Avatar The Last Airbender 10 Best Voice Actors In The Show Ranked

Avatar The Last Airbender: 10 Best Voice Actors In The Show, Ranked

Looking across all three seasons of ATLA, here are the 10 voice actors who most consistently turn in the best performances.

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Avatar: The Last Airbender is rightfully renowned for its endearing, well-written characters. That said, these characters would only be half-formed without the voices behind them. Much credit must go to series’ voice director Andrea Romano —a veteran of DCAU productions from Batman: The Animated Series and Justice League Unlimited— for casting these characters and bringing out the best in their performers.

Looking across all three seasons of ATLA, here are the 10 voice actors who most consistently turn in the best performances.

10 Zach Tyler Eisen As Aang

Aang is the title character, being both the Avatar and the Last Airbender. Without a strong lead, a story can collapse; fortunately, the fun-loving goofball Aang is always a pleasure to watch. The loss of his people and finding a new family in his friends also gives Aang emotional depth not usually found in “hero’s journey” protagonists.

Aang was voiced by child actor Zach Tyler Eisen, against the usual practice of casting the voices of pre-pubescent boys with actresses. Though Eisen fit the role like a glove, Aang wound up being his final role before an early retirement. At least he went out on a high note.

9 Dee Bradley Baker As Appa & Momo

Dee Bradley Baker is one of the most versatile voice actors in the business; just watch Star Wars: The Clone Wars, where he voices all the titular clones with the same basic voice yet makes each sound like a distinct individual.

ATLA is another great showcase for Baker’s talents; he voices the pets of Team Avatar, the sky bison Appa and the winged lemur Momo. Baker manages to convincingly emulate animal sounds while making those sounds distinctive to Appa and Momo. Though the nature of these parts means he doesn’t get as many chances at dramatic depth as the rest of the cast, “Appa’s Lost Days” proves you don’t need language to turn in a great, tragic vocal performance.

8 Jessie Flower As Toph Beifong

Jessie Flower (the stage name of Michaela Jill Murphy) joined ATLA in Book 2 as the blind Earthbending prodigy Toph Beifong. Like Toph herself, Flower was a natural addition to the cast who improved the show with her presence. The contrasts of Toph’s character, a seemingly fragile 12-year-old blind girl who’s actually a belligerent trash-talker, is one Flower excelled at portraying.

She also imbued Toph with some of the best comedic timing in the show, second only to Sokka. Considering that Flower was the same age as Toph when she first started voicing her, prodigious skill in their field is clearly something character and actress share.

7 James Garrett As Avatar Roku

No hero’s journey is complete without a mentor. Aang and Team Avatar have many, but the most prominent is Avatar Roku. As Roku is long dead, he only appears intermittently throughout the show, and when he does, he usually delivers exposition, from the arrival of Sozin’s Comet to the nature of the Avatar State.

In spite of that, James Garrett’s Godlike baritone is imbued with such gravitas that the exposition never feels like a drag. “The Avatar & The Fire Lord,” which details Roku’s past and his history with Fire Lord Sozin, also gives Garrett a well-deserved chance to flex his dramatic muscle opposite Ron Perlman as Sozin.

6 Mark Hamill As Fire Lord Ozai

Already renowned for his voice work as the Joker, Hamill solidified his reputation as one of the best villain voice actors around thanks to ATLA. Whether low-toned and chilling (“You will learn respect, and suffering will be your teacher”) or hammy and fired up (“Hahaha, you’re weak, just like the rest of your people! They did not deserve to exist in this world, in my world! Prepare to join them —Prepare to DIE!”), Hamill always made the Fire Lord terrifying.

Now, Ozai doesn’t get nearly as much screen time as most of the show’s other important characters, but Hamill’s résumé speaks for itself. It’s also simply delightful how the role brought his career full circle —the man most famous as Luke Skywalker voiced a lightning-generating dictator who makes Darth Vader look like the dad of the year.

5 Mae Whitman As Katara

Since Katara narrates the show’s opening, the first voice heard in any ATLA episode is Mae Whitman’s. Narration in a visual medium is a risky proposition, for it runs the risk of being unneeded exposition. Fortunately, Whitman’s properly inflected delivery avoids this; her words improve the opening instead of detracting from it.

Her performance in the show itself matches up, doubly impressive since most of her roles before and since have been comedic live-action parts. Special praise must go to her voice-work in “The Southern Raiders,” when Katara finally confronts the man who murdered her mother. Whitman gives a powerful yet restrained performance, anchoring Katara’s pain without ever falling into over-acted dramatics.

4 Dante Basco As Prince Zuko

Zuko is ATLA’s most complex character. The show’s initial villain and eternal straight man, he often seems to just have two moods: uptight and angry. Yet, beneath his humorless exterior is the pain of an abused child, desperate to prove himself in his father’s eyes. Voice actor Dante Basco was always up to the task of portraying these dimensions and modulating his performance to reflect Zuko’s character growth.

Though sometimes purposefully wooden, Basco’s performance is far from one-note. He certainly excels at playing Zuko’s stiffness for comedy bits, particularly when played against Aang, Sokka, or Iroh, but whenever a more dramatic moment comes along, he grabs the opportunity by the horns and delivers heart-grabbing work. Highlights include a despondent Zuko daring a thunderstorm to strike him in “Bitter Work” and the reformed Prince’s tearful reconciliation with his Uncle in “Sozin’s Comet.”

3 Jack De Sena As Sokka

Sometimes, an actor so perfectly fits a character that anyone else in the part is unthinkable; Jack De Sena as Sokka is one of these cases. Sokka is the show’s comic relief, and De Sena’s background in comedy improv made him a perfect fit.

At the same time, there’s more to Sokka; he’s smarter than he seems, for one thing, and at his core, he’s a sensitive guy trying to be the hard-edged warrior that his culture and the times demand. A scene in “The Runaway,” where Sokka admits he can’t remember his mother’s face and now only sees Katara, is a phenomenal scene on paper made all the better by De Sena’s performance.

2 Grey DeLisle-Griffin As Princess Azula

Ms. DeLisle-Griffin is one of America’s most prolific voice actresses; as impressive and wide-ranging as her portfolio is, her greatest performance remains the Fire Nation Princess. Azula is far-and-away ATLA’s best villain, thanks in no small part to DeLisle-Griffin’s ability to perform, to pitch perfection, whatever any scene calls for.

Azula spends Book 2 restrained and menacing; DeLisle-Griffin excels there, but her work in Book 3, when the cracks in Azula start forming, is even better. Cutting loose, she turns in line-reads of spite (“Put them some place I’ll never have to see them again, and let them rot!”), unhinged defiance (“I’ll show you LIGHTNING!” ) and a tragic ending when a defeated Azula, humiliated and aware she’s alone in the world, collapses into a writhing, sobbing mess. The one consistent thing? How magnificent it is to listen to DeLisle-Griffin perform.

1 Makoto Iwamatsu As Iroh

Credited simply as “Mako,” the late acting veteran gave life to ATLA’s most beloved character. Iroh was originally conceived as a colder character; the mix of warmth, humor, and wisdom which define him were pulled from Mako’s own personality. He even got a chance to demonstrate his singing talent in Book 2 episode “Tales Of Ba Sing Se” —Iroh singing “Leaves From The Vine” in remembrance of his deceased son is widely considered the most emotional moment in a series full of them.

Mako tragically passed during production of ATLA Book 2. Though deeply missed, his legacy lives on; the next Iroh, Greg Baldwin, was cast entirely because he could imitate Mako, while Mako in The Legend Of Korra was named after Iwamatsu.

Link Source : https://www.cbr.com/avatar-last-airbender-best-voice-actors/

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