Worst Stand-In Voice Actors

[Mr. Zed da Robot Poon Fed]

This is a really weird and autistic example, so bear with me for a minute.

Leonard Nimoy voiced Xehanort in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. He's a surprisingly good voice actor in that he almost elevates the material he's working with (but then he's Leonard Nimoy, dude could elevate even the shittiest Trek episodes).

Nimoy sadly passed away in 2015, before the release of Kingdom Hearts III. It just so happened that Nimoy voiced the main antagonist in the whole series, and KH3 was meant to wrap his story up. You'd expect them to just get a stand-in, maybe someone like Corey Burton, but instead they replace him with Rutger Hauer.

Hauer's performance is so far removed from how Nimoy played him that I don't know what they're going for. If he's trying to imitate Nimoy he doesn't do a particularly good job at it.

You know what the funny thing about this is? When Hauer died that year, Christopher Lloyd ended up voicing him in the Re:Mind DLC. What did you think of him, because I didn't play the DLC.

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

You know what the funny thing about this is? When Hauer died that year, Christopher Lloyd ended up voicing him in the Re:Mind DLC. What did you think of him, because I didn't play the DLC.

I didn't play it either, mostly because I marathoned the last part of KH3, which burned me out pretty hard by the time I finished it.

I just looked up Christopher Lloyd's performance in Re:Mind because I legitimately didn't know he voiced Xehanort. He does okay I guess, it's getting weird though that literally every appearance of this guy has a totally different voice and none of them sound alike.

Am I the only one who's a little stunned that a series as silly as Kingdom Hearts keeps getting these big-name actors to play Xehanort?

 

[Articles and Nudes]

Going in the opposite direction, I still find it hard to believe Troy Baker voices the younger Joker in Arkham Origins. Other than having a slightly deeper, rougher laugh, he's a dead ringer for Mark Hamil's performance.

 

[Product Placement]

For games
Die Hard 3 for the ps1, they guy who says "we're not going make it" is meant to be Sam Jackson

Dead Rising 4 recast of Frank West was so pointless, wasn't that the new guy was bad just wasn't Frank West, and wasn't helped with the awful writing

KH1 they recast Hercules, when it comes to replacement VA Disney are normally great getting soundalikes, but not this case, they got Sean Astin from LotR movies, and well he just sounds like him self rather than the character.

David Hayter to Kiefer Sutherland, it's not that he does a bad job just the voice for Snake is too iconic to replace now. On that note the AE3 Snake dub

In general
Billy West was a poor Bugs Bunny
No one has got Dick Dastley or Captain Caveman down since the og voice actors died.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

Oh yeah Aeirth switching from Mandy Moore to Mena Suvari. Not sure what happened there. Suvari DOES have range (watch Sugar and Spice) so I'm baffled as to why she gave such a flat performance

 

[Thiletonomics]

There was a moment during WWE 2K19's MyCareer mode, where they had a different voice actor do some lines for John Cena's appearance in the game, because WWE for some reason couldn't get the actual John Cena to do the lines. Not to mention that the said voice actor doesn't even sound like the actual John Cena at all:

Said moment is at 30:35 in the video.

 

[Ilikeoreos]

I know that I'm probably going to have puzzle pieces thrown at me for this one but it's something that needs to be said.

I personally don't think that Matt Vogel's Kermit voice is quite as bad as some people say it is, it still probably sounds better than anyone besides Jim Henson or Steve Whitmire would be able to do it at the very least, but it's his Big Bird voice that's really painful for me to listen too. It's baffling because if you listen to his performances from when he was understudying 20 years ago in the "Journey to Ernie" segments he actually did do a decent imitation of Carroll Spinney, but after Carroll passed and he took over for good he suddenly started using a very low dopey sounding voice that almost sounds like he's specifically trying to imitate the way Carroll sounded in his last few years when he was declining, I don't understand why he would do that when we have evidence that he can do better than that.

On the other hand, I really do like Matt's Count voice, Jerry Nelson's voice was so distinct that it probably works better to not try to do a perfect imitation of it and it does sound like Matt's having a lot if fun with the role.

 

[Michael Wade]

Wow this is a great thead idea. There's always so many moments where this shit happens in a series you love and they replace long standing original voices. Gotta say a major pet peeve of mine is when an original voice actor gets replaced when you've been with them for so long.

First example that comes to mind was sam fisher in blacklist, but ironside was dying of cancer at the time (he's fine now thank god) so that made sense. They needed an older voice actor though, new dude was too young and try hard.

I remember this was a big problem for me at first in the FF7 remake. Got used to it fairly quickly with the high quality cast but man the voice for sephiroth.... he had and still has a tough ass time comparing to george newburn. It's a decent performance in hindsight and he comes into it at the end but Id switch back in a heartbeat. Surprisingly I actually like zack's performance. The new genesis in crisis core remaster sounds so lame and uninspired compared to the original, I really hope his performance improves in the new ones ( you know his ass is going to show up again.)


Before kevin conroy died this was also something of an issue for anything animated with batman. As not too many guys can do a voice nearly as good as him. was always disappointed when something new came out and he was not the voice

James Arnold Taylor's impression of Johnny Depp in Kingdom Hearts II was godawful. Even worse, he's actually proud of this. He brings it up as one of the highlights of his voice acting career in live appearances:

It was kinda hilarious in how bad and lame it was. Now I gotta say Jared Butlers impression of Depp in KH3 and every recent game is SPOT ON. So much so I really thought it was him for a little while.

I think the VA for Truth in Halo 3 was good but not as great as in Halo 2. In Halo 2, he sounded scheming and conniving who only saw the Covenant as means for power where in Halo 3 he sounds like a overzealous believer. It could be the writing so I won't harp on it.

I loved it because it was general zod from superman 2

Im not sure if this arnie stand-in was trying his hardest or he just didn't give a shit

It's extra weird because arnold did the voice for the predator game.

You know what the funny thing about this is? When Hauer died that year, Christopher Lloyd ended up voicing him in the Re:Mind DLC. What did you think of him, because I didn't play the DLC.

Fucking brilliant casting. He really should have been him from the beginning, his final boss fight felt much more satisfying. every time he dubbed over a line reading Hauer did before there was more energy and evil passion.

I love hauer but he did not have the right fit 50% of the time. The mojo wasnt there.

 

[Colon capital V]

Probably one of the most infamous examples of stand-ins has to be for Mr. Krabs (and Mermaid Man) in some Spongebob games by Joe Whyte instead of Clancy Brown, most notably in BfBB

 

[Big Fat Frog]

The voice actor in 3 was Terence Stamp. It was a bit of celebrity stunt casting. I preferred Michael Wincott as Truth too.

From what I remember Marty saying in an interview was that everyone at Bungie loved working with Wincott but basically Microsoft kinda fucked some scheduling thing with him and then they used his voice in one of the trailers without consulting him and paying for it and apparently he was pretty fucking pissed and said that Microsoft was extremely unprofessional and refused to do any other projects with them again. They wanted to get him again but unfortunately when someone hammers down something like that you kinda want to leave them alone and respect their decision.

 

[Thiletonomics]

Another example that comes to mind, is when IO-Interactive attempted to replace David Bateson as the voice of Agent 47 in Hitman: Absolution, with William Mapother. However, the fanbase had an overwhelmingly negative reaction to the change, and even IOI even mentioned that they missed Bateson doing voice work, so they brought Bateson back to voice 47 for Absolution. That sadly didn't save that game from being a disappointment, compared to past Hitman games.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

Helena Taylor to Jennifer Hale as Bayonetta. A Canadian American doing an attempt at an English accent versus an actual Brit.......

Lani Minella to Wendee Lee as Lyndis in Fire Emblem because Lee.....sounds exactly the same as she always does.

The new Mickey Mouse is an irl faggot. Bret Iwan.

Erica Lindbeck replacing several actresses in several remakes is the prime example why we need actors with range, because she doesn't have it.

 

[Kheapathic]

I'll give you an upgrade and a downgrade, from the same series.

Upgrade: Chie Satonaka portrayed by Tracey Rooney to Erin Fitzgerald. The OG Chie sounds too old.

Downgrade: Rise Fujikawa portrayed by Laura Bailey to Ashley Burch. Granted the change is only in Dancing All Night, Laura does the voice for all others. You can tell something is off with the voice... and it's Anthony Burch's bloodline.

 

[King Vidiot]

It bothered me when they recast the voice actor for David Sarif in the Deus Ex games. Rick Miller does good voice work, but Stephen Shellen's performance from Human Revolution fits the character so well it feels wrong to hear anyone else do the character. Here is a comparison:

It is also worth mentioning why Stephen Shellen wasn't brought back to reprise his role. The game developers didn't want to work with him anymore after he got into a lot of conspiracy, gangstalking and targeted individual stuff, which he talks about on his youtube channel. He also made a full length movie about being a targeted individual called The Spark and has been mentioned in the Gang stalking thread a couple times.

 

[Battlecruiser3000ad]

It is also worth mentioning why Stephen Shellen wasn't brought back to reprise his role. The game developers didn't want to work with him anymore after he got into a lot of conspiracy, gangstalking and targeted individual stuff, which he talks about on his youtube channel. He also made a full length movie about being a targeted individual called The Spark and has been mentioned in the Gang stalking thread a couple times.

Sounds like the perfect actor for Deus Ex, dumbfuck devs.

 

[Drag-on Knight 91873]

Helena Taylor to Jennifer Hale as Bayonetta. A Canadian American doing an attempt at an English accent versus an actual Brit.......

Yeesh, I've heard that accent in KOTOR 1. In that game, it worked because Bastilla is a Leia reference, so the shitty accent worked. I'm absolutely certain it's unironically bad without actually hearing it.