Annie and Emmy award-winning Rob Paulsen has seen a lot of changes in animation during his 20-year career as a voice actor.

Rob Paulsen is one of the most talented and active voice artists working in animation today. His résumé includes countless voices on 200+ animated series as well as two Annie Awards for his work on Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs and Steven Spielberg Presents Pinky and the Brain. Rob also scored an Emmy in 1999 for his voice work as Pinky. A devoted pro hockey fan, Rob lives and dies with the Detroit Red Wings; he often plays in charity matches and has a pretty mean wrist shot.

Dr.Toon: You’ve been working for more than 20 years now as a voice artist. Over that time, how do you think cartoons have changed?

Rob Paulsen: Well, the obvious change is that there’s more CGI stuff, which has become both more cost effective and nicer to look at. One of the great things about Jimmy Neutron for instance was that the movie was very successful and it translated beautifully from the small screen. It even looks better now than it did on the big screen because the folks who are doing the work at DNA productions are an incredibly talented group of people. They constantly find new and amazing magical tricks to make things look great. The CGI stuff is becoming more and more prevalent and I’ve worked on a lot of shows over the past three or four years that are CGI — Jimmy Neutron, Butt-Ugly Martians, another one called Dan Dare that’s airing in England now. Of course, with the success of Finding Nemo, Toy Story, Monsters, Inc., and Shrek — it’s all CGI stuff and that technology absolutely astonishes me.

Paulsen’s work on Pinky and the Brain won him an Emmy in 1999. Unless otherwise indicated, all images © Warner Bros. Ent. All rights reserved.

In terms of the voice aspect, the single most noticeable change is the advent of celebrities. There’s a lot of celebrity talent that I work with, and I enjoy that, but competing with them is difficult. I have no problem competing with them talent-wise — I feel that I’m good enough at what I do to hold my own with any actor in Hollywood — in my segment. I feel good about my ability to improvise, to sing, to do dialects.

The thing I can’t compete with is celebrity. I’m not Brad Pitt, I’m not Mel Gibson, I can’t compete with the marketability of an actor in the context of a new animated feature. It’s a double-edged sword, because I have respect and admiration for anyone who makes it to the top in this business, but at the same time, it’s difficult because, like you said, I’ve put in 20-odd years in this business and I’ve won Annies and been nominated for Emmys but I don’t have the face to go along with the marketing plans that big features have.

So, it’s disconcerting as a voice actor but it’s also exciting to get to work with these people every now and then. The only thing I can really do is just be the best actor I can be and hopefully get to the place where people say I’m the best guy for the job.

But having said that, every time people find out what it is I do, they freak out, because there are usually one or two characters they’ve grown up knowing and they love the characters. The times I have been on talk shows I could be there for two hours. People say, “Let’s hear more Pinky! Let’s hear more Yakko!” or, “I hear Rafael (from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and it makes me feel like I’m back in my pajamas watching TV.”