- I'm looking at this guy and I'm thinking
off the top of my head, like a Clint Eastwood.
So I would get...
I'd get very close to the mic.
See the mic can you hear your hair growing,
can hear your thoughts.
You don't have to project.
But I'm also looking at his face, he's got this little
side thing going on right there and he's got a huge uvula.
Don't mess with my uvula.
Hi, my name is Bob Bergen and
I am a voiceaholic.
I'm probably more known for
things that aren't me.
P-P-P Porky Pig.
For about a...
30...
About three decades.
I was Marvin the Martian in Space Jam.
I'm gonna blow up the Earth, it obstructs
my view of the Venus, isn't that lovely?
And Tweety.
Oh you bad old puddy tat!
Bucky the squirrel in The Emperor's New Groove.
[nonsensical squeaking]
So today, I'm gonna see pictures of characters
and try to bring them to life
and kinda talk you through my process
of creating characters for cartoons.
Oo I think that's a pig, I'm good at pigs.
I'm looking at that guy, he looks blue collar.
So I'm thinking he's got round shoulders
so I do that round shoulders,
I got the side face, I'm seeing Buddy Hackett now.
So I'm thinking like a Buddy Hackett sort of thing
with the football helmet,
why does he have a football helmet?
Cause years ago when he was playing football,
lots of problems, lots of injuries,
have to protect the gray matter.
Even though I'm green, I gotta protect the gray matter.
Because he's an alien and he's kind of green,
maybe I'll squeeze the back of my throat
and make it a little bit more of an alien sort of character
and he's got sort of a snorty, like a little pig snout
so I might everyone once in a while, for no reason at all,
when he gets upset go,
[squealing]
I meant to do that.
He's a very sweet guy with a big smile
so I might just give him a very big smiley face.
Or, I mean, it looks like he's getting down on one paw
to propose, so he might be a little nervous,
he might be a little bit nervous.
I mean look at her, she's gorgeous.
I mean look at that nose, look at those spots.
Look at that one paw, that one light paw, if we had kids
oh my god they'd have such beautiful little paws.
So I get down on one knee and I say,
"Honey, it's been a few years would you like to marry me?
"I mean come on, my fleas are your fleas."
Very classic comic strip villain sort of thing.
You could go very stereotypical, driving a car!
[cackling]
That's the stereotype but
I sometimes like to play opposite the type.
He might be the evil butler.
So he's the butler every once in a while driving around,
yes sir where can I take you?
And then when he takes the car for a little joyride,
like right now, and his eyes are wide.
I've got the Mercedes right here next to me
and I'm going to In-N-Out Buger
and I'm gonna have three Double Doubles.
Oh my.
Wow.
Okay,
for those looking to do this, little tricks of the trade,
the microphone is the ear of your scene partner.
Where you are on mic, corresponds
to where the characters are in the actual cartoon.
I'm looking at this guy and I'm thinking,
off the top of my head, like a Clint Eastwood.
So I would get...
I'd get very close to the mic.
See the mic can hear your hair growing,
can hear your thoughts.
You don't have to project but I'm also looking at his face,
he's got this little side thing going on right there
and he's got a huge uvula.
Don't mess with my uvula.
I could also, you could also give him a slight accent,
some kind of a, just a non descript,
non descript sort of accent.
Don't mess with me man, do not mess with me.
I got weapons.
I got a knife, I got a gun, I got tiny little feet,
don't make fun of my little feet!
Also classic comic strip that's great.
He's got the little beard, he's bald,
it's sort of like an aged Lex Luthor.
Your typical maniacal sort of evil character
but let's make him a little older.
So I'm not gonna make him ancient,
I'm just gonna make him a little bit older.
Oh Superman my plan is to take that S
and get rid of it with kryptonite!
But I can actually make him even older than that
cause nobody's told me,
if there's no description on the page
how old the character is but he's kind of old,
I might start with a guy right here,
get him a little bit older, even older than that
and then, if I want, I can take out
his teeth and make him even older than that.
And if I wanna make him one step closer to death,
oh I'll do that too.
I'm flying a spaceship and oh these darn cataracts,
not sure where I'm going but ho I'm going there.
Whoa!
He's happy,
he's musical.
So and you sing in a lot of cartoons people.
You know, whether it's the show
or the theme song, singing is a plus.
He could possibly be an Edwin, I'm a lit bit country!
I'm a little bit rock and roll/.
I can also make him a country and western singer.
♪ I got the green scales for you ♪
He also has a little, like a bird feather
on the top of his head so maybe he's a hybrid.
So I could just maybe give him
a little bit of an occasional [clucking]
My father was a dragon, my mother was a chicken.
I also like the buck teeth, I'm very,
you physically play the character, the voice will follow.
So I'm very very big on the physical.
I have a look at the character like this,
with a big mouth and the big buck teeth and al of a sudden
I'm now making him a little dumb, a little stupid,
just one taco short of a combination plate
but I love to play my music!
All right.
So let me just say the operation didn't go great all right?
But it doesn't matter, it's my happy day
and I'm gonna marry the thing of my dreams.
Dear, oh I'm so glad you used the teeth whitener.
It's beautiful, it looks just like my dress.
So what's really funny and fun about him is
you could play him, the evil guy like this!
But I think it'd be even more entertaining if he was
just a typical sitcom dad from the 50s like Roy Cleaver.
Oh hi dear yeah, so I spent a little bit too much time
in the sun booth but I think I'm okay right now.
Excuse me Rabbi do you have a little bit of moisturizer?
I could use just a pinch, thank you.
Oh well I'm a bit of a chain smoker here you see and...
One cigarette or two.
This is obviously not a PC cartoon.
What'd be fun for him is if he just,
he's got a disease.
I'm very big of diseases, when you're thinking of quirks
for characters, you wanna think of something
in the personality, I call it a signature,
the signature is something the actor does
that kind of brings the character to life
and makes them memorable.
Like Porky's stutter.
So this guy, he could just have
a little conversation every once [coughing]
Every once in a while.
And then he catches his breath again.
But oh, oh I gotta get a cab excuse me.
Taxi!
[coughing and wheezing]
taxi!
T-T-T-T-T-T Taxi!
I'm okay, I'm okay, I've cut down to seven packs.
This is fun.
Okay so he's, he's the Devil, and he's got a contract.
Now, again, you can play him evil
but I'm looking at this guy,
I look at this Devil and I think he's just an agent
trying to get a deal, hey how you doing?
Good to talk to you.
By the way, we couldn't get your scale,
in fact you're gonna have to pay them
to do this voice but very big part, very big part.
No, no just sign on the dotted line.
Don't even worry about the fact
that there's no screen credit, no, no, no.
I know you, you know me, we know each other.
Yeah bye now.
Well he's just a rabbit you know and he's flying
a helicopter and oh yeah the lady's down below,
hey look, hey look I got the wedding proposal right here.
Oh gosh where's the wedding proposal?
It's supposed to be on the flag!
Hey, hey down below!
Will you marry her?
I think he said yes.
Will you marry him?
I think she said yes.
And by the way, so I'll see the propellor on the plane
and I'll be a little bit louder cause you gotta imagine
there's gonna be some post production mix,
sound effects that might be in the finished product.
And the maybe he's steering a little.
All those physicalities that you do,
physically play the character, the voice will follow.
So if this guy's steering left!
And he's gonna steer right!
And then he's gonna wanna go out of control-ol-ol-ol-ol-ol!
And the whole time you still have to stay on mic.
That is the hard part.
And then just for fun, even if it's not in the script,
as I'm looking down there I'm going to...
I'm gonna crash into the building
and then just kinda flop.
Oh that's fun, this is a rainbow kitty
with an avocado on his or her shirt.
I like to go out and I'm an individual.
I do have one horn, my goal in life is to have a second one,
I can't afford it right now
but I've got Saturn's rings around my waist
and it makes me feel special.
Looks like sort of a Western.
I'm seeing sort of a Sam Elliott,
I'm seeing Sam Elliott sorta guy so,
because the microphone can pick up everything,
I could keep him right here
but I'd get really close and I might even talk like this,
outta the side of my mouth cause he's got a cigarette
and the cigarette's being held up by that big mustache
and he just looks a little bit intimidating
so I don't think I'd have to get any bigger than this
unless the script asks for him
to have a shoot out or something.
So advice to those who wanna do what I do,
study improv, study acting, then study voiceover.
And there are different genres of voice over.
This is animation obviously.
Animation, games, those are character voices
but there's also commercial voice over,
there's e-learning, there's promos, there's narration,
there's toys, there's games, there's anime.
When you're hired to do television,
Saturday morning cartoons, we are hired
to do at least two characters
and you might have to have different intent.
So one character might be sound asleep
and another character comes running in,
their house is on fire.
So you go from [snoring]
this guy comes running in and he's like,
"Hey wake up, your house is on fire!"
[snoring]
And this guy's gotta try to lift him up
and shake him and shake him and shake him
and the other guy's flopped over [snoring]
I told you to wake up!
You've gotta actually have these contrasting
energies together and you kinda record it in real time.
Thank you Vanity Fair this was a blast.
I'm Bob Bergen, thank you for watching my creative process
as I create voices for cartoons and until next time.
That's all folks.