Best and Worst Voice Recasts in Animation History

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FCK.DA.WORlD

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Watching The Cleveland Show the other night, and discovering that Nia Long had been replaced by Reagan Gomez as the voice of Roberta got me thinking about this topic. Off the top of my head, Mila Kunis replacing Lacey Chabert as Meg Griffin on Family Guy (ironically, the parent program for The Cleveland Show) is one instance, where I thought that the recast voice was better/an improvement over the original. I don't want to bring into the discussion recasts that here deemed necessary due to the death of an actor (e.g. any voice actor who succeeded Mel Blanc's Looney Tunes roles).
 
Sailor Moon menaged to have both the best and the worst
-the worst when Terri Hawks who voiced Sailor Moon was replaced by Lynda Ballantyme in SMS and SuperS
-the best was when Tracy Hoyt was replaced by Stephanie "Sugar" Lyn Beard for the voice of Rini aka Chibi-Usa/Chibi-Moon
 
This is simple.

Rebecca Frostadt as the english voice of Nunnally on Code Geass: Lelouch Of The Rebellion, it is unbelivable the rest of the dub casting was awesome. She sounds like an old lady immedating a child.
 
That wasn't a recast. Well... actually, I suppose it sort of was... but I don't know if that counts.

I thought Jeffrey Combs as the Scarecrow was really good. I liked him more than the first voice actor for that character.
 
How about:

* Lane Schiemer, Erika Schiemer, and Keith Sutherland replacing 3 Brady Kids voices for its second season of Filmation's Brady Kids cartoon series?

* Lou Schiemer voicing Droopy in place of Frank Welker for some Tom and Jerry Comedy Show episodes made at the time of the 1980's actor's strike?

* Gerry Johnson replacing Bea Bernadett as the voice of Betty Rubble for the last 2 seasons of the Flintstones?

* Mickey Stevens replacing Sally Struthers as the voice of Teenage Pebbles in 1972?

* Adam West replacing Olan Soule as the voice of Batman for the last 2 Superfriends seasons?

* Jessica Kardos succeeding Patricia Rodrieguez as the voice of Sue Ellen on the Marc Brown Arthur cartoons starting in 2006?

I also remember in 2006 when the Pokemon voice cast at 4 Kids was replaced when Kids WB (a few years before it became CW 4 Kids) dropped the show and with new production owners the Pokemon shows moved to Cartoon Network.
 
Billy West replacing John K. as Ren ("Ren and Stimpy") and Candi Milo replacing Christine Cavanaugh as Dexter ("Dexter's Laboratory"). (Seriously, how'd we get this far in the thread without mentioning these two?)

Nothing against Milo and West, but the people they were replacing made such an indelible impression with their work in their respective roles. They did try, but it just wasn't the same. (Arguably, this could also be said of the writing of the shows during the replacements' tenure.)
 
Also, Eric Bauza replacing Billy West as Stimpy in Adult Party Cartoon. Granted, there were a lot more things wrong with APC than that, but Bauza really lacked the energy that West brought to the role.

Others that come to mind:

--The ever-changing Velma voices. Nicole Jaffe, the original, was obviously the best. Pat Stevens was okay. The less said about Marla Frumpkin, the better.

--Jennifer Hale replaced Casey DeFranco as the voice of Julia Carpenter/Spider-Woman in the second season of Iron Man. This was an ENORMOUS improvement, because Hale really impressed me in the role.

--Speaking of Dexter's Lab, what about the replacement of Dee Dee? Kat Cressida replaced Alison Moore very early on, but grew into the role so much that she became Dee Dee and fans complained when Moore took the role back later on.

--Last one I can think of is Moe from the Simpsons. Originally that was Chris Latta/Chris Collins, right? Then obviously they changed that to Hank Azaria... wasn't Mr. Burns Latta too?
 
Wendee Lee replacing Sherry Lynn as Kiyone in Tenchi Muyo!. Lee is a great actress, but I felt she made Kiyone sound generic. Lynn fit the character perfectly, maybe even more so than the original seiyuu.

The recasting puzzles me since Lynn continued to voice Sasami... odd.
 
Hearing the voices at first would leave that feeling, but after getting use to them, they sound decent. Though I have to say the recast of Jessie, James and Meowth didn't take as long to get use to. My only gripe is that they didn't let the original cast finish the Kanto Battle Frontier Saga (But that's another topic altogether).

A recast I found unappealing was Fred Tatasciore as Pacha in The Emperor's New School. The actor himself isn't the problem (as I like his voicing of Beast on Wolverine & The X-Men), and I don't fault him for not sounding like John Goodman, but I think he made Pacha sound more easy going that he was in the movie.
 
Agreed. Lacey made Meg sound a little too shallow and airheaded, but Mila brings more edge to the character. There's this one episode where Peter starts talking to her like she's a dog for some reason, and after it goes on for about half a minute, she snaps "I'M NOT A DOG, YOU JACKASS!" I don't think the soft-spoken Lacey could have delivered that line nearly as well as Mila did.

...And also, I love to see Meg fight back. But I digress.
 
I actually thought Lacey brought too much sweetness to Meg. She actually sounded less shallow than the character being portrayed which was something of a disconnect for me.
 
How is that "another worst?" While its a shame that it happened in the first place, at the very least they've all done a great job of providing close enough voices to the original characters. Ash's voice especially improved tremendously since the Battle Frontier arc.

In fact, I'd go as far to say that I prefer most of the PUSA voices over the 4kids ones now.
 
One that comes to mind for me is the Get-Along Gang TV show compared to the original pilot.

In the pilot, all the voices fit the characters and sounded quite expressive. Zipper was a jerk jock, Montgomery sounded like the clumsy doofus he's supposed to be, Bingo sounded like a conniving gambler, etc.

For DiC's cartoon series, they all had range less, borderline monotone voices that really didn't relate the characters' personalities very well.
 
I agree. While the PUSA cast has improved, especially Sarah's voice for Ash compared to how he sounded like in Battle Frontier, I still prefer the original cast due to the emotions they provided for their respective characters. Sarah has yet to show off an emotional side of Ash anywhere close to how Veronica Taylor was in the Celebi and Lucario movies to me. I still don't think that they sound close to the original voices, but they do a pretty decent job on these roles to me. I just try to focus on the show and less on the voices when I watch the show now. Plus, it was just a total shame to replace a whole cast that was with the show from the start.
 
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