You could
have cast most dubs with the collection of voice actors on stage at Anime
Weekend Atlanta on Friday. When everyone finally arrived, the participants
(from left to right) were Doug Smith, Brett Weaver, Peter Fernandez, Corinne
Orr, Kelly Manison, Monica Rial and Kira Vincent-Davis, a group that covered
dubbed anime's history from Speed Racer to Gasaraki.
"I'm a walla,
comedy kind of guy," Smith said, referring to the practice of having actors
say that deliberately indistinct background chatter used to establish crowd
scenes. The tough part of dubbing is matching mouth movements, of course.
"If we don't match the lip flaps exactly and there are a couple of flaps
left over, you think what else did he have to say? Try turning the volume
down on your TV and try to match the lips. It's great training, and at
the same time you have a great time doing that with friends."
At one point,
Weaver was slated to be Pedro in Excel Saga, but he was cast in another
role. "The hardest part was Nabeshin. The first line was `How have our
lives since childhood been so bad.' I asked, `Is this some sort of weird
typo - what does the line mean? Matt (Greenfield, ADV producer) said
`I don't know, it's more fun to see what you come up with.' So we recorded
everything else including the song (wait for that in a later volume), then
we came back and I did the line."
Fernandez
isn't just a figure from animation's past. He's stayed active as a producer
and director for a half-century, including the recent production of Courage
the Cowardly Dog on the Cartoon Network. That series had a casting crisis
when Lionel Wilson, the original voice of the farmer who owns Courage,
left the show and they had to find a replacement. It was a tough struggle,
Fernandez recalled, because they had to find a voice who match the original
and was acceptable to everyone involved, including the show's creator who
didn't necessarily agree with Fernandez.
Orr said
she has the world's best source for creating cartoon voices. "You go on
the subways in New York and you hear voices you can't believe. Even in
this room you hear wacky voices." That inspiration helps her create sounds
for the shows she still works, including some recent Disney films. In anime
dubbing, where actors record separately, it's not unusual for cast members
never to meet. "You heard the girls say they worked together seven years
and only met even minutes ago. In the old days we worked together and had
a good time. Now they splice you together and you don't know the previous
line. It's really weird - I liked the old ways."
One of those
actors who met a fellow actor at AWA after sharing cast credits on the
same shows for years was Manison, who had never met Weaver until the first
morning of the convention. After treating fans to her version of the Naga
laugh from Slayers (and Manison was the actor in the subbed 11-Naga sequence
from the Slayers OVA that ADV made), she spoke about the challenge of getting
dub performances to match from actors who don't meet each other. "In the
first volume of Bubblegum Crisis 2040 we really worked hard on the relationships
with the other characters. The only time I worked with the other actors
was in the first volume. After I recorded it it made Priss sound like a
harpy, so we sat down and worked it out" with Christine Auten, who was
Priss in that dub.
To create
her voices, Rial said "You drive around in the car and make wacky voices."
When she gets to the studio, "You drink a lot of caffeine, eat a lot of
sugar and they lock you in a room, and you hope you make that work." Rial,
who once played Sally Bowles in a stage production of Cabaret, said "I
know a lot of really good actors who don't work for the anime companies
because when you have to convey emotions only with your voice, they can't
do that. I have to do it with pitch and inflection."
After Dota
in Sorcerer Hunters and Ruri in Martian Successor Nadesico, Vincent-Davis
had the challenge of voicing the cute, but semi-dangerous Puu Chus in Excel
Saga. Yes, the cute things do have separate English and Japanese voices.
"How do you make a Puu Chu convincing? Man, you leave your brain at the
door. You just have a good time." On the technical side of dubbing, she
said "I think the entertainment value is a lot more important than trying
to match the lip laps exactly."
You could
have cast most dubs with the collection of voice actors on stage at Anime
Weekend Atlanta on Friday. When everyone finally arrived, the participants
(from left to right) were Doug Smith, Brett Weaver, Peter Fernandez, Corinne
Orr, Kelly Manison, Monica Rial and Kira Vincent-Davis, a group that covered
dubbed anime's history from Speed Racer to Gasaraki.
"I'm a walla,
comedy kind of guy," Smith said, referring to the practice of having actors
say that deliberately indistinct background chatter used to establish crowd
scenes. The tough part of dubbing is matching mouth movements, of course.
"If we don't match the lip flaps exactly and there are a couple of flaps
left over, you think what else did he have to say? Try turning the volume
down on your TV and try to match the lips. It's great training, and at
the same time you have a great time doing that with friends."
At one point,
Weaver was slated to be Pedro in Excel Saga, but he was cast in another
role. "The hardest part was Nabeshin. The first line was `How have our
lives since childhood been so bad.' I asked, `Is this some sort of weird
typo - what does the line mean? Matt (Greenfield, ADV producer) said
`I don't know, it's more fun to see what you come up with.' So we recorded
everything else including the song (wait for that in a later volume), then
we came back and I did the line."
Fernandez
isn't just a figure from animation's past. He's stayed active as a producer
and director for a half-century, including the recent production of Courage
the Cowardly Dog on the Cartoon Network. That series had a casting crisis
when Lionel Wilson, the original voice of the farmer who owns Courage,
left the show and they had to find a replacement. It was a tough struggle,
Fernandez recalled, because they had to find a voice who match the original
and was acceptable to everyone involved, including the show's creator who
didn't necessarily agree with Fernandez.
Orr said
she has the world's best source for creating cartoon voices. "You go on
the subways in New York and you hear voices you can't believe. Even in
this room you hear wacky voices." That inspiration helps her create sounds
for the shows she still works, including some recent Disney films. In anime
dubbing, where actors record separately, it's not unusual for cast members
never to meet. "You heard the girls say they worked together seven years
and only met even minutes ago. In the old days we worked together and had
a good time. Now they splice you together and you don't know the previous
line. It's really weird - I liked the old ways."
One of those
actors who met a fellow actor at AWA after sharing cast credits on the
same shows for years was Manison, who had never met Weaver until the first
morning of the convention. After treating fans to her version of the Naga
laugh from Slayers (and Manison was the actor in the subbed 11-Naga sequence
from the Slayers OVA that ADV made), she spoke about the challenge of getting
dub performances to match from actors who don't meet each other. "In the
first volume of Bubblegum Crisis 2040 we really worked hard on the relationships
with the other characters. The only time I worked with the other actors
was in the first volume. After I recorded it it made Priss sound like a
harpy, so we sat down and worked it out" with Christine Auten, who was
Priss in that dub.
To create
her voices, Rial said "You drive around in the car and make wacky voices."
When she gets to the studio, "You drink a lot of caffeine, eat a lot of
sugar and they lock you in a room, and you hope you make that work." Rial,
who once played Sally Bowles in a stage production of Cabaret, said "I
know a lot of really good actors who don't work for the anime companies
because when you have to convey emotions only with your voice, they can't
do that. I have to do it with pitch and inflection."
After Dota
in Sorcerer Hunters and Ruri in Martian Successor Nadesico, Vincent-Davis
had the challenge of voicing the cute, but semi-dangerous Puu Chus in Excel
Saga. Yes, the cute things do have separate English and Japanese voices.
"How do you make a Puu Chu convincing? Man, you leave your brain at the
door. You just have a good time." On the technical side of dubbing, she
said "I think the entertainment value is a lot more important than trying
to match the lip laps exactly."
