Voice Actor of the Week - Rob Paulsen

Time for the Voice Actor of the Week.

Rob Paulsen
Image by 5of7, found on flickr.com

I can just about guarantee you've heard this guy in something. Rob Paulsen has been acting in animation since the late 1970s. Some of the things I remember him for are Animaniacs, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Darkwing Duck, Goof Troop, Pinky and the Brain, Loonatics Unleashed, and Lilo & Stitch: The Series. He also used to do Honda commercials as "Mr. Opportunity."

It's hard to describe Paulsen's range, though it's an impressive one. He has a delivery that is perfect for "wise guy" types of characters. This, combined with his natural mid-range voice, tends to be played for comedy. This alone gives him a wide variety of characters that he can and has played successfully, from rude hotheads like Raphael from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to silly dunderheads like Pinky from Pinky and the Brain. These tendencies also made his performance as Yakko Warner on Animaniacs more enjoyable.

Raphael from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987)
Image by Fred Wolf, found on fi.wikipedia.org

Though some of you might be used to the newer versions of the character played by Sean Astin, Alan Ritchson, Nolan North or even Greg Abbey, Paulsen is the one who actually originated voice acting for our red-masked, temperamental, sai-wielding ninja turtle, Raphael, voicing the character from 1987 to 1996 - almost a decade. Anyone familiar with Ninja Turtles knows that out of the four, Raphael was the most abrasive - the hardest to get along with. However, while later versions of the character tended to be aggressive and have a huge chip on their shoulder, Paulsen's Raphael was actually fairly tame. Really, the worst you could really say about this version was that he was rude. A lot of his character was typically making sarcastic quips, which made Paulsen perfect for the role. According to Wikipedia, Paulsen has also said that his voice for Raphael is close to his natural speaking voice. He used a somewhat similar voice when playing the titular hero of Mighty Max.

One of the things I remember Paulsen best for is playing Experiment 625, AKA "Reuben" on Lilo & Stitch: The Series. As his name implies, Reuben is another one of the "Experiments" created by self-proclaimed evil genius Jumba, just like Stitch. In Jumba's own words, Reuben has all the powers of Stitch, but is unfortunately a lazy coward. A running gag in the show and the source of the experiment's name come from his strange obsession with sandwiches. The character always seemed to be eating, making or doing something or other with multiple different kinds of sandwiches. An odd, but interesting thing about the character is that he is one of the only members of his kind to speak perfect English upon introduction.

Paulsen's use of a Brooklyn accent can additionally be found in his portrayals of Steelbeak from Darkwing Duck, and when he played crime boss Salvatore Maroni in Batman: Gotham Knight. It seems to be something of a trademark of his, as the use of the accent seems to...well, accentuate a character's snarky, wise guy tendencies. If Yu-Gi-Oh! ever got some kind of episode that showed the characters a decade or two in the future, I would almost say that Paulsen might make a good replacement for Wayne Grayson as the English dub voice for Joey Wheeler.

When playing Pinky from Pinky and the Brain, Paulsen gave the character an exaggerated Cockney British accent (or as I like to call it, "Mockney") and a heightened voice. Pinky is one of the less intelligent characters played by Paulsen - quite possibly the least intelligent. As such, it seems Paulsen was practically given license to be as silly as possible, and he delivers in spades for that character. 

But Paulsen is surprisingly not limited to those kinds of characters, either. In Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, the Nintendo Gamecube remake of the first Metal Gear Solid game, he was one of the only changes to the cast, replacing Greg Eagles as the mysterious Cyborg Ninja. (Eagles still got to play the DARPA Chief, Donald Anderson.) Paulsen gave the character a raspy voice and really made the character sound like one that had been through God-knows-what. On a side note, the game also utilized fellow Ninja Turtles alumnus Cam Clarke. Clarke had been the voice of Leonardo in Ninja Turtles, and voiced the game's main villain Liquid Snake.

Given a lot of the above performances, I think that Paulsen would make a pretty good contender for the voice of Wade Wilson, AKA Deadpool in some future Marvel franchise. I think that the jokes his characters make are often similar to the kind of humor Deadpool is known for. One of my nicknames for Deadpool is "The Bugs Bunny of Marvel Comics," and I think that Paulsen would be able to bring that out of the Merc with a Mouth.

Paulsen has also demonstrated an impressive singing voice. In the animated movie Batman and Harley Quinn, Paulsen voiced the characters of Max and Min, twin brothers who worked as henchmen to supervillain Harvey Dent, AKA Two-Face. The brothers appeared in the movie at a bar for villains' henchmen, where they sang a duet of "Don't Pull Your Love" by Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds.

According to Wikipedia, Paulsen has been nominated four times for an Annie Award due to his role as Pinky. Of those times, he won the award in 1996, 1997 and 1999. For the same role, he also won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1999.

Paulsen also deserves kudos for kicking stage III throat cancer to the curb. He was diagnosed in 2016, but has since gone into remission and written a memoir about his experiences as a voice actor AND with cancer, titled Voice Lessons: How a Couple of Ninja Turtles, Pinky, and an Animaniac Saved My Life. The book is available in audio format as well, and is praised with testimonials from fellow voice actors Mark Hamill, Kevin Conroy, Nancy Cartwright, Billy West, and even his Pinky and the Brain co-star, Maurice LaMarche!

If you'd like to leave a like or a comment on the original videos, follow the links below:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) - Raphael regains his former personality

Reuben Gets BIG!

Pinky and the Brain being the most iconic duo

Rob Paulsen Don't Pull your Love

You can follow Paulsen himself on Twitter @yakkopinky.

Stitch! The Movie, Lilo & Stitch: The Series, Leroy & Stitch, Darkwing Duck, Goof Troop and A Goofy Movie and its sequels can all be streamed on Disney+.

Paulsen's memoir, Voice Lessons: How a Couple of Ninja Turtles, Pinky, and an Animaniac Saved My Life can be purchased on Amazon.