Post by djnyr on Aug 9, 2021 22:12:32 GMT
This question came into my head when I was working on the voice-acting entry for my series on New Ducktales; it would have been off-topic there, but I figured it might be interesting to create a topic for it here. What voices do you "hear" the Disney comic-book characters talking in when you read the comics--either to yourself, or out loud. The question is particularly interesting for me since, when I was 11-12 or so, I would read Barks and Gottfredson to my younger siblings, and would try to use a distinctive voice for each character. For characters who had appeared in cartoons, I would try to emulate the on-screen voice, while for comics-only characters I would improvise based on my own conception of the character.
For example...what do you picture Barks' Beagle Boys (as opposed to the individualized Ducktales Beagles) sounding like? When I was reading their lines as a kid, I could never settle on just how I wanted them to sound. Sometimes I'd try to give all of them one uniform harsh, gruff voice, while sometimes I'd try to read different Beagles' lines in different pitches (deeper, higher, smarter, dumber), akin to the Ducktales Beagle voices. Twenty years later, I still can't figure out just how Barks-faithful Beagles should sound; sometimes I picture them talking collectively in almost quasi-Cockney or Australian accents (mainly because of how Barks liked to have call each other "mates" all the time), sometimes in gruff American crook-speak (Chris Barat once posited that Cullen's gruff "Bankjob" voice could have worked for a collective Beagle voice if the show had gone that route; I can see that working). Or, sometimes I picture them talking in a variety of voices, with Frank Welker's "Bigtime" voice and Chuck McCann's "Bouncer" voice (both of which seemed suitably Beagle-ish in different ways) in the mix. Will Ryan, in Soccermania, took the latter approach--the Beagles in that short all looked the same, but had different voices.
What about Horace Horsecollar? The only time he spoke intelligibly that I can think of in the classic cartoons--as opposed to neighing or whinnying--was in "Mickey's Mellerdrammer," when he was playing "Simon Legree" and was voiced by Billy Bletcher using essentially his Pete voice. The pompous know-it-all voice that Bill Farmer used for him in "Prince and the Pauper" was suited for the one-off role of the Royal Tutor, but doesn't sound at all like the voice I picture for the "regular" version of the character. Farmer's more rustic later voice for the regular Horace, in "House of Mouse" and elsewhere, is too similar to Goofy's for my taste--Horace, to my mind, can sound "rural" (he's a horse, after all), but should have a bit more of a brash, overbearing edge. I can picture Allan Melvin, a great 1960s sitcom character actor (he appeared a lot on the Dick Van Dyke Show and the Andy Griffith Show) who later became a busy cartoon voice actor for Hanna-Barbera and who did several Disney Afternoon voices late in his career, doing an excellent Horace. His voice was swaggering and assertive, but always had a slight Midwestern tinge (he was from Missouri); also, his "Saul Pomerantz" character on the Van Dyke show (Van Dyke's old army buddy who appeared in multiple flashback episodes) was very similar to Horace in a lot of ways--well-meaning, but also insensitive and rather egotistical. When I read Horace, I tend to hear him sounding like Melvin, not Bletcher or Farmer.
And then there's Gladstone. The version of the character on Original Ducktales was very watered-down, but I thought as a kid and still think that Rob Paulsen's voice was spot-on, and could easily have worked for a stronger and more antagonistic version of the character. I used to try to imitate it when I would read stories with Gladstone to my siblings. In regards to the potential of Paulsen's Gladstone voice, I'm thinking in particular of Paulsen's bored-but-amused reading of the line "Still a cheapskate, I see" in his opening conversation with Scrooge; the bemused condescension (which Paulsen unfortunately didn't get much of a chance to return to in "Dime Enough for Luck") seems to capture the essence of Gladstone. Chris Barat once suggested Charlie Adler's voice for Original Ducktales' Fuller Brush Bill (from "Much Ado About Scrooge") as a more appropriately obnoxious Gladstone voice, but that doesn't work for me--that voice, like most of Adler's other cartoon voices, was enthusiastically noisy, too much so for Gladstone; the gander shouldn't be so vocally energetic (that's a form of work!), and mocking superiority rather than abrasive enthusiasm should be the hallmark of his voice (F. Paul Tompkins' Gladstone on New Ducktales didn't really work for me, for similar reasons).
Anyone else have thoughts on what these (or other characters) should sound like?
For example...what do you picture Barks' Beagle Boys (as opposed to the individualized Ducktales Beagles) sounding like? When I was reading their lines as a kid, I could never settle on just how I wanted them to sound. Sometimes I'd try to give all of them one uniform harsh, gruff voice, while sometimes I'd try to read different Beagles' lines in different pitches (deeper, higher, smarter, dumber), akin to the Ducktales Beagle voices. Twenty years later, I still can't figure out just how Barks-faithful Beagles should sound; sometimes I picture them talking collectively in almost quasi-Cockney or Australian accents (mainly because of how Barks liked to have call each other "mates" all the time), sometimes in gruff American crook-speak (Chris Barat once posited that Cullen's gruff "Bankjob" voice could have worked for a collective Beagle voice if the show had gone that route; I can see that working). Or, sometimes I picture them talking in a variety of voices, with Frank Welker's "Bigtime" voice and Chuck McCann's "Bouncer" voice (both of which seemed suitably Beagle-ish in different ways) in the mix. Will Ryan, in Soccermania, took the latter approach--the Beagles in that short all looked the same, but had different voices.
What about Horace Horsecollar? The only time he spoke intelligibly that I can think of in the classic cartoons--as opposed to neighing or whinnying--was in "Mickey's Mellerdrammer," when he was playing "Simon Legree" and was voiced by Billy Bletcher using essentially his Pete voice. The pompous know-it-all voice that Bill Farmer used for him in "Prince and the Pauper" was suited for the one-off role of the Royal Tutor, but doesn't sound at all like the voice I picture for the "regular" version of the character. Farmer's more rustic later voice for the regular Horace, in "House of Mouse" and elsewhere, is too similar to Goofy's for my taste--Horace, to my mind, can sound "rural" (he's a horse, after all), but should have a bit more of a brash, overbearing edge. I can picture Allan Melvin, a great 1960s sitcom character actor (he appeared a lot on the Dick Van Dyke Show and the Andy Griffith Show) who later became a busy cartoon voice actor for Hanna-Barbera and who did several Disney Afternoon voices late in his career, doing an excellent Horace. His voice was swaggering and assertive, but always had a slight Midwestern tinge (he was from Missouri); also, his "Saul Pomerantz" character on the Van Dyke show (Van Dyke's old army buddy who appeared in multiple flashback episodes) was very similar to Horace in a lot of ways--well-meaning, but also insensitive and rather egotistical. When I read Horace, I tend to hear him sounding like Melvin, not Bletcher or Farmer.
And then there's Gladstone. The version of the character on Original Ducktales was very watered-down, but I thought as a kid and still think that Rob Paulsen's voice was spot-on, and could easily have worked for a stronger and more antagonistic version of the character. I used to try to imitate it when I would read stories with Gladstone to my siblings. In regards to the potential of Paulsen's Gladstone voice, I'm thinking in particular of Paulsen's bored-but-amused reading of the line "Still a cheapskate, I see" in his opening conversation with Scrooge; the bemused condescension (which Paulsen unfortunately didn't get much of a chance to return to in "Dime Enough for Luck") seems to capture the essence of Gladstone. Chris Barat once suggested Charlie Adler's voice for Original Ducktales' Fuller Brush Bill (from "Much Ado About Scrooge") as a more appropriately obnoxious Gladstone voice, but that doesn't work for me--that voice, like most of Adler's other cartoon voices, was enthusiastically noisy, too much so for Gladstone; the gander shouldn't be so vocally energetic (that's a form of work!), and mocking superiority rather than abrasive enthusiasm should be the hallmark of his voice (F. Paul Tompkins' Gladstone on New Ducktales didn't really work for me, for similar reasons).
Anyone else have thoughts on what these (or other characters) should sound like?
The Beagles is an interesting case. I would like for there to be some variation from their voices, but they can be so identical in the comics that there's really no point in making a distinction. I think I generally read them with somewhat high-pitched voices, perhaps something along the lines of Frank Welker's Bigtime Beagle voice. I don't know why, but deeper voices don't quite seem to fit them in my head. I feel like a somewhat sillier, less serious voice fits these character who comically keep failing to take Scrooge McDuck's money. I guess the Beagle Boys can be a genuine threat sometimes, but to me, they're more comical, not-serious characters, which is why I imagine a somewhat comical voice to go along with them. I think I only ever watched one of the DuckTales episodes with Rob Paulsen's Gladstone, but from what I remember, it's a pretty good fit. I sometimes read Gladstone with a voice similar to the Tramp from Lady and the Tramp. I didn't know until looking it up just now that the man who voiced the Tramp is apparently Larry Roberts. For some reason, I knew about Barbara Luddy, Peggy Lee, and Verna Felton, but I never remembered Tramp's voice actor's name! Anyhow, Gladstone sounds, in my mind, somewhat dapper and debonair, but not too pompous or high-class. Of course, when I see more modern illustrations (I think mostly from Italian publications) of Gladstone with thick golden locks and what looks to me like wider hips, a flashy green jacket, etc., it becomes hard to imagine him with that voice. That iteration of Gladstone deserves a somewhat more comical voice, methinks.
Whitewater has a somewhat normal voice in my head. He seems like a somewhat normal guy, at least when compared to his cousins, who range from extremely lucky to extremely unlucky to extremely energetic to extremely lazy. Whitewater just doesn't seem so extreme, so his voice shouldn't be either. I can't think of a specific actor or person whose voice would fit him, though.