Recognition for Voice Acting

[FunKay the Inevitable]

Throughout history there have been great actors. Most of these actors have been recognised from Lawrence Olivier to Leonardo DiCaprio, either through awards or critical acclaim, they've all had some sort of recognition for their work. However, one particular breed of actor always seems to fail to be recognised; I'm of course talking about the voice actor.

The best known voice actor is probably Mel Blanc who played every single Looney Tune from Tweety to Yosemite Sam, Blanc's voices are recognisable to millions, if not billions. Blanc unfortunately passed away in 1989. His passing was marked by the creation of a commemorative lithograph:

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Another famous voice actor is Frank Welker. Welker's contribution to voice acting is possibly the only that actually rivals Blanc's in terms of the sheer number of characters and his diverse ability. Welker is famous for playing Freddy Jones in Scooby Doo, Megatron & Soundwave amongst others in Transformers, Nibbler in Futurama and many, many more. Again Welker has a hugely diverse vocal range stretching from playing Santa's Little Helper on the Simpsons to Garfield.

In fact take a look at these two clips.

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These are clearly two very talented men who represent a largely unrecognised industry that I personally feel should have more recognition thrown their way. But what are your thoughts?

Is voice acting not recognised enough?

Should it be recognised at all?

 

[The Doctor]

Voice acting is definitely not recognized enough. It's surprisingly hard to VA well. Look at all the shitty anime dubs there are out there. It's amazing when someone pulls a Cowboy Bebop and does a dub that's not only worth listening to, but actually GOOD. And yet people don't know voice actors' names like they do regular actors.

Voice acting is difficult, even for trained actors. Look at Jensen Ackles in Under The Red Hood. Ackles is a great actor but this was his first VA experience and while he did well, he was by no means perfect. Voice acting takes skill, and people don't seem to recognize that.

A large reason could be because of the Animation Age Ghetto, the old school thinking that animation is either not art or just for kids. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. I hope that one day voice actors will be much more recognized outside of fanboy and dedicated watcher circles for the sometimes superb jobs they do.

 

[Chardee Macdennis]

I think voice acting is much tougher than people give it credit for. I'm not even certain how it's accomplished. I mean, is the movie drawn/animated, what have you BEFORE the voices are layed over? Or do the actors put their personalities into the character before they're drawn? I'm not even sure which would be the simpler task. Is it harder to see your character's expressions and then mold your voice to fit their expressions? Or would it be harder to create your own character with no indication of what the visible interpertation will be? Either way, I think VA's have a really tough job and some do an AMAZING job. I think Shrek is a perfect example and while all of the big name actors seemed to have gotten a decent amount of credit, that was one of the best animated movie/series of all time. Eddie Murphy was a fucking genious in those movies.

 

[The Mark of Zur-En-Arrh]

Mark Hamill has quite a long list of VA achievements, as does Kevin Conroy. Both are well known for their VA roles in Batman The Animated Series, and just about every Batman/Justice League related cartoon in the 90's/00's. Even now they're both cast as Batman and Joker frequently (although Hamill's stated that after Batman: Arkham City he won't voice Joker again), and have been for the better part of 20 years!

Hamill also has several roles on Adult Swim show Metalocalypse, playing Mr Selatcia and Senator Stampington, plus several other bit parts here and there.

 

[Theo Mays]

I don't think voice acting gets enough credit. I've heard a lot of celebrity actors who have done voiceovers for animated movies say that it is tougher than people think. You need to pull off the exact word they exact way the animator wants it and it can take numerous retakes at what not. While I think acting in movies and tv is harder, this is certainly no piece of cake and the people that do it for a living deserve any credit they receive. You see a lot of the top notch voice actors do many shows as they are that damn good at it and that is impressive. To change the way your voice sounds and to differentiate one voice from another isn't something any average Joe can do. It takes talent and a good heap of it. So I do believe they aren't recognized as much as they should be in the acting world and they deserve as much love as they can get.

 

[TLC]

Are voice actors recognised enough? Hmmm, I don't think so. Voice acting is a lot harder than most people think, I, have experience in both Voice Acting and normal acting and voice acting was fucking difficult, I found it difficult to get my tone of voice, the expression in my voice and the volume of my voice just right as I wasn't in that situation, so most of voice acting sucked. I have a lot of respect for voice actors and their ability to adapt to certain characters, such as Mark Hamill playing The Joker. The fact that he was able to transistion from playing Luke Skywalker to voicing The Joker, to me is phenomenal. The fact he can sound like an absolute madman is fucking amazing and it probably made me like him a lot more than I when watching Star Wars. I would go through a list of other voice actors but I think you get the point.

So, yeah. I do think Voice Actors should be recognised as they are just as talented, if not more than the actors you see on your TV screen every day.