Review: I Know That Voice

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If you’ve ever watched an animated program in your life, you must see I Know That Voice. (The link takes you to the webpage where you can rent it, buy it, or just video stream it.)

This documentary was one of many videos I watched with Amazon Prime Video Streaming while recovering from my little bit of surgery. I Know That Voice was absolutely delightful.

Although I was a big audiobook fan, I never really thought about the skill and talent required for voice over work until my novels started being produced as audiobooks.

I’ve worked with some amazing voice talents like Holly Adams, Nicole Colburn, Felicia Greenfield, Leah Frederick, Christine Padovan, and Robin Kohn Glazer. (You can find my audibooks on Audible.com and iTunes. Just do a search for my name.)

With my consciousness raised, I was particularly interested in watching I Know That Voice. I wasn’t disappointed.

Starring A Cast of 1,000 Voices

John DiMaggio, the voice of Futurama, served as Executive Producer with Director Lawrence Shapiro and Producer Tommy Reid. They introduce you to the people behind the well-known voices and guide you through the fascinating world of voice acting.

The documentary is entertaining to the max when you see these ordinary looking people speaking in the voices we’ve come to know and love in cartoons, animated movies, and video games. Also interviewed are voice agents, casting directors, and producers. All the voice actors featured seem to be one big family with all of them knowing, liking, and admiring each other.

When these actors attend Comic Con’s , they’re treated like the amazing talents they are. Watching this made me more determined than ever to find the time to attend a Comic Con which has been on my goal list for a few years now.

I want to list some of these amazing actors in I Know That Voice and give a few of their credits that will probably be known by most readers even if you’re not into video games, anime, or current cartoon shows. There are so many awesome actors in this documentary that I’m afraid I may leave some out even though I tried to take notes as I watched.

Hank Azaria (multiple Simpson voices)

Diedrich Bader (Tank, Batman, KungFu Panda, Green Lantern)

Gregg Berger (Garfield, Transformers, and more)

Noel Blanc (Mel Blanc’s son who now voices Bugs and the other characters)

Steve Blum (lots of video game roles and English dubs of anime, Spike Spiegel in Cowboy Bebop, Marvel’s Wolverine, and Starscream in Transformers: Prime)

Clancy Brown (Green Lantern, Transformers, Superman, Sponge Bob)

Corey Burton (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, various Disney and Cartoon Network productions)

Nancy Cartwright (best known for the smart ass voice of Bart Simpson)

Kevin Conroy (best know for the voice of Batman for 20 years)

Jim Cummings (Animaniacs, Winnie the Pooh, the Lion King, etc.)

Grey DeLisle (Fairly Odd Parents, Scooby-Doo)

Bill Farmer (the voice of Goofy since 1986)

June Foray (Granny and Witch Hazel on Looney Tunes, Rocky as well as Natasha on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. June is in her 90′s and still working. She won her first Emmy at 95.)

Mark Hamill (the original Luke Skywalker is a veteran voice actor. He is The Joker in Batman: The Animated Series, as well as the spin-offs, The Hobgoblin in Spiderman: The Animated Series, Solomon Grundy and the Trickster from Justice League, Firelord Ozai on Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Skeleton King on Super Robot Monkey, and more)

Tom Kane (Powerpuff Girls, Monkey Fist from Kim Possible, Yoda from The Clone Wars, X-Men, Takeo in Call of Duty: World at War and Black Ops)

David Kaye (Megatron, Optimus Prime, and others)

Josh Keaton (Spiderman in Spectacular Spider-man series, Jack Darby in Transformers: Prime, Green Lantern: The Animated Series)

Tom Kenny (Spyro, Adventure Time Super Robot Monkey, and more)

Maurice LaMarche (Chief Quimby from Inspector Gadget, Egon Spengler from The Real Ghostbusters and Extreme Ghostbusters, The Brain from Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain, Calculon on Futurama)

Phil LaMarr (Green Lantern, Samurai Jack, Vamp in Metal Gear Solid 2, Hermes Conrad on Futurama, Ollie Williams and various on Family Guy and more)

Rachael MacFarlane (Hayley Smith on American Dad and various other characters on Family Guy)

Jason Marsden (Tino on The Weekenders, Gear on Static Shock, Red Star and Billy Numerous on Teen Titans and Chase Young on Xiaolin Showdown among others)

Laraine Newman (of the original SNL cast has voiced many characters for many shows such as Rugrats, The Flintstones, Avatar: The Last Airbender, WALL-E, Battle for Terra, Cars, Up!, Finding Nemo, Monsters, Inc., Barnyard, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Happily N’Ever After, Horton Hears a Who!, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, and Wreck-It Ralph, and more)

Daran Norris (Vincent Volaju in Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, Fairly OddParents, The Chief on T.U.F.F. Puppy)

Nolan North (Nathan Drake in the Uncharted series)

Colleen O’Shaughnessey (Sora Takenouchi in Digimon, Wasp in The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes)

Gary Owens (of Laugh-In fame also voiced Roger Ramjet, Space Ghost, Powdered Toast Man in Ren and Stimpy, and Blue Falcon in Dynomutt, Dog Wonder)

Rob Paulsen (Raphael from the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Antoine from the 1993 Sonic the Hedgehog, Yakko from Animaniacs, Pinky from Pinky and the Brain, Carl in The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius)

Marian Ross, (veteran actress who is now Sponge Bob’s grandmother)

Tara Strong (Hello Kitty, Ghostbusters, Dil Pickles from Rugrats, Timmy Turner and Poof from The Fairly OddParents, Bubbles from The Powerpuff Girls, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic as Twilight Sparkle)

Billy West (the original voice of Stimpy, later was Ren of Ren and Stimpy, Philip J. Fry and others from Futurama, current voice of several Looney Tunes characters and Woody Woodpecker)

Takeaway Truth

I highly recommend this documentary for its entertainment value as well as the education you’ll received from it. It’s a part of pop culture that we all need to recognize and respect.