Movie voice for Usagi...

estee · Post by **estee** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 10:33 -0700

Okay Pixar decides to do a movie of our favourite Rabbit ronin...

Which voice actor would you like for Usagi, Tomoe, Hikiji et al...

And instead of Pixar, which animation studio...Studio Ghibli....straight Disney animation?

ziritrion · Post by **ziritrion** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 15:06 -0700

My animation studio choice would be Aardman, so the whole thing would be animated in claymotion! And Usagi's voice would be Gary Coleman, and Gen's voice would be Richard Simmons!

*slaps himself*

Okay, back to myself. I'd choose an American animation studio, because I think it would fit better. I'd choose traditional animation, although coloring and some scenarios could be done with the computer, specially action and fight sequences. I really have no clue about which actors I'd pick, mostly because I'm not so familiar with American actors' voice.

Colin Solan · Post by **Colin Solan** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 19:01 -0700

Anyone better than the voice in TMNT's "The Big Brawl"

Post by **Todd Shogun** » Fri Sep 16, 2005 19:15 -0700

I would say Studio Ghibli because I wouldn't have to worry about the character designs deviating too much from Stan's. 3-D animation like Pixar's would not work, nor would Disney's cartoony animation. Also, with Ghibli the overall production would probably allow for more input from Stan. Dreamworks would be a 2nd choice, but not a close 2nd.

As far as voice actors...tough one...what does Usagi's voice actually sound like? Surely not like the TMNT Gen 1 episodes...nor the "heroic" sounding voice from the Space Usagi teaser...maybe closer to the voice in the last TMNT cartoon appearance....I don't know. What about some of the English anime voice actors, like Eddie Frierson or Tony Oliver? Jimmy Flinders (aka Cam Clarke) comes to mind (he did Kaneda's voice from Akira, as well as Leonardo from TMNT Gen 1, Max Sterling/Lancer from Robotech, and a buncha other stuff...). As far as Hollywood goes, I'd say someone offbeat like maybe Jet Li... not sure. Now that I'm thinking about it, Jimmy Flinders/Cam Clarke has my vote. http://voices.fuzzy.com/actor.idc?actor_id=4632
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0164682/

Let's get this dude signed up early so he can add "Miyamoto Usagi in the Usagi Yojimbo Anime Movie by Studio Ghibli" to his resume!

Other voices:
Tomoe Ame - Susie London (if she can be found -- voice of Rook from Robotech Mospeada). Hollywood: Lucy Liu
Gen - Toss up: Vin Diesel or Billy Bob Thornton
Katsuichi - Easy: Sir Ian McKellan
Noriyuki: either Elijah Wood or Daniel Radcliffe
Lord Hikiji: James Earl Jones (lol)
Priest Sanshobo: Liam Neeson
Chizu: could really be any big name lady with a nice voice... Hillary Swank?
Hebi: Brad Dorif (Grima Wormtongue from LotR)

One interesting spin is for the english version, give the characters all English accents...

robbykills · Post by **robbykills** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 0:05 -0700

does anyone have a link with clips of Usagi speaking on TMNT? I'm interested to hear the voice they use because I was really young when the original came on.

at the same time though, I don't want it to ruin the voice I have for him in my head.

estee · Post by **estee** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 13:51 -0700

James Earl Jones...oh yea, he'd rock as Hikiji.

It amazing that the hardest voice to pin down is the lead.

Maybe some Brit would be the best way to go. Having an English accent is sometimes the easiest route.

ziritrion · Post by **ziritrion** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 15:04 -0700

You can also go the easy way and have Jaleel White voice all the characters, pretty much like what he did in that Sonic Undergound cartoon...

Songs in every chapter... So much suffering... Countless children left with severe trauma...

Post by **Todd Shogun** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 15:59 -0700

Try the Downloads section of the Dojo to find the original TMNT cartoons

Alori · Post by **Alori** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 19:58 -0700

Todd Shogun wrote:Gen - Toss up: Vin Diesel or Billy Bob Thornton

I gotta say Billy Bob Thorton for Genosuke. Vin Diesel is just too...Diesel. His voice isn't deep enough in my oppinion.

And I really like Usagi's voice in the new TMNT. It sounds, for the most part, like I imagined it.

Captain Bryan · Post by **Captain Bryan** » Sun Sep 25, 2005 1:27 -0700

I don't know the name of the studio, but the team that did Cartoon Network's Samurai Jack is pretty slick in my opinion, I like the style..

As for voices I think that it would be funny if I said Tom Waits should be Gen, because I really don't have any idea who should voice who.

Anjin-san · Post by **Anjin-san** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 20:26 -0700

My vote for voices:

Usagi: Geraint Wyn-Davies or Adrian Paul
Gen: John Rhys-Davies
Tomoe: Kristin Davis

While I'm not too sure about her acting ability, Japanese-American adult film star Asia Carrera has a good voice, has experience voicing hentai, and speaks fluent Japanese. So, there's a place for her somewhere in an animated Usagi film. Maybe she could voice Tomoe or her "cousin."

Pekass · Post by **Pekass** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 0:37 -0700

I'm not too sure how different voices would fit, since i'm not used to watch movies in english >_< so I could imagine voices for the spanish translation but noone but ziritrion would understand me

do you imagine Constantino romero for his voice, heck, that man is all my childhood heros, form darth vader to Lions King's father lol.

ziritrion · Post by **ziritrion** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 3:02 -0700

Constantino Romero's voice is amazing, and one of the best voice actors I'ev ever heard. But I'm not sure wether he speaks English or not, and I'm confident he has no idea of Japanese

. But he'd be great for any deep-voiced character, maybe a bad guy (Hikiji?) or Sanshobo.

Pekass · Post by **Pekass** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 13:34 -0700

Wow, he would me awesome for sanshobo o.o or maybe lord Mifune
(dont know why but every role that he plays ends up dyeingx_x)

JediFraz · Post by **JediFraz** » Fri Oct 21, 2005 6:30 -0700

George Tekai, (Mr Sulu) his voice sounded really good as the god in Mulan. *Ducks to avoid the heavy objects* He's got a really good well spoken 'big' voice.

Actually being British, I'd prefer to hear non-occidental accents, I feel it would detract from the story.

Samurai Jack used non-english accents and it sounded great.

Just my £0.02