Welcome to Voices Carry, where you can find information about your favorite voices in entertainment. Read bios, see pictures, watch videos and hear samples of the men and women behind the microphones who put forth their best efforts to bring you enjoyable, unforgettable characters.
I could not believe this guy, of all people, would warrant a "Keep it Comin'!" post.
Most would recognize Eddie Murphy for his work on live-action movies. Action, comedy, romance, drama - Murphy has practically done it all. He's also stacked up an impressive list of people he's appeared onscreen with, as allies and enemies. His co-stars have included the likes of Judge Reinhold, Charles Dance, Nick Nolte, James Hong, Owen Wilson, Ben Stiller, Dan Aykroyd and Grace Jones.
Mushu from Mulan
Murphy has also become pretty recognizable in voice roles over the years, starting off with the Disney movie Mulan as the voice of our favorite dragon guardian, Mushu. However, he's probably much more recognizable at this point for his role in the Shrek movies, as Donkey, the "noble steed" (read: "best friend") of the titular ogre.
While he unfortunately only voiced Mushu once - in the first movie, Murphy repeatedly voiced Donkey in the various Shrek movies and several different Shrek supplementary pieces, including the Shrek 4-D theme park ride at Universal Studios. All in all, Donkey is probably Murphy's most recognizable role to date.
Donkey from Shrek
But would you believe that apart from Mushu and Donkey, Murphy has done little other voice work? According to Wikipedia, the only other role he's had was that of Thurgood Stubbs from the 1999 cartoon The PJs.
Though I can't speak for Stubbs, I do have to say that for the roles of Mushu and Donkey, the characters were basically Eddie Murphy if he was animated. Murphy brought much of the same things to his voice performances as he did for his live action roles. While it was obviously made family friendly (or as close as possible in the case of Shrek), Murphy used the same kind of humor and jokes that he's known for in real life, seasoned with that classic Eddie Murphy-style delivery. If you've seen The Nutty Professor or Daddy Day Care, you know what I'm talking about.
That's not to say that his performances weren't good. I just noticed similarities. Murphy was still able to convey two vastly different characters with his performances, even if they did have quite a few of the same mannerisms. With Mushu, you had a disgraced former guardian spirit who elected to help the hero with the selfish end goal of helping himself get back to his place of honor and respect. But Mushu developed into a very good friend after some time and was able to fulfill his original goal in so doing. With Donkey, you had a fast-talking, happy-go-lucky animal who just wants to be friends. While very little development was needed for the "miniature beast of burden" who serves as Shrek's sidekick, the end result is the same: a character who the hero can depend on in the toughest of times.
I think Murphy should do more voice work. He could do more characters like this and I would be fine with it. But I think a little variety couldn't hurt either. As we can see from Mulan and the Shrek movies, Murphy obviously does great in sidekick roles, and very often the kind of sidekick we need is one who can make us laugh. Or at least make our audience laugh. Just ask Geralt of Rivia on Netflix's The Witcher. But Murphy also did great in roles where he was the main character in live-action films, with roles like Axel Foley on Beverly Hills Cop, or Chandler Jarrell on The Golden Child. Murphy's Doctor Dolittle even showed us that he can do a good (relatively) straight man role when he needs to. So, perhaps Murphy could even play the main character in some sort of future animated feature. Maybe even as an animated Jarrell-type.
Whatever the case, Murphy needs to do more voice work. He's hilarious and obviously has the chops. He just needs the right feature.
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I feel I'd be doing a disservice if I didn't do a spot on one of our most beloved comic book heroes.
Batman. The Dark Knight. The Caped Crusader. The World's Greatest Detective.
We all know the story.
As a child, Bruce Wayne was orphaned when his parents, Thomas and Martha Wayne, were murdered for their wallets and jewelry. The loss of his parents so deeply affected Bruce that he embarked on a lifelong crusade against injustice, protecting the innocent from the tragedy that befell him. The buildup varies by continuity, but ultimately, Bruce took up training in multiple different martial arts, fashioned himself multiple impressive pieces of technology for fighting crime, and custom-designed his own costume and became the famous costumed hero known as Batman, the dark-cowled guardian of Gotham City, striking fear into the hearts of the city's criminals.
As a superhero, Batman has a very impressive skillset. As previously stated, he is well-versed in multiple martial arts, is in peak physical condition, has a genius-level intellect, is renowned as the world's greatest detective, has created and uses numerous special gadgets for crimefighting, and is a master tactician and strategist.
Batman's most recognizable creations include the famous Batarang - bat-shaped throwing weapons, the Batmobile - the ultimate tricked-out ride, the Batplane, and the Batcomputer. Personally, one of my favorites is a gadget I saw in Batman Begins, the first of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy. The gadget in question is a sonic transmitter that can be used to summon a massive swarm of bats to strike at foes with their own primal fear. All these impressive pieces of equipment make Batman the veritable James Bond of the DC Comics Universe.
However, even without all of that impressive equipment, Batman's abilities are nothing to scoff at. He once successfully escaped being held captive by a group including Lex Luthor, Ultra Humanite, Solomon Grundy, Cheetah, Copperhead, and the Joker all at once. He also created contingency plans for if the various members of the Justice League went rogue, and was instrumental in stopping them coming to fruition when they were discovered by the Legion of Doom. Another one of his most impressive feats was when he successfully evaded the alien supervillain Darkseid's "omega beams."
What a lot of people may not realize is that while Bruce Wayne was the first and most recognizable, he was not the ONLY Batman. There have been multiple times throughout his history in which his place under the cowl had to be supplanted; in other words, Wayne has had to let someone take over either temporarily, or permanently depending on the work. And there have even been some continuities in which he never became Batman in the first place.
Terry McGinnis, protagonist of Batman Beyond
In the Batman Beyond cartoon and works related to it, an aged and more or less permanently retired Bruce Wayne passed on his mantle to the young Terry McGinnis, and acted as his support in the field from the Batcave, ever present beneath his ancestral home at Wayne Manor.
Thomas Wayne as Batman in Flashpoint
In a story known as The Flashpoint Paradox, fellow superhero and Justice League member Barry Allen, AKA The Flash, ran back in time using his super speed in order to undo a personal tragedy. But in so doing, the Flash created an alternate timeline in which rather than his parents, Bruce was the one who was killed. The tragedy drove Bruce's father Thomas to take on a much more violent crusade against injustice as an alternate version of Batman, and Thomas's wife Martha to succumb to insanity and eventually become the Joker.
John-Paul Valley's mechanized Batsuit
And of course, quite possibly the most famous example of Batman's mantle being otherwise occupied is when Wayne's back was broken by his enemy Bane, and was temporarily taken out of commission. During that time, the mantle is taken up by the assassin Jean-Paul Valley, a vigilante who normally went by the moniker, Azrael. As Batman, Valley donned a mechanized Batsuit much like the one he uses as Azrael.
In terms of foes, Batman has one of the most extensive enemy lists or "Rogues Galleries" in all of comic book history. To give you some idea, Batman's enemies include famous villains like the Joker, the Penguin, Mr. Freeze, Catwoman, the Riddler, Two-Face, Poison Ivy and Bane. But Batman's exploits also include tangles with people either not so well known by non-comic fans, or not so often thought of as Batman villains - people like Maximillian Zeus, Deathstroke, Solomon Grundy, Prometheus, Victor Zsasz, Firefly and the Red Hood.
As Bruce Wayne, Batman's role has been performed by numerous actors in movies, television, animation and even video games. He has been played most famously by Kevin Conroy, who played him in the DC Animated Universe - DCAU - which included Batman-exclusive shows such as Batman: The Animated Series, The New Batman Adventures, shows with different protagonists like Static Shock and Superman: The Animated Series, and of course the final shows of the continuity which featured multiple DC superheroes, Justice League and Justice League: Unlimited.
Conroy went on to reprise his role for several other projects outside of the DCAU for movies, cartoon shorts and video games. He played Wayne's Batman in all of the Batman: Arkham video games apart from one - Batman: Arkham Origins. He has also done so in the animated series, Justice LeagueAction and some of the Justice League direct-to-video animated movies like Justice League: Doom, and Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox. Conroy's portrayal tends to come off as the most aggressive, but also one of the most heartfelt. His low voice was effective in conveying Batman's emotions. While he made Batman sound all business most of the time, the depth of his voice could also convey feelings of sadness, smugness, and even flirtatiousness at times.
For most, Conroy is to Batman what Mark Hamill is to the Joker - i.e., the best. And even if they are wrong, I don't think it's unfair to think of Conroy as something of a measure by which all vocal portrayals of Batman are compared. However, Batman has been portrayed effectively - as Bruce Wayne and as Wayne's replacements - by Diedrich Bader, Roger Craig Smith, Bruce Greenwood, Will Arnett, Rino Romano, Will Friedle, Jason O'Mara.
Bruce Greenwood portrayed Batman in the Young Justice animated series. To my ear, Greenwood came fairly close to the register of Conroy in his performance. However, at the same time, I also found Greenwood's performance to be somewhat subdued by comparison. He hardly ever raised his voice, and had many moments where he was the most reasonable person in the room.
Roger Craig Smith took over as Batman temporarily for the video game, Batman: Arkham Origins. While I don't necessarily think that Smith was trying to copy Conroy by any means, I do think he came very close to the same tone and depth as Conroy has when portraying the character. I felt that his portrayal was nearly perfect, much like his co-star Troy Baker's portrayal of the Joker in Mark Hamill's absence. I can't help but wonder if his performance was at all helped by all his time spent as Ezio in the Assassin's Creed series.
Bet you never thought that Batman and Ron Stoppable from the Kim Possible animated series could ever even be put in the same sentence. I admit, it was a surprise to me, too. Ron's voice actor, Will Friedle played high school student Terry McGinnis, a new incarnation of Batman in lieu of the aged Bruce Wayne on Batman Beyond. Obviously, with a new secret identity comes a different personality. Where Bruce Wayne would seldom say more than he had to, McGinnis actually liked to talk and even crack wise, both with his friends and his foes. Also, while McGinnis has a more youthful voice than Bruce, he was able to make it sound intimidating whenever he put on the cowl.
In addition to these great performances, you can find Diedrich Bader portraying Batman in the animated series Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and again most recently in the DC Universe streaming service's newest show, Harley Quinn. Jason O'Mara gives a great performance as Batman in such direct-to-video animated movies as Justice League: War, Son of Batman and Justice League Dark. And while it is pretty silly, Will Arnett gives an entertaining performance as Batman in The Lego Movie, and The Lego Batman Movie.
I feel that Batman is a character that will almost always have a high bar for who can portray him in voice, and these performers certainly hold up in the face of such demands.
To see these performances firsthand, you can purchase or view some of these productions on your favorite online stores and streaming services. If you're curious, I'll include a few links to them for you.
In a world of memorable movie trailer voices, you have definitely heard this one before...
Back in the 2000s, Don LaFontaine was known as THE voice when it came to movie trailer voice over. His trademarks as a voice over artist were his deep, bass-y voice, and his tendency to begin trailers with "In a world..."
Back in his heyday, I had heard his voice in a wide variety of trailers, but I only really became familiar with his name when Geico had their ad campaign featuring popular actors and celebrities helping "actual" Geico customers tell their stories, and he was featured.
Don LaFontaine's Geico Commercial:
Over the course of his career, LaFontaine recorded trailers for over 5,000 movies, and the spots he did for television, video games and network promotions number in the hundreds of thousands.
His prolific career earned him several flattering nicknames: "Thunder Throat," "The King of Movie Trailers," and perhaps most audaciously of all, "The Voice of God."
The movie trailers that utilized his voice included Robots, Pokemon: The First Movie, Stuart Little, The Terminator, Die Hard, The Hunt for Red October, Home Alone, Backdraft, Batman Returns, The Mask, Pagemaster, Speed, Rush Hour and Toy Story.
Trailer for The Hunt for Red October, featuring LaFontaine:
LaFontaine passed away after complications from a pneumothorax on September 1, 2008. He had turned 68 years old nearly a week earlier, on August 26. Leading up to that, LaFontaine had been previously hospitalized with a pulmonary embolism.
LaFontaine's career also included working as a recording engineer. A short video about his career can be found on YouTube, with interviews courtesy of LaFontaine himself, Paul Pape, Greg O'Neill and Melissa Disney.
To save everyone some searching, I'll include that video right here:
One unfortunate thing about LaFontaine's passing is that since then, very few movie trailers have had narration of any kind - instead relying on music and dialogue from the movie to illustrate what moviegoers can expect. I don't know about my readers, but I personally think that while no one can replace LaFontaine, it is a pity that we don't have someone new that we can remember as THE voice for movie trailers and look forward to more of their work. Although, Jon Bailey, who we all know from the Honest Trailers YouTube video series comes pretty close in terms of vocal register.
But I think we can all agree that the real pity is not being able to hear his voice in the trailers for all of our favorite movies. Just imagine what some of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movie trailers might have been like with LaFontaine's involvement.
More information about Don LaFontaine's career can be found on his Wikipedia page below.
