Plus, several of the Twilight Town crew was voiced by a mixture of Disney talent and more freelance voice actors (most recently one of my other favourite female voice actors, Jennifer Hale, joined the cast of Birth by Sleep, where she admittedly reprised a Disney role, so she was credited as “Disney Voice Talent”, but still). Photos of the Kingdom Hearts II (Game) voice actors. Tara was introduced to the franchise alongside Yuna (still played by Hedy Burress, more known for her live action roles than her voice over ones) and Paine (Gwendoline Yeo, who has managed to have a nicely balanced acting career across different types of media). Some actors have accomplished this extremely well, a fantastic example being Haley Joel Osment as Sora, who I feel has excelled in the role ever since the first game (and his darker turn as Vanitas in Birth by Sleep was amazing, if it wasn’t for the fact I already knew that was Haley Joel Osment, I never would have guessed it), as has David Gallagher as Riku. Kingdom Hearts 3 DLC Features Surprise Voice Actor. Master Xehanort has had several voice actors, and has two in Kingdom Hearts 3. Kingdom Hearts is a series of action role-playing games developed and published by Square Enix (formerly Square). Updated on Nov. 7 with the Big Hero 6 voice cast. Bob Buchholz takes this same hack-and-slash approach outside of the Kingdom Hearts franchise. Voice cast. The three main games in the series were released in chronological order, with each new installment following the events of the previous installment. They almost at times have to overact in order to get the right emotion across, which is something that regular actors occasionally struggle with. A compilation of three classic games, Kingdom Hearts Final Mix (updated version of the original Kingdom Hearts game, Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories (2007) and Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days (2009). Lott even managed (the shock of it) to secure Academy Award nominated actor Haley Joel Osment (this game started a trend of him voicing characters in several Disney movies). Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. You could spot moments where Dohring swung between being spot-on as Terra to having several uncomfortable voicing moments, whereas Holland was merely “okay” throughout the entire game. I just mentioned that Hayden, the original Kairi, didn’t return for two games. In some respects Kingdom Hearts has become one of those series where this statement applies, and that sentiment was echoed a few years back by the series’ own creator Tetsuya Nomura, when he stated that people more often associate the English voices than the Japanese. As the series has gone on, Disney and Square Enix have become less afraid of using established voice actors to take on the roles in the growng cast of the games. Other actors didn’t fare quite so well: David Boreanaz, as much as I love him as an actor (hell I won’t deny I had a massive crush on him back when he was Angel in Buffy), and as nicely suited as his voice was to Leon in Kingdom Hearts, just didn’t come across as a whole package- he struggled a bit in maintaining the right levels of emotion as the character. I should probably start right now by stating that I do not believe in the supremacy of Japanese dubs, despite my position as an avid RPG fan. Aerith had two different voices in the Kingdom Hearts universe, where her second voice also appeared in Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, which, by the way, was recorded alongside Kingdom Hearts II. What do you feel about the constant swapping and changing of voices? Music from Kingdom Hearts was also included in Shimomura's best works compilation album Drammatica. I’m not entirely sure why, considering a massive part of my gaming collection is pre-voicing , but in recent games – and particularly RPGs – voice acting has become one of the first things I look at. Each Monday, we publish a Guest Blog from a member of the KH & Gaming Community. Hope you guys find it interesting. Sora - Haley Joel Osment. So far, we have unfortunately bore witness to repeated voice changes from one game to the next, which is something we haven’t seen with Square Enix’s other franchises (my main basis for comparison being Final Fantasy X & X-2, where all actors from the first game returned for the second, but the more recent Compilation of Final Fantasy VII can also be looked at for an example of this). (And I probably missed a few. As more games have been released, more recognizable names from the voice acting realm have been introduced, such as Kirk Thornton and Robin Atkin Downes (Saïx and Luxord). Hey, lets introduce Final Fantasy VIII’s Rinoa to the series and get her voiced by Miley Cyrus just to round off the cast. Did you know that Kingdom Hearts actually has a lot of good singers in the voice cast? RELATED: Kingdom Hearts III Cover Art and Extended TGS 2018 Trailer. Many more talented actors will also be joining the Kingdom Hearts III voice cast, making The one exception is the V This was something that was a BIG plus for the original Kingdom Hearts, getting the original Disney Voice actors back to play the characters just as I'd remembered them. Kingdom Hearts II is a 2005 action role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 2 video game console.The game is a sequel to Kingdom Hearts, and like the original game, combines characters and settings from Disney films with those of Square Enix's Final Fantasy series. This does make me a bit of a standalone voice in the crowd sometimes, but there are several occasions where I have no problem in saying that I prefer the English dubbing to the Japanese. Voice Actor(s) Character Game Appearances; Frank Welker: 1, 2, Days: Scott Weinger: 1, CoM, 2, Days, Coded: Kathryn Beaumont: 1, CoM, Coded: Kristen Bell, Livvy Stubenraunch & Katie Lopez: 3: Jodi Benson: 1, CoM, 2, 3: Matt McKenzie: 2: Cheech Marin: 2: Scott Adsit: 3: Robby Benson: 1, CoM, 2: Paige O'Hara: 1, CoM, 2: Zach Braff: 2: Jerry Tondo: 2: Brian Blessed: 1: David Ogden Stiers: 2, Days The next voice director of the Kingdom Hearts series, Bob Buchholz (who has filled this role in every release of the series since the second game), has continued this trend across his work with Square Enix; not just the Kingdom Hearts games, but for other titles (The Compilation of Final Fantasy VII and Dissidia -Final Fantasy-). Kingdom Hearts 3 English voice actors. Donald Duck. However, the crown for the most famous voice actor role in the Kingdom Hearts series would undoubtedly go to the extremely talented Quinton Flynn, who’s portrayal of Axel (and Lea) from Kingdom Hearts II onwards is one of the most immediately memorable in the franchise. Who could you see Bob Buchholz casting in the next game? Maybe a surprise turn-in for Patrick Stewart? voiced by Hayden Panettiere and 3 others. She also displayed a better attempt to act compared to Moore’s rather bland “I’m just reading off a script” approach (I did like Mandy Moore, but replaying the game recently really made me realize she wasn’t all that great). voiced by David Gallagher and 3 others. Not much on KH3D yet. In the cast list for the first Kingdom Hearts game, you would actually find very little reliance on “professional” voice actors outside of the Disney talent pool, with the majority of original and Final Fantasy characters being voiced by screen actors, or even singers (ie. This year, in what I thought was an incredible gesture, she voiced Kairi’s grandmother in Birth by Sleep. How good do you feel the voice acting has been in Kingdom Hearts? As an aside, I should probably say at this moment that I actually kind of liked Suvari as Aerith and didn’t think she deserved anywhere near the amount of hate she got from the fans. Mufasa (voice) (archive sound) Bruce Lanoil ... Timon (voice) Angela Lansbury ... Mrs. Potts (voice) Linda Larkin ... Princess Jasmine (voice) Susie Stevens-Logan ... Andrina (voice) (as Susie Stevens Logan) Dr. Finkelstein- Jess Harnell (also the voice of Wakko Warner) Dr. Jumba- David Ogden Stiers. Kingdom Hearts is the first game in the Kingdom Hearts series developed and published by Square Enix (formerly Square Co., LTD) for PlayStation 2 and directed by Tetsuya Nomura. Even Kingdom Hearts, in its early days, had to bring in new actors to voice some iconic characters.The most high profile voice of the series was mainly Haley Joel Osment.With Kingdom Hearts III, however, that’s all about to change. What does this mean for the future of voicing in the Kingdom Hearts series? Tetsuya Nomura, overhearing their conversation, volunteered to lead the project and the two producers agreed to let him direct. The Kingdom Hearts Cast. We use cookies on our websites for a number of purposes, including analytics and performance, functionality and advertising. As for the future of the series…new characters to be voiced by America Ferrera and Ethan Peck? Voice acting in the west, at this point in time, is not treated as importantly as in other places, particularly in Japan, despite my belief that voice acting is actually much harder. However, in Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-, she was replaced by TV actress Andrea Bowen (trivia: Andrea’s sister voiced Fuu in Kingdom Hearts II). Rutger Hauer from Bladerunner is the voice actor for Xehanort in the base Kingdom Hearts 3 experience, but he sadly passed away in July 2019 … It is the result of a collaboration between Square Enix and Disney Interactive Studios. “Voicing in the Kingdom Hearts series” was written by Kupo Mog, our resident Community forum administrator. The biggest influx was in Kingdom Hearts II, including one of my favourite voice artists Tara Strong reprising her Final Fantasy X/X-2 role of Rikku. With Haley Joel Osment, Hayden Panettiere, David Gallagher, Billy Zane. The biggest influx was in Kingdom Hearts II, including one of my favourite voice artists Tara Strong reprising her Final Fantasy X/X-2 role of Rikku. … The subreddit for Kingdom Hearts news, discussion, and more. Kingdom Hearts franchise developed by Square Enix. This isn’t so much a statement on their acting ability, more that they just weren’t suited to voice acting. Yuffie’s voicework followed the same pattern as DiZ/Ansem, with no two consecutive appearances voiced by the same woman. Kingdom Hearts is a crossover of various Disney settings based in a universe made specifically for the series. 123 images (& sounds) of the Kingdom Hearts II cast of characters. Definitely not. voiced by Haley Joel Osment and 3 others. The initial idea for Kingdom Hearts began with a discussion between Shinji Hashimoto and Hironobu Sakaguchi about Super Mario 64. will reprise his role in Kingdom Hearts III as Sora, the pure-hearted protagonist. Let’s move on to the opposite end of the spectrum, where I present to you, Kathryn Beaumont. Haley Joel Osment (The Sixth Sense, A.I.) Voice Actors. There will not be any more updates in the "TRIVIA" section. The constant replacement of character voices has continued throughout the series- Lance Bass‘s battle cries as Sephiroth in the first game led to him being succeeded by George Newbern; after being newly recruited in Kingdom Hearts II to play as Naminé, Brittany Snow have been replaced by Meaghan Jette Martin, who had recently (as of Re:Chain of Memories) played a role in Disney’s Camp Rock. Post discussion, fan-art, videos, questions, and more here! Two years later, she voiced Wendy in Disney’s Peter Pan. To anyone who owns that, if you haven’t watched it, do it now-it’s been extended with interviews with some of the English cast and crew and shows filming inside the studio of actors while they were delivering their lines. Who have been your most and least favourite voice roles in Kingdom Hearts? I was disappointed Jeff Bridges & Olivia Wilde weren't contributing. A chance meeting between Hashimoto and a Disney executive in an … The new DLC for Kingdom Hearts 3 sees main villain Master Xehanort receive a new voice actor, who anyone who grew up … Images of the Riku voice actors from the Kingdom Hearts franchise. After that massive onslaught of text dealing with my one bad point of getting actors with little-to-no experience in voice acting, I finally get to my second bad point. Johnny Depp did not voice Jack in KH2. I’ve played games in the past that have tried using “regular” actors rather than established voice actors, and they generally don’t turn out as effective as they could have (a notable example for me was Buffy: Chaos Bleeds, although the usually mild and meek Amber Benson’s performance as the vampire version of Tara, really stole the show in Willow’s levels). The casting directors for Kingdom Hearts have followed a rather interesting pattern in choosing voices for the characters stretching back to the first game. Fred (Big Hero 6) - TJ Miller. Now, why would she belong in the opposite end of the spectrum? Founded in May 2004, Kingdom Hearts Ultimania Lott brought together the established Disney voice talent for a majority of the characters (particularly the Disney characters) with many “regular” actors who had not really been involved in voice acting before, such as David Boreanaz (Squall) and Steve Burton (Cloud). The problem is that this method of casting has been a bit of a double-edged sword. Please note: spoiler about Birth by Sleep in the next paragraph Riku. is the largest community website based on the popular They simply don’t shine when surrounded by the extraordinary Mark Hamill (once again flexing his amazing voice-over muscles, though for the first time in the Kingdom Hearts franchise as new character Master Eraqus) and the legend that is Leonard Nimoy (in what is billed as his last role, as Master Xehanort). Olette is voiced by Ashley Boettcher. Square Enix has finally confirmed some of the Kingdom Hearts III voice cast… Though the Kingdom Hearts games are making good progress in taking on more voice actors, I still feel more effort could be made to bring in more. Another alumni of Camp Rock, Alyson Stoner, surprisingly replaced Hayden Panettiere as the voice of Kairi in Re:Chain of Memories and 358/2 Days (where she also voiced Xion, a role she reprised for a cameo line in Birth by Sleep).