The Better Darrin

When an animated film gets adapted into a tv show, The Other Darrin comes into effect when characters who were voiced by celebrities in the film have to be recast. There are times when the replacement voice actor gives a better performance for the character than the original celebrity actor. Can anyone think of examples?

Melissa Sturm As Smurfette in that Smurfs Christmas Carol video. She is not as good as Lucille Bliss from the 80s cartoon but she is WAY better than Katy Perry, that is for sure.

A lot of actors Mel Blanc replaced tend to be the case, most see his renditions of Porky Pig and Henery Hawk as the definitive ones, despite him not originally voicing them. The one exception may be Arthur Q Bryan's Elmer Fudd, which even he admitted he couldn't quite get right.

edited 24th Jan '15 4:55:16 PM by Psi001

Actually, I'm not looking at all replacements who were better, just voice actors filling in for characters who were voiced by celebrities in animated films. Think Disney in the 90s and especially Dreamworks today.

edited 24th Jan '15 5:10:01 PM by DS9guy

I like Matthew Broderick as Simba better than Cam Clarke.

That means you like the original celebrity better than the replacement voice actor. However, this thread is for the exact opposite.

edited 24th Jan '15 5:27:03 PM by DS9guy

I could argue Ed Gilbert made Baloo more his own character than Phil Harris and John Goodman did, who were good but basically just played...Phil Harris and John Goodman.

edited 24th Jan '15 5:30:49 PM by Psi001

I'll have that barley count since Phil was still alive when Tale Spin aired.

Harris was actually supposed to reprise Baloo in the show, but Disney considered his voice too aged (though there seem to be some claims it was more an excuse for salary issues).

His voice didn't sound too bad in Rock A Doodle, which came out the year after the show; it was clearly the salary issues.

edited 24th Jan '15 5:45:26 PM by Aldo930

Exactly. This thread isn't about a new generation of voice actors being handed down a legacy like Jim Cummings voicing Sterling Halloway chraracters but rather it's about them taking over roles from celebrities who can't make commitments to TV cartoons (for one reason or another) and these replacements turn out to be better than the originals.

edited 24th Jan '15 5:57:57 PM by DS9guy

They made the same excuse for Cummings replacing Paul Winchell in The Tigger Movie (granted Winchell similarly passed away shortly after, but it was only a short while after he had done Pooh's Grand Adventure).

How about celebrities replacing other celebrities in voice roles?

It is probably rarer to find a celebrity who outdoes another celebrity in a voice role. (For example, I didn't take to Jeffrey Tambor's King Neptune in the Sponge Bob film; John O'Hurley was King Neptune.)

In fairness it wasn't even the same King Neptune.

I don't see how it wasn't the same King Neptune. Did they retcon that in an episode I never saw?

Dan Aykroyd and Justin Timberlake as Yogi and Boo Boo was a disgrace to the talented Daws Butler and Don Messick.

edited 24th Jan '15 6:28:57 PM by Teddy

True, but Daws Butler and Don Messick weren't celebrities.

Unless you count being a part of the cast on a Stan Freberg record as celebrity.

(At least they made an effort to sound like Yogi and Boo Boo...)

edited 24th Jan '15 6:31:18 PM by Aldo930

They used a different design and from what I saw the personality was somewhat different too. It's like the writing team weren't even aware there was a previous incarnation.

Timberlake at least sounded somewhat like Boo Boo, allegedly he often practiced his vocal cords by imitating him.

edited 24th Jan '15 6:32:01 PM by Psi001

I don't know how, considering that the writing team would have remembered...

Apparently the John O'Hurley King Neptune returned in a later episode anyhow.

I think the thread's format is too narrow and restrictive (the title certainly implies the topic should be wider and more inclusive. As it is, it won't last much because there just aren't enough examples in that vein to last us for long).

Anyway, Lat. Am. dub versions. Disney's Hercules and Tangled used singers for the leads, all of whom did a hideous job (Ricky 'Vida Loca' Martin as Hercules, Puerto Rican Chayanne for Flynn-Eugene). For the Herc TV series and Tangled Forever, they were replaced by much better acting professional dub artists.

I definitely think we should expand the thread's topic...

I have a hard time thinking of V As that take over roles that celebs voice ending up with the VA being the better one.

While I never saw the Aladdin sequels nor played enough of Kingdom Hearts, Dan Castelleneta's Genie sounds similar to Robin Williams's Genie, so probably him. (I heard voice clips from a Kingdom Hearts review I watched a few years ago)

@15:

That's what we're looking for here.

Sorry to say Troper who made the thread,but your idea for the thread is EXTREMELY narrow and its hard to discuss only replaced celebrities.

As much as I liked Robin Wiliiams as the Genie in Aladdin, I must say that, overall, I liked Dan Castallanetta in the TV series better. Also, I can't think of the actors' names who played Batman and the Joker in the most recent Arkham video games, but they do a credible impression of Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill. Also, Billy West manages to sound remarkable like Phil Hartman when he does Zap Brannigan, a role I know was originally intended for Hartman.