Voice Acting in Recent Seasons

[DuffMan72]

I'm probably not the only one to notice this, but in the last few seasons, the voice acting has overall taken quite a significant decline. Most noticably, the voices sound quite a bit different. I guess after 20 seasons, the actors age and consequently so do the voices, but it's been quite drastic between the most recent seasons. The delivery of lines also seems to have changed for the worse too.

The reason I brought up this topic is because I was listening to the season 9 commentary, and the actors (namely Dan and Nancy) seem to perfectly nail their classic-era voices. So what is it that affects the quality of the voice acting in such a negative way?

[Rebekah]

Maybe they gave up passion, because they know that the episodes wont be as classic as they used to be. Maybe they just gave up. I don't know thats my un researched opinion.

[Atom1us]

voices change... times change...

but i agree the way they do it now sucks

[The Governor]

The voice actors are human....maybe they don't like the scripts, maybe their voices change over time, or maybe they need to change up their skills to make way for the shorter run times for more commercials.

We'll never know...

[corrado]

less umf

[WBadger]

i agree that they sound slightly different, but they don't suck...

[Thrillho]

Well, it's been almost 20 years, give them credit for staying at least fairly consistent. How many other 51 year-old women can imitate a 10 year old boy's voice?

[Granto]

I have noticed subtle changes but after 20 years, you gotta give them a break!

[Semaj]

Maybe it's the slow pacing of the show in general, but there does seem to be a hint of fatigue in the voice acting lately. A lot of verbal jokes, like Homer whispering have lately failed exactly because the line delivery sounds too forced, not to mention the over-reliance on terrible puns. Same goes for any present-day musicals.

Things don't come as naturally as they once did.

[Fox Executive]

Yes, they do sound a bit different, but I don't mind that.

[TerwilligerBob]

Simple, they don't know how to act anymore. They're used to using these voices for certain characters that they have faithfully voiced for a decade, and now that the characters are horrible, nonsensical parodies of themselves, they don't know how to voice them anymore. I especially have a hard time wondering just how Julie is trying to voice Marge...given Marge's lines nowadays, she probably has to do a lot of takes before she can figure out how to crush and squeeze Marge's oh-so-subtle voice into saying the awful one-liners of the current scripts. And I agree, they probably don't like the scripts, but still, it takes a gift for people to do the same voice successfully for 20 years.

[MunkeyBoxx]

They sound as consistent as they can. But they are getting older, and it can take a toll on voices as a result. Give them credit for TRYING to sound the same. Who knows the circumstances? ya know?

BTW, its not a HUGE decline in quality of the voices. Just a slight decline. Nothing MAJOR.

[Atom1us]

True. As i said, it's natural for voices to change as people age. I doubt they could do any better than what they're doing considering how much they're paid.

[Haoie]

I can't really notice.

But then again I haven't seen the new epis as many times as the classics.

[suttsteve]

I haven't really noticed. They still sound pretty much the same to me.

[Property of Ned Flanders]

because the table reads are very, very fun and they emote to the point of extreme over exaggeration. only now, they carry it out to the recording studio.
bottom line, they think it's funny but it's really not. only to those working on it. it's kind of like an inside joke that no one else thinks is funny.

[TerwilligerBob]

I haven't really noticed. They still sound pretty much the same to me.

Well, the voices themselves haven't changed much as far as sound goes, but the way the character's lines are said...the voices, in terms of mannerisms, inflections, tone, etc., sound pretty off sometimes. To tell the truth, it would almost be better for them to have completely different voices, as the characters are now completely different. It's sort of creepy to hear Lisa's voice saying the things she says nowadays...it's almost like a THOH where Lisa goes nuts.

[Atom1us]

Well, the voices themselves haven't changed much as far as sound goes, but the way the character's lines are said...the voices, in terms of mannerisms, inflections, tone, etc., sound pretty off sometimes. To tell the truth, it would almost be better for them to have completely different voices, as the characters are now completely different. It's sort of creepy to hear Lisa's voice saying the things she says nowadays...it's almost like a THOH where Lisa goes nuts.

that's sort of how it sounds to me... but i guess i subconciously still believe it's the same characters... incidentally i classify it as the same characters acting different rather than different characters trying too hard at playing older character versions of themselves

[Xt'Tapalatakettle]

Hmmm, I thought 19 was an improvement over 16-18 in terms of voice acting (17 was abysmal, 16 and 18 were mixed at best). This season hasn't been too terrible, IMO, though I thought there was a bit of forced dialogue in The Burns and the Bees.

[Generic]

I think it has much more to do with the current characterisations and tone of the episodes rather than age, acting ability or certainly laziness on the part of the cast. As DuffMan72 noted, their renditions of the voices on commentary tracks and so forth don't differ as much (if at all) from the way they sounded in earlier seasons.

Take Homer for example. These days he's portrayed as being more whiny, obnoxious and sometimes downright lecherous and that's reflected in Dan's performance because it's playing the character a little differently. Marge is another good example, as TerwillgerBob pointed out there are some really awkward lines for Marge these days ("That laughter sounds like the result of misbehaviour!"), lines that are pretty difficult to be made to sound natural when they're delivered.

Maybe it's also a result of post-production, specifically being slightly sped-up to be trimmed down to the time limit. I'm still inclined to think that it's the characters themselves though, the vocal performance differing because a different sort of delivery is now required.