Frank Welker as Kermit

[Xerus]

A lot of people have been comparing Jim Henson's and Steve Whitmire's Kermit voice. But I'd like to point out that famous voice artist Frank Welker had voiced the cartoon Baby Kermit. And he got Kermit's personality pretty good too.

[lowercasegods]

Two points of interest: 1. Frank Welker also performed the adult Kermit's voice in the Muppet Babies spin-off "Little Muppet Monsters", which divided itself between puppet segments and animated segments featuring the adult Kermit and Piggy. 2. Frank has a history of lending his voice to puppets as well as cartoons: He voiced Stripe and Mohawk in Gremlins and Gremlins 2: The New Batch, he voiced several of the title creatures in Roger Corman's Gremlin's rip-off Munchies, and he voiced the evil Easter Bunny and twin characters of Station in Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, to name a few.

[GelflingWaldo]

1. Frank Welker also performed the adult Kermit's voice in the Muppet Babies spin-off "Little Muppet Monsters", which divided itself between puppet segments and animated segments featuring the adult Kermit and Piggy. Little Muppet Monsters did not use the vocal tallents of the Muppet Babies cast. Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Richard Hunt, Jerry Nelson, and Dave Goelz all did voices along with many other Muppeteers did the voices for Little Muppet Monsters (the puppets and the cartoon parts). That's one thing that made the show great. The proper people were doing the voices. Jim Henson was Kermit, Frank Oz was Fozzie and Piggy, Richard Hunt was Scooter, Dave Goelz was Gonzo. It was great that they did the voices for the cartoons! This is one reason the show was cancled so early; Jim felt that it was taking too much time away from the muppeteers main focus - puppeteering. Read this post (http://forum.muppetcentral.com/showthread.php?t=17535&)for more details.

[Erine81981]

He's one good voice artiest I've ever wanted to meet. He's voiced the one and only "Fead Jones" (I don't have to mention whos that) and Now he voices "Scooby and Fred." He does alot of cartoon characters.

[lowercasegods]

Little Muppet Monsters did not use the vocal tallents of the Muppet Babies cast. Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Richard Hunt, Jerry Nelson, and Dave Goelz all did voices along with many other Muppeteers did the voices for Little Muppet Monsters (the puppets and the cartoon parts). That's one thing that made the show great. The proper people were doing the voices. Jim Henson was Kermit, Frank Oz was Fozzie and Piggy, Richard Hunt was Scooter, Dave Goelz was Gonzo. It was great that they did the voices for the cartoons! This is one reason the show was cancled so early; Jim felt that it was taking too much time away from the muppeteers main focus - puppeteering. Read this post (http://forum.muppetcentral.com/showthread.php?t=17535&)for more details.

I'm sorry, but you're wrong. True, the Muppet puppeteers performed the PUPPET segments of Little Muppet Monsters, which is probably why they felt the time crunch amidst their other projects and had to limit the show to two episodes. I'm not debating this. But the fact remains that Frank Welker voiced the ANIMATED adult Kermit, and other voice actors provided the voices of the animated adult Muppets as well. Neither Jim nor any of the other Muppet performers lent their voices to the animated segments of Little Muppet Monsters. It was the same situation with the animated version of Fraggle Rock which appeared not long after on NBC. None of the original performers lent their voices to that either, and new voice artists were brought in to voice the characters. It was also the case with Dog City, where the used Canadian voice artists to voice each of those characters. And to clarify, I never said the Muppet Babies cast voiced the adult animated versions of the Muppets. I only said that Frank Welker voiced Kermit, which he did. Though it wouldn't surprise me if they did use the other voice artists to create adult versions of their Muppet babies voices, since they were so close to the source already.

[Vic Romano]

Along with Gelfling Waldo, I was always under the belief that the original Muppeteers voiced their respective animated counter parts. IMDB.com also does not credit Mr. Welker for the Little Muppet Monsters.
On an a plus note for Mr. Welker; he has an amazing resume at imdb.com that you should check out here. (http://imdb.com/name/nm0919798/)

[lowercasegods]

I agree, Frank Welker is the greatest. I've been a huge fan of his for as long as I've adored the Muppets (which has been for the better part of thirty years). But I have seen the actual voice credits for Little Muppet Monsters. And believe me, I wanted it to have been Jim and his crew that voiced the animated adult Muppets so badly. But the sad fact is that they weren't. It was Frank Welker who voiced the adult animated Kermit and a host of other voice professionals who handled the rest of the cartoon Muppets. Of course, if anyone besides Jim were to voice Kermit (Steve Whitmire notwithstanding) I'd want it to be Frank Welker. So I have no complaints, other than that Little Muppet Monsters only ran a couple episodes. And as far as IMDB goes, it's a great site, but their facts are not always dead on. Frank Welker has voiced more characters than IMDB could ever hope to compile in a list. But they do the best with what they have. They just neglected to mention his role as the adult Kermit. One again, I stress that this is coming from the actual credits of the original TV show which I studied closely. I'm not out to insult anyone's knowledge of Muppet trivia, and I myself have been corrected before. But this is just how it is: Frank Welker voiced the adult animated Kermit, other voice artists did the other characters, and the Henson folk did not supply any cartoon voices on the show.

[Vic Romano]

How much did Jim contribute to projects like Muppet Babies and Little Muppet Monsters then? And did he play a role in casting Frank?

[lowercasegods]

How much did Jim contribute to projects like Muppet Babies and Little Muppet Monsters then? And did he play a role in casting Frank?
Jim didn't really have that active a role in the development of either show, other than his company having official producing credits, which doesn't necessarily require their active involvement in production of the show. It's more often than not essentially an honorary title, just to show ownership and authority. I'm sure he checked in to assure quality control from time to time, but the main (and essentially only) Muppet guy to have an actively creative hand in The Muppet Babies was Michael Frith, who provided countless character designs (see Jim Henson: The Works, pg. 207 for an example). Other than that, Jim pretty much trusted the animators and writers to do a good job. And with a few Emmys under their belt for their efforts, Jim obviously made the right choice.
Jim didn't even have that much to do with Little Muppet Monsters. Granted, actual Muppets were used for half of the show, but like Fraggle Rock, Jim allowed the program to be controlled by creative hands other than his own. His own people oversaw the production of the puppet segments, but not Jim. He just showed up occassionally to tape a segment with Kermit, just as the other performers made brief appearances with their own characters. But Jim was far too busy at the time with everything from labyrinth to The Jim Henson Hour to put very much of himself into Muppet Babies or Little Muppet Monsters.
I would imagine, however, that Jim and his crew did sit in on the casting of the voice actors of the adult animated characters. There could be no better judge of how well a voice artist were replicating a character's voice than the original performer. So to that degree, I imagine Jim had some say as to who ended up voicing which character, though I figure Frank Welker was a shoe in to voice the adult Kermit, since he'd already proved his mettle in voicing baby Kermit.

[Vic Romano]

The thread that GelflingWaldo attached to his post was a thread I started (as you'll plainly see) because albeit hazy, I remember a Muppet cartoon with them as adults and I think they did an Indiana Jones spoof and (Kermit and Fozzie) fly a plane, but in my mind it begins to meld with the Muppet Babies episode where they also fly a plane and the gas gauge goes to E and they make the gag: "Does "E" stand for empty or enough?"
So what were some of the stories that the adult Muppet cartoons did?
I guess it's hard for me to imagine anyone else other then the fab five voiced those cartoons, because from what little I do remember, they were dead on, I mean "Fool their own parents" dead on.

[lowercasegods]

The animated segments of Little Muppet Monsters were basically cartoon re-creations of old Muppet Show sketches, in theme, at least, if not directly borrowing plots and scripts. Pigs in Space, Muppets Labs and so on were seen in cartoon form, which was a novelty, but hardly original, and, as we've said, without the original Muppet performers doing the voices. The main deviation from this was the first episode where Kemit plays a Sam Spade-type of detective, and Piggy comes into his office as sort of a femme fatale. That was kind of a new idea, but still, the highlight of the show was the actual puppetry.
And it's understandable that you'd think the adult animated Muppets were voiced by the original performers. Frank Welker is a voice-acting genius who surpasses even Mel Blanc and is neck and neck with Jerry Nelson in talent comparisons. So he and the rest of the cast were extremely adept at recreating already famous voices. Frank Welker's impression of Jerry "Curly" Howard, for example (heard in the 1970's Hanna Barbera cartoon character Jabberjaw) is beyond belief and dead on.

[Mario]

Frank Welker is my favorite voice actor ever! I love what he has done, especially Abu! When I was watching a new commercial for the Pillysbury Dough Boy, I was thinking, "That voice sounds familiar." And, I finally realized that it sounded just like Baby Kermit from Muppet Babies. Can anyone verify that it is Frank Welker? Because if they can, my mom would owe me a huge apology, :)

[lowercasegods]

Frank doesn't do too many commercials these days (he used to be the voice of Grimace from McDonalds and one of the Snap, Crackle & Pop elves), but it's certainly a possibility that he's the new voice of The Pillsbury Dough Boy. I checked out a couple websites and couldn't find any listing for the commercial, but if I were you I'd try to find something on Google. I'm sure something will come up.

[Xerus]

Yes, Frank Welker is definitely one of the most talented voice actors since 1969 as is still going on strong.

And he can do any animal sound you can think of. Mainly, whenever a studio needs some animal noises, they hire Frank. He usually does the woofs for Santa's Little Helper on the Simpsons. And the alien, Nibbler, on Futurama. And I heard he did the growls of that vicious snake on Annaconda.

[lowercasegods]

He also voiced the "Nazi monkey" in Raiders of the Lost Ark. On a related note, if anyone's seen Disney's Lilo and Stitch, they may have originally believed that Frank was the voice of Stitch (I know I did at first). As it turns out, however, the voice was done by the film's director, who was sort of ripping off Frank's style. From what I read, Frank was none too pleased about it, either. Just thought you might find that interesting.

[Erine81981]

I was reading that imdb about Frank Welker and it says soemthing about him doing Eliot from Pete's Drangon about a movie or speical? Was this a "House Of Mouse" or a moive put out to buy? Could someone help me plase?

[lowercasegods]

Disney's making an animated film (whether it's direct to video or theatrical I'm not sure) revolved around a plot to kidnap Mickey Mouse, and Basil of Baker Street (from The Great Mouse Detective) is put on the case to find him. Almost every conceivable Disney character, from Donald Duck to Baloo the Bear and all points inbetween, will be featured in this movie, including Elliot from Pete's Dragon. In the original film, Elliot was voiced by comedian Charlie Callas (with additional roars and growls provided by the late great voice artist Candy Candido). However, it would seem that either Charlie is retired or in no fit shape to voice Elliot a second time, since Frank Welker's taking over the voice for this movie. For fan's of Elliot, this will be a real treat to see him, as he hasn't been used since his appearance his 1977 movie (to the best of my knowledge). Hope this helps.

[Xerus]

He also voiced the "Nazi monkey" in Raiders of the Lost Ark. On a related note, if anyone's seen Disney's Lilo and Stitch, they may have originally believed that Frank was the voice of Stitch (I know I did at first). As it turns out, however, the voice was done by the film's director, who was sort of ripping off Frank's style. From what I read, Frank was none too pleased about it, either. Just thought you might find that interesting.

Yes, very interesting. At first, I too thought Frank had voiced Stitch. Then found out I was wrong later. Yes, that does sound like one of Frank's popular voices. Almost like Slimer from the Real Ghostbusters and Go-Go Dodo from Tiny Toons. Two unforgettable Frank voices.

[Erine81981]

Disney's making an animated film (whether it's direct to video or theatrical I'm not sure) revolved around a plot to kidnap Mickey Mouse, and Basil of Baker Street (from The Great Mouse Detective) is put on the case to find him. Almost every conceivable Disney character, from Donald Duck to Baloo the Bear and all points inbetween, will be featured in this movie, including Elliot from Pete's Dragon. In the original film, Elliot was voiced by comedian Charlie Callas (with additional roars and growls provided by the late great voice artist Candy Candido). However, it would seem that either Charlie is retired or in no fit shape to voice Elliot a second time, since Frank Welker's taking over the voice for this movie. For fan's of Elliot, this will be a real treat to see him, as he hasn't been used since his appearance his 1977 movie (to the best of my knowledge). Hope this helps.

But it said 2004? Its already 2005. Can you explain this too?

[McFraggle]

I think he did a good job as well.

[lowercasegods]

But it said 2004? Its already 2005. Can you explain this too?
All I can offer here is a semi-educated guess. Since Disney pretty much fired off its entire hand-drawn animation staff last year in order to shift the company towards total computer generated animation, it probably proved to be a serious setback for production of "The Search for Mickey Mouse." They probably had to send the film off to France or Australia to be completed by one of Disney's overseas animation units, which I assume haven't been entirely shut down yet.

So one of two things is going to happen at this point: Although a bit off schedule (it was due out Feb. of last year), "The Search for Mickey Mouse" will be released on video/DVD around some major gift-buying holiday this year, or the entire project will get buried. The second one would be a rare occurance for Disney, who, to my knowledge, always finishes what they start, animation-wise. But the first possibility seems pretty likely, though there's always hope of it ending up on the big screen yet. After all, "Toy Story II" was originally intended as straight to video, and look how that got turned around, and with Oscar nominations, no less.

[Vic Romano]

Man, I knew he was big, but I didn't realize he was this revered. Frank Welker is the frieakin' man. :cool:

[lowercasegods]

Speaking exclusively in modern terms, the three greatest male vocal artists of the day are Frank Welker (whose resume needs no mention in this forum), Jim Cummings (The Tazmanian Devil, Tigger, Bonkers D. Bobcat) and Maurice LeMarche (The Brain, Egon Spengler, Squit Pigeon). The three greatest female vocal artists are June Foray (Witch Hazel, Rocky the Flying Squirrel, Natasha Fatale) Tress MacNeille (Dot Warner, Gadget, Kanga) and Nancy Cartwright (Bart Simpson, Rufus, Chuckie). And June Foray is the last of the surving members of the golden age of voice actors, having done her first voice work back in 1950 as Lucifer the Cat in Disney's Cinderella.

[Vic Romano]

I got more interested in Frank because of this thread, so I went looking around and found this (www.mkbmemorial.com/FWHp/). It's a well put together site, but interestingly enough, it doesn't credit him doing the voices of the animated adult Muppets from Little Muppet Monsters, so lowercasegods, not meaning to be so outright doubtful and defiant, but is there anything online to confirm what you remember?
Frank Welker Homepage (www.mkbmemorial.com/FWHp/)

[lowercasegods]

I've seen this site and it's pretty cool. As to having anything to confirm Frank voicing the adult animated Muppets on Little Muppet Monsters, I regret that I have no evidence outside of my having repeatedly viewed the credits for the show and having seen that Frank did indeed do the voice. I've been a "voice chaser" (someone who tracks down info on voice actors) my whole life, and I do my homework on things like this. I tried to find printed evidence for my case, but neither IMDB nor any other site I can find has any lisiting for any of the voices on Little Muppet Monsters, only Muppet Babies. Most likely, all voice actor credits for the show posted anywhere online have been slapped together with the Muppet Babies credits, making them indistinguishable. All I can say is that when and if Little Muppet Monsters is released on DVD, then the facts will be made public. Until then, all I have is my word. No one out there is obligated to take my word as gospel. But I know what I know, so take it for what it's worth.

[MrsPepper]

Along with Gelfling Waldo, I was always under the belief that the original Muppeteers voiced their respective animated counter parts. IMDB.com also does not credit Mr. Welker for the Little Muppet Monsters.
On an a plus note for Mr. Welker; he has an amazing resume at imdb.com that you should check out here. (http://imdb.com/name/nm0919798/)

Wow, this guy is a god!!

[Mario]

About Disney not cancelling things that they begin, their is a whole book (literally, I borrowed it from the llibray a couple days ago, :) ) on the Disney that never was. But, as I've currently heard, the Search For Mickey Mouse is on for production still, that is for now. And, about Frank Welker voicing Santa's Little Helper, I think I read that it was Dan Castelleneta(spelling?), that did the dog, but I could be wrong. And, I disagree about Nancy Cartwright being one of the best, I think that she's terrible! She ruins movies for me when she's in them. For my list, I'd have Dan Castelleneta, Frank Welker, and Hank Azaria. But, that's just my opinion. :)

[lowercasegods]

Hey, everyone's entitled to their opinions, and honestly, there's so many talented voice artists out there that it's really hard to just pick three. Billy West (Stimpy, Fry), for example, is quickly becoming a real giant in the field. As for Santa's Little Helper, The Simpson's people switch off between Frank and Dan. Though nobody can beat Frank for animal sound effects, particularly dogs, I figure they find it easier to just use Dan, who's talented in his own right, to handle the dog when Frank's not readily available.

[Vic Romano]

All I can say is that when and if Little Muppet Monsters is released on DVD, then the facts will be made public.
I eagerly anticipate that day, my friend.

[lowercasegods]

Ditto to that. I LOVED Little Muppet Monsters back in the day. The main thing I recall about the girl monster was that she liked "Crunching things." As a kid that sort of personality quirk really appealed to me, especially since I liked crunching things, too. I'm also a HUGE comic book fan (being a cartoonist, I suppose it's a given), and I came across some of my old STAR Comic Books (the line which ran such Muppet comic books as Fraggle Rock, Muppet Babies and The Muppets Take Manhattan one shot). Around 1985 or '86 when Little Muppet Monsters premiered, they ran a double page spread advertising CBS' Saturday Morning line up, and they did cartoon illustrations of each of the shows, including Little Muppet Monsters. The illustrations were pretty weak (they gave Kermit's eyes a plain ol' black dot rather than his black dot with a line crossed through it, for Pete's sake!), but it was a cool reminder to those of us Muppet fans who actually enjoyed the show in its extremely brief run.

[MustangRockstar]

Truly one of the giants of the industry him and Tress MacNeille are in a league of their own in my opinion. Their portfolio is just amazing.

In the last year or so I've really taken an active interest in the field and especially those two because every cartoon I listen to I can find them in it somewhere.

The one thing I do disagree with is Stitch being a rip off of Welker's voices. There are so many voices that are similar to that one {including one's I use} that are done by people ranging from Welker to Howie Mandell to Dave Coulier to several others.

What the issue likely comes down to is finding the right pitch. For example I'll give an example of several characters I can do whose only difference is a slight change in pitch. They are voiced by several actors mind you:

Slimer, Baby Animal, Skeeter, Bobby from Bobby's World, Stitch, and Meatwad.

[lowercasegods]

I can't disagree. The "Stitch" voice (for lack of a better term) is pretty universal amongst voice artists, and I've known plenty of average Joes off the street who can pull off a decent replica as well. I can do an okay version of it myself. So if I said the "Stitch" director was ripping off Frank, that was probably unfair, since everyone from Frank to Dave Coulier to Howie Mandel can and has done it. But I'm pretty sure Frank did it first, and beyond a shadow of a doubt, does it best.

[McFraggle]

What the issue likely comes down to is finding the right pitch. For example I'll give an example of several characters I can do whose only difference is a slight change in pitch. They are voiced by several actors mind you:

Slimer, Baby Animal, Skeeter, Bobby from Bobby's World, Stitch, and Meatwad.

I agree, there is not too much difference at all between those voices. :)