Name a voice more instantly recognizable than George Takei’s. I’ll wait. Okay, I won’t wait, because you could hit me with Morgan Freeman, Dame Judi Dench, James Earl Jones, or Gilbert Gottfried, to name a few. No matter how you slice it, though, George Takei deserves a spot on any list of iconic voices, and today I’m listing five of his best voiceover cameos.
As we’ll soon discover—and as I’m sure any Takei fan already knows—the man’s voice can bring something special to any type of character, genre, or dramatic situation. On this list alone, which is a small sampling of the prolific actor’s work, we’ll get humor, villainy, and more!
Prison Rig Warden, Avatar: The Last Airbender
In my head, I always confuse this warden with the Boiling Rock prison leader. Then I rewatch the episode (“Imprisoned”) and do a double take when I hear Takei’s blissfully villainous baritone sailing over the persecuted earthbenders, trapped aboard the metal cage where they’ve been imprisoned by the Fire Nation.
Takei’s melodic delivery gives the warden an odd, off-putting, but memorable air, establishing the man as a powerful presence within his small portion of the ATLA world. His confidence becomes his downfall, however. After Katara summons heaps of coal and encourages the despondent earthbenders to revolt, Takei’s nameless warden is so sure that their spirits have been broken that he mocks their hopelessness…only for Tyro and Haru to strike up a rebellion just as he sneeringly turns his back. His hubris brings him down in the end, and Takei brings stunning depth to a character who could have been a throwaway.
Bonus: George Takei has been cast in Netflix’s ATLA adaptation as Koh the face-stealing spirit. We’ll see how that goes…
Ricardio, Adventure Time
On paper, Ricardio could be just another one-off monster of the week for the Adventure Time crew. In his first appearance in “Ricardio the Heart Guy,” though, the plot centers on Finn and Jake investigating whether he’s a nice guy cursed to look suspicious or a villain passing as a nice dude. The result is another nuanced take on a silly character idea, a literal heart that’s been brought to life, complete with mysterious desires and motives.
Even the little grunts Takei mutters while Ricardio struggles and withers on the ground inform the way we feel about the character. He’s a product of the Ice King’s latest spell gone awry, and his goals are nefarious, but his existence rests on a flimsy foundation of stray magic. It’s somewhat tragic that Ricardio was never meant to be in the first place. Somehow, through the magic of those booming tones, Takei packs all this into a mere minutes-long performance.
“Kevin” Voicemail, Community
Now we shift into the realm of straight-up comedy. This clip may be less than 10 seconds long, but it’s the first thing that comes to mind when I hear George Takei’s name.
The tongue-in-cheek Community bit plays on the familiar narrative trope in which a disembodied narrator’s voice puts a neat little bow on the end of a complicated story (in this case, a Halloween party besieged by zombie outbreak caused by old military “rations” used as taco meat). What better way to wrap up a half hour of reference-packed absurdity and meta moments than with Takei launching into a bonus voicemail recording for anyone named Kevin? It’s campy. It’s smart, but very silly. It’s everything Community embodied in its heyday, and Takei’s willingness to join the fun makes for one of the high points in one of the show’s best episodes.
Positive Reinforcement Machine: Phineas & Ferb
Phineas & Ferb lovingly subverts its usual formula in episode 149 (“Perry The Actorpus”) with the introduction of the Positive Reinforcement Machine, a doohickey which rewards older sister Candace for shirking her deeply ingrained instinct to constantly snoop on and try to bust her younger brothers.
Takei’s delivery as the voice of the machine is perfect, encouraging Candace’s choices with a joyful and goofy “Oh, who’s a good girl!? You are the good girl, yes you are!”
It’s the only line the machine utters in the entire episode, but it earns a big, well-earned laugh. Plus, it showcases Takei’s ability to breathe life into a single moment without the benefit of lots of screen time.
Self: Futurama
Alright, Trekkies, this one’s for you! Here’s where I admit that I haven’t seen any iteration of Star Trek, and I’m a bit hesitant to ask where I should start—I’m sure it’s as hotly debated as Cosmere reading orders, if not more. Still, if you have suggestions, I’m all ears!
The above clip, another short and sweet Takei cameo, is from Bender’s Game; Takei also voices himself (or, usually, his disembodied head) in four episodes of Futurama as well. I don’t have much to say about the joke beyond its face-level value, which to me is always good for a quick chuckle—the bit lands even for a non-Trekkie, and I can read between the lines enough to appreciate how it might resonate for longtime fans of the franchise.
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OH MY, that was fun! Any Takei cameos I didn’t mention here that are worth a look? Let me know in the comments!
Cole Rush writes words. A lot of them. For the most part, you can find those words at The Quill To Live or on Twitter @ColeRush1. He voraciously reads epic fantasy and science-fiction, seeking out stories of gargantuan proportions and devouring them with a bookwormish fervor. His favorite books are: The Divine Cities Series by Robert Jackson Bennett, The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers, and The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune.
Very minor example, but Takei shows up on Disney’s Elena of Avalor as a visiting monarch from another country. It’s a small part – the character is only in a couple of episodes – but there’s a little moment in one of those where King Toshi gets to say a subtle little ‘oh myyyyy’ – I burst out laughing realising it was George Takei!
S.T.E.V.E. in Free Birds is hilarious.
His recent return as Sulu in Lower Decks was pretty good.
“The horsie’s going to bite you now…”
No one has mentioned his voice work on RESIDENT ALIEN. Wow. He does the voice of a Gray alien leader intent on destroying the world through hybrid humans. I think he’ll be next season’s Big Bad. The last great voice work actor on this show was Nathan Fillion as an octopus. RIP, octopus. Sniff. This is a really great show with a mix of comedy and science fiction goodness with Alan Tudyk’s awesomeness.
Mulan – First Elder, I believe.
Also an Elder in Kubo and the Two Strings
“I don’t have much to say about the joke beyond its face-level value”
I see what you did there.
Shout out to his Transformers roles as Master Yoketron in Transformers:Animated and Alpha Trion in Transformers:Prime.
Okay, one I doubt anybody else will get; during the short-lived Disney Junior animated series Miles from Tomorrowland, Takei voiced Spectryx, an alien who can only see in infrared. I only know this because my child was of an age to watch that when it was on.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
The Disney Wiki shows a number of other roles with Disney: MasterSensei in the old animated Kim Possible, Mr. Ptolemy in Hercules, and others.
Space Milkshake. George Takei does the voice of a yellow rubber duck cum megalomaniac space monster. Superb. Takei almost steals the show, if it weren’t for the two romances going on, no it’s three romances, if we count the fledgling one including the rubber duck. Not to mention the mega space garbage destroying laser cannon. Merits viewing again many seasonal holidays.
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Okay, it’s not strictly a cameo, Takei is one of the stars of the film, but it merits mentioning anyway.
Takei did voice work in that other “Star” franchise back in 2009, as the villainous Lok Durd in the CLONE WARS episode “Defender of Peace.”
https://www.space.com/5433-trek-wars-george-takei-clone-wars.html
Apparently he also did a voice in 2021’s STAR WARS: VISIONS, but I must not have noticed. (Oh, MY indeed!)
https://thathashtagshow.com/2021/08/19/oh-myyy-star-trek-legend-george-takei-returns-to-star-wars-in-visions-anime-anthology/
George also voiced the narrator of a motivational tape in a few episodes of Bojack Horseman
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4311472/?ref_=ttep_ep2
And most recently, he played Mr. Tengu in the English version of Oni: A Thunder God’s Tale.
I didn’t get into Star Trek until later (I grew up in the “1970s-turn-off-the-idiot-box-and-go-play-outside” era.)
I’d let your instincts lead you…if there’s one that you’re drawn to, start with that, rather than doing the linear pathway. I started with Star Trek: Enterprise, which opened the door to my other top favourites: Voyager and Deep Space Nine. Both have these heartbreaking episodes I love. I mean, “It’s Only a Paper Moon”? Awwww….
I’m glad I started with Enterprise, because, even though I’m now a ST fan, and I can embrace the first Star Trek now, I think the sometime cheesy feel of older shows puts me off in general, because I’m more a reader than a TV show watcher. I’m not very “sophisticated” in my tastes when it comes to TV, so I like the gloss of more modern shows, truthfully. (My benchmark is for movies/TV is “Is there stuff blowing up, and are there car chases?”)
Okay, that was a bit of ramble to (again) say “boldly go” and pick the one you’re drawn to, no matter what the critique noise is…
Thanks for a great read on George Takai! <–still not much of a TV watcher, so I didn’t know about most of these…
Back in 2014, he was the narrator of a short animated film called “The Missing Scarf” from the Irish filmmaker Eoin Duffy. It was part of the Oscar-Nominated Short Film series (though Scarf was actually a Highly Commended film instead of Nominated).
What about his cameo on “The Big Bang Theory”? Howard was daydreaming about Katee Sackhoff from “Battlestar Galactica” instead of his real girlfriend, and Takei and Sackhoff started fussing at and coaching Howard how to treat Bernadette. And then started complaining about being typecast as scifi characters…
Start with Star Trek: The Original Series since you already have a connection with Takei, although be warned he was not present in all the early episodes (and really wasn’t treated like a main cast member until well after the show ended.)
There’s an episode of Bubble Guppies where he plays Major Bummer, a robot trying to collect and destroy all the music in the universe.
Another show one generally doesn’t find out about unless one has a toddler/preschooler.