Seriously, why couldn't they have hired a real kid?
Despite using an experienced voice actress, her lines come across really poorly - she sounds nothing like an 8 year old girl in tone or manner. I found it really jarring from the otherwise good performances of the other actors, it pulled me out of the mood of the game every time she spoke as it just doesn't fit the character.
Its such a shame as the rest of the voice acting on this game is fine so screwing up who is arguably the main character, is really dumb.
Then why exactly was it immediately obvious to me that Clementine was voiced by an adult? Literally, the first second she opened her mouth it spoilt the game for me as it ruined the immersion. If it was good voice acting, I shouldn't have been able to tell.
The thing is, if adults COULD convincingly pull of child voices, don't you think the likes of Disney would use them instead of using actual children for their animated shows/movies? Its a real pain to use kids due to the labour laws.
Fact is they use kids as its the only way you can make it sound natural and convincing.
No, you're not the only one, Alex. I was a bit annoyed at the clearly "adult-imitating-child" voice as well.
But I think sometimes they opt for that in order to keep continuity with future projects. A kid's voice will change as they get older, but if the series continues for years and the child character doesn't age along with it's corresponding actor then it might be hard to pull it off (think The Simpsons).
Then again, that might just be a cop-out. I guess there's multiple factors when decided to go with an adult or child actor.
But yeah, I would have preferred a child in this case. Still a good story though :)
That is probably one reason, but another is clearly due to the fact they have been using Melissa Hutchison in their games for a while now, in which she was fine. So familiarity with the actress, time to cast and cost are likely factors.
I recall I read something about them not being sure they would keep Clementine as a character right up until the last minute, which could also be a factor in why they chose an actress they were already familiar with.
But sadly Melissa Hutchison is no Yeardley Smith. I never even had reason to consider who was voicing Lisa Simpson for many years, it just works in the context of the show. Although I think the issue here is due to The Walking Dead trying so hard to be taken serious, with the constantly having to choose who lives and who dies, a weak performance by any of the voice actors is hugely jarring.
I guess ultimately they had no idea it would be as popular as it has been and now its kinda too late to do anything about it.
You're probably more into and affected by voice overs than most people. Even though a child is one of the main characters, most people are more into the game play. It's not that people don't have standards, most people just care more about other elements.
I get that her voice and delivery gets on your nerves. I've played games where that's happened, but I just let it go. I don't expect quality voice acting from video games featuring zombies or monsters. It's like expecting great dialogue.
I actually agree. It was a brilliant game and good voice acting, but Clementine's sounded like a 35 years old *beep* trying to make her best 4 year old impression. I also did not liked Ben voice.
Duck was the annoying one! I wanted to skip every episode he was in. SO IRRITATING! They hired an adult to voice Clementine because I'm sure no kid out there could have delivered the emotion that Melissa did. And... if you're having a problem with how she SOUNDS.... most likely it's a SCREENWRITING issue. You're probably thinking she was too precocious or advanced. Well.... maybe you don't hang out with kids today all that much. Maybe you're just out of touch. Because this was excellently cast.
The problem I had was it just didn't sound like a kid. Right from the first time I heard her my brain went "ugh, that's an adult trying to sound like a kid" and I was fighting to take her seriously from then on. I can't even tell how good/bad the emotion is, because its all done in that fake voice that is utterly unconvincing.
Of course you could get a better performance out of a kid, they do it all the time on TV/Movies. The problem wasn't anything to do with maturity or precociousness (kinda obviously I would think consider the URLs in my sig making it clear I am well versed in precocious child characters), it just sounded wrong.
I think it's fine. Clementine's voice suits her. I think it would make sense for her to sound a bit older than 8-9 considering that she's more mature and a bit wise beyond her years when compared to other children her age.
Its not that she sounds older, its that she sounds like an adult trying to fake a child-like voice, a big difference.
A different voice actress may have been able to pull it off in a way that doesn't bother me, but I'm not sure. The nature of the acting and story means its far more important to nail that voice perfectly.
Things like The Simpsons and cartoons in general work because you aren't SUPPOSED to take them seriously. They are not trying to be dramatic, just a bit of fun. But when you ARE supposed to be taking it seriously, you need perfect voice acting and that usually means using normal voices not faking them.
That is why even in cartoons when they want you emotionally invested in them, they use kids to do kid voices.
Sometimes I get mildly irritated by the looong whiny consonants but it never occurred to me it was an adult pretending to be a kid. I'd say that voice actress did quite good.
Perhaps I have a refined ear for these things, I really wish I hadn't, as I instantly thought "crap, why did they use an adult?".
Even if it HAD been a kid, I would argue that it was a poor choice as I never felt sorry for her, the voice just doesn't sound convincing to me.
I can understand not wanting to be restricted by how the actress ages, if they used a child. But you could also argue that would force better writing, as they would have to factor that in mind.
I think it's mainly because Clem can swear, as shown in lines such as "Like s--- right Lee?" (which is determinant if Lee, when talking to Clementine in the barn at Hershel's, refers to manure as said swear word in S1E1), and even swears more in season 2, like in episode 2 when she was struggling with the walkers on the bridge (spoiler just in case). I don't think they'd get a real kid in to do that and tell them to swear, I'm surprised no one pointed that out. Personally it doesn't bother me as much anyway, and I'm perfectly fine with Melissa Hutchinson.
Kids swear, I myself said "sh*t" as a kid, (I distinctly remember getting into trouble at school for it) so that's not it.
I just immediately thought it was an adult, and that blew it for me. If I had then found out it WAS a kid, I would have questioned why they hired someone who portrayed the emotions so poorly. I just never "feel" for her, and I am a very emotional person who has to watch something jolly after something serious or I can't sleep for thinking about it.
Well, this is just me, but I don't see how the voice acting of one character can bother you so much. (No offence intended, if caused.) Besides that, sure, there are kids out there who do swear, no point in denying it. But if Telltale were to bring in a real child to voice Clementine, and the child was instructed to swear just because it was in the script, I don't think that would exactly be ethical of them. Or, yeah, maybe they could've used an actual kid for the majority of the script, then brought in an older voice actor to say the more inappropriate things, but people probably would notice the inconsistency. That might be worse than just one adult voice actor's poor concealment of vocals affected by puberty, and anyway the effect is just that it makes Clementine seem more mature. And I don't know but it would take more work to use two different voice actors for her anyway, as they'd probably have to do more editing to make the voices sound similar, as well as having to pay one more VA for the job. They already seem to have enough work with different projects in their hands and working on the gameplay rather than voices, which is really mainly the VA's job. That's just my opinion, and I respect yours. I could be wrong on what really goes on with Telltale but that's just how I see it. Although I do believe that bringing in a real kid to voice out swear words in the script wouldn't be very ethical, despite how, yes, there are kids out there already doing that sort of thing. Kids swearing might be a small issue but it isn't very well looked upon.
You HAVE watched movies right? There are no problems having child actors swear if a script requires it.
Its probably all down to child labour laws, its a lot easier to work with adults. Never the less I think it was an oversight, it would have been so much better if she actually sounded like a child.
I literally quit the game the first time I played the demo because I HATED her voice that much. I gave it a second chance as was able to deal with it, out of curiosity for what happened next. However with season 2 episode 1 being so very Clementine centric I found myself having the same problem again, I got bored of the game and had to come back to it later as I didn't feel invested in the situation at all.
Huh. Well, I don't know what goes on behind the scenes of films or behind the game, I was just telling how I saw things and I could be wrong. I only see what they choose to present to us while knowing there's a lot more going on behind it though we aren't going to know exactly what's happening. None of us do, unless one of us just happens to be working for Telltale which I highly doubt. Anyway if that's how Telltale chooses to do things, then I'm okay with it. I don't see it as an extreme issue and I don't see them willing to risk overstepping moral lines by simply bringing a little kid in and asking them to swear for the script. Which again I don't see as it being well looked upon by society. I apologise if this is bothering you. I find it somewhat interesting learning about someone else's opinion though.
I found it really interesting that you don't seem to have a problem with the violence and gore, which are way more inappropriate for kids but instead find it ethically questionable that a child should use swear words. Interesting priorities.
It does bother me less in season 2 but I think that is mainly because it makes sense now, she has had to grow up a lot and look after herself. In effect she isn't exactly a child any more.