My Top Voice Actors

If there's one thing I've begun to appreciate in the movie and slightly more to the TV show world in the past couple of years or so, it's voice acting. The lovable talented voices we hear from many of our favorite characters throughout our lives without a lot of us knowing who are the people behind them. I mean if I say the names of some of them, most people will not hesitate to say "I don't know who that is." So today, I'm going to honor them with announcing my favorite voice actors.

10) Bruce Campbell

 now he's only done a fair bit of voice acting as well as many other works in film, but this mostly has to do with three of his particular works. Which are really just his work as The Narrator in the video games to all Spider-man films. Because straight off the bat, he was hilarious. I mean here's a few examples from the games to the first and third movies:

[after upgrading to the 5-hit melee combo] We can make you better, stronger, faster. Well, better and stronger anyway.

[after you charge your jump] Ok, you won't be able to jump tall buildings in single bounds. You can't be like that other guy 

[during basic training] Web swing over to your next objective. If you can't find your next objective, I can't help you. Turn off the machine and walk away.

[finished the training level] Okay, if you want to go over this again, or if you just plain missed me which, Hah! Who could blame you? You can access basic training from the menu anytime you want. Now follow your compass to the exit. Good luck! I said... good luck. Good luck means 'Good bye'. See, there's nothing more to see here... you're done, that's a wrap, it's over, got it? I want you to understand, accept, move on with your life! For crying out loud, these people! 

He was just so funny and that kept me entertained as I played spidey to my hearts content in the games and to me that's enough to put him on this list.



9) Tim Curry

Now this guy has a pretty good voice for particularly being the villain in movies and TV shows.

The first time I heard his voice as a villain was as Mistro Forte in Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas. I mean I know there's not a lot of people who saw that movie or even care, but to me he was a pretty cool.

And then I heard him voice as Professor Calamitous in Jimmy Neutron who while he wasn't really evil, Curry did still hive him a pretty nice voice.

and I thought he was pretty cool as Hexxus too in Ferngully.

now he's done some other voice acting outside of playing the villain. Such as being the voice of Lemony Snicket in the Series of Unfortunate Events video game and also as King Maximilian Acorn in Sonic The Hedgehog (Sat AM)

Now the only thing I've know he's done since being Calamitous is voicing as Stubbings and Dr. Wexler in Phineas and Ferb, but that doesn't change the fact that he's a talented voice actor and has done pretty well with all this and many other works as a voice actor.



8) Mark Hamill

Yes, Mark Hamill as in Luke Skywalker. apparently since even before his days of being our lovable Jedi, Mark Hamill has done a fair amount of work in voice acting. but it wasn't until after Star Wars that he began to do a really big amount of voice acting. Do you know what he's most known for being the voice of? well I'll tell you.










Okay are you ready?













 Seriously are you ready?





















I really don't think you're ready.






















but I'll tell you anyway.
















he's most known...



















...for being...
























THE JOKER!!!!!

That's right. Our lovable farm boy who was learning the ways of The Force and discovered that his father is one of the best villains of all time and later becomes one of the most powerful Jedi in the entire galaxy far, far away, is pretty much the primary voice actor for the Clown Prince of Crime himself; The Joker.

So yeah if you grew up with any of the animated TV shows of Batman, that was Luke the whole time. and if you are big fans of the Arkham Asylum games, guess what, you're technically playing a game where your main goal is to beat the crap out of one of your own childhood heroes. It's horrific, but it's the truth.

I mean this particular thing is so messed up that I'm currently going through the original animated Batman series to try to accept it. Looking at the credits and everything. and in a way I do accept that it's true...and yet it's impossible...yet it's right in my face...but there's no way I can truly plant it in my head...yet I've seen a brief, live, clip of him doing the voice...but...I DON'T KNOW!!!!! IT'S LUKE SKYWALKER AS THE JOKER!!!!!!! I MEAN DOES ANYBODY NOT UNDERSTAND WHY I'M REPEATEDLY CONTRADICTING MYSELF AS TO WHETHER OR NOT I EMBRACE THAT!?!?!?!!? ANYONE!?!?!?!?! ... ANYONE!?!?!?! ... BUELLER!?!?!?!?! ...BUELLER!?!?!?! ... FRY!?!?!?! ... FRY!?!?!?! ... FRY!?!?!?!?!?! ... I DIDN'T THINK SO!!!!!

but that's not all he's done. he's also the Fire Lord in Avatar:The Last Airbender (the tv show, not the disgusting movie)

which is kinda funny when you think about what this particular poster points out.

I've also heard him as Undergrowth from Danny Phantom. And while I've never seen the show, he does voice as Red Skull and a couple of other characters in The Super Hero Squad Show.

So while this particular bit of voice acting is messed up beyond relief, (believe me) that doesn't change how old Luke isn't so bad at this field and just the Joker alone is enough to seriously put him on this list.



7) Frank Oz

 I forgot completely to put this on the list right away because it's been so long with most of his work. But thankfully I was reminded by a guy from my college group. And who can blame him? I mean Oz has done a lot of voices that we love.

Grover

 Bert

 Cookie Monster

Miss Piggy (I did not know this up till now. it's kinda weird to me.)

Fozzie Bear

Animal

And you guys could make all the angry comments in the world if I left out THIS particular character when talking about Frank Oz's voice acting. I mean...YODA!!!!!


Now I understand that he's not doing any of the voices for the upcoming Muppet movie which is pretty lame. But that doesn't change the fact that this is a talented voice actor and I for one am glad to have put him on the list right in the nick of time.





6) Corey Burton

Now this voice actor is one of the guys that you don't know but have heard his voice in plenty of things that you have seen. let's review:

Ludwig Von Drake in some of the Mickey Mouse stuff

Mole from Atlantis

Ziro the Hutt and Cad Bane in The Clone Wars tv series. And also The Narrator in several Goofy appearances.

But the work I and plenty of others personally like the best, is in work in The Transformers, mostly for his work as the Decepticon Shockwave. He just gives him a really cool, robotic, sounding voice that it pisses off Shockwave fans like me that they've never used his voice with the cold, emotionless, logical personality that he has in the comics that well all love.  

I especially love how he uses his Shockwave voice in the animated series where it sound much darker to me.

And in my opinion, ha also gave Megatron the best voice next to of coarse, Frank Welker.

Now it's a big shame, and a perfect example of the up most retarded amount of stupidity that Michael Bay hardly needed a voice actor at all for Shockwave in Dark of the Moon which I would guess is why Burton turned down reprising the role for that film. But even though he isn't, we can all agree that this is a talented actor to do so much work and that there is no one better for Shockwave's voice than Corey Burton.



5) Jim Cummings

Now here's a guy who you have especially heard several times in your life without even knowing his name. let's mention a few shall we?

Long John Silver in The Pagemaster

Darkwing Duck

Razoul in Aladdin

the current voice of Pete

Cort

Cortez in The Road to El Dorado

Ultra Load in Jimmy Neutron

Ray in The Princess and the Frog

Nessus the River Centaur in Hercules

current voice of Taz

Ed

the singing voice for Powhatan and Rasputin in Pocahontas and Anastasia respectively  

and is also the current voice of Pooh and Tigger

Now the sort of up and down thing with this voice actor is that he roughly uses the same voice or particular types of voices in his work. So he's not always having various voices for various characters. But at the same note because of that, as a fan you can notice and be all "ah sweet it's Cummings" when you're watching who knows what, which is a little nice. He's particularly good at having a really dark evil voice. One good example that I haven't mentioned yet is his performance as Robotnik in the SatAM series of Sonic the Hedgehog. In that particular show, the story is much more darker than you'd usually get from anything in Sonic the Hedgehog. I mean I never watched it growing up but when I heard about it via the Nostalgia Critic, I checked it out and I have to admit; it is still fairly cheesy and some of the episodes are nothing out of the ordinary when it comes to cartoon shows to begin with. But regardless, it's a nice turn from the usual when it comes to Sonic.And Robotnik is no exception.

I mean in the games and the TV show that came out the same year as the SatAM show (yeah i know, that is pretty weird) Even if he comes up with something more evil than capturing little animals and trying to get the chaos emeralds, he's often an easy push over for Sonic and his friends no matter what. I mean I'm talking about times like Sonic Heroes where Amy and her friends can beat him...AMY!!!!

and yet in the SatAM show, he's actually a fairly cool villain who has already taken over the world in this series and Cummings' voice turned out to make him even cooler.

Fun, recognizable, Jim Cummings is a fine addition to mention as one of the top voice actors.



4) Peter Cullen

you really can't go wrong with this voice actor being put into a list about the best voice actors. I mean he has to be one of the most famous there is.

really he's primarily known for repeatedly being the voice of two particular characters. Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh, and Optimus Prime from The Transformers.

With Eeyore he did just a wonderful job of giving us a depressed donkey that everyone that's young at heart about Winnie the pooh from the youngest Winnie the Pooh- loving generation to date, to some of it's oldest fans like my grandmother, can love. In fact, it really pisses me off that he didn't reprise his role for some reason in the brand new Winnie the Pooh movie. They had Bud Luckey do Eeyore's voice instead. It's not that he wasn't bad, but we want Peter. We want Peter to be Eeyore on any Winnie the Pooh thing to the day he dies. I mean it's bad enough that Tom Kenny did Rabbit's voice in that film.

Now Optimus... *chuckles* where do I begin? He was born and practically raised for all I know to be the voice of Optimus Prime. It's big enough when practically everybody loves Optimus to the point of making a Jesus figure out of him from comedy posters to the Nostalgia Critic, or other ways to show their love to this character like my friend Jimmy once having his religious views on his Facebook as: "In Optimus Prime I trust." But with Peter Cullen's voice... well let's put it this way: one time while commenting on my friend Xandi's facebook status about the idea of choosing character voices on your GPS, there was one Transformers fan who commented that having an Optimus Prime voice would be too much because EVERYTHING he said would fill you up with a whole bunch of hope and pride.


Peter Cullen on the GPS:"In a quarter mile, take a left." 
Driver: [filled with hope beyond his/her dreams] yes...yes...YES!!!! I SURE WILL OPTIMUS PRIME!!! I WILL!!!!! I WILL OPTIMUS !!!!  I!!!!! WILL!!!!! (joke dedicated to Tim Yoshikawa. thanks.)


But seriously, The thing a lot of people love about Optimus is how he's a noble and valiant leader that plenty of people would want to look up to. Who never gives up and dies or goes through a near death experience if that's what it takes to defeat the Decepticons or to just let the idea of freedom and all that endure for another day. And Peter Cullen gives us that character wonderfully with his voice.




now sure there are downs to the character, mostly from Bay's movies with Optimus not sounding pissed earlier in DOTM and saying really bad lines like "Give me your face!!!" but hey, with both being the voice of Eeyore and Optimus Prime for our time, we couldn't have a better voice actor.






3) Dee Bradley Baker

Now yes he's done plenty of voices we are familiar with such as being the voice of Appa and Momo in Avatar: The Last Airbender and pretty much all the Clone Troopers in the 2008 Clone Wars TV series. but there's only one job he's done that's enough to be honored in this list. One voice for a little greenish, blueish character with mad skill, a beaver tail and a bill. Do you know anyone like that?








The Audience: *singing* Dooby dooby doo-bah, Dooby dooby doo-bah, Dooby dooby doo-bah, Dooby dooby doo-bah

PERRY!!!!!

Yes. Perry the Platypus from Phineas and Ferb.  And this little guy doesn't say much. all an he says is an "aggravated purr"sort of noise as they put it. It's original, it's fun, and we all wish we can do it. I've been trying it because it's #3 in my small list of voices I wish I can do, my brother has been practicing it, and we only know that Thomas Sangster, the voice actor for Ferb is the only known person to come the closest to the noise .So what else is there to say except that it's catchy, original, and a voice we all dream we can do.




2) Margaret Wright

Now I know for a fact that a lot of you, if not all of you have never even heard of this woman at all. And right now you are wondering what in the world could she have possibly done that would put her in this list. Well she's done the voice of one particular character that I grew up loving from the bottom of my heart and practically idolized as a kid from impersonating the sound effects for this character to making drawings of him. and that particular character is...

 CASEY JR!!!!!

I. just. LOVE. Casey Jr. Seriously, I grew up as a kid just loving trains to death. Whenever my mom was driving us to some errands when I was little and we would occasionally be stopped by a passing train, my eyes would just widen the moment I see it. And even as I've grown up, I did enjoy watching trains pass by whenever I took classes at this Community College that is just right next to a couple of tracks.  So when we got Dumbo, it automatically became my favorite Disney film for just one reason only; Casey Jr. He was fun to watch the whole time and it was no exception when the ringmaster shouts "All Aboard! All Aboard!" and Casey replies with his train-like voice via his whistle: "all abooooooooaaaarrrd! Let's go!" and later telling himself "I think I Can, I think I can, I think I can" when he was going up that hill. I"m just plain old jealous of Margaret Wirght being able to do the voice and I can't. I can impersonate the sound effects for when Casey starts moving the train earlier in the film, but that's kind of easy since I've been roughly able to do that since I was like, 3.  Casey's # 2 on my list of voices I wish I can do. It's fun, creative and more than worthy in my mind's eye to be put on this list.



now I'm sure you're wondering, "those are some pretty good voice actors, who could be number one?" well for those of you know are familiar with voice acting, it should be pretty obvious. Because there's one particular voice actor who is talented beyond belief. A person to look up to for future voice actors everywhere. And the number on voice actor is...




1) Frank Welker

FRANK FREAKING WELKER!!!! This guy is one of the most remarkable, talented voice actors that you never heard of in your life!!!  You don't know who he is, but you've heard him doing so many characters with so many voices that you really should. I mean here's some good examples of the work he has done.

Figaro in Pinocchio

Fred from Scooby-Doo

Nana from Peter Pan

The Doormouse in Alice in Wonderland

Butch the Bulldog in various Disney shows

Abu, Rajah and the Cave of Wonders in Aladdin

Flit in Pocahontas

Thumper in a Bug's Life

Kahn and Cri-kee in Mulan

Max in The Little Mermaid

Iceman in Spider-man and his Amazing Friends (never seen it. just found it interesting to mention)

Bulls-eye in the Toy Story movies

Pegasus in Hercules

Johanna from The Rescuers Down Under

George in Curious George

Stella in Princess and the Frog

Goddard and Poultra in Jimmy Neutron

Sultan in Beauty and the Beast

Horror in The Pagemaster

Pal in Arthur

Santa's Little Helper and Snowball II in The Simpsons

Maximus in Tangled

Nibbler in Futurama (both noise and voice)

Dr. Claw in Inspector Gadget


and he's the original voice of several Transformers (mostly Decepticons) and also voiced in the live-action version of other Transformers in the films for example

Frenzy

Laserbeak

Ravage

the live-action versions of several Decepticons including Barricade, Devestator and Shockwave

and the two Transformers he's most known for being the original voice of: Megatron

and my favorite Soundwave. I love this one the most because he gives Soundwave the best robot voice ever. it's #1 of the voices I wish I can do. 


Now when it comes to voice acting, you can do a ton of jobs throughout your life. Movies, video games, tv shows, whatever. Corey Burton has done 279 jobs, and Jim Cummings has done 362 jobs, but Frank Welker *chuckles* Frank Welker has done a total of 673 jobs in his life as a voice actor. That's way more than twice the amount of work Christopher Lee has done. Seriously!!! You've never seen him but you've heard him voice so many of your favorite characters throughout the years. There's no reason why Frank Welker should be doubted as the number one voice actor.



So that's my list of My Top Voice Actors. I hope you enjoyed it and seriously, learn to appreciate teh people behind the voices of your favorited characters. I know I do.