Thoughts about actors/voice actors being replaced in TV shows/movie series/cartoons/anime? -

[Thiletonomics]

So, what are your thoughts about when an actor or voice actor gets replaced for someone else in a TV show, movie series, cartoon, or anime? For what reasons would it be acceptable to do so, and not?

For me, I'm okay with a replacement due to the obvious reason that the actor dies, assuming that the new one does a good enough job of being like the original actor in a good enough way, i.e. Iroh from Avatar: The Last Airbender had a voice actor change because the original one (Mako Iwamatsu) passed away from cancer, and his successor (Greg Baldwin) did a good enough job of sounding like Mako, although the voice change is noticeable. I have heard that some people have an unhealthy obsession with voice actors, to the point that if their favorite VA were to pass away, that all of their characters should be killed off, because their belief that the VA is the character in question, even if the studio can find a replacement VA that does a good enough job of sounding like the original. Also, if an actor does something despicable, i.e. being a pedophile, and that the illegal acts were proven to be true, then that's justified too.

However, it does feel a bit insulting in a way when an actor gets replaced, assuming it wasn't because the of the above reasons, without any explanation as to why. In the Total Drama series, Fresh TV replaced Alejandro's voice actor from his original World Tour appearance (Marco Grazzini), on All-Stars (Alex House), without giving any reason as to why the original VA got replaced.

Also, on a side note, in regards to voice actor changes, in the game League of Legends, they sometimes change their champions with reworks, that not only change their abilities and visual looks, but sometimes the voice gets changed, either with the original VA but a different sounding voice, or the VA gets replaced. Now with that, I'm not okay with, because the voice change takes away a part of the character, and some of LoL's reworks change so much about a champion that they basically delete the old one, and replace it with a new one.

 

[Zaragoza]

I think the worst feeling when it comes to VA are the VAs that don't do much voice acting. What I mean by that are the type of voice actors that you don't usually hear in other video games/animation in general for example, I really like the voice of the Master Chief and I always thought the actor in particular can be a great VA for a lot of gruff military type characters but the guy literally only does VA for fucking Halo and that's all. I remember this one time playing this game called Septerra Core and he actually did a voice role for this one character, and I'm like "is that the fucking Master Chief?" and lo and behold he actually was the VA. Same goes for Stephen Wyatt, he's the voice actor for Caleb in this severally underrated game called Blood (1997) he's got that very menacing yet soothing voice, and you know what the actors have in common, they don't do a lot of voice work, and they're both incredibly old.

 

[OhGoy]

Iroh from Avatar: The Last Airbender had a voice actor change because the original one (Mako Iwamatsu) passed away from cancer, and his successor (Greg Baldwin) did a good enough job of sounding like Mako, although the voice change is noticeable.

Spoiler: tfw you mention iroh's voice acting change but don't bring up "leaves from the vine"

feels bad man

 

[Morbility]

Personally, I hardly notice at times. Some series do a good enough job of finding people who can sound like the original VA. And in rare cases, like in Gumball, they found a really interesting way of switching VA's where you as a viewer can sort of see and accept the change. The puberty excuse was cleverly used to switch VA's for Gumball and Darwin.

I think I do have a bit of an issue with reboots though. When I see a character that I'm used to hearing sound a certain way and then they suddenly open their mouths and sound completely different, it can really kill the immersion for me. An example of this are the VA's for the new Powerpuff Girls reboot. They certainly try but trying is hardly enough for such iconic characters.

 

[NOT Sword Fighter Super]

I though the decision to replace the Oracle from The Matrix with yet another old black woman after the original actress died was dumb.

Especially with the in-movie excuse of 'wanting to change her appearance to be able to hide from the agents. They could have spent a few more minutes on that explanation.

 

[DumbDosh]

It's always better and always great if works of art can respect original voice actors and keep everything the same for all entries, one of the best examples of this is Roy Campbell in MGS, the japanese VA died after MGS4, so Kojima respectfully retired the character because he felt nobody else could replace the japanese VA and Campbell's story was concluded at the end of MGS4.

In a lot of cases though, I don't care unless it's really noticable or a voice is so uniquely tied to a character that it's very distracting without it, like if they replaced Goku in the new Dragonball movies I wouldn't care how good they are because they would be too distracting, a good example of this is the hideous Silent Hill 3 redub they did with the HD version where they didn't understand the original script at all and it was not only distracting but they butchered entire scenes.

If they come up with a semi decent excuse though I'll buy it, like Kiefer as Snake I had little problem with because Snake was getting older and had already had a different VA as an old man.

The absolute worst example of a voice actor change is Solidus Snake in MGS2 from Japanese to the US. In the original Japanese dub he was voiced by the same actor who voiced Solid Snake because they're both clones of the same person, but in the US they just had Solidus voiced by another person, completely ruining that cool moment in the original version where the audience would be completely confused when he shows up for the first time and has Solid Snake's voice.

 

[UY 690]

Some animes I watch have that problem when they replace the actors and actresses. Like some famous anime voice, actors who worked on One Piece died and their characters play a bigger role later on in the story. Same with the Japanese but they have the longer death list compare to America.

Like the guy who voiced Blackbeard is dead and I worried that they may replace him with a younger actor in the future dub.

Like some young actors could play off the old man/pirate voice. But unless you have a weird al yank bitch?

It's not going to work when you get to the serious moments.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

I'm going to be honest here and say that I am a bit attached to some voices, so I totally get why people get upset about it. A recent example would be Digimon Tri, both the original and English dub. Before the first film came out, fans were disappointed to hear that the DigiDestined's voice actors were all replaced due to I believe availability issues (think one or two were even retired), but they kept the original Digimon, so it balanced it out. (Then Yuuko Mizutani, voice of Sora, died of cancer just last year, so in a way, they made a good decision in hindsight.) The English dub was even more-so of a big deal, but likewise, about half or so of the original voice actors managed to make a return (Joshua Seth came out of retirement to reprise Tai because he had expressed interest in the past, and also he's just that iconic that it'd be criminal to not make the attempt to get him). Those who were replaced were because the actors had retired or due to the dub being non-union. Lara Jill Miller's one of my favorite voice actors and I had looked forward to hearing her in Digimon again, so her being unable to return as Kari was disappointing. Tara Sands tried her best, but Lara has a unique voice that can't be replicated. Meanwhile, I still have no idea why it is Edie Mirman didn't return as Gatomon, probably for the same reason, I assume, but unlike Tara Sands, Kate Higgins just doesn't feel right.

In all honesty, though, most of it's rather silly and unwarranted at times. Because yes, I get it that the voice actors' guild/pool is nothing but one big circlejerk and that it's not easy for new talent to come in, and yes all voice actors of all ages just sometimes need that paycheck and not just because of "muh nostalgia" or whatnot, but all those voice actors and actresses need to pass on the torch somehow or another. So unless the voice is just so super iconic that the voice actor needs to perfectly imitate it (I imagine a lot of these are covered under contracts, however, like I think Jim Cummings is contractually obligated to be Winnie the Pooh until he dies/retires), I don't see any harm in bringing in young blood for something like a reboot--but only if all the cast gets a fresh coat of paint. Looking at you, PPG reboot (already mentioned above, but it bears repeating--it's still baffling that the Girls' voices were replaced (because they wanted cheaper actresses apparently?), but not everyone else).

This discussion also brings up memories about the infamous shitstorm that is (yes, is, not "was" like it should be) the Pokémon dub controversy, but I'll bring it up later when I'm not falling asleep. It's not that it's long, but it's a bit exhausting to talk about how fucking autistic it all was... in hindsight, anyway, but not helped that it still goes on to this day. I'll be back tomorrow with some links unless someone else wants to bring it up in my stead for shits and giggles.

 

[The Shadow]

I'd say I don't care, but the Silent Hill HD remake voices were absolute balls, so I care...sometimes.

It's supposed to be otherworldly, dammit, not sound like a fucking shonen anime!

 

[neverendingmidi]

The only one I remember was the old Sailor Moon threw me for a loop when they changed her voice. I know there were lots of issues with the DIC version, but I liked that voice actress fromthe English dub, and switching it to someone who sounded like they were a forty year old woman with marbles in her mouth was seriously jarring.

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

I think the worst feeling when it comes to VA are the VAs that don't do much voice acting. What I mean by that are the type of voice actors that you don't usually hear in other video games/animation in general for example, I really like the voice of the Master Chief and I always thought the actor in particular can be a great VA for a lot of gruff military type characters but the guy literally only does VA for fucking Halo and that's all. I remember this one time playing this game called Septerra Core and he actually did a voice role for this one character, and I'm like "is that the fucking Master Chief?" and lo and behold he actually was the VA. Same goes for Stephen Wyatt, he's the voice actor for Caleb in this severally underrated game called Blood (1997) he's got that very menacing yet soothing voice, and you know what the actors have in common, they don't do a lot of voice work, and they're both incredibly old.

I remember reading somewhere that John J. Dick, the guy who voices Serious Sam, basically begged people for work since Serious Sam is about the only work he really gets. Same thing with John St. Jon only not nearly as drastic.

I was going to bring up TC Carson, but apparently he's been in a ton of stuff as bit roles. That said, Kratos was basically his biggest role, and I'm still disappointed they replaced him, since I think he could have pulled off the older, wiser Kratos if the first game was anything to go by. I don't like the idea of replacing VAs for video games especially when they've been playing the character for so long.

 

[R.A.E.L.]

It can definitely bother me. As long as the replacement sounds similar enough I don’t mind as much, and of course if the original VA died it can’t be helped, but still. There has to be a good enough reason for it other than “lol we got lazy have this new person.” And sure, there are exceptions if the replacements actually sound better, but in most cases (that I’ve seen) they don’t. Ex: The Silent Hill HD collection

Honestly if the originals are willing to come back, let them. Don’t just spit in their faces like the Powerpuff Girls reboot did.

 

[RG 448]

It depends on the role/reason. Some actors bring a character to life to such a degree that the performance can’t be replicated, like Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, Mark Harmon as Jetbro Gibbs, or Creed Bratton as Creed Bratton. But then sometimes you’ll have a replacement that’s better than the original, like Don Cheadle and Mark Ruffalo in the MCU. Voice actors aren’t sexy enough to be in real shows and movies so who gives a fuck about them lol

 

[whatever I feel like]

I am totally fine with replacing not only voice actors but on screen ones as well, especially for continuing stories where an actor might leave before the show's creators get to do what they actually wanted with the character.

 

[AnOminous]

It really depends on the specific VA. Most of them are just really replaceable. Could you replace Mel Blanc, though? Not really.

The really distinctive VAs are rare, though.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

Alright, faggots, today we're taking a trip down memory lane of April 29, 2006, a day that will live in infamy among the autists and the New York voice actors. This got so bad that even the voice actors themselves were complaining about the expired contract.

Well, actually, this announcement was made back in December 23, 2005, but most kids discovered this the hard way, so that's why April 29 is the date to use. Pokémon's popularity wasn't as big back then like it was in 1999, but Pokémon still dominated the airwaves on Saturday mornings, or at least for Kids' WB. Well, about like a week or two before that day, it was announced there was a special to be aired for Pokémon's 10th anniversary, and the hype was real because they were heavily advertising Mewtwo (in all his shitty CGI glory). This was also a little special because it was the world premiere, like for reals. Mastermind of Mirage Pokémon would air months ahead of Japan because it was commissioned by Pokémon USA, thus why the special feels like it was made for an American audience in mind. Interestingly enough, hindsight is a bitch because I distinctly remember there being nothing from the special that had the characters speaking in the ads leading up to it.

But anyway, if you never tuned in on that fateful Saturday morning to watch it for yourself, consider yourself a lucky motherfucker because it was not pretty. Immediately from the word “go”, once Ash opened his goddamn mouth off-screen, all hell broke loose because it wasn't the beloved Veronica Taylor who spoke, but Kayzie Rogers, the then-voice of Monkey D. Luffy. And then everyone else spoke up and it took the kids of America by storm that all of the voices were replaced. Without warning. As it usually is. This was a different case, though, because the commission was done for the sole purpose of being a “testing ground” for the new actors.

Pokémon fansites exploded in 'tard rage within the hour, and petitions (that continue to this day) were created to bring back the voice actors. Fans from across the country sent 4KIDS and Pokémon USA angry letters because how daaaaare they not have Ash's voice stay the same. Then the voice actors were also speaking up and even urged fans to keep writing letters to 4KIDS and Pokémon USA to demand—I mean ask them to reconsider and keep the voice actors the same because what they were doing wasn't right.

This is when SOVA was formed. SOVA stands for “Save Our Voice Actors”, a guild formed by fans who were so fucking buttmad about this that they made it their own personal crusade to get them back at all costs and continuously bashed the new voice actors, especially new-comer Sarah Natochenny, who is an actual fan of Pokémon so this was a dream come true for her. SOVA still exists to this very day, still unable to let go of the fact there were legitimate contractual reasons behind why this all happened.

An example of a SOVA member in his natural habitat:

This was posted to Carter Cathcart's Serebii profile, who is one of the few original 4KIDS actors still working on the anime--some of you may know him best as Gary Motherfucking Oak. Thing is, though, his ego was stroked so much by being cast as both James and Meowth and the current dub (the latter simply because Maddie Blaustein passed away, though I think he was cast to be the new Meowth before that happened) that he posted anonymously on Bulbagardens and Serebii under the username "old guard truthseeker" to bash 4KIDS and decree himself as the "best" James.

On rare occasions you'll still come across a salty little shit who refuses to let this go, and chances are they're part of SOVA with a severe hate-boner for the anime they may-or-may-not be watching, but as it's been over ten years since that fateful day, you have to really go out of your way to find autism of this caliber. Probably what's helped is that outside of older fans no longer watching the anime, it is extremely difficult to find the original dub of this special because the Internet has gone out of its way to forget this version ever existed. From what little I was able to find, Ash is apparently the only character in this special who got recast for a newer dub (that version is widely available), which makes me think the real culprit is the ADR director of the first dub for being shitty at their job.

So the moral of the story here is if there's ever a point where voices have to be replaced, calm your tits and do the bloody research. And also voice actors shouldn't be goading their fans into doing this shit. If you're a voice actor and you believe a contract was broken in a way that puts your line-of-work at risk, consult a lawyer so you don't end up resorting to exploiting fans to do your bidding.

 

[8777BB5]

I think what ultimately makes or breaks a replacement actor is the writing. If the writing doesn't suit the actor's abilities it will cause the show to go down hill.

Two excellent examples of this happening are Jack Burns and Mike Berry replacing Don Knotts and Trevor Bannister on The Andy Griffith Show and Are You Being Served? Despite playing new characters (Warren Ferguson and Mr. Spooner respectively) the material they were given was still tailored for the characters that their new characters were replacing (Barney Fife and Mr. Lucas respectively) This meant you had Jack Burns trying to imitate Don Knotts and Mike Berry trying to imitate Trevor Bannister instead of trying to do there own thing. To make things worse Burns and Berry were not as talented (or likeable IMO) as their predecessors you wound up with two very unlikable characters that added to the unpleasantness of their respective series as by the time they came around both series were on the decline

 

[Kari Kamiya]

I think what ultimately makes or breaks a replacement actor is the writing. If the writing doesn't suit the actor's abilities it will cause the show to go down hill.

That's a good point as screenwriters typically write scripts with certain people in mind while not necessarily guaranteeing they'd get their dream cast. The one example that comes to mind is Chris Farley as Shrek, like they legitimately wrote the character for him. From what was recorded (he had recorded like two-thirds of the script before his death), it's clear as day that Shrek is an entirely different character than he is now as Mike Myers, and his death during production got the staff to find a replacement that could be similar to Chris, but they ultimately still ended up rewriting the character to better fit Myers (it was still early enough in production that changes could be made without much trouble). Arguably you could say that was for the better, though it's still interesting enough to guess that "what if" had Farley lived.

I remember either reading (or listening to DVD commentary) that Pixar had a hard time deciding if they should get rid of Slinky Dog for Toy Story 3 because of Jim Varney's passing, but Blake Clark was still considered because he was close friends with Jim and they felt like there was little difference between the two. He didn't have a lot of lines compared to Toy Story 2, but his voice wasn't so gratingly different if you weren't paying attention, and his character was still the same. 'Course that could've just been the writing itself and it had nothing to do with the voice-acting, but still, it's interesting to hear of such stories.

 

[PointDextrose]

This discussion also brings up memories about the infamous shitstorm that is (yes, is, not "was" like it should be) the Pokémon dub controversy, but I'll bring it up later when I'm not falling asleep. It's not that it's long, but it's a bit exhausting to talk about how fucking autistic it all was... in hindsight, anyway, but not helped that it still goes on to this day. I'll be back tomorrow with some links unless someone else wants to bring it up in my stead for shits and giggles.

I'm going to have to disagree with this: the Pokemon dub never honestly recovered from the voice cast changes in terms of the quality loss, even though it's been more than a decade since then. Alot of the old voice actors seemed to emote with more energy and provided distinctive, unique voices for the roles they portrayed in comparison to the current flat, stilted, and often wooden deliveries of the current staff- additionally, a lot of the older voices were more age appropriate to the characters they portrayed (Brock, James, Professor Oak, and Delia being notable examples). The Pokemon dub right now on the whole is so incredibly terrible under TPCi (not only is the voice acting worse, but TPCi still do visual edits to the show like 4Kids did, they replace more of the Japanese OST than 4Kids did, and the intro length has been cut in half to boot).

The current TPCi Pokemon dub (especially for Sun and Moon) is pretty much everything that could possibly go wrong with a dub, brought to life- it wouldn't surprise me if by Gen 8, they start keeping 0% of the OST and make the intros 20 seconds long. I'd talk about just how bad the voice acting is in it, but suffice it to say, Veronica Taylor sounded more like a 10 year old boy than Sarah Natochenny, Eric Stuart sounded more like a 15 year old teen than Bill Rogers, etc.

 

[BrunoMattei]

Simpsons did it!