Once we got the stories started, casting began in Toronto. That’s right, the entire incredible cast was chosen and recorded in Canada. Fox Kids had had good luck recording there (Beetlejuice, other series), so we all had great hopes. The first recordings came back VERY wrong. What none of us counted on was that no one had done a series like X-Men:TAS before, so the voices came back young and cartoony. You couldn’t blame the voice-over professionals — it was what they were used to. Sidney Iwanter and Larry Houston went up to Toronto and gradually got across that these recordings needed to be different. Serious. Realistic. Movie-like. Luckily, Toronto is a major theater town. Some classically trained actors started auditioning and, after many stabs at the “Night of the Sentinels” scripts, a new tone was established. The performances had the heart and soul that we had imagined as we wrote. As you can see by my note to producer Winston Richard, the sound I had in my head was that of dramatic, adult actors in tough roles in serious films. Thanks to casting director Karen Goora and voice director Dan Hennessey, we succeeded beyond my expectations. Enjoy:
