South Park's Voice Acting.......

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annab1158

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I've always wondered why Matt and Trey always do all and I do mean ALL the voices on South Park? It's come to the point where I can recognize each one of the two on which voice their playing....and it sucks lol. So my question is, why don't they hire a freaking CAST? I know they like to keep a short budget but how much extra would it cost really to just get some diff voices in there besides the same exact two guys we've heard for 10 years?
 
From what I remember from an interview I read,Matt and Trey prefer not to work with actors,they'd rather do the voices themselves...

Yes,they do voice most of the characters,but not all of them.....they do have a couple VAs for the female characters (originally,Mary Kay Bergman did most of the female voices,but after her death,Mona Marshall took over....I know there's at least one more female VA on the show as well)....plus,they did have Issac Hayes as Chef in the earlier seasons....

and whenever there are young children (younger than the four main characters),they usually use actual children to voice them...

Token,Towelie,and Mr. Slave also aren't voiced by either Matt or Trey (if I remember correctly,they're voiced by writers of the show)...
 
Well if this is the case, then honestly, these two aren't very good voice actors. It'd be more beneficial for them to work with other people

But yeah you basically answered my question, thank you sir :D
 
I assume the main reason they don't use outside actors very often is because the episodes are produced so quickly that they can't always call actors in on time. You're probably more likely to see guest voices in season premieres, because they have more time to prepare for those.
 
Thats the funny thing about it. The fact that they're bad makes the characters funnier they they probably should be. You can't direct someone to be a Cartman, it has to totally come out of nowhere. So actually in South Park's case, I think its more beneficial to not use voice actors, at least not a whole cast.
 
On one of the South Park dvd mini-commentaries (I forget which one) they talk about not liking to use professional actors for two reasons.

One, you can't call a voice actor at 3:30 in the morning and have them come in and read lines that have just been changed. By the time they tried arranging an appointment through an agent, the episode would have already aired.

Two, they claim to like unschooled voices that sound like everyday people. Professionals apperantly are too slick sounding for what they want in the show.

Someone mentioned them using show staff as voices, that's mentioned occsionally on the dvd commentaries as well.
 
I wager that a lot's got to do with financial reasons. As for the children's voices, I thought the guys and gals used a pitch shifter to make their voices high, like children's voices; i used a Cool Edit Pro on their voices, lowered them and they souned like normal adult voices.
 
No, no monkeying around there. Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman sounded the same on the original Christmas cartoon that led to the show, and since it was done in Matt and Trey's spare time they likely did not have access to a pitch shifter. They do those guys.
 
I know they used to have Celebrity voice actors do a couple guest voices. I recall them being very angry at Jerry Seinfeld's manager because they wanted him to do a small role, like a turkey or something. I guess that soured them.

Plus, I have to admit, the fact they only really have 3, 4 voice actors give it a nice student film feel to it. Maybe that's another thing they're going for. I find it kinda funny, with their rampant hatred of actors, they always use the same whiney voice for them.
 
The have a hatred of actors, I don't think they have a hatred of voice actors (most voice actors aren't popular to be activists), they have VAs like April Stewart and Mona Marshall do the female voices on the show and they used quite a few voice actors in the team America movie, besides themselves.

I think Trey and Matt like having a lot of creative control and they like being invovled with every aspect of the process and would tricky to bring in more VAs within the week they need to record. I doubt they dislike vAs in of themsleves, that would be pointless. Besides Matt and Trey are decent VAs.
 
From the South Park Studios FAQ page:


The little kids (Ike and other kindergartners, etc) are voiced by real kids, often the children of show staff. On one of the dvd commentaries, they mention that Ike has been voiced by about a dozen different kids.
 
Well the kindergarteners usually aren't the ones swearing... although one commentary noted that one instance of a kindergartener being bleeped was actually simulated by bleeping a similar word.
 
Thay also said on one of the commentaries that by using kids of friends and staff members, the parents let their kids say raunchy things because they think it's cool that they are voices on South Park.

If I had kids, I'd let them do it. I'd be jealous, but I'd let them do it!
 
Are you serious? Of course they're not lying. Why would somebody lie that their kid said something something profane on South Park, and not actually let them, if they had the chance and they were comfortable with people thinking they did?

I'm sure a lot of people would let their kids say a couple of bad words if it meant they'd get to be on a popular TV show. I don't think saying a couple of bad words, that they were being TOLD to say by adults, is going to turn them into juvenile delinquents or anything.
 
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