Giving my favorite Voice Actors their flowers

I'd wanted to do this for a long time and on a day like this where I'm not feeling my best, it's the kind of thing I could use to make myself smile.
***

I grew up on animation. Disney mostly. But voice actors were among the first names in entertainment I'd since stored somewhere in my brain. As far as I'm concerned, these people are underappreciated and they deserve a lot more credit than they get. 

When I started making my notes for this, I wound up naming several people from different categories and thought this might become another series of posts.
I ultimately decided against that. Why make more work for myself for something that's meant to be fun? 

So instead, I'll just list the names I remember and if I find I'd forgotten anyone, that's what the edit button will be for. 
***

For starters, The Land Before Time was one of my first movies. When it came out, I was maybe 2. In the 90's, it became a series of direct-to-VHS movies and I was invested up until the 10th instllament. One cast of voice actors were obviously in the original and almost all the roles were recast in the sequels. For me, the best sequels were II through IV and my interest started to wane when the voice actors were replaced. 

Judith Barisi was the original Ducky (as well as Anna-Marie in "All dogs go to heaven"). She was a very beloved, very talented young voice actress. But her dad was abusive to her and her mom... suffice to say, things did not end well, and the tragedy of it is still felt to this day.

Jeff Bennett was Petrie in every installment except for the original. He'd since go on to do MANY voices in animation. For me, no one quite as memorable but he has remarkable range. 

Probably the best of the recasts was Anndi McAfee as Cera. She went on to play Ashley A in the ABC Saturday morning cartoon "Recess" so she has a knack for playing bossy characters I wasn't particularly fond of. (Although she was also played Phoebe in "Hey Arnold"... now that's range).
Interestingly, Scott McAfee, the best Littlefoot in my opinion, was her younger brother. Yet the two of them were two separate voice casts. 

Juliana Hansen played Littlefoot's cousin Ali in the fourth movie... to this day I'm still disappointed that was her one and only acting role. She was seriously my favorite character in the series even though she only appeared the one time. (She later returned in the TV series I never saw, but she was played by someone else).

It's also kinda trippy whenever I see Young Frankenstein to see Kenneth Mars (Littlefoot's grandpa through the series) as the Inspector... I can hear his voice in bits and pieces but for the most part, it's hard to believe it was the same guy. (Also King Triton in "The Little Mermaid")

Balto and Anastasia were among the first movies I saw where actors better known for their live action work were voices and I'd since followed them over to their live action work. 

Kevin Bacon, I think I'd only seen in a couple of movies, but I'm always gonna remember him fondly as the half dog/half wolf main character. 
Bob Hoskins as Boris and Phil Collins as polar bear cubs Muk and Luk, completely unrecognizable but brilliant in their roles.

Then with Anastasia, what a cast!
Meg Ryan as Anya, John Cusack as Dmitri and Kelsey Grammer as Vlad. Plus Bernadette Peters as Sophie and the late Angela Lansbury as the Grand Duchess. All of them, I'd come to know better in various live action roles, but it all started here. 
Plus my sister loves Kelsey Grammer as Sideshow Bob in "The Simpsons." 
Then Christopher Lloyd as Rasputian... between him and The Hacker in "Cyberchase," the dude makes such a good villian. 

***

For the Disney section, I'd like to acknowledge:

• Jodi Benson as Ariel. It's a role to this day she's still very proud of. I also saw on YouTube somewhere her saying how she'd used her gifts to offer comfort to children who were passing away from illness. (Also, she was PJ Sparkles in a short film... another great role)
• Robby Benson as The Beast. Another actor with a lot of range. He was also Blaze in PJ Sparkles and guest-starred on The Magic School Bus as Mr. Seedplot, Phoebe's old teacher. Reading up on him, he'd apparently had several open-heart surgeries due to a heart murmur and valve isseus and became a huge activist for heart research. Again, wow! It's hard to believe he played someone like The Beast with a reputable temper with all that going on. 
• Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Potts... she's just a treasure, that woman. It's hard to believe Jerry Orbach (Lumiere) and David Ogden Stiers (Cogsworth) have also passed in recent years
• Gilbert Gottfried (Iago, plus Digit in "Cyberchase"), Robin Williams (The Genie) and Eddie Murphy (Mushu)... all three are comedians with such iconic voices. Two of which passed away long before their time (we still have Eddie Murphy), but all three I'll always love for the laughs I've had watching their work- live action and animated. Also, all three played characters that were sidekicks that ultimately stole the show from the leads. 
• James Woods as Hades... one of the best Disney villains EVER, huge scene stealer
• Lea Salonga, who sang for Jasmine and Mulan. And also played Eponine in Les Miz on Broadway
• Liz Callaway, who sang for Anastasia, Odette in "The Swan Princess" and Kiara in Lion King II
• The entire cast of "The Emperor's New Groove"... I could spend so much time going into every one of them, but at least for me, I'll remember Eartha Kitt most fondly as baddie Yzma and Patrick Warburton (also well-known as Elaine's boyfriend Putty in "Seinfeld" and "Joe Swanson" in Family Guy) as her henchman Kronk. They're so good as a wise-cracking duo you almost forget they're the bad guys. John Goodman, I grew up with a lot of his voiceover work and Paco is another worthy notch on that belt. Then David Spade... I've seen him in several roles and every time, he makes me laugh. Kuzco is a self-absorbed brat, but he makes it work where you still want him to succeed
• of course, gotta mention Anna and Elsa themselves- Kirsten Bell and Idina Menzel- before this movie, I didn't even like Kirsten Bell that much. A lot of her roles are the same type of characters I'd seen done better by other people. Ditzy rom-com girls. Her role in "Fanboys" was another turning point. She doesn't put up with the other characters' nonsense and tries to be their moral compass, but also comes through in some instances where the guys really need her help. But those two will forever be iconic for these characters. Plus Josh Gad as Olaf... how can you not melt for that snowman?

***

Next, the realm of animé, both TV series and movies.

"Spirited Away" is my second favorite movie of all time. And the voice cast really helped me fall in love with a medium I wasn't too familiar with. 

Susan Egan was Meg in Hercules and sang my favorite song in that movie. In "Spirited Away," she played Lin, the bathhouse worker that took Chihiro under her wing. She has a lot of sarcasm but beneath that she has a big heart. Lin and Meg both have that common.

Jason Marsdan played Haku, who I easily fell in love with. Despite other characters suggesting he's not as good as he appears to be, I never doubted him for a second. And this casting choice had a lot to do with that. It's also the reason I wound up shutting off the original subbed version with Japanese voice acting moments after he appeared on screen. Haku being played by a young boy just didn't do it for me. 
He played DJ's boyfriend Nelson and it wasn't until after seeing him in this movie that I saw that character differently. Despite him being affluent and kind, he just wasn't as good with DJ as Steve was. (Scott Weiger played Aladdin so it's trippy seeing him in "Full House" and hearing Aladdin's voice come out of him)

Daveigh Chase played Lilo in "Lilo & Stitch" but also was the lead role of Chihiro/Sen. This character goes through a lot of different emotions through the course of the movie and you'd be hard presed to find anyone who could nail the role like she did.

Suzanne Pleshette- twin sisters Yubaba and Zeniba were her final roles. Curiously, she was also the villain in Lion King II, where she had a similiar relationship to another character played by Jason Marsdan. In both cases, she used his character to do her dirty work. But she's also notable for playing the two sisters with two different demeanors. She took the nod from original voice actress for giving the sisters two personalities, but instead opted to give Zeniba to the softer voice and Yubaba the more demanding one. According to the behind-the-scenes extras, the original actresseses did the opposite.In some regards, giving the meaner character the softer voice is more intimdiating than going for the obvious. 

My first introductions to the animé genre was through Pokémon. And I'm always going to look back on those times fondly. 

Meeting Veronica Taylor the one time I went to a Comic-Con was like fulfilling a childhood dream. Also the one time I met a celebrity where I didn't come off like an erractic fangirl. I only regret not thinking to bring a camera to get our picture together. She was such a sweetheart. Between that and reading some of her comments on Twitter, it's very clear that playing Ash Ketchum was one of her proudest accomplishments. I didn't ask her to do his voice for me but she also played his mom and that voice being her normal speaking voice... it was hard not to be starstruck. 

Eric Stuart played Brock and James. But he was also Seto Kaiba in Yu-Gi-Oh! Another crazy fact is that he has a music career and he'd been on the same stage with Ringo Starr. He only got to use singing chops a couple of times on Pokémon and they were usually comic relief moments involved Brock.
But his words of tribute after Yu-Gi-Oh! creator Kazuki Takahashi passed away gave me another level of respect for him. Yet another confirmation that voice actors really love their work and are grateful for their experiences. 

Dan Green playing both Yugi and the Pharaoh... that's incredible range. Two completely different demeanors, but both characters have strength of heart. 

Just gotta say again- Pokémon really hasn't been the same since the production team changed and the original voice actors were fired. 

Except Maddie Blaustein- she passed away a short time after the change took place. I'd noticed a few times over the years how her credits had changed from "Adam" to "Maddie" and, unless it was my imagination, it changed back and forth sevearl times.
I didn't find out until the time of her passing (sources suggest it was an undiagnosed stomach virus) that she was actual trans, born as Adam and later changed to Maddie. And going further, she was intersex, assigned male and later transitioned to female. 
I can't say much else except her voice for Meowth was so iconic... and whoever took over, they just aren't as good. 

***

A few honorable mentions:

E.G. Daily and Christine Cavanugh for their work on Rugrats. Elizabeth Daily recently made a cameo in "To Tell the Truth" and hearing her do Tommy's voice blew my mind.
Christine Cavanugh was Chuckie as well as Babe the pig in the 1995 film. She passed away in 2014... and it wasn't until today I found out her cause of death. For ages, it was made out to be this big mystery and it made me (and I'm sure a lot of other fans) fear it was something like suicide... according to Wikipedia, it was CML, a form of leukemia.

Melissa Disney- apparently a distant relative to Walt Disney himself- I first heard as Elora in Spyro 2. And I tuned into the Nicktoon "As told by Ginger" because she played the main role. Elora was a great character and it always made me kinda sad that a) she and Spyro were never a couple (despite them being different species) and b) she just disappears after you get 100%... but Elora makes a notable cameo in the Spyro 3 credits. 

Haley Joel Osment, I'd followed his work super close after he won my heart as Sora in "Kingdom Hearts"... but it wasn't without some pitfalls. In several of his live action roles (The Sixth Sense, A.I., etc), he always whispers his dialogue and that annoyed me so much. Then of course his voice changed so when he reprised Sora in "Kingdom Hearts II," the infatuation wasn't quite the same. Between that and the fact Sora gets a costume change because he grew so much in the past year... it was just hard for me to think of them as the same character between the two games. 
It's hard to explain, but I've always been a stickler for consistency and continuity. Like if an actor changes their hairstyle or haircolor or grows a beard from one time I see them to the next... I don't quite recognize them. 

Tim Curry- he stole hearts in movies like "Rocky Horror," "Clue," and "Home Alone 2"... but to me, he'll always be Nigel Thornberry from "The Wild Thornberries"
Smashing!

Jim Cummings- if anyone deserves a medel for most versatile voice actor, it's this guy. His range is absolutely ridiculous! He sang for the villains in "The Lion King" and "Anastasia." He took over for Winnie the Pooh after the original actor (who also did Cheshire Cat) passed away. (Then later, Tigger)
The dude has so many roles, his filmography has its own page... I'll just list a few of the other highlights and wrap this up:

• Chief Powahaten in Pocahantos
• Steele in Balto (really good bad guy!)
• Pete in various Disney cartoons, including Kingdom Hearts II
• Cat in the Nicktoon CatDog

***

That's basically it. If I need to add anything, I'll just hit the edit button and come back