Astro voice actor here

[jayrath]

You all have to understand what this means to me. I did this work when I was so young. (I'd do a better job now.) The show went nowhere for too many years. No one aired it; it was invisible. I am so, so happy that you all enjoy it now.

Sometimes when I read your comments -- well, it makes me pretty emotional. I won't say more.

[Innocent_Eyes]

I think you're one of the luckiest people on the planet to have been picked for a part in Astro Boy. I've enjoyed the show since I was five, and even to this day, it still has that same impact on me as it did back then.

They still air it to this date over here. It's in its fourth re-run on Boomerang.
I am so glad you were able to contribute to such an inspirational series. I hope you enjoy your stay here as well.

[tonigirl1000]

Thanks so much Jayrath and hugs Innocent_Eyes

[Dragonrider1227]

You all have to understand what this means to me. I did this work when I was so young. (I'd do a better job now.) The show went nowhere for too many years. No one aired it; it was invisible. I am so, so happy that you all enjoy it now.

Sometimes when I read your comments -- well, it makes me pretty emotional. I won't say more.

I hear they air it in Australia and I see it all the time on Youtube. So trust me, a lot of people enjoy your work

[Daichi]

Excuse me... I'm trying to find voice actors for my Astro Boy video game. I'm making the game because I want to revive people's love for Astro Boy, but I'm afraid I have no money with which to pay anyone.

Do you... Do you think you could help me anyway?
Help me find someone or... Even... participate yourself? Please?

[mr skunk]

I only just heard about your return from a friend who e-mailed me. She talked about school, art, and at the end mentioned, "oh yeah, and Jay Rath is back on the forums..."




I'm gonna tell you now, and people on this forum can back me up, THAT I AM THE BIGGEST SKUNK FAN TO EVER GRACE THIS EARTH. A strange character to be infatuated with, I agree, but I can't help it.

When you first came to this forum, I wasn't a member yet, but I always hoped you'd return so I'd have a chance to talk with you. I have some questions, but right now I'm too excited to remember them... Mainly I wanted you to know how much of a fan I am, and how much I LOOOOOOVE Skunk.

I go to art school, and have always enjoyed doing fanart. If you have the time, I'd like to show you some pictures I've done of Skunk (some of my earlier work is posted here, but I'm not quite satisfied with them.... )

Seriously, I didn't even read any prior posts to this thread, I probably should have! Alright, I'm off, but I'd love a chace to talk more with you! You can even send me a pm if you want.

Thank you!

[jeffbert]

Some follow-ups to the questions above:

The pilot was very long, and spelled out much, much more the death of Astro's human counterpart, and his father's grief. Skunk was introduced soon afterward. I mispoke -- the pilot must only have been an hour.

There is a Canadian color version of the show? I'm suprised! We knew of the b&w series. Besides being an actor, I'm also a cartoonist. I knew very well of Tezuka's importance, and I shared articles about him with the cast and crew.

You may be curious as to how we did the show. Each episode was divided up into very small clips, perhaps 30 seconds each. Each clip required many "takes," sometimes as few as three, sometimes many, many more. Matching lip movements was a real struggle, and sometimes we had to do rewrites on the spot.

We called matching the consonants "falafelling." Falafel was a new exotic food here at the time. I don't know how we hit on that as a term.

I recall some humorous moments. The Japanese translations often were too direct. For example, "hippo" was given to us in scripts as "water horse."

Another time, on break for lunch, we all went to a nearby McDonald's fast food restaurant. We ordered in character, doing our accents, etc. We thought it was pretty funny, but the servers didn't even blink!

I had heard, I cannot remember who posted it, that the Japanese themselves had cut the first 2 episodes into 1 because they were afraid that with the violence and death of Tobio, the series would be rejected by the American censors. Are you saying that the cuts were actually made by the Americans?

[jeffbert]

[QUOTE=Innocent_Eyes;83856]Hi Jay, I must say, for me (and I'm guessing everyone else here as well), it is actually quite an honour to have a cast member on board! I wasn't around when you first posted, so for me this is just plain awesome. Sorry to hear about your computer, though. Can I ask, how exactly did you get your part for the show? Was their auditions held, or anything like that? I would love to get a career in animation or voice acting when I finish my degree.

BTW, you did an exellent job on Skunk!

I am the one who is honored. None of us were union performers. We get no residuals. But your attention, many years later, is the best sort of continuing payment. Let me also add again that our engineers -- our audio crew -- deserve huge credit.

No, as I think I said here or on another thread, I was not auditioned. I'd just come off performing a stage revue, Neil Simon's "The Good Doctor," and the Astro director spotted me. I did many voices in the play.

Of course, the pilot itself was an audition for all of us. It was not certain at all that we would get to do the series.

I was just a kid. I'd done some radio drama earlier, but this was a huge leap forward.[/QUOTE]
I am quite fond of radio drama; I had a 4 CD set of classic radio Sci-fi, I heard Alien Voices' performance of The Lost World, & regularly enjoy Prarie Home Companion's radio 'drama.'

[jayrath]

Excuse me... I'm trying to find voice actors for my Astro Boy video game. I'm making the game because I want to revive people's love for Astro Boy, but I'm afraid I have no money with which to pay anyone.

Do you... Do you think you could help me anyway?
Help me find someone or... Even... participate yourself? Please?

I would be delighted to participate. Where are you?

[jayrath]

I had heard, I cannot remember who posted it, that the Japanese themselves had cut the first 2 episodes into 1 because they were afraid that with the violence and death of Tobio, the series would be rejected by the American censors. Are you saying that the cuts were actually made by the Americans?

I have no idea who made the cuts, but Tobio's death was not anything worse than any other cartoon violence. What struck me when we did it was the length and depth of his dad's pain. That was pretty intense. It did go on and on, with the father weeping. As we all would in real life!

Again, I am sure the scenes survive in the Japanese original. It's a long time ago, but as I recall it, it's the father's response and a rather lengthy introduction of Astro to Elefun, and a Skunk subplot, that was cut.