How do they choose voices for cartoon movies?

[forrest99]

Have you ever wonder how the directors choose the voices for their cartoon characters? As long as you can talk I guess you get the job. You know like movies
Finding Nemo
9
Cars
Toy Story

[Mex]

I assume that at a minimum you have to be able to anunciate. Unless the character can't.

[General Lein979]

You have to have a voice, tone, and annunciation that fits the character. Its the same way you get an acting job you have to try out.

[bermuddy]

all of those you mentioned have recognizable actors in them.

[CJHobbes]

Actually, voice acting is an art as much as regular acting is. It's not quite a situation of: "Hey, you can talk, we need you to film 5 minutes of a line. Hurry!"

They choose voice actors the same way they cast movies: auditions and images in the director's and writer's minds as to who should play the part. Sometimes an artist can write a role and think, "<this actor> would be perfect in this role."

Until recently (in the last 20 or so years), voice acting was mainly done by voice acting professionals. It wasn't until the recent popularity of 3D animated features where mainstream on-screen professionals began venturing into voice acting. You can attribute this to the competition of the market. People will be more inclined to see an animated film if their favorite star is in there, as opposed to Random-I've-Been-Doing-This-My-Whole-Life Guy.

I suppose you can group voice acting into two categories: 1) Those who create voices, and 2) Those who talk and allow their voice to be used in an animation.

Either way, there is no easy mode for voice acting, and it still take quite a bit of time and talent to pull it off well. Just look at any amateur YouTube video for daily proof. *shudders*

A couple of my favorite voice actors I can think of off the top of my head:
Mel Blanc (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Blanc) (Loony Toons characters, including Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny)
Frank Welker (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Welker) (Transformers, including Megatron and Soundwave)
Patrick Warburton (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Warburton) (Various cartoons, most notably Kronk from Emperor's New Groove)
Mark Hamil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Hamil) (Yes, that guy, also the Joker in the animated Batman series)

[kiggidykev]

They hire Frank Welker and Charlie Adler, haha

Seriously, between those two guys, they've voiced about a thousand shows.

[Der_Lex]

They have actors audition for them, just like for regular roles, and see which one seems to be the most suitable. Unless the makers of the movie/show specifically want a big star, the parts usually go to specialized voice actors. There's not too many of them around, though, which is why you often hear the same voices in video games or on your average cartoon for TV... or on voice-overs for Discovery Channel shows, for example. I used to write the translations for the Dutch dubs of several of those shows back when I still worked for Belgian network TV, and occasionally spoke to some of the voice actors. Their number in Belgium doesn't go beyond the double digits... it'll be a bit higher in the US, but not by that much. Unless you're part of a major show like Family Guy or the Simpsons, voice acting doesn't pay all that well.

[Cubecubed]

A couple of my favorite voice actors I can think of off the top of my head:
Mel Blanc (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Blanc) (Loony Toons characters, including Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny)
Frank Welker (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Welker) (Transformers, including Megatron and Soundwave)
Patrick Warburton (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Warburton) (Various cartoons, most notably Kronk from Emperor's New Groove)
Mark Hamil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Hamil) (Yes, that guy, also the Joker in the animated Batman series)

Serious lack of H. Jon benjamin.

[CJHobbes]

Serious lack of H. Jon benjamin.

Along with Brendon Small and Seth MacFarlane. There's a whole slew of CN voice actors that could be added whose names escape me. While there isn't a large pool of voice talent nowadays (R.I.P. LaFontaine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_LaFontaine)), there are still some incredible actors out there.

[Cubecubed]

thats without even mentioning the Simpsons/Futurama voice actors.