D&D General Legend of Vox Machina Trailer Released

Critical Role’s The Legend of Vox Machina will be released on Amazon streaming in batches of three episodes. Season 1 will release on Amazon Prime Video as follows:

• Friday, January 28th: Episodes 1-3
• Friday, February 4th: Episodes 4-6
• Friday, February 11th: Episodes 7-9
• Friday, February 18th: Episodes 10-12

 

[Hexmage-EN]

Further, putting aside D&D players, this is going to appeal to people that grew up on cartoons. The people making it understand the cartoon audiences - from anime, to old school. D&D wasn't their first area of expertise - cartoon shows are. This is a confluence of amazinglyu targeted high talent coming together to create the greatest ad for D&D there has ever been.

Part of me wonders how much the initial success of Critical Role hinged on the DM and players having done voice acting for hundreds of video games, anime, and cartoons and their existing fans wanting to see them do something new.

Let me take a second to look at the acting credits noted for the cast of Critical Role on IMDB.

Laura Bailey - 495
Liam O'Brien - 491
Matthew Mercer - 409
Travis Willingham - 400
Sam Riegel - 383
Robbie Daymond - 303
Taliesin Jaffe - 170
Ashley Johnson - 145
Marisha Ray - 69

 

[Reynard]

Part of me wonders how much the initial success of Critical Role hinged on the DM and players having done voice acting for hundreds of video games, anime, and cartoons and their existing fans wanting to see them do something new.

Let me take a second to look at the acting credits noted for the cast of Critical Role on IMDB.

Laura Bailey - 495
Liam O'Brien - 491
Matthew Mercer - 409
Travis Willingham - 400
Sam Riegel - 383
Robbie Daymond - 303
Taliesin Jaffe - 170
Ashley Johnson - 145
Marisha Ray - 69

I would venture a guess that the VAST majority of fans didn't know what roles they did for the most part (barring really famous characters). Voice actors are not immediately recognizable on purpose, so unless you go looking to see who voiced who, you wouldn't know.

 

[Parmandur]

I would venture a guess that the VAST majority of fans didn't know what roles they did for the most part (barring really famous characters). Voice actors are not immediately recognizable on purpose, so unless you go looking to see who voiced who, you wouldn't know.

The CR crew has said that the thing they lost personally when they started streaming was the ability to be famous sometimes, but just blend into the crowd at others. As voice actors, they could go to conventions and geek out with the hard-core fans who read the credits. Now Critters who work at resteraunts or retail recognize them all the time, apparently.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

There's always Jessica Rabbit (Who Framed Roger Rabbit) and Holly Wood (Cool World).

And Raven from Spicy city.

 

[Reynard]

The CR crew has said that the thing they lost personally when they started streaming was the ability to be famous sometimes, but just blend into the crowd at others. As voice actors, they could go to conventions and geek out with the hard-core fans who read the credits. Now Critters who work at restraints or retail recognize them all the time, apparently.

Is that a chain one step up (down?) from Hooters?

 

[darjr]

There was a critter that used to come incognito to a local convention here. At least I've heard. But no more.

 

[Hexmage-EN]

I would venture a guess that the VAST majority of fans didn't know what roles they did for the most part (barring really famous characters). Voice actors are not immediately recognizable on purpose, so unless you go looking to see who voiced who, you wouldn't know.

I don't think that would be a major draw now, but I'm curious if that might have drawn in some of the earliest viewers since many of them had played high profile roles by then.

Travis Willingham played Roy Mustang, one of the most popular characters in the anime Full Metal Alchemist. Laura Bailey has played as Lust from Full Metal Alchemist, Rise from Persona 4, Kid Trunks from the Dragon Ball franchise, and Chun Li from Street Fighter. Liam O'Brien was Gaara from Naruto. Matthew Mercer is McCree from Overwatch and Levi from Attack on Titan.

I just glanced at a YouTube video from 2015 where Liam O'Brien is interviewed about voice acting and saw this as the first comment:

Crazy how I grew up watching the Naruto dub and hearing him as Gaara my entire childhood, and then I get into Critical Role later in life and lo and behold, now I'm watching Gaara play a german arsonist who likes cats and books. Same goes for the rest of the cast – heard their voices my whole life and now I watch them play D&D

 

[thom_likes_gaming]

Are we still talking about the CR trailer? Not meaning to interrupted what this turned into, so I'll speak quietly:

I fully planned on watching this show (once it's released on some sort of discord the other). After THIS trailer, I'm mighty stoked. It hits a lot of CR notes. I might even watch it with the bairn, whose a big anime nerd.

Done. Apologies for the interruption.

 

[MNblockhead]

Fritz the Cat? Heavy Metal?

The Loony Tunes? Yes, they were originally created for adults, referencing celebrities of the time and providing war propaganda ahead of adult cinema.

Like the idea of people being short-sighted in thinking all animation is for children has been a joke since I was a kid.

Maybe I should say "family friendly." And I'm talking more about people's expectations regarding animated kids and shows. Even those that were made for adults, didn't have explicit gore, sexual content, or profanity. Those that did were rather niche and not readily available. This whole side conversation arose out of people expressing some surprise at the graphic content in the trailer and comments about how this might not do well because of this. My point has always been that I think we are no past the point where that is the case. That there is now a huge audience for PG-13, NC-17, and R rated animated shows. That it would be rather strange for someone to express surprise that such content was readily available on major, mainstream streaming services. But this is fairly recent, driven by the rise of streaming services making their own content and the mainstreaming of Japanese Anime and shows inspired by it.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Maybe I should say "family friendly." And I'm talking more about people's expectations regarding animated kids and shows. Even those that were made for adults, didn't have explicit gore, sexual content, or profanity. Those that did were rather niche and not readily available. This whole side conversation arose out of people expressing some surprise at the graphic content in the trailer and comments about how this might not do well because of this. My point has always been that I think we are no past the point where that is the case. That there is now a huge audience for PG-13, NC-17, and R rated animated shows. That it would be rather strange for someone to express surprise that such content was readily available on major, mainstream streaming services. But this is fairly recent, driven by the rise of streaming services making their own content and the mainstreaming of Japanese Anime and shows inspired by it.

And you are still wrong. All the streaming services put age ratings on everything, so no one is going to be surprised by anything.

Not that the average 12 year old is likely to be harmed by naughty words or red ink. There are far more disturbing storylines in The Clone Wars, just no animated blood or bad words to disturb the censors. But sexual innuendo and graphic depictions of torture and slavery get through just fine.