ABED wrote:SX10 wrote:
For me, Kyle is very good, but he's the audio equivalent of casting actors in their late 20's/ early 30's to play high schoolers in movies.
Swaile also falls into that category. He's clearly older than the character he's portraying. I get your point about casting older actors, but it's a convention I can deal with, just like I can deal with women voicing young male characters.
It doesn't matter if Swaile isn't a teenager, the point is his voice
sounds young enough to play one in cartoons and anime. It's the same as Joshua Seth sounding young enough to play a boy like Tai in Digimon, his natural voice just has a very youthful quality to it despite his actual age. Herbert's voice clearly doesn't posses the same quality and if you want objective proof of this just go compare
Swaile and
Herbert's previous roles. The vast majority of Kyle's roles are older males whilst Swaile has almost exclusively been cast as young boys and teenagers. Sure Herbert has had a few teenage roles himself but that's the exception. I get what you're saying about women voicing kids but a more genuine sounding casting is always preferable to one that sounds less convincing. If the actor has a less convincing voice but brings a unique aspect to the character then it's forgivable but I don't hear anything noteworthy in kyle's delivery.
ABED wrote:
I'm not sure where you get the idea that Hebert is "too cool" he doesn't play that note the entire time. He plays goofy, earnest, and warrior when he has to.
I don't think it sounds as genuine as Swailes' delivery. Most of his goofy moments come off sounding forced because his voice is naturally more on the deeper end, he's already putting on a voice for Gohan to begin with so going even higher pitched makes it sound fake to me.
This example should illustrate what I mean.
ABED wrote:
Kirby isn't too cool, he sounds like he's trying to sound cool. He's just overall really bland. Hebert's voice sticks out.
And Hebert's Gohan sounds nothing like a surfer.
Well I'm not sure how else to describe it. He might not sound like a surfer in the stereotypical sense (think most of the Michelangelo voices from the numerous versions of TMNT) but there's a quality to his Gohan voice that's somewhere along those lines which is why I made the connection. I did mention that he's more "well spoken" which I think puts the voice in a grey area that's hard for me to define, I still get an overly cool guy vibe from listening to him though. As for Kirby Morrow, I think you've got it backwards, from what I remember of his performance he usually sounds overly enthusiastic most of the time. Very rarely would I say he was "trying to sound cool", his natural voice is just very distinct and has that youthful Californian vibe to it. I can understand what Ocean's (Kai) casting directors were getting at when they gave him that criticism but it's not his delivery that makes him sound cool, it's just his voice.
90sDBZ wrote:
Hebert doesn't sound that old. To me he sounds like a teenager/young man who speaks in a mature, intelligent, and sometimes fittingly nervous manner. We have to remember that Gohan is biologically 17-18 in the Buu Saga if you count the year in the Time Chamber, so it's not like he's only just hit puberty. People in real life mature at different rates. Some teenagers can look or sound a lot older than their age, while with others it's the opposite. Just compare Gohan at the Cell Games to Goku during early DB and bare in mind Goku was older.
Exceptions exist in real life but cartoons and anime usually cast voices based on commonly known archetypes, not exceptions. Also I don't think being biologically accurate is the main priority when it comes to casting. The character's traits and personality should be the priority really. When Brad Swaile speaks his first line as Gohan you immediately get a feeling of who that character is just based on the innocent and youthful quality of his voice. Kyle's Gohan is serviceable and he might be a decent actor but his voice alone lacks the same qualities as Swailes'.
