Holy crap voice acting!

You know, we rip on Dinklebot a lot, but I finally(!) cracked open IMDB to actually see more about the various roles. Needless to say, I'm surprised. I mean, sure, Nathan Fillion and Lance Reddick (I accidentally typed "Henrikson" there twice) were no-brainers. I could listen to their voices all day. Gina Torres didn't even warrant a raised eyebrow; despite some gripes that I have about her acting capabilities in many roles, this is one type that she pulls off rather well. Claudia Black is a gimmie. John DiMaggio as Banshee was something that I facepalmed over not seeing sooner. Shohreh Aghdashloo is another person whose voice I can fall into. I've spent too much time listening to her.

Some of them, though, did surprise me.

The human female is Wonder Woman. Who saw that? The Exo Stranger is in the Vampire Diaries? Huh! Lord Shaxx informs people that their shotguns are anti-aircraft weapons? Arach Jalaal killed people in Fargo?!

The Awoken male needs to get out of people's bedrooms. (And he was in Halo Wars! No, not that guy. Not that guy, either.) Master Rahool is Generic Arab Father #7, despite being born in India. Hideo is Dexter's dad?!

Oh, hi Cree Summers! Loved you as Blackarachnia!

Ada Wong is Amanda Holiday. Suddenly, Lord Shaxx makes sense! He's Mr. Sinister! (There were better examples, but I couldn't resist.) Eva Levante was an acolyte of Count Doku. Apparently, Banshee used to fight alongside Xur against subterranian enemies with chainsaws!

Okay, Bungie. You need to get Phil La Marr, Richard Epcar, and Lance Henrikson for future DLC. Just throwing that out there.

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Actually, the Exo Stranger was in The Walking Dead, as was Lord Saladin.

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Okay, Bungie. You need to get Phil La Marr, Richard Epcar, and Lance Henrikson for future DLC. Just throwing that out there.

Richard Epcar is Batou - AND NO ONE ELSE! Seriously - I hear that voice, and it doesn't matter where it is, its Batou. I would be surprised if I was the only one.

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Okay, Bungie. You need to get Phil La Marr, Richard Epcar, and Lance Henrikson for future DLC. Just throwing that out there.

Richard Epcar is Batou - AND NO ONE ELSE! Seriously - I hear that voice, and it doesn't matter where it is, its Batou. I would be surprised if I was the only one.

I can't watch the latest series for that reason -- nobody else is Batou. That said, I first heard him in the 90s as Guld Boa Bowman in Macross Plus, so I never pigeon holed him. Besides, he did a damn fine job as the Joker in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe.

That fight was such bullshit. Awesome, but I still cry foul.

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I'm sure I'm in the minority here but I've always felt that celebrity voice actors are pointless. I can think of countless examples of amateurs who delivered excellent performances and celebrities who either phoned it in or were just tepid. Dinklage of course is the 800 pound gorilla in the room when you talk about that but, to me it feels like lots of times studios just cast big names for the sake of casting big names, rather than seeking the objectively best candidate.

It's like when they put Giancarlos Stanton in the live action trailer. What the hell did that accomplish aside from being able to say: Hey look! It's that guy from breaking bad and he's in our trailer! Celebrity buzz.

There's a really interesting documentary whose name escapes me now about Rockstar when they cast the guy who voiced John Marston in Red Dead Redemption. The guy was a total amateur, hadn't even done any voice acting parts before, but ended up being perfect for the role and was memorable in it. To me, that's smart casting. Find the right person, not the big name.

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I'm sure I'm in the minority here but I've always felt that celebrity voice actors are pointless. I can think of countless examples of amateurs who delivered excellent performances and celebrities who either phoned it in or were just tepid. Dinklage of course is the 800 pound gorilla in the room when you talk about that but, to me it feels like lots of times studios just cast big names for the sake of casting big names, rather than seeking the objectively best candidate.

It's like when they put Giancarlos Stanton in the live action trailer. What the hell did that accomplish aside from being able to say: Hey look! It's that guy from breaking bad and he's in our trailer! Celebrity buzz.

I think you mean Giancarlo Esposito. Buzz is needed if you're trying to make a gazillion dollars. Plus, I thought that trailer was fantastic, and he was fantastic in it.

There's a really interesting documentary whose name escapes me now about Rockstar when they cast the guy who voiced John Marston in Red Dead Redemption. The guy was a total amateur, hadn't even done any voice acting parts before, but ended up being perfect for the role and was memorable in it. To me, that's smart casting. Find the right person, not the big name.

Is this what you're talking about?

http://www.polygon.com/features/2013/6/19/4406600/small-town-man-John-Marston

I totally agree with you. He was perfect.

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Yes, Esposito is what I meant. I'm going to flog myself for mixing that up.

and yes that was the doc I was talking about. Pretty nifty behind the scenes stuff there. My favorite part was when he got caught lying about having played the GTA games, and the devs just laughed it off. Good stuff.

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It's like when they put Giancarlos Stanton in the live action trailer.

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I love that kid. Let me dream, you assholes.

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I rightly deserve a public flogging for mixing up Stanton with Esposito.

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It's almost like we can have a conversation about things we disagree on and be civil about it! What is it, Bizarro's birthday?

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Brazil has an oddly calming effect on a person. I've never spent so much time just lounging around doing nothing in my life. It's almost like its too hot to bother getting worked up about anything, easier to just lay around.

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Brazil has an oddly calming effect on a person. I've never spent so much time just lounging around doing nothing in my life. It's almost like its too hot to bother getting worked up about anything, easier to just lay around.

Doesn't stop your parents from pestering you about procrastinating, though...

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If I was a teenager back in the states my parents would probably have kicked me out of the house for this level of laziness.

In this country though, moving at a leisurely pace is a way of life. It doesn't matter where you go, restaurants, banks, pharmacies and even hospitals. People just do things at their own pace.

The first time I went to a supermarket here I literally spent over an hour in line to checkout. There were about 5 or 6 people ahead of me. I've never seen anything like it in my life. I commented that if this was America someone would have gone postal having to wait so long for something like that.

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However, most brazilians do tend to do monthly supermarket shopping, so we have a LOT per person.

Protip: there's usually a "15 items or less" special queue in supermarkets. Unless you're going for the monthly list as well, try to use it as often as possible. (Protip to the protip: beer cases tend to be considered a single item here. It's usually up to the particular store's policy.)

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I picked up my own protip too, just from one trip there: bring a stool. I was shocked to see people in line sitting on stools... at first. After about a half hour I understood.

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Things up north must be really slow, I guess. :p

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Is there no frozen food?

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I'm sure I'm in the minority here but I've always felt that celebrity voice actors are pointless. I can think of countless examples of amateurs who delivered excellent performances and celebrities who either phoned it in or were just tepid. Dinklage of course is the 800 pound gorilla in the room when you talk about that but, to me it feels like lots of times studios just cast big names for the sake of casting big names, rather than seeking the objectively best candidate.

It's like when they put Giancarlos Stanton in the live action trailer. What the hell did that accomplish aside from being able to say: Hey look! It's that guy from breaking bad and he's in our trailer! Celebrity buzz.

There's a really interesting documentary whose name escapes me now about Rockstar when they cast the guy who voiced John Marston in Red Dead Redemption. The guy was a total amateur, hadn't even done any voice acting parts before, but ended up being perfect for the role and was memorable in it. To me, that's smart casting. Find the right person, not the big name.

For the most part, I feel the same way. Dinklage wasn't the best choice, not by a longshot. But most of the rest of the celebrity casting was spot freaking on. Fillion works well for Cayle, Torres played a role type that she genuinely excels at, Reddik is Morgan Freeman Jr. Claudia Black genuinely enjoys voice acting and got the role of Morrigan in Dragon Age by asking to be in one of their games.

THAT SAID, voice acting and regular acting are two different beasts. It surprisingly requires a different skill set. Some actors make the transition extremely well, such as Keith David. Some struggle more before finding their way in it. Others never do.

But voice acting is starting to become more appealing to big name actors for a variety of reasons -- it's a good way to make money on the "off season," the kinds of roles that demand voice actors are gaining more legitimate respect, and it's a new challenge. You wouldn't believe how many actors will gladly pass up a good paycheck for a pittance role that offers them a challenge.

For the people doing the hiring, casting a celeb also has a certain marketing appeal. Add those two factors together, and we're entering an era where more celebs will be easing their way into voice acting, like it or not.

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But voice acting is starting to become more appealing to big name actors for a variety of reasons -- it's a good way to make money on the "off season," the kinds of roles that demand voice actors are gaining more legitimate respect, and it's a new challenge. You wouldn't believe how many actors will gladly pass up a good paycheck for a pittance role that offers them a challenge.

For the people doing the hiring, casting a celeb also has a certain marketing appeal. Add those two factors together, and we're entering an era where more celebs will be easing their way into voice acting, like it or not.

I agree. Sure it was in 1984, but my jaw dropped when I IMDBed the voice actors for Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. This is just the list of people I know right off the bat:

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Ghibli films have always surprised with the quality of the casting. Off the top of my head, I can think of Christian Bale, Betty White, Cate Blanchette, Michael Chiklis, Billy Crystal, Daveigh Chase, Matt Damon, Liam Neeson, and Tina Fey...

Heck, they even had people who didn't become bigger names until later, such as Josh Hutcherson (Gotta save Peeta!) and Courtnee Draper (Elizabeth in Bioshock Infinite).

Good stuff!

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I thought most of that casting occurred when Disney got the US distribution rights and dubbed it for those releases. (Way later than the 80s. Like late 90s)

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For the most part, I feel the same way. Dinklage wasn't the best choice, not by a longshot. But most of the rest of the celebrity casting was spot freaking on. Fillion works well for Cayle, Torres played a role type that she genuinely excels at, Reddik is Morgan Freeman Jr. Claudia Black genuinely enjoys voice acting and got the role of Morrigan in Dragon Age by asking to be in one of their games.

THAT SAID, voice acting and regular acting are two different beasts. It surprisingly requires a different skill set. Some actors make the transition extremely well, such as Keith David. Some struggle more before finding their way in it. Others never do.

But voice acting is starting to become more appealing to big name actors for a variety of reasons -- it's a good way to make money on the "off season," the kinds of roles that demand voice actors are gaining more legitimate respect, and it's a new challenge. You wouldn't believe how many actors will gladly pass up a good paycheck for a pittance role that offers them a challenge.

For the people doing the hiring, casting a celeb also has a certain marketing appeal. Add those two factors together, and we're entering an era where more celebs will be easing their way into voice acting, like it or not.

What's interesting to me is actors that have had a whole second career or revitalized their career with successful voice acting like Mark Hamill, Cree Summer, and arguably Katey Sagal and Michael Madsen. What's even more interesting is that we're getting to where voice actors can be celebrities in their own right, with names like Billy West, Tom Kenny, and John DiMaggio coming to mind (and for that matter Cree Summer again, she's much more familiar to me as a voice actor than for her one big live action role). We're even starting to have examples where a voice actor makes it big and "breaks out" into live action like Mila Kunis.
What do you guys think of casting someone who's known as a voice actor, but mainly just because that's what they're known for, because they have some measure of name recognition?

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And speaking of Naughty Dog (kind of)--those guys are in everyone's games--I was just reminded of one of my favorite moments in the The Last of Us documentary where one of the devs described creating a new IP as game development in expert mode. Seems relevant to conversations about the first iteration of Destiny.

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The Last of Us was a goddamn masterpiece, though, which I think is different to Destiny.

I like Destiny more, and I have more fun playing it, but The Last Of Us was so good it blew my mind. I originally played it just to support mad.max, but it was jizz in my pants good.

In the same way I think Dances With Wolves is a better movie than The Matrix while still preferring a watch of The Matrix to Dances With Wolves every time, I think The Last of Us absolutely nailed every part of their implementation, but I'd rather play Destiny.

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The Last of Us was a goddamn masterpiece, though, which I think is different to Destiny.

The Last of Us is superior in every way except its co-op options, which don't exist.

I like Destiny more, and I have more fun playing it, but The Last Of Us was so good it blew my mind. I originally played it just to support mad.max, but it was jizz in my pants good.

Ugh. You kids say the darnedest things.

:-\

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The Last of Us was a goddamn masterpiece, though, which I think is different to Destiny.

The Last of Us is superior in every way except its co-op options, which don't exist.

I like Destiny more, and I have more fun playing it, but The Last Of Us was so good it blew my mind. I originally played it just to support mad.max, but it was jizz in my pants good.

Ugh. You kids say the darnedest things.

:-\

Hey, that was a great tune. Don't knock it, Kerm! Not really safe for work though.

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You're right. I love that song. Superior to all others but I'm On A Boat and Lazy Sunday.

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JIZZ IN MAH PANTS, KERMY.

I don't think The Last of Us was superior in gameplay. For example, right now, I would rather go through and do patrols on the moon than go play part of The Last of Us campaign again, you know what I mean?

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I don't think The Last of Us was superior in gameplay. For example, right now, I would rather go through and do patrols on the moon than go play part of The Last of Us campaign again, you know what I mean?

Yeah, I guess, but patrolling by myself, for the hundredth time? Nah. For a stealth game, I think the Last of Us gameplay is fantastic. Sure, Destiny beats it as a shooter, but I don't think of the Last of Us as a shooter. If you shoot anyone playing the hardest mode, it's probably the last thing you do before you die. The fact that shooting and succeeding in the Last of Us is difficult fits with the overall realism of the game, and that's just it--everything fits in that game. It's amazing.

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Mila Kunis got her break on that 70s show before her role on Family Guy. Sorry.

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Sure, sometimes the celebrity voice actors work out, but I feel like frequently the issue is forced.

I think quality beats pre-release buzz in the long run anyhow. Jen Taylor was small beans when she was cast as Cortana, and how did that work out? It worked because she was good. Bungie didn't need a big name actor to move product, they used quality instead.

Going for the celebrity buzz feels like a cheap shortcut. A flimsy replacement for actual quality work. What's worse is how transparent it is. As a consumer I end up feeling like they're trying to manipulate me, and that turns me off bigtime. I imagine I'm not the only one who feels that way.

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It's like when they put Giancarlos Stanton in the live action trailer. What the hell did that accomplish aside from being able to say: Hey look! It's that guy from breaking bad and he's in our trailer! Celebrity buzz.

My how times have changed. I got crucified for expressing that viewpoint when it came out…

Why use Giancarlo Esposito? Why use Jon Favreau? I'm serious, anybody could have directed that piece. What about that could hundreds of other directors not have done? What about that required him to do it? The reason is for the name. The reason is to make it look serious.

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It's like when they put Giancarlos Stanton in the live action trailer. What the hell did that accomplish aside from being able to say: Hey look! It's that guy from breaking bad and he's in our trailer! Celebrity buzz.

My how times have changed. I got crucified for expressing that viewpoint when it came out…

Why use Giancarlo Esposito? Why use Jon Favreau? I'm serious, anybody could have directed that piece. What about that could hundreds of other directors not have done? What about that required him to do it? The reason is for the name. The reason is to make it look serious.

There's still plenty of time for us to crucify Fuertisimo. ;)

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Crucify away! :)

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Don't try and rewrite history. You were rightly criticized for multiple things back then. And, as usual, you fail to realize how tone might have helped you.

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I was not a fan at the time either, but I don't recall being especially vocal about it. I was more disappointed with the overall trailer itself, being riddled with cliches cribbed from any terrible action movie.

The live action halo trailers were much more sophisticated and emotionally impactful. I guess that's as much as I'll say about that.

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I'm sure I'm in the minority here but I've always felt that celebrity voice actors are pointless. I can think of countless examples of amateurs who delivered excellent performances and celebrities who either phoned it in or were just tepid. Dinklage of course is the 800 pound gorilla in the room when you talk about that but, to me it feels like lots of times studios just cast big names for the sake of casting big names, rather than seeking the objectively best candidate.

I think the real problem is that nearly all of these voice actors are criminally underused. Claudia Black is just there to see if for some reason I want to grab a fourth EV-30 Tumbler. That's just wrong.

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Okay, Bungie. You need to get Phil La Marr, Richard Epcar, and Lance Henrikson for future DLC. Just throwing that out there.

Not really. They would just squander their talents as well. You need a good story, script AND characters before you hire good actors to bring them to life.

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I think getting a celebrity voice because they're a celebrity is dumb, but I think they should find whoever's best for the part, no matter their 'status'.

For example, Keith David IS the Arbiter. I can see no one else. It has nothing to do with him being a known actor.

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I think getting a celebrity voice because they're a celebrity is dumb, but I think they should find whoever's best for the part, no matter their 'status'.

For example, Keith David IS Admiral David Anderson. I can see no one else. It has nothing to do with him being a known actor.

Fixed that for you.

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...whether to watch They Live, or The Thing.

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I think getting a celebrity voice because they're a celebrity is dumb, but I think they should find whoever's best for the part, no matter their 'status'.

For example, Keith David IS Goliath, the Gargoyle. I can see no one else. It has nothing to do with him being a known actor.

Fixed that for you.

Fixed that fix for you.

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That will always be the second thing that I think of him as in a voice acting role.

The first is as a owner of a transvestite bar.

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I'm a huge fan of his, and to be honest? I was really surprised when I found out that he voiced him. I love it when voice actors surprise me like that.

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