Character voices

[Mark Wright]

Katie Sullivan <vazali at yahoo.com> wrote:

>There has been some discussion lately about Donald's voice on
>DuckTales and in other animated incarnations.  Although it's
>perfect for the sorts of situations Donald encountered in the
>early cartoons, IMHO his squawking, quacking voice isn't
>particularly well suited to Barks-scale adventure stories. <snip>... 
when I read the
>comics I imagine Donald as having a relatively normal voice. 
>That may sound odd to others, but am I alone in this?  The early
>cartoon Donald and the Barksian Donald are like two totally
>different characters, really, and I imagine them as having
>different voices. 

I have to admit that I've thought much the same thing.  It's just 
difficult for me to imagine those long, complex sentences being voiced 
completely in Donald's peculiar brand of unintellible English.  Nor do 
I see much indication in the stories I've read of anyone else having 
trouble understanding him.  (Granted, this was only done in the 
cartoons in the DuckTales era, where practically every time Donald 
opened his mouth, someone had to say "What'd he say?")

>I also imagine Scrooge with a Scottish accent that was much
>heavier when he was younger, but gradually became less
>pronounced as he traveled the world (in Rosa's Lo$).  By the
>"current" time frame I imagine his accent as considerably less
>noticable than it is in DuckTales.  (Although in the animated
>form Alan Young does a wonderful job with the character.  I just
>see the animated Scrooge and comics Scrooge as, again, two
>versions of the character.) 

Likewise, I can imagine Scrooge speaking with an accent, but not a 
thick one.  He's lived in America for the lion's share of his life by 
now, and I can speak from experience that it doesn't take long to pick 
up part of the accent of whatever region I live in, although my 
native-Californian is never completely gone.

>How do you all imagine their voices?  Given that many of you
>don't speak English as a primary language, I'd be interested to
>hear your unique spins on this.
>
>
>Katie Sullivan
>http://www.sullivanet.com/
>

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