speedy fast
2017-10-23T03:21:47Z

For the majority of the classic Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts, Mel Blanc (and other voice actors, eventually) would be listed under Voice Characterizations. Lately I've realized that the WB shorts are the only ones to refer to voice actors as "Voice Characterizations". Other things might just list voice actors under "voices" or "voice cast", or maybe "featuring the voices of....", or they might not even use the word "voices" to refer to their actors. But outside of the classic WB shorts, was "Voice Characterizations" ever used? Is the term trademarked (I think that it shouldn't be, but you never know)?
ToonStar95
2017-10-23T06:50:40Z
I think WB was the only one who used the term. And in some post-Blanc Ford/Lennon specials, Jeff Bergman was credited as "classic voice recreations".

As for Disney, their term was "With the Talents of..."
Mario500
2017-10-23T17:26:50Z
Originally Posted by: ToonStar95 

I think WB was the only one who used the term. And in some post-Blanc Ford/Lennon specials, Jeff Bergman was credited as "classic voice recreations".

As for Disney, their term was "With the Talents of..."


The phrase by "Disney" could be used in crediting any person for any type of talent.
ParamountCartoons
2017-10-23T19:50:42Z
The narrator of the Casper Noveltoon trilogy got credit in all 3 films.

In the Famous Studios Screen Song "The Ski's the Limit" Jackson Beck got a screen credit for narration.
Ken Layton
2017-10-24T02:14:36Z
Frank Gallup got narration credit for the first 3 Caspers at Famous Studios.

Some of the Screen Songs at Famous credit narration to Charles Irving.

As to the term, "Voice Characterizations", I believe Mel Blanc had that in his contract with Warners.
Pokey J.Anti-Blockhead
2017-10-24T07:16:25Z
Rankin/Bass had that credit in their very last, post "Paul Coker and co." look when thye did Comic Strip, Thundercats, etc. For the 1959-1966 "Loopy De Loops" and 1963-67 "Magilla Gorillas and "Peter Potamsues", Hanna-Barbera ALSO used the term (BUT./.Mel Blanc had then become one of their voices.)

Stan Freberg's "Three Little Bops" had "Vocal: Stan Freberg"

The Jack Benny cast, including a below-ranking Mel Blanc, for "Mouse that Jack Built".had
CAST
JACK JACK BENNY
MARY MARY LIVINGSTONE
ROCHESTER ROCHESTER*
DON DON WILSON
MAXWELL MEL BLANC**


*Though, of course, EDDIE ANDERSON, technically really should have been the credited name..Rochester was just the character.
**On screen, that is the actual way the credits are given. I'd seen Three Little Bops, and on afterschool TV (meaning I'd see Stan Freberg's credit, seeing that he';d been a celeb by now,1957) DECADES before I finally saw Mouse that Jack Built (1959)..in 1991, and on Nickelodeon, so of course the credits were there.

DominosP
2017-11-08T16:24:05Z
From what I know, it's just WB
Bobby Bickert
2023-01-17T21:31:19Z
Hans Conried got screen credit for narrating the Lantz Swing Symphony "The Sliphorn King of Polaroo"
Hans Conreid also got screen credit for narrating the Oscar-winning Tom and Jerry cartoon "Johann Mouse"
Tex Ritter (father of the late John Ritter) got screen credit for narrating Tex Avery's "The First Bad Man"
Eddie Lawrence got screen credit for narrating "Abner the Baseball", which was adapted from one of his comedy records, for Paramount Cartoon Studios

I think Jim Backus started getting screen credit as the voice of Mr. Magoo fairly early on. (But he didn't get screen credit for the one-shot UPA short "The Popcorn Story")
Jerry Hausner got screen credit for the 2 "Pete Hothead" UPA shorts. (But he didn't get screen credit for doing the voice of Waldo in the Mr. Magoo series.)
Marvin Miller got screen credit for narrating "Gerald McBoing Boing" (and its 3 sequels)
(But Daws Butler, June Foray and Billy Bletcher didn't get screen credit in the UPA shorts they did voicework for.)

In 1954 or 1955 Walter Lantz started giving screen credit to his small stock company of voice actors and actresses (Daws Butler, Dal McKennon, Paul Frees, and occasionally June Foray), though Lantz's wife Gracie initially didn't want screen credit for doing Woody's voice. She started getting screen credit in 1957 or 1958.
(Daws Butler always credited Walter Lantz as the first person to give him screen credit for cartoon voicework. And he certainly deserved it.)

(I'll tackle the 1960's Tom and Jerry cartoons and Depatie-Freling in another post.)
Bobby Bickert
2023-01-21T21:47:16Z
Allen Swift got screen credit for the Gene Deitch Tom and Jerry cartoons he did voicework for, the 3 with Tom's mean owner as well as other cartoons like "Dicky Moe", "It's Greek To Me-ow" and "The Tom and Jerry Cartoon Kit".

Mel Blanc and June Foray got screen credit for doing "vocal effects" for the Chuck Jones Tom and Jerry cartoons. Laughing, crying, screams of terror, and of course screams of pain. But it seems like there weren't voice credits for the cartoons that were directed by Chuck's animators instead of by Chuck himself. It sounds like Mel Blanc did the laughter of the Devil in "Jerry Go Round", which was directed by Abe Levitow. But he didn't get screen credit in this cartoon.

On to DePatie-Freleng...

Just about all of the "classic" voice artists did voicework for DePatie-Freleng's theatrical shorts: Mel Blanc, June Foray, Paul Frees, Paul Winchell, Daws Butler and Don Messick, as did lesser-known voice actors like Lennie Weinrib, Marvin Miller, Larry Storch, Larry D. Mann, and others. But it seems like they only got screen credit if they talked.
Mel Blanc did a lot of "vocal effects" for the Pink Panther cartoons, including the famous Mel Blanc sneeze, his "sputtering" sound effect that he originated for Jack Benny's Maxwell and later used for Speed Buggy, laughing, hiccups, screams of terror, and of course screams of pain. I've heard the famous Mel Blanc sneeze more than once in "The Ant and the Aardvark" cartoons. And while watching "Roland and Rattfink" on Saturday mornings on MeTV, I've heard the famous Mel Blanc sneeze, his "sputtering" sound effect, and a scream of pain. But I think the only time Mel Blanc got screen credit in a Depatie-Freleng short is in "Pickled Pink", one of the rare Pink Panther shorts that has talking in it.
I'm pretty sure that June Foray did the "vocal effects" of the cuckoo in "In the Pink of the Night", a cartoon I well remember from my childhood. But she didn't get screen credit. She did get screen credit in Depatie-Freleng cartoons in which she talked, like "French Freud" and "Flying Feet' (Roland and Rattfink).
Larry Storch got screen credit in DePatie-Freleng cartoons in which he talked, like "Shocking Pink", "An Ounce of Pink" and "The Great DeGaulle Stone Operation". But I'm pretty sure he did the maniacal laughter at the end of "Smile Pretty and Say Pink", yet he didn't get screen credit.

I guess Chuck Jones was more generous about giving screen credit to the voice artists who contributed to his WB cartoons than Friz Freleng wa.

P.S. There are some George Pal Puppetoons that have screen credit for voicework, like Peggy Lee getting screen credit for doing the voice of the singing harp in "Jasper in a Jam". But I'm not going to tackle Puppetoons because I haven't watched that many of them.