron Giant the Giant was dubbed by César Soto, who later went to voice Bender in Futurama and that's kind of funny because there's an episode in which they parodied the movie with Bender as the Giant
Hailee Steinfeld is an amazing voice actor, when I first watched Spider-Verse and Arcane I had no idea she was the VA for Gwen & Vi until the end credits. Testament to her skills! And I agree, I wish hollywood would treat real voice actors as Japan does theirs, they're regarded just as highly as movie stars.
I love how spiderverse's voice acting feels so natural. They're independent characters, not the egos of actors, unless where played up for laughs. Celebrity voice acting often removes a lot of immersion imo, since your mind is too busy picturing who they are irl rather than being in universe. I feel like having a solid VA main cast and one or two celebrity side characters adds fame and appeal without limiting the hard work of a massive team of people to "Chris Pratt is in that". Hopefully animation studios push more in this direction after seeing the success and critical acclaim of Spiderverse 🙏
The problem with celebrity voice acting is not that celebrity voice actors were bad, the problem is that it's egregious career intrusion. It just so happened that many celebrities were bad at voice acting because it requires a skill and training that most celebrities lack. But the egregious career intrusion is still happening even if the consumers think "it's good now :)" And I find most of the actors who do a good job as voice actors is because they have ALSO done some kind of training as voice actor, like Jack Black or Mark Hamill, I believe
Mark Hamil's case is also... weird, given that it's expansiveness partially resulted from him being very identifiable as luke skywalker and a bit unable to get out of that role on screen, as well as some quite serious facial injuries (which is why he looks weird in the holiday special- he's got a broken nose and fractured cheek) which combined to persuade him to step away from big films (his other outlet being quite a good run on broadway).
That's ridiculous. This whole video is ridiculous. All actors are voice actors. And basically every celebrity A-list actor has been taking voice lessons since childhood. Blame the casting department for shoehorning talent into wrong roles.
@@ivanelrino bs. If they can't do voice impressions, chance are, they will probably be not good at voice acting. It requires some tailoring like Robin Williams or as mentioned, Chris Pratt. Just because they're A list actors, doesn't mean their A list voice actors. You have real A list voice actors that exist.
Mae Whitman is a an actress that I think hits the mark really well for both types of acting. Some of her lines as Katara in ATLA feel so gut wrenchingly real. Also Jason Isaacs. It would be great to highlight voice actors who voice animal sounds.
The main issue I notice is that when movie actors are cast for voice acting they face it with the same intention they would for a live action movie role. Movie acting doesn’t have to be as exaggerated as voice acting, because 1) the actors can rely on their bodies with subtle movements to express emotion 2) live action tends to be more “grounded” and “realistic” and 3) the actors are actually there being affected by the actions presented in the scene, while VAs only have their voices as their tool. In a drowning scene for example, the actor is actually there in the water, in full costume. In the recording booth, the VA has to deliver the same level of despair and drowning sounds while just standing in front of a microfone. Live action movie actors just aren’t equipped with the same level of skill required for voice acting
As a stage actress, I find that on the aspect of the level of exaggeration required for the delivery, theater and voice acting are very similar for different reasons. On the big theater everyone has to be able to see and hear you loud n clear, even all the way back in the last row of seats, so your movements and voice have to be extremely expressive. In movies you can have the camera angles very close or far away, sound design, sfx, audio treatment… You get what I mean?
I can't oversell the voice acting in the entire Avatar series, really just top notch and I can't think of a miss. But I have to give extra credit to Grey DeLisle Griffin as Azula. She is a famous and prolific voice actor, and she swung for the fences and absolutely knocked it out of the park for Azula. In a really good series, full of memorable moments lines and characters, she didn't have to go that hard to sell one of the better and more complicated characters, but she absolutely did. And she generally does for all of her roles. Absolutely top tier.
also her other voices. Kataras mom, ming hua in korra. That woman has range, you cant really tell that ming hua has the same VA as azula, they sound nothing alike. And also for celebrity voices in the series, i cant think of a better voice for ezka than aubrey plaza. The casting, talent and care in the voice performences are just incredible
@@fad23 Selina Kyle in the Arkham games as well! She was also Raz in She-ra on Netflix, which I didn't know until looking at her IMDB right now. THAT character sounds nothing like her.
I always loved Billy Crystal’s voice acting in Howl’s Moving Castle. His voice work as Calcifer shows that he understands how to localize anime for English audiences while being true to the original source material’s tone.
Yeah. I have a really "purist" friend who insists on watching them all in Japanese but to me a play them by ear. I find the English dub of Spirited aways to be much better than the Japanese one. I suspect it's all to do with how you expect someone to sound. I normally watch subs on all anime but if I catch a good dub I'm fine with watching it. At the end of the day as a native English speaker who also can't speak or understand Japanese (same goes for my friend) in never going to get the "original untainted experience" because some things are just too bound to the language and culture (note I'm not saying I couldn't ever, just that I don't have the depth of education in the language and culture). So for me I reject the idea that you must always do subs in order to have a true or good experience. I felt the characters come across far better for me in the (granted quite rare) good English dub than they do in just any old Japanese original.
Speaking of Ghibli, Hailee Steinfeld voiced Anna in the English dub of “When Marnie Was There”. 😀 Like most Ghibli movies, it’s a very beautifully made film, from the animation and voice performances to the emotional thematic elements (in my opinion).
@@russ1422 Ditto. Although the Ghibli dubs are not perfect (one little nitpick I have is that some words are changed from the literal translation of the script), they’re probably one of the best examples of dubs done right for the most part. However, I will admit that Billy Bob Thornton’s line delivery as Jigo in the scene of “Princess Mononoke” shown in this video sounded a little off.
I think an important thing to note about the current climate of celebrity voice acting is the fact that in an interview I remember reading Chris Pratt literally stated that ever since Guardians of the Galaxy 1 he hasn't had to audition for a single role since that movie. Which is fucking mind blowing to think how a pop culture icon like Mario's voice actor never even did an audition for it because "ohh he was that guy in that really successful set of super hero movies" I think really paints the picture on the celebrity voice acting dilemma. Edit: Just wanted to state I don't even think Chris Pratt's Mario was even that bad I believe it was fine compared to other celebrity casting in the movie but Chris still felt like he was collecting a fat paycheck at the end of the day.
To be honest, I'm kind of glad we didn't get Mario's usual voice for an entire movie. I think Mario's videogame voice works really well in small snippets like how it is usually heard. But hearing someone talk like that for an entire movie throughout a wide variety of scenes? I don't think that'd be very enjoyable.
@@MrDagren Yeah, but a cartoon voice rather than a celebrity voice would have been nice. You want the voice to suit the character. Of course, the execs want you to be picturing Chris Pratt, because that's what they know how to sell. And clearly, it works. Though I think the success of the film is more an indication of Mario's popularity than Chris Pratt's.
While we're on the topic of GotG, Vin Diesel is an excellent example of celebrity voice acting done PERFECTLY. He literally only has one line, but he says it with such feeling and expression every time so that you really get into the character, and even understand what he's saying. A phenomenal performance.
@@MrDagren no one is saying that we needed to get that though? the complaint isn't "why didn't mario sound EXACTLY LIKE THE GAMES", the complaint is instead of holding auditions and casting someone perfect the role, they blatantly just grabbed someone Famous and Cool with the Kids because they thought it'd sell tickets instead of a legit voice actor. pretty sure absolutely no one bought tickets because they're that into chris pratt, and meanwhile, his performance was just... okay. not bad, really, but easily the worst in the movie. because he's not a voice actor. and it shows.
I think what made ATSV work so well was that the voices they picked all felt incredibly natural to the type of character they were playing, and how quickly they embodied that version without it being distracting. It's almost hard to think that Jason Schwartzman goes from bumbling funny villain to an absolute nightmare fuel within seconds, easily the most impressed from the cast.
Oh my GOD I can't express how Elijah Wood plays the painfully awkward yet relatable role for Wirt so well. He's just fantastic and I adore his portrayal of Wirt sm.
I haven't seen Over The Garden Wall myself, but I can vouch for Elijah Wood's voice acting work in the Legend of Spyro trilogy. At first it was quite the whiplash hearing Elijah Wood's voice coming from a character that used to be voiced by Tom Kenny, but it actually works quite well after you hear him enough. Gary Oldman also voices a dragon very well in the same trilogy, a fatherly-mentor figure named Ignitus.
i think a good example is The Clone Wars Series. They knew it would be incredibly expensive to cast Ewan McGregor for the entirety of the show, so they got a voice actor who could fill in the role properly. Also in the movie for the series they originally cast Samuel L. Jackson for Mace Windu. But his voice didn't translate well from IRL acting to animation. So they switched to a professional voice actor who did an amazing job.
The only time I thought about the voice acting during across the spiderverse was with The Spot. I was really impressed with how he nailed the tone no matter the situation
The craziest thing about it is how much Robin Williams absolutely did not want things to go this way. He explicitly said that he would only play the Genie if it wasn’t used for merchandising or marketing at all. And when they broke that deal, he vowed to never work with them again
What I noticed in lots of good non-voice actors you mentioned is that they are stand up and/or comedy actors. I think it's not a coincidence because intonation and delivery is a HUGE part in creating humorous effect
The Mario movie didn’t only earn the money because of the celebrities in the movie, it’s also because it was a great tribute to Mario and had a fun storyline. All the characters were likable and there were a few funny jokes spread around.
Yeah, I think the movie was mid, but I don’t think the movie became successful solely because of Chris Pratt or other celebrities that starred in the film.
9:04 I don't know, I don't see anything wrong with that scene. Honestly, that's how I would imagine Buzz giving a mission log. He gives it off in a dramatic way and then embarrassment just after, which is what I felt watching the scene.
Yeah I totally agree with that. Maybe a different clip would've been better, because he was generally kinda flat during the whole movie. But that clip is actually an example of him giving Buzz a personality (big strong professional guy who also wants to play into the theatrics of his job and is kind of a nerd about it).
Yeah and media muse at 1:40 saying a number of the studio Ghibli dubs being tonally off is just wrong as well all or almost all the Ghibli dubs are great
That line was ripped straight from the first TS as a reference to Buzz’s original character. But unlike Tim Allen’s take, which felt like Buzz was on alert and taking the situation seriously, It’s delivered by Cap almost comedically. He’s trying to imitate Allen’s “over the top seriousness” as Buzz, but it comes across very awkward and jokey, like not even Buzz himself is taking his mission log seriously.
Yuri is one of those VAs that every time I hear him in a video game, I go, "Oh, there's Yuri Lowenthal". Genuinely, he's got a super recognizable voice to me (like Matt Mercer).
Sean Astin is alother great example of celebrity voice actor. Many people know him from his on screen roles in movies like The Goonies, The Lord of The Rings, and most recently Stranger Things. But he is also an incredible voice actor, acting in many animated series. My favorite voice he does is of Raphael in the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
He only showed Joker but Mark Hamill have a pretty large list of VA work as well; always fun to tell people Luke Skywalker and Fire Lord Ozai are the same person lol
For some reason they had him voice match Tate Donovan as Hercules in the original Kingdom Hearts, even though to my knowledge he has a lot more name recognition, even moreso back in 2002 when the game released, considering that was right off the heels of Fellowship. Then again, Kingdom Hearts I had the casting budget to somehow pull Mandy Moore, Lance Bass, and Billy Zane on top of a lot of returning Disney talent like Gilbert Gottfried, James Woods, and Brian Blessed. The weird part is they got Donovan back for all subsequent entries, so I really have no idea why Astin was there, but it's some fun trivia nonetheless.
Can’t believe there wasn’t a single how2train ur dragon shot or reference. Its another great example of uniquely specific voice casting that bring the characters to life. Gerard butler as the tough Viking dad who can’t relate with his son and the gimpy pubescent hiccup voice becoming such a great contrast as the narrative ear candy. I know there’s plenty of movies that do this but dream works goes unrecognized sometimes at the banger trilogies it’s produced compared to Pixar’s older films.
You summed this up so well! What's funny is that you have the best voice for this kind of summary (aside from morgan freeman, but tbf he works for everything). The spiderverse films are downright masterpieces, and I'm glad you recognised that. You put the whole essay style of this really well, addressed both sides, gave credit where its due, and still put the point across really well! You really do deserve more subs!
Honestly, I was expecting chris's mario voice to be bad, but it turned out to be pretty well imo. I do kinda agree with some people: Hearing that iconic, high pitched, over the top voice for the entire movie *might* have been annoying. But I can't be sure because it didn't happen.
I also think that Chris did surprisingly good as Mario, and I kinda liked how he used a bit more of a Brooklyn accent. Heck, when i watched the movie, i could barely even tell that it was Chris.
5:27 this kinda reminds me of when the cast Cavill as Geralt. People were upset at first, but his performance has been much better than anticipated, so people got over it. Also, Mark Hamill as the Joker is obviously one of the golden standards of voice-acting, and it's crazy that he was a celebrity voice actor.
One thing I'll add is how DISTRACTING celebrity voice acting can be. I recall specifically sitting in theatre (where I can't check IMDB) and racking my brain over Nick Jonas in Ugly Dolls, and Rashida Jones in the grinch. I could hear other lines they had said, but couldn't place the face and it bothered me until I figured it out (with Jones) or checked later with Nick Jonas - super distracting and it added nothing to the character. I just want to be like 'This is the character I'm watching' and not try to think about who they REALLY are.
J.K Simmons does fantastic work in voice over as well. Didn't even realize he was Tenzin at first in the Legend of Korra. Like...how is JJ Jameson also this great mentor monk dude. He was great as Omni Man too.
Don’t forget Colleen O’Shaughnessy as Tails! She is exclusively a voice actor who voiced Tails in video games and tv shows… but then was given the opportunity to voice him in the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 live action movie! And absolutely crushed it as well!
I'm thankful Paramount didn't replace Colleen with some... Child actor. Would've been so *weird* if she got replaced AFTER she briefly voiced Tails in Sonic 1's post-credit scene.
As an aspiring VA I know the importance of physicality, which is present in performances like Robin Williams' and Hanks. Good performances use the entire body to create and exemplify the characters' unique mannerisms that make these cartoon animals, blue spirits and toys feel like real people
Chris Pratt's performance as Mario was actually not bad throughout the rest of the movie though...However It IS clear they had him go for the more grounded and "Brooklyn"-Italian accent
Hard agree. I was initially hesitant that Pratt would be a good choice, but pretty impressed with the rest of the cast. After watching the movie I'd say all of them were great. In fact I really liked the message and quality of this video overall, so I kept watching, but I kept disagreeing with the "bad actor voices" as examples. Maybe I'm just older so a lot of those choices have grown on me, and I can't imagine them any other way. Like, even Gibson's generic grounded voice as the most generic white man character just... fits? I'm conflicted. I usually find voice actor specialists to be superior, how could you not? But I guess there was just too much hate-train going on in this video. Like, plenty of shitty performances by celebrities were thrown into the video as great examples. But the video's main examples all seemed like fitting performances to me. So it came off as jumping onto too many anti-hype trains.
While I'm fine with the Brooklyn accent, as the movie goes away from the grounded material and more towards typical Mario, it didn't match the vibe, or the atmosphere. It still just felt like Chris Pratt rather than Mario. I didn't believe the character as much as Bowser, toad, or even Luigi as screamed towards his impending doom
It literally just sounded like Chris Pratt. His voice didn’t become a character, it was just trying hard to fit a mold it didn’t belong in in the first place. It’s not like with Robin Williams where his voice literally becomes the character if you see what I’m getting at.
Tara Strong, the voice of Twilight Sparkle from My Little Pony, was the voice of Terrance from Foster's Home, just as effortlessly. And Ben from Ben 10. And timmy turner from fairly odd parents. That's kinda what puts it all in perspective for me. When a movie casts chris pratt for mario, they could be passing up talent _like Tara Strong._ I shudder to think of how much we're actually missing out on.
7:32 Honestly I'd consider Mark Hamill a voice actor first. He's had a long career outside of voice acting and, sure, played some culture-defining roles, but imo he's as much a consummate professional in the booth as anyone, and he gets cast in voice roles for reasons other than his celebrity and has for decades. (Well maybe he gets some roles in part for the star power, but even in those cases he's always _famous voice actor_ Mark Hamill, not just _famous actor_ Mark Hamill.)
Here on Latin America it's another story, most of voices were streamers / tiktokers and most of them were just plain bad. We were mad and most of the streamers blame us for don't liking their emotionless out of character voices 💀
To be fair, most of the influencers who voiced the Spider-People only had a few lines, though the ones that voiced LEGO Spider and Spectacular Spider were the most controversial choices and had the most dialogues. At least the majority of the cast is comprised completely by professionals. I love Emilio Treviño's performance as Miles, as well as Alondra Hidalgo as Gwen
La verdad que aunque fueran unos segundos de sus voces, te saca del ambiente si hacen un trabajo medio feo jajaja Es una lástima porque la primera película me gusta más en latino que en inglés, porque el doblaje es muuuy bueno
Movies like Spiderverse, The Lego Movie, And Megamind were some of my favorite movies (With Spiderverse being my favorite), and that's because of the voice acting. When voice acting is done well, it adds to the character and gives them more life than the animation. Anyone can make a beautiful animation but it won't feel like anything more than that until there is sound behind it. I'm not the biggest fan of Will Ferrell, but when I found out he was Megamind I was torn between not liking Will Ferrell and loving Megamind. That mystery is what signifies a good voice acting gig. I didn't know Nicholas Cage was Spiderman Noir. I didn't know Chris Pratt was Emmet. I didn't even know Tom Hanks was Woody. The surprise is what shows that they really made an impact on the character, the fact that I as the watcher saw the character before I saw the voice behind it. I love Spiderverse for this very reason, because these characters are so detached from their voice actors that I believe that these characters are alive somewhere.
"Mark Hamill as the joker" like yes, luke is his most "famous" role but man is a voice actor many times over vs being just an actor. he really doesnt act in much but the amount of thing that youd be like "Wait that was HIM?" . Ozai-ATLA, Skips-Regular Show, Random guy in The Little mermaid (1989), as well as many Scooby-do and Batman esc shows/games. Man is a legend for FAR more than the Starwars he gets credit for.
The problem for me isn't that celebrity casting is always bad, it's that they cast actors who don't fit the characters. I don't mind if a character from a beloved franchise has a new take on them, some actors like Charlie Day, Seth Rogen, Jordan Peele or Keegan Michael Key have a unique, and/or vocal and comedic range to pull off what a studio is going for. Then there are characters who match the roles of an A-List/traditional actor really well. If you have a Nicholas Cage-esque character why NOT cast him to voice them? Why not have an energetic optimistic Panda played by someone as energetic and optimistic as Jack Black who can also make fantastic foley sounds? Chris Pratt just doesn't make any sense as Mario to me. His role as Emmett made sense because Chris Pratt SOUNDS like a normal guy and the character IS a normal guy. Celebrity voice acting in Spider-Verse and some Pixar films work because there was actual auditioning and the actor was either suited to the character or vice versa (take Scar from the original Lion King). Then there's the actors who can do both like J.K. Simmons, Broadway Performers, and again, Jack Black. But when studios just throw in big names because they can and it's more of a marketing tactic than anything comeplling (i.e., Ice Age with Drake, the side characters in the My Little Pony movie, all of the Illumination films) then yeah, it's sucks. I'm not completely against celebrity casting, but having professional Voice Actors, actors who have experience with voice acting/recording in sound booths/animated performances, or even just those who have the range to play their characters, could've saved a lot of mediocre performances (and by proxy, their films) over the years.
I think Dee Bradley Baker is suuper underrated. He voiced every clone for clone wars and still gave them their own vocal personality. And bad batch, where he voices FIVE main characters yet they’re all unique and feel like their own people. And not even to mention all his work outside Star Wars like in ATLA, SpongeBob, Phineas and Ferb, etc.
11:40 Correction: Jim Cummings voiced Pooh. His name is not Tim. Good video though! Congrats of having your first big video! Your editing is good, your pacing is good, and I hope you keep making content. :)
Jeremy Irons is the celebrity who voiced Scar in '94 Lion King, and he was terrific--both because of his very distinctive voice and because he put a good deal of care into the performance.
The big win was Colleen being able to stay as tails in the sonic movie, And the push back the community gave when she wasn't being promoted in the same caliber as Steven schwartz and Jim Carrey. Changed the movies' whole marketing . Got the movie's marketing to shine a light on all major cast members no matter the celebrity.
Yes agreed!!! I sincerely hope that a professional voice actor will be cast as Shadow. It’s not the most likely unfortunately, but the fact that it’s a possibility gives me hope. So happy for Colleen.
We should highlight the actors who are both famous live-action actors as well as have been prominent voice actors in their own right, who do it as a regular part of their career (ie more than simply big budget animated movies or triple-A video games). Mark Hamill and James Earl Jones were already mentioned, but there's also: - JK Simmons - Kieth David - Kaley Cuoco - Patrick Warburton - Patrick Stewart - Tim Curry Who did I miss? [EDIT] Answer: PATTON OSWALD Also, love the additions in the replies: - Willem Dafoe - Lance Reddick - Kristen Bell - Mila Kunis
I think casting ‘celebrity’ voices isn’t a bad thing, u just gotta cast the right celebs. Tbh, I don’t think they’ll ever cast pure voice actors in feature films. If you’re a produce and u can choose between having a really good performance from a VA or a solid one from a b tier celeb, u go for the celeb 90% of the time.
I will say someone I've always thought was really good although she isn't as huge a name anymore, is Mae Whitman, she did most of her biggest films in the 2010s but she has done quite a bit of cartoon voice acting, most notably Katara from Avatar The Last Airbender, Amity Blight from The Owl House and Tinkerbell in all the animated tinkerbell films. I think Hailee Steinfeld is a really great example of someone that while she maybe doesn't have the same duality as a professional voice actress, she does a great job at the celebrity voice-acting, especially as her roles in Spiderverse and Arcane. Another great example is Bradley Cooper's performance of Rocket in Guardians of the Galaxy, he brings him to life especially well.
@@ishathakor yes! Perhaps it's because she sings as well, but her voice is very expressive, which translates well into animation, even without the range of like Nancy Cartwright!
@@matty6878 didn't know there was a Scott pilgrim anime! Also I meant more-so in live action films, as the creator was talking about celebrity VAs, I would say she is less of a well-known "celebrity" and more of a well-known voice actor now, as she is still incredibly popular and well-known in voice acting, but her live action credits tend to be lesser known and she isn't as mainstream as she used to be. Nevertheless love her and think she's a great VA and actress!
I don't really care for Mel Gibson. But it's funny that I first and foremost know him as Rocky in the first Chicken Run film, a role which he absolutely nailed. In fact now I think about it, Stop Motion animated films do seem to have excellent casting and performances, I wonder if that's because the films take longer to make so they can be more polished.
I noticed that they recasted Mel Gibson as Rocky in the sequel for Chicken Run with Zachary Levy as his replacement, in fact I think the whole cast was replaced. Some would argue it makes sense considering more than 20 years have passes and the actors are older, but Ginger's VA said she was hoping to come back and found the decision as an example of ageism On the other hand, when the Latin American Spanish trailer for Chicken Run 2 came out a few days ago Rocky and Ginger were voiced by their original dub actors
The movie as a whole fell kinda flat for me but I actually liked Chris Evans as Buzz Lightyear. You call it overacting and stiff at the same time but he was channeling Tim Allen's "action figure voice clip" exaggerated delivery while turning it into personality quirks of a more subdued human character. That was clearly the intention behind the voice direction and writing so if you have any issues with that, you should take it up to them rather than the acting. And the casting makes sense. Buzz Lightyear, like Captain America is that "All American" superhero archetype and Evans had previously played that role while layering it with a good amount of vulnerability. And he's a big Disney/Pixar fan and space nerd. So both your fronts of having intention behind the casting rather than slotting a random celebrity into the role, as well as passion from the actor themselves, are both met. Good video as a whole, I feel like you barely touched on the specifics of why Spider-verse's voice acting works tho. It just feels like you just tacked that on whilst wanting to just make a generalized video about celebrity voice acting just to catch the hype.
I also felt like he praised Tom Hank's Woody but constantly left out Tim Allen's Buzz. Did he not like it or something? I think Tim Allen was iconic as Buzz.
Joe Ranft was a Pixar animator that also did the voice of Heimlich the caterpillar in A Bug's Life. Joe got the role as Heimlich in A Bug's Life after John Lasseter noticed that his wife, Nancy, laughed harder at Joe's temporary dialogue during production than she did at the actor hired to voice the caterpillar. Joe served as story supervisor on Toy Story 2 and provided the voice for Wheezy the asthmatic penguin.
I loved this! As a former VO artist, I do wish you'd called more attention to all the quality small roles in Across the Spider-Verse. They all nailed it! Your main point at the end was how they are under recognized; showcasing them on your platform is a way to elevate. I am subscribing to see how future critiques might be. Thank you! Peace, out.
The problem I have is that actors are meant to act, have visuals carry their voice and have their bodies perform better. However voice actors (usually) dont have that same experience, so they know how to use their voice to emphasize the emotions that otherwise could have been done through hand movements or facial features. They can use that experience to match whatever the character theyre playing as feels or looks, but celebrity voice actors just cant. I don't blame them either, but I just wish studios cared more. Spider verse is probably my favorite movie currently (might get beaten by beyond who knows) and I really like the effort and actual care they put into this project.
This is one of my favorite elements of media. I have a special love for voice actors that's very different from live-action. But I think what's missing from this video is that the direction of the actors is always a huge factor. Veteran voice actors like Billy West can find the right voice and turn in a solid performance even if the movie is being directed by a committee of xanaxed marketing assistants. But someone like Mel Gibson, who doesn't have much experience, can still deliver an excellent voice performance, but only with a director who knows how to hold his hand through it. That's why he's flat as a board in Pocahontas, but a firecracker in Chicken Run. It's the same with Chris Pratt. His performance in Lego Movie was under the direction of Chris Miller and Phil Lord, who are master animation directors, not to mention that Lord himself does voice acting. (He played Principal Skudworth from their first masterpiece, Clone High.) So they knew how to get a voice performance out of him, when to say "give me more," when to say, "brighter, sillier." They weren't looking at him perform, they were listening. And that, I think, is the core mistake of celebrity voice casting. They're "picturing" the actor in the role, and banking on the fans doing the same, not realizing that this is the opposite of what they should be doing. The most notable celebrity voice fail to me is Aslan in the Narnia movies. Initially, Brian Cox was cast in the role. He's a great big grizzly man who's a magnificent actor with incredible presence. So from a cinematic point of view, he's a perfect fit. Except animation is a completely different beast, and anyone who casts a voice role based on an actor's physical presence is, frankly speaking, incompetent. Once Cox was in the recording booth, it must have come as a shock to realize that this great big silverback of a man has a soft, lilting voice. James Earl Jones he is not. So they had to let him go. And who did they replace him with? Liam Neeson, another leonine actor with powerful presence. And again, once he was in the recording booth, it turned out he has a flat, unremarkable speaking voice. So the final Narnia films feature a mighty Lion with an incongruously dull voice. I don't mean to say that Neeson isn't a good actor, quite the opposite. But he's just not a voice actor. His voice just doesn't resonate. It's like he's speaking from inside a cardboard box (Maybe he'd make a great Solid Snake). James Earl Jones' voice, by contrast, resonates like the belly of a Stradivarius. The same is true for Kevin Conroy. You can hear his first voice performance in Batman: The Animated Series, where he was still a bit green, to the effortlessness of his performance in the Justice League animated series, when he'd reached a mastery of vocal performance. And what stands out is how bright and resonant his voice is, no matter how deep it gets. This is where Neeson's performance failed. His understated style demands you look into his eyes and see what's going on in there. Understated actors can be deeply compelling, but not for animation. When the great Peter Weller played Buckeroo Bonzai, the rocket scientist/brain surgeon/rock star/superhero, his dry, understated performance worked as a hilarious contrast to the idea of him. Same with Robocop, where his lack of affect was the ongoing joke. But casting him as the voice of Batman in DC Animation's adaptation of The Dark Knight Returns was a failure. Weller just can't chew scenery with his voice the way Kevin Conroy can. In one tragic scene, the comic describes Batman's voice as sounding like a coming storm. Weller just sounded bored. What I think pro voice actors understand is that voice performance isn't the same craft as live-action acting. What strikes me when I see actors in the recording booth is how the voice doesn't match the actor, it matches the character. That's what Billy West and Tara Strong are masters of. I don't think they're picturing themselves playing that role, they're picturing the character, matching each nuance to the cartoon, rather than their own physical presence. Actors call their body their "instrument," but a voice actor has to adjust their performance to each character as though it's a whole new instrument capable of a completely different range of emotional expression. Robin Williams seemed to do this naturally, because his genius is helping the audience imagine him as rubbery and transformable as his own imagination. So for him, the Genie was just the visual realization of what he does in our mind anyway, shift fluidly into anything and everything at will. But that's what Will Smith doesn't get, and doesn't want to. Will doesn't know how to inhabit a cartoon character, because he's too immersed in the lifetime role of Will Smith.
Great video, although from the title I was really hoping this would be a dive into the different vocal performances of the spiderverse cast and a bit of analysis on what makes it so good rather than comparing it to a plethora of other films. Still, great video essay and I'll happily subscribe for more.
And of course, if I recall right, Peter Cullen was cast in the movies precisely because fans lobbied for him and sent Bay a petition - I seem to remember him saying he didn't even know who he was before that.
One of my favorite examples of celebrity voice acting is Kirsten Chenoweth. She has that particular voice to her that would cause directors to cast her in animated movies, but she also knows how to fluctuate her particular voice like a voice actor. This might be due to her mainly being a singer. A lot of these other celebrities are JUST actors. They know how to put on a show using their actions more than their voices.
My man, in Mexico we have the same problem. Professional voice actors are being pushed away in favor of mediocre “celebrities”, there are some good but the vast majority are BAD. Hopefully this can be fixed, voice directors know their craft the problem is when execs shoehorn this or that name bc PrOFiTs & all they accomplish is audiences refusing to watch the movie bc the voice acting is bad, happened w Across The Spiderverse just now, the celebrities they casted in Spanish do it so bad the studio had to screen the English version bc nobody wanted to hear the Spanish version. Even professional voice actors had to ask audiences to stop harassing celebrities for their mediocre work. In 🇲🇽 is just like 🇯🇵, professional voice actors are FAMOUS FAMOUS, most notably the Dragon Ball cast when they tried to replace them nobody watched it & they had to do the voice acting w the original cast all over again.
Voice acting is to live action what dentistry is to the rest of medicine. TBF though, Pratt's actual Mario voice is better in the movie than it is in any of the trailers.
I would like to argue that Celebrity voice acting isn't inherently bad, and both Spider-Verse films didn't necessarily "fix" it; good voice over work is a balance of good casting and good direction. You can have a production with a solid cast but shitty direction, such as the animated version of Batman: The Killing Joke or any D-Tier 2000's anime dib, but you can also have a production with a less experienced or familiar cast but fantastic direction, such as the Kung Fu Panda and HTTYD movies. And there are plenty of celebrities that give voice acting the respect it deserves, like Jack Black, Mark Hamill, Nicolas Cage, Willem Dafoe, etc. And I feel like people won't take Voice Acting seriously if we demonize less than stellar performances. For example, yes, Chris Pratt wasn't _great_ as Mario, but his performance affecting that movie is up to viewer opinion. Meanwhile, we *_know_* he can do a good vocal performance because he did so in The Lego Movie. The problem isn't Celebrity casting, it's half-assed direction.
I was looking for this comment because it's so true !! sometimes its the celebrity's fault but the voice director should also be taking some of the blame for letting the unsatisfactory performance through
There's a HUUUUUUGE segment of entertainment that you never mentioned that makes way more than TV, movies, and everything else combined: VIDEO GAMES. The voices for some video game characters are iconic in and of themselves - Mario being a notable example, as you mentioned. But more importantly, as video gaming has grown from being "just games" to becoming a powerful storytelling medium, the reason I think you don't see many voice actors moving towards films is because video games are A) far more lucrative in terms of the contracts you can sign, and B) offer a MUCH wider scope for the actors to hone their craft.
Since you mentioned the italian voice for Mario, i want to bring light (as an italian person) to a really wellknown voice actor, Flavio Aquilone. Now, Flavio is really well known for having a "crush" voice (every italian person basically has a crush on his voice lmao) but his voice is still so distinct for every character he does and he puts so much emotion into them that it almost doesn't sound like they're voiced by the same person. To give some examples: Draco Malfoy from the Harry Potter series, Troy Bolton from High School Musical, Chat Noir from Miraculous, Light Yagami from Death Note, Hiccup from HTTYD, Jean from Attack On Titan and many more. The fact that they're all the same person kinda scares me ngl lmao
![[MV] A leap of faith...ความเชื่อใจครั้งสุดท้าย (From "Petrichor the series")](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/U1piZH2CNXA/mqdefault.jpg)
Tbh, I didn’t even think about the voice acting the spiderverse movies because they sounded like *real* people to me. And I think that’s a testament to the voice acting in itself.
Even after watching this whole video I didn't realize I felt this same way until you said it.
The voice acting is solid but I found that the dialogue itself is pretty weak.
@@DoltonI hot take
@@DoltonI Very hot take but to each their own
Spider ham doesn’t feel like a real person, but he still fits perfectly because he feels like he’s really there
The main difference between good and bad celebrity casting: passion. If the actor cares and does research to better understand the characters, then obviously they’re going to do a good job.
But also like you said, iconic voices help present characters too, it makes the character feel unique and stand strong amongst the main ensemble.
Exactly why the ego thing was so on point will smith doesnt give a fuck about the character hes doing a voice for. He knows hell get payed and people will just hear his voice and see his name and be satisfied.
true, even in non animated movies, actors need to deliver lines with emotion behind their voices so the problem isnt that they arent good at voice acting or that they cant be good. its just they have to put in the extra effort and most people only do that if they care about the character and their role
also i think the biggest problem with the mario movie was that there already is a voice actor and there has been for so fckin long.
if no mario game had any voice work done for mario it wouldve given chris pratt leeway and it might notve gotten all the backlash but instead everyone already knows what mario sounds like and in that movie, that was not it
however bro bowser was perfect casting i love jack blacks performance, that was a W choice of a famous name for an iconic role
Yes, I mostly agree. But I do think it's often not even the celebrity's fault that their lines lack passion.
When Hollywood producers cast a celebrity over a voice actor, it's for their fame, not for the acting itself. Thus nobody in that production line requires the celebrity to show passion. They are just not cast for that.
It takes so much time to teach the celebrity how to do voice acting, and every second taken in teaching is an increase in expense.
Producers really should learn just how relevant the quality of the voice acting is and actually care who they cast for which role.
Fr you need to understand you characters motives so you know when to shake your voice or prolong a certain word it’ll just come to you if you understand the story and characters
Honestly I really dislike that voice actors are getting shut out of the movie industry because animated movie studios refuse to cast non famous actors
cuz at the end of the day its about marketing. a bad film with good marketing will still make money because people still need to pay to watch once.
@@izacbenjamin4770Mario didn't need that to make a boat load of money. It was Mario. It was going to make money regardless.
I'm not watching jack shit if the VAs sounds dogwater. I don't particularly care whether you're famous or na.
Ikr?
@@s-wo8781 I'm gonna have to lightly disagree with that. Video game-based movies have had notoriously bad production and poor box office results, and that stigma followed the new Mario movie before its release. Without the marketing of a family-friendly / recognizable cast (especially Jack Black and the Peaches song), it likely wouldn't have had the impact that it had. Everything would've fallen to the script and the visuals, which weren't exactly its strongest points either.
a mark of bad celebrity voice acting: when you can't hear the character and can only hear the celebrity. a mark of good celebrity voice acting: even if the voice is incredibly recognizable you hear the character more than the actor.
Exactly! Like Bradley Cooper as Rocket. Not distracting at all, he put a whole twist on the character and then later when you find out you go 'Oh cool!' instead of sitting there wondering who it is the whole time.
@@chyldprodigy took the exact comparison, right outta my mind
Much as I like some of Jon Favreau's films, his Jungle Book is an egregious example of how to do it wrong. You shouldn't have to work that hard to imagine the voice is coming from the characters on screen. And it's not just that they're celebrities, it's that there's no connection between the voices and the characters onscreen. It seemed like a bunch of semi-retired actors just phoned in all the film dialog in a single afternoon, and then animators were given the unenviable task of trying to make that recording sound like it was coming from photo-real CG animals. It was all the wrong choices.
I get what your saying but the point of the studio hiring a celebrity is to bring the “star power”. Like when they hired Benedict Cumberbatch to play the Grinch but he didn’t even sound like himself. I was disappointed. So maybe it wasn’t so good.
@@ajwillustratorauthorbasically you're saying you watch movies for the celebrities and not for their performance.
Hailee Steinfeld voices Vi and Gwen with basically her own voice and still make them sound distinct is amazing to me
VI FROM ARCANE??? They’re 2 huge crushes of mine, how am I just finding this out now..
If you find that amazing, go into the world of Japanese VA your jaws ill drop to the floor😆
Seriously,The only way you know they have the same VA is by checking
If there is a strong and powerful girl character whom could shift new generations of teenage girl's sexual preferences, Hailee will fit in.
@@eqonxi nahhh, once you get really into it, you can differentiate people's voices by ear and it's like a fun easter egg to figure out who is voicing who
Ya know, not enough praise goes into Bradley Cooper's performance as Rocket Raccoon.
Specially in the third movie, he was the core emotional of the whole plot and is extra hard to convey it with voice alone.
Bradley Cooper isn’t even on the set and somehow he conveys so much emotion from just lines and being a raccoon
damn his soo good as Rocket
His voice is the only voice I think of when referring to rocket
Probably one of the best VA roles I’ve heard in a wild
I think we should also bring up Hailee Steinfeld. She was in the Spider-Verse movies, and in Netflix's Arcane, playing Vi. She does a FANTASTIC job getting into her characters, but she's also what you would consider an A-List actor, with her performances in Pitch Perfect, Dickinson, Hawkeye, etc.
I was stunned when I found out she played Vi. I never would’ve placed her voice because it just fits so well. She nails all the subtle emotion. Gwen Stacy has a similar vibe and she rocks that role too.
Hailee is an example of why good VA goes under-appreciated. Her performance sounds so natural that it you don’t think about it as a performance, all you hear is the character.
@@nicole_1747 I agree 100%. I feel like I don't see enough people talking about how good her performances are as Vi and Gwen.
@gettingfairest5622 Not really! I’m talking about actually going into her work. The most she was “brought up” was at 4:32 which only her name was said as a very brief example.
Unrelated but I always though that she would be an amazing Barbara Gordon live action(come to think of it in voice acting acting too) but now she in Marvel so prob wont happen
Wait she played Vi!? Damn props to her then!
You mentioned Mark Hamil so I just have to say: he is a really good voice actors in multiple roles.
So is j.k Simmons
Yeah I’d argue Mark Hamill is more of a voice actor than a live action actor, just with his most famous role being a live action one
🤝
Yeah exactly, Mark's been doing animated movies since Wizards, the guy is a voice actor.
fire lord ozai is another amazing one on hamill curriculum
Yess I love his performance as Cave Johnson
What really blows my mind is how Tara Strong is not an A-list celebrity, and how few people know who she is. Her Wiki filmography page goes for miles, she voiced literary hundreds of beloved characters, and her voice acting work is outstanding.
EDIT: my point is the voice actors should get MUCH more recognition for their work. Tara Strong deserves to be a household name more than many A-list actors.
I first became aware of her when she was known as Tara Charendoff and performing the voice of Batgirl on the Batman animated series.
as far as voice actors go she is as close to an A-list actor as you can get, she is of course not as popular as big hollywood celebrities but she is usually put as one of the big voices if she is working in a project and while she isnt mainstream those who like animation know who she is
@@carso1500 this is kinda my point: voice actors should get more credit.
Okay so what if I told you Tara Strong would be an excellent and fitting choice for Bowser Jr?
Edit: Oh uh, nevermind.
Timmy Turner, Twilight Sparkles, Bubbles, Raven… I found her through MLP and haven’t really watched the other shows she’s acted in and yet I know these easily
Ask me what Chris Pratt has been in and I won’t be able to tell you whatsoever. And I wanted to see the Mario movie
Comedic actors seem to do better at voice acting, and I wonder if it's because comedians are already used to altering the tone/pitch/energy of their voice in a way that most dramatic actors don't. I just wish more specialized voice actors got these big roles more often because they deserve that recognition.
They are. Comedians play characters during there shows so they change their voice usually. They also are usually screen writers because they know how to have a story play out.
I think a large part of it is also because comedic actors are more used to and comfortable putting themselves out there and looking 'silly' for the sake of selling a bit. Voice acting is a very different kind of performance, and to get the intended emotion to read in a person's voice, there's usually a certain level of over-acting required. Having tried it myself, you really do feel like you're making a fool of yourself at first, and it's a very different mindset to a regular acting performance. You have to get out of your own head and realize that it doesn't matter how goofy you look as long as you're selling the performance, and that mindset has a lot more crossover with comedy than it does serious acting.
Mat Damon’s performance was not even voice acting it was narration frl
What?
The movie would've been flawless without him pointing out the obvious
Matt Damon?? where dawg 💀
@@MassiveMiniGamingHe voice acted in Spirit:Stallion of the Cimarron
@@notmecubes wait that was him? Dang I didn't know
Jack Black is incredible. He brings so much enthusiasm to everything he does. Yeah he’s gotta make his money, but it always seems like he’s just having fun. Bowser was by far the best part of the Mario movie for me. If it weren’t for Jack Black…
I feel like with the popularity of anime coming to America, voice acting will become more important. Also Mark Hamil is incredible too. Even though he’s a celebrity because of Star Wars, I think it’s safe to say he’s a voice actor before he’s a live action actor.
i think what makes jack black different from other celebrities is that he only does movies it seems he wants to
Voice acting is important in America. Mostly in tv shows but it’s still pretty important.
Don't discount Mark Hamill's live action work, he gave the best performance in the sequel trilogy for TLJ. He convincingly portrayed the widest array of emotions, expressions, and attitudes in an earnest, lightly campy way only Hamill himself could pull off. If you check out the behind the scenes, he's in the zone. He's locked in. Thoughtfully reading the script, discussing it with Rian Johnson, absorbing his surroundings in a very zen way. There have been some great performances in Star Wars and Mark's is up there for sure.
@@camerondempsey8990Mark did all that while hating the material he had to work with for TLJ. It's one thing to give a performance like that for something you are passionate about, it's entirely another to do it for something you dislike. Mark is just that good
Never seen his work in Star Wars but I did enjoy him in the shitty Chucky movie. At least his voice acting made it entertaining.
As mentioned, the ENTIRE cast of both Spiderverse movies are great, but my standout in both is Brian Tyree Henry as Miles' dad. He just nails this naturalistic take on an empathetic father who is still really funny while being intimidating and incredibly vulnerable.
"Oh yeah, DEAD serious!"
Loved him in that show Atlanta too
@@evancoberley2650my favorite was "that's his jacket EMO" 😭😭😭😭
"with great ability comes great accountability" I chuckle every time I think of that line lmao
Eartha Kitt as Yzma in emperors new groove is one of the best of all time!!! The role was literally made for her! Really all of the voice acting in that movie is fantastic
Seconded
THISSSS!
Pull the lever, Kronk!
Wait, do you mean literally literally or metaphorically literally? Because sometimes it is literal, like the video said genie was made with Robin Williams in time
I believe one of the creators said the role was made with her in mind! I’ll have to double check!
Love that you mentioned the Japanese market for voice acting because it really is the ideal world. The thoughtfulness that actress showed for doing Raven's voice in Teen Titans is usually displayed in a lot of the work done in anime. I remember specifically this one video that showed Yuuki Kaji doing some lines for Eren, and the freaking creator of the manga was there at the studio to help the voice actor to better understand what the character's emotions should be in the particular scene.
i was glad to hear about japan as well, it really does deserve the attention.
I’m so happy for Hailee, she’s come a long way in her career and for her to nail voice acting in Spiderverse and Arcane, it’s a huge deal. She’s an incredible actor, she always gives 110%
!!! Her performance in Across the Spider-verse is just so impressive and outstanding to me, she enhances Gwen's character so much, her pain and unsureness... My first time watching this movie was in Ukrainian so I was so pleasantly surprised to hear how great Hailee is on my English rewatch :D
She is genuinely show-stealing in Across the Spiderverse. Alongside Arcane, she now has a one-two punch of outstanding performances in her repertoir.
I never realized Vi was played by Hailee
i honestly prefer her AS a voice actor! She gives a strong and emotional vocal performance to the characters she plays. Same with Ella Purnell (actor playing Jinx in Arcane)
@@SW-rd6bgElla is so good in Yellowjackets too tho
If you haven't seen Arcane yet, the voice acting there is SO good. They have a mix of less-big celebrities and exclusively voice actors that nail everything from jokes to complicated emotional moments
lol they’re Al famous voice actors tho
Yes and....?? That wasn't relevant to the connection I was making between the two.
@@melindawolfUS I’m just throwing to the fact that arcane didn’t really do anything special. Considering the VA on it are unionized they get all the jobs 😭 they’re more guilty than the movies named here is what I’m getting at
They surely focused a lot on voice acting. For example,the characters from Piltover have a more "posh" accent. It's a great example of considerable casting and good performance.
@@badazzkaz The fact they're unionized doesn't lessen anyone's enjoyment of the voice acting. Sure, every performance is subjective... but the range the characters had? How some characters had break-downs or lost their minds without going melodramatic or becoming caricatures of themselves? *Chef's kiss.
Most people I talk to were super impressed with the acting quality. Somebody just sounds a little jealous ;)
When you mentioned professional VAs as main characters in theatrical films, you missed a HUGE one. Colleen O'Shanessy as Tails. While yes, she did already voice him before, most people expected a recast with a famous actor like Tom Holland or something. Seeing an actual VA get to be in a major motion picture was refreshing AF.
tom holland as tails???? 😭😭
@Ricartoon I hate the idea too, but film companies just want another recognizable name on the poster.
They probably didnt want to pay a big actor a bunch of money to say 1 line for a post credit scene which was why they got her
@@JohnDoe______ Yeah, but everyone assumed they'd just recast for the sequel. The fact they kept her is honestly an enormous W.
@@kidanarchy2105 well after the enormous backlash original sonic design got why would they risk another one by replacing the actress why do you think in sonic 2 post credit scene shadow didn’t talk
The point about Scarlett Johansson being fine casting on paper for Kaa but not giving a great performance is such a good distinction! Especially when you compare the performance to Michelle Pfeiffer playing Eris in Sinbad - despite both roles being written as manipulative and seductive, Pheiffer is giving her all and seems to be having the time of her life leaning into it!
I think Jungle Book was a failure all the way around because it was a live-action director thinking of it as a live-action movie, and it was actually a cartoon. When a CG character in a live-action movie works, it's because the director understands that they are actually, always cartoons. Gollum was a cartoon character in every way, with the huge, expressive eyes, the huge hands and feet, all contributing to a cartoon's exaggerated expression. The other actors didn't know what to make of Andy Serkis' voice performance, until they saw what it looked like on the character. It was a cartoon voice. It's the same with Rocket Raccoon, a cartoon voice performance on a cartoon character. Because Rocket's design is supposed to look like a real raccoon, you don't notice that he's a cartoon character until you realize he gets the most expressive closeups, and turns in the most exaggerated physical performance (even in a film series designed around exaggerated physical performances meant to evoke comic books). It's all in the service of forcing the audience to read this little animal as effortlessly as we read the human actors. That's what cartooning is.
@@rottensquidthat’s such a good point. Apparently an executive actually got mad that Cooper was making up a voice for Rocket, because “why get a big actor if it’s not gonna sound like him?” Thank God they ignored him and let Cooper be an ACTOR, and we got the wonderful Rocket we have.
Also reminds be of Benedict Cumberbatch’s performance as Smaug. It probably helped that he got to use MoCap and slither around like a freak to get in character. You could tell he was giving it 100%.
@@Fantallana I really didn't think much of the Hobbit films in general, and Smaug's design in particular (just in general, the scale of the the Lonely Mountain went far past the point of being remotely believable, and Smaug himself was literally the size of the 747. It all evoked the grandiose inflation of a fragile ego.) But Cumberbatch couldn't have been more perfect. What a plummy dragon he made. A voice like boiling mulled wine.
The sad thing about Peter Cullen is that he had to really fight to be able to voice Optimus Prime in the live action movies. They had wanted Liam Neeson to do his voice and Peter had to audition multiple times before they decided he could voice them. And for Bumblebee they had forced him to imitate Jon Bailey’s imitation of Optimus Prime since he was originally in it. Luckily they let him do his thing for Rise of the Beasts. It’s a shame that when a voice actor is able to get this chance, it’s still not easy for them.
Edit: just wanted to clarify some stuff. Even though Peter Cullen had to audition to voice Optimus Prime in the movies, the studio and Micheal Bay were actually interested in hiring him. The producer Lorenzo however, didn’t think he was up for the challenge. It seems like Lorenzo is the one responsible for all the misteps of the franchise
Michael bay was actually impressed by Peter Cullens performance. They just had to bring him back for more auditions to see if he was worth it.
@@stwormmarkus ah ok my source was a Corey Burton interview in which that’s how it was described. Of course he never auditioned as he wasn’t really interested in the process so how would he know
@@stwormmarkus That's a tough call, not because Neeson would have been good, far from it. He's a terrible voice actor, as the Narnia movies proved. No disrespect to the guy, he just needs his face and his body to do his thing. But most filmgoers are drawn to films because of their familiarity with stars. That's why stars get the biggest bucks. It's a sad truth about the industry, that it runs on the power of celebrity more than anything else. So it must have been a huge financial risk to drop a big celebrity name from one of the main characters and replace it with a nameless voice-actor from a mostly forgotten cartoon series. My hat's off to everyone who made that decision.
@@rottensquid I think shiea labeaouf was big enough to get people in the theatre. And it's a big action movie with explosions, robots, and women. In 2007 this would be enough to get people to watch it.
@@stwormmarkus Right, and it obviously worked. But that's not how execs think. They look at spreadsheets and data reports, and track predictable profit patterns. I don't know if there's some number next to every movie star's name that indicates how much money they can reliably bring in by starring in a movie, but it wouldn't surprise me. So taking out a known star and replacing him with a nobody seems like a brave choice, and absolutely the right call. I don't have much nostalgia for Transformers, as the rise of anime ultimately eclipsed its appeal for me back in the mid-80s. but Peter Cullen's voice is definitely one of the few things I remember fondly about the show. And even now, it adds gravitas to what is otherwise a pretty shallow film series.
Something that’s telling is how I was surprised to find that Hailee Steinfeld, Oscar Isaac and Brian Tyree Henry were a part of Spider-verse’s cast. The voices just fit the characters, it doesn’t feel forced.
Yeah, after watching I didn't realize who Oscar Isaac had played when I heard he part of the cast
I think Issa Rae did a great job too! Even with such a distinct voice, I think she made a great Jessica Drew. It wasn’t “Issa Rae” to me, when I watched Super Mario Bros, I did enjoy the movie but every time Donkey Kong spoke I was just like, “Seth Rogan”. Jack Black did AMAZING though, he has a lot more range than he’s given credit for.
@@danisdcpdiarynone of my family even caught on it was Jack Black until we looked up the casting lmao he did great as Bowser, he was so hilarious
Cause they have genuine talent and know their job.
yep, good voice acting is when you go "oh my god that was THEM?" or "wait who did they play?" when the credits roll
Just because someone is good at acting doesn't mean they'll be good at voice acting, but a lot of actors just happen to be good at both. It's important to test that beforehand, and make sure the voice direction can make up for their lack of experience
Easier and cheaper to just cast actual voice actors. They have the experience in giving the whole performance with just their voice, screen and stage actors do not. That doesn't mean they can't, many can certainly learn, but some people are just better at certain things.
@@PaulGuy Unfortunately, movies are made to make money, regardless of the passion that went into making it, and a part of money making is good marketing.
Telling audiences Yuri Lowenthal is gonna be in Across The Spider-Verse isn’t gonna really matter to most people, but telling them Oscar Isaac is will.
People just don’t know VAs quite the same and it does matter despite how unfortunate it may seem.
It is a shame that you didn't mention Megamind. That is probably my favorite example of good celebrity voice casting
Will Ferrell rocked it out of the PARK as Megamind. All it took was a stellar *PRESENTATION!*
I thought he did a great job as Lord Business too
Y e s
@@jwroot Jonah Hill also did a great job as Hal/Titan. People in Hollywood slept on his acting range for years because they viewed him as the overweight comic relief guy, but he's done an amazing job of knocking almost every film he gets out of the park.
@@NeotenicoI recently rewatched Moneyball, and yeah I agree
The Spider-Verse movies feel like an act of love from every aspect of it and it shows. You can tell from the animation, the music, and to the casting of these characters. Every actor sounded perfect for their roles and I can’t think of a single actor that gave a half-assed performance in either movie. I only wish and hope that future movies have that same passion going forward and sets a new benchmark not just in animated movies but for movies in general.
Spiderverse is a lightning caught in a bottle for BOTH movie, EVERY aspects of these movies are 10/10 like wtf?
Mel Gibson's voice acting was superb in Chicken Run, he was one of the standout performances. It goes beyond just being good or bad at giving performances. While some are bad, some are just a misfit. If you want to see a masterclass in voice acting there is no better place to look than Dreamwork's "Prince of Egypt". Every single character was astounding and worked so hard to deliver that movie in its final state.
See, that's the thing. They cast him in Pocahontas because John Smith is a handsome white guy, and Mel is a handsome white guy. They "pictured" him in the role, instead of listening to him. While Rocky in Chicken Run couldn't look less like Mel, or sound less like him. You hear that voice and you're not thinking of Mel at all. The character and the voice matched perfectly.
Meanwhile, I think execs who insist on celebrity casting want the moviegoers to hear Mel, to imagine Mel, because that's what they paid him for. They're not thinking like animation makers, they're thinking like execs selling a product, and a part of that product is the very expensive inclusion of Mel Gibson, to get fans of Mel Gibson to the theaters. So when those fans show up and see no sign of Mel Gibson in that rooster, the execs aren't happy.
Prince of Egypt is excellent too, perhaps even better. I think again, it's so good because you forget who's voicing the characters. You get swept up in the great story (and that's coming from a strictly non-religious person, so...)
I think though, the biggest problem that animation faces is that the studio system is set up to sell celebrity rather than films. And animation remained a second-tier medium because it's way harder to sell celebrity. I think we're always going to get these mediocre animated films trying to sell on star power rather than quality, and they'll always do pretty well, because quality is subjective, while star power can be nailed down to predictable profit margins. The quantum leap forward that Spider-Verse takes just demonstrates to me how tied down animation tends to be, sticking with formulas to squeeze out any kind of predictable profit rather than experimenting at all. Even Pixar has lost its edge in innovation. So when a major studio actually dares to let animators actually innovate as much as they please, The result leaves the rest of the industry in the dust.
Was looking for someone to mention Prince of Egypt! It was one that blew me away when I looked at the cast list afterward. Excellent performances by all!
Comparing the Tara Strong clip about Raven at 10:41 with the horrible Matt Damon performance at 1:31 is absolutely wild. Why aren't we casting Tara Strong in more movies?!
Maybe it’s her ties to NFT’s, which sure executives love, but I’m also sure many directors with artistic backgrounds are really REALLY not fond of. And I can’t disagree with the directors.
She's in too many tv shows lol
@@corrinflakes9659 she’s in so so so many beloved shows and movies already, i don’t personally think NFTs is the biggest reason. if you look her up, most google images show up with her face surrounded by 30+ of her most popular character roles (all ongoing) including some harley quinn roles, several raven’s from teen titans iterations, twilight sparkle (including equestria girls “human” twilight), bubbles from power puff girls, melody from the little mermaid (one of the sequels), ben ten, some hello kitty. (these names im pulling from the images, its likely she doesn’t play every instance of all of these characters but popularly a main actor for them).
honestly i think it’s just that she plays in so many (target kid-teen audience) tv shows that directors are more likely to choose her for episodic tv shows than movies. i looked into it a bit more and she also primarily plays only kids/teens/specifically child-relatable types of young adult characters. this may contribute to her staying in the background of movies which feature usually deeper themes of young adult characters. but idk, maybe she’s fallen off in recent years because of NFTs and other social issues? i haven’t seen her become less popular and you’re actually the first i’ve heard of her being related to NFT issues-but i don’t know much about her popularity in general.
after thinking on it i think the main reason she’s not in more movies is that her BEST work is done in light-hearted shows. even as Raven she really reached for that monotone voice and in dramatic scenes; while it was played really really well, her acting was better known for Raven when she was being comedic. Tara Strong has a really wide vocal range but it all works best when it is overly exaggerated to a cartoon-ish effect, which many young adult targeted movies aren’t going to look for. but many cartoons are. again though, she could do almost any role. she’s just going to be picked for the most comfortable/expected roles until she herself chooses to branch out. she’s in several movies, just kids ones! or as kids in the background.
Who's we?
As a huge voice acting nerd, one of my favorite things has always been the shock of two characters sharing a voice actor despite sounding nothing like eachother. Like finding out ice king and SpongeBob share a voice actor, or raven and bubbles, I could go on.
I'm from Spanish speaking Latin America, and I also kind of a dub voice actor nerd, especially from Mexican dub actors, since they're the most iconic. There's some incredible voices in Across the Spider-Verse Neutral Spanish dub who have voiced other characters:
- Miles (Emilio Treviño): Ben 10 in the '16 series, Robin in LEGO Batman Movie, Denji in Chainsaw Man, Mikey in Tokyo Revengers, Akira in Devilman Crybaby, Lloyd Garmadon in Ninjago, Norman in Paranorman, Timothée Chalamet in various movies
- Gwen (Alondra Hidalgo): Hinata Hyūga in Naruto, Jolyne Cujoh in Stone Ocean, Rem in Re:Zero, Lisa Loud in the Loud House, Clara Núñez in Trollhunters
- Peter B. Parker (Miguel Ángel Ruiz): Panda in We Bear Bears, Caiman in Dorohedoro, Shaggy from Scooby-doo! since 2016, Franky in Spy × Family, Toad in the SMB Movie
- Pavitr Prabhakar (Tommy Rojas): Cat Noir in Miraculous, Jake the Dog
- Peni Parker (Alejandra Delint): Asuna from Sword Art Online, Ashe in OverWatch, Sai in Hikaru no Go
Spongebob and ice king make sense. I can hear the similarities
@@TimothyGod he also voiced dr two brains in word girl
@@theundeadcactus6194 in WORD GIRL???? jeez the range
@@TimothyGod the man can do anything
Calling Mark Hamill a "Celebrity doing voice acting" feels like a crime. Mark Hamill is obviously a household name for Luke Skywalker but is arguably more prolific as the voice of some of the greatest cartoon villains of all time. Firelord Ozai, Joker, Chucky, and hundreds of side villains like Stickybeard (CN:KND) and Undergrowth (Danny Phantom). He is up there with Tom Kenny and Tara Strong for voice actors that seem to be in every cartoon I loved as a child.
He wasn't when he got Joker. It was pretty much his first voice acting role.
@@bryanwoods3373 Nope, he did a fair bit of VA work in the 70s, including one role as a protagonist in a cartoon show, but he didn't do anything in the 80s and only one TV episode in 1992 before becoming the Joker. So it was more like his reintroduction to VA work, I guess.
Voice acting was what he always wanted to do
As far as I'm aware, Luke Skywalker was the only live action role he did. He basically turned into a voice actor
The way actual voice actors get passed up for roles is insane.
The biggest problem I have with celebrity voice acting is that it takes roles that could've been filled by more unknown actors that probably would've fit better. The best VA's are the ones you don't recognize.
One of my favorite movies growing up was The Iron Giant. Imagine my shock when I found out years later he was voiced by Vin Diesel. I can see why they casted him as Groot.
And Vin at that time (1999) wasn't even a big actor yet. He was still on the rise.
FAMILY
The Iron Giant is fantastic and the VA is no exception, it’s so naturalistic
"SUPERMAN"
The Iron Giant is one of the best animated films of all time.
That kind of reminds me that in the Latin American Spanish dub of The Iron Giant the Giant was dubbed by César Soto, who later went to voice Bender in Futurama and that's kind of funny because there's an episode in which they parodied the movie with Bender as the Giant
Hailee Steinfeld is an amazing voice actor, when I first watched Spider-Verse and Arcane I had no idea she was the VA for Gwen & Vi until the end credits. Testament to her skills! And I agree, I wish hollywood would treat real voice actors as Japan does theirs, they're regarded just as highly as movie stars.
I love how spiderverse's voice acting feels so natural. They're independent characters, not the egos of actors, unless where played up for laughs. Celebrity voice acting often removes a lot of immersion imo, since your mind is too busy picturing who they are irl rather than being in universe. I feel like having a solid VA main cast and one or two celebrity side characters adds fame and appeal without limiting the hard work of a massive team of people to "Chris Pratt is in that". Hopefully animation studios push more in this direction after seeing the success and critical acclaim of Spiderverse 🙏
You mean like Scarlet Spider's VA?
I thought Nicolas cage was pretty good in "into the spider-verse". I didn't notice it was his voice until the credits came on!
@@MetzliNicolas Cage is like the best possible pic for spider noir, I never would have thought of it but it was amazing.
@@tcrpgfanhe's just one character
@@cdau5513You mean scarlet spiders VA?
The problem with celebrity voice acting is not that celebrity voice actors were bad, the problem is that it's egregious career intrusion. It just so happened that many celebrities were bad at voice acting because it requires a skill and training that most celebrities lack. But the egregious career intrusion is still happening even if the consumers think "it's good now :)"
And I find most of the actors who do a good job as voice actors is because they have ALSO done some kind of training as voice actor, like Jack Black or Mark Hamill, I believe
So true.😔
Mark Hamil's case is also... weird, given that it's expansiveness partially resulted from him being very identifiable as luke skywalker and a bit unable to get out of that role on screen, as well as some quite serious facial injuries (which is why he looks weird in the holiday special- he's got a broken nose and fractured cheek) which combined to persuade him to step away from big films (his other outlet being quite a good run on broadway).
That's ridiculous. This whole video is ridiculous. All actors are voice actors. And basically every celebrity A-list actor has been taking voice lessons since childhood. Blame the casting department for shoehorning talent into wrong roles.
@@ivanelrino bs. If they can't do voice impressions, chance are, they will probably be not good at voice acting. It requires some tailoring like Robin Williams or as mentioned, Chris Pratt.
Just because they're A list actors, doesn't mean their A list voice actors. You have real A list voice actors that exist.
Mark Hamill IS the joker. People think of him as Luke Skywalker but he will always be the joker to me.
Mae Whitman is a an actress that I think hits the mark really well for both types of acting. Some of her lines as Katara in ATLA feel so gut wrenchingly real. Also Jason Isaacs. It would be great to highlight voice actors who voice animal sounds.
I love Mae. I never watched it until a couple years ago and was so surprised when I found out that she was the voice.
Avatar had the best voice cast.
Honestly, they cast Maui really well. I can’t imagine anyone else playing him better
There is no better pick for Maui, but people don't want to accept that Dwayne did a good job
@@galaxyrunaway yeah people just hate Dwayne these days, and refuse to accept he’s had great roles
@@Lutherstrode17492 He plays the same character for all of them and they're all himself
@@iPancake3 no he doesn’t. As far as I know, Maui wasn’t a wrestler nor an actor
@@Lutherstrode17492Being a wrestler or actor isnt a personality.
The main issue I notice is that when movie actors are cast for voice acting they face it with the same intention they would for a live action movie role. Movie acting doesn’t have to be as exaggerated as voice acting, because 1) the actors can rely on their bodies with subtle movements to express emotion 2) live action tends to be more “grounded” and “realistic” and 3) the actors are actually there being affected by the actions presented in the scene, while VAs only have their voices as their tool. In a drowning scene for example, the actor is actually there in the water, in full costume. In the recording booth, the VA has to deliver the same level of despair and drowning sounds while just standing in front of a microfone. Live action movie actors just aren’t equipped with the same level of skill required for voice acting
As a stage actress, I find that on the aspect of the level of exaggeration required for the delivery, theater and voice acting are very similar for different reasons. On the big theater everyone has to be able to see and hear you loud n clear, even all the way back in the last row of seats, so your movements and voice have to be extremely expressive. In movies you can have the camera angles very close or far away, sound design, sfx, audio treatment… You get what I mean?
Fax right here.☝🏼
I can't oversell the voice acting in the entire Avatar series, really just top notch and I can't think of a miss. But I have to give extra credit to Grey DeLisle Griffin as Azula. She is a famous and prolific voice actor, and she swung for the fences and absolutely knocked it out of the park for Azula.
In a really good series, full of memorable moments lines and characters, she didn't have to go that hard to sell one of the better and more complicated characters, but she absolutely did. And she generally does for all of her roles. Absolutely top tier.
also her other voices. Kataras mom, ming hua in korra. That woman has range, you cant really tell that ming hua has the same VA as azula, they sound nothing alike. And also for celebrity voices in the series, i cant think of a better voice for ezka than aubrey plaza. The casting, talent and care in the voice performences are just incredible
Not to mention countless years as Daphne!
Mako one of the voices of Iroh, no longer among us, he made me cry and reflect every time he delivered a line.
@@fad23 Selina Kyle in the Arkham games as well! She was also Raz in She-ra on Netflix, which I didn't know until looking at her IMDB right now. THAT character sounds nothing like her.
I always loved Billy Crystal’s voice acting in Howl’s Moving Castle. His voice work as Calcifer shows that he understands how to localize anime for English audiences while being true to the original source material’s tone.
In general, Studio Ghibli dubs are very well done in my opinion.
Christian Bale in howl's moving castle was not so good for me.
Yeah. I have a really "purist" friend who insists on watching them all in Japanese but to me a play them by ear. I find the English dub of Spirited aways to be much better than the Japanese one. I suspect it's all to do with how you expect someone to sound. I normally watch subs on all anime but if I catch a good dub I'm fine with watching it. At the end of the day as a native English speaker who also can't speak or understand Japanese (same goes for my friend) in never going to get the "original untainted experience" because some things are just too bound to the language and culture (note I'm not saying I couldn't ever, just that I don't have the depth of education in the language and culture). So for me I reject the idea that you must always do subs in order to have a true or good experience. I felt the characters come across far better for me in the (granted quite rare) good English dub than they do in just any old Japanese original.
Speaking of Ghibli, Hailee Steinfeld voiced Anna in the English dub of “When Marnie Was There”. 😀 Like most Ghibli movies, it’s a very beautifully made film, from the animation and voice performances to the emotional thematic elements (in my opinion).
@@russ1422 Ditto. Although the Ghibli dubs are not perfect (one little nitpick I have is that some words are changed from the literal translation of the script), they’re probably one of the best examples of dubs done right for the most part. However, I will admit that Billy Bob Thornton’s line delivery as Jigo in the scene of “Princess Mononoke” shown in this video sounded a little off.
I think an important thing to note about the current climate of celebrity voice acting is the fact that in an interview I remember reading Chris Pratt literally stated that ever since Guardians of the Galaxy 1 he hasn't had to audition for a single role since that movie. Which is fucking mind blowing to think how a pop culture icon like Mario's voice actor never even did an audition for it because "ohh he was that guy in that really successful set of super hero movies" I think really paints the picture on the celebrity voice acting dilemma.
Edit: Just wanted to state I don't even think Chris Pratt's Mario was even that bad I believe it was fine compared to other celebrity casting in the movie but Chris still felt like he was collecting a fat paycheck at the end of the day.
To be honest, I'm kind of glad we didn't get Mario's usual voice for an entire movie. I think Mario's videogame voice works really well in small snippets like how it is usually heard. But hearing someone talk like that for an entire movie throughout a wide variety of scenes? I don't think that'd be very enjoyable.
@@MrDagren Yeah, but a cartoon voice rather than a celebrity voice would have been nice. You want the voice to suit the character. Of course, the execs want you to be picturing Chris Pratt, because that's what they know how to sell. And clearly, it works. Though I think the success of the film is more an indication of Mario's popularity than Chris Pratt's.
While we're on the topic of GotG, Vin Diesel is an excellent example of celebrity voice acting done PERFECTLY. He literally only has one line, but he says it with such feeling and expression every time so that you really get into the character, and even understand what he's saying. A phenomenal performance.
@@MrDagren no one is saying that we needed to get that though? the complaint isn't "why didn't mario sound EXACTLY LIKE THE GAMES", the complaint is instead of holding auditions and casting someone perfect the role, they blatantly just grabbed someone Famous and Cool with the Kids because they thought it'd sell tickets instead of a legit voice actor. pretty sure absolutely no one bought tickets because they're that into chris pratt, and meanwhile, his performance was just... okay. not bad, really, but easily the worst in the movie. because he's not a voice actor. and it shows.
I think what made ATSV work so well was that the voices they picked all felt incredibly natural to the type of character they were playing, and how quickly they embodied that version without it being distracting. It's almost hard to think that Jason Schwartzman goes from bumbling funny villain to an absolute nightmare fuel within seconds, easily the most impressed from the cast.
bradley cooper as rocket racoon was a casting no one could had seen how great it turned out to be
It’s different between a CGI character vs Animated movies. What the whole point of the video is
@@YOUNGJBR He showed CGI character examples in the video
Peak celeb voice acting.
Over the Garden Wall’s voice performances were terrific. Elijah Wood as Wirt and Christopher Lloyd as the woodsman were amazing choices
YES! this comment should be at the top, otgw deserves far more praise.
Oh my GOD I can't express how Elijah Wood plays the painfully awkward yet relatable role for Wirt so well. He's just fantastic and I adore his portrayal of Wirt sm.
Elijah Wood has also done Beck in TRON: Uprising, which I might add is a unique and marvellous show.
also credit to the ever wonderful melanie lynskey as beatrice!!
I haven't seen Over The Garden Wall myself, but I can vouch for Elijah Wood's voice acting work in the Legend of Spyro trilogy. At first it was quite the whiplash hearing Elijah Wood's voice coming from a character that used to be voiced by Tom Kenny, but it actually works quite well after you hear him enough. Gary Oldman also voices a dragon very well in the same trilogy, a fatherly-mentor figure named Ignitus.
i think a good example is The Clone Wars Series. They knew it would be incredibly expensive to cast Ewan McGregor for the entirety of the show, so they got a voice actor who could fill in the role properly. Also in the movie for the series they originally cast Samuel L. Jackson for Mace Windu. But his voice didn't translate well from IRL acting to animation. So they switched to a professional voice actor who did an amazing job.
The only time I thought about the voice acting during across the spiderverse was with The Spot. I was really impressed with how he nailed the tone no matter the situation
The craziest thing about it is how much Robin Williams absolutely did not want things to go this way. He explicitly said that he would only play the Genie if it wasn’t used for merchandising or marketing at all. And when they broke that deal, he vowed to never work with them again
What I noticed in lots of good non-voice actors you mentioned is that they are stand up and/or comedy actors. I think it's not a coincidence because intonation and delivery is a HUGE part in creating humorous effect
wow, good point
Mark Hamill does way more voice acting than live action. He is just very well known for Star Wars
Yeah mark hamill is just a voice actor who happened to have one really big live action role. He's a one hit wonder in that regard
@@foursidekm i mean, that is ONE REALLY BIG live action role
when miles said ima do my own thing the effect of the struggle was clear in his voice i liked the detail its a good movie
The Mario movie didn’t only earn the money because of the celebrities in the movie, it’s also because it was a great tribute to Mario and had a fun storyline. All the characters were likable and there were a few funny jokes spread around.
Yeah this guy acts as if the celebrities are the only reason the movie did good
Yeah, I think the movie was mid, but I don’t think the movie became successful solely because of Chris Pratt or other celebrities that starred in the film.
9:04 I don't know, I don't see anything wrong with that scene. Honestly, that's how I would imagine Buzz giving a mission log. He gives it off in a dramatic way and then embarrassment just after, which is what I felt watching the scene.
The pacing is on point but the voice acting is so lifeless. I genuinely think the next chatgpt could do a better job than that
Yeah I totally agree with that. Maybe a different clip would've been better, because he was generally kinda flat during the whole movie. But that clip is actually an example of him giving Buzz a personality (big strong professional guy who also wants to play into the theatrics of his job and is kind of a nerd about it).
Yeah and media muse at 1:40 saying a number of the studio Ghibli dubs being tonally off is just wrong as well all or almost all the Ghibli dubs are great
There is nothing wrong with it. People just need something to critique
That line was ripped straight from the first TS as a reference to Buzz’s original character. But unlike Tim Allen’s take, which felt like Buzz was on alert and taking the situation seriously, It’s delivered by Cap almost comedically.
He’s trying to imitate Allen’s “over the top seriousness” as Buzz, but it comes across very awkward and jokey, like not even Buzz himself is taking his mission log seriously.
Yuri Lowenthal ! One of the most iconic voices for Spider-Man as well as anime characters
Yuri is one of those VAs that every time I hear him in a video game, I go, "Oh, there's Yuri Lowenthal". Genuinely, he's got a super recognizable voice to me (like Matt Mercer).
@@zagxche do be all male ncr troopers
@@noahsains6227 and the voice of the male courier
Sean Astin is alother great example of celebrity voice actor. Many people know him from his on screen roles in movies like The Goonies, The Lord of The Rings, and most recently Stranger Things. But he is also an incredible voice actor, acting in many animated series. My favorite voice he does is of Raphael in the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
He only showed Joker but Mark Hamill have a pretty large list of VA work as well; always fun to tell people Luke Skywalker and Fire Lord Ozai are the same person lol
For some reason they had him voice match Tate Donovan as Hercules in the original Kingdom Hearts, even though to my knowledge he has a lot more name recognition, even moreso back in 2002 when the game released, considering that was right off the heels of Fellowship. Then again, Kingdom Hearts I had the casting budget to somehow pull Mandy Moore, Lance Bass, and Billy Zane on top of a lot of returning Disney talent like Gilbert Gottfried, James Woods, and Brian Blessed. The weird part is they got Donovan back for all subsequent entries, so I really have no idea why Astin was there, but it's some fun trivia nonetheless.
Wait ffr??? You’re telling me Samwise Gamgee has the same actor as 2012 Raph?!
@@biazachaYou, sir, are blowing my mind right now.
That was Sean Astin???? _What?????_
Can’t believe there wasn’t a single how2train ur dragon shot or reference. Its another great example of uniquely specific voice casting that bring the characters to life. Gerard butler as the tough Viking dad who can’t relate with his son and the gimpy pubescent hiccup voice becoming such a great contrast as the narrative ear candy. I know there’s plenty of movies that do this but dream works goes unrecognized sometimes at the banger trilogies it’s produced compared to Pixar’s older films.
You summed this up so well! What's funny is that you have the best voice for this kind of summary (aside from morgan freeman, but tbf he works for everything). The spiderverse films are downright masterpieces, and I'm glad you recognised that. You put the whole essay style of this really well, addressed both sides, gave credit where its due, and still put the point across really well!
You really do deserve more subs!
The fact you used Teen Titans actors as excellent examples of voice acting brings me so much joy! The performances on that show are phenomenal.
Honestly, I was expecting chris's mario voice to be bad, but it turned out to be pretty well imo.
I do kinda agree with some people: Hearing that iconic, high pitched, over the top voice for the entire movie *might* have been annoying. But I can't be sure because it didn't happen.
I also think that Chris did surprisingly good as Mario, and I kinda liked how he used a bit more of a Brooklyn accent. Heck, when i watched the movie, i could barely even tell that it was Chris.
Too much? it’s a perfect! Wahoo!
They a shoulda justa hireda ana italian mya friend
I agree and I'm not sure if there's more critcism to have other than changing from the original voice.
@@smolltaco5667 To do what ?
5:27 this kinda reminds me of when the cast Cavill as Geralt. People were upset at first, but his performance has been much better than anticipated, so people got over it.
Also, Mark Hamill as the Joker is obviously one of the golden standards of voice-acting, and it's crazy that he was a celebrity voice actor.
That's because Henry Cavill has a gift. He's an amazing and talented actor.
Hamil has also done voice work in other things and its always great
One thing I'll add is how DISTRACTING celebrity voice acting can be. I recall specifically sitting in theatre (where I can't check IMDB) and racking my brain over Nick Jonas in Ugly Dolls, and Rashida Jones in the grinch. I could hear other lines they had said, but couldn't place the face and it bothered me until I figured it out (with Jones) or checked later with Nick Jonas - super distracting and it added nothing to the character. I just want to be like 'This is the character I'm watching' and not try to think about who they REALLY are.
J.K Simmons does fantastic work in voice over as well. Didn't even realize he was Tenzin at first in the Legend of Korra. Like...how is JJ Jameson also this great mentor monk dude. He was great as Omni Man too.
He is also in Gravity Falls as the massive spoiler character
There even is a scene where someone does an impression of him specifically that was greay
Don’t forget Colleen O’Shaughnessy as Tails! She is exclusively a voice actor who voiced Tails in video games and tv shows… but then was given the opportunity to voice him in the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 live action movie! And absolutely crushed it as well!
I'm thankful Paramount didn't replace Colleen with some... Child actor. Would've been so *weird* if she got replaced AFTER she briefly voiced Tails in Sonic 1's post-credit scene.
As an aspiring VA I know the importance of physicality, which is present in performances like Robin Williams' and Hanks. Good performances use the entire body to create and exemplify the characters' unique mannerisms that make these cartoon animals, blue spirits and toys feel like real people
Hey Joey, I watch your videos!
Chris Pratt's performance as Mario was actually not bad throughout the rest of the movie though...However It IS clear they had him go for the more grounded and "Brooklyn"-Italian accent
Hard agree. I was initially hesitant that Pratt would be a good choice, but pretty impressed with the rest of the cast. After watching the movie I'd say all of them were great.
In fact I really liked the message and quality of this video overall, so I kept watching, but I kept disagreeing with the "bad actor voices" as examples. Maybe I'm just older so a lot of those choices have grown on me, and I can't imagine them any other way. Like, even Gibson's generic grounded voice as the most generic white man character just... fits?
I'm conflicted. I usually find voice actor specialists to be superior, how could you not? But I guess there was just too much hate-train going on in this video. Like, plenty of shitty performances by celebrities were thrown into the video as great examples. But the video's main examples all seemed like fitting performances to me. So it came off as jumping onto too many anti-hype trains.
@@TiredHighProductions🤡
While I'm fine with the Brooklyn accent, as the movie goes away from the grounded material and more towards typical Mario, it didn't match the vibe, or the atmosphere. It still just felt like Chris Pratt rather than Mario. I didn't believe the character as much as Bowser, toad, or even Luigi as screamed towards his impending doom
@@SageLegacy Chris Pratt isn't from Brooklyn(before you say anything, he used his real voice).
It literally just sounded like Chris Pratt. His voice didn’t become a character, it was just trying hard to fit a mold it didn’t belong in in the first place.
It’s not like with Robin Williams where his voice literally becomes the character if you see what I’m getting at.
You know you're doing well when you're seen as *THE* voice of a character like Peter Cullen and Kevin Conroy
Favorite celebrity voice, Keith David. I will watch or play almost anything he is a major part of.
Tara Strong, the voice of Twilight Sparkle from My Little Pony, was the voice of Terrance from Foster's Home, just as effortlessly. And Ben from Ben 10. And timmy turner from fairly odd parents.
That's kinda what puts it all in perspective for me. When a movie casts chris pratt for mario, they could be passing up talent _like Tara Strong._ I shudder to think of how much we're actually missing out on.
I want Illumination to cast her in the Mario Movie sequel as the voice of *Bowser Jr.*
C'mon, she'd be AMAZING as the Prince of the Koopas.😀
tara strong easily has THE most impressive imdb i've ever seen.
7:32 Honestly I'd consider Mark Hamill a voice actor first. He's had a long career outside of voice acting and, sure, played some culture-defining roles, but imo he's as much a consummate professional in the booth as anyone, and he gets cast in voice roles for reasons other than his celebrity and has for decades. (Well maybe he gets some roles in part for the star power, but even in those cases he's always _famous voice actor_ Mark Hamill, not just _famous actor_ Mark Hamill.)
As far as I know; at the time he played The Joker, his only other roles were in Star Wars
I was hoping someone would comment this! I feel like he's got a background role in every cartoon in existence
For example Fire Lord Ozai! I didn't notice that it was him until I've checked IMDB and he's just amazing.
Here on Latin America it's another story, most of voices were streamers / tiktokers and most of them were just plain bad. We were mad and most of the streamers blame us for don't liking their emotionless out of character voices 💀
To be fair, most of the influencers who voiced the Spider-People only had a few lines, though the ones that voiced LEGO Spider and Spectacular Spider were the most controversial choices and had the most dialogues. At least the majority of the cast is comprised completely by professionals. I love Emilio Treviño's performance as Miles, as well as Alondra Hidalgo as Gwen
La verdad que aunque fueran unos segundos de sus voces, te saca del ambiente si hacen un trabajo medio feo jajaja
Es una lástima porque la primera película me gusta más en latino que en inglés, porque el doblaje es muuuy bueno
Movies like Spiderverse, The Lego Movie, And Megamind were some of my favorite movies (With Spiderverse being my favorite), and that's because of the voice acting. When voice acting is done well, it adds to the character and gives them more life than the animation. Anyone can make a beautiful animation but it won't feel like anything more than that until there is sound behind it. I'm not the biggest fan of Will Ferrell, but when I found out he was Megamind I was torn between not liking Will Ferrell and loving Megamind. That mystery is what signifies a good voice acting gig. I didn't know Nicholas Cage was Spiderman Noir. I didn't know Chris Pratt was Emmet. I didn't even know Tom Hanks was Woody. The surprise is what shows that they really made an impact on the character, the fact that I as the watcher saw the character before I saw the voice behind it. I love Spiderverse for this very reason, because these characters are so detached from their voice actors that I believe that these characters are alive somewhere.
"Mark Hamill as the joker" like yes, luke is his most "famous" role but man is a voice actor many times over vs being just an actor. he really doesnt act in much but the amount of thing that youd be like "Wait that was HIM?" . Ozai-ATLA, Skips-Regular Show, Random guy in The Little mermaid (1989), as well as many Scooby-do and Batman esc shows/games. Man is a legend for FAR more than the Starwars he gets credit for.
The problem for me isn't that celebrity casting is always bad, it's that they cast actors who don't fit the characters. I don't mind if a character from a beloved franchise has a new take on them, some actors like Charlie Day, Seth Rogen, Jordan Peele or Keegan Michael Key have a unique, and/or vocal and comedic range to pull off what a studio is going for. Then there are characters who match the roles of an A-List/traditional actor really well. If you have a Nicholas Cage-esque character why NOT cast him to voice them? Why not have an energetic optimistic Panda played by someone as energetic and optimistic as Jack Black who can also make fantastic foley sounds? Chris Pratt just doesn't make any sense as Mario to me. His role as Emmett made sense because Chris Pratt SOUNDS like a normal guy and the character IS a normal guy. Celebrity voice acting in Spider-Verse and some Pixar films work because there was actual auditioning and the actor was either suited to the character or vice versa (take Scar from the original Lion King).
Then there's the actors who can do both like J.K. Simmons, Broadway Performers, and again, Jack Black.
But when studios just throw in big names because they can and it's more of a marketing tactic than anything comeplling (i.e., Ice Age with Drake, the side characters in the My Little Pony movie, all of the Illumination films) then yeah, it's sucks. I'm not completely against celebrity casting, but having professional Voice Actors, actors who have experience with voice acting/recording in sound booths/animated performances, or even just those who have the range to play their characters, could've saved a lot of mediocre performances (and by proxy, their films) over the years.
I think Dee Bradley Baker is suuper underrated. He voiced every clone for clone wars and still gave them their own vocal personality. And bad batch, where he voices FIVE main characters yet they’re all unique and feel like their own people. And not even to mention all his work outside Star Wars like in ATLA, SpongeBob, Phineas and Ferb, etc.
Oscar Isaac was for me the best acting from ATSV. Simply AMAZING. Great video btw!
His “You don’t belong here…” was chilling.
on the flip side, Kirsten dunst as Kiki in Kiki's delivery service was captivating. In fact everyone in that film did great work.
11:40 Correction: Jim Cummings voiced Pooh. His name is not Tim.
Good video though! Congrats of having your first big video! Your editing is good, your pacing is good, and I hope you keep making content. :)
Beat me to this!
Jeremy Irons is the celebrity who voiced Scar in '94 Lion King, and he was terrific--both because of his very distinctive voice and because he put a good deal of care into the performance.
The big win was Colleen being able to stay as tails in the sonic movie, And the push back the community gave when she wasn't being promoted in the same caliber as Steven schwartz and Jim Carrey. Changed the movies' whole marketing . Got the movie's marketing to shine a light on all major cast members no matter the celebrity.
Yes agreed!!! I sincerely hope that a professional voice actor will be cast as Shadow. It’s not the most likely unfortunately, but the fact that it’s a possibility gives me hope. So happy for Colleen.
We should highlight the actors who are both famous live-action actors as well as have been prominent voice actors in their own right, who do it as a regular part of their career (ie more than simply big budget animated movies or triple-A video games). Mark Hamill and James Earl Jones were already mentioned, but there's also:
- JK Simmons
- Kieth David
- Kaley Cuoco
- Patrick Warburton
- Patrick Stewart
- Tim Curry
Who did I miss?
[EDIT] Answer: PATTON OSWALD
Also, love the additions in the replies:
- Willem Dafoe
- Lance Reddick
- Kristen Bell
- Mila Kunis
....Funny how the actors on boþ ends actually worked on the same game as þe leader of þeir respective faction.
Lance Reddick, Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis
Willem Dafoe is a great actor, voiced or otherwise.
Lance Henriksen
I think casting ‘celebrity’ voices isn’t a bad thing, u just gotta cast the right celebs. Tbh, I don’t think they’ll ever cast pure voice actors in feature films. If you’re a produce and u can choose between having a really good performance from a VA or a solid one from a b tier celeb, u go for the celeb 90% of the time.
3:33 "Shut up! Let him talk!"
Technically, that should have been a third head berating the second head for interrupting the first head!
I will say someone I've always thought was really good although she isn't as huge a name anymore, is Mae Whitman, she did most of her biggest films in the 2010s but she has done quite a bit of cartoon voice acting, most notably Katara from Avatar The Last Airbender, Amity Blight from The Owl House and Tinkerbell in all the animated tinkerbell films.
I think Hailee Steinfeld is a really great example of someone that while she maybe doesn't have the same duality as a professional voice actress, she does a great job at the celebrity voice-acting, especially as her roles in Spiderverse and Arcane. Another great example is Bradley Cooper's performance of Rocket in Guardians of the Galaxy, he brings him to life especially well.
Mae Whitman as Katara and Amity is my life
yeah, hailee is someone who could potentially be cast for a smaller range of voice acting roles but when she does get a cast she does a good job
@@ishathakor yes! Perhaps it's because she sings as well, but her voice is very expressive, which translates well into animation, even without the range of like Nancy Cartwright!
i wouldnt say her name isnt much anymore - she actually have two upcoming roles as a voice actor; skull island and the scott pilgram anime
@@matty6878 didn't know there was a Scott pilgrim anime! Also I meant more-so in live action films, as the creator was talking about celebrity VAs, I would say she is less of a well-known "celebrity" and more of a well-known voice actor now, as she is still incredibly popular and well-known in voice acting, but her live action credits tend to be lesser known and she isn't as mainstream as she used to be.
Nevertheless love her and think she's a great VA and actress!
I don't really care for Mel Gibson. But it's funny that I first and foremost know him as Rocky in the first Chicken Run film, a role which he absolutely nailed.
In fact now I think about it, Stop Motion animated films do seem to have excellent casting and performances, I wonder if that's because the films take longer to make so they can be more polished.
I noticed that they recasted Mel Gibson as Rocky in the sequel for Chicken Run with Zachary Levy as his replacement, in fact I think the whole cast was replaced. Some would argue it makes sense considering more than 20 years have passes and the actors are older, but Ginger's VA said she was hoping to come back and found the decision as an example of ageism
On the other hand, when the Latin American Spanish trailer for Chicken Run 2 came out a few days ago Rocky and Ginger were voiced by their original dub actors
The movie as a whole fell kinda flat for me but I actually liked Chris Evans as Buzz Lightyear. You call it overacting and stiff at the same time but he was channeling Tim Allen's "action figure voice clip" exaggerated delivery while turning it into personality quirks of a more subdued human character. That was clearly the intention behind the voice direction and writing so if you have any issues with that, you should take it up to them rather than the acting. And the casting makes sense. Buzz Lightyear, like Captain America is that "All American" superhero archetype and Evans had previously played that role while layering it with a good amount of vulnerability. And he's a big Disney/Pixar fan and space nerd. So both your fronts of having intention behind the casting rather than slotting a random celebrity into the role, as well as passion from the actor themselves, are both met.
Good video as a whole, I feel like you barely touched on the specifics of why Spider-verse's voice acting works tho. It just feels like you just tacked that on whilst wanting to just make a generalized video about celebrity voice acting just to catch the hype.
i thought it odd that Evans' Buzz is derided as "stiff". like, isn't that Buzz?
my thoughts exactly
I also felt like he praised Tom Hank's Woody but constantly left out Tim Allen's Buzz. Did he not like it or something? I think Tim Allen was iconic as Buzz.
Joe Ranft was a Pixar animator that also did the voice of Heimlich the caterpillar in A Bug's Life. Joe got the role as Heimlich in A Bug's Life after John Lasseter noticed that his wife, Nancy, laughed harder at Joe's temporary dialogue during production than she did at the actor hired to voice the caterpillar. Joe served as story supervisor on Toy Story 2 and provided the voice for Wheezy the asthmatic penguin.
I loved this! As a former VO artist, I do wish you'd called more attention to all the quality small roles in Across the Spider-Verse. They all nailed it! Your main point at the end was how they are under recognized; showcasing them on your platform is a way to elevate. I am subscribing to see how future critiques might be. Thank you! Peace, out.
The problem I have is that actors are meant to act, have visuals carry their voice and have their bodies perform better. However voice actors (usually) dont have that same experience, so they know how to use their voice to emphasize the emotions that otherwise could have been done through hand movements or facial features. They can use that experience to match whatever the character theyre playing as feels or looks, but celebrity voice actors just cant. I don't blame them either, but I just wish studios cared more. Spider verse is probably my favorite movie currently (might get beaten by beyond who knows) and I really like the effort and actual care they put into this project.
The voice of Death in Puss in Boots Last Wish is one of best choices made in recent animated films. Wagner Moura killed it
Having Nicholas Cage voice Spider-Man Noir was pretty cool, he's a fan of Spider-Man so he has that passion in his acting
Plus even though yo ucan tell its him his voice fits and it doesnt just sound like nick talking normally
@@Man-O-Little-Tan I didn't notice who was voicing the character when I first saw the film. I just loved the character. It was a perfect match.
This is one of my favorite elements of media. I have a special love for voice actors that's very different from live-action. But I think what's missing from this video is that the direction of the actors is always a huge factor. Veteran voice actors like Billy West can find the right voice and turn in a solid performance even if the movie is being directed by a committee of xanaxed marketing assistants. But someone like Mel Gibson, who doesn't have much experience, can still deliver an excellent voice performance, but only with a director who knows how to hold his hand through it. That's why he's flat as a board in Pocahontas, but a firecracker in Chicken Run. It's the same with Chris Pratt. His performance in Lego Movie was under the direction of Chris Miller and Phil Lord, who are master animation directors, not to mention that Lord himself does voice acting. (He played Principal Skudworth from their first masterpiece, Clone High.) So they knew how to get a voice performance out of him, when to say "give me more," when to say, "brighter, sillier." They weren't looking at him perform, they were listening. And that, I think, is the core mistake of celebrity voice casting. They're "picturing" the actor in the role, and banking on the fans doing the same, not realizing that this is the opposite of what they should be doing.
The most notable celebrity voice fail to me is Aslan in the Narnia movies. Initially, Brian Cox was cast in the role. He's a great big grizzly man who's a magnificent actor with incredible presence. So from a cinematic point of view, he's a perfect fit. Except animation is a completely different beast, and anyone who casts a voice role based on an actor's physical presence is, frankly speaking, incompetent. Once Cox was in the recording booth, it must have come as a shock to realize that this great big silverback of a man has a soft, lilting voice. James Earl Jones he is not. So they had to let him go. And who did they replace him with? Liam Neeson, another leonine actor with powerful presence. And again, once he was in the recording booth, it turned out he has a flat, unremarkable speaking voice. So the final Narnia films feature a mighty Lion with an incongruously dull voice.
I don't mean to say that Neeson isn't a good actor, quite the opposite. But he's just not a voice actor. His voice just doesn't resonate. It's like he's speaking from inside a cardboard box (Maybe he'd make a great Solid Snake). James Earl Jones' voice, by contrast, resonates like the belly of a Stradivarius. The same is true for Kevin Conroy. You can hear his first voice performance in Batman: The Animated Series, where he was still a bit green, to the effortlessness of his performance in the Justice League animated series, when he'd reached a mastery of vocal performance. And what stands out is how bright and resonant his voice is, no matter how deep it gets. This is where Neeson's performance failed. His understated style demands you look into his eyes and see what's going on in there. Understated actors can be deeply compelling, but not for animation. When the great Peter Weller played Buckeroo Bonzai, the rocket scientist/brain surgeon/rock star/superhero, his dry, understated performance worked as a hilarious contrast to the idea of him. Same with Robocop, where his lack of affect was the ongoing joke. But casting him as the voice of Batman in DC Animation's adaptation of The Dark Knight Returns was a failure. Weller just can't chew scenery with his voice the way Kevin Conroy can. In one tragic scene, the comic describes Batman's voice as sounding like a coming storm. Weller just sounded bored.
What I think pro voice actors understand is that voice performance isn't the same craft as live-action acting. What strikes me when I see actors in the recording booth is how the voice doesn't match the actor, it matches the character. That's what Billy West and Tara Strong are masters of. I don't think they're picturing themselves playing that role, they're picturing the character, matching each nuance to the cartoon, rather than their own physical presence. Actors call their body their "instrument," but a voice actor has to adjust their performance to each character as though it's a whole new instrument capable of a completely different range of emotional expression. Robin Williams seemed to do this naturally, because his genius is helping the audience imagine him as rubbery and transformable as his own imagination. So for him, the Genie was just the visual realization of what he does in our mind anyway, shift fluidly into anything and everything at will. But that's what Will Smith doesn't get, and doesn't want to. Will doesn't know how to inhabit a cartoon character, because he's too immersed in the lifetime role of Will Smith.
Great video, although from the title I was really hoping this would be a dive into the different vocal performances of the spiderverse cast and a bit of analysis on what makes it so good rather than comparing it to a plethora of other films. Still, great video essay and I'll happily subscribe for more.
Probably worth mentioning that Martinet cameoed in the movie as Mario & Luigi's father, Giuseppe.
And of course, if I recall right, Peter Cullen was cast in the movies precisely because fans lobbied for him and sent Bay a petition - I seem to remember him saying he didn't even know who he was before that.
One of my favorite examples of celebrity voice acting is Kirsten Chenoweth. She has that particular voice to her that would cause directors to cast her in animated movies, but she also knows how to fluctuate her particular voice like a voice actor. This might be due to her mainly being a singer. A lot of these other celebrities are JUST actors. They know how to put on a show using their actions more than their voices.
Especially with her opera and Broadway background, her background in character acting makes her be able to more convincingly do voice work.
There was a 49ers playoff game where she was asked to sing the anthem and SHE was bad... Very bad.
Matt Damon’s bad acting was a canon event
As a member of the Spider Society, I can confirm that this is true.
My man, in Mexico we have the same problem. Professional voice actors are being pushed away in favor of mediocre “celebrities”, there are some good but the vast majority are BAD. Hopefully this can be fixed, voice directors know their craft the problem is when execs shoehorn this or that name bc PrOFiTs & all they accomplish is audiences refusing to watch the movie bc the voice acting is bad, happened w Across The Spiderverse just now, the celebrities they casted in Spanish do it so bad the studio had to screen the English version bc nobody wanted to hear the Spanish version. Even professional voice actors had to ask audiences to stop harassing celebrities for their mediocre work. In 🇲🇽 is just like 🇯🇵, professional voice actors are FAMOUS FAMOUS, most notably the Dragon Ball cast when they tried to replace them nobody watched it & they had to do the voice acting w the original cast all over again.
Voice acting is to live action what dentistry is to the rest of medicine.
TBF though, Pratt's actual Mario voice is better in the movie than it is in any of the trailers.
I would like to argue that Celebrity voice acting isn't inherently bad, and both Spider-Verse films didn't necessarily "fix" it; good voice over work is a balance of good casting and good direction. You can have a production with a solid cast but shitty direction, such as the animated version of Batman: The Killing Joke or any D-Tier 2000's anime dib, but you can also have a production with a less experienced or familiar cast but fantastic direction, such as the Kung Fu Panda and HTTYD movies. And there are plenty of celebrities that give voice acting the respect it deserves, like Jack Black, Mark Hamill, Nicolas Cage, Willem Dafoe, etc. And I feel like people won't take Voice Acting seriously if we demonize less than stellar performances. For example, yes, Chris Pratt wasn't _great_ as Mario, but his performance affecting that movie is up to viewer opinion. Meanwhile, we *_know_* he can do a good vocal performance because he did so in The Lego Movie.
The problem isn't Celebrity casting, it's half-assed direction.
I was looking for this comment because it's so true !! sometimes its the celebrity's fault but the voice director should also be taking some of the blame for letting the unsatisfactory performance through
Ian McShane as Tai Lung is underrated. Another great example of celebrity voice acting done right.
Beyonce's performance in The Lion King was beyond emotionless
Every performance in that movie was beyond emotionless
@@marcusholder6508the movie itself looked lifeless
There's a HUUUUUUGE segment of entertainment that you never mentioned that makes way more than TV, movies, and everything else combined: VIDEO GAMES. The voices for some video game characters are iconic in and of themselves - Mario being a notable example, as you mentioned. But more importantly, as video gaming has grown from being "just games" to becoming a powerful storytelling medium, the reason I think you don't see many voice actors moving towards films is because video games are A) far more lucrative in terms of the contracts you can sign, and B) offer a MUCH wider scope for the actors to hone their craft.
Since you mentioned the italian voice for Mario, i want to bring light (as an italian person) to a really wellknown voice actor, Flavio Aquilone. Now, Flavio is really well known for having a "crush" voice (every italian person basically has a crush on his voice lmao) but his voice is still so distinct for every character he does and he puts so much emotion into them that it almost doesn't sound like they're voiced by the same person. To give some examples: Draco Malfoy from the Harry Potter series, Troy Bolton from High School Musical, Chat Noir from Miraculous, Light Yagami from Death Note, Hiccup from HTTYD, Jean from Attack On Titan and many more. The fact that they're all the same person kinda scares me ngl lmao