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57-430: The Goofy Gophers were created by Warners animator Bob Clampett for the 1947 short film The Goofy Gophers . Norman McCabe had previously used a pair of gophers in his 1942 short Gopher Goofy , but they bear little resemblance to Clampett's characters. Clampett left the studio before the short was finished, but would end up being completed by Arthur Davis . The cartoon features the gophers' repeated incursions into

114-1110: A Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program and three Annie Awards for his role as both Yakko and Pinky in the Animaniacs franchise. His other voice roles include Hadji in The New Adventures of Jonny Quest (1986–1987) and The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest (1996–1997); Raphael in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987–1996); P.J. Pete in Goof Troop (1992), A Goofy Movie (1995), and An Extremely Goofy Movie (2000); Jaq in Cinderella II: Dreams Come True (2002) and Cinderella III: A Twist in Time (2007); and Mac in The Looney Tunes Show (2011–2013) and Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run (2015). Robert Frederick Paulsen III

171-687: A National Hockey League (NHL) player. He briefly attended the University of Michigan-Flint , but later dropped out and moved to Los Angeles in 1978 to pursue a career in show business, much to the disapproval of his father. He worked his first job as a musician, before pursuing voice acting full time. Paulsen first voice acting role came in 1983 with the mini-series G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero , where he played Snow Job and Tripwire . A few years later, his career launched into more roles such as Cobra Slavemaster and reprising Snow Job and Tripwire on G.I. Joe , Corky on The Snorks , Marco Smurf on

228-522: A saw mill in an attempt to retrieve their stolen tree home. After Freleng finished with the characters, they would star in two more cartoons, once again directed by McKimson. These two cartoons, Gopher Broke in 1958 and Tease for Two in 1965, pit the Gophers against the Barnyard Dawg and Daffy Duck , respectively. Both gophers were voiced by Mel Blanc in the latter short instead of one by Blanc and

285-494: A cameraman's movements). As a result, some studios now hire nearly as many lighting artists as animators for animated films, while costume designers, hairstylists, choreographers, and cinematographers have occasionally been called upon as consultants to computer-animated projects. Rob Paulsen Robert Frederick Paulsen III (born March 11, 1956) is an American voice actor and voice director, known for his roles in numerous animated television series and films. He received

342-470: A character as a 2D drawing or painting, then hand it off to modelers who build the character as a collection of digital polygons. Texture artists "paint" the character with colorful or complex textures, and technical directors set up rigging so that the character can be easily moved and posed. For each scene, layout artists set up virtual cameras and rough blocking . Finally, when a character's bugs have been worked out and its scenes have been blocked, it

399-476: A five-part miniseries, the series continued for ten seasons and 193 episodes. It was a great success and became an instant pop culture symbol. Paulsen has said that Raphael's voice is very similar to his natural voice. He returned to the franchise as Donatello for the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series on Nickelodeon , which ran for five seasons and 124 episodes from September 29, 2012, until November 12, 2017. He also reprised his role as 1987 Raphael in

456-473: A given scene was hand-drawn, then transposed onto celluloid, where it would be traced and painted. These finished "cels" were then placed together in sequence over painted backgrounds and filmed, one frame at a time. Animation methods have become far more varied in recent years. Today's cartoons could be created using any number of methods, mostly using computers to make the animation process cheaper and faster. These more efficient animation procedures have made

513-483: A lot for GOALmodels, a program for adolescents, and is a sponsor of Camp Will-A-Way, a camp for children with developmental disabilities . He also donates funds from autographs to the Wounded Warrior Project and Operation Smile . In February 2016, he was diagnosed with stage III throat cancer . He has since undergone treatment and his cancer went in remission . Following his battle with cancer, he wrote

570-507: A regular industry guest and featured panelist at San Diego Comic-Con . He has also appeared at animation industry-related events, such as the World Animation Celebration Online in 1998, among many others. He has also been a guest at several anime conventions, including JACON, Mikomicon, and Anime Overdose . Paulsen was a guest of honor at Anthrocon in 2007. He has recently started doing "Rob Paulsen Live" seminars across

627-405: A team of story artists, and synchronizing lip or mouth movements to dialogue already prepared by a screenwriter and recorded by vocal talent. Despite those constraints, the animator is still capable of exercising significant artistic skill and discretion in developing the character's movements to accomplish the objective of each scene. There is an obvious analogy here between the art of animation and

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684-431: A third short with the gophers before his unit was disbanded in late 1949. Robert McKimson however, would complete the cartoon as A Ham in a Role . In this short, the dog efforts to become a Shakespearean actor are foiled by the rambunctious rodents. The Gophers lay dormant for two years until Friz Freleng made a series of four shorts beginning with 1951's A Bone for a Bone , another dog-versus-gophers short. This

741-718: A vegetable garden guarded by an unnamed dog whom they relentlessly, though politely, torment. Voice actor Mel Blanc plays Mac and Stan Freberg plays Tosh. Both speak with high-pitched British accents like those used in upper-class stereotypes around at the time. The pair's dialogue is peppered with such overpoliteness as "Indubitably!", "You first, my dear," and "But, no, no, no. It must be you who goes first!" The two often also tend to quote Shakespeare and use humorously long words; for example, in Lumber Jerks , instead of "We have to get our tree back", they say "We must take vital steps to reclaim our property." Clampett later stated that

798-517: A weekly audio podcast called Talkin' Toons with Rob Paulsen , which started out being managed and deployed by The Tech Jives Network, before moving to be part of Nerdist Industries ' Nerdist Podcast Network. Some episodes were recorded before a live audience at The Improv in Hollywood, California , while later ones were recorded at the Nerdist Showroom. The show is on indefinite hiatus following

855-497: Is also the off-camera voice of the syndicated television series Funniest Pets & People , which is seen on Superstation WGN and other television stations throughout the United States and abroad. It was not long before Paulsen returned to Warner Bros. Animation , which had diverged into a new era of television serials (following what is sometimes referred to as the " Silver Age of Animation "). Paulsen appeared as Rev Runner of

912-434: Is an artist who creates images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video games. Animation is closely related to filmmaking and like filmmaking is extremely labor-intensive, which means that most significant works require the collaboration of several animators. The methods of creating

969-626: Is between character animators (artists who specialize in character movement, dialogue , acting , etc.) and special effects animators (who animate anything that is not a character; most commonly vehicles , machinery , and natural phenomena such as rain, snow, and water). Stop motion animators do not draw their images, instead they move models or cut-outs frame-by-frame, famous animators of this genre being Ray Harryhausen and Nick Park . In large-scale productions by major studios, each animator usually has one or more assistants, " inbetweeners " and " clean-up artists", who make drawings between

1026-880: Is complete and has been perfected through the " sweat box " feedback process, the resulting data can be dispatched to a render farm , where computers handle the tedious task of actually rendering all the frames. Each finished film clip is then checked for quality and rushed to a film editor, who assembles the clips together to create the film. While early computer animation was heavily criticized for rendering human characters that looked plastic or even worse, eerie (see uncanny valley ), contemporary software can now render strikingly realistic clothing, hair, and skin. The solid shading of traditional animation has been replaced by very sophisticated virtual lighting in computer animation, and computer animation can take advantage of many camera techniques used in live-action filmmaking (i.e., simulating real-world "camera shake" through motion capture of

1083-427: Is handed off to an animator (that is, a person with that actual job title) who can start developing the exact movements of the character's virtual limbs, muscles, and facial expressions in each specific scene. At that point, the role of the modern computer animator overlaps in some respects with that of his or her predecessors in traditional animation: namely, trying to create scenes already storyboarded in rough form by

1140-710: The Daytime Emmy Award for voicing Pinky. In 2004, he was nominated for his role of the Troubadour in Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers , and in 2005, he was nominated for his role in The Happy Elf . At the 2nd Children's and Family Emmy Awards in 2023, he was nominated for the Children's and Family Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice Performance in an Animated Program for his role in Animaniacs . Paulsen has been

1197-574: The Got Milk? campaign into a successful enterprise. Paulsen continues to be one of the most sought-after commercial voice actors in the industry. He can be currently heard as the voice of singing Mr. Mini-Wheat in the Mini-Wheats commercials in Canada. From 1987 to 1995, Paulsen voiced Raphael and various supporting characters in the original 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. Originally starting as

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1254-601: The Rob Zombie animated film, The Haunted World of El Superbeasto , Paulsen voiced the characters "El Gato" and "Commandant Hess", among some others. He also voiced Ditto, Rhomboid Vreedle, Baz-El, and Magister Patelliday in the Ben 10 franchise. Beginning in 2001, Paulsen was the voice of Disney character José Carioca until he stepped down from the role in June 2020, announcing that he would no longer play characters of color. He became

1311-413: The "key poses" drawn by the animator, and also re-draw any sketches that are too roughly made to be used as such. Usually, a young artist seeking to break into animation is hired for the first time in one of these categories, and can later advance to the rank of full animator (usually after working on several productions). Historically, the creation of animation was a long and arduous process. Each frame of

1368-628: The 1996 movie Space Jam . They're prominently featured in episodes of the animated series The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries ("I Gopher You") and Duck Dodgers ("K-9 Kaddy" and "Old McDodgers"), which in the latter, they are reinvented as green-furred, six-limbed Martian gophers. The Goofy Gophers made a cameo appearance in Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas as Daffy's employers. The Goofy Gophers were revived in The Looney Tunes Show voiced by Rob Paulsen and Jess Harnell . In this show, Mac and Tosh run an antique store. The gophers appeared in

1425-681: The 2001 cartoon series Butt-Ugly Martians . He portrayed the voice of Chomper and Strut in The Land Before Time II: The Great Valley Adventure , Spike and Rinkus in The Land Before Time sequels and Spike in the TV series, but Spike was played anonymously in the original The Land Before Time . Paulsen also played Mo in The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water . Paulsen also voiced

1482-674: The 2015 DTV movie Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run . They also appear in the Looney Tunes comic currently published by DC Comics . The Goofy Gophers appeared in the New Looney Tunes season 3 episode "Fool's Gold". The Goofy Gophers made a cameo in the Looney Tunes Cartoons short "Happy Birthday, Bugs Bunny!". The Goofy Gophers appeared in Bugs Bunny Builders in the episode "Rock On". Animator An animator

1539-648: The 2020 Animaniacs revival on Hulu . Paulsen has also provided voices for numerous other characters, including Steelbeak in Darkwing Duck , Brick and Boomer in The Powerpuff Girls , Experiment 625 / Reuben and several of Jumba Jookiba's other genetic experiments in Lilo & Stitch: The Series and its films Stitch! The Movie and Leroy & Stitch , Atchan in Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi , Spooky

1596-569: The Barnyard , various characters in The Replacements , and Bobble in the Tinker Bell films. Paulsen also played the titular character for an animated web series based on the video game Bravoman for Namco Bandai 's ShiftyLook division. Paulsen has been nominated for an Annie Award for his role of Pinky for 4 consecutive years, which he won in 1996, 1997, and 1999. In 1999, he also won

1653-496: The Bounty . He appeared in television shows during this time as well, such as MacGyver and St. Elsewhere . Paulsen became more prevalent in the world of advertising as well. In the 1980s, he had been the announcer for the sitcom Cheers and continued to secure roles as an announcer. He appeared as the voice of Mr. Opportunity , spokesman of Honda commercials on TV and radio, the announcer for Buffalo Dick's Radio Ranch , and

1710-715: The Chinese-crested dog in 102 Dalmatians: Puppies to the Rescue , an Irish pub landlord in the 1996 video game Toonstruck , and a floating talking skull named Morte in Planescape: Torment , as well as Anomen Delryn in Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn and Gray Fox in Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes and both Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as an Assist Trophy. He provided

1767-947: The Fox and the Mouse in the Green Eggs and Ham PC game . He also voiced Tlaloc in Tak and the Power of Juju . He has voiced the Riddler in Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes , a role he reprised in Lego Batman: The Movie – DC Super Heroes Unite . Rob is the voice of talking alien dog Beak-Beak in Armikrog . Paulsen also voices Smash Hit in Skylanders: SuperChargers and Skylanders: Imaginators . Paulsen

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1824-466: The Hedgehog , and " Arthur ", an insecure accountant in a moth costume (wings included), in the superhero series The Tick in 1995, replacing Micky Dolenz , who had originally played Arthur. In 1993, he starred as the title character in both Mighty Max and The Mask . Also at this time, he starred in what became one of his most popular roles, Yakko Warner of Animaniacs . Paulsen also provided

1881-583: The March 23, 2019 episode with Dante Basco . In June 2011, Paulsen made announcements that he was taking his show on the road with his "Lots of laughs and autographs" tour. Working closely with a team that included Chris Pope , his publicist, and others he made his first successful tour in Atlanta, Georgia , which happened on July 30, 2011, and another in Dallas, Texas on September 17, 2011, that required two seminars, one in

1938-625: The Rooster in Barnyard and Back at the Barnyard , and Gordon in Catscratch . He was also the voice of Rothchild in the early episodes of Samurai Jack . Additionally, Paulsen provided the voice of P.J. Pete in Goof Troop , A Goofy Movie , and An Extremely Goofy Movie , as well as the voices of Ratchet and Dr. Debolt in the TaleSpin pilot television film Plunder & Lightning . He also did

1995-837: The Tuff Little Ghost in The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper , Ogden O. Ostrich in Channel Umptee-3 , Hathi in Jungle Cubs , Jack Fenton, The Box Ghost, Nicolai Technus, and The Vulture Ghosts in Danny Phantom , Carl Wheezer, Butch and Skeet in The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius , Mark Chang, his father King Grippulon, Happy Peppy Gary, and Bucky McBadbat in The Fairly OddParents , Peck

2052-409: The U.S. to talk of his career, sign autographs, and talk with fans. Sometimes, people in attendance would request him to sing the famous Yakko's World number, where he sings all the nations of the world with his Yakko voice in a fast-paced delivery without rehearsing. In May 2011, working with social media and web producer Chris Pope , Paulsen rolled out a new website RobPaulsenLive.com, as well as

2109-464: The afternoon and one in the evening, as they were so popular. He married his first wife, Carol Anne Schnarr on June 23, 1979. They divorced in 1982. He married his second wife, photographer Parrish Todd, in 1983. Together, they have a son. He lives in Agoura Hills, California with his family. Paulsen has long supported various charities and raised donations for cancer research . He has worked

2166-420: The animator's job less tedious and more creative. Audiences generally find animation to be much more interesting with sound. Voice actors and musicians , among other talent, may contribute vocal or music tracks. Some early animated films asked the vocal and music talent to synchronize their recordings to already-extant animation (and this is still the case when films are dubbed for international audiences). For

2223-401: The art of acting, in that actors also must do the best they can with the lines they are given; it is often encapsulated by the common industry saying that animators are "actors with pencils". In 2015, Chris Buck noted in an interview that animators have become "actors with mice ." Some studios bring in acting coaches on feature films to help animators work through such issues. Once each scene

2280-470: The gophers' mannerisms were derived from character actors Franklin Pangborn and Edward Everett Horton . Arthur Davis would direct one other Goofy Gophers short, 1948's Two Gophers from Texas . The unnamed dog from the first cartoon returns as their nemesis in this cartoon, this time aiming to eat like an animal in the wild as he pursues the gophers with a gopher cookbook in hand. Davis planned to direct

2337-535: The history of animation, they did not need most of the crew positions seen on a physical set. In hand-drawn Japanese animation productions, such as in Hayao Miyazaki 's films, the key animator handles both layout and key animation. Some animators in Japan such as Mitsuo Iso take full responsibility for their scenes, making them become more than just the key animator. Animators often specialize. One important distinction

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2394-569: The images or frames for an animation piece depend on the animators' artistic styles and their field. Other artists who contribute to animated cartoons , but who are not animators, include layout artists (who design the backgrounds, lighting, and camera angles), storyboard artists (who draw panels of the action from the script), and background artists (who paint the "scenery"). Animated films share some film crew positions with regular live action films, such as director, producer, sound engineer, and editor, but differ radically in that for most of

2451-649: The later seasons of The Smurfs , Boober in Fraggle Rock , Hadji in The New Adventures of Jonny Quest and the title character Saber Rider and the villain Jesse Blue on Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs . During the 1980s, Paulsen also explored the field of live action films. His first film was Eyes of Fire in 1983. He played supporting roles in Body Double , Stewardess School , Warlock , and Mutant on

2508-452: The majority of animated films today, the soundtrack is recorded first in the language of the film's primary target market and the animators are required to synchronize their work to the soundtrack. As a result of the ongoing transition from traditional 2D to 3D computer animation , the animator's traditional task of redrawing and repainting the same character 24 times a second (for each second of finished animation) has now been superseded by

2565-404: The modern task of developing dozens (or hundreds) of movements of different parts of a character in a virtual scene. Because of the transition to computer animation, many additional support positions have become essential, with the result that the animator has become but one component of a very long and highly specialized production pipeline. In the 21st century , visual development artists design

2622-621: The multiple 1987/2012 crossover episodes. Paulsen serves as the voice director for the subsequent series, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles , which premiered in July 2018. Throughout the early 1990s, Paulsen continued to co-star in animated series, which allowed him to branch further into radio and television announcements and dropped live action acting from his repertoire. In 1993, he voiced "Antoine Depardieu" in ABC 's series Sonic

2679-684: The new show Loonatics Unleashed and starred in Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island . He was also the voice of the character Squeeky on the TV show Danger Rangers . He voiced "Ichabeezer", Bacon Bill, Motato, Beau Rockley, Captain Mike, Tom Celeriac (a play on Tom Selleck ), and other countless voices in VeggieTales in the House for Netflix . Paulsen also provides the voice for the Honda character Mr. Opportunity. In

2736-676: The new voice of Prince Eric of Disney's The Little Mermaid franchise beginning with the film The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea since Christopher Daniel Barnes failed to reprise the role in 2000, though Barnes did return to voice the character in the Kingdom Hearts series and in Gameloft 's Disney video games. Additionally, he voiced Toodles in Mickey Mouse Clubhouse , Peck in Back at

2793-418: The other by Freberg. The Goofy Gophers were largely forgotten by Warner Bros. in the years since the animation studio closed in 1969. However, in recent years, they have made a few cameos in various Warner Bros. projects. Two characters resembling the gophers appeared in the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit , peeking from the brick wall into the factory where Judge Doom was defeated. They are seen briefly in

2850-674: The robot "D.E.C.K.S." in the early 1990s TV series Wake, Rattle, and Roll . Paulsen also voiced Prescott A. Wentworth III in the Jem episode The Fan . Paulsen also played Antoine Depardieu in Sonic the Hedgehog . Paulsen was best known to Transformers fans as the voices of the Autobots Air Raid , Chase, Haywire, Fastlane and Slingshot in The Transformers . Paulsen has voiced characters in video games such as Doom 3 . He played Fluffy

2907-540: The spokesman for Lucky Stores , a West Coast grocery store chain, before it was acquired by Albertsons in 1998. He provided the voice of Dog in the Taco Bell kids meal commercials from 1996 to mid-1997, with Eddie Deezen as the voice of Nacho the cat. However, Paulsen's most famous advertising role was in the original commercial of the now ubiquitous Got Milk? campaign. The famous commercial, Who shot Alexander Hamilton in that famous duel? , aired in 1993, and launched

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2964-455: The video game The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge , he did the voice of Igor . He also reprised his role as Yakko Warner , Dr. Otto Scratchansniff , and Pinky in Animaniacs: The Great Edgar Hunt . Rob Paulsen voiced the lead character, Lazarus Jones, in the PS2 game Ghosthunter . Rob also voiced Alfredo Fettuccini, Bob the Ghost Pirate, Lookout and Ghost Priest in The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition . He voiced

3021-472: The voice for Erik the Swift of The Lost Vikings in its second installment. He portrayed Tobli and Lian Ronso in the English version of Square Enix 's Final Fantasy X-2 and has played the lead character in Bubsy . Although an extremely minor role, Paulsen has also done the voice for the Greek soldiers in God of War . He voiced Jaq and The Grand Duke from the Cinderella world in Square Enix 's and Disney 's Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep . In

3078-538: The voice of Pinky from both Animaniacs and its spin-off Pinky and the Brain , a show which won him several Annie Awards and a Daytime Emmy in 1999. He also did a number of characters in Tiny Toon Adventures , including " Fowlmouth ", " Arnold the Pit Bull ", and " Concord Condor ". In the direct-to-video film Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation , he did the voices for Banjo Possum, Mr. Hitcher (who would also appear in other episodes), and Johnny Pew. Paulsen continues to voice Yakko and Pinky in

3135-429: The voices of Boober Fraggle, Sprocket, and Marjory the Trash Heap in the animated version of Fraggle Rock , as well as Gwizdo in the Dragon Hunters film. He also voiced Zeek and Joshua in K10C: Kids' Ten Commandments , Rude Dog in Rude Dog and the Dweebs , and Archie the Raccoon, A.K.A. Ze Archer, in "Mask of the Raccoon" on The Penguins of Madagascar . and also provided the voices of 2T Fru-T and Mike Ellis in

3192-443: Was born in Detroit, Michigan , on March 11, 1956, the son of Bob and Lee Paulsen. He was raised in Grand Blanc, Michigan , where he graduated from Grand Blanc High School in 1974. He sang in choirs throughout his youth and adolescence and began performing in plays in school, but his childhood idol was ice hockey player Gordie Howe , and he considered the arts to be a secondary career choice due to his primary interest in becoming

3249-408: Was followed by I Gopher You in 1954, featuring the Gophers in their first cartoon without the dog, attempting to retrieve their vegetables from a food processing plant; Pests for Guests in 1955, which has the gophers counter-antagonize the hapless Elmer Fudd when he buys a chest of drawers that they found appropriate for nut storage; and Lumber Jerks later that year, where the Gophers visit

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