Monkey Island 2 Remake

[Laserschwert]

it's her on the right

[Giant Graffiti]

Here's her photo, for anyone who happens to be interested (it's her on the right):

 

Your ex, British Elaine, or American Elaine?

[elTee]

Jesus Christ, she's stood next to Jim Fenner - she must be a baddie

[Thrik]

I thought she was good in CMI, but she does seem weirdly awkward sometimes when reading lines in the newer games.

[DustCropper]

EMI's Elaine was voiced by Charity James, who also voiced Grace in Gabriel Knight 3. She's a great voice actress. I wish they had gotten her to do these newer games.

[ThunderPeel2001]

 

It's her, on the right.

 

(Yes, current British Elaine.)

[eLGee]

I love this game so much I want to take it to prom, marry it and get it pregnant.

[Laserschwert]

It's her, on the right.

 

(Yes, current British Elaine.)

 

Well, there's a guy and a girl in the picture... I thought it goes without saying which one she was

[MusicallyInspired]

EMI's Elaine was voiced by Charity James, who also voiced Grace in Gabriel Knight 3. She's a great voice actress. I wish they had gotten her to do these newer games.

 

You guys are crazy. American Elaine was awful. Even if it was the EMI actress it wouldn't have sounded any better because there still would have been the poor voice directing. (obviously not for Tales...but I thought British Elaine did perfectly well in Tales)

[Varrok]

I see nothing wrong in both TMI & EMI Elaine's voices

[Rosefull]

I have to say I'm with Varrok on this one. Her voice acting has been passable in all of the games, and I didn't even really have any problems with the transition from Elaine 1 to Elaine 2.

 

Though I must say, if I had to pick one, I like British Elaine best. The accent just seems to fit the character a little better.

[daltysmilth]

Yeah, I agree with Rosefull. Charity James wasn't bad, but it seemed like she played Elaine as being more condescending towards Guybrush than Alexandra Boyd ever did, and that got kind of annoying after awhile.

[KestrelPi]

I don't think she's perfect, some of her readings grate but not bad by any means and better than the american one, could never understand why that change was felt necessary.

[SyntheticGerbil]

Yeah, I agree with Rosefull. Charity James wasn't bad, but it seemed like she played Elaine as being more condescending towards Guybrush than Alexandra Boyd ever did, and that got kind of annoying after awhile.

 

On this note, I was going to say both women are great voice actresses in my opinion, but that the actress who plays Elaine in EMI is at a disadvantage because Elaine was written to be a complete dislikable nag in that game. I both the writers and the voice director really dropped the ball on that aspect of Escape.

 

I have no idea why the drastic personality change for Elaine in EMI besides that the people writing the dialogue thought it was hilarious for her to act that way. I sure didn't. In the first and second game, she comes off as the dominant one sure, but she also gives much more credit to Guybrush and shows she obviously cares for him, as silly as the game series' love story may be. In CMI, she was still sort of the same, but got a little too sappy on some parts. So leading from CMI, it made even less sense to do a complete 180 with her behavior in the fourth game and turn it into one long painful episode of Everybody Loves Raymond.

 

I guess people still think this kind of husband and wife dynamic is hilarious since dopey husband with condescending wives sitcoms still exist, but I really don't think it belonged in Monkey Island. It sure belonged less than a scathing critique on consumer culture (even though I liked that part despite it not really fitting at all within the universe).

 

So I guess this is to say, I could go either way on the voice actress for Elaine, since I think it's possible for both to do a great job with the right direction. Obviously Elaine the character seems to be much more tricky to write for though.

[daltysmilth]

I don't think she's perfect, some of her readings grate but not bad by any means and better than the american one, could never understand why that change was felt necessary.

 

The only reasons I can think of are A.) Alexandra Boyd was unavailable at the time they were recording or B.) since their voice for Herman Toothrot/H.T. Marley was American, they wanted an actress with a compatible accent.

[elTee]

I think it was because they wantonly disregarded any attempt at matching up to the canon ;-)

[ThunderPeel2001]

Anyone who doesn't have a problem with ANY of the British Elaine's line readings doesn't have very high standards when it comes to VO work - sorry, but it's true Of course it is really down to the director to get a good reading from their performers, and in CMI everyone did a wonderful job... So they should get that director back!

 

Also, I kind of think Guybrush SHOULD be henpecked, as I think Elaine finds it hard to respect him -- because she's so capable and he's such a dork. (Although they changed that dynamic with Tales, so maybe not anymore.)

[Rosefull]

Well, I agree that she was by no means perfect, but she was good enough for me to not really have any problems or be distracted from the game or anything like that.

[ThunderPeel2001]

I think I was being overly harsh, in hindsight. I just get frustrated that it seems a lot of people can't hear the difference between good and bad acting. This makes me worry that a lot of developers won't try as hard as they could. I think BioWare are at least one exception, though (for example), the acting is always superb in their games (IMO).

[elTee]

It's a complicated thing. Conversations in a lot of dialogue-heavy games are non-linear, and so have to be written in a 'vague' style that allows the player to go through the dialogue tree in their own sequence. Furthermore, the actors (who record lines on their own, mostly) have to avoid starting or ending sentences with too much gusto (or any change in emotion) in case the player inputs a weird combination of dialogue.

 

An alternative is to write/record multiple instances of lines, to cater for every eventuality. This is prohibitively expensive, very time-consuming, and takes up valuable space on the game disc.

 

There is a solution to bad video game acting - look at Uncharted 2. Of course, not many developers have the kind of money that Sony threw at Naughty Dog, and rehearsals/live-action mocap dialogue recordings are very expensive. But the general idea of employing staff from the film/television industry to manage the recording of lines and the delivery of them is sound. I think this is why LucasArts games had such high quality acting in the 90s - didn't they record at Skywalker Sound? With, I presume, several radio-play veterans behind the mixing desk.

[Laserschwert]

 

I actually like this one a bit... very close to Curse. But it doesn't fit MI2.

[Varrok]

Looks good (although he has only one leg in first shot) Where can I find the other concepts?

[MusicallyInspired]

That one reminds me of Alan Ruck.

[ThunderPeel2001]

No more screens released? ;___;

[Thrik]

To be honest I'm kind of relieved. It was getting to the point where I'd seen more of it than not — after 10 years I had forgotten a lot of MI2.

 

But I just couldn't stop myself. :~