I agree with the OP that I wasn't particularly fond of Aerith's KHII voice. I wouldn't call the KH1 performance stellar by any means, but I do prefer it to the KH2 version. I don't know, it sounds more natural to me.
Aerith's Voice
- Thread starter Lea
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yeah i get what you mean but theres no way they would fire her for someone else so thats why im going with her contract being over.
I do agree, I don't think her original actor was like the best on the planet but she still had more emotion to her than in the second game. It does feel more natural.
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Yes, definitely prefer Mandy Moore. Not that she's great as Aerith, but this tone-deaf woman just ruined the character and also every scene she was in was unbearable because of the voice. I actually liked the maternal vibe they gave Aerith in KH1, but the new voice makes her more creepy and off-putting, like some kind of undead. I wonder if Mandy Moore will voice her again at the same time if/when she voices Rapunzel for the series. It would be nice to have her back.
People were talking about the different voice actors for Leon/Squall, and I do prefer the original, but at least the replacement isn't too bad. It's just he's so nasally. I remember in particular the first scene in Hollow Bastion when he says, "That.....and that..." he sounds so horrible.
People were talking about the different voice actors for Leon/Squall, and I do prefer the original, but at least the replacement isn't too bad. It's just he's so nasally. I remember in particular the first scene in Hollow Bastion when he says, "That.....and that..." he sounds so horrible.
I also prefer the original Squall. I kind of wish they'd have just kept the original EVERYONE
Does Square just have a contract with some of these people? because I know they kept the same cloud from advent children to KH2
So I'm guessing the first Aerith may have just been some random then. LAME! Who wouldn't stay with Kingdom Hearts?
Maybe it's possible they didn't want her? haha, they could have found the new girl and actually liked her better, who knows
Who knows. Maybe we'll never know. Both ideas are pretty possible enough for me not to be able to rule either one out.
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The original Kingdom Hearts is more of an outlier. You need to keep in mind that when the game was first released, they didn't know if it would be standalone or if they would be able to continue the franchise. In that regard, they probably had a larger budget and could afford such actresses like Mandy Moore and David Boreanaz for Aerith and Leon.
Each contract only covers one title. Voice actors and actresses who are contacted will have to sign a new contract every time. The most likely case scenario is that they wouldn't even bother attempting to contact previous VAs to reprise their roles if they don't believe there is a realistic chance that they would accept.
They do tend to also take fan response into consideration, as was the case with both Mandy Moore and Mena Suvari. There was a considerable amount of negative feedback to both actresses back when the games were released, so they kept this in mind and chose a new VA for Aerith, only the first time they did that, the results were even worse.
Each contract only covers one title. Voice actors and actresses who are contacted will have to sign a new contract every time. The most likely case scenario is that they wouldn't even bother attempting to contact previous VAs to reprise their roles if they don't believe there is a realistic chance that they would accept.
They do tend to also take fan response into consideration, as was the case with both Mandy Moore and Mena Suvari. There was a considerable amount of negative feedback to both actresses back when the games were released, so they kept this in mind and chose a new VA for Aerith, only the first time they did that, the results were even worse.
Ohhhh, well yeah I guess that does make sense. I didn't know that they just hired them for one game at a time, I figured it was more like with movies where you have so many years with the company. But I guess it would make more sense to do it on a game to game basis unless you were sure the game would be popular and continue on.
Thank you for clearing that up!
Thank you for clearing that up!
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I just wanted to point something out while this thread is still young enough to be bumped. Part of the reason for all of the Mena Suvari as Aerith hate was due to her flat performance. The other reason she was so reviled is due to the fact that she didn't seem to sound like the Aerith that people knew.
Think about this for a second. During the first game, she had a somewhat caring tone, but when she spoke, her inflections revealed there were hints of something that suggested that she was more than she appeared. This is actually very important to consider since some of the people who played Final Fantasy VII before the Kingdom Hearts games would already have an idea of how Aeris is supposed to sound. To diverge a bit to her original Final Fantasy incarnation: Aerith may have had the appearance of a standard damsel in distress (and she was during the beginning of the game), she also had some steel in her that arguably surpassed Tifa and Yuffie despite her generally being considered the White Mage of the group. She may be sweet, but she's spent years living in the slums and is not afraid to threaten anyone trying to harm her or anyone she cares about - ask Don Corneo for starters.
To get back to Kingdom Hearts, while Mandy Moore's performance may have gotten some flak, I personally felt that she was able to get the whole "street, but sweet" element of Aerith better than Mena Suvari did. Now granted, it did not help Mena that the voice direction for Kingdom Hearts was outright atrocious making everyone sound off (the SOLE exceptions here being Wayne Allwine as Mickey and Christopher Lee as Ansem the Wise), but her performance only solidified this.
HOWEVER...
It can also be argued that the people trying to write Aerith into the script wanted to flanderize Aerith into something of a Purity Sue beginning in Kingdom Hearts II where she would be the embodiment of pureness, kindness and perfection. We need only look at how her personality is portrayed in that game and in Advent Children to see that there is some merit in that. When taking that into account, Mena Suvari's voice, while wooden and boring, arguably fits a little better seeing as how they flanderized Aerith into something wooden and boring. It is for this reason that I find her character at her strongest in the first Kingdom Hearts game, the original Final Fantasy VII and the prequel game Crisis Core. With that in mind, I feel like her current VA, Andrea Bowen, is best suited for the role since she gets Aerith's voice to match her characterization best.
Think about this for a second. During the first game, she had a somewhat caring tone, but when she spoke, her inflections revealed there were hints of something that suggested that she was more than she appeared. This is actually very important to consider since some of the people who played Final Fantasy VII before the Kingdom Hearts games would already have an idea of how Aeris is supposed to sound. To diverge a bit to her original Final Fantasy incarnation: Aerith may have had the appearance of a standard damsel in distress (and she was during the beginning of the game), she also had some steel in her that arguably surpassed Tifa and Yuffie despite her generally being considered the White Mage of the group. She may be sweet, but she's spent years living in the slums and is not afraid to threaten anyone trying to harm her or anyone she cares about - ask Don Corneo for starters.
To get back to Kingdom Hearts, while Mandy Moore's performance may have gotten some flak, I personally felt that she was able to get the whole "street, but sweet" element of Aerith better than Mena Suvari did. Now granted, it did not help Mena that the voice direction for Kingdom Hearts was outright atrocious making everyone sound off (the SOLE exceptions here being Wayne Allwine as Mickey and Christopher Lee as Ansem the Wise), but her performance only solidified this.
HOWEVER...
It can also be argued that the people trying to write Aerith into the script wanted to flanderize Aerith into something of a Purity Sue beginning in Kingdom Hearts II where she would be the embodiment of pureness, kindness and perfection. We need only look at how her personality is portrayed in that game and in Advent Children to see that there is some merit in that. When taking that into account, Mena Suvari's voice, while wooden and boring, arguably fits a little better seeing as how they flanderized Aerith into something wooden and boring. It is for this reason that I find her character at her strongest in the first Kingdom Hearts game, the original Final Fantasy VII and the prequel game Crisis Core. With that in mind, I feel like her current VA, Andrea Bowen, is best suited for the role since she gets Aerith's voice to match her characterization best.
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