The Gang of Five
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Voices

Achillobator

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I was just thinking (oh no!) and I thought I'd bring up a discussion about this topic:

Do you prefer any of the changes in voices/voice actors? Why? Why not? Which voice for any character was your favourite?

For me, I liked Mr. Thicknose's original voice better! I mean, he went from an old man to a ..a...a person with the deeper voice! D: I dunno. I just feel it harmed the character (MINORLY, though).

What about you guys? Does anyone else have issues with character voices/actors?




BTW, Don't get me STARTED on Big Daddy...


Manny Cav

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Quote from: Achillobator,Nov 7 2007 on  10:23 PM
BTW, Don't get me STARTED on Big Daddy...
Detailed analysis, please. :lol

Also, does anyone here care to explain or comment on Littlefoot's ever-changing voice?


Kor

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I guess I won't understand the big daddy thing till I get and see the movie.  I've only seen him briefly in one of the music videos someone made.  I assume that is who it was, he looks odd, at least in the brief scene I saw.  

I wonder why they change some of the character's voices.  Is it cause the person wants to much money, they loose interest.  Do they pick whoever is handy?  How many other characters have their voices change a lot I wonder.


landbeforetimelover

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Littlefoot's voice keeps changing, but I like Thomas Dekker the best.  The one in LBT 5 was terrible.  He sounded like a schoolyard bully. :lol: Just watch LBT 9 a little and then watch LBT 5 when he says "Yeah, well I don't think so.  We've helped him a lot, and we've hurt his feelings".  Sounds like a nasty bully to me. :lol Nick Price (LBT 12) was very close to Thomas Dekker, but I still prefer him.  If they go back to Brandon La Croix (LBT 5), I'll be really disappointed.  He really was bad.  Scott McAfee (LBT 3) was pretty good too.  Aaron Span (LBT 11) wasn't very good either, but only in the beginning of the movie.  He sounds like he's nervous sorta in the first few minutes. :rolleyes: Listen to the line "But mostly cuz they taste so great!".  He sounds like he's taken helium or something. :lol Gabrial Damon (LBT 1), was pretty good, but I'm guessing he couldn't sing and that's why he wasn't in any other movies (although since they keep changing Littlefoot's voice, who knows?).  In conclusion, Thomas Dekker is my #1 choice. :D


Petrie.

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Boys reach something called puberty around 11-13 years and when the voice deepens, that's it for the Littlefoot voice.  I can guarantee that Gabriel was too old by the time they started the sequel machine, and his voice no longer naturally sounded like it did for the original film.  Scott did the best job in the earliest sequels.  Some of the later choices are very inconsistent.


Sky

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I haven't watched the movies in english (yet).
But in the german version, the voice of Petrie and Cera hasen't changed at all or they sound really, really similar.
But the voice of Littlefoot has changed in every sequel too until LBT 8.
It was kinda wierd in LBT 6 wenn Littlefoot had the voice of Chomper in LBT 5. o.O


Malte279

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Cera's voice did change in the German movies though. For all I know (and this excludes the later sequels which come with the English credits) Petrie is the only one who to this day is spoken by Wolfgang Ziffer who did Petrie in the original movie already. As I said I am not really certain about the German speakers of the newer sequels though.
If you would like to know what a grownup Littlefoot would sound like (when speaking German ;)) watch the German versions of the Spiderman movies. Harry Osbourne is spoken by Kim Hasper who did Littlefoot in the original movie.


Teresa

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It's weird that in LBT 2 Jeff Bennett performed Petrie the same as Will Ryan in the first but by the 4th film his voice became higher. Although i prefer petrie's high pitch voice better as it makes him more cute.  I love Anndi McAfee playing Cera because her singing voice is so wonderful although there's not much difference between hers and Candace Hudsons. Does anyone know who voiced (or more sound effected) Spike in the first film ?


Tails_155

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I like Petrie's Spanish voice :p Ducky's voice has always stayed good, although the voice change was the most unfortunate... I'd imagine that poor Judith would've loved to voice sequels...


Kor

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Do voice actors get to expensive if they are used for multiple sequels?  I don't know if that is a factor or not.  You'd think they could keep at least most of the same voices.  After all, though I don't watch it anymore, doesn't the simpsons have all or most of the same voices as originally and some other long lasting animated stuff?


Malte279

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I don't know for sure, but I don't think it is their LBT roles which make actors expensive :P:


Kor

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I guess it would be other things.  And if there is such a thing as a voice actor's guild.  Seems there is a guild for everything.  I'd bet there is a guild of people with no connection to any movie industry, but want to be a member of a guild guild.


lbt/cty_lover

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First off, I'm performing CPR on this long-dead thread.

Now to something relevant. In terms of voices, Ducky's mom and Petrie's mom, along with Dil and Ali's mom, have one extremely talented voice actor; Tress MacNeille. If you don't know who she is, she does various voices for The Simpsons, Futurama, and various other movies/shows. Even though her lines are mostly limited, I feel that the voices she used always matched the characters perfectly.


Petrie.

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I'll comment since Tress has been doing voices forever and can change the voice at will.  Might have it been better if they could've found a voice actor for Littlefoot so that the voice was consistent?  Petrie had Jeff Bennet, who is definitely a voice actor and can consistently perform the voice year after year.  For Littlefoot you might've had to find a female (Nancy Cartwright or Christine Cavanagh) that could imitate the original voice, and this would've kept the consistency.  Imagine trying to find a new Petrie every year! :blink: :blink: :wow


LBTFan13

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I think nobody did a better Littlefoot than Gabriel Damon, so having somebody imitate his voice would keep upp with consistancy. Most TV shows do use female voice actors to portray male characters because it is easier for them to imitate a child voice. Pokemon is most notable for using a female voice for Ash.

Finding a new voice actor every movie is very tedious job, but at least they only really did it with Littlefoot. Sure Cera and Ducky changed voices after a couple movies, but at least once they changed they remained consistant. Jeff Bennet does a tremendous job with Petrie and has actually improved over the course of the movies.


Pikkutassu

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For the finnish voices they did a horrid job for the sequels, especially after the 5th movie or so when there's a woman voicing littlefoot.


Almaron

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Let's see...
I personally found Littlefoot's voice actor in 10 to be out of character for him. Littlefoot seemed to have lost several years of maturity, and several scenes were so badly done that I can't really watch the film without wincing.

I also think Ducky's voice actor started out good, but around 7-8, her voice changed and she no longer sounds like the Ducky of the older films.

Cera's voice actors have always been good, Jeff Bennett does a great job as Petrie, and...I can't think of anything else to say.


Spiketail

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In LBT XI, it was even worse. Aaron Spann is definitely the worst Littlefoot; it's like nails on a chalkboard everytime I hear a peep out of him. Alec Medlock, as bad as he was, was nothing compared to Spann.

Casting Littlefoot was always difficult because he had such a central role to the series. I believe Universal consiously chose child actors for Littlefoot because the performance was always that much more authentic than, say, someone like Nancy Cartwright, as talented a voice actress as she is. The rest of the gang were voiced by adults in comparison (although Aria Curzon has been Ducky's voice since she was around 10 years old).


Kor

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Never understood why they didn't choose to go with an adult who could do a little boy voice for Littlefoot.  There are folks around who can do that and are skilled voice actors.


Littlefoot1616

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Littlefoot was always the most difficult character that the makers had to give a voice to. The main problem they had was they didn't want Littlefoot to sound too young (hence why they didn't use younger boys who could have voiced Littlefoot for a number of years) Scott McAfee and Thomas Dekker held onto Littlefoot's role the longest outta the cast that have done Littlefoot's voiceover but the problem was that when their voices changed with age, they couldn't continue. I mean can you imagine what Littlefoot would sound like now if the guy who now play John Connor in The Sarah Connor Chronicles kept up the role?! The production group wanted to keep Littlefoot's voice sounding more naturally masculine(esque) hence why they didn't use a female voice actress coz there are a lot out there who could have done it easily. The main problem was the age range of kids they wanted to use to voice Littlefoot.

As for personal opinion, aside from the original (Gabriel Damon), I liked Dekker as Littlefoot and McAfee comes a close second but then again, that could be labelled as an unfair bias since they voiced Littlefoot on more than one occasion compared to the others. Still, Medlock was just far too squeaky for my liking, especially when Littlefoot yawns (which he seems to do a lot in #10 :p) or when he screams. Spann wasn't the strongest candidate either and they went as far as using 2 speaking voices for Littlefoot in #13 so what does that say about consistancy?!  :lol But all in all, the boys who have played Littlefoot did a good enough job to keep him interesting enough. Some were better than others but I suppose that is a natural order that arises when change is implemented.