New voice of Mickey Mouse

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PixarFan2006
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Post by PixarFan2006 »

While the sound was not so great, I thought the new voice for mickey was pretty good.
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Post by Voiceroy »

I don't want to cast a negative shadow over this news, but laughingplace.com's post is not official confirmation of Bret Iwan as the new voice of Mickey Mouse, nor is it in any way an official announcement from The Walt Disney Company.

I did an investigative report on this for my "Voice Actors in the News" blog when the site which originally stated that Iwan had recorded dialog for Mickey Mouse removed mention of it from their site shortly after it was posted:

http://voiceactors.wordpress.com/2009/0 ... key-mouse/
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Kyle
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Post by Kyle »

My guess is Disney just wanted to keep the lid on it until they announced it themselves. Disney is stupid like that in placing retarded rules on these kind of things.
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Post by rexcrk »

Mickey sounded fine to me! :)
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Post by Voiceroy »

I think it's more likely that Bret may be under a trial period, which is fairly standard at least in the music industry when someone is hired as a replacement.

You have to keep in mind that there is more to this than just being Mickey's voice. If you look at the history of those who have voiced Disney's iconic characters, they're generally upstanding people with good personalities.

But I honestly don't think you'll ever see an official press release from The Walt Disney Company announcing Bret or anyone as the new official voice for Mickey. They've never done that before. It's always been a quiet transition in every single case. Corey Burton (who's been voicing Disney characters for like 40+ years) once told me that Disney prefers their talents to remain anonymous because it's the character that's important. Look back on Disney animation history and you'll find that Disney has never advertised any of their "Fab 5" as being voiced by a specific individual, except when they have recognized those individuals as Disney Legends or they have an event involving those talents as guests.

But if Bret is indeed the voice of Mickey now -- knowing Disney's history for making great choices for voicing their iconic characters, I've no doubts that the performance is in capable hands, and I wish him the best.
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Post by disneyboy20022 »

It seems Bret Iwan is indeed Mickey's New voice.....due to he is voicing the Character in the next Kingdom Hearts Game for PSP called Birth By Sleep....also Russi Taylor will voice Minnie in the game without her late Husband Wayne Allwine (previous voice of Mickey) for a little while at least...
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We have even more good VA news. Russi Taylor will reprise her role as Minnie Mouse in Birth by Sleep, and Bret Iwan will replace the late Wayne Allwine as the voice of King Mickey. It seems like localization is going ahead at full speed. Not much longer now!
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Post by Voiceroy »

disneyboy20022 wrote:It seems Bret Iwan is indeed Mickey's New voice.....
I posted confirmation of this on my updated blog report on Bret Iwan nearly a month ago:

http://voiceactors.wordpress.com/2009/0 ... key-mouse/

And I actually held off publishing that update for two months after receiving a message from a source close to Bret Iwan in mid-Sept. who confirmed that Bret had actually begun recording dialog as Mickey prior to Wayne Allwine's passing.

But I do appreciate the update. If you don't mind, I'll post an update on my blog with credit to you for the link.

I've been averaging about 30 hits a day on my blog just from searches related to "Bret Iwan" for the last two months.
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Post by blackcauldron85 »

Minnie Mouse, Mickey Mouse Voicemails at Walt Disney World
http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2 ... ney-world/
(via laughingplace.com)

To me, and some of the people who wrote comments, the 3rd audio clip doesn't quite sound like Mickey- something's off.
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Post by Mayhem »

I can tell the difference in all three of them... but to be fair, it's a hard act to follow, I always felt Wayne was close to Disney's own performance. I could always tell the difference when Jim McDonald took over for example in Mickey's later shorts.
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Post by Margos »

Yeah.... It is rather off...

Has he recorded any episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse yet? I was channel-surfing, and I heard a similar voice to that, but wasn't aware if it was actually Bret or some temporary stand-in guy, but I knew that it was not Wayne, and I was rather sad and put-off. :(
Honestly, I hoped that it was just some stand-in guy. Oh well, I'm sure we'll get used to it soon.....
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Post by Kyle »

Hmm, yeah its off. I think he might have trouble doing the voice slowly as he's doing here. I think he would do great in a normal acting situation where he could act out a scene, but voice mails are probably going to sound a bit forced.
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Post by JEANYLASER »

I love Mickey Mouse Clubhouse! Let this Brett the new voice of Mickey a try!
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Post by Disneykid »

Well, according to various people in the comments section of that page, all three of those are actually Wayne Allwine shortly before he passed away. They think there was a time gap in between the first two and the last one so that by the time he recorded "Celebrating," his health had affected his Mickey voice. I believe this because in the later episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Mickey's voice does actually sound lower pitched like in that third soundbyte. I noticed this before Allwine had passed away and wondered why there was a difference. It never occurred to me that it could've been health-related.

This is actually Bret Iwan's Mickey:

http://disney.go.com/mickeymouse/video2.html

Click on the short versions of "Lonesome Ghosts" and "Mickey and the Seal" to hear it. His voice is a lot more nasally than Allwine's, even if you compare it with the hoarser Allwine from the "Celebration" voicemail.
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Post by Margos »

Oh, OK. Actually, I think Bret sounds pretty good. Not exactly the same, but pretty good, anyway.

So that weird Mickey Mouse Clubhouse voice actually was Wayne? Awww.... Now I feel bad for criticizing it, especially since he was sick and everything.... :(
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Post by Mayhem »

If the voicemails are actually Wayne then yeah, something must have been affecting his voice a bit as they don't sound like his previous work to me...
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Post by jpanimation »

Disneykid wrote:This is actually Bret Iwan's Mickey:

http://disney.go.com/mickeymouse/video2.html

Click on the short versions of "Lonesome Ghosts" and "Mickey and the Seal" to hear it. His voice is a lot more nasally than Allwine's, even if you compare it with the hoarser Allwine from the "Celebration" voicemail.
I hope Bret was just trying to make Mickey sound like Walt's for that short and that voice won't be used as the new voice of Mickey. If that's Bret imitating Allwine's Mickey then we have a problem, as it's terrible. I've heard better Mickey impersonators on YouTube and Disney could probably get them cheap.
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Post by Kyle »

Agreed.

Why would they want to dub over old cartoons anyway? Just as an exercise?
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Post by Big Disney Fan »

jpanimation wrote:
Disneykid wrote:This is actually Bret Iwan's Mickey:

http://disney.go.com/mickeymouse/video2.html

Click on the short versions of "Lonesome Ghosts" and "Mickey and the Seal" to hear it. His voice is a lot more nasally than Allwine's, even if you compare it with the hoarser Allwine from the "Celebration" voicemail.
I hope Bret was just trying to make Mickey sound like Walt's for that short and that voice won't be used as the new voice of Mickey. If that's Bret imitating Allwine's Mickey then we have a problem, as it's terrible. I've heard better Mickey impersonators on YouTube and Disney could probably get them cheap.
Maybe Bret is trying to be like Walt...?
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Re: New voice of Mickey Mouse

Post by UmbrellaFish »

Bret Iwan, the voice of Mickey Mouse, had the honor of painting Mickey Mouse’s official portrait for his 95th anniversary this year.

https://www.laughingplace.com/w/news/20 ... -portrait/

I had no idea Iwan was an artist, and quite a talented one, too. How many of Mickey’s voice actors have been artists? Walt Disney, of course.

Another fun fact I did not know about Iwan until recently, but he’s an openly gay man and married his partner in 2021.

I think Iwan’s been a great Mickey. But I’ll always have a special place for the Mickey of my childhood, Wayne Allwine. And the real life marriage of Allwine with his Minnie Mouse, Russi Taylor, was always so sweet.
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