The Story's Voice

I have very few superpowers. For instance, my core temperature is slightly above normal, allowing me to walk around in winter in T-shirts, and throw fireballs from my hands like Johnny Storm, (but I don't really like to talk about it.) However, one of those limited powers involves a strange sort of ability to recognize celebrities in all instances. I have watched TV shows and have been able to pick people out under layers of make-up and prosthetics just by the way they move their mouth or shake their head. This talent also extends to celebrity voices, which may be one of the reasons why I still enjoy watching the occasional cartoon.

I am fascinated by voice acting, and if I ever were to try my hand at celebritiness, voice acting would definitely be the way to go for me. ("Come to work in my pajamas and talk into a microphone, sure.") So for anyone who doesn't share my practiced ear, let me share with you some mind blowing facts about celebrities who are the voices behind some of your most beloved childhood cartoons.

Let's start off by talking Disney. Now first off, we all know that Dory was voices by Ellen DeGeneres, or that Tom Hanks was Woody, etc. In my mind those don't count because those are instances when celebrities were picked to be the voices of cartoons because they were celebrities. It is ironic that there are a treasure trove of talented voice actors out there, but when it comes to the big budget cartoon movies they are almost always replaced by recognizable actors, because Hollywood... However, Disney has used lesser known actors and actresses in the past, my two favorite examples are Aladdin and Mulan. Yes Robin Williams was the voice of Aladdin's Genie and Eddie Murphy was the voice of the Mulan's Dragon, we all know that. But Did you know:

Steve from Full House voiced Aladdin, and Ming Na Wen from Agents of SHIELD voiced Mulan. (Also, an interesting fact, Ming Na Wen is freaking 50 years old, and looks younger than me,) but maybe you already knew these two. Maybe you, my hypothetically generic reader, are smarter than the average beast, but I bet you would never have guessed that:

That's right, the late Jerry Orbach, best know as the smart alec, veteran, no nonsense New York detective on the original Law and Order voiced the French candlestick, Lumiere, in Beauty and the Beast and unlike the two actors I mentioned above, he also did the singing voice for the character. Now picture Detective Lenny Briscoe singing Be Our Guest at a crime scene and your day will be complete.

Nickelodeon  has more than few surprises as well to offer up from the voice community. Some people may know that Bruce Willis played the voice of Spike for a Rugrats/Wild Thornberries movie, or that Repatar was voice by Busta Rhymes in the Rugrats movie, but meet the voice of Rocko from Rocko's Modern Life:

Carlos Alazraqui from Reno 911 voiced Rocko all the way through the run of the show. Yet this is actually not that surprising. Alazraqui is primarily a voice actor, with Reno 911 being one of his only live action roles. He also plays Mr. Crokcer on Fairly Odd Parents.

My favorite celebrity/voice actors all come from the classic 80's cartoons that my generation watched on Saturday mornings, back when Saturday Morning Cartoons were a thing, (I guess nowadays its Saturday Morning... I can't even make a joke here. What do kids do on Saturday mornings now? Xbox?) The Transformers had their share of more than a few famous voice actors:

That's right Casey Kasem, the voice behind American Top 40, and other radio and TV music shows was the American voice of the Autobot Cliff Jumper, and Leonard Nimoy himself voiced the Decepticon, Galvatron, who took over as the show's main baddy after the death of Megatron. (Transformers was kind of like a Japanese soap opera for kids.) Yet, the most surprising voice belongs to this fellow:

Freakin' Citizen Kane himself, Orson Welles, voiced Unicron, the giant planet-sized transformer. Urban legend states that Welles had fallen on some hard times during the 80's and was left with very few options but to lend his voice to a transforming Japanese robot in order to continue paying his cigar and hooker bills. It was also said that he hated the part, but tragically and ironically (tragonically?) the part of Unicorn was the last part the titan of film and radio ever played. He died shortly after reading the part for Transformers the Movie. At least that is how the modern myth of transforming fighting robots reads. Still my favorite stories comes from the Real Ghostbusters the cartoon show based on the classic movie series.

Thus further proving that the 80's were a good time for Arsenio Hall and Dave Coulier. An ironic caveat is that Dave Coulier, best know as Uncle Joey on Full House, was not the original voice for cartoon Peter Venkman. The job originally belonged to Lorenzo Music, whose biggest credit is that he co-created the Bob Newhart Show. Mr. Music (that's a fun name) was the original voice of Garfield the cat, a job that was taken over in the movie by none other than Bill Murry or the real-life Peter Venkman.

Speaking of 80's voice cartoons, the next two you might have heard about:

That's right, James Avery, the lovable Uncle Phil from Fresh Prince found himself being fustrated by more than the just antics of Will Smith. It turns out he had four green menaces haunting his dreams as he played Shredder on the 80's incarnation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the uncool Urkel, Jaleel White, from Family Matters, was in fact the ultra-cool voice of Sonic the Hedgehog. In fact, Jaleel voiced Sonic across three different cartoon versions.

However no show in the good old Regan era even holds a candle to Captain Planet and the Planeteers. That show was packed with celebrity voices, and not just relative unknowns or B-list TV actors. I am talking actors in the prime of their careers, or at least on the rise in Hollywood. My only theory is that Captain Planet was a cartoon show with a heavy hand toward pushing environmentalism, so for liberal Hollywood it probably seemed like the place to be. For example:

Kwame the African planeteer was played by LeVar Burton, and Gaia was played by fellow Star trek alum Whoopi Goldberg, during the height of both their careers. The rest played villains, which meant they only had to show up for like five episodes in a year, and most celebrities wound up dropping off their parts after only a season or two. For instance when Sting left the role of Zarm it was taken over a year later by Malcolm "freaking" McDowell. Probably the least known of any of the people on this list is Dean Stockwell who played Duke Nukem, (not the one you're thinking of,) but I including him because Quantum Leap rules, and he voiced the character at the height of its popularity, same goes for Cliff from Cheers, but John Ratzenberger would go on to do other voice work as a talking piggy bank, which people nowadays may be more familiar with.

Tim Curry also played the voice of an evil Computer, MAL, but much like Ed Asner they are both prolific voice actors in their own rights. Tim's naturally malevolently deep voice lends itself to so many evil characters... as well as Nigel Thornberry, for some reason.

There are of course other shows that feature just as many hidden celebrity voices. Mark Hamil, (Mr. Luke Skywalker himself,) is actually a huge figure in the voice acting community. Hamil got into a bad car accident some years after filming Return of the Jedi and his face was badly scarred, and that put an end to his onscreen career. So he picked up the pieces by using his voice talents to fill the gaps. His most notable and memorable character is the Joker on the old Batman The Animated Series. He has continued that voice into modern times, as he continues to voice the Joker for the Arkham games along with veteran Batman voice actor, Kevin Conroy. In fact, the DC Animated Universe, (which was spawned form Batman TAS,) has utilized almost every voice actor or B-list celebrity they can get there hands on over the years. I could literally write another blog on the voice talent in that show alone.

Similarly, Disney's Gargoyles a somewhat cult classic cartoon show from the 90's, features pretty much every actor who was ever on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager, (and Ed Asner.) That probably has more to do with the fact that Jonathon Frakes, who played William Riker on TNG, was one of the principal cast and started pulling in other cast members from the shows which were also running concurrently with the cartoon at the time. I really only mention it because it so apparent that many fans have loving referred to the show as Star Trek: Gargoyles.

But we're not done yet. I have saved the best ones for last. I have no real stories for any of these. I think think they are kind of surprising. So I'll just go ahead and show you:

So take that for what it's worth. JK Simmons, best know for his roles on Law and Order, and as the best damn J. Jonah Jameson anyone has ever saw, from Sam Rami's Spider-Man Duology (I refuse to acknowledge Spider-Man 3,) plays the voice of the Yellow M&M on commercials. Jessica Walter, from Arrested Development, used to be the voice of Fran the Dinosaur on ABC's old sitcom, Dinosaurs. Of course she is no stranger to voice work, as anyone who has watched Archer knows. Similarly, Fergie makes a life by using her voice (and other *ahem* assets,) but it was only her voice she started with, which is maybe why she played the voice of Sally Brown for a few of the old Charlie Brown movies. Yet the most shocking has to be the fact that Michael Cera was the voice of Brother Bear on the Berenstein Bears. Just when you thought he couldn't get more awkward.

So I hope I have opened your eyes up to a few of the faces behind the animation. Voice acting has always held a strange fascination for me. There is a story behind every word and person being every voice. So maybe keep your ears open the next time you are watching a cartoon, a movie, or even a commercial. You may just be surprised with who you hear.