Let's talk Frank Welker! I mean, this man is a legend! With over 800 characters roles to his name, Frank is the most notable voice actor I know!
Frank Welker has been an active voice actor since 1962 when he voiced Orbity and Cosmo Spacely (as a child and teenager) in The Jetsons. In 1969, he took on the role of Fred Jones in Scooby-Doo! Where Are You! and he has voiced Fred ever since, with the exception of A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, the live action movies and SCOOB! Frank has also voiced Scooby-Doo since 2002 and he has done additional voices for the series through the years.
He is the original voice actor for Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, which has me asking why wasn't he voicing Dynomutt in SCOOB!? They had him right there in the studio and yet they let someone else voice him. Big name actors aren't worth the money to me if they have the person that voiced the character in the beginning. Sometimes I wonder what WB is thinking. Oh, right, $$$.
Some other notable characters Frank Welker has voiced are Jabberjaw, Hefty Smurf, Megatron, Slimer, Abu and so many more. I know I am missing some of his key roles, but you can find all of his credits on Behind the Voice Actors.
I recently was able to watch the Scooby-Doo! and Guess Who? episode A Haunt of a Thousand Voices and it was a fantastic episode. I'm not going to do a review at the moment because I know a lot of people haven't seen it yet and all of the pictures that people posted online gave a lot of the episode away, which was a little disappointing.
Anyway, I loved this episode, but it really made me think that maybe Frank Welker is looking to retire. (I mean, he is 75.) I say that because I felt like the episode was a tribute to him. There were so many amazing things said about Frank in the episode and it just felt like we were saying goodbye to the only Fred we have really known! It will be a sad, sad day when he announces his retirement.
So what happens if Frank Welker does retire? Who would voice Fred? Scooby is easy, they could bring back Scott Innes. But Fred has been voiced by Frank for over 50 years and I can't think of anyone that could take over the role.
I don't think Robbie Amell made a good Fred. He wouldn't even dye his hair or wear a wig. No offense to Robbie, but I have to say he doesn't fit the role for me. I didn't buy him as Fred in the movies.
Zac Efron was just ok, but I don't think I'd want him to voice Fred either. It was hard for me to get used to his voice in the movie, but I guess that is normal because I'm so used to Frank.
Would Freddie Prinze Jr. come back to voice Fred, much like Matthew Lillard took over for Casey Kasem as Shaggy? I guess I could live with that, though I'm not sure if he is the best person for the job either.
Fifty years of voicing a character is a long time. Frank put his heart and soul into Fred, he has a strong connection to the character and you can hear that in the series. Frank understands Fred. Anytime you bring in someone new, that connection is missing and the character isn't as lively. I felt that way with SCOOB! The voices sounded so off and I didn't feel like the actors really put much effort into the voices. I mean, WB only hired them for their names to draw in more of an audience and more money to the box office (which ended up being everyone's couch as the pandemic caused the movie to be released digitally.)
So what do you think? Do you think Frank Welker is going to announce his retirement soon? Who would you want to hear voice Fred?
