This guy has a really good voice for animation, and I've seen it a few times, but I think it's still sorely underused.
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| Christian Slater Image by Siebbi, found on Wikimedia Commons (License) |
I think most of us have seen Christian Slater in something. He's been in live-action movies and TV since the late 1970s. Modern audiences probably know him best from having appeared on Mr. Robot with Rami Malek. One of the first things I saw him in was the Kevin Costner movie, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, in which he played Will Scarlett. But I first started paying attention to him in high school, when I saw the Young Guns movies. Slater appeared in Young Guns II as "Arkansas" Dave Rudabaugh, one of the newest additions to Billy the Kid's Regulators. At the time, I found that Slater actually had an interesting voice.
After that, I saw the movie Broken Arrow, where Slater took more focus as he played the main character, opposite acting legend John Travolta. In his role as United States Air Force Captain Riley Hale, Slater brought a certain swagger and joie de vivre, which I've come to view as something of a Christian Slater trademark. What I needed to be reminded of, however, courtesy of my mother, is that I actually had heard Slater in something when I was much younger. He played a fairy named Pips in the movie FernGully, which also featured Samantha Mathis, Robin Williams and Tim Curry. I can't say I remember much about the character Slater played in here, other than that he was a bit of a hothead. But I felt that his voice suited the character because of it.
I think exactly the second time I heard Christian Slater's voice in animation was when he showed up in Season 5 of Archer, or, as fans like to call it, Archer Vice. He played a mysterious character known only as "Slater." I think this character might have just been a fictionalized version of Slater himself, though we're never really given any background about the character beyond the name. Personally, I like to think of Slater as what the hero of the show, Sterling Archer, would be like if he actually took his job somewhat seriously and was actually as good at it as he thinks he is. Archer himself is an enjoyable character for just...a number of reasons, but the times that Slater appears, he tends to be hilarious. One instance I enjoyed is when he got annoyed with Archer one too many times and decided to waterboard him.
Slater also voiced a character on a Rick and Morty episode that can only be described as a mockery of the "superhero" genre. In the episode, Rick and Morty team up with a team of galactic peacekeepers known as the Vindicators - an obvious parody of the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and to a certain degree, the Justice League. Slater's character was a character known as "Vance Maximus: Renegade Star Soldier," one of the only human members of the team, and most likely a reference to Guardians member Peter Quill, AKA Star-Lord, and to a lesser extent, Tony Stark/Iron Man. This was another character Slater's voice was perfect for, as the whole point of the character seemed to be just looking and sounding cool.
Wikipedia lists a few other roles for Slater calls his voice over career "extensive." I would have to say that Slater has done a fair amount of voice work, but I think he could stand to do more. Of his other roles, I'm really only familiar with him being the voice of Floyd Lawton, AKA Deadshot on the direct-to-video DC Animated Movie Universe film, Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay. And even that one, I haven't seen all the way through as of yet, though I definitely plan to check it out someday. As such, I really only know of his performance through YouTube clips. But from watching them, I can say little but the fact that Slater did a good job voicing the character, delivering the lines with the same attitude you'd expect from Lawton.
Beyond that, it seems Slater was also the voice of Moses in a 2007 animated movie of The Ten Commandments, one of the a scientists' assistants on Igor, and the narrator for two separate documentary series - Dinosaur Planet on the Discovery Channel and the second season of Prehistoric Planet.
As I mentioned previously, I do think that Slater could do a bit more voice work. It cannot be denied that Slater has a good voice for animation that brings life to some pretty cool characters. I would love to see Slater play a straight-up villain. Maybe not a supervillain, but maybe he could be some kind of enforcer for the main villain of a show. You might say that he's already played a villain, having played Deadshot, but I think it would be interesting to hear Slater play a character that is still enjoyable as a villain, but less sympathetic. Other than that, I'd say more anti-heroes for Mr. Slater.
FernGully: The Last Rainforest is available for rent on Vudu, Fandango Now, Google Play, Apple TV, Redbox, and Amazon Prime Video.
Rick and Morty, and Archer are both available for streaming with a Hulu membership.
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