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NEWS: Pokemon Voice Actors Replaced with Sound-Alikes

I say give the newbies a chance. Chances you are you'll never know(Unless you watch the credits) that the originals are no longer on the show. A good example of this is the Men in Black cartoon, I could almost SWEAR to you that Will Smith was one of the VA's on the show, but he isn't.

These new voice actors are terrible! -_- I've been watching Pokemon since the begining, and i've grown up listening to Veronica Taylor, Eric Stuart, and Rachael Lillis, It's just not the same without them. Please help get them back. http://www.serebii.net/dub.shtml

Well, the special has officially aired.

To be brief, the voices were terrible.

To not be brief, here is an explanation of why they were terrible:

-----------------------------------------

They aren't my characters anymore.

They aren't my twerps; they are not my Team Rocket.

I woke up early in order to watch the long awaited tenth anniversary special "Mastermind of Mirage Pokemon" only to find that the characters that I fell in love with sound like five year olds.

With most of them, you can hardly, if at all, tell that the new voice actor is at least attempting to imitate the original. I turned up the TV's volume so my mom would be able to hear each separate voice from her bedroom, and she could not recognize who was who anymore. Here's what I thought of each voice, respectively:

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Ash: You can't even pick up a trace of his original voice. I'm not quite sure, but I think he sounds similar to Mokuba off of Yu - Gi - Oh!, which would also mean he might have the same VA. If so, it's that same VA that played Richie off of Pokemon, who has not appeared in the show in a number of years. This being said, since Mokuba was around 9 or so, and Richie was ten, they've just taken at least three years off of Ash according to his voice. He isn't the twerp that I loved to hate anymore.

Misty: Misty's voice seems tolerable to a degree; however, she will not be appearing in this season, and if she does, it will only be for a couple of episodes at the most. I think with this one you can at least pick up on the fact they the actor is trying to sound somewhat similar to Rachel Lillis.

Brock: Oh my God. Complete and total butchery. There is no single trace of the original voice, and I think I was only able to catch one word where he momentarily sounded like Brock. It's quite sad, really, because his voice had pretty much stayed consistent with the series, and it was one I had always favored. My mom says that he sounds very gay, and I think he sounds a bit like that character off of Yu Yu Hakusho... He has red - ish hair, but I can't remember his name. All I remember is that he was very, very annoying.

Jessie: Ugh. It's still terrible, but I think this one has to be the best out of Team Rocket, if not all the characters. You can still detect a few words where she almost sounds slightly like the original Jessie.

James: I almost cried when I heard his voice. All the spark from it has completely vanished, and he sounds like he might be rather constipated. My mom and I agree that they did a terrible job in trying to find a replacement actor for James.

Meowth: A good part of his accent is gone, but like Jessie, he sounds somewhat tolerable. He does sound much more obnoxious than he did beforehand, though.

Max: He sounds pretty bad as well. I think some of his voice is still noticeable, but then again, it really isn't too difficult to imitate a nerd.

May: She sounds NOTHING like her original VA. This one is pretty upsetting to me, seeing as her first VA had finally gotten to the point where she sound distinctly different from Ash, who, of course, had the same voice actor. She had grown into her role and fit it nicely, but now, all that work she put into the character is gone.

Professor Oak: Oh my. He was one of the first character we were introduced to, and has played a major part in the Gameboy games. It's heart - wrenching to hear that he sounds absolutely nothing like how he did. At one early point when the special was on, my mom and had stopped watching it for a minute, and that's when we heard his voice. We both said something to the effect of "Who the hell was that?" and we, thanks to TiVo, were able to rewind and hear that it was the Professor. He sounds about three hundred years older than he should.

---

It's like watching a bunch of imposters come in and murder your friends, steal their clothes, rip the hair off their heads, place it on themselves, and try to imitate them without you noticing. It's like they've stolen my friends from me.

A lot of the people that were against the Save The Voice Actors campaign made the argument that the children watching the show would not notice any difference, and if they did, they would simply not care. I believe this to be completely untrue for two reasons:

1. The child would have to be deaf or suffering from a major brain illness not to notice the difference.

And

2. I was able to pick up on James' voice change on the first season. They switched his voice around episode eight, and I noticed, and I actually did care. However, I don't regret that change in voice.

So hopefully, the kids watching the show will care, too.

And I'm almost glad they changed the TR motto. I don't think I would have been able to handle listening to some other VAs butcher such... wonderful poetry.

Speaking of the motto, when TR made their presence known to Ash, they held hands for a moment while speaking. At this I normally would have been pretty happy, seeing as we never get a single fear hug out of them anymore, but today... I felt like killing them... because they... they are not supposed to do that. Only my Jessie and James can show subtle signs of Rocketshipping.

So, some tenth anniversary special this was, eh?

I once again salute all of the original Voice Actors for doing such a wonderful job and bringing these characters to life. You all were simply the best, and always will be.

Alright, probably being one of the oldest Pokemon fans here, I have to speak. Yes, I'm an adult (I'm 28)

I've been watching Pokemon since it first premiered in the US. I practically grew up on Pokemon. I went into watching the 10th anniversary special yesterday willing to give the new voice actors a chance.

What I saw frankly disgusted me.

Just as Tear Moore did, I will go through the list.

Ash - *blinks* Um...when did I turn on "One Piece"? Ash sounds almost exactly like Monkey D. Luffy. Don't get me wrong, I like Luffy and I like One Piece...BUT...I just don't like hearing Luffy's voice coming out of Ash's mouth.

Brock/James - Horrible! Brock sounds almost like Butch *Butch & Cassidy* now (he's got that gritty throat thing going) and James...I don't even know what to say. Head cold maybe? Being a major Brock fan, I was almost in tears listening to him. This is not my Brock or my James!! I am so sorry, Eric Stuart!

May - Not even close! She sounds nothing like the May we used to know.

Jessie, Meowth, Max, and Misty - Ok, I will give these actors credit. They did try to somewhat sound like their characters. Though you can definitely tell that they're different, I at least heard some effort.

Professor Oak - I was cringing when I heard him talk. He sounds almost computerized.

To some people, this may not be a big deal. To others, who have actually been dedicated fans, it is.

Let's put it this way....suppose we took Mickey, Donald, and Goofy, completely changed their voices, put them in a cartoon and said, "Who cares? Nobody's gonna notice this right?"

Not only is this insulting the voice actors who have have put their hearts and souls into getting each character right for us to love and enjoy, it's also insulting the fans. They just assume that we don't care and are going to take it like it is.

Frankly, I DO give a damn!

To all of those voice actors who have been "shamelessly dumped"...Eric, Veronica, Rachel, Addis, and all others,...You are what made Pokemon.

If this continues, I see myself and many others, going the same way that you did. I will not continue to watch and be insulted by a company that no longer cares about their actors or their fans.

Well, I'm sure you all have heard about the "Save The Voice Actors" campaign by now, and if not, here's a link to the site where you can find information about the topic as well as ways you can help the cause:

http://www.bulbagarden.net/pokemoncreations/sova/index.html

And if that's not enough to deal with, KidsWB has dropped Pokemon from it's fall lineup. Looks like it will have to find a new home, and fast. Anime dazed

Oh, he wasn't? Ah, I heard somewhere that he was. Sorry then, my mistake.

And you're saying the special made you cry, right?

Right. It was horrible. I spoke with Veronica Taylor about it and she's just as upset...

Yeah.

The only time I cried was when I heard Team Rocket, seeing as they are my favorite characters.

I was royally pi**ed (new to this forum.. don't know if swearing's allowed) i mean, the current voice actors may not be the originals but most of the voices have been around for most of the series.. with exceptions like Misty. I fell out of the series and missed most of johto and.. w.e. the last one was. Hoen? I don't know. I'm more than sure the show will be more or less the same, but I hate the new voice actors. What were they thinking? Changing the voice actors after EIGHT years.

First, the Sonic voices get replaced. Now Pokemon voices get replaced. Who's next?

natsuhito, please do not revive old posts. One month is the general limit on necroposting, unless you have a REALLY good reason to do so or can contribute in some astronmoical and chakra-shifting manner.

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Forum - View topicNEWS: Pokemon Voice Actors Replaced with Sound-Alikes

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NEWS: Pokemon Voice Actors Replaced with Sound-Alikes