In 2000,
Project: A-Kon held a voice acting panel that featured eleven actors, an
unofficial record. The second day of AnimeNEXT tied that record with its
own gathering of eleven performers. While the A-Kon group was made mostly
of actors who recorded in Texas, most the New Jersey group came from the
large pool of actors who record for Tokyo Pop, Central Park Media, Media
Blasters and The Right Stuf. The exceptions were Richard Cox and Myrian
Sirois, Canadian actors from the vast Vancouver cast that spent eight years
dubbing Ranma 1/2 for Viz. This gathering saw a first meeting of actors
who had worked on the same show but never met each other. Karen Elizabeth
and Jamie McGonnigal had roles in the "Berserk" dub, but had not met until
the Saturday panel.
McGonngal's
performance in "Magic User's Club" impressed cosplaying fans so much that
they made him a duck wand, part of the advantages of being an actor. At
the time of AnimeNEXT, McGonnigal was performing in "Jack," a musical version
of the Jack and the Beanstalk story, and it was another musical role that
led to his involvement in anime dubbing. Another member of the cast was
a voice actor and she mentioned there were voice acting roles available.
That led to a part on the Sci-Fi Channel's online "Barbarian Moron," and
that led to anime roles. McGonnigal is a example of the kind of actor preferred
by producer Mike Sinterniklaas, who likes musical theater actors because
they have a broader range of expression than theater or TV actors, something
needed for the melodramatic range of anime shows.
Sinterniklaas
stays active in acting with roles as a bad guy in Weiss Kreutz, the Venture
Bros. pilot for the Cartoon Network and Leonardo in the new Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles. His background is in acting and dancing after studying at
the North Carolina Institute of the Arts. Sinterniklaas, who once danced
in a production of "The Nutcracker," joked that "Those tights really helped
my voice." Singing is helpful, he added, noting that he sang the theme
song for a Nickelodeon show called "Garbage Boy."
Sean Schemmel,
the second voice of Goku in the English-language Dragon Ball Z, ended up
next to Lisa Ortiz. Schemmel has worn several hats in the dubbing world.
In the Dragon Ball dubs, he had to match the voice of the Vancouver actor
who originated the dub Goku role. In other dub roles, he's had to create
original voice performances and hope that his work passes muster in an
audition. And as a director, Schemmel has to guide the performances by
other actors. Schemmel had to choose whether to use the original Japanese
voices as a guide for the dub actors, or to create a new voice. That's
not automatic when actors don't understand the director's references and
examples. "Sometimes they're counting for you to make up the voices." Once
Schemmel told an actor to work like Dextrer in Dexter's Laboratory, and
the actor didn't know the series. so he had to tell the actor instead to
sound a little like Ren from Ren and Stimpy."
In 2000,
Project: A-Kon held a voice acting panel that featured eleven actors, an
unofficial record. The second day of AnimeNEXT tied that record with its
own gathering of eleven performers. While the A-Kon group was made mostly
of actors who recorded in Texas, most the New Jersey group came from the
large pool of actors who record for Tokyo Pop, Central Park Media, Media
Blasters and The Right Stuf. The exceptions were Richard Cox and Myrian
Sirois, Canadian actors from the vast Vancouver cast that spent eight years
dubbing Ranma 1/2 for Viz. This gathering saw a first meeting of actors
who had worked on the same show but never met each other. Karen Elizabeth
and Jamie McGonnigal had roles in the "Berserk" dub, but had not met until
the Saturday panel.
McGonngal's
performance in "Magic User's Club" impressed cosplaying fans so much that
they made him a duck wand, part of the advantages of being an actor. At
the time of AnimeNEXT, McGonnigal was performing in "Jack," a musical version
of the Jack and the Beanstalk story, and it was another musical role that
led to his involvement in anime dubbing. Another member of the cast was
a voice actor and she mentioned there were voice acting roles available.
That led to a part on the Sci-Fi Channel's online "Barbarian Moron," and
that led to anime roles. McGonnigal is a example of the kind of actor preferred
by producer Mike Sinterniklaas, who likes musical theater actors because
they have a broader range of expression than theater or TV actors, something
needed for the melodramatic range of anime shows.
Sinterniklaas
stays active in acting with roles as a bad guy in Weiss Kreutz, the Venture
Bros. pilot for the Cartoon Network and Leonardo in the new Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles. His background is in acting and dancing after studying at
the North Carolina Institute of the Arts. Sinterniklaas, who once danced
in a production of "The Nutcracker," joked that "Those tights really helped
my voice." Singing is helpful, he added, noting that he sang the theme
song for a Nickelodeon show called "Garbage Boy."
Sean Schemmel,
the second voice of Goku in the English-language Dragon Ball Z, ended up
next to Lisa Ortiz. Schemmel has worn several hats in the dubbing world.
In the Dragon Ball dubs, he had to match the voice of the Vancouver actor
who originated the dub Goku role. In other dub roles, he's had to create
original voice performances and hope that his work passes muster in an
audition. And as a director, Schemmel has to guide the performances by
other actors. Schemmel had to choose whether to use the original Japanese
voices as a guide for the dub actors, or to create a new voice. That's
not automatic when actors don't understand the director's references and
examples. "Sometimes they're counting for you to make up the voices." Once
Schemmel told an actor to work like Dextrer in Dexter's Laboratory, and
the actor didn't know the series. so he had to tell the actor instead to
sound a little like Ren from Ren and Stimpy."
