Playing Against Type / Foreign Dubbing

• The Latin American dub for Bleach has several cases of Playing Against Type. Ichigo is voiced by Kohaku, Kenpachi is Dumbledore, Renji is Vash The Stampede, Mayuri is The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Chizuru is Kodachi Kuno, Byakuya is Roronoa Zoro, Yumichika is Tadao Yokoshima...
  • Imagine Mayuri running down the beach in a red bathing suit or knowing his Kung Fu too. Yeah, Juan Alfonso Carralero is the usual Mexican dub voice for David Hasselhoff and Jackie Chan.
  • Zoro is voiced by Gabriel Basurto and Bykuya is actually Christian Strempler. And Aloof Older Brother's aren't new to Basurto, his most famous role was Sesshoumaru from Inuyasha. Zoro is the role where he plays against type. And he nailed the role.
  • Chris Strempler is playing against type here to a degree. His most popular roles until then were the Deadpan Snarker Cam Watanabe from Power Rangers Ninja Storm and Shiryu in the TV dub of Saint Seiya the Hades Saga.
  • Ricardo Mendoza is an expert in playing The Lancer or the Number Two (either Hot-Blooded or Deadpan Snarker subtypes). His role in Bleach? Sousuke Aizen. It makes The Reveal so very weird to watch - specially because some fans were betting on him playing Renji instead.
• Portuguese theatre actor, dancer, etc. Henrique Feist has had this at least twice: First, his most famous dub work would be in Dragon Ball, as Goku (as a plus, he voices him both as a kid and a grown-up). Not surprising, since most actors at that time (and some now) originated in such backgrounds. What's more surprising is his role in The Prince of Egypt, as Rameses.
• Dirty-mouthed comic George Carlin played Mr. Conductor in the American version of Thomas & Friends.
  • George occasionally brought this up in his stand-up, including one of his HBO specials, when talking about the problems with kids these days. "This is Mr. Conductor talking! I know what I'm talking about!"
  • Ringo Starr originally had played the same role. Imagine children's surprise upon discovering the Beatles and seeing Mr. Conductor with a band singing about drugs.
  • In the Japanese dub, Yasuhiro Takato, better known for playing Big Guy or Big Bad roles, portrayed the Nice Guy mixed-traffic engine Edward, who is bigger than Thomas, but not as big as Gordon.
• Mexican bass-baritone Gerardo Reyero usually plays The Stoic (Cyclops), the Team Dad (Ukitake), or the Big Bad (Freezer). And then he plays Might Guy. Even better: In the dub of Tokyo Godfathers, he's Hana.
• Maynardo Zavala was a Mexican voice actor typecast as fat old men with deep voices. Then he was Fangface (A teenage werewolf whose human form is skinny).
• Laura Torres, from Mexico, is known for voicing innocent and naive children like Son Goku (and his two kids), Tommy Pickles, and Ralph Wiggum. Then she voiced the all but innocent Shin-chan (Vitello/Phuuz version)... And it's pretty funny. She also voiced Daria and Mai Valentine.
• The Mexican voice actor Jesús Barrero is mainly known for voicing youths like Seiya, Yamcha (first voice), Koji Kabuto, Impmon (and Beelzemon), and even Emperor Kuzco. Then he became the second voice of Peter Griffin. Up until his death, he still voiced immature characters. He also voiced Professor J and Dekim Barton from the Gundam Wing dub.
• Inversely to Barrero above, the late César Arias was mostly known for voicing elderly and wise figures, with one of his most prominent roles being Albus Dumbledore. One of the few exceptions to this was voicing Megrez Delta Alberich in the Asgard saga, who was a young Evil Genius.
• Rossy Aguirre is best known for voicing either young, pre-teen boys or tomboyish girls. One of her most famous anime roles however is Ami Mizuno/Sailor Mercury in Sailor Moon, who is feminine and soft-spoken, a stark contrast to her usual roles for females.
• Although said characters are actually in line with his regular typecasting, it's still uncanny to hear characters speaking with Ed Asner's voice in Lucio Fulci gore films.
• The Italian dubber of Scar was Tullio Solenghi, a comedian who usually plays light and sympathetic roles.
• The late Lydia Simoneschi was an Italian actress who voiced many characters of old Disney movies. She almost always voiced good-hearted characters, especially fairies (Blue Fairy, fairy Flora, and the Fairy Godmother of Cinderella, as well as Bambi's mother). Then she voiced the comically evil Madam Mim.
• Due to his high-pitched voice, Italian actor Davide Garbolino is typecast as kids and/or talking animals. Somehow he was also Adult Gohan and Shinichi Kudo.
• Italian actress Patrizia Scianca is often known for voicing little boys such as Suneo or Kid Goku, Kid Gohan and Kid Goten or silly female roles like Arale. But she also occasionally voiced aloof women like Nico Robin and Sailor Neptune.
• Danish actor Mathias Klenske is usually type-cast as teenage heroes such as Ash. Then he became Chris McLean.
• In Brazil, Fábio Lucindo usually voices teenage heroes (i.e. Ash and Shinji Ikari). Then he became Red Mist.
• Brazilian dubber Márcio Seixas has a baritone which landed him the roles of James Bond, Batman, and Clint Eastwood. He was also the voice of Leslie Nielsen, changing the delivery to become a Simpleton Voice (he also reused that voice as Baloo from TaleSpin).
• Similarly, another Brazilian voice actor, José Santanna, tends to use his natural, low-pitch voice for most of the characters he voices, like Chuck Norris in Walker, Texas Ranger, Meteor Man in The Galaxy Trio and Derek Powers in Batman Beyond. But, in The Transformers, he used a high-pitched intonation for Starscream, being faithful to Chris Latta's rendition. It worked amazingly well.
• German dubber Hannes Maurer is usually typecast as sweet little boys such as Spike. Somehow he became Red Mist, who is anything but sweet.
• Hungarian voice actor Csongor Szalay usually voices children or teen heroes. Then he became Gaara.
• Mario Scarabelli is an Italian voice actor with a rough voice, usually voicing either old or grumpy characters, like Squidward or Muten Roshi. For some reason he also voiced Cheetor and Big Macintosh.
• In Hungary, Janka Solecki voices villainous women such as Josee, Lust, and Azula. However, one of her roles where she didn't portray a villain, was Applejack.
  • This is reversed in Poland, where Monika Pikula voices nice ladies, such as Anne Maria, Sam Manson, and Sandy Cheeks. However, she voiced Azula, who wasn't nice.
• Hungarian dubber Szabolcs Palmai is usually typecast as teenagers or Adorkable characters. Vicious is how brutally he played against type.
  • Likewise, Tamas Markovics is usually cast as disliked characters, Butt Monkeys, Jerkasses or Adorkable characters. Lion-O is neither.
• Polish actress Ewa Smolinska is known in her few voice acting roles as a number of Hot Witch characters such as Maleficent (replacing notable actress Zofia Mrozowska), Mala, Lady Bane and Marzipan, and Mirage. She is also notable for being one of the female voices of Lampy.
• Ruben Cerda is a Mexican comedian that have dubbed a lot of big and good guys, and his two most known roles in dubbing are Mickey Mouse and Barney. Then he gave voice to the big, but not so good Oogie Boogie.
• French voice actress Sauvane Delanoë is typically heard on the Bratty Half-Pint (Fievel, Skippy Squirrel, Ben Tennyson) or the Plucky Girl (Cera, Blossom). So knowing she's part of the cast of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann which got its share of both, you would be forgiven to expect her to get one of these parts... instead of Ax-Crazy Baroness Adiane... and clearly having a hell of a time with all the profanities and funny faces.
• The late French theater comedian Jean Piat, who provided the French voice of Scar and Frollo, two purely evil animated Disney villains, did the French dubbing for the famous Ian McKellen portrayal of the wise and heroic Gandalf in both The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies, which is pretty uproarious considering the fact that, due to the dubber being in his 70s in the 1990s (born in 1924), his role of Scar was nothing short of Dawson Casting since Scar was supposed to be Mufasa's YOUNGER brother. He would be more suitably elderly for the roles of Frollo and Gandalf.^note Some French Disney fans probably felt Piat was more perfectly cast for Frollo than he was for Scar.
• French-speaking Mauritanian filmmaker Med Hondo, who has been known as the French voice for comic actor Eddie Murphy, did the French voice for the elderly and all-knowing Rafiki in Disney's Lion King franchise, yet by listening to Hondo's voice coming out of Rafiki, he sounded slightly younger than Scar's French dubber.^note Jean Piat (Scar) was born on September 23rd 1924, but Hondo (Rafiki) was born on May 4th 1936, making him 11 years, 7 months and 11 days younger than Piat. It should be acknowledged that, in terms of character design, Rafiki is the movie's wise and elderly character, not Scar. Even though Hondo was the French voice for other animated characters like Yar from Dinosaur and Bloat from Finding Nemo - along with Eddie Murphy's Donkey, making quite jarring that a veteran French dubber would go from voicing a wise, old baboon sage to voicing a fast-talking, simple-minded donkey.
• Japanese seiyuu Takashi Nagasako is best known for voicing The Big Guy characters like Donkey Kong, intimidating villains like Ganondorf, and muscular badasses like Nathaniel "Rock" Adams, but amongst his western dubbed roles are Big Fun ditz Patrick Star, respective Nice Guy and Shrinking Violet Happy and Bashful, Bumbling Dad Dr. Lincoln, and Plucky Comic Relief Grub.
• Yūji Mitsuya, the Japanese voice of comical, sometimes panicky characters like Petrie, Timon and Pleakley, did the Japanese voice of the creepily strict Mad Scientist Dr. Finklestein.
• Greek actor Nikos Pogkas has been the Jerk with a Heart of Gold Fred Flintstone, the Big Fun Tummi and the Faux Affably Evil Chancellor Jafar.
  • Alexis Stavrakis is the opposite: he's been Scar, Governor Ratcliffe, Clayton and Zeus.
• Norwegian actor Even Stormoen has played three pretty dark Disney villains. Scar, Clayton and Judge Claude Frollo, and then he played the Gentle Giant James P. "Sulley" Sullivan.
• Italian voice actor Fabrizio Mazzotta has a very peculiar and recognizable loud voice that is usually cast as goofy/zany/loud-mouthed characters like Krusty the Clown, Pinky, Clumsy Smurf, Belly Bag, and Barry Kripke. But at some point he also voiced the suave, handsome Shutaro Mendo (though, being in a Gag Series, he's still a silly character in his own way).
• Bad papa Fumihiko Tachiki subverts his type in the Japanese dubs of the Guardians of the Galaxy films, in which his character is a space pirate who raised Peter like he was his own son and ultimately proves to be a good father compared to his actual father.
• The Mexican actor Ernesto Lezama is mostly known by voicing comical cartoonish characters, such as Speedy Gonzales, Porky Pig, Filburt,Oolong... And he also voiced Kaworu Nagisa, a completely serious character from Neon Genesis Evangelion.
• Philippe Noiret was a French actor, but he did at least one voice role, that of Draco in the French dub of Dragonheart. While he played in many Period Pieces, Noiret was as stranger as can be to both the Fantasy genre and voice acting.
• Olof Thunberg, a man known for being the ever familiar narrator of the family friendly Bamse animated features would also go on to record narration for H. P. Lovecraft audio books.
• Marlies Somers is a Dutch voice actress who usually voices cute little sweethearted girls, like Bubbles for example. Somehow, when Nelvana made the Dutch dub of The Fairly OddParents! in 2002, they cast her as Vicky, who is anything but sweethearted.

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