Replacement VAs who were better than the originals

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David Obrein

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Are there any cases where you think that a replacement voice actor is better than the VA that they replaced? Here are two I thought of, even though both are changes from pilot to series.

I think that John DiMaggio makes for a better Shnitzel (on Chowder) than Kevin Michael Richardson did. DiMaggio really seems to get into his role, putting inflections into the "radda"s to really give them a personality. That, and his voice is a little deeper and fuller, and it seems to fit the character better in my opinion.

Also, I haven't seen the Invader Zim pilot yet, but I really can't see Billy West being better than Richard Horvitz at Zim's voice. Horvitz seems to have two methods of voice acting ("bat#*$@ insane" and "even more bat#*$@ insane), and I just can't imagine West going nearly as crazy as Horvitz.
 
Larissa Wolcott's portrayal of Excel sounded exactly like Jessica Calvello's portrayal of Excel, so, there's my choice.

Wolcott should've been in more roles (I know that she'll appear in a Hell Girl episode, which is so far, the most recent time we'll hear her voice).
 
I would almost agree with that. No I do agree with that, with the exception of Zoro. Sabot's Zoro voice while not bad is not as good as Marc Diraison voice for Zoro. Of course thats the only one.
 
I felt the voices in the dub of Ghost in the Shell:SAC were better than those of the 1995 theatrical movie, except for Batou and Aramaki (whose VA's reprised their roles in SAC). I even wish that Manga would go back and redub Mimi Woods' voice of Major Kusanagi with Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, as Woods' version was way too robotic at times and made me switch over to the Japanese track on the DVD during some of those sequences.
I've seen it and from what I remember it sounds like a bit of a mix between Horvitz's version and Fry from Futurama. He isn't nearly as crazy as Horvitz and kind of sounds like what you'd expect from West if you've heard him do other manic character voices. It's available as an extra on one of MediaBlasters/AnimeWorks' DVD releases of Invader Zim. Also, there was an earlier version of the pilot that was recorded with Mark Hamill doing Zim's voice though this version has not been made available. Both versions of the pilot only differ audio-wise.
 
I might be biased, but overall I prefer FUNi's VAs for DB/Z over the original Ocean VAs. Sure the FUNi VAs started out pretty rough, but they definitely got a lot better as time went on.
 
Here are a couple of ancient examples.

Mel Blanc wasn't the first voice of Porky Pig, but his performances were a lot better than the guy who voiced Porky before him.

Likewise, Jack Mercer was a replacement VA for Popeye, and yet he took the character to new heights with his voice.
 
Yeah, I didn't like Jason Marsden as Chester either, but I guess Frankie Muniz's voice got so deep and they didn't feel like pitching it down.

One voice change that I did like was Jimmy Zoppi taking over as James on Pokemon. During Hoenn, I detested Eric Stuart's James with a passion, he could not serious for crap. When his Pokemon left or something dramatic happened, Eric Stuart would always have that same "everything's a gay happy fun time yay!", when James is supposed to be sad. Even though Zoppi is still sort of scratchy, I still prefer him over Stuart.

And of course, most of the Funi One Piece cast, since I still prefer Marc Diraison to Sabat for Zolo and Griffith to Sonny Strait for Ussop.
 
Or fangirls. ;)

Seriously though, I can understand why people would prefer Brock's and/or James' new voices and I do think that those are some of the better of the new voices myself. But I still prefer the original cast overall. I'm sure part of it has to do with nostalgia, I realize how that can affect one's opinions and views, but it also has to do with how I just believe that the original cast had a better feel for their characters' emotions overall. I totally respect the new cast, as I believe a few of them have made some nice improvements in their roles, and I respect those who prefer their voices. But I still honestly prefer the original cast.

Anyway, I do think the the FUNimation One Piece cast is better than the 4Kids cast. Marc Diraison did a great job voicing Zoro and was definitely the best of the 4Kids, but I think by the time I finished watching the episode where Zoro fought Hawk-Eye in the Second Voyage set, I was in amazement with how awesome Sabat was as Zoro. Of course, I can understand why some people would prefer Marc over Sabat and I respect that.
 
That's a GREAT example. Joe Dougherty had a stutter in real life so he couldn't control it when voicing the character. Mel Blanc, by contrast, used the stutter for comedic effect. Often just the way he delivers Porky's lines makes me laugh.
 
Yeah yeah, I'm not saying the old cast was bad or anything, I liked almost all of them. To be fair I'm not that fond of Zoppi's James, but it makes the character sound more sensitive than the way Stuart's James would scream and overreact almost every line toward the later seasons.

I also like how the new Jenny sounds closer to the old Jenny, rather than that horrible male Jenny voice we got during Advanced Battle. I don't know what the hell that was. Thank god that didn't last long.
 
I agree. I'm not a fan of the dub's direction in terms of translation, but I think that the voice actors are one thing FUNi got right. I much prefer Chris Sabat's Vegeta over Brian "OVER 9000!" Drummond's Vegeta.

Jim Cummings as Pete. Whenever I think of Pete I automatically associate him with Jim Cummings' voice for him. Can't really imagine him without the voice.
 
Well I always assumed that James having a British accent was a way for the dub to portray his rich upbringing.

As for the topic, well considering that for Anime, I consider the JPN voices the original voices for the characters, since well Yuji Ueda is Takeshi in my eyes really, than Eric Stuart and Bill Rogers.

But as for the topic at hand I guess One Piece FUNi dub owning 4kids one, except for Marc Diarson, since well he had a voice I expected to come out of a 19 year old male. But considering that his JPN voice makes Zoro sound more older than that, Sabat is more fitting.
 
There's nothing worse than turning on a rerun of Family Guy and Lacey Chabert's voice is coming out of Meg's head. Mila Kunis is the one and only voice of Meg Griffin.
 
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