Inside The Craft Of Iconic Cartoon Voice Acting

Cold Opens With Classic Voices

Me Grimlock, me dinobot leader! I mean I mean uh it's me, Greg Berger. How's it going?

Hi, my name is Paul Rugg, and I'm a voice actor writer, and I'm very happy to be I think I'm happy to be on No La Film scene, but you'll have to check back later. Maybe this was a mistake. I don't know. And I love New Orleans. Nolins. Nollins! See, I can do that. Blah blah blah. Hold on, ladies! Okay, lady and with the mic and boo doing be baby. Okay, sorry.

Hey, hi there. My name is Larry Kenney. Let me check my driver's lap. Yep. I'm Larry Kenny and I'm a voice actor. And you may know me from cartoon series like Thundercats. Sword of Omens come to my hand. I Lion O commanded. That was me. And a lot of commercials, you know, like Count Chocula, Coco Pops, things like that. But right now, my total focus is here on Nola Film scene with you.

Hello, the NOLA film scene with TJ Play-Doh. I'm TJ. And as always, I'm Play-Doh. You are going to describe how you chose the voice, quote unquote, chose the voice for Lionel.

Oh, okay. Good, good. Well, I got the job first of all by auditioning. That's the way you get jobs in the voiceover business. You go to a particular place at a particular time that your agent tells you to go to, and they'll hand you a script and all that, and they tell you what the show is going to be about and what each character is like, you know, and then they say, Would you go into the booth? And they wanted this to do, when I say they, I mean Rankin Bass, who produced the shows. First of all, when I got that call, I was really excited because as a kid, Rankin Bass did some of my favorite cartoons, you know. Mine too. Yeah. Mostly uh holiday animation. Uh Frosty the Snowman with Burbal Eyes, Rudolph Red Nose Grandeer with Fred Astaire. Now they wanted to do one with Larry Kent. I said, okay. But they said, first of all, I want you to pick one Thundercat and the other illustrations all over the walls, with you know the drawings of the characters, and illustrations of the scenes like Cat's Lair and things like that. But they said so pick one Thundercat and one mutant bad guy that you like to audition for. So after reading the synopsis of the different characters, I said, Well, I'll take a shot at Lionel, because you know he's the lover of the Thundercats. Why not try that? And I'll do Jack O Man because I love the illustration of it that they had. You know, so for Lionel, of course, I went in there and Lionel is just my voice. Well, they told us before the Thundercats characters. We don't want cartoon voices because they are actually half human and half cat. So, but we want them not to be that put on cartoon voice, just you know, something that sounds more like the real person talking. Right. That's what Lion O sounded like me. The only difference is when I sit here and talk with you guys, I'll say something like, Hey, Sword of Omens, uh, give me sight beyond sight. I Lion O commanded. Comes out on TV as Sword of Omens. Give me sight beyond sight. I Lion O commanded. Sounds like the guy on TV, right?

Yep. I'm fanboying out all over here. I'll just make it.

And then for Jackal Man, well, first of all, I had to think to myself, what the hell is a jackal? And uh I don't think I looked it up, but I remember that a jackal is like a wily, sneaky, like a hyena, you know, or a wolf or something. And the first thing that came to my line was one of my favorite cartoon shows as a kid, Rocky and Bullwinkle. And you guys may not be old enough to remember Rocky and Bullwinkle.

I remember.

No idea.

We ain't no youngsters, my friend.

All right, good. So you remember a character named Snidley Whiplash. Remember him? He was the penultimate villain, the stereotypical villain. He wore a big black stovepipe hat, he had a black mustache with curled up at the end, a cape. And he was always trying to capture Nell, the heroine.

And he would say things like, I don't want to get you, Nil, and tie you to the railroad track.

So for some reason in my mind, I put that together with a Jackal thing, and it came out as Jackal Man, who talked like, We must get the Thundercats, yes. So that's how I came up with those words.

I love hearing those stories.

Me too.

So we did a live stream earlier. I got off, and I know you as, of course, Grimlock. I'm a super Transformers fan back from the 80s. But one of my other favorite cartoon series has just started on Tubi. I've waited years for it to come on. Men in Black, the series.

Shoot him, Jay's a cerebro faciloid, the brains are in their bottoms.

I'm overjoyed.

Golden Days. Four incredible seasons, and we finished on a cliffhanger and felt pretty confident we were coming back, but it goes to show you don't know, nobody knows nothing. But but man, what what writing and what a what chemistry. It just was such a joy to do and open each new script. I thought it was a very well written. And we had uh David Warner, his alpha. Uh it doesn't get any better.

And Rob Paulson told us about David, how he put it into his contract for Titanic. He got to go play voices and go do anime uh freakazoid, excuse me. No, it wasn't Rob, it was Paul Rogue told us. So that man loved what he did.

You know what? Uh it's kind of contagious. Uh, there's so many of us that feel so grateful and so gifted for for the good fortune that that we've been able to hold down. I mean, I've been tied to some iconic characters. Uh, that's why I uh tend to do real well on the convention circuit. It's taken me around the world. That part nobody could have predicted. It wasn't really a thing when we were when we were doing it, nor was voice chasers on the web or behind the voice actors. They've gone out of their way to attach faces to the voices. And uh boy, it's it's uh I just got back from Australia, flew thousands and thousands of miles, and had a long line waiting at my table when I stepped out on the floor. It's just crazy. The reach is global. Uh, you don't think about that when you're when you're you know knee deep uh in scripts in a studio, but it's quite amazing to wake up to that. It's humbling and empowering.

Who do you think would win in a fight? Freakazoid or Mr. Director?

Boy, I think it would be a tie, you know. Yeah, hi me. Let me tell you something, you crazy kid. Boy, I don't know. They're kind of the same character. I don't know why Jerry Lewis became a thing for me during Warner's. And I think it's because Tom Ruger, our executive producer, once showed this video of wiser older Mr.

Director, you know, this guy here, the one who's uses a vuncular and lugubrious in words that he's not quite sure what they are, but they sound very instrumental in his edification of thought.

And I would do that around, I would sort of do that around the hallway and be like, Let me tell you something, you crazy kids. And Tom goes, if you write a character with that, will you never do him again in the hallway? So we put him in, we did one with uh him going against Yakuaco Dot or Yakowaca Dot doing against him called Hello Nice Warners. And it was Jerry, young Jerry, like, oh hi, nice lady with the thing, and then Mr. Director Jerry. And for some reason, when we were doing Freakazoid since that first season, the first few shows were such heavily improv, I just sort of started doing that guy. So Freakazoid is a little bit Mr. Director and is a little bit Jerry. A tiny bit, a little bit.

You can definitely hear it in the Candlejack episode when you get the pause.

Right, can we pause here? Yeah, and that was basically, I think that was the second thing we ever recorded. That was after Dance of Doom. And we got to that point where, you know, it was all in the script. I wrote that script and it was like they were tied up. And then and Tom Ruger said, Hey, why don't you go off here? And I go, Well, what do you mean? He goes, just do something weird. So I just started going, let me just pause here and say what a crazy or whatever it is I said, what uh we're gonna have fun, fun, fun, fun. And I just kept talking, and Tom Ruger kept going, more, more, more. And that's kind of how fregoid was, especially those first few episodes. It was like, whatever came into our head or the recording booth. And I thought people were gonna go, this is not a good thing. I didn't know. And then when the first footage started coming back from overseas, I looked at it and I was like convinced we were gonna be brutally savaged. Like no one is gonna like this. And then Steven saw it and he goes, I think this is weird. And we're like, and that's good or bad? And he's like, That's good. And we're like, All right then, we're good. So yeah. But he really loved fregoids. He would get involved. And when we won the Emmy, after we were canceled, by the way, we won the Emmy, and he came before he was gonna go shoot Saving Private Ryan. He came to pick up his Emmys, and we won that year for Animaniacs and Fregozoid, and he came in and he goes, and we're like, hey, here are the Emmys. He goes, Which one is the Fregozoid? We go, it's this one. He goes, That's the one I want. Nice. I have that on film, so I'm not lying. He actually liked Freakazoid, so that's good.

We believe you, Paul.

Okay.

Yeah.

Convention Fans And Why It Matters

We got a memo. You got the memo. We did just get a cease and assist from Steven, but we'll talk about that later. Could you pull your favorite convention story, fan interaction, something? Give us an exclusive, something fun.

Speaking of exclusive, already you guys are asking me questions I haven't been asked before. And that's very unusual. I do lots of interviews. Oh, wow. Mm-hmm. Honestly, like six this week, and it's usually the pretty much the same questions, you know.

As John Hurt said to Harry Potter. You ask deep questions, Mr. Potter. So I try to marry it up. So anything in a convention, a fan interaction, a bad fan interaction, if you'd like to share.

But I've never had a bad fan action. I couldn't imagine you would. Oh, nice. Whatever your definition of bad. You know, there are some that are test your limits and stuff, you know, because there are some people who are very, very fan attic, you know, finale. And there are many people there who are on a spectrum, you know. And that's one of the things that I like the most about the conventions. People who come to Comic Cons, some of them dress up as their favorite characters, called cosplay. And when I first started doing the shows, I was a little put off by that. What's that all about? And as I said, some of the people would come up and they had difficulty speaking and they were very shy. But I began to realize that the reason that those people are there, many of them, and then they're not not everybody's like that, but how shall I put this? Well, I'll tell you how I put it. I once was at a con with one of the two blonde twins from Harry Potter. I mean, they were at the table next to me. And I forget his name, but one of them we were talking at lunch, and he said, you know, mate, when I first started doing this, I thought what's wrong with these people. I did not come to realize that these are the people some of them who in school were not popular. They were not in a clique, they were not part of any crowd. They were the outcasts, they were the nerds. Well, today, nerds rule, maybe. I mean, you know what I mean? In that thing. And he said, I began to realize that they come here to gather. Because here at the Comic Con, it's Nerdville, and we're all like this. And they're the outcasts. The people out in the streets who don't get it are the outcast. And I love that. I love the fact that you see the smiles on the faces of some of these people who are there who don't fit into a lot of situations, you know. And that's one of the reasons I love it so much, is bringing the joy of these people. Ever since we did the Thundercats, what are we talking about 40 years ago, I think. Yeah. When I would meet people or I'd get letters sometimes from people looking back, I have no idea how they discovered my address. Now it's on the internet, you know. But to this day, people will write me and say, I didn't have that great a childhood. And some of them went into a lot of detail, most of them didn't, but I know what they mean. They'll say, I didn't have that great childhood. But when I went into my room and watched Thundercats or Silver Hawks or Tiger's first, for that half hour, I felt great. That's right. And that I'm almost crying now because that means so much to me. Yeah. You know, that's why I'm so strict in my loyalty to say the legacy of both shows, I think.

Yeah.

Because they brought and still bring happiness to a lot of people, some of them really need it.

Recording Together Versus Recording Solo

So you were improving in the beginning days there. Yeah. Were y'all in individual booths when you were recording, or were you in an open booth where you could see each other and play off of each other?

Yeah. Well, yeah. So back then, Andrea Romano, who was our director who did Batman the Animated Series, Animanax, Buddy Bob, she is amazing. She would throw us all in one room, and we would have those little sound absorber dividers that would come up to maybe shoulder length or a little higher, but we would all sit there and we were always in the room together. And we did one thing they don't do today at all is we would rehearse it once. We would all sit there. Andrea would sort of sit at the center, and we were all sort of a curve around her, and she'd go, okay, you know, fade in, angle on, and she would read the script. Everyone would do it. And what that did was, like Ed Asner or Ricardo Montaban, it would be, oh, I see how you're gonna do that. Okay. And then that would inform how he's gonna do it. Not done that way today. No, no, no. It's like everyone either Zoom or individual sessions with you and the director, and which I just despise with all of my soul, because number one, it's horrifying, it's very judgmental. You know, everyone's very nice, but it's you alone, and the director is saying, okay, great, could we try that again? You know, you're like, oh, what am I doing wrong? But when it's everybody and you sort of understand it's just fresh and punchy and stuff. And I know it's more expensive to do it bringing a group in, but I am a firm believer in just get everybody in that you can and record your doggone cartoon. But yeah, that was a very long-winded answer to your question.

No, yeah, not at all.

We like long-winded answers. All right, good. Good. Excellent. People are tired of hearing from me, but I always have to talk. Not that I hate that. What you're describing is like live theater. It's a totally different energy.

Yes. Yeah.

And I was thinking about it because I don't have much theater experience. I do have a good amount of improv. And even today leading up to this, I got butterflies because I'm talking to you. I don't want to go smoke up, but I love your work. And I'll leave it at that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So it's a little bit, and then you kind of kick over, you're like, I gotta be on. And there are some actors, and I can't remember his name, might have been Frank Sinatra, might have been Mel Brooks, 102 degree fever. He's struggling. He gets to the stage, bam, perfect. Walks off the stage. Ugh.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's true.

There's a life to live performance. Yeah.

I mean, and there is something about also playing with your friends. You know, the way I do it, I'm trying to get a rise out of them, which will ruin the take, but so be it. I think you're exactly right, Brian. It's a live performance. And the other thing about having rehearsed everybody is that we would do maybe two pages, just run it, two pages, two pages, two pages, stop. And if there were any dramatic, like, well, clearly there was a problem there. But otherwise, we'd be like, well, all right, moving on. So the recording sessions were incredibly fast. I remember we had the studio from two to six. And I don't remember us ever on a single episode going past 4:30. Do you know what I mean? It was like we had some really comp sometimes in the booth or in the room, you know, there was Tim Curry, David Warner, Jonathan Harris, Ed Asner, you know, sometimes Maurice Lmarsh will come in and Tress McNeil. She was Cover Queen. And it was it was a party. I mean, everyone was there to do their job. But it was also, it was fun. There's the only way I can put it. Except for me, because as one of the writers, I used to love to be sitting like Andreas sits there in the front, and then, you know, the producers and runners sit on the level above, and you know, they write down things like that and sometimes give notes. But as frequazoid, I couldn't run back in and go, oh, by the way, I don't didn't like the way Ricardo did that, and then run back. So normally we would record me after everybody else. I would be there for the rehearsal and do it, and then we would just get me all alone. Which again, talking about being all alone, it's like uh, but it was the best way for me to be a part of the decision making about the show.

Uh, that makes sense. Kind of like an ADR track. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, I'm an actor, stage first, last, and always, but my characters tend to be voice driven. Not that they're not realized in three dimensions, but that's kind of a secret for those who want to be in the industry. They're not really casting voices, they're casting characters. And a character who's realized in three dimensions, you know immediately how they sound, or you find out in the audition process. Either way, you have to be sort of grounded in a character before the voice makes any believable sense. And once you're there, the goal in the audition is to surprise yourself while you're surprising them. Because no matter what you bring in, they're going to tinker with it to find out how directable you are. Sure. So to get, you know, and I'm all about in life, in in animation, on stage, in any pursuit, you try to make every effort collaborative. So if the writer's giving you a million clues, pay attention. If the the artist is giving you a million more, pay attention. They got there way before we step into the booth. We're like the last in and the first out, and we get a disproportionate amount of the uh, you know, adoration, approval, pick a word. Anyway, I like the collaborative nature of it. So, yes, I've always been smitten by by voices and what they reveal about the people who have them. That's awesome.

And you're not the first actor that has said that that's one of the things that they enjoy about voice work is the collaborative nature of it.

Yeah, man. Otherwise, you know, you're missing uh you're missing a large percentage of the opportunity to work artist to artist, uh, and and everybody, everybody pushes everybody to a higher level.

When you were recording in the days of Transformers or Men in Black, any of those, was it the Andre Romano style where everyone was in the room, like a teleplay, or was it like nowadays where it's singular?

For me, in those days, I was doing Transformers and G.I. Joe at the same time. Wally Burr was directing both, and he insisted that everybody in a scene be in the room at the same time. He said, and I absolutely agree, that whatever it is becomes more contagious when everybody's present. If it's if it's saving the galaxy, it becomes more urgent. If it's combat and and you know, G.I. Joe kind of reality, that becomes, you know what I'm saying, more contagious, more energetic, more more bonded. At the same time, I was doing Garfield and Friends, and everybody recorded ensemble at the same time in the same studio. That becomes contagiously silly and stupid and fun, but it also, you know, it builds chemistry between characters. In interactive gaming and more recent animation, it's become the exception rather than the rule. It you tend to record isolated with the relationship between you and the director on the other side of the glass. We see each other, but not the way we did in the golden days. I have made friends for life because we were spending as many hours in the studio, in the green room, in the parking lot, as we were, you know, with our families when we when we left. There was there was time to really get to know each other, and I bumped into those same people through the course of my career, you know. Friends for life. But we see each other in studios like regular, regular, because G.I. Joe and Transformers in particular, I think the casting launched a lot of careers, not just the gig, not just the series, but people who had thankfully, like me, uh, careers for a lifetime. A lot of versatility in the room.

And I I think it's when we talk to my name was Rob Paulson, but the energy is like a stage show. Totally. Life and live.

I don't know if you know the actor, my brain. Um Never mind. We'll go back to that.

Yeah, not a problem. When it pops in, just interrupt with it.

Oh my God. It just was like a total brain lapse.

I have that all the time. I call it picture of the car driving down the highway, and then you hit a speed bump, and all four wheels are off the ground, and you can't get any attraction. Start spinning faster and faster. Oh my god.

So that's what just happened. On we go live.

You know.

Yeah.

I talked myself out of a question. Ha ha ha. We're both doing it. Yeah. It's like, uh, what do I say now? Oh my god, that's it.

So let's cut to a record and we'll oh no, this it's not radio.

We're back.

TJ jump in and save me at any point.

I'm liking watching you flounder a little bit.

So I I I I think my personality might be a little bit bigger than TJ's, but in different ways. Like he's a little more introverted and great with tech and you know, and quiet, but when he comes with that stuff, it's cutting, it's different.

I think you're you compliment each other beautifully.

Thanks. I I just I think he gets mad when I talk a lot. No, I actually don't. I got you. I just I'm just trying to recover, TJ. Thanks for going on with the bit. That bit. I got you. Yeah, yeah. I can't follow you, Brian. You're an idiot. Wait, that's what my wife says. Never mind. Never mind. So let's let's switch the cons. I'm sorry if I've got some buzzing going on. I can't mute at this point, TJ. It's trying to reconnect, even though I'm connected, so I'm not touching anything. Pardon me to the audio gods.

Frank Welker used to have the ability to make it sound like the whole studio was arcing. People would dive for cover.

I I was lucky.

Then he then he turned to me and said, Well, it was this or college. He went to college.

Don't want to say this, TJ. I I think we're done. I think we're out of time.

Yeah. Well, we met we met as strangers and we leave as friends. That's right.

Paul, it's been a lot of fun, but get out.

All right, fine.

Very cool. We hope to see you on the flip side. Okay, cool. I don't want to let you go.

All right, well, then you have to come mow my lawn because it needs to be done. So there you go. Okay. Okay. Bye, nice people. Freak out.

Can we take us out with something from Thundercats?

Uh, sure.

A very short thing.

Yeah. Let's light up the night with a certain symbol. Yeah.

Okay. The most obvious of all, of course. And if you want, I'll do it. And then you can that's where you can figure it out. It'll be tremendous. Okay, ready? Thunder.

Thunder. Thunder. Thundercats. Ho sounds just like the guy on TV, right?

It sounds just like it. I thought the cartoon was on.

This has been fun. It was it live or was it Memorex? Good luck to both of you.