Newsarama's Top 10 Perfectly-Cast Voice Actors.

I have to say that I agree with almost all of Newsarama's choices, particulary one and two, although I may (or may not) have reversed them myself.

Check them out...

 

Not bad, but I'm disappointed that there were no GI Joe Sunbow references.

 

I was very pleasantly surprised by #1. I expected him to be on the list, but I didn't expect Newsarama to put him at the top.

I was somewhat surprised to see his counterpart not make the list at all, though.

 

I actually think all (read: most) of the Animated DC Universe voice actors are extremely good. At least the main ones are like Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Joker, Martian Manhunter, John Stewart.

 

Nobody remembers it except for Chris Latta as Cobra Commander and he doesn't exactly have much range there. I'd certainly put his role as Starscream above that of him as CC.

 

Well, I can't argue with #1. He's just perfect in the role. Nobody, not even Christian Bale, has ever played Batman better. Whenever I read a comic book with Batman, Conroy's voice is the voice I hear. I tried once to read it in my head with Bale's voice. It just sounded wrong to me.

 

#5 should've been higher. i can accept Hugo as Megs, Foxworth as Ratchet and Adler as Starscream, but Peter Cullen could NEVER be replaced as Prime like the toon originals the ONLY other voice from TF that can never be replaced is Frank Welker's Soundwave.

 

C'mon, people... No Mel Blanc?

 

They should have listed the guy that voices Gromit.



(LOL that was a joke) The guy that did Wallace, Peter Sallis, should be on there. dream works originally wanted a bigger star for the feature film, but Nick Park wasn't having it. Wallace Peter Sallis is just as much Wallace as Cullen is Prime and Conroy is Batman.

 

Ahhhhgggh! James Earl Jones should be #1!!!! He was the most important single factor in the creation of Darth Vader, the greatest voice-acted character of all time.

Now there's JEJ's competition for the #1 spot.

And there are too few TV shows on that list. I nominate James Arnold Taylor as Obi-Wan Kenobi in The Clone Wars, as well as three of the Futurama cast: Billy West, who is Fry, Zoidberg, Prof. Farnsworth, Zap Brannigan and Richard Nixon's disembodied head; Maurice LaMarche as Kif Kroeker, Morbo and Calculon; and John DiMaggio as the inimitable Bender B. Rodriguez.

Incidentally, Dan Castellaneta (Homer Simpson) is also the Robot Devil on Futurama.

I've never heard Mark Hammill as The Joker, but he certainly has a lot of fans.

 

Personally, I can think of several reasons why I agree with James Earl Jones being #2. First, Darth Vader's voice does not differ, really from James Earl Jones' voice. I don't mean to demean it in any way, other than to point out, that Kevin Conroy had to craft a specific voice for both Batman and Bruce Wayne, which is different than his normal voice.

Second, except for Brock Peters in the radio drama, which most people, I'd say don't really think about, James Earl Jones has been Darth Vader. However, several actors and voice actors have been Batman, but for fans like me, when we read Batman in the comics, we hear Kevin Conroy's voice. Not to diminish James Earl Jones, but I think it says something when there are more choices to choose from and one actor consistently gets the nod as the Batman.

As for Mark Hammill, yes, he should have been on the list. His Joker was amazing! Here's a clip showing off his voice talent.

 

JEJ may not have needed to work as hard at it - maybe the genius was more in the casting - but he created Darth Vader in a way no actor can claim to have created Batman.

I'm not even sure Lucas really should get as much credit. Look at the nuances JEJ put into the role - the intelligence, the sardonic, bone-dry wit - that Lucas failed to transfer to Anakin, although presumably those attributes didn't come from the Dark Side (or did they? that might be a fine motivation to switch sides!) I suspect Lucas had a far more generic notion about Vader, and JEJ is the one who took a big black cypher and turned him into a sci fi icon.

Even The Clone Wars, which is doing a much better job with the character's backstory than the PT, doesn't take advantage of JEJ's characterization. Instead, we get an Anakin who is earnest, courageous, reasonably intelligent but far from brilliant, capable of cracking wise but not with any particular style, and actually quite idealistic - closer to Vader than the pathetic, whiny wimp of the movies, I guess, but still not quite right.

 

To be honest, I prefer Brock Peters' Darth Vader to James Earl Jones'. It's crazy, I know. Peters' Vader is more restrained, and thus more menacing.

 

I don't think we can discount the role of David Prowse in the original trilogy. JEJ himself has said that David Prowse is Darth Vader, he just does the voice.
I agree that Kevin Conroy should be in number 1 spot for voice acting. JEJ as number 2, but I think Peter Cullen should be number 3.

 

Funny thing is, Hayden Christensen said he was trying to match Vader's voice in some interviews around the time of AOTC. Unfortunately, this didn't really work and it came off as extremely monotone instead. I thought he did better in ROTS, possibly because he had taken the criticism of AOTC to heart (There were also reports that Lucas had allowed the actors more freedom in their performance).

I remember the screen test for Hayden on one of the old documentaries....it seemed more natural and I had high hopes for him initially. (He was simply at a room at the ranch, not a blue-screened set) And then came the trailer and that hope faded.

Speaking of Skywalkers, I too thought Hammil's a pretty good Joker in BTAS, it's spin-offs and also the Arkham Asylum. Reportedly, Hammil was even considered for "The Dark Knight" early on.

 

and

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say, unlike a whole generation of Batman fans, you didn't really watch the almost 20 years of consecutive Kevin Conroy work (what with the movies AND video games he's still working on, one to come out later this year!)

That's powerful stuff that even high budget movies can't top. Chris Nolan with Christian Bale can't create the perfect Batman. Dini, Timm and Conroy. They did.

Compared to (basically) 3 movies of JEJ, which is still fantastic and worthy of a top spot. Just not one that has Conroy in that list.

 

James Earl Jones as Mufasa with Madge Sinclair as Sarabi. Reprising (in a way) their royal roles originally in "Coming to America."

 

Whoever plays Batman in the next reboot should be required to watch as many Batman:The Animated Series episodes as possible to watch(listen)to how Conroy plays him because Conroy IS Batman.

 

I would have had Eddie Murphy as Donkey in there over Banderas as Puss. And Hamill definitely deserved a nod too.