i actually really like OoT Ganon’s unedited/unpitched voice,,, for ppl who haven’t heard it, they recorded his raw voice clips from Takashi Nagasako and then later pitched his voice down to sound more menacing, and that’s the version you hear in OoT. but his unedited voice is very cute imo and i almost prefer it for him, for when he’s young anyway
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SSBM Ganondorf happens to use his original, unedited voice from OoT (unsure if Nagasako also had to record any new clips for melee. well i guess he would’ve had to since they needed sounds for Ganon snoring really hard agdkfhskhf), so it can sound jarringly high-pitched if you’re not expecting it. but yeah lol
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…part of me wonders if this is a better representation of the voice direction originally given to Nagasako during OoT development, to make Ganondorf sound less like a straight up demon and more ‘cool and dangerous,’ ‘a voice like cheap wine,’ etc. though i suppose they could’ve already been intending to pitch it down during recording, so not 100% sure
Reading on twitter people's reactions to the Mario Movie is wild man. There's people out there who were down on Chris Pratt's performance before who've somehow been won over with the new trailer??? Very strange to me. Like the whole concern when he was announced was that he was just going to do his regular voice, he assured us he wouldn't, and then like trailer one happend and we heard a little bit and it was not far from his normal voice and now two happens and it's literally just his voice. If that's his fault or Horvath / Jelenic's fault I don't know, but it's not an exciting performance from what I can tell.
People seem to really like Charlie Day's Luigi and hearing it now I'm not sure I dig it. Something is off about it. I had confedence when I heard him being cast but I'm waivering a little bit.
Jack Black sounds much better in this trailer IMO. I came across one comment that seems to think that Jack Black is just doing his regular voice and like bro what? Go watch Kung Fu Panda and tell me that he sounds like Bowser at any point.
Keegan-Michael Key is I think the stand out amoung the celebrety cast. (Granted Key, like Pratt, has done a pretty good chunk of voice acting before so it feels a bit off to call it stunt casting) Outside of Pratt, Key was probably the most out-of-left-field casting and outside of one line in the pipes TV Spot ad I dig everything he's doing. A friend likened his Toad to the Super Show Toad and I can feel that a bit.
Anya Taylor-Joy is fine. There's not really a set voice for Peach, so there's not a lot of expectations there. Her characterization is fun. I like girlboss Peach. I want more of that. Her in the motorcycle outfit with the halberd is ✨iconic✨
Toadsworth has been erased from history. The circle of advisor toads wear versions of his coat and one has a pair of glasses like him but I think he got retconned when Nintendo decided that Toads can no longer be interesting.
I've seen some folks who dislike the new Donkey Kong design but overall the response has been pretty positive towards it. I'm definitly in the "I like it" camp. It's a good blend of the Nintendo design with the Rare design. Reminds me of the Game Boy Donkey Kong art, but leaning slightly more towards Rare's design than that.
Curious to see how Seth Rogan does as DK. It makes sense in my head but after hearing Charlie Day I'm a bit concerned about it. I know this sounds kinda dumb but I do really like Takashi Nagasako's performance of the character over the years. Kirkhope did fine, but Nagasako really has a playfulness that I feel defines the character.
Afterthoughts
The Bowser x Luigi people are eating tonight.
Chris's Wahoo sounded bad. People are saying it was great, it was not.
That one polygon take of "Do we really want to hear bingbing wahoo for 90 minutes" acts like Charles Fleischer didn't go absolutly ham as Roger Rabbit which worked fine actually.
Takashi Nagasako (known mainly for video game dubs) had a small voice part in the original D.Gray-Man anime, and I find it funny the way whoever wrote this part of his wiki credited him:
If you don’t wish that Donkey Kong had his actual voice in the Smash Bros. games, we can’t be friends.
Seriously, DK would totally be one of my top five mains, but that stupid gorilla “voice” bothers me that much. He has a voice! Use the voice! Takashi Nagasako’s voice! Argh!
One Villainous Scene - “I Coveted That Wind I Suppose”
“Oh boy. Izunia is making a second OVS about Ganondorf.” Yes, I am… however I am going to be looking at the man, the myth, the One Shot Wonder himself, Wind Waker Ganondorf. Now this guy is considered one of the top 5 incarnations of the King of Evil for a few reasons; the design, Takashi Nagasako returning to voice him, the boss fight, but the main reason was a little unexpected addition to his character.
To explain, Wind Waker is set in a world where Hyrule got flooded under the ocean because Ganondorf was TOO close to winning, and there was no hero to stop him, in other words divine intervention happened. So, throughout the course of the game, Ganondorf searches for the other 2 pieces of the Triforce once again, starting with a 100 year wait for Princess Zelda to reincarnate, and after 100 years have passed he kidnaps literally any blonde girl with pointy ears, checking to see if they have the Triforce of Wisdom. And one of these girls was Link's sister, Aryll, meaning that this man just put this incarnation of The Hero, one who originally wasn't mean't to be in this destined bullshit, hot on his trial.
Throughout the course of the game Link has only seen a snip of him at the beginning, the damage he caused to Greatfish Isle, Phantom Ganons, and finally he sees the man himself at the Foresaken Fortress and gets saved by Tetra, Valoo, and King Daphnes. Then Link discovers that Tetra is in fact Princess Zelda, and a good long hours later Ganondorf gets ahold of her, and now our hero has to face this monster, only for the player and Link to see another end of him.
Ganondorf explains a part of his background, talking about the cruel and harsh desert that he grew up in and how he envied the grasslands of Hyrule, but never intended on having it all be buried underwater. If anyone has played Ocarina of Time, they know that he's half-lying out of his ass because yes, he did come from a brutal and harsh desert, but he was also an infamous king there, one who had great ambitions and sat in a tower built in Central Hyrule while everyone else suffered. In other words, this man is lying out of his ass, but it isn't in an attempt to manipulate Link... it's an attempt to convince himself that all of the destruction he's caused, all of the evil he's wrought, wasn't for nothing. Even someone who's never played OoT can tell that this is a selfish old relic who's committed a lot of horrors in the past and has convinced himself that they're all just. And even then, you can tell that he never actually desired destruction for the hell of it and carries regrets.
He then knocks Link out and unifies the Triforce, chuckling out of glee at the fact that he FINALLY is going to succeed, that his efforts won't be in vain, but then it's literally robbed from him when Daphnes touches it and wishes for Hyrule to drown for the future of Link, Zelda, and everyone else. This causes Ganondorf to have a full on breakdown, cackling hysterically as he realizes that everything he has ever done has been for nothing. His efforts to acquire the Triforce, his battle against the previous hero, and his current efforts to bring back Hyrule were all for nothing. He's a destructive being who's doomed to fail and he realizes it now, but he isn't going to lie down and be forgotten by this world, so he tries to kill Link and Tetra, only to be stabbed in the skull. At this point, he can't escape the inevitable and he knows it, so there's no cursing Link and Tetra, no swearing that he'll come back. He just dies.
In short, Ganondorf here is still a bastard, but he is a walking tragedy in this game due to his pathos. He's a man who wants to convince himself that everything he's done was worth it, a man who doesn't want to be forgotten by the tides of time, a man who wants to bring back a dead land and stop being the lord of a dead empire. Yet in the end, he realizes that all of his efforts were indeed for nothing, and he ends up dying inside of a drowned Hyrule, destined to be forgotten. You can’t help but pity him this time.
Legend of Zelda by Nintendo, Shigeru Miyamoto & Eiji Aonuma
First Appearance: Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64 1998)
Seiyu: Takashi Nagasako
The great king of evil, who tried to conquer the Land of Hyrule. Ganondorf was previously the King of the Gerudo tribe, the single male born to them once every hundred years, and when he sought out the Triforce and the Sacred Realm, he would become something much greater. Cold, calculating and full of ambition, Ganondorf will stop at nothing to achieve his goal. When Link defeated him with the Master Sword and Zelda sealed him away, Ganondorf would swear his vengeance upon them both, even if it meant biding his time against their future incarnations. Depending on the timeline, he would either strive to conquer Hyrule once more from beneath the ocean or use the power of Twilight to rule from the shadows.
Super Smash Bros. Special Moves
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Standard: Warlock Punch
Side: Flame Choke
Up: Dark Dive
Down: Wizard's Foot
I think like, taking Donkey Kong’s voice into consideration Grank Kirkhope had a slightly better idea going with characterization. I do think Takashi Nagasako does a great job but I can’t help but get the feeling he’s going for like, if Homer Simpson was a gorilla