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It has finally come to pass. After all the years of idle chatter, we have finally sat down to interview the man, the myth, the LEGEND~! that is Mike Reynolds. For decades, Mike’s voiced tons of “old man” characters in anime as well as done work for Power Rangers, VR Troopers, and the like. If you don’t know who he is, The Internet’s Mike Toole put together this tribute video last year:
If you don’t know who Richard Epcar is, he’s also a voice actor/director probably best known for his work on Ghost in the Shell as Batou. We interviewed him about five years ago here, shortly after the release of Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe where he played The Joker. He’s most recently heard as The Joker in the just-released Injustice: Gods Among Us.
Meanwhile, the latest issue of Otaku USA magazine is out, featuring Daryl’s feature coverage of both Michiko and Hatchin as well as the new Studio Ghibli movie, From Up on Poppy Hill. As a supplement to the latter feature, over on the Otaku USA website Daryl’s written up a review of the Studio Ghibli film I Can Hear the Sea. It may be a favorite of Brian Camp and Gilles Poitras, but NOT HIM. Expect a supplemental retrospective on Samurai Champloo and an alternate take on Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance in…uh…the coming weeks.
I wonder if the live-action/cartoon thing Reynolds was trying to remember was “Maple Town”, as I recall that had a live-action sequence where a woman introduced us to this place and the characters in the show and all that. Saban worked on that in the 80’s and there was a toy line that was released int he US through Tonka.
That movie, “Captain of the Forest”, was put out in the late 80’s in Hungary by “Pannonia Film”, directed by Attila Dargay (whom some may remember his other popular film “The Little Fox” on Nickelodeon’s Special Delivery). Mike Reynolds played the role of Captain Schnauzer, who was on the case to arrest a cat thief name Zero while going undercover at some retirement community out in the forest. He meets some little bear girl there who got him to sing a song with her at the end of the film and that’s how the movie ends after the adventure was over. I thought it worked effectively to suggest this “Captain” wouldn’t know how to sing and tries his best to carry along with the little girl. It was the kind of thing that could’ve been done by an actual singer if Richard Epcar had the nerve to go that route but he let Mike do it anyway! While Mike didn’t seem to care for how the film went or what it was about, it did have it’s silly cartoony crap like a hippie wolf who was sent to deliver a poison cake at the Captain’s place only to start eating it himself and immediately flies through the air like a bird (yep, getting high)!
There’s been a few non-anime related stuff Reynolds has done over the years. As a 6 year old, I heard him do a character name Matthew McCreep, who steals a flute belonging to a character played by Cam Clarke in the film “The Smurfs & The Magic Flute”. This film just got released on DVD by Shout! Factory though it uses the British English dub over the American on, so no Mike Reynolds for us. I got it on 35mm anyway so I’m happy.
I feel like I should play this episode if I ever have trouble sleeping, because I imagine that Mike Reynolds is reading me a bedtime story. I’m using this episode as school travel music for the week, but its been great so far (especially the bit about Macek yelling at the writer from Robotech.)
Reminded Reynolds did voices for “Grimm’s Fairy Tales Classics”, I suppose watching an episode of that before bedtime would help.
In case anyone wants to bleed their ears to Mike Reynolds’ singing (in a positive way), here’s a fuller version of that song the guys used on the show (too bad the YouTube clip doesn’t include the beginning of it before irising out to the credits).
http://www.divshare.com/download/24028532-0c2
And for purists, here’s what Reynolds’ was up against in the Hungarian version…
http://www.divshare.com/download/24028533-373
Very fun episode.
I’m not an American, and I’m not that familiar with most American cartoons, nor with English anime dubbing, so I didn’t know anything about Mike Reynolds, save for hearing the name thrown around now and again. Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed the interview and the conversation. He sounds like a great guy, as well as someone who’s lived a great life. Over 80 and still working? That’s plain awesome.
I don’t want to come across as just kissing your ass, but I think you are very good at conducting these interviews. You strike such a great balance, never asking things that come across as nosy or rude, yet always asking interesting questions. It sounds to me like it this makes the interviewee feel appreciated, and it definitely makes for good conversations. Thanks for conducting it, it was great fun listening to.
Well these guys had been at it for the past 7 years now, I say they know what they’re doing.
“Over 80 and still working? That’s plain awesome.”
It’s nice we still have people like him not to retire so soon.
Don’t be too discouraged for not knowing of this gent, the more you get into English dubs, the more you’ll hear him pop out instantly. I was impressed to see his did Captain Dyce in a dub of Future Boy Conan I didn’t know was out there…
Aye, they have. They’re veterans in the “business” by now, and I’m really glad their podcast is still around. Fingers crossed for them still releasing podcasts when they turn 80!
You’re definitely right in saying that the man has a very distinctive voice. From just a few small samples, I already feel like I’d be able to recognize him if I were to come across one of his roles in the future. Looking over his list of roles, I do in fact own a few series he’s been in on DVD. Might be worth checking out for his voice alone, I’ve really taken a liking to it.
As to Daryl’s reply, I think there’s a place for the James Lipton style of interviewing, and a place for the more “casual” (not sure if that’s exactly the word I’m looking for, but it’s the best I could come up with) style. While it is certainly true that the subjects of your interviews are cool people, I’ve heard far too many bad interviews to chalk it up to that fact alone. I’ve learned a lot about the people involved in American anime dubbing through your interviews, a subject I’d otherwise have little to no interest in. So you’re doing something right!
Looking forward to the next interview.
I actually think I’m extremely, EXTREMELY poor at conducting interviews, particularly the “cold” in-person ones with people whom I’m not all that familiar with going in. These last few have been ones done remotely, where I can at least have Google on hand to use as a fall-back for questions. That’s usually unreliable, since VAs as a rule don’t tend to remember specifics about roles they played. A more proper actor interview would take the James Lipton approach and ask more general questions about methodology, but the problem with that style of interview from my side of things is that it’s mostly only of interest to well, aspiring actors. I’m not capable of asking follow-ups. The fact that the last two interviews turned out well is more indicative of the subjects being interviewed than the questions I’m asking.
That said, we have another interview lined up in like, another week or two. This one was actually recorded months ago, but we held off on releasing it because consecutive interviews might be a bit much. We’re SUPPOSED to be reviewing things, after all!
That is just what I wanted to say. AWO does great interviews.
Youse guys are from Florida, but many Northern Californians will have a clear mental image of the scene when Mike Reynolds described the dumping of Kevin Costner’s body in the Truckee River. My personal favorite performance of his was as Bragan in GOLGO 13: THE PROFESSIONAL (which I was lucky enough to see at the theater in Houston, back when Streamline was doing 35mm releases in the early 90s). “Make sure you got him this time.” But ANN really has to sample “Who wrote this two-bit piece of shit?!” for the Spring 2013 Anime Preview Guide.
A really nice listen, rather soothing to tell the truth.
As I listened, the gnaw of “Where have I heard this man” was constant. But sure enough as I looked through his body of work, I started to have more thoughts along the lines of “Aha, that guy!” I am now tempted to re watch a lot of this shows.
Daryl, I was reading the responses to your review of Ocean Waves/I Can Hear the Sea. One person wrote that “Ocean Waves doesn’t romanticize youth the way other Ghibli creations do.” I don’t think that Takahata romanticized youth; I think he combined sympathy with realism and honesty. Taeko of Only Yesterday doesn’t meet the fate of Seita and Setsuko from Grave of the Fireflies, but in neither case do the kids get to have an amazing adventure and come out on top the way Miyazaki kids do in Laputa, Totoro, Kiki’s or Spirited Away. Miyazaki’s view of youth may be romantic, but it’s difficult to say to what extent Miyazaki romanticizes youth for its own sake, because his movies don’t portray real-world childhoods, but kids who encounter fantastic situations.
The territory Ocean Waves sets out for itself–being a teenager (not a child) in modern-day Japan, with no fantastical elements–is one that Takahata or Miyazaki have never really taken on, and I wonder how or if they could have achieved something on the level of an Only Yesterday or Princess Mononoke if given those “conditions.” I’m not saying that Mochizuki was up to their level in any case, but it would have been interesting to tell Takahata and Miyazaki “no nostalgia, no planes, no countryside, no strange creatures,” and see what they came up with.
That’s a pretty good point there to think about Carl. What could they do without those elements that work so well to them.