Differences between 'good' and 'bad' voice acting

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dragon chica

New member
Voice acting gets discussed at great length around here, and I have lately been pondering the differences between what can be considered 'good' or 'bad' voice acting. Granted, it all comes down to one's opinion, but I personally think that good voice acting makes a good script and good characters better, while bad voice acting does the opposite, especially to a bad script and bad characters. Acting that sounds more or less natural instead of forced is always good too.

Your thoughts?
 
I basically judge this by how much a voice "fits" the character. If I feel like it belongs, it works for me. This generally rules out extremes, for example I don't like listening to high-pitched or uber-cheerful voices that you'd never hear from a normal person. I have some tolerance for this in the case of young girls or a children's show, but not too much.
 
I think a big part of it is if the voice sounds natural, both for the character and actor. Alot of the Ocean actors have good normal voices, but when they do another one it sounds too forced eg Brian Drummond's take on Yajirobe and Dren sounds like "This is me doing a goofy fat guy voice!".
Another area would be emphasis. Sorry to pick on Ocean but alot of Gundam Wing had this problem, where characters would deliver some bold statment in a calm voice and then randomly started shouting. That can work fine for a line like "I am going to KILL YOU!!" but other times it's just awkward.
 
I don't understand why 4Kids make all the voices in their dubbed anime so exaggerated, but when it comes to shows that they made themselves the voice acting is normal.
 
I don't see how it's much different from regular acting - it's mostly a matter of how much the actor really cares about their role, and from there, how natural they sound in it. I've noticed that in Thundercats, I can divide the cast roughly in half into varying degrees of "good acting" and "bad acting".
 
I think if the voice fits the charecter it is good. For eample I don't like how Billy's Dad on Billy and Mandy sounds like a teenager.
 
To me, "bad" voice acting is either when the voice sounds forced, that you know they're making up the voice so it doesn't sound natural; or when they get somebody who simply doesn't put any effort into the voice, reading off of a cue card.
 
I'm not too picky about voices myself....as long as it doesn't sound forced,or that the actor/actress is just reading the lines with no emotion,I'm usually all right with it...
 
I like most voice acting, the only this that I look for is that it should fit the charecter. For example a big guy should have a deep voice not a 11 year old kids voice. Other than that its all fine for me exapt if I just dont like the voice. Their are some voices that just rub me the wrong way :sad:
 
To me, a good cartoon voice should fit the character (as others have said), should display a good range of emotion when required, and should have some rooting in reality, even if it's a fairly "out there" character. Bad voice acting is when either the voice sounds forced, the VA sounds bored, or when the VA is just doing a "silly voice" without bothering to inject some life into it.
 
...TMNT isn't that serious. There's loads of comedy in the 2k3 show, even if it's not nearly as prevalent as it was in the old toon. And One Piece apparently has drama in it as well (or so I'm told).
 
How natural the voice is, is it believable? Is there a lot of range to the performance? Can I see the relation between the character and the performance?

An example of good acting? I think Tony Jay was brilliant no matter what he was playing. Every character had a certain class and nobility to them, but you always knew how evil they were simply from that deep voice. He minced his words very nicely, and you got a clear indication from how they were said to see what the character was thinking.

As for bad? I don't really like any of the 4Kids actors, but I think it's more the direction. They're not given a lot of room to perform and they're encouraged to talk like morons because kids can't follow adult speech patterns! Obviously!
 
I'm not too picky, I just ask for a good performance by someone who has the voice for the part. If s/he has multiple voices the voice s/he's using has to sound natural instead of forced into the pitch or tone needed, and sound different enough from, say,a more famous character he or she voiced before

Wendee Lee is a good example of this. Part of the reason I like Lee's performance as Dorothy in MAR is that you have no indication that she voiced Faye Valentine in Cowboy Bebop. They sound completely different, with different pitches, screams, conversational voices, everything. And then she pulled off a boy's voice as Yahiko in Rurouni Kenshin, again without any hints or misfires that instantly make us go "Oh, is that Faye?"
 
Do I think the person doing the voice is acting or reading? Good voice acting is just that - the person assumes another role and gives it a life of its own. Bad voice acting is when you have someone just reading lines off the page.

(I emphasize whether I think the person is doing one or the other because I obviously wasn't there. As such I can just listen to see how the actor delivers.)
 
Good voice acting is about whether or not the audience is fooled into believing that everything the character says is true to heart. Is it believable that they're sad/angry/indifferent, etc.? Or are they hamming it up, or just reading the script?

One thing that is most misunderstood is characters with unusual or "annoying" voices. Most people think that automatically makes them a bad VA. But not everyone has a pleasant-sounding voice, and just because they do also doesn't make them a great VA.
 
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