Greatest Performances in Animation

I'm very certain that we do not have a thread for this, so I decided to start it.

So - what do you think is the greatest performance ever given by an actor in animation? Did any particular acting job ever move you, make you laugh, anything, more than any other?

I personally think that the two greatest performances in animation are Mel Blanc as Dan Backslide in "The Dover Boys" and Charlie Adler as the Red Guy in Cow And Chicken. Both are some of the greatest comedic characters ever created for animation, getting deep, hilarious laughter just through the way they speak.

edited 24th Jan '15 7:15:44 PM by Aldo930

let's get this one out of the way early: Kevin Conroy's performance as Batman in Batman The Animated Series solidified him as the voice of the Dark Knight for an entire generation of kids. that's gotta mean something, right?

i also second Mel Blanc. the man had range like you wouldn't believe; very rarely did any of the Looney Tunes sound similar.

Ditto on Mel Blanc. That man had real talent in whatever medium he was in. Tortoise wins By a Hare was easily on of his best performances for Bugs.

I don't think that I'm going to see many modern cartoons in this post..

edited 24th Jan '15 7:51:54 PM by Teddy

I have a lot of runner-ups in the list of greatest animated performances (John Kricfalusi as Ren, Richard Steven Horvitz as Billy, Rick Jones and Mark Camacho as Kaput and Zösky, and Billy Bletcher in Pigs Is Pigs), but none more so than Eddie Bracken in the 1971 film Shinbone Alley. Listen to how well he sells Archy the cockroach's rant/speech:

(In fact there are a lot of good performances in that film. Carol Channing is terrific as Mehitabel the cat, and John Carradine sings and it's leagues ahead of "Night Train to Mundo Fine.")

edited 1st Feb '15 6:03:44 PM by Aldo930

the art style looks cool. Kinda like Fritz the Cat but, sketcher.

It really reminds me of a De Patie-Freleng cartoon. The character designs wouldn't be out of place in a Pink Panther cartoon.

For me, it was a scene by Michael Bell, in Smurfs, which is odd to me, because I'm a huge Voltron fan, but this is the one that hit home. The ep where Baby Smurf arrives, Bell as Grouchy does his usual bluster but ends up loving the baby more than any of them. Then, the powers that sent the baby decide it was all a mistake and send the stork to take it back. Grouchy runs off with Baby and tries his damndest to take care of it, but the regular needs of a crying baby, himself and a storm conspire to have him crawling back to the village in shame and tears, telling Papa Smurf "I Hate Giving Up!"

What I thought was terrific, besides Bell's performance, was how the scene showed that when trying to care for a baby, love alone just isn't enough. Not a scene or a lesson you'd think of when you think of Smurfs, but Bell nails it.

Bell also gets my best Hey Its That Guy moment for an appearance on MASH as a war souvenir salesman whose business ends up getting the kids who gather the material for him wounded.

Robin Williams as the Genie from Aladdin. No doubt about it.

Elizabeth Hartman as Mrs.Brisbee in the Secret of NIMH. It was a very subtle and nuanced performance. She was able to get across worlds of emotion with lines of only a few words.

Jeremy Irons as Scar in The Lion King has struck me as an impressive performance since I was a kid. He cycles from being snarky and somewhat troublesome to terrifyingly evil. There's a nice balance too between villainous immaturity and that graceful British sophistication.

James Woods as Hades in Hercules is also up there, for quite literally defining the entire character from his audition onward, and as a result, defining the tone of the film in general (for better or for worse).

edited 1st Feb '15 6:00:34 PM by HisInfernalMajesty

The climax scene of Pinky And The Brain Christmas Special stands out, since it takes two blatantly comedic voice roles (one being a Simpleton Voice while another being a celebrity impersonation) and puts heartbreaking emotion to it. I think there's actually more poignancy in making incredibly clownish characters sentimental. Most of it is La Marche's Brain reading Pinky's sentiments, though the latter's tearful breakdown is still pretty touching for the character's usual shtick.

Allegedly La Marche was in tears after he finished reading this scene. How appropriate.

In fact Jerkass Realization/My God, What Have I Done? scenes as a whole tend to get to me the most. Remorse is a very powerful and cathartic emotion when done sincerely enough. Even Elmer crying over (seemingly) killing Bugs in 'A Wild Hare' and 'What's Opera Doc?' makes feel sorry for him.

Donald story in Mickeys Once Upon A Christmas too. After an especially destructive and mean spirited prank from the triplets, they expect one of Donald's usual tantrums, only to see him slumped on the ground, very silent and still with a miserable look on his face. Considering how many spats they had in the shorts this was an effective line established, as the three realised they had gone so far as to actually break Donald, when he was just trying to give everyone a nice Christmas no less.

While it's a more subtle case, the scene in "Lisa's Pony" where Homer watches home videos of Lisa as a baby, and then is left in tears when he realises he completely ignored her also stands out ("Ooohh, I never even noticed she was alive!"). The bit where he can only mimic baby Lisa's disappointed grunt at failing to get her father's attention stood out, there's something effective when he mirrors his kids' behaviour, while it's often just to show his stupidity, it sometimes shows how he connects to them in some way.

edited 1st Feb '15 7:39:23 PM by Psi001

Robin Williams as the Genie in "Friend Like Me" from Aladdin.

I love Richard Steven Horvitz.My favorite role of his is tied between Dag,Raz and Zim.He does a great job at sounding like a complete and utter maniac.Well,excluding Raz who has a great snarky,sane voice.

Justin Roliand Is also up there in my faves.He's great at doing really wimpy,nerdy guy voices.And improvising stuff on the fly.

Ooo,and Alex Hirsh.Hirsh's voice can be so distinct in GF that its a little hard to tell that he voices several major characters in the show,along with other,smaller roles.

For playing such goofy characters,Tom Kenny and Jeremy Shada do a great job at doing dramatic roles in Adventure time.

Speaking of Tom Kenny,his performance as that creepy bastard King Jellybean in Rick and Morty was excellent.I was surprised to see Tom make a character who sounds similar to his Magic Man voice managed to be so damn creepy.