>No plans to recast it’s main characters
Does this mean the show will finally die?
Means they probably won’t be using AI voices.
>No plans to recast its main characters
>No plans to recast it’s main characters
Does this mean the show will finally die?
Means they probably won’t be using AI voices.
it means ai voices, how can you read it any other way
Also in response to the reactions torwards Julie Kavner's voice for the past 10 seasons just unable to do Marge anymore.
this extends even for dubbing, Marge's voice in my language, who has been playing her for decades, is rough as hell too.
Then they should just let her use her normal voice permanently.
what if it's just stuck that way now?
that would be tragic
I wonder what her normal speaking voice sounds like now. Is it just the Marge voice or is her voice shredded in general?
This. I watched new episodes for the first time in years a few weeks ago and everybody just sounds so old. The line between Homer and Grandpa is getting blurred, Bart is really starting to sound like a middle-aged woman, and Lisa sounds like a grandma. And like
said, poor Julie is just fricking shot and barely has any lines at all. If anything, they'll keep the cast around to lay template tracks, then use AI versions of their "peak" voices to lay over it.
they need to let Julie do it in a lower pitch and then pitch it up.
then again they also need to un-recast all the minority characters and, yknow, fire all the writers and hire good ones..
just end the show
Seeing clips hurts so much,
Out of curiousity, I looked up a clip. I haven't watched the show in about 10 years, and have no intention of seeing it again after seeing a few clips. It's just quick paced knee jerk reactions and pop culture references. It's like Family Guy how stopped trying and stopped being watchable. They used to have plot lines and jokes that were constructed of at least 4 sentences, but that's gone.
No wonder indie animation is ruling the roost now.
>I haven't watched the show in about 10 years, and have no intention of seeing it again after seeing a few clips
This is an entirely normal sentiment. Most of the people I know who still watch Simpsons (all two of them) are ones who never stopped, so the changes in quality aren't as noticeable to them. In fact, many will claim that they show's quality has actually been on some kind of upswing, but I feel like that's entirely a symptom of the brain damage they've incurred upon themselves by watching.
Any sane human who dips back into Simpsons after having been absent 10+ years is always absolutely gobsmacked by how egregiously terrible it has become in every quantifiable aspect.
Of course, then you have the absolutely useless tools who will claim that we only hate the new episodes because they're new, and that the old episodes are "overrated", and that it was never a clever show and was always just "dumb jokes and pop-culture references". But you're legally allowed to kill people who say that, actually.
>But you're legally allowed to kill people who say that, actually.
I thought so too but it turns out it's an urban myth, don't end up like me
>In fact, many will claim that they show's quality has actually been on some kind of upswing, but I feel like that's entirely a symptom of the brain damage they've incurred upon themselves by watching.
There were a couple of good episodes ever since Matt Selman returnd like Pixelated and Afraid or the Death Note parody but not enough to claim the show is saved.
Matt Selman is a homosexual anyway because he said on Twitter no we're not doing a Sherri & Terri episode frick you.
>but not enough to claim the show is saved.
Sadly, that's all it takes for the average normie. Their attention spans are so short and their powers of analysis so feeble that all it takes is one marginally amusing moment to happen in a vacuum and it's enough for them to claim the heavens and earth have been moved.
>We already debunked all of this years ago.
Actually, you didn't. I just did. Common misconception.
No, you're lying.
People buy their discs on Amazon, not Bust Buy, disc sales on Amazon are still as heathy as a horse.
Case in point Looney Tunes Collector's Choice Volumes 1, 2 and 3, also Tex Avery Volumes 1, 2 and 3.
>Looney Tunes Collector's Choice Volumes 1, 2 and 3, also Tex Avery Volumes 1, 2 and 3.
lmao, the people who buy those are not the same people who pay for streaming. That's my whole point. It's a cleanly split demographic. The average consoomer will simply only watch what is available on cable or streaming. Nobody who pays for Disney + will see The Simpsons, available at the touch of a button, and think, "Nah, it's smarter for me to go online and buy an outdated media format".
Better complete thing on outdated media format in your hand than castrated version that flips on random streaming services till it disappears completely
Sure, and I agree with you. But you're seriously overestimating the average consoomer if you think that thought EVER goes through their heads. Most normies gave up on physical media over a decade ago. What makes sense to do and what people *actually* do are two different things.
It is not a split demographic, you just don't know how normies work is all.
No, normies are buying them, it is a excellent, intelligent example.
>normies buying multiple Tex Avery collections on DVD
The average normie doesn't even know who the frick Tex Avery is, moron. Go outside.
Yes they do, they won't shut up about Tex Avery.
The average normie knows the following golden age of animation directors:
>Walt Disney
>Tex Avery
>Chuck Jones
>Hanna & Barbera
And that's it. They don't even know Walter Lantz.
They know of Bob Clampett, Frank Tashlin, Art Davis and Friz Friz Freleng.
Also Walt Disney's spot should really be filled in by Ub Iwerks as Walt was only the producer (and Mickey's voice) by the time Mickey came to the scene.
Brazilians know who Walter Lantz is.
>Case in point Looney Tunes Collector's Choice Volumes 1, 2 and 3, also Tex Avery Volumes 1, 2 and 3.
literally only being bought by hardcore enthusiasts because you basically can't stream that shit anywhere. Terrible, moronic example.
they put Nintendo Switches in some of scenes, for force the idea The Simpson exist in 202X, but no episodes for redesign the timeline again.
Remember Bart born in 1983 and Lisa wedding was in 2010
And Homer+Marge graduated high school in 1974
>Poor Julie
kek she's anything but poor, literally and figuratively. She could quit RIGHT NOW and be able to live in maximum comfort for the rest of her life, she's doing this to herself.
It really means they’ll transition to a black family once all the main cheese people are killed off or retired.
>how can you read it any other way
Because they would get huge backlash from that
backlash initially, and then people hate watch it and before long the hate watching becomes unironic and this becomes the watershed moment for ai voice acting.
They'll start dropping actors but the characters will remain on the show without any lines, eventually the whole family will be silent but the show will go on
If you're an actor or voice actor who has become synonymous with a character
>Dan Castellaneta as Homer
>Hugh Jackman as Wolverine
>James Earl Jones as Darth Vader
>Carrie Fisher as Leia
Do you prefer to let the incarnation of the character die with you? Do you want the character recast? Do you want to be immortalized as that character through CG and AI?
My opinion is that cartoons can always get new voice actors, and characters adapted from other sources (like Wolverine who is originally a comic book character) can be played by multiple actors.
Meanwhile, something like Star Wars, which is both originally a film, and has an expansive universe, should just introduce new characters, even if they're an obvious pastiche of an older character in the setting. Han Solo already has like half a dozen smuggler knockoffs between books and video games, what's a few more?
Hugh Jackman talked about this years ago and said he expects Wolverine to be a role that will be recasted as the decades go on and franchises are rebooted, but that he also looks forward to playfully giving the new guy a hard time for shits and giggles
>Do you prefer to let the incarnation of the character die with you? Do you want the character recast? Do you want to be immortalized as that character through CG and AI?
I'd do it until I know I can't do it anymore, but that's only if the money isn't worth killing my throat over
Voice actors basically get roles for how specific their voice is. Range gives you more opportunities, but every casting director is thinking “we need jock 1, valley girl 1, valley girl 3, nerdy guy 17”
It’s funny watching early Tom Kenny roles and seeing him use the sponge bob voice in things like Mission Hill. Unless you’re glued to a tv, it’s hard for most people to notice who voices who anyway, but sponge bob voice is hard to lose for most people.
re: tom kenny early rolls
fricking spyro 2's electrolls all use a variation of the spongebob voice - it's jarring going back and playing it
>Hugh Jackman as Wolverine
Haha
>Do you want to be immortalized as that character through CG and AI?
That's the worst outcome. Especially since at present there's no legal requirement for them to even pay you, so if you refuse they'll just do it anyway.
Just recast them if I retire or something happens to me. I like to think I'd never be so far up my own ass I'd claim ownership over a character, just because I've been playing him over a long period of time.
They should be recasted. Mark Hamill is one of the more famous Jokers, but Heath Ledger and Joaquin Phoenix are equally valid in modern audience's minds. Characters can become a legacy character and have new people take over their roles. There's no reason why Homer Simpson or Spongebob can't be considered on the same level as Kermit the Frog or Mickey Mouse. Nobody went, "Oh no, Walt's throat is fricked! We have to retire Mickey Mouse!".
Mark Hamill has only ever voiced the Joker though, he didn't physically play him on screen.
Walt actually quit doing Mickey's voice shortly after WWII because he was starting to sound too froggy from smoking.
>Do you prefer to let the incarnation of the character die with you?
I don't give a shit, as long as I got paid.
Honestly at that point, you should just allow the IP to die because it's become stagnant and completely creatively bankrupt.
Attempting to keep the IP alive on life support gets you disasters like the Star Wars sequels that destroy the brand's credibility as a whole.
t. am strongly of the opinion that Star Wars should have been allowed to die after Revenge of the Sith
Star Wars fans tend to use the Despecialized Edition fan made 4K prints for Star Wars' original trilogy but unlike Simpsons Star Wars fans are willing to bother with Disney+, but that IP is a after thought compared to Marvel which is their main focus.
It would work if they simply went with the Snoke was Plagueis all along, frick trying to surprise the audience, everybody knew Thanos was going to use the magic glove and die, everybody knew Joker would be arrested and two face would go evil.
rather have it recast, give other people a chance
Earl Jones as Darth Vader
Fisher as Leia
This has never been true for these characters Lucas was hiring doubles and shilling ancillary SW content since ANH
Didn't James Earl Jones sign away his rights to Vader's voice or something? Now Disney can do ai Vader voices if they really want to.
>KIIILLLLL MEEEEE JUST FRICKIIINGG KILLL MEEE SOMEBODY JAM A KNIFE RIGHT INTO MY FRICKING THROAT JUST DO IIIIIIT CALL THE POLIIIICE
Huh, I wonder what Marge Simpson meant by that.
Literally sounds like Patty and Selma in that first line she does holy frick
jesus poor Julie.
Take her out back and shoot her, Jesus.
>include AHSOKA in a Mother's Day ad
>her "son" is Rotta the Hutt
what the hell
It's either the most desperate way of shoehorning her in or someone at Disney is calling Dave Filoni Jabba the Hutt because he's in love with her.
>verification not required
Man that's sad.
Listening to Marge's voice is like torture
>Take Bambi, not me!
Who wrote this?
That was funny!
Why is the joke bad?
because it feels somehow both obvious and needlessly cynical. its a reddit tier attempt at being edgy. its boring.
>t-posing marge
She's not the only one sounding rough...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=tmcUJo9BxK6zf5x&v=kKeaba6GGOQ&feature=youtu.be
Okay, marge sounds fine but wtf is up with Mr. Burns? this just sounds wrong.
I don't know if they recast the guy or what, but whoever that is just not bothering with the accent or acting at all. That's a speaking voice.
His voice actor is now the same age Burns said he was 34 years ago.
Aka fricking 80. Ridiculous.
Still younger than Joe Biden.
And just 2 years older than Donald Trump.
why do they dance around barbie instead of referencing malibu stacy which smithers also is obsessed with
Sounds like Marge just wants to die already
The Bambi joke would've been funnier if the car made the backfire noise and the mom+Bambi just freaked out and ran out of the car. If it's too vague of a joke, they could've had the mom screaming, "HUNTER!" and run. "Take Bambi, not me!" is like, a first draft joke that doesn't hit.
>a first draft joke that doesn't hit
That's 90% of modern simpsons jokes
This is just.....man. Fox, just end the show already.
Spongebob, Simpsons, Family Guy. Just fricking end them already, please, for their sake.
Yeah, FOX/Disney should just stop wasting money on this unprofitable show... what? ...what do you mean it's still watched by millions? ...and often the #1 streaming show on D+? That can't be...
Well... they should stop forcing these VA's to work... oh... highest paid VA's in animation history you say?
...but... I've spent the last 25 years demanding it's cancelation! Why does it continue to be profitable?!?! Have I wasted decades ineffectually b***hing online about a cartoon!?!?!
>B-b-but it's watched by millions!
Who hired you? Disney? Fox? C'mon spill it.
The fact that a heartless, soulless company like Fox and now Disney keeps it alive is proof that it's profitable. Only a dummy would argue otherwise... unless you're one of those Disney Defenders?
Your fault for taking a low brow piece of entertainment and elevating it to high art. It's an animated sitcom... it's not Rembrandt. It's a Big Mac, it's meant to be consumed and then you move on. The problem is you never moved on. Sad really.
I'm not defending the show. I won't tell you it's improved or just as good as it ever was. I'm simply asking you to stop whining about a cartoon having the audacity to challenge your worldview by... existing for 25 years after you deemed it worthless.
>CONSOOM CONSOOM CONSOOM
Because they care about animation as an art form to tell stories and seeing a once great cartoon continue on long past its quality is disheartening. It shows nothing matters but money and it's foolish to care about animation besides it being something that people richer than you collect a check for.
Add a few dozen more ellipses. That'll get your point across.
The Simpsons isn't X-Men'97, also nobody buys Disney+ for Simpsons because those who care already have the DVDs of the good seasons, that and the LIVE ACTION Marvel shows get much better viewership then X-Men'97 then any piece of animation that is on Disney+.
Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy get paid alot more then Dan Castellaneta and Nancy Cartwright.
No, Latin America is the soul reason why Simpsons is still going, otherwise season 13 would've been the last season of the show.
>nobody buys Disney+ for Simpsons because those who care already have the DVDs of the good seasons
Nobody watches DVDs anymore.
I do. But not cartoons.
>Doesn't know about Warner Archive.
>Doesn't know that not everyone has good internet.
>Doesn't know about (4K) Blu-Ray.
Simpsons fans already have the good seasons on DVD which they bought years ago, they don't watch Disney+, thats Marvel and Star Wars fans that watch Disney+, but mostly Marvel.
>Should've just called the service Marvel+, because thats all people want out of it.
Majority of people are watching on streaming. Physical media is dying and will be dead soon. Simpsons fans are watching on Disney +, not bringing out those old DVDs
Only for newer shows like X-Men'97, older shows don't get jack shit in terms of streaming viewership, it's why Crunchyroll and HiDIVE rarely pick up older anime.
Physical media is still alive and kicking, Warner Archive and the 3 Looney Tunes Collector's Choice Blu-Rays are proof of this, also not everyone has good internet.
Simpsons fans are sticking to their discs, they're not double dipping.
Dude, thats not how it works at all.
>older shows don't get jack shit in terms of streaming viewership
This is the exact opposite of the truth. We just saw "Suits," a show barely anyone talked about when it was on, become one of the biggest things in the world when it hit Netflix.
Reruns may not get individual episode viewership to compare with a new episode, but if you have hundreds of episodes, the cumulative viewership is going to be bigger than a show that has 10.
So one of the most valuable things Disney got in the Fox buyout was a library of animated sitcoms with hundreds of episodes.
The Netflix crowd is waiting for Ultraman: Rising, they have no time for Suits, theres also Squid Game season 2 people are waiting for because Splatoon 3 just wrapped up it's DLC/new content GAAS support and is just repeating old content and people want more squid action.
The world needs more Squid Girl in this day of age.
Nobody is waiting for Ultraman Rising anon
Yes they are, you don't know how huge Ultraman is in this day of age.
He isn't "just a Japan thing" anymore.
That's not what I meant. I mean it looks like dogshit, and Ultraman fans aren't looking forward it
t. Ultraman fan
You can't get Pixar/DreamWorks grade 3DCG on a TV budget, also it's only you that isn't looking forward it, normies are.
>You can't get Pixar/DreamWorks grade 3DCG on a TV budget,
Literally did not claim that
> also it's only you that isn't looking forward it, normies are.
Normalgays don't even know who or what Ultraman is.
You hinted at it.
Normalgays do know what Ultraman is since Japanese programing and movies are becoming much more mainstream.
How much is Netflix paying you? How do even get a shilling job?
>how huge Ultraman is in this day of age
oh shit I can't believe Ultraman got a power up and can grow even bigger now
>older shows don't get jack shit in terms of streaming viewership
but that's wrong. People love to binge-watch shit, and a show that already has a stockpile of hundreds of episodes is always appealing to folks, especially if it's good.
This is why, over the past 10-15 years, so many TV networks latched onto doing marathon blocks of shows; it's to more or less emulate what people do when they stream. I haven't had cable since 2008, but whenever I'm at my moms and flipping through the channels, it's always staggering how many are just running near-constant marathons of old-ass shows; Seinfeld, Frasier, Golden Girls, Star Trek, you name it. People love to be able to just flip on an old, comfy show that they don't have to pay super close attention to, most of the time.
>it's why Crunchyroll and HiDIVE rarely pick up older anime.
That's a different issue. It's moreso that the current anime crowd basically only likes modern anime. So much of anime culture is based on watching what's current, every season. Crunchyroll isn't going to pick up a random, old anime because there's no nostalgia--and therefore, no demand--for it.
Also, fans of genuine vintage anime are more likely to have had their favorite, fansubbed shows on an external hard drive since before streaming was even a thing. Streaming ANYTHING these days is for normies who can't into torrenting and VPN, so it's not too hard to figure out which side of that line most of any given demographic falls on. When it comes to older anime, most of those folks can use a desktop computer. But with older American animation and sitcoms? Tons of normies who will pay a subscription fee just so they can binge-watch shit they 'member while they eat dinner and scroll through twitter.
We already debunked all of this years ago.
Older shows/movies = buy physical.
Here and now = stream it.
>Older shows/movies = buy physical.
But people aren't doing that. Nobody buys physical anymore, dude. Most of this stuff can't even be bought physically anymore; Best Buy don't even sell that shit. Normies be streamin' everything these days.
>Simpsons fans are watching on Disney +, not bringing out those old DVDs
Depends on the fan. If you're an hardcore fan and/or animation enthusiast, you more than likely have the DVDs, or you made rips of them so you can stream them yourself, because you are likely smart enough to use a desktop computer and set up a file sharing service. I made DVD rips from my own collection and then sold the DVDs many years ago for more than I originally paid for them, lol.
If you're a normie fan who loves "that one episode with the steamed hams", you probably just watch on Disney + because your soul has been MIA since the early 2000s.
Normies fans have the DVDs, Disney+ is for recent Marvel content to them.
You will own nothing and be happy
>No, Latin America is the soul reason why Simpsons is still going, otherwise season 13 would've been the last season of the show.
Latam dont care about anything past season 15, that's when the voice cast got replaced with substantially worse voice actors and the show died in the eyes of many.
>I don't know about LA normies.
>and often the #1 streaming show on D+
Isn't that just people watching the older seasons
No, thats X-Men'97, Simpsons fans just watch the DVDs from the good seasons they bought years ago.
You'd be surprised how many people want to watch a show without bothering to buy it on physical media. The DVD era didn't do much to dent the popularity of shows in syndication, for example.
People have always liked flipping channels to see what's on and watch an episode of a familiar show, and if it's an episode from the decline years, that matters more to hardcore fans than normies.
It's why the TV business still depends on shows like The Simpsons, Seinfeld, Big Bang Theory, Law & Order, etc. where there's a massive number of episodes that people can watch without making a big investment of time or emotion.
>we NEED to keep enslaving the aging actors into contracts for a show long decayed in ratings and relevance because I am a soulless post-modern wienerroach!!
Simpsons is way worse than Family Guy and Spongebob because the other 2 at least try to be funny even if in a cheap randumb way while Simpsons got zero good jokes per entire seasons they are not even trying anything at all, they just write random scenes where nothing happens like an AI.
I would’ve agreed about family guy two or three seasons ago, but these post covid shows have been fricking abysmal, I wouldn’t be surprised if Seth is actively bribing the staff to sabotage the show.
>that bambi joke
Why
Why are Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb here?
reasons
>included gothel instead of arianna
Effort.
You know, if you told someone a couple decades ago that one fricking company had the rights to that many properties it never created, they'd call you insane.
Terrible
Genuinely put her out of her misery already. She has already done more than enough.
Place your bets if she dies next year or in 2026
16 may 2026
It means they'll be replaced by AI. AI trained on classic Simpsons could most likely do a better job than the VAs as they are today, especially Marge's. Now let's also hope they put an AI trained on classic Simpsons in the writer's chair too.
Why hasn't this show been put down yet?
Between the network broadcast, streaming, and international dubs, The Simpsons is one of the most-watched shows in the world. It's consistently popular pretty much everywhere, which is something most other sitcoms struggle with.
Also, Disney is coming off of its worst financial year in decades. They're not going to get rid of one of their most consistently reliable franchises at a time when they're losing so much money.
The crazy thing about the streaming era is that the Netflix-inspired business model has almost killed off shows with long runs, but all these entertainment companies depend on having long-running shows with global recognition and huge libraries.
So they have to run franchises into the ground, whether it's animated shows, endless Big Bang Theory and NCIS (and now Suits) spinoffs, and of course, brand-name superheroes.
Zombie Simpsons well predates Netflix.
>but all these entertainment companies depend on having long-running shows with global recognition and huge libraries.
the problem with that theory is the Simpsons being totally dead as a brand and has no recognition anymore outside nostalgia for the first 9 seasons
Disney paid 54 billion dollars for Fox because of the Simpsons anon
Wasn't it to own the X-Men and FF for the MCU? they were the missing pieces and The Simpsons was just a nice (massive) bonus.
It was half to own them, half to have Fox's library for Disney+.
And yet the bastards refuse to put The Mary Tyler Moore Show on Disney+. Cowards!
(Fox bought the MTM library a long time back so Disney now owns James L. Brooks's two most popular shows.)
I feel it was the other way. They would have gotten the X-men and FF back in time, or made a deal like Sony (which Fox would have been crazy to turn down after Fan4stic, New Mutants, and Dark Phoenix). But getting those plus Fox's IP library of Simpsons, Family Guy, Bob's Burgers, Alien, Predator, Home Alone, Ice Age, etc. made it an easy choice.
Also in the magic of the Disney+ Hulu combination, you can watch Teen Titans Go to the Movies, and original Sailor Moon, with the lesbians and transgender Sailors on Disney. What a time to be alive.
I doubt that any full sale of Fox would’ve come with the contracts for the FF and X-men since marvel still owns the full property rights, what else did Fox own that was worth that kind of money? Alien and predator are both properties that hadn’t been relevant for literally 30 years by the time of the sale. Only other thing I can think of is Fox could’ve been the last piece to getting a proper theatrical cut of Star Wars released, but I assume Lucas still owns those negatives and won’t give them up
They have so much recorded material to pull from, there's no reason not to use AI voices.
It's so funny when people build these little dramas in their heads where they think Julie or some of the other actors are being forced or coerced into staying on the show.
They make six million dollars every season. They're the highest paid voice actors in the history of TV animation. That's why they stay. That's it.
"Oh, but they sound old." Yeah, because they are old. But they've also been doing these voices for 30 years, this is basically automatic for them at this point. They're barely even trying, but also they don't really HAVE to try anymore.
If you could get six million bucks a year for doing a job you could do in your sleep, would YOU quit?
There's the big paycheck, yes. There's also contracts. They probably couldn't retire even if they wanted to. So imagine them in their 80s and still doing these voices.
>They make six million dollars every season
sources: your behind
>sources: your behind
Nta but before they took the pay cut five years ago, they were on $400,000 odd per episode. So 22 episodes per season that's $8,800,000 per season. They took a pay cut for the 30th season on wards which is just over $300,000 per episode, so lets just assume $300,000 (when it is 'over', but dunno by how much) so, 22 episodes is $6,600,000 per season, currently. So, yes. $6m.
Please learn how to use Google.
https://www.nola.com/entertainment_life/movies_tv/harry-shearer-ends-contract-dispute-re-signs-with-the-simpsons/article_d6d7694a-3e00-5bc9-bc4a-d093ef744539.html
Since 2015 they've made $300,000 an episode. They make 22 episodes in an average season (the latest season was shorter because of the strike last year.)
300,000 x 22 = 6.6 million.
They already have enough money saved up at this point. They should spend the remainder of their lives free of this show and live life.
They're already free. Voice acting does not take a lot of time and some of them (maybe all of them at this point, I don't know) are replaced by other actors at the table reads.
This isn't like shooting live-action where it actually is hard work that might interfere with your ability to do other things.
It’s also not a full year of work. Shows are often written in advance and they record all the voices for a whole season in one go. That’s 6 million dollars a year for working a couple weeks (with breaks and limits to how many hours you can record each day, etc).
so what you're saying is if someone killed Nancy Cartwright today they would have to end the show?
Possibly, but there's also the off-chance they'd be forced to write a plot about Bart starting puberty to justify recasting
What shocked me watching one of the recent episodes, the one where hackers release fake "unseen clips" from the show, one of the skits took place during the first Simpsons Christmas episode, and Dan Castellaneta was doing his normal Homer voice. I had to check to make sure, I thought I heard wrong.
Julie Kavner sounds old because she's old, that's just a given. But with Castellaneta you have a situation where somehow nobody reminded him to do the season 1 Homer voice and it got to air without anybody doing a retake.
The episode had some amusing bits but really there's something about the episodes, even the decently-written was, that feels like a Canadian-made TV show (I'm Canadian), without the budget or the time to be as slick and polished as the best American television.
I tried to watch all the Simpsons seasons. I got to 14 or 16 I think and quit. I couldn't. I tried to keep my online friends up to date on it and I told they I couldn't. One of them then said that the newest season actually has some good episodes in it. I remain sceptical. But I have heard claims that the more recent seasons have had the odd decent - not good or amazing - episodes. Like 7/10.
Those "good" episodes that people hype up as a return to form are only good in comparison to what surrounds them. At best, they're conceptually interesting but you still have to put up with the weak writing, bored VAs, stilted animation and most importantly of all, they just aren't funny. Notice how you only hear that "The Simpsons is good again" in headlines and YouTube titles.
The show should continue the trend of killing off characters when the VA dies, but do it for the main cast too. Like if Kavner dies they do the Marge dies episode, Cartwright dies and they do the Bart, Ralph and Nelson triple death episode, etc. Just continue on as normal until one by one until the last series regular dies.
Kill off Marge, and recast Bart as one of Nancy Cartwright's male relatives and remake the story to where the Simpsons family 10 years later copes with Marge's death.
I always imagined adult Bart sounding like Philip J Fry
Bart and Fry are very similar anyway. Fry is basically older Bart.
It's revealed Marge died by slipping on a banana peel and then a T-shirt cannon got her. The Flanders curse is broken.
Marge sounds the way she does because Julie doesn't gaf anymore and just uses her normal voice.
i remember watching part of the 90s Flintstones Christmas movie and Jean Vanderpyle sounded kinda old (she was about 70 there) but otherwise still perfectly recognizable. nothing even close to how trashed Marge sounds. also Russi Taylor sounded great almost to the end.
she didn't do 1/50th as many Flintstones eps as there are Simpsons ones and Wilma was mostly just her normal voice so it wouldn't have been that harsh or throat-destroying.
I feel like the voice direction in Hanna-Barbera was quite strong. (I checked and that Flinstones was one of the last voice directed by their longtime director Gordon Hunt, who mentored Andrea Romano. Pointless trivia, Hunt was Helen Hunt's dad and left HB because his daughter got him a job directing sitcoms.)
It's not all about directors of course but it sure sounds like the caliber of voice direction at Fox is not what it used to be. It reminds me of how Mel Blanc usually sounded terrible in Warner Bros. cartoons of the '70s/80s and then in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" he sounded fine because they directed him better and remembered to pitch his voice properly.
They never really had good voice direction after Season 12 and the voice actors don't even come into the studio anymore or do anything but record lines from home in one take and mail them in.
>mail them in
This isn’t the 90s anymore these days theyd email or put it on a cloud storage service to send to them
they had email in the 90s, you underage zoomer
Yeah but you weren't sending large production quality audio clips over email in the 90s lol
Reminder this desperately needing to be canceled garbage still gets 3-4million viewers per new episode airing.
i bet the real, non-fudged numbers are in the low tens of thousands
If that were the case they'd cancel the show. Unfortunately there are enough people who actively choose to watch nu-Simpsons still.
It's disturbing how hard they want to just keep The Simpsons going. Even nu-Spongebob gets talked about more, it seems like there's not anyone even acknowledging The Simpsons is still airing new episodes yet they keep making new seasons.
>Unfortunately there are enough people who actively choose to watch nu-Simpsons still
Nobody still watches it. I don't know of a single person IRL that does nor is it even advertised anymore except for a brief mention on Animation Domination.
Very strange they continue to make it at this point.
there are several theories for it. one which i don't believe is they think they can't sell merch if the show isn't actually being made and produced although i don't think there's much Simpsons merch nowadays. the other is they have a weird sentimental attachment to the show and can't bring themselves to pull the plug,
ts often the number one streaming show on DIsney+.
because simpsons is life. you don't talk about how you pissed in the toilter or brushed your teeth. talking about simpsons is mundane. and yes, I am one of the 4 mln who watches it. and no, the voice actors shall never be retired muahahahahahaha
the voice acting stopped being any good after the Scully era. by Season 13 their performances start sounding forced and obnoxious.
>Means they probably won’t be using AI voices.
No, it means they will. You're not technically "recasting" if you don't hire a new actor and the AI is literally a composite of their entire career voicing the character.
Characters like Marge sounding terrible isn't surprising given that she's, what, in 70s or 80s now? But literally every character sounds terrible now in new episodes and not every VA on the show is super old yet, I think it's mainly a problem of voice direction.
If they were to use AI, which season do you think they'd source lines from? The most recent, or prime?
In all realism they’d most likely average the sun of their archival takes before cherry-picking specific sources
"Prime" is a bit of an arm twist because the voices changed quite a bit from Seasons 1-9.
I assume they mean around Seasons 5-8 as many people think that was the peak voices for the characters although really the voice acting was still top tier through the Scully seasons.
>Seasons 5-8 as many people think that was the peak voices for the characters
I unironically prefer most voices before that point. The show was genuinely a more complete effort in the earlier seasons because it was still trying to find itself. By season 5, it had already settled into a formula and characters were starting to become Flanderized. There's so much more depth in a lot of the voices because there was still this notion they were threading the needle between being a comedy, a cartoon, and an actual family drama.
There's no way in hell you'll convince me Nancy ever gave a greater performance as Bart than she did in Bart Gets an F. I think that was around the last time any of the cast or crew saw Bart as an actual 10 year old kid, and the writing begins to reflect that.
boy oh boy did Casey Kasem do an awful Shaggy towards the end
Using AI voices could be a bad thing once autists get ahold of the tech and use it to voice their BartxSkinner fujo fics with the actual voices.
Kavner wrecked her voice doing the Simpsons movie whem James L. Brooks made her rerecord this one part 35x.
And after sacrificing her vocal cords screaming "EPA! EPA!", they ended up tossing that audio out and rewrote the scene for Dan Castellaneta as Grampa Simpson. I seem to recall they also made her do 100x takes of the VHS recording of her saying goodbye to Homer.
Maybe earlier drafts had her move on and permanently replaced with a new love interest
aren't there supposed to be union rules limiting how many takes you can make a voice actor do?
I believe James L. Brooks was directing Marge's speech personally, and nobody says no to him, especially Kavner, who owes her entire career to him (he cast her in "Rhoda" and then in "Tracey Ullman Show").
It's fun to listen to the commentaries for the first four seasons and hear which lines or scenes were suggested by Brooks. ("You are Lisa Simpson," of course, but also stuff like Apu saying "He slept, he stole, he was rude to the customers, still, there goes the best damned employee a convenience store ever had!").
>nobody says no to him, especially Kavner, who owes her entire career to him
moronic. By that point, Kavner could have stood up to him and told him to literally frick off if it was causing her physical pain. If he'd fired her, there would have been a massive outrage. She was literally Marge Simpson; he owed her plenty, too.
it was really kind of scummy to do that to a good friend of yours for so many years
No, we just get a new Simpsons family. Who's more ethnically and socially diverse.
>literally has to infect itself to include nignogs
That's a weird announcement to make unprompted. Are one of the main VAs about to announce that they're dying or something?
Marge sounds fine still, wtf are people on about? She's a smoker ffs.
So all we need to do now is wait for Marge's VA to die for this show to be over? I don't see that happening, they already recasted all the brown characters (Carl,Dr Hibbert, Bumblebee Man, etc...) so I can see them recasting Marge if Disney thinks they can get away with it and make money out of this series still
You know they're lying about not recasting the main cast
Sad
The show died decades ago so it doesn't matter
I'm really curious on what's going to happen when one of the main 4 die.
The show must go on. They'll recast. You'll never stop the Simpsons.
Why?
Why are VAs treated like sacred cows?
Mel Blanc, Stan Freberg and June Foray, thats why.
Marge is sounding pretty rough these days. Somebody call up chatgpt.
>Marge becomes a robot
>Means they probably won’t be using AI voices
How did you get that from the exec saying they wouldn't be recast? AI voices don't require recasting.
is continuing to make the simpsons really that profitable, I can't believe it's still being watched
>insert DVD in your PC
>Error: This disc can only be played in a DVD player
You need VLC Media Player to play DVDs and Blu-Rays on your PC.
it's a weak copy protection that does that
the only chance for the show to be good again is recast new VAs and put some Cinemaphile posters in charge of writing
>the only chance for the show to be good again is recast new VAs and put some Cinemaphile posters in charge of writing
no man we don't need every episode to have explicit sex scenes with underage characters
They should just make a new show already Clevleand show and American dad did well
They already did. People loved Futurama, but Disenchantment is kinda forgotten.
The problem with Disenchantment (well, one of the problems) is it was made using the Netflix model where every episode leads directly into the next one. That kind of show has almost no rerun/marathon value compared to shows where every episode is a complete story.
Julie is fine, she's just lazy and can't be bothered to not use her normal speaking voice anymore.
Simpsons will never fricking end
And what if Kavner goes mute?
They will get the cast of Family Guy to take over. Right?
no