Full Series Favorite and least-favorite voice actors in The Clone Wars

I thought this might be an interesting topic.

My favorites:

Corey Burton (Dooku, Ziro, Bane, Tuuk - this guy can do anything! amazing.)
Ventress (the voice is just right IMHO)
Gunray (I like him even better than the movie version, and that's really saying something)

Least favorites:

Palpatine (just doesn't sound right to me, as I've mentioned before - sounds "off" somehow)
Ahsoka (I'm OK with the character, but she sounds like some ordinary teenager to me, which is probably the idea I guess)
Irish lemur guys (they sounded silly)

 

Favorite: Dee Bradley Baker, his work with the clones is just great.

Least favorite: "BJ Hughes", the only guy in the world who doesn't know how to imitate Jar Jar Binks.


Other mentions: James Arnold Taylor does a mean Obi-Wan, but sometimes he gets carried away with the accent and it sounds too obnoxious. Catherine Taber, her Padmé sounds as dull as she's written. Jaime King's Aurra Sing is just awesome.

 

I wouldn't say he was my least favourite, but I hear what you're saying about Ian Abercrombie's Palpatine being a little 'off'.

My favourites:

Corey Burton - He could say anything in Dooku's voice and make it sound evil. He makes great villains.
Dee Bradley Baker - I know a lot of people complain that he doesn't sound exactly like Morrison, but I have to respect the guy for being able to take one 'clone voice' and spin out so many subtle variations to it. A talented man.
James Arnold Taylor - During Season 1 I wasn't a fan of Obi-Wan's voice, but it's grown on me since (possibly because the scripts themselves have improved too). Plus he is Plo Koon, as far as I care.
Olivia d'Abo - Perfect voice for Luminara Unduli.

My least favourites:

Catherine Taber - In fairness, there's nothing wrong with her performance in terms of acting, it's just not that similar to Portman's voice.
And of course, Matthew Wood - He sounds nothing like the film version of Grievous!

A quick shout out for my favourite 'guest star' voice actors would have to be Michael York as Nuvo Vindi and George Takei as Lok Durd - the characters themselves were silly but their voicework was great.

 

Matt Wood is a bit of a mystery. One of the few characters to retain the original voice actor and it seems he quite forgot how to play the character. He's always overdoing it. Grievous used to be cool and menacing, now he just sounds cheesy.

 

James Arnold Taylor does some good work as Obi-Wan and Plo Koon indeed. It helps that they got good writing to define their characters.
Dee Bradley Baker, though, is definitely worth mentioning simply because he can have conversations with himself and make it good. And he's many animals. XD
And I know that his characters don't tend to SAY much, or that they often share the same voice/accent, but I rather like Brian George (Ki-Adi, Katuunko, and Chairman Chi Cho). He seems to add some sense of foreign class to those characters, and the somewhat high/quiet/nasally quality of it might be a surprise for a character like Chi Cho.

But of course, I absolutely adore Jim Cummings as Hondo Ohnaka.

EDIT: Ah fudge, how could I forget Tom Kenny.
As for voice actors I'm not too fond of...Well, I like Tom Kane and all, but compared to the rest of those in the show, his Yoda is a little too...gravelly for my tastes. Similarly, Cat Taber does an alright job as Padme, but as others have mentioned, it's just that Padme herself tends to...not do it for me. XD

Phil LaMarr is another voice actor I hope to see heavily utilised in prominent roles, and I loved his Kit Fisto. The sudden Rastafarian-ness of Senator Organa confused me, but it's been growing on me, especially since he gave him a manly shriek of terror for Senate Murders. XD

 

Mainly for me Jim Cummings probably does a good job voicing Hondo, even though I don't like the character. James Arnold Taylor does decent work voicing Obi-Wan. Even though he doesn't sound like Ewan McGregor, the sound of his voice work reminds you that it's Obi-Wan. Nika Futterman, I think, does an adequate job voicing Ventress. Other than those three, I'm not a fan of the other voice actors. Matt Latner does a pretty bleh or bland job with Anakin's voice, other than doing Yularen's voice, Tom Kane is all right with Yoda; he did voice Yoda in various of other Star Wars games and in the micro series. Ashely Ecksten does come out as annoying when she voices Ahsoka; sort of "over the top" and just an over exaggerated voice of a teenage girl. Catherine Taber is good with Mission Vao, but is not good voicing Padme, sadly.

I don't want to sound too negative, but you can tell the voice actors are trying. In season one and in the film, the voice actors tried to get into their characters and know them so they can do a better job.

 

I think generally speaking they're all pretty good, but I'm finding Kane's Yoda more and more annoying, although the script could be the problem because I thought he was great in Ambush.

Taylor is fine; I agree with GG that he doesn't sound like Ewan, but he does sound like Obi-Wan.

Lanter, as I've said many times, does a better Anakin than Hayden Christensen, IMHO. Lanter probably has more fun material to work with though.

Don't like the Palpatine/Sidious voice too much....I'm getting used to the Palps voice, but the Sidious voice isn't....menacing....enough.


The one thing I find strange, and I assume it's simply because they're knocking out the episodes as quickly as possible, is sometimes the intonation of the line reads is really off, especially for the main 3 characters.

Made up example: In a line like "that'll show 'em", the line theoretically would be read with the emphasis on the beginning: "THAT'll show 'em".

But once in a while, you'll get "that'll SHOW 'em", or "that'll show THEM".

I think it happened more in S1 though.

 

Favorites:

Phil Llamar- Nice Fisto!!!!!
Jon Favrea- He may be just a guest-star but he did good.
The voices of Mar Tuuk, Hondo(especially!), and Satine

Disliked:

Corey Burton- I've never understood what people see in this guy! I could do a better Dooku! I miss Chris Lee.....
The voice of Adi Gallia

I'm pretty neutal about everyone else...

I want Clancy Brown to voice a villain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

James Arnold Taylor as Obi-Wan sounds just what he is: an American trying to sound British. I?m a stickler for details and it annoys me how he always gets the pronunciation wrong.

I think Corey Burton does an excellent job as Dooku, especially considering Christopher Lee has such a distinctive (and amazing) voice.
Whoever plays Luminara is also very good.

I have to agree, Clancy Brown would be a welcome addition. I could see him playing a roguish character too not necessarily a villain.

 

Likes:
Ashley Eckstein: I love her voice as Ahsoka. I don't even know why. I find it pleasing.
James Arnold Taylor: good enough for me, but I can see why the accent might seem fake at times.


Dislikes:
Matt Lanter: too American for Christensen's Anakin.
Cat Taber: doesn't sound like Natalie Portman...plus I don't find it too pleasing anyway.

 

Anthony Daniels does a great job at C3P0. He sounds just like he does in the movies!

That said I do like Corey Burton's Dooku, despite the fact that he doesn't sound as awesome Sir Christopher Lee, but that is to be expected. His Bane voice is great as well along with the rest of his voices.

I'm not a fan of Catherine Taber's Padme or B.J. Hughes who some how manages to make Jar Jar even more annoying.

 

Burton does good voices for villains but I can't help but feel that Movie Dooku and TCW Dooku are way-too different.
Burton's voice for Shockwave in Transformers is good but that's not SW...
I forgot about Luminara! Yes, that voiceactress is amazing! She helped me like the character.

Brown could do a rogue-ish character. He could do alot of male characters. I would still like a villain though. Especially since Brown does a good evil laugh. I can see Brown voicing:
Sora Bulq
New Sith-ish character
Bounty Hunter(Rum Sleg?)
Big or dominant looking Jedi

 

Corey Burton obviously...I couldn't believe when I saw that he did three different characters in 'Hostage Crisis' and they all sounded different.

James Arnold Taylor does a very respectful Obi-Wan...no, he doesn't sound quite like McGregor, but when I hear his voice I instantly identify it with Obi-Wan.

 

If we are talking about the voice-actors themselves, then I like them all. They seem approachable down to earth people.
If we are talking about their roles in TCW then...

My favourites:

Matt Lanter- This guy makes Anakin likeable. If we had had a monotone impression of Hayden up to this point it would have taken me out of it.

Corey Burton - I like his Dooku and he is very talented with the other voices

Dee Bradley Baker - He can take one voice and do twenty to thirty variation of it, not to many voice actors could have done that.

James Arnold Taylor - Obi-wan's good and like someone else said he is Plo Koon.

Olivia d'Abo - Luminara Unduli's voice is very good.

Jim Cummings- Excellent as Hondo

Nika Futterman- Ventress no longer sounds like a bad Wicked Witch of the West impersonation.

My least favourites:

Catherine Taber ? Not really into her voice.

I?m neutral on everyone else.

 

Who I like:

James Marsters - Captain Faro Argyus
Corey Burton - Count Dooku
Corey Burton - Mar Tuuk
Jennifer Hale - Aayla Secura
Jennifer Hale - Senator Riyo Chuchi (she also does a great female Shepard in Mass Effect)
Olivia d'Abo - Luminara Unduli
Matthew Wood - Poggle the Lesser
Jim Cummings - Hondo Ohnaka
Robin Atkin Downes - Cham Syndulla

Who I don't like:

Dee Bradley Baker - Admiral Trench
Dee Bradley Baker - Queen Karina
Greg Baldwin - Doge Urus
BJ Hughes - Jar Jar Binks

 

I think the show has a pretty outstanding voice cast, though there are a a couple exceptions and a few standouts.

Corey Burton - Dooku, Ziro, and Bane oh, yeah, shockwave on transformers. he's amazing.
Dee Bradley Baker - how he keeps finding a way to make new clones sound different from all the other ones he's done before I have no idea.

Everyone else is good to excellent, but what those two can do with their voices and still turn in good acting on top of it is astounding.

As for who I don't like...
BJ Hughes - I'm guessing this is a pseudonym because whoever that was didn't want to be associated with that performance. Good call on their part.
Kath Soucie, who was Mon Mothma and Cut's son. Nothing wrong with her acting, but I hear her all the time in half the games I play and her voice (particularly as Cut's son/Cubert Farnsworth/whichever Rugrats character she was) takes me right out of the show.

 

I actually dislike the Palpatine voice more. He doesn't pull off the "creepy-elegant" thing that McDiarmid did so well and that guy in the 2d show also did fairly well. And Sidious... yeah, not scary at all.

I also love Hondo - surprised I forgot to mention him. Luminara is excellent as well.

And I agree that Hughes sucked. I'm not a big Jar Jar fan, but Best puts his heart and soul into the performance and Jar Jar is believable as a person even if you can't stand him. Hughes sounded like he was reciting lines while doing a crappy Jar Jar impersonation.

 

Favorites:
-Dee Bradley Baker: the job he has done with the clones is impressive, how he can make each one sound just a tad different. Very talented
-Corey Burton: Not much to say that hasn't been said to be honest, he's great.
-Matt Lanter: He has made Anakin likeable IMO. He doesn't sound like Hayden at all and that's good, he added his own twist to it. It also might be the writing but this Anakin is the Anakin we were supposed to get in the films, not the whiney one.
-James Arnold Taylor: Same with Burton, not much to say that hasn't been said.

Least:
-Early Ashley Eckstein: might be because of the writing but she was really annoying in the movie and S1, I've grown to at least be neutral to it during Season 2 though.
-Catherine Taber: She's not bad at all...it's just that she doesn't even sound like Natalie.



The rest I'm pretty much neutral with. I could name a few guest stars that I've hated and liked though.

 

A friend of mine who is well-versed in these matters tells me that this was actually intentional, and the person behind the idea? Mr. George Lucas. He wanted to show off the heroic, likable side of Anakin that wasn't shown in the films very much.

Dunno if this is true, but it's interesting.

By the way, for the record, I like Hayden too.

 

Actually, I think Cat Taber is trying to sound TOO much like Natalie Portman and that's what is affecting the performance.

 

Well, if you hear Matt Latner's voice, it's exactly the same as his voicing of Anakin. So mainly he doesn't necessarily put any effort into it, as he just speaks the lines with his own voice. He's very bland. I still prefer Hayden over Matt Latner, since, to me, that's Anakin.

Edit: Yes, I agree with you, Garth.

 

It basically boils down to two things: Range and delivery. Some voice actors have great ranges but sometimes lose out on delivery. Other voice actors hardly experiment, but can give good deliveries. Of course, it's not a matter of one or the other. A number of them have done this dozens of times and have enough experience in some ranges or roles to do both well.

 

How come people are saying it's OK that TCW Anakin doesn't sound like Hayden, but it's not OK that TCW Padme doesn't sound like Natalie? I still prefer Matt Lucas myself.

I really am tired of the Australian clones. The Irish helium Lurmen were pretty lame. For me, I think the voices and the performances were better.. in the micro-series. The only exception might be TCW Asajj, though I like both her voices in both cartoons.

For other characters, I like Satine's voice, Orn Free Taa, Nute Gunray, and Todo. BJ Hughes actually doesn't bother me much.

 

Because people here generally think TCW Anakin is an improvement, and I'd have to agree. TCW Padme not so much.

 

^Yeah I know. But there's voice, and there's performance. I think it's a little unfair.