Type Casts In Animation

[Troy Troodon]

I might just be bringing this out of the blue, but as an aspiring voice over artist and a fan of voice actors in general, this is something I feel I should address.

I hate type casted voice over roles... I just do.

I hate it with Tom Kenny
I hate it with Tara Strong
I hate it with John Dimaggio
I hate it with Kevin Michael Richardson
I hate it with Steve Blum
I hate it with Jennifer Hale
I hate it with Grey Delisle
I hate it with Yuri Lowenthall
I hate it Kari Wahlgren
I hate it with Maurice LaMarche
I hate it with Phil LaMarr
I hate it with Dee Bradley Baker
I hate it with Jim Cummings
I hate it with Kath Soucie
I hate it with Fred Tatasciore
I hate it with Nolan North
I hate it with Cree Summer
I hate it with Tress Macneille
I hate it with Rob Paulson
I hate it with Josh Keaton
I hate it with Richard Horvitz
I hate it with Jason Marsden
I hate it with Mae Whitman
I hate it with Greg Cipes
And yes, I even hate it when they do it with Troy Baker!

It's basically the same problem I have with casting celebrity or tv/film actors for voice overs, you basically know who those people and they're basically the same character they always play. And NO! Don't take me to mean I think it's because the performances or the actors themselves are bad! The very voice over talent I mentioned work very well with the material they were given, and even the celebrity actors like Tim Curry, Alan Tudyk, Lacey Chabert, Ron Perlman, Brian Bloom, Dwight Schultz, Kelly Hu, and even Sean Astin all prove to be just as versatile behind the recording booth as they are on camera.

However it's frustrating for me to hear those same people since I'm very well familiar with them that it's gotten to the point where I just here the actors being... well... actors. That's practically my criticism, I don't just wanna keep hearing the same voices over and over! I wanna here someone new! I wanna here some new or unfamiliar talent, people who are not as famous or mainstream in the voice acting community take up the spot light, broaden their potential and ranch out to a larger scale audience.

Again, don't get me wrong, I love them as voice actors and people in general, but I feel there should be more opportunity in the field of American Animation to let other voice actors into the spot light as well. People like Patrick Seitz, Jamieson Price, Michelle Ruff, and Karen Strassman, people who primarily do english dubs for anime should be getting recognition for voice directors like Andrea Romano and Charlie Adler to cast for original animation in the U.S. particularly for Disney, Warner Bros. and Nickelodeon; because those people are voice actors to and should be going up in the ranks, letting their talent get loose without worrying about matching someone else's lip syncs, and even sharing the recording booth with the A-List voice actors and celebrities I just mentioned.

And it's already been happening recently actually, Matthew Mercer for example worked with Andrea Romano and a few occasions, starting with his role as Tygra in the 2011 Thundercats show, and recently he even got to play Superman in the Dc Super Friends online shorts, and as Bigfoot in the new Bugs Bunny show, Wabbit.

Richard Epcar got casted as Chief Saikan in the Legend of Korra, and recently he played James Gordon in Batman Unlimited, Solomon Grundy in the DC Super Friends, and even Julias Cesar in the new Peabody and Sherman show on Netflix; as well as other Non-Anime roles in some new "Hush-Hush" projects yet to be aired.

So I sincerely hope that there will be more diversity in the mainstream voice acting roster for American Animation, as well as Anime. Heck, that's how Steve Blum for example practically became such a success since the early 2000's, and even now actors like Ashly Burch, Stephanie Sheh, and Bryce Papenbrook also got a green light in working on Pre-Lay voice overs.

Anyway those are just my two cents.

 

[jaylop97]

Yeah I agree with you most of those people you listed are very overused and when it comes to voicing they are always filling up all the slots in a cartoon.

While others do too little such as Andrea Romano, she is a voice director and she barely voices in most of the cartoons she directs.

They really need to keep voice actors away from taking roles of most cartoons it really gets old, I just wish they would rely on more cities to voice such as New York.

 

[Mostezli]

Ouch, you pretty much listed practically all the voice actors I know and then some. #Tara-Strong-Is-Inescapable
Also, I was expecting an entirely different discussion. Some Asides:
I know Will Friedle has joined the ranks of that elite. I also realize a few more recent VA's getting type-casted yet a decent amount of other newer (still notable) actors/actress developing a good range of work.
I'm always under the assumption this VA industry is pretty small.
I don't watch nearly enough anime dubs these days since I'm also always under the assumption they have to match the voice of the Japanese cast. Such voice work is rarely unique/histrionic enough, imho, for Western animation. These would be the guys getting supporting gigs.

I believe the first 5 + LaMarr + Summer + Cipes are the most type-casted.
So, to add to Jaylop's proposal, I'd say establish more character types (race even [Yang such a go-to Asian-sounding VA]) if you want less type casts of major roles
and get more unknowns to do bit roles (you might maybe also be testing their capabilities). Otherwise, I'll able to tell Strong is playing the 4th girl in the same ep or Cipes/Friedle/North are obviously voicing these grunt soldiers.

There are some comedic celebs like Bill Hader (what a range) and Ty Burrell (superb grasp on accents that greatly change tune) that I would love to hear more from.

 

[Troy Troodon]

Yeah I agree with you most of those people you listed are very overused and when it comes to voicing they are always filling up all the slots in a cartoon.

While others do too little such as Andrea Romano, she is a voice director and she barely voices in most of the cartoons she directs.

They really need to keep voice actors away from taking roles of most cartoons it really gets old, I just wish they would rely on more cities to voice such as New York.

I'm not saying they should keep away from said roster, just let other actors fill in roles to add more diversity.

Fred Tatasciore's Hulk voice is very prominent in Wander Over Yander, when half of them could have been given to Travis Willingham, Liam O'Brien, Jamieson Price, or even Matthew Mercer.

And I doubt New York voice actors would have the job all to themselves since most American animated shows/films are produced in California.

 

[jaylop97]

I'm not saying they should keep away from said roster, just let other actors fill in roles to add more diversity.

Fred Tatasciore's Hulk voice is very prominent in Wander Over Yander, when half of them could have been given to Travis Willingham, Liam O'Brien, Jamieson Price, or even Matthew Mercer.

And I doubt New York voice actors would have the job all to themselves since most American animated shows/films are produced in California.

I understand I was merely expressing some of my opinions, you got a point some voices are prominent others really shouldn't be. While my suggestion of NY is because they should at least think on calling some of them to voice such as how they used Canadian/American voices in Mucha Lucha, I don't think it's impossible to have LA/NY voices in a show, and that way there is more people to voice in cartoons.

 

[Mr. Daniel]

Does anybody notice that Johnny Young Bosch always plays the main character in a Shonen Anime?

 

[Troy Troodon]

Does anybody notice that Johnny Young Bosch always plays the main character in a Shonen Anime?

Well... I guess the topic does venture into anime as well, so... yeah I guess.

 

[PapaGreg]

Does anybody notice that Johnny Young Bosch always plays the main character in a Shonen Anime?

Eh he plays a lot of main character but only a quarter of them are Shonen

 

[EJLD4Ever]

I don't have anything against veteran voice actors getting major roles. After all, the reason they have had long careers is because of their good reputation. So if they're that good, it's better to overuse a decent actor than a bad one.

The only thing that bugs me is that sometimes there's the tendency to pigeonhole an actor for a particular role. For example, if an actor gets predominantly villain roles and very few hero/heroine roles, then I often feel that the casting director(s) are very shallow-minded.

Another thing that bugs me is when the same actor uses the same voice for two or more characters on different shows within the same network or studio within a relatively short timeframe (maybe 5 to 7 years). Case in point--Maurice LaMarche as Father in Codename: Kids Next Door. I don't have anything against the talents of the great Mr. LaMarche--he's one of the best in the business and I enjoyeis work on both Animaniacs and Futurama--but I would've enjoyed the Burt Lancaster-esque voice he gave Father if I hadn't already heard him use the exact same voice twice before on CN. He had already used the voice on Dexter's Laboratory (as Simion, a "Dial M for Monkey" villain) and in the Imp, Inc. pilot (as a boss-type character). So by the time I first heard him as Father, I'm like, "Oh, no. Not again!" since it was the third time within 7 years that voice had been used in CN shows. Then again, I have no gripes when I hear John Ratzenberger's voice in every Pixar movie (I guess it's on a case-by-case basis).

And don't g me started with Jason Marsden. I appreciate Marsden's effort, but 9 times out of 10 you can blatantly tell it's him when his character speaks his first sentence--in other words he has no range. Compare the voices of Tino (Disney's Weekenders), Richie (Static Shock), Max (A Goofy Movie), and Ricochet (in later episodes of Mucha Lucha) and you'll see that I'm not lying.