< The Other Darrin

The Other Darrin/Western Animation

  • Averted at the last minute on Futurama. When Futurama was set to create new episodes for Comedy Central, FOX scared fans by stating that the original voice actors (Billy West, Katey Sagal, John DiMaggio, Lauren Tom, et al.) would be replaced due to a pay dispute. The pay dispute was settled and the original voice actors continued to do the show.
    • Played straight with Robot Santa. On Robot Santa's first episode ("An X-Mas Story"), John Goodman (Dan from Roseanne or Linda Tripp on many a Monica Lewinsky-based political sketch on Saturday Night Live) voiced Robot Santa. The second time Robot Santa appeared ("A Tale of Two Santas"), Goodman wasn't available, so John DiMaggio was cast.
    • Also played straight and mixed in with What Could Have Been with Zapp Brannigan. Originally, Phil Hartman was supposed to voice Zapp Brannigan when Futurama was in its pre-production phase. When Hartman was murdered by his wife, Billy West was cast instead.
  • The Fairly OddParents:
    • The series did this with Chester and AJ (Chester was originally voiced by Frankie Muniz). This became particularly jarring when they once did an episode about a past episode from Chester and AJ's perspective. And, surprisingly, this was NEVER Lampshaded.
    • Timmy himself is also subject to this—he was voiced by Mary Kay Bergman in the original shorts, but when Bergman committed suicide in the late 1990s, Tara Strong took over as his voice in the regular series. She even redubbed his lines in the original shorts when they were shown as episodes of the show. (The original versions can be seen on the DVD releases, though).
    • Dr. Bender (the sadistic dentist) was voiced by Gilbert Gottfried in the earlier episodes. The later episodes have series creator Butch Hartman painfully trying to mimic Gottfried's voice so naive audiences wouldn't know the difference.
    • In Brazil, Timmy's voice actor changed, up to Season 2.
    • This applies to Tootie as well. In her first appearance in the Oh Yeah! shorts, she was voiced by Amber Wood, but in the series itself, Grey DeLisle provides her voice.
  • Because they used real prepubescent voice actors rather than adults that sounded like children, some of the characters on Arthur had many different actors over the course of the series, most notably DW, Brain and Arthur himself. Also, Brain's voice got really deep before they replaced him.
  • In Season 3 of Mucha Lucha, Jason Marsden took over Carlos Alazraqui's role as the voice of Rikochet. They did a bit of Lampshade Hanging with this in "Shamrock and Roll", when Buena Girl commented on how Rikochet has been maturing as a wrestler: "Even his voice sounds different!"
  • Mostly averted in a rare case of a Live action movie made into an animated series as almost the entire cast reprises their Characters with the exception of Trevor Snarr as Don who is replaced by Jared Hess fot the animated series of Napoleon Dynamite. most instaces of this have few or none of the original cast.
  • The role of the Griffin daughter Meg in Family Guy was played by Lacey Chabert during the first season and was replaced by Mila Kunis for the remainder of the series.
    • Lampshaded in the "Business Guy" episode, when Peter says he could replace Lois easily, using the words "Lacey Chabert" as a threat.
    • Also lampshaded in "Back to the Pilot," when Stewie and Brian travel to the first episode of the series, Stewie mentions that Meg sounds like someone missing an opportunity.
    • Fun fact: Lacey Chabert's name was not in the credits during the first season; however, it's in the credits for the above episode.
    • Spoofed when Stewie notes that we know have wrong-sounding Muppets, leading to a Cutaway Gag with them being voiced by a distinctly un-Muppetlike Michael Clarke Duncan.
    • Played straight with Death; originally voiced by Norm MacDonald, but then replaced by Adam Carolla.
    • In her first appearance Lois' sister Carol was voiced by Carol Kane. In her second appearance a decade later she is voiced by Julie Hagerty.
  • Notable reversal: Transformers often upgrade, and occasionally mutate, into newer, more powerful bodies. The degree to which their new looks resemble their previous style tends to vary, and sometimes they even change their name upon taking on a new body, as Hot Rod did on becoming Rodimus Prime in The Movie, or like Overhaul did when he became Leobreaker in Cybertron. The voice actors tend to stay the same when this happens. This is usually an Nth Doctor thing, but sometimes happens as an Other Darrin thing between series, most notably in the Unicron Trilogy.
    • Brian Drummond, for example, gave Jetfire in Transformers Cybertron an Australian accent, despite the character being the same as the one in Energon, who was then voiced by Scott McNeil.
      • Cybertron Red Alert has a British accent, although he is voiced by the same actor (Brian Dobson) as in Armada.
    • Hot Shot and Landmine, voiced by Brent Miller and Ward Perry in the first two installments, were switched to Kirby Morrow and Paul Dobson for Cybertron.
    • Paul Dobson where he mentioned that someone else had taken over the role of Overhaul following his upgrade to Leobreaker—no one is exactly aware of how true this is, but the voices are noticeably different.
    • Sideways was voiced by Paul Dobson in Transformers Armada, and Ted Cole in Cybertron.
    • A weird example; when Megatron (voiced by Frank Welker) became Galvatron in Transformers: The Movie, he was voiced by Leonard Nimoy. In the post-movie episodes of the TV show, Leonard Nimoy was replaced... by Frank Welker. Other cast changes took place since they were unwilling to pay the A-list celebrities that voiced them; Jack Angel inherited Ultra Magnus from Robert Stack, John Stephenson took over as Kup in place of Lionel Stander, Tony Pope played Wreck-Gar in lieu of Eric Idle, Roger C. Carmel replaced Orson Welles' Unicron, and Judd Nelson as Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime was replaced by Ted Schwartz, who received The Other Marty treatment by Dick Gautier, who voiced the character for the rest of the series.
    • In Transformers Animated, Kevin Michael Richardson was replaced by Phil LaMarr as the voice of Omega Supreme for the third season. The switch was seamless, though it becomes noticeable when you're aware of the change.
    • According to Word of God, Transformers: War for Cybertron and Transformers Prime are set in the same universe. However, Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime is the only voice that transferred between the two, with Bumblebee and Soundwave going silent and the other returning characters getting recast.
      • In a convention version of one of the episodes, Ernie Hudson voiced Knock-Out in Daran Norris's place.
  • The Simpsons parodied this: on the Season 10 episode, "Homer to the Max",[1] Homer looks over all the new mid-season replacement shows and points out a new animated series called "The Laughter Family," adding that TV networks love animated shows, "...because they don't have to pay the actors squat!"[2] Ned Flanders then walks by the window and, in a noticeably different voice [3] he says "Plus, you can replace the voices and no one can tell the diddly-ifference!"
    • The episode Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase (mentioned earlier) spoofs this concept to hell and back. One of the spin-offs is "The Simpson Family Smile-Time Variety Hour", and episode host Troy McLure comments that one of the family refused to go along with the idea, but "...thanks to some creative casting, you won't even notice." When the episode starts up, we're greeted by the Simpsons...with a perky blond teenager ("Sophomore prom queen five years running", she calls herself) in place of Lisa.
    • Also parodied with Duff Man, who didn't have a name when he was introduced in Season 9's "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson," was called Larry in Season 11's "Pygmoelian," and was called Sid in Season 12's "Hungry Hungry Homer." In Season 13's "Jaws Wired Shut," this so-called "continuity goof" was explained when Lenny told Duff Man that he thought he died of liver disease. Duff Man replies, "Duff Man can never die; only the actors who play him!" On Season 17's finale "Marge and Homer Turn a Couple Play," it was revealed that there are multiple Duff Men who look and sound alike, but it's kept a secret so as not to disillusion children.
    • In the episode "Homer's Odyssey",[4] Burns is voiced by comedian Christopher Collins,[5] but was replaced by Harry Shearer before broadcast. The same thing happened when Collins voiced Moe Szyslak on "Some Enchanted Evening",[6] only Moe's new voice actor would be Hank Azaria.
    • Lunchlady Doris was retired as a character after Doris Grau died (she did appear in some episodes between the time her character was retired and the time Tress MacNeille replaced her, but Doris was often seen in crowd scenes). Starting in Season 18, she returned a decade later with Tress MacNeille as her new voice actress.
  • Mary Kay Bergman, who did most of the female voices on South Park, died during production of the show's third season, not long after recording her dialogue and the Bigger, Longer & Uncut movie had been completed. Eliza Schneider was hired to replace her, and she herself was later replaced by April Stewart (with Mona Marshall handling some of the other roles) when she had troubles with her union/salary.
    • Out of the female characters, Wendy has had the most voice changes: Karri Turner voiced her in the unaired pilot, then Mary Kay Bergman (first under the alias Shannen Cassidy) voiced her until her suicide during the aforementioned third season. In the following year, Mona Marshall initially voiced Wendy, but the role shifted to Eliza Schneider mid-season, who voiced her until the end of the seventh one. April Stewart (nee Gracie Lazar) has been her current voice since the eighth.
  • Buzz Lightyear of Star Command has two different voice actors for XR, Larry Miller and Neil Flynn. The two men trade places seemingly at random from episode to episode with no acknowledgement of a change. To be fair, the metallic effect applied to the voices makes them sound identical at first, until you get to know the character and realize he has a disappearing accent.
    • Interestingly, another character has the same voice actor throughout the series but sounds different in every episode.
    • Buzz himself counts for this. "The Adventure Begins" film that started the series saw Tim Allen reprise his role from the Toy Story films. When the actual series began Buzz was now voiced by Patrick Warbuton, who also proceeded to dub over Allen for the edited, multi-part version of "The Adventure Begins."
  • The Flintstones recast everyone except for Wilma after the original 5-minute pilot. For the main TV series, Betty (originally voiced by Bea Benaderet) was replaced with Gerry Johnson for the final two seasons of the main show. Johnson died shortly after the series, and Betty has been voiced by a number of actresses since.
    • Alan Reed, Fred Flintstone's original voice, did Fred's voice on the debut episode of Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics. He died soon after and would be replaced in Fred's appearances on the show by Henry Corden, who would be his regular voice from then on.
  • In Avatar: The Last Airbender, Mako, the voice of Iroh, died when they were just about finished with the second season, and was replaced by Greg Baldwin (and given a touching sendoff in Iroh's Day in The Limelight episode).
  • Between The Super Mario Bros Super Show and The Adventures of Super Mario Bros 3, three-fifths of the main cast got switched out for new ones for unknown reasons, which they kept up through Super Mario World; Mario, originally voiced by Captain Lou Albano, became Walker Boone, Luigi, who was originally Danny Wells, became Tony Rosato (a former cast member of Canada's sketch show SCTV and the long-running American sketch show Saturday Night Live), and Princess Toadstool, originally Jeannie Elias, became Tracey Moore. Toad (John Stocker) and King Koopa (Harvey Atkin) were unchanged.
  • In The Tick (animation), Arthur was voiced by Micky Dolenz in the first season, then Rob Paulsen took over for the rest of the series.
  • In The Venture Brothers, minor character Prof. Richard Impossible was voiced by Peter McCulloch in the pilot, Stephen Colbert in the first two seasons, Chris McCulloch (Jackson Publick) in the third season, and Bill Hader in the fourth season.
    • Publick also took over the voice acting duties for Sgt. Hatred in Season 3, who was voiced by Brendon Small during his first appearance, due to the fact that Brendon Small was busy working on Metalocalypse.
    • Both Dr. Girlfriend and Billy Quizboy were voiced by Chris McCulloch in the pilot episode, but by Doc Hammer on the rest of the show.
  • Danielle's voice in Danny Phantom replaced original voice actor Annasophia Robb with Krista Swan when she reappeared a second time. Valerie Gray's voice was given by Grey DeLisle while she was a minor character before Cree Summer took over when she jumped into a larger role.
  • Several voices in Doug switched when it went from Nickelodeon to Disney, including the title character's. Billy West played Doug in the Nickelodeon version. The Disney version has Thomas McHugh as the new voice of Doug. Roger the bully went from also being voiced by Billy West to being voiced by Chris Phillips. Billy West apparently left the show when Disney refused to match Nickelodeon's salary (he has since criticized McHugh's performance). As the first episode of Disney's version was about Doug's aversion to change, Skeeter's eventual lampshading was inevitable.
  • In The Ren and Stimpy Show, John Kricfalusi was the original voice of Ren. After Kricfalusi was fired over censorship issues and turning in late work, Billy West took over the role of Ren in addition to his role as Stimpy.[7]
      • In the short-lived Adult Party Cartoon spinoff, Stimpy was voiced by Eric Bauza instead of Billy West (while John K. returned to voicing Ren). West has hated John K. ever since the two worked together on the original Ren and Stimpy—and the hatred worsened when West saw plans for the revival series and expressed how disgusted he was of it.
  • In The Spectacular Spider-Man, Tombstone was originally voiced by Keith David in his first appearance, but due to him being involved in other projects Kevin Michael Richardson took over the role, doing an extremely convincing imitation.
  • Many characters from classic Disney movies have new voices for their latest appearances such as the show House of Mouse and the Kingdom Hearts video games (for obvious reasons, since most of the original actors are either retired or have been dead for years).
    • Belle was usually voiced by Paige O'Hara. However, during her House of Mouse incarnation, she was actually voiced by Jodi Benson (who coincidentally was one of the first voice actresses considered for the role of Belle during the development of Beauty and the Beast.), probably because the developers were too lazy to track O'Hara down. On a related note, all of the Triplets/Bimbettes were voiced by Kath Soucie (who originally only voiced the green one) after Mary Kay Bergman (the voice actress who voiced the red and green bimbettes/triplets) committed suicide.
    • Roxanne (Max's girlfriend from A Goofy Movie) was voiced on House of Mouse by Grey DeLisle instead of her original VA Kellie Martin. (Interestingly, in Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas, Max's Suspiciously Similar Substitute girlfriend Mona is voiced by... Kellie Martin.)
  • Characters from the Classic Disney Shorts also had voice acting changes, mostly due to death. Mickey notablly had four official voice actors: Walt Disney, Jim MacDonald, Wayne Alwine and Bret Iwan. Donald has two, Clarence "Ducky" Nash and Tony Anslemo. Goofy had several voice actors, but is currently voiced by Bill Farmer.
  • The same thing happened with the Looney Tunes characters, who have had many different voice actors after Mel Blanc died (aside from Granny and Witch Hazel, of course).
    • An interesting example involving Blanc. The character of Elmer Fudd was originally voiced by (and physically modeled after) portly actor Arthur Q. Bryan. In the classic "What's Opera Doc?" Bryan voiced Fudd as usual, except, during the part where Fudd summons various types of weather to attack Bugs, the word "Smog!" was done by Blanc. Hal Smith took over for a while, and then Mel Blanc.
    • Porky was originally voiced by Joe Dougherty, who actually had a stutter; when Mel Blanc took over, the character kept his trademark stutter.
  • Speaking of Mel Blanc's Looney Tunes characters being vocally replaced, The Looney Tunes Show only has June Foray and Stan Freberg play the characters they were known for in the classic cartoons (Granny and Witch Hazel for Foray and Pete Puma for Freberg). The rest of the characters (most of which were voiced by either Mel Blanc, Arthur Q. Bryan, Sarah Berner, or Bea Benedaret) now have these actors as their voice artists:
    • Jeff Bergman as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Foghorn Leghorn.
    • Joe Alaskey as Sylvester the Cat, Tweety Bird, Henery Hawk, Beaky the Bashful Buzzard, Cecil Turtle and Hubie the Mouse (with Bertie voiced by Frank Welker).
    • Fred Armisen as Speedy Gonzales.
    • Rene Auberjonois as Pepe Le Pew.
    • Dee Bradley Baker as Gossamer (the red hair monster) and Michigan J. Frog.
    • Eric Bauza (John K.'s replacement for Billy West on Ren and Stimpy's Adult Party Cartoon) as Marvin the Martian
    • Jeff Bennett as Nasty Canasta (the Western outlaw seen in such Chuck Jones cartoons as "Drip-Along Daffy" and "Barbary Coast Bunny") and The Crusher (the wrestler/boxer from "Bunny Hugged" and "Rabbit Punch")
    • Bob Bergen as Porky Pig.
    • Jim Cummings as The Tasmanian Devil (he was also Taz's voice in Taz-Mania and Duck Dodgers).
    • Grey DeLisle as Petunia Pig.
    • Jennifer Esposito as Melissa Duck (renamed Tina Russo Duck on the show).
    • Jess Harnell as one half of the Goofy Gophers (with Rob Paulsen as the other half).
    • Tom Kenny as Egghead (the precursor character to Elmer Fudd).
    • Maurice LaMarche as Yosemite Sam.
    • Daran Norris as Barnyard Dawg (the dog who's always being tricked and abused by Foghorn Leghorn) and Wile E. Coyote.
    • Tara Strong as Sniffles the Mouse and Penelope (the cat who always gets painted and pursued by Pepe Le Pew).
    • Will Ryan as Papa Bear from the Three Bears cartoons.
    • Frank Welker (in addition to being Bertie) also voiced The Roadrunner, Charlie Dog and Hector the Bulldog.
    • Billy West as Elmer Fudd (on one of the rare occasions in which Billy West doesn't voice 95% of an animated show cast).
    • Kristen Wiig (also from Saturday Night Live) as Lola Bunny (she was originally voiced by Kath Soucie in Space Jam).
  • The voices for Scooby Doo have gone through a large roundabout over the years.
    • Daphne was the first Scooby-Doo character to be recast. Her original voice actress, Stefanianna Christopherson, left the show before the end of the first season of the original series (17 episodes) to move to New York to get married, and opted not to reprise her role for the second season. The role was recast with Heather North (the then roommate of Nicole Jaffe, the voice of Velma). North continued to voice Daphne in all media until 1998 (with the exception of A Pup Named Scooby-Doo from 1988–91, where she was voiced by Kellie Martin) when the character was recast again, this time with Mary Kay Bergman. Bergman suddenly passed away in 1999, after voicing Daphne for 3 direct-to-video movies. Since then, Grey DeLisle has voiced Daphne in all media (except for two DTV movies in 2002-2003 in which Heather North briefly returned).
    • Velma was originally Nicole Jaffe up until the 1976 series, "The Scooby-Doo Show" in which she declined to reprise her role, and the character went to Pat Stevens, who voiced Velma throughout the entire run of that show, as well as in the "Scooby Goes Hollywood" movie, her appearances in "Dynomutt Dog Wonder", and the first 11 episodes of "The Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo Show". Velma then had a bizarre recasting with Marla Frumkin, who gained a very notorious reception among fans because of her very awkward line delivery. Frumkin played Velma in the last four episodes of that series and two cameos throughout the 80s. From 1988 to 1991, Velma was voiced on A Pup Named Scooby-Doo by Christina Lange. When Velma appeared in her normal form again in 1997, BJ Ward took over the role, and voiced Velma in all media until 2002 when Nicole Jaffe assumed the role again for two DTV movies, and since 2002, Mindy Cohn has voiced Velma in pretty much all other media (doing a Nicole Jaffe impression). Cohn was nominated for an Emmy for her voicework as Velma in 2005.
    • Shaggy was Casey Kasem for years until he quit the role in 1998 after refusing to voice the character in a Burger King commercial (Kasem is an avid vegetarian). Billy West briefly voiced Shaggy for Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island before the role was recast again in 1999 with Scott Innes. Kasem returned to voice Shaggy in 2002, and continued to voice him until his retirement in 2009 (though Scott Menville briefly played the character in "Shaggy in Scooby-Doo Get a Clue" when Kasem played Shaggy's uncle). Since then, Matthew Lillard (who played Shaggy in the two live-action theatrical Scooby Doo movies) has been the voice of Shaggy.
    • As for Scooby-Doo himself, he was voiced by the late great Don Messick until his death in 1996. Hadley Kay briefly took over the role for ads, commercials, and his guest appearances on Johnny Bravo in 1997. Scott Innes then took over the role in 1998, and voiced Scooby in all media until 2002 when Frank Welker was cast. Welker has been the official voice of Scooby ever since.
    • To date, the only voice actor to ever play Fred is none other than... Frank Welker!
      • Almost. Carl Stevens played a 10-year-old Fred in A Pup Named Scooby-Doo.
      • Not even Scrappy has been safe from this! His original voice actor, Lennie Weinrib, left the franchise shortly after the original "Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo Show", and was replaced with Don Messick in pretty much all media until the character was written off the franchise. When Scrappy re-appeared in later media such as commercials, and his role as a villain in the live action movie, Scrappy has been voiced by Scott Innes.
  • In a cross of this with Poor Man's Substitute, many of the direct-to-video sequels and Animated Series derived from the Disney feature films have the famous actors being replaced (such as Dan Castellaneta for Robin Williams in Aladdin); the one that escaped the most was Hercules, which saw all of the original cast but Danny DeVito and Rip Torn returning for the spinoff series.
    • A brief in-series example: At one point, Mozenrath's voice actor Jonathan Brandis was unavailable, so he ended up being voiced by Jeff Bennett for one episode. Brandis returned as Mozenrath's voice in subsequent episodes.
  • Played straight, parodied and Lampshaded in ReBoot. When Bob returns from being lost in the net in Season 3, he has a new look and a new voice actor. In Season 4, a second Bob, supposedly the User's backup, with the original look and voice shows up, and Dot notes he sounds more like the "real" Bob. She nearly marries this Bob, but of course he was Megabyte in disguise using his new Trojan Horse capabilities.
  • The Powerpuff Girls had a couple of cases with this when the cast was re-evaluated after the two original "What a Cartoon!" shorts. This explains why Bubbles, The Mayor, The Narrator, and Ms. Keane changed voice actors after the 2 original cartoon shorts. Most of the other cast members got to keep their roles.
    • After the actual series began, Arturo was recast with Tom Kenney after Carlos Alasraqui voiced him in his first appearance.
  • In The Real Ghostbusters, the characters of Janine, Peter and Winston all switched to new voice-actors at some point in the show. Janine's was the most interesting case, in that her original rather abrasive look/voice were drastically toned down when the switch happened, and this fact was then belatedly used as the plot in an episode, "Janine, You've Changed." It was retconned that Janine had made a deal with an evil spirit to cause the change, only nobody noticed until a character accidentally came across "before and after" photographs.
    • Funnily enough, by the time of the Extreme Ghostbusters, she had reverted back to her old abrasive style, though it was yet another actress in the role (Pat Musick).
  • Shortly after Dexter's Laboratory came back from a long 3-year hiatus, Christine Cavanaugh left the series due to a custody battle over her children after she divorced her husband, and quit acting altogether. Candi Milo, who was hired to replace her as the voice of Dexter, sounded absolutely nothing like the original (Milo also voiced Dexter on the series finale of Time Squad in which Larry and Tuddrussell try to find a replacement orphan for Otto after losing him on a trip to 2001 to stop George W. Bush from making the world's biggest ball of twine).
    • In addition, Dee Dee's voice switched from Allison Moore to Kat Cressida after the first 13 episodes when Allison wanted to focus on her live-action/stage work. When the show returned from the hiatus, Allison returned to play Dee Dee for another season since Genndy Tartokovsky wanted to focus on changing a few voices around. Kat Cressida returned to the role again after a season at the request of Cartoon Network who felt viewers were most used to her.
  • The same thing happened with the Rugrats after Christine Cavanaugh left Chuckie's voice and was replaced by Nancy Cartwright.
    • After the death of Grandpa Lou's first voice actor, David Doyle, Joe Alaskey replaced him.
    • In his first appearance, Jonathan (Charlotte's assistant at work) was voiced by Rene Auberjonois. When he returned to the show, he was replaced by Dan Castellaneta.
    • Elizabeth Daily also filled in for Cree Summer for a few episodes as Susie when Summer wasn't available.
  • The Commissioner in The Inspector (which aired alongside the Pink Panther cartoons) had FOUR different voice-actors during its run. Larry Storch initially did his voice in the first two shorts, then Paul Frees took over for the most of the run. Mark Skor did his voice in one cartoon, and finally, Marvin Miller took over for his final appearances.
    • Incidentally, Pat Harrington Jr. did Sgt. Deux-Deux's voices for all of his appearances except one: Don Messick did his voice in his final appearance, "La Feet's Defeat". He sounded nothing like the original.
    • Also, when the Pink Panther and Inspector first aired on NBC, the theatrical cartoons were being aired along with 30-second animated bumpers featuring the characters. The Inspector's and Sgt. Deux-Deux's voices were being done by Marvin Miller for those bumpers.
    • While normally silent, the Panther himself spoke in two theatrical cartoons, each with a different voice--"Pink Ice" (Rich Little) and "Sink Pink" (Paul Frees). In the 1993 Panther reboot, the Panther spoke continuously with the voice of Matt Frewer.
  • In the new CGI Star Wars: The Clone Wars series, Jar Jar Binks was voiced in the launch movie and one subsequent episode by his original film performer Ahmed Best, but was inexplicably replaced for all subsequent episodes by one BJ Hughes, apparently a Lucasfilm employee.
    • Ahmed Best returned for a Season 3 episode, "Supply Lines".
  • The new Bob & Doug Show, features Dave Coulier replacing Rick Moranis in the role of Bob McKenzie. Since these are animated characters and Dave sorta sounds or tries his best to sound like Moranis, it's not such a big deal--or is it?
    • Ironically, Coulier also replaced Peter Venkman's voice actor in The Real Ghostbusters.
      • Here's another thing: Dave Coulier sounds more like Bill Murray than Rick Moranis.
  • Patrick Dempsey replaces Joaquin Phoenix for the role of Kenai in Brother Bear 2.
  • The voices for the Peanuts specials changed drastically. Almost every other TV special changes at least one actor. This is due to the fact that real kids are always used. Many fans are surprised that the franchise hasn't switched to an all female cast that sound like kids. This got worse in the Latin American dub, when they not only changed voice actors, but also even countries.
  • Dora the Explorer replaced the actress of Dora after the original one left the series to go to college.
  • The Raccoons had several Other Darrins:
    • In the original specials, the characters of Dan the Ranger and Melissa Raccoon were always voiced by the musical guests; Dan was voiced by Rupert Holmes in The Christmas Raccoons, Leo Sayer in The Raccoons on Ice, and John Schneider in The Raccoons and the Lost Star, while Melissa was voiced by Rita Coolidge in the first two and Dottie West in the third. In the made-for-video special The Raccoons: Let's Dance!, series creator Kevin Gillis did Dan's few lines (uncredited), while Melissa did not speak. In the first season of the series, Murray Cruchley voiced Ranger Dan, while Linda Feige voiced Melissa. Between seasons 1 and 2, Dan and the other human characters disappeared from the show, and Linda Feige left and was replaced by Susan Roman (yes, that Susan Roman). When Roman took over the role of Melissa, her interpretation actually changed the character of Melissa, who became spunkier, more youthful and more outspoken (while the character had previously been much more soft-spoken and motherly).
      • Interestingly enough, in the Season 2 Clip Show episode "Time Trap!", Susan Roman replaced Linda Feige's dialogue in clips from Season 1 (since the episode involves Cyril Sneer traveling back in time and changing history, this was obviously necessary in order to match the new scenes).
    • Ranger Dan's kids, Julie and Tommy, were originally voiced by Tammy Bourne and Hadley Kay in the specials. In the first season of the series, puberty had set in for both, so they were replaced by Vanessa Lindores and Noam Zylberman (who would go on to voice Bentley Raccoon in later seasons).
    • The specials were narrated by Rich Little, while Geoffrey Winter took over the narrator duties in the series.
    • In the specials, Cedric Sneer was originally voiced by Fred Little (yes, he and Rich are related); he was replaced by Marvin Goldhar in the series. This is seen as a good change by most fans, as Fred Little's interpretation of the character was extremely whiny and overflowing with Narm. During the series, Cedric gradually became more self-confident as Goldhar moved away from imitating his predecessor.
    • Cyril Sneer's pig henchmen were introduced in The Raccoons and the Lost Star, voiced by Nick Nichols, Len Carlson and Fred Little (though Nichols, being the leader, was usually the only one to speak by himself rather in unison). In the series, Len Carlson took over Fred Little, and eventually developed Pigs Two and Three into separate characterizations (where they were originally interchangeable). In 1989, Nick Nichols' poor health and eventual death led to the recasting of Keith Hampshire as Pig One early in the season. Hampshire's voice for the character never really moves beyond an impersonation of the original (though he got a little better by the final episodes).
    • Bentley Raccoon was originally voiced by Noam Zylberman. Zylberman was going through puberty during the voice recording for Season 5, and so was replaced by Stuart Stone. (You can really tell in Zylberman's last episodes, in which his voice is considerably deeper.) Some fans argue that the actual character deteriorated considerably with the recast; while he had gradually matured throughout the series, suddenly he was an annoying, whiny kid again.
    • In a musical example of The Other Darrin, Luba was the featured female singer in Season 1, while Lisa Lougheed came in as the featured singer beginning in Season 2 and through the rest of the series. When Luba's songs from season 1 were used in later episodes (and on the "Evergreen Nights" album), they featured Lisa Lougheed's vocals tracked into the original mixes in place of Luba's.
  • In The Jungle Book Spinoff Jungle Cubs, three of the main cast members voices were changed in the third season. In the first two seasons, Bagheera was voiced by Elizabeth Daily; in the third seasons, he was voiced by Dee Bradley Baker, in the first two seasons Hathi was voiced by Rob Paulsen and in the third season by Stephen Feurst, and Louie was voiced by Jason Marsden in Seasons 1 and 2 and by Cree Summer in Season 3. For Bagheera, it was explained that he was going through puberty. There was no explanation for Hathi's and Louie's changes, as Feurst only made him sound goofy, and the change for Louie was especially strange considering Marsden was still voicing Shere Khan.
  • Dakota Fanning replaced Daveigh Chase for Lilo and Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch. This was due to the fact Chase was working on Lilo & Stitch: The Series.
  • Disney Fairies: In Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure and the following movie, the role of Fawn will be played by Angela Bartys. She was originally voiced by America "Ugly Betty" Ferrera.
  • A rather sad example on the Justice League cartoon. When Livewire briefly showed up as part of the Secret Society of Supervillains they replaced her original voice actress, the inimitable Lori Petty, who is basically the auditory equivalent of a long, wet kiss, with some stand-in who sounded more like she was trying to do Harley Quinn & not quite getting it. Which is probably why they wisely chose not to give her too many lines.
    • They also replaced Metallo and, since he had been voiced by Malcolm McDowell, they completely blew their chance at having the hero and villain of Tank Girl voicing characters in the same scene.
    • Corey Burton, who voiced Metallo above, also replaced Bud Cort as Toyman and Miguel Ferrer as the Weather Wizard. Both Cort and McDowell did return to voice their characters in later appearances, but Ferrer did not.
  • Kim Possible villain Senor Senior Senior was voiced originally by Ricardo Montalban, who was occasionally unavailable due to health problems. During those times the role was voiced by Earl Boen.
  • Two examples in King of the Hill: For his first couple of appearances in the first season, John Redcorn was voiced by Victor Aaron when he died in a car accident. Jonathan Joss replaced him for the rest of the series.
    • His biological son, Joseph Gribble, was voiced by Brittany Murphy from Season 1 to early Season 5, and from mid-Season 5; for the rest of the series he was voiced by Breckin Meyer, this was done because Brittany Murphy was busy making movies, so the writers put Luann in college and had Joseph go through puberty, resulting in a change in voice and appearance.
  • In Inspector Gadget's second season, Penny's voice changed from Cree Summer to Holly Berger. Mona Marshall also voiced Penny in the pilot episode "Gadget in Winterland".
  • All the voice actors from the original short, with the exception of John DiMaggio, were replaced when Adventure Time made the leap to full-fledged series. But the most interesting example is that Finn's voice actor (Zack Shada) was replaced by his younger brother Jeremy, because the elder had hit puberty.
  • Totally Spies!
    • Alex was voiced by Katie Leigh for the first 52 episodes and Katie Griffin for the later 87 episodes, the new movie, and her appearances on the Amazing Spiez.
    • Jerry went from Jess Harnell to Adrian Truss at the same time Alex's voice was also replaced.
    • These re-castings may have occurred because the show's main voice recordings moved from Hollywood to Toronto (Jennifer Hale and Andrea Taylor continued their roles of Sam and Clover in separate recordings in Hollywood).
  • The role of Alfred in Batman: The Animated Series was originally given to Clive Revill, who voiced the character in his first few appearances, but Alfred was later recast with Efrem Zimbalist Jr. substituting for the rest of the series.
    • Batgirl/Barbara Gordon has no fewer than five voice actresses during the course of DCAU. In Batman: The Animated Series, she is voiced by Melissa Gilbert. In the SubZero direct-to-video, she's replaced by Mary Kay Bergman. Tara Strong takes over the role in the The New Batman Adventures. In Batman Beyond, the role goes to Stockard Channing (only Barbara Gordon appears). In Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, she's voiced by Angie Harmon and by Tara Strong in the flashbacks.
    • Paul Williams voices the Penguin throughout the run of the original series and New Adventures, but is replaced by David Ogden Stiers in the Direct-to-DVD movie tie-in, Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman.
      • Likewise, Henry Silva was replaced by Hector Elizondo for Bane.
    • After the Retool, the Scarecrow, Killer Croc and Baby Doll were all recast.
  • Most of The Disney Afternoon shows had a pretty stable cast, but Adventures of the Gummi Bears did have a few replacements during its six-season run: Originally Gruffi, Toadwart and Sir Tuxford were all voiced by Rocky and Bullwinkle co-creator Bill Scott. He died after the first season, so Corey Burton took over for him for both Gruffi and Toadwart (and doing a flawless imitation) while Roger C. Carmel was Tuxford. When Carmel died at the end of the second season, Brian Cummings was given the role.
    • Likewise, Paul Winchell voiced Zummi for the first four seasons; after he suffered a non-fatal stroke in 1987, Jim Cummings took over for him for the final two. Likewise, Cummings replaced Winchell as Tigger in the Winnie the Pooh films and shows. While they interchanged between the two actors for a short time, the role was finally handed permanently to Cummings after The Tigger Movie, for which Winchell was intended to record lines until his voice was considered too aged to properly voice the character anymore.
      • Another Disney Afternoon example: In Tale Spin, Kit Cloudkicker was voiced by two actors—first Alan Roberts, then R.J. Williams. The two-part episode "A Bad Reflection on You" uses both Roberts and Williams; it's difficult to tell them apart, but you can do it if you're familiar with the subtle differences in their voices and you listen carefully.
  • Hey Arnold! went through many cast changes due to using real child actors, who have an annoying tendency to go through puberty.
    • Arnold was voiced by five different actors: J.D. Daniels (the pilot episode), Toran Caudell (Season 1), Phillip Van Dyke (seasons 2 and 3), Spencer Klein (seasons 4 and 5 up to The Movie), and Alex Linz (the post-movie episodes).
    • Eugene also had four different voice actors: Christopher J. Castile (most of Season 1), Jarrett Lennon (the last few episodes of Season 1), Ben Diskin (seasons 2-4), and Blake Ewing (Season 5).
    • Sid was voiced by Sam Gifaldi for the vast majority of the show's run, but he was voiced by Sam's younger brother Taylor in "April Fool's Day" as Sam's voice had changed during the long hiatus between The Movie and that episode.
    • Curly had been voiced at different times by Adam Wylie, Haley Joel Osment, Steven Hartman and Michael Welch.
    • At various times, Iggy had been voiced by Joseph Ashton, Justin Shenkarow, and Marcus Toji. He is also one of the few child characters on the show to be voiced by an adult woman, as he was voiced by Tress MacNeille in one episode.
  • After Charlie Adler left Tiny Toon Adventures partway through Season 3, John Kassir took over as Buster Bunny.
  • In the transition from the Madagascar films to The Penguins of Madagascar, some of the characters common to both franchises changed voice actors. Two of the three lemurs traded out their celebrity VAs because it would be too expensive to keep them: Danny Jacobs replaced Sacha Baron Cohen as King Julien, and Kevin Michael Richardson replaced Cedric the Entertainer as Maurice. However, Andy Richter retained his role as Mort
    • Kowalski and Private are an interesting inversion of how this trope is normally handled: originally voiced by DreamWorks staff (animator Chris Miller and editor Chris Knights, respectively), they "upgraded" to professional voice actors Jeff Bennett and James Patrick Stuart on the series. (Series creator Tom McGrath stayed as Skipper, and John Dimaggio stayed as Rico.)
  • Similarly, for Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness most of the voice cast has been replaced with the exceptions of James Hong (Mr. Ping) and Lucy Liu (Viper).
  • Winx Club: While the current Nick version has had a consistent cast, both the earlier 4Kids and Cinelume English versions had recasts:
    • In the 4Kids version, Caren Manuel voiced Stella for the first season, but she was replaced with Christina Rodriguez for the last two seasons of the 4Kids run, though she did continue her role of Darcy. In addition, Dani Schaffel quit her role as Tecna after the second season, and the character was voiced by Rebecca Soler for the third and final season of 4Kids version.
    • In the Cinelume English version created for international markets, Bloom was notably voiced by Helena Evangeliou for the first 3 seasons of the show before taking leave and was replaced with Angela Galuppo for the fourth season. Lezlie Karls voiced Tecna for all of the first season, as well as a few episodes of the second before she left, the role subsequently went to Jodie Resther for the rest of Season 2, as well as all of seasons 3 and 4. Sarah McCullough voiced Musa until a few episodes into the third season before the character was recast with Anik Matern.
  • On The Lion King Recycled: the Series Timon and Pumbaa, Timon had no fewer than four voice actors over the course of the series, according to IMDb, including original actor Nathan Lane in nine of the episodes. Exactly when the transitions took place is undocumented, except for Quinton Flynn, who is mentioned as only being in the first season.
  • In Bobby's World, Bobby's older brother, Derek, was voiced by Kevin Smets in the first five seasons; for the remainder of the series, he was voiced by Pamela Adlon because Smets had gone through puberty.
  • In Fantastic Four, Brian Austin Green—yes, that Brian Austin Green—as Johnny Storm/The Human Torch was replaced by Quinton Flynn in the second season.
  • Code Lyoko had two abrupt voice-actor switches early in the series. Jodi Forrest replaced Christine Flowers as Sissi after only four or five episodes, while Matt Gézcy replaced Odd's voice actor after only two or three. One of the more unusual things about this switch is that it is made obvious that the episodes were dubbed out of order—Forrest and Gézcy's voices are present in the fourth episode, but are back to the old actors in the fifth.
  • In Stripperella, for his first appearance the villain Cheapo was voiced by Jon Lovitz; for the remainder of his appearances he was voiced by Maurice LaMarche.
  • Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones? has an unusual example. Robot was "voiced" by a MacinTalk Junior, then for a reason never explained the prodiucers replaced it with a real voice actor for the remainder of the show, even going back and dubbing his voice over the show's old episodes.
    • The popular theory is that the series was struggling to catch on with viewers, and some meddling executives tried to blame Jones' unusual voice.
  • Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy had a couple cases of this. Nazz was originally voiced by Tabitha St. Germain for the show's first season, and was replaced by Erin Fitzgerald, the voice of May Kanker, for the show's second season. Fitzgerald left the show after the second season, and she herself was replaced by Jenn Forgie for Season 3 for both characters. The creator of the show was so much in love with Fitzgerald's take on the roles, that he demanded she return for the shows fourth season onwards.
  • Strange variation on Regular Show: Jeff Bennett voiced High-Five Ghost in his first two speaking roles, but show creator J.G. Quintel (also the voice of Mordecai) took over not long afterward. However, Bennett has stayed on to voice background characters.
  • Hanna-Barbera's The Amazing Chan and The Chan Clan initially used Asian-American actors to voice the kids, but when they were hard to understand most of them (with the exceptions of Robert Ito and Brian Tochi) were replaced by WASPs like Jodie Foster (yes, the Jodie Foster).
  • In one of his very rare excursions into television, Tom Cruise voiced Captain Planet initially, but when he was unavailable to do more episodes he was replaced by David Coburn; the episodes done by Cruise have never been shown. Many of the big name cast members whose voices were heard were also eventually dropped, like Meg Ryan (the original voice of Dr. Blight, replaced by Mary Kay Bergman).
  • In Recess, most of the child characters were done by children, and all of the main six kids (save for Spinelli) were all done by kids. While the boys all kept their voices even after their actors went through puberty (except Gus, whose voice never broke), T.J. had to be replaced three times, because even after his voice actor went through puberty, the voice didn't work for his character anymore. Ross Malinger played him in the 1996 pilot (re-made into the first episode) and all of Season 1, Andy Lawrence (Joey Lawrence's younger brother) played him from Season 2 until the end of the show, and Myles Jeffery played him in the two direct-to-video movies released two years after the series ended, any further projects (station IDs for Disney Channel/Toon Disney, etc) as well as the Lilo & Stitch: The Series crossover episode.
  • This happened in Sabrina the Animated Series when it became Sabrina's Secret Life. Emily Hart (Melissa Joan Hart (the live-action Sabrina)'s younger sister) played her in the regular series, only to be replaced by Britt McKillip for the spin-off. Nick Bakay was replaced by Maurice LaMarche as the voice of Salem, and Hilda and Zelda got replaced as well. The only character without a voice switch was Harvey, whose voice actor continued doing his voice, but made his voice a little lower. The changes were due to Bunea Vista and Melissa Joan Hart no longer producing (as well as pre-production companies Savage Studios and Jumbo Pictures leaving), leaving DiC by themselves to have to hire a new production and voice team.
  • In Here Comes Garfield, the first Animated Adaptation of Garfield, Sandy Kenyon voiced Jon Arbuckle. Thom Huge, an associate and friend of Garfield cartoonist Jim Davis, took over the role for all other Garfield specials and the TV series Garfield and Friends (where he also voiced Roy Rooster and several other characters). Jon is now voiced by Wally Wingert in the CGI Garfield films and The Garfield Show.
    • The first VA for Garfield was Scott Beach, done for a cat food commercial. Lorenzo Music voiced him from Here Comes Garfield through the end of Garfield and Friends, and for subsequent appearances until his 2001 death. Frank Welker took over for all subsequent animated appearances, and Bill Murray voiced him in The Movie.
  • In SpongeBob SquarePants, Man Ray's first appearance in "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy V" was voiced by Guy Siner and John Rhys-Davies. Man Ray's subsequent appearances have been voiced by Bob Joles.
  • Every voice actor in What's With Andy? was replaced after Season 1, except Ian James Corlett (the voice of the title character).
  • Donald Duck's nephews were voiced by Russi Taylor in DuckTales (1987), and she would go on to voice them in later movies and video games. However, in the Mickey Mouse Works shorts and House of Mouse, the nephews are instead voiced by Tony Anselmo, who also voices Donald himself (this is probably to match how Clarence Nash voiced the nephews in the original shorts).
  • Charles Napier was the voice of the Sherrif in the first nine episodes of Squidbillies, being replaced by Bobby Ellerbee.
  • Kevin Michael Richardson voiced Shnitzel in the pilot episode of Chowder before John Dimaggio replaced him for the series.
  • The entire voice cast for the Bratz animated series was replaced for the recent second series (following a long hiatus). The voice actors used in the first series of episode were ones common in most western animation such as Dionne Quan, Lacey Chabert and celebrity Wendie Malick. Season 2 and beyond's cast consists of Vancouver based voice actors such as Maryke Hendrikse, Britt McKillip, Brittney Irwin, Ashleigh Ball, Kelly Sheridan and semi-celebrity Ellie Harvie taking over Wendie Malack's role.
  • The narrator for The Dreamstone was Peter Craze in Season 1, he was replaced by Gary Martin afterwards. The replacement is surprisingly similar considering the latter also voices Zordrak. Urpgor's voice actor also changes for the final season.
  • Captain Planet and the Planeteers changed the majority of the voice cast of its villains after the first season, probably because the originals were rather high profile and cost more to use.
  • Before Megas XLR became a full-fledged series, the voice of Gorrath was Mick Foley (yes, that Mick Foley) in the short "Lowbrow". When "Lowbrow" was reworked into the first episode of Megas XLR, Clancy Brown took over as Gorrath's voice.
  • In My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic, pretty much any background pony with a speaking role will have different voices each time. One such pony is Rose, or Roseluck, who has had three or four different voice actresses. Compare this to this to this to the latest one.
  • Secret Squirrel and Morocco Mole: Mel Blanc and Paul Frees in the original, Jess Harnell and Jim Cummings in the 1993 retool.
  • In 101 Dalmatians: The Series, Lucky frequently switched off from being voiced by Pamela Segall-Aldon and Debi Mae West (Possibly the latter was used when the former wasn't available.)
  • In Jackie Chan Adventures, the thug Hak Foo was voiced by Jim Cummings in his season 1 appearance, and by John Dimaggio for the rest of the series. Valmont actually had three different actors: Julian Sands during the first two seasons when he was a recurring villain, and in the later seasons both Andrew Abelson and Greg Ellis when his appearances became more infrequent.
  • "Team Umizoomi" has Milli and Door Mouse. Milli's current voice actor is Madeline Rose Yen (previously voiced by Sophia Fox). Door Mouse was voice by Joe Narcisco before Chris Phillips took the role. The Voice change was obvious in Door Mouse, but very seldom in Milli.
  • Spider-Man: The Animated Series had a couple voice changes over its run:
    • The Scorpion was originally voiced by Martin Landau for the first two seasons. After he won an Oscar for Ed Wood, Landau was unavailable to continue voicing the character and the role then went to Richard Moll (probably best known to animated fans as the voice of Two-Face).
    • Aunt May was voiced by Linda Gary for much of the series' run. After her death, Julie Bennett provided her voice for the rest of the show.
  • Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil was a case of two Other Darrins, with Anne Hathaway (the voice of Red) and Jim Belushi (the Woodsman) replaced by Hayden Panettiere and Martin Short.
Back to The Other Darrin
  1. ↑ The episode where Homer changes his name to "Max Power" after his name gets used for a bumbling sidekick character on a cop show -- that was originally a dashingly handsome lancer in the pilot episode
  2. ↑ This aired around the time that the show was facing a pay dispute from the voice actors and the FOX executives threatened to have all the original voice actors replaced with sound-alikes
  3. ↑ (provided by Karl Weidergott for the purpose of that joke; Flanders is regularly voiced by Harry Shearer)
  4. ↑ The one where Homer loses his job at the plant for the first time, is Driven to Suicide after failing to find a new job, and becomes a safety advocate after saving his family from getting hit by a truck on a street that had no traffic signs or lights on it
  5. ↑ "Christopher Collins," in this case, being the real name of Chris "Starscream/Cobra Commander" Latta
  6. ↑ the original first episode that had a ton of animation problems and nearly drove Matt Groening to cancelling the show altogether if he couldn't fix the episode
  7. ↑ It's interesting to note here that Billy West has stated that he had originally recorded both voices for a demo pitch to Nickelodeon, but when the show started being made, John K. ended up taking the part of Ren for himself. After John was fired, Billy took the parts of both characters as originally pitched
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