Customer Reviews

The Magic Behind the Voices: A Who's Who of Cartoon Voice Actors

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
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I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book from cover to cover!!! I give the book 5 stars BUT they did leave out MANY voice-actors who i felt held higher precedence over others. There is the inclusion of several one show or one character voice actors in here, like Chris Sarandon and Wally Cox in favor of several legends that aren't discussed. Some of the legends missing are Stan Freberg; Hal Smith; John Stephenson; Howard Morris; and Henry Corden. However, the book is still 5 star material because the subject matter is rarely spoken about in many publications and since this book is a 2004 copyright, it's fairly recent. I was earlier complaining about some of the legends being left out which is a shame...BUT there ARE many other legends included in this book, too. There are also write-up's on current voice actors who have tons of credits under their belt already. The voice actors of whom i enjoyed reading about the MOST were my favorites to begin with: Mel Blanc; Daws Butler; Don Messick; Paul Frees; Paul Winchell; and June Foray. Bill Scott is spoken about in here...which is a rare treat. He is typically thought of as a cartoon writer and director instead of a voice actor BUT he gave voice to many characters on the Jay Ward cartoons with "Bullwinkle" and "Dudley Dorite" being his Top-2 popular roles. I learned a lot about Jackson Beck and Nancy Cartwright and i learned some things about Jack Mercer, Charles Adler, Dayton Allen, and several others. The bottom line is, the voice actor rarely gets time in the spotlight and THIS book and others like this go a long way in spotlighting cartoon voice actors. The book gets 5 stars on subject matter and 4 stars on it's not including several key voice actors who made the field into an art form.

I love this book and it's an excellent reference guide. There's an intro and the rest is chapter biographies on each of the biggies and most of the more prolific modern voice actors from Mel Blanc to Nancy Cartwright. Every chapter begins with a picture of the person followed by their biography and ends with a complete list of every cartoon, tv show, and/or movie they've ever done which makes for a great 'to watch' list.
The info was well researched including interviews of the actors by the authors. Lots of great "trivia" too-did you know Paul Winchell aka Tigger invented the artificial heart? Voice over actors are often overlooked, underappreciated stars but they finally they get some recognition here.

This is the encyclopedia of cartoon voice. Details beyond details. Not only does this tell the story of the voices behind the cartoons, but also the obsession of the author (from Central Illinois of all places) to track all of this information down over a number of years and put together a one book history of some of the best loved character voices from our cartoon memories.

My 13-year-old son loves this book. He had a blast thumbing through the pages and seeing the faces behind the voices of some of his favorite cartoons, both old and new. We were all blown away by a few of these incredibly talented people when we saw the vast array characters in their resumes! Really amazing talent ... would be fun to see a color version of this with more photos of the recording sessions.

I really enjoyed this book. It's well written and features a nice cross section of voice-over artists from the television and animation industry. (The list of worthy and notable voice actors is endless, so I'm sure the choice was difficult here, with space limitations a factor.) It's nice to get acquainted with some of the most talented voice actors from the world of cartoons, I only wish there were more illustrations of the artists themselves and the characters they voiced. It's a bit skimpy in that regard, but all in all, a terrific book.

I sought out this book for its coverage of many voice artists that are now deceased particularly Norma MacMillan and Jackson Beck. This was a very helpful reference for my book about TTV called Created and Produced by Total TeleVision Productions. It was also a good read about other known and unknown vocal talents. Highly recommended!

The biographies, anecdotes, credit listings and photos of actors who served as the voices for popular cartoon characters are packed into The Magic Behind The Voices: A Who's Who Of Cartoon Voice Actors, making it a fine survey of voice actors and their work. Even a decade ago, many in the profession didn't even consider voice actors to be 'real actors': Magic Behind The Voices provides excellent insights from early cartoon voices down to the animation of modern times.

TIM LAWSON's long awaited book on CARTOON VOICE ACTORS fills a void plain and simple! We needed this book to find out a little more about the talented cartoon voice actors of the GOLDEN AGE of cartoons and also to learn a little about today's artists. GREAT BOOK! Congrats TIM and ALISA! Rick