Actors You Had No Idea Voiced Famous Animated Characters
Animated projects with star-studded voice casts are par for the course. We see Despicable Me to hear Steve Carell, Incredibles 2 to hear Holly Hunter, and Shark Tale to hear Martin Scorsese. (Actually, if anyone’s watching Shark Tale to hear Martin Scorsese, their life is not going so good, fella.) But there are still many surprising voice actors. I mean famous people hiding within many of the cartoons and animated films you’ve loved for years and years.
In other words, some of your favorite actors have also played your favorite cartoon characters. And you never even knew it. But now you will.
Susan Sarandon – Granny Rags, Dishonored
Beyond her many acclaimed acting roles, Susan Sarandon is quite the eclectic person. Thus, her choice to voice a villain in a violent video game shouldn’t be surprising. But this is more than a bit of novelty for Sarandon.
She imbues Granny Rags, a selfish monster from Dishonored, with emotional commitment and shades of performance you don’t typically find in a video game.
Jane Lynch – Joan Jameson, The Spectacular Spider-Man
[dx_custom_adunit desktop_id=”RTK_K67O” mobile_id=”RTK_5yk0″]
Before blowing us away with her gruff voice work in Wreck-It Ralph, Jane Lynch tested her vocal cords in a brief role in The Spectacular Spider-Man. She plays Joan Jameson, wife of J. Jonah “Pictures Of Spider-Man!” Jameson. And she proves herself to be the one person who can deflate the typically agitated newspaper editor.
Liam Neeson – James, Fallout 3
You don’t just play a Fallout game. You absorb it, every nook and cranny. Thus, it helps to have the sonorous, Irish tones of Liam Neeson accompany your journey. Neeson plays your character’s disapproving father, scolding you at every turn.
It’s no small feat that he succeeds in making us feel genuinely ashamed for our actions, especially in a medium not usually known for caring about consequences.
Whoopi Goldberg – Gaia, Captain Planet and the Planeteers
Captain Planet was a surprisingly star-studded series, featuring performances from Meg Ryan, Jeff Goldblum, Martin Sheen, Sting, LeVar Burton, and Ed Asner. Yet Whoopi Goldberg, playing the embodiment of the Earth herself, makes the biggest impression.
Her performance of Gaia is soft and strong, inspiring without being patronizing.