Voice actor Tara Strong tries her hand at improvising the voices of 10 random cartoon characters that she has never seen before.
Using a similar technique she used for Bubbles (The Powerpuff Girls), Raven (Teen Titans), Timmy Turner (The Fairly Oddparents), Dill Pickles (Rugrats), and more, Tara brings these characters to life.
- I'm Bubbles, and I'm just as toughas Blossom and Buttercupat improvising voices.I'm gonna be hardcore.Hi Vanity Fair , I'm Tara Strong.I'm an actress,mostly known for myanimated voiceover roles,like Raven from "Teen Titans."I'm Bubbles from the "Powerpuff Girls,"and Timmy Turner fromthe "Fairly OddParents,"and Harley Quinn, and Twilight Sparkle,[whines] and Baby Dil, andTruffles from "Chowder,"and a whole bunch more.Today, I'm going to make up some voices,and improvise from charactersthat I've never seen before.[air whooshing]The beauty of animationwhen you get an audition,they'll give you a character description.So, because we're notgetting that I'm gonna haveto make that up from my head.I think when I look atit I see a little boy,and I'm going to pretendthat they said he thinkshe's really tough,but he's not that tough,and he's missing some teeth,and he tries to fly into action,but he's a little chubbs,so he slips and falls alot, but he really wantsto be part of the team.Hey you guys, ready forme, I'm gonna take off now.[heavily breathing]Here I go [nervously exclaims].Wait a second, I'm gonna try that again.Could we do the superhero thing, take two?[sadly sighs]They left, again.If he had a really low scratchy voice,it'd be somewhere around here.He'd still wanna fight crime,and say, "Get out of my way."I like this thing.I don't know what it is.Sometimes it's fun togo off initial thought,maybe this is the prettiestthis species comes in.Maybe she's just beautiful,♪ And when she speaks she sings ♪♪ And she loves lifeand all her tentacles ♪And she just wants to be your best friend.Or, she could be somebody down herethat just thinks she's really pretty,but she's kinda gross [snarls]and she kinda makes these yucky soundswhen she [snarls] moves.[Kara chuckles]This is sort of a Mariotype character, I guess?I actually played Hip and Hopin the original animated series.There were these littleKoopa guys like this.So we could always do alittle voice like that,he could be somebody like that,that's what I think when I look at him.But if he's a little bit older,we could make him like that.And maybe he talks like that.And maybe he's Italian.Maybe he's ready to make some spaghetti,but not with mushroom [chuckles],we just want to be the fun guy.Oh, they're so cute.Oh my gosh, I love them.I love owls, they're so cool.Maybe the girl owl sounds like this,or she could be a little older too,this would be one of those things whereif they didn't specifyin the audition her age,I would call my agent to go,"Why didn't they put theage on this character?"Because the drawing could be a child,it could be an old lady, I don't know.I'd have to know beforeI did this audition.If she was a little older,maybe she'd say, "Wow, we'vebeen married for 400 years,and he's still pretty cute" [giggles].And he could be like this guy [hoots].I still love her too, she'smy little darlin'[chuckles].[Kara laughs]Let's say that maybe she's from England,and she's going to kick some buttwith her tribe, who she loves very much,and she really doesn'tlike this guy, Bill,that keeps flirting with her.She might actually shoot Billin the face with her arrow.That might be fun.She might not be British,she could be though,she could be Irish, she's wearing green.She's just ready to kick some butt.Let's go then.[tiredly sighs]This lady looks like she needs some sleep.I've been there.You know, she's tired,she's retired, she's justbored with life in general.She hates her husband, hesmells and farts a lot.She's just ready for theday, maybe life, to be over.She's very anti-germsof somebody deliveringsomething [sneezes].She'd probably [sneezes]get even more sick,and then she'd be really cranky [sneezes].She doesn't let anybodyin during COVID [sneezes].Yeah so, this is like agroovy little alien dude,maybe he's the DJ at some alien club.Yo dudes, we're ready to mix some tunes.Come on in, get your groove on, yeah!Oh, here comes the bad guys.His table tune thing turnsinto some really cool gunsand he gets the bad guys, yeah.If he was more of a momma'sboy, he'd sound like,Yeah, I guess I couldplay some tunes for you,Mom!Did you pack my lunch?She's somebody that goes throughlife a little bit slower.She definitely needs some sleepand maybe some nighttime tea.But sometimes when she counts sheep,they bother her, thenshe dreams about them.She hates that.She's not a happy-go-lucky kinda girl,I mean, it we could'vecaught her at a bad moment.I mean, we could give her a break.Tomorrow morning, after hercoffee, we could revisit her.This is pretty straightforward,if you're gonna see thisin an animated audition,she's gonna sound just like this.And that's her voice.It's just very sweet, and very authentic,and she's probably gonna getquiet in certain moments,and be excited for herbirthday in other moments,and maybe she'll get to sing,but she always has to be authentic,and bright-eyed, and hopeful.If they specified that she can actlike she's the good girl,but really she's the mean girl,[maniacally giggles] itmight come out secretly offto the side with her little mean giggles.[maniacally giggles] I'mgonna mess that girl up.He's just ready to go,he's ready to go wherethere's roller blades.Maybe he's got a little bit of a lisp,he's not quite as polishedas the other kids,but he tries really hard.He's like I'm ready togo [nervously exclaims].Whoa I'm ready to go [nervously exclaims].[imitates crashing sound][sadly sighs] Ow.Improv is so important in animation.I tell every hopeful to take improv class.Because it really helpswith your confidenceto know how to create characters,to trust your gut, totrust your instincts.Often times you'll be working on a showas a regular, established character,and they'll say, now we needher to be a little bit younger,now we need her to bea little bit chubbier,now we need her to have braces,now we need her to be from England,now we need her to be a boy.And you have to be readyto do all of the above.And if you've taken improv classes,you're gonna have a lot more confidenceto slide into a bunch of different roles.I'm Tara Strong, and that was my takeon some new character voicesthat came without descriptions.Please, put good descriptionsin all your auditions.Thanks.
Tara Strong breaks down her most iconic character voices, including her voices as Timmy Turner from ‘The Fairly Oddparents,’..