Return to Monkey Island

[Goury1]

5 minutes ago, fentongames said:

I'd like to hear how he'd have delivered "undead LeChuck."

 

Me too! If he could sound a bit more evil, he would be a perfect replacement!

[Zaxx]

2 minutes ago, fentongames said:

That shows how good Blackton was as human LeChuck, though if Rum thought it was Boen all this time! I'd like to hear how he'd have delivered "undead LeChuck." The hints of it near the end of Episode 4 showed promise in my opinion.

I thought that the voice for human LeChuck was the same guy who did "demon" LeChuck in the original version of Episode 1 before he got recast for Earl Boen. After doing some imdb digging that doesn't seem to be the case, imdb lists the Episode 1 voice actor as Adam Harrington. So yeah, we never heard Kevin Blackton doing the ghost-zombie-demon pirate version, that might be interesting if it ends up being him in Return.

[Lagomorph01]

38 minutes ago, Zaxx said:

... but with LeChuck I think it's a bit easier to sell a new actor simply because he looks different in every entry.

 

 

Hmm… I’m not convinced. They tried to sell me a different LeChuck once (with Adam Harrington) and they failed miserably.
Although I have to admit, Kevin Blackton was pretty good as a friendly human LeChuck.

[Zaxx]

Oh, I wanted to look up Kevin Blackton's other performances and found out that he sadly passed away in 2017. Human LeChuck was actually his last role.

[Goury1]

16 minutes ago, Zaxx said:

Oh, I wanted to look up Kevin Blackton's other performances and found out that he sadly passed away in 2017. Human LeChuck was actually his last role.

 

It's very sad that he passed away!

 

Still, I believe that they will manage to find a good replacement for the role none the less1

[MurraySchull]

40 minutes ago, Zaxx said:

Oh, I wanted to look up Kevin Blackton's other performances and found out that he sadly passed away in 2017. Human LeChuck was actually his last role.

 

Oh no, I had no idea he’d passed! Rest in peace, Kevin. He did such a great job.

 

Looks like it will be a newcomer in that case. I’d rather they go with somebody who sounds like Earl’s LeChuck than somebody like Harrington, who wasn’t bad in his own right, but the difference in his voice to Boen was very striking.

 

It reminds me of Kingdom Hearts III when Xehanort was recast after Leonard Nimoy’s passing. And while Rutger Hauer (and later Christopher Lloyd) did well in the role, the continuity felt broken as they weren’t specifically looking for soundalikes.

[ThunderPeel2001]

There's definitely got to be voice actors who can do a good LeChuck... the question is a) can the game afford them? and b) would the actor feel comfortable being hired to essentially just do an impression of someone else?

 

Also, am I the only one who felt Escape "fixed" Elaine. I was never a fan of the British accent.

Edited April 15, 2022 by ThunderPeel2001

[ThunderPeel2001]

3 hours ago, Glokidd said:

I was thinking this the whole time I was reading and wondering if anyone would ask.

 

I actually have a hard time believing that Emily wouldn't ask that tbh but I digress...

 

Schafer also hasn't Tweeted about it to my knowledge, either. It's possible that Emily was asked not to bring it up, even if not to skew the focus of the interview.

[ATMcashpoint]

RIP Kevin Blackton. ☹️ And I'm sad that Earl Boen isn't coming back, but I'm glad they asked him and hopefully they can find somebody to fill his seven-league pirate boots.

[5abanja]

2 hours ago, ThunderPeel2001 said:

 

Schafer also hasn't Tweeted about it to my knowledge, either. It's possible that Emily was asked not to bring it up, even if not to skew the focus of the interview.

He actually did tweet about the game "Woo!" by quote tweeting the art director!

[5abanja]

Soooo... let's speculate on the release date!

 

My guess : September 19! (Arrgh)

[Glokidd]

I kept trying to write a post here gathering my thoughts and observations about the pictures released with the interviews but after several failed attempts and realizing that it was way too long for a forum post I decided it was easier to start a website and write an article about it... lol

[Goury1]

7 minutes ago, Glokidd said:

I kept trying to write a post here gathering my thoughts and observations about the pictures released with the interviews but after several failed attempts and realizing that it was way too long for a forum post I decided it was easier to start a website and write an article about it... lol

 A great analysys!

[Lagomorph01]

Nice catch with the key theme. It totally went over my way too excited head!

[Jake]

16 hours ago, ThunderPeel2001 said:

There's definitely got to be voice actors who can do a good LeChuck... the question is a) can the game afford them? and b) would the actor feel comfortable being hired to essentially just do an impression of someone else?

From the recent interviews it sounds like Boen gave a formal blessing to recast, so I don’t think actors would feel like they’re stepping on his toes if they were asked to carry on an impression of his version of the character.

[MurraySchull]

16 hours ago, ThunderPeel2001 said:

Also, am I the only one who felt Escape "fixed" Elaine. I was never a fan of the British accent.

British Elaine goes through hits and misses in the performance to me, and both of those stand out more, whereas I felt Escape’s Elaine was consistently good and I was never taken out of her performance. In fact, Escape’s voice acting is pretty much flawless across the board in my opinion.

 

It actually makes me wonder if we ever got to the point where Escape was remastered, if they’d redub Elaine’s voice with Alexandra Boyd just to have consistency across the games. (Maybe they could have a toggle between “British/American Elaine Mode” in the settings to please everybody!)

[Lagomorph01]

40 minutes ago, fentongames said:

It actually makes me wonder if we ever got to the point where Escape was remastered, if they’d redub Elaine’s voice with Alexandra Boyd just to have consistency across the games. (Maybe they could have a toggle between “British/American Elaine Mode” in the settings to please everybody!)

Could be a nice touch, it’d be nice if it was toggalable (looking at you Sam and Max remasters.)

Although, to be honest, to please everyone I think they’d have to put in a No Grandpa and No Monkey Combat mode too.

[MurraySchull]

8 minutes ago, Lagomorph01 said:

Although, to be honest, to please everyone I think they’d have to put in a No Grandpa and No Monkey Combat mode too.

Haha! As much as that would put most of us purists at ease, I highly doubt an Escape remaster would change any of the plot! (And truthfully, within the confines of the one game, I’ve never minded it anyway!)

 

Monkey Kombat was made a little easier in the PS2 version by having a diagram included that could keep track of the moves (making it so that you don’t need to write them down yourself) so I’d settle for that diagram being ported across into a remaster.

 

Aside from that, increasing the resolution, improving the quality of the audio, upconverting the backgrounds (and making them widescreen if possible) and maybe improving the controls for PC are the features I think are reasonable to expect.

[ThunderPeel2001]

4 hours ago, Jake said:

From the recent interviews it sounds like Boen gave a formal blessing to recast, so I don’t think actors would feel like they’re stepping on his toes if they were asked to carry on an impression of his version of the character.

 

Sorry, that's not what I meant. Actors can be funny about being hired to do impressions of another actor's performance. Nothing about having a blessing or not, just about them not being allowed to interpret the character in their own way. They're artists, you know!

Edited April 16, 2022 by ThunderPeel2001

[ThunderPeel2001]

18 hours ago, 5abanja said:

He actually did tweet about the game "Woo!" by quote tweeting the art director!

 

Am I being blind? I can't see him quoting @rexbox anywhere in his feed?

[Blondebeard]

10 minutes ago, ThunderPeel2001 said:

 

Am I being blind? I can't see him quoting @rexbox anywhere in his feed?

https://twitter.com/TimOfLegend/status/1511010980502798339?t=JLw_gYvc7LpbcsZ5YYS6CQ&s=19

[TimeGentleman]

My first thought for a new LeChuck actor was Jim Cummings, but while he'd do a good job I feel like I'd just hear him rather than LeChuck. Going for Lucasarts alum, perhaps Bill Farmer would be a good fit? I was surprised to learn just how many of the varied characters he played in HtR.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Wow. Both would be amazing if Ron could get them.

 

 

[MurraySchull]

Cummings would be amazing. His Pete voice isn’t too far removed from LeChuck if he were to just “pirate it up” a bit. Also thinking Jess Harnell may be able to give a great performance too, particularly if they’re bringing the storekeeper back anyway, he could double up!

 

Hell, maybe Denny Delk could do it!

 

 

Edited April 16, 2022 by fentongames

[Lagomorph01]

Noooo!! I absolutely LOVE Jim Cummings, but I just know his voice so well that I’d be completely put off by it. I’d hate to hear LeChuck and be able to hear “oh, this sounds like his Pete”, or “here he’s going into Monterey Jack territory” or “this has a touch of Tigger”.

What I love about Earl Boen is that he wasn’t a very familiar voice actor to begin with. Jim Cummings voiced almost all of my youth!