Who's the Mel Blanc of today?

H

hurrro

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Mel Blanc was the first "man of a thousand voices", but there are many people who do a wide array of voices for so many characters. Who do you think is todays man of a thousand voices?
 
I'd probably go with Welker on the grounds that he can choose to make his characters sound similar or completely different from his trademark vocals. Though on the female side Grey Delisle has struck me as being extremely versatile with her voice work.
 
If it was still the '90s I'd say yes. But I'm going with Welker, and he's been doing voice overs long enough to be the only one on this list with the sort of credentials that Blanc had.
 
Yeah, I'm gonna go with Frank Welker. He's got a wide range of voices, and the sheer volume of the work he's done is incredible. Just think about it; he's been doing the voice of Freddie Jones for over 40 years, let alone the countless amount of other characters, whether they be in starring or background roles, that he's done for so many other cartoons in that time. I don't think there is anyone else in the business, right now, that has a resume with as much experience as he does.
 
I guess of the ones listed on the poll I would choose Frank Welker.

Seth McFarlane, can do a lot voices too, I still can't believe he's the voice of Stewie, Peter, Bryan, Quagmire, and so many others on that show, but really those four sound nothing alike at all.

I don't think I would call Tom Kenny a "man of a thousand voices", while he does do a few different voices I can always tell that its him, I just don't think his range is really that big.

I love Jim Cummings, the man can do a lot of different voices. Tigger, Pooh, Darkwing, and Pete sound nothing alike. But he also has a few where you can usually tell thats its him.

But then again I can usually tell which voice actor is doing that voice just by listening to the voice and how they speak. I kinda have an ear for it I guess.
 
I voted for Billy West, but I meant to vote for Frank Welker. My bad.:sweat: Welker is amazing in terms of his vocal range. The fact he plays Fred and Megatron, two characters who could not be more different is amazing. But, I do agree that Jim Cummings should be here.
 
Frank Welker, because, in all honesty, he's in so many things that I think it would be easier to list the things he didn't appear in. The fact that studios mostly hire him to do animal voices does speak volumes of how much he's used, along with a clip that I saw from Manny the Uncanny, where Welker was standing outside a monkey cage, did the monkey calls he used for Abu, and the monkeys behind the cage were reacting to it.
 
If the pole were widened, it would have to be a toss-up, between Frank Welker and Jim Cummings. Now, for all the cartoon characters that Mel Blanc has voiced, Frank Welker as both Barney Rubble and Dino, Jim Cummings as Taz, but for the others, Jeff Bergman(he's recently returned to voice Bugs Bunny) Joe Alaskey and Billy West alternate for many of the Looney Tunes characters, Bob Bergen as Porky Pig and might was well include both Bill Farmer and Tom Kenny, too. Truthfully speaking, voicing many of the cartoon characters that Mel Blanc made fanous, is really a complex process, no matter who's currently voicing them.
 
Part of what made Mel Blanc, Mel Blanc was his incredible ability to voice multiple characters and every kind of character. It's hard to come by that level of acting accompanied by such voice differentiation.

While Frank Welker is the king of voice acting and has been for years. I would argue Billy West and Jim Cummings are more akin to modern contemporaries of Mel Blanc than Frank Welker is.

Aside from his vast array of animal sounds (which is an amazing talent in of itself) and being able to play polar opposites such as a young Fred Jones and gravely old Megatron or Dr. Claw / Soundwave. I can generally guess when I'm hearing Frank Welker talking to himself. I think someone who has never heard Frank Welker (if that were even possible) and heard him voice two characters in the same scene that are in roughly the same range then they'd be able to hear it's the same guy as both characters. Frank has a few go-to voices for nearly every voice he does in cartoons other than Fred. That sort of adult gentleman tone and his villainous rasp and the occasional goofy stupid guy voice like Runt. He can modify those voices to suit different characters personalities and throw on accents but he has very distinct tones in my opinion.

Not to say Jim Cummings and Billy West don't have their go-to voices as well. They certainly do but for one thing, could a new viewer guess West was voicing Fry, The Professor, Zaff Branigan and Zoidberg in any given episode of Futurama? How about Jim Cummings when he's voicing multiple Disney characters in the same scene? I might even argue John Demaggio but you can usually tell when it's him. Maurice LaMarche is another incredibly talented voice actor who can do an astounding array of voices.

Nobody can voice as many characters as Mel could. They don't hire one actor to voice every Looney Tune and haven't for years but I think in any given cartoon Cummings, West or LaMarche could offer a larger array of distinct voices than Welker today. Welker is no less incredible however.
 
Which Chapman brother does the Homestar voices? I would put my vote on him.

About 85% of the voices he does sound so different from each other, it always comes as a shock to me that someone who hasn't done any previous voice acting work managed to accomplish such a feat.

Has he had voice acting work in the past? I don't think he did.
 
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