FFX Voice Actor Geeking Love!

[auronlu]

Oh, Mugs, you are too good to me, catering to my cheesy voice acting fix. FFX's voice acting is terribly choppy, yet I look past the bad to find the good.

Exhibit A: Interview with Matt McKenzie, Auron's VA, who seems to be absolutely as stodgy and serious as his alter ego:

Auron Speaks!

-- note: this websites a bit draggy; it may take a couple tries to load.

Favorite excerpts: 

McKenzie: "My agent called and said, 'Have you played some character named Auron? Disney wants you to do that character in some new game…' I said, 'Auron’s DEAD!' She said, 'You’re booked. Go make some money.'”

Mckenzie: "Take an occasional break from gaming for romance. It’s important! Have fun!"
(Compare to Auron's quote: "Make mistakes. That's what youth is for, after all. Do not waste it.") 

___ 


Exhibit B: Paula Tiso, VA for Lulu (and Col. Nabaat in XIII, not well-utilized): 

Lulu Speaks!

Tiso: "Leon [Kennedy of MGS Resident Evil] and Lulu would make a nice couple too- don’t you think? If there were ever a zombie attack I think my chances would be pretty good."

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Exhibit C: Interview with Alexander Smith, localization / translation for X, X-2, XII
After reading his discussion of why he translated "Arigatou" with 'I love you," I am a little more reconciled. Translation is SO HARD when you're trying to capture emotion/storytelling, not only literal meaning.

And I worship what he did with FFXII. The iambic pentameter for the Occuria rocked so hard. (Yes, I've gushed over the mannered translation for XII before.) 

 

Comments

[owlmoose]

That Alexander Smith interview is excellent! Really interesting stuff. Thanks for the link. (Nice non-answer there regarding the FFX remake.)

Mugs linked me to the Matt McKenzie interview yesterday, and I also found it a good read. The bit that sticks with me is his mention that Auron's mouth being hidden by the collar made his job easier, because he didn't have to worry about matching lip movements. Not to take anything away from his incredible voice acting, but I wonder of that's part of why his performance was a step above pretty much all the others.

[auronlu]

Good point. Poor Hedy Burgess, forced to Shatner every other scene; I know she's better than that!

Even Lulu has a few real booger lines, although she can usually sultry-sexy-slow her way past timing issues; there's one line where she's talking about Chappu using a machina weapon where it's painfully clear she's having to draw it waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out to match a Japanese sentence that must have had a lot more words.

And trying to synch English "okay" to Japanese "Hai!" almost never works. Cid and Auron get away with "yep" and "yeah," but it's just murder for Tidus and Yuna-- I suspect their Japanese VAs used that particularly clipped form of "Hai!" that's almost a yip.

I hope against hope they'll get the VAs back to work on some of the lines with poor timing. But (a) they may not be able to get hold of everyone (though most are still working, and those who did Dissidia are surely available), (b) in some cases their voices may have aged, and (c) it's been long enough they may not be able to capture their voices, particularly Wakka's and Auron's.

Matt McKenzie lost his Auron-growl when he came back for Kingdom Hearts. I think he was making his voice especially gruff and half an octave lower during most of FFX (except for flashbacks, where he was using his real pitch but doing something to close his throat and sound tetchy).

Random obscure comment... do you think, as I do, that Matt McKenzie is the blitzball announcer at the start of FFX? I'm 99% sure that's his real speaking voice, or close to it. Video link :"Zanar, I says to myself..." (If it is him, it's not his best work, but I've always rather liked the fact that Auron's voice is the first one we hear after "Listen to my story...")


ETA: Oh, heck, it IS him. No question. Mugs with video clip of McKenzie using his "Zanar" voice.