About Square chosing "safe" voice actors for AC

[Octo]

Hugh Laurie for Rufus

Now this confuses me, because that would make Tseng Blackadder and Reno would be.......Baldrick?

I thought Quinton Flynn was good, though.

Yeah he was quite good, if a little 'nice' sounding, I guess because he was playing 'metrosexual' pin-up Reno. I think Quinton should have knocked back a few whiskies while doing the VA there....get more of a gritty sleazy edge.

 

[Masamune]

AC didn't need famous film-stars lending their talent to the movie. There are plenty of proper voice-actors who could have made the dubbing 10x better. It falls to the casting director to hire them. He didn't.

It's hard to believe it's a case of being unable to afford Robin Williams, since they replaced him with Dan Castellaneta, and he's held FOX ransom to $400,000 per Simpsons episode. So I don't think he'd come cheap.

 

[DrakeClawfang]

Never heard Andrea Bowen for aerith so I can't judge.

 

[Mariketsu]

While his skill doing Sephiroth was at its peak in Dissidia IMO, I think George Newbern is fine as him. He never raises his tone, never shows any emotion except for unlying arrogance and amusement. It fits Sephiroth, nothing phases him or gets under his skin, he's completely in control of the situation and of himself.

About the only time I remember Sephy getting emotional was during the Nibelheim Incident, and in CC Newbern does it well. He sounds a bit melancholy, almost like he's choking up but is trying to keep it hidden, as he confronts Jenova, and it fits. The earlier incident where he's ranting in the basement, we don't see.

^ Agreed, 9000 times over. Imo, he was great in Crisis Core, Dissidia 2nd. He was kind of weird in KHII and decent in AC/CC. Agreed with you overall .

~ Raz

 

[ForceStealer]

I think Andrea Bowen is better than Mandy Moore. To the inevitable comments that Bowen made Aeris too high and sweet, remember she's like 16 in that scene. Barret is Beau Billingslea, who is a very good voice actor (Jet from Bebop), he could use some better lines, but I like his voicemail in AC. Wally Wingert doesn't blow me away as Rufus or anything, but he's also a talented guy and I like him fine.

And the Spirits Within got big-name actors to...mixed results.

 

[Hisako]

or or or
crazy idea, but

How about Square Enix hires professional voice actors specifically trained for the industry, and keeps one or two Hollywood big names for marketing purposes?

Oh, wait.


Although this doesn't really include The Spirits Within because that was specifically geared towards a big-screen release and thus could probably be excused for hiring a bit of an ensemble cast