My Neighbour Totoro was on Film Four recently and I looked at the voice-credits:– Dakota Fanning, yes… Wait a second, Frank Welker? As Totoro? That was a name I remembered from somewhere. Scooby Doo – Fred Walker, right?
Quickly looking at the IMDB brought up some more interesting results:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0919798/
He is a recurring character in Scooby Doo, but he was also in Ducktales, Gummy Bears, Swat Kats, Inspector Gadget and The Real Ghost Busters (as Ray Stanz and Slimer) all sorts of things I watched as a child.
This guy is prolific.
As far as Ghibli goes, he was in Porco Rosso and My Neighbour Totoro, playing the giant Totoro of the title. These two films helped define the 90’s for me and helped to start my love of anime.
The Real Ghostbusters was a cartoon that I had watched as a child. I had recently bought the complete series 1 and I am enjoying it. It is one of those high-quality western/Japanese co-productions where the writing, animation and voice acting captured the spirit of the source whilst still being inventive enough to be original in itself.
I now have a person to blame for many wasted hours… Thank you for adding to these classic cartoons.
Another Ghostbusters link to a Ghibli film came in episode 5’s Troll Bridge. When a troll leaves his clan, he slips into New York Cities sewer system in a couple of shots that mirror Lupin III when he infiltrates Count Cagliostro’s castle with Jigen. Video follows:
(Read Maurice LeBlanc’s great Arsène Lupin short stories to see Lupin III’s grandfather in action)
As I write this, Proco Rosso is on. This was the first Ghibli film I saw and while Spirited Away has claimed my heart (seeing it in the cinema was a genuinely moving experience), Rosso is truly great. It retains the wonder and majesty that captures the romance and bravado of the 1930’s Mediterranean world and a charming story and romance, so watch it.
Totoro and Nausicaa have already been on but they should be repeated sometime next week (hopefully the Japanese dub).
This post will end with the rest of FilmFour’s Ghibli season so you can catch some genuinely brilliant films. Oh, and watch out for the repeats.
http://www.film4.com/galleries/studio-ghibli-season/
Thur 11th – My Neighbor Totoro – 11 am
Fri 12th – Nausicaa And The Valley Of The Winds – 11 am
Sat 13th – Porco Rosso – 11 am
Sun 14th – Castle Of Cagilastro – 11 am
Mon 15th – Whisper Of The Heart – 11 am
Tue 16th – Princess Mononoke 11 am
Genkinahito 
Just to clarify a couple of things, Frank Welker is only Catbus and Totoro in the Disney redub from 2005. He’s not in the Streamline dub that you watched as a kid. Also, Fred in Scooby-Doo is Fred _Jones_.
Thanks for the update. A massive oversight on the Fred Jones name mix-up considering I’ve watched at least one episode from every series of Scooby Doo.