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The Magic Behind the Voices: A Who's Who of Cartoon Voice Actors
The Magic Behind the Voices is a fascinating package of biographies, anecdotes, credit listings, and photographs of the actors who have created the unmistakable voices for some of the most popular and enduring animated characters of all time. Drawn from dozens of personal interviews, the book features a unique look at thirty-nine of the hidden artists of show business. Often as amusing as the characters they portray, voice actors are charming, resilient people-many from humble beginnings-who have led colorful lives in pursuit of success. Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill's Mike Judge was an engineer for a weapons contractor turned self-taught animator and voice actor. Nancy Cartwright (the voice of Bart Simpson) was a small town Ohio girl who became the star protégé of Daws Butler-most famous for Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, and Quick Draw McGraw. Mickey Mouse (Wayne Allwine) and Minnie Mouse (Russi Taylor) are a real-life husband-and-wife team. Spanning many studios and production companies, this book captures the spirit of fun that bubbles from those who create the voices of favorite animated characters. In the earliest days of cartoons, voice actors were seldom credited for their work. A little more than a decade ago, even the Screen Actors Guild did not consider voice actors to be real actors, and the only voice actor known to the general public was Mel Blanc. Now, Oscar-winning celebrities clamor to guest star on animated television shows and features. Despite the crushing turnouts at signings for shows such as Animaniacs , The Simpsons , and SpongeBob Squarepants , most voice actors continue to work in relative anonymity. The Magic Behind the Voices features personal interviews and concise biographical details, parting the curtain to reveal creators of many of the most beloved cartoon voices.
304 pages, Paperback
First published December 9, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 16, 2020
My friend got me this for Christmas after learning some trivia about the original Lion King, and I dove in and found a very odd formatting set of biographies! After the seemingly 20 page introduction which gives context to the golden age of animation (including societal differences from the 30s and 40s and whatnot) we dive into an alphabetical listing of voice actors. Each is it's own mini 2-5 page story followed by a credits list ripped right from IMDB.
This seems odd as we don't originate with the golden age with Mel Blanc and whatnot, and instead just alphabetically work our way through. The editing managed to make this work however as this field is very supportive, so one bio will mention a mentor or protege and sets it up for when you get to them later in the book. The reverse works as well, since when you're reading about Frank Welker you've had nearly everyone else mentioned by this point, making the references that much better.
As this was written through the 90s into the early 2000s, there are interviews with many of the old timers, though for any that passed prior interviews are sourced. There are some fascinating elements here, as some talk about time in theatrical shorts during World War II, others with radio and the advent of television, others with Disney theatricals and others in the commercialization of the 80s and 90s and beyond. One will mention the heyday of Hanna-Barbera and others forging on beyond it.
The choices of subjects is incredibly well represented, purposefully avoiding the celebrity voice actors for those who actually do this for a living. The majority of the heavy hitters are listed so you get the voices of Pooh and Tigger and Homer and Bart and multiple Snow Whites plus Bugs and Megatron and you get the idea. The intro mentions some that were left out like Alan Oppenheimer, which I lament of course as we don't get anything for He-Man whatsoever, which ridiculously includes his Skeletor, but even more criminal is the omission of Chris Latta, known for Cobra Commander and Starscream. Meanwhile Chris Sarandon gets an entry, based solely on The Nightmare Before Christmas, his lone voice role at the time.
Editing to add this paragraph afterward, but two more major omissions I realized are Mark Hamill and Steve Blum. Blum was notable for X-Men by this point among many others, but Hamill was the animated Joker but may have still be pegged as a 'celebrity' instead of getting coverage he deserved.
One last glaring issue is the editing is actually a bit sloppy. Titles for shows are almost spot on, and yet somehow The Aristocats is misspelled as The Aristocrats, and John Kricfalusi, who has his own entry even, is misspelled as Krisfaluci for a page in the Billy West entry (and correctly on the very next page). These are unforgivable considering what we're dealing with.
Overall though this was ridiculously easily digestible with a 4-5 page bio and 300+ pages so it was name after name and even for me as someone who knows about the field, I learned so much about the early days, the 50s and 60s especially and the evolution of their union, and discovered people I never heard of but clearly should have like Daws Butler. A very welcome read!
This seems odd as we don't originate with the golden age with Mel Blanc and whatnot, and instead just alphabetically work our way through. The editing managed to make this work however as this field is very supportive, so one bio will mention a mentor or protege and sets it up for when you get to them later in the book. The reverse works as well, since when you're reading about Frank Welker you've had nearly everyone else mentioned by this point, making the references that much better.
As this was written through the 90s into the early 2000s, there are interviews with many of the old timers, though for any that passed prior interviews are sourced. There are some fascinating elements here, as some talk about time in theatrical shorts during World War II, others with radio and the advent of television, others with Disney theatricals and others in the commercialization of the 80s and 90s and beyond. One will mention the heyday of Hanna-Barbera and others forging on beyond it.
The choices of subjects is incredibly well represented, purposefully avoiding the celebrity voice actors for those who actually do this for a living. The majority of the heavy hitters are listed so you get the voices of Pooh and Tigger and Homer and Bart and multiple Snow Whites plus Bugs and Megatron and you get the idea. The intro mentions some that were left out like Alan Oppenheimer, which I lament of course as we don't get anything for He-Man whatsoever, which ridiculously includes his Skeletor, but even more criminal is the omission of Chris Latta, known for Cobra Commander and Starscream. Meanwhile Chris Sarandon gets an entry, based solely on The Nightmare Before Christmas, his lone voice role at the time.
Editing to add this paragraph afterward, but two more major omissions I realized are Mark Hamill and Steve Blum. Blum was notable for X-Men by this point among many others, but Hamill was the animated Joker but may have still be pegged as a 'celebrity' instead of getting coverage he deserved.
One last glaring issue is the editing is actually a bit sloppy. Titles for shows are almost spot on, and yet somehow The Aristocats is misspelled as The Aristocrats, and John Kricfalusi, who has his own entry even, is misspelled as Krisfaluci for a page in the Billy West entry (and correctly on the very next page). These are unforgivable considering what we're dealing with.
Overall though this was ridiculously easily digestible with a 4-5 page bio and 300+ pages so it was name after name and even for me as someone who knows about the field, I learned so much about the early days, the 50s and 60s especially and the evolution of their union, and discovered people I never heard of but clearly should have like Daws Butler. A very welcome read!
October 26, 2023
As this book contains some of the final interviews for many of the industry's greats who were still alive at the time, this is a must-read for anyone interested in voice acting and animation in general. However, I caught several rudimentary mistakes that feel especially galling considering A. There were two authors working on this and B. According to the foreword, this was in the works for many years.
These mistakes include: Misspelling John Kricfalusi's name once, listing Charlie Adler's website as the Mary Kay Bergman memorial website (and Adler was the first interview in the whole book, how did they miss that???), calling Paul Frees a WWI vet instead of a WWII vet, and naming Doug Lawrence as Mr. Krabs' voice actor instead of Clancy Brown. I'd bet there's even more mistakes that I didn't catch because I'm not familiar with everything in the book. These hiccups are distracting and make it seem as if this book was a rush job, even though it obviously wasn't.
These mistakes include: Misspelling John Kricfalusi's name once, listing Charlie Adler's website as the Mary Kay Bergman memorial website (and Adler was the first interview in the whole book, how did they miss that???), calling Paul Frees a WWI vet instead of a WWII vet, and naming Doug Lawrence as Mr. Krabs' voice actor instead of Clancy Brown. I'd bet there's even more mistakes that I didn't catch because I'm not familiar with everything in the book. These hiccups are distracting and make it seem as if this book was a rush job, even though it obviously wasn't.
January 17, 2018
I decided to check this book out of my local library since I've always been kind of fascinated with the voice actors behind those iconic cartoon characters (and I'm also a bit of a media geek).
This is a pretty good read. While there are several errors and some information repeats itself in the text, each chapter serves as a nice biography regarding heralded and unheralded actors alike. The IMDB listings seemed to pad the page length a bit (it's actually a bit of a breezy read) and might be unnecessary these days but this is clearly a labor of love so I don't want to be super critical about it.
Well worth your time.
This is a pretty good read. While there are several errors and some information repeats itself in the text, each chapter serves as a nice biography regarding heralded and unheralded actors alike. The IMDB listings seemed to pad the page length a bit (it's actually a bit of a breezy read) and might be unnecessary these days but this is clearly a labor of love so I don't want to be super critical about it.
Well worth your time.
March 9, 2015
It was great to see a book on the appreciation of voice acting, but it has a few cons.
There are multiple mistakes and errors that any true fan can spot.
Plus I would of liked to have seen:
Arthur Q. Bryan,
Hank Azaria,
Henry Corden,
and even Walt Disney included (at least his career as an actor).
I mean sure some didn't do much but could've at least got one page included. If the author can include the guy who only voiced Jack Skellington in one movie and two video games why can't these people have a part in the book.
Other than that it was a great book I hope there will be a follow-up.
I also recommend "That's Not All Folks" by Mel Blanc.
There are multiple mistakes and errors that any true fan can spot.
Plus I would of liked to have seen:
Arthur Q. Bryan,
Hank Azaria,
Henry Corden,
and even Walt Disney included (at least his career as an actor).
I mean sure some didn't do much but could've at least got one page included. If the author can include the guy who only voiced Jack Skellington in one movie and two video games why can't these people have a part in the book.
Other than that it was a great book I hope there will be a follow-up.
I also recommend "That's Not All Folks" by Mel Blanc.
September 19, 2009
Excellent encyclopaedia.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews