Bryan Cranston’s Best Voice Acting Performances

Bryan Cranston is a beloved actor known for his leading roles in shows like Breaking Bad and Malcolm In the Middle, as well as many other appearances across a variety of mediums. While a lot of his best-known roles tend to be in live-action, his voice alone has also been attached to various projects, including a handful of anime dub appearances from the 80s and 90s.

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After achieving greater fame in the 2000s, Cranston has still lent his voice to various projects, with more of an emphasis on recognizable Western animated films and television. This list will look at the best of Cranston’s voice work across his prolific career.

6

Li Shan

Po’s Father in the Kung Fu Panda Franchise

Bryan Cranston was not the first actor to voice Li Shan in the Kung Fu Panda series. The role was originated by American voice actor Fred Tatasciore, at the end of Kung Fu Panda 2, where he merely stated that his son was alive, a fact he became aware of despite the distance between father and son. Cranston replaced Tatasciore for Kung Fu Panda 3, presumably due to the studios wanting to attach a more recognizable name to the character in this more expanded role.

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Li Shan is a panda who is Po’s biological father. Like Po, he is a big eater, and he reunites with his son around the time he breaks Po’s dumpling record. He lied to Po about his experience with the Chi technique so that he could keep his son safe from Kai, an evil Chi-stealing Yak. Despite his deceptiveness, he does attempt to make amends with his son and is willing to lead the Panda Village residents into combat. While not as animated as Po, Cranston’s more laid-back delivery gives Li the time to be refined and comedic, helping one recognize Li and Po as a truly special father-son duo.

5

James Gordon

The Future Gotham City Police Commissioner in Batman: Year One

Batman: Year One is an adaptation of the story arc of the same name released back in 1987, generally considered a fairly straightforward retelling. As the title implies, it focuses on the landscape of Gotham during Bruce Wayne’s debut as Batman, after years of training in preparation to become the vigilante. Bryan Cranston plays James Gordon, the future police commissioner of Gotham City who tends to have ties to Batman in most iterations. Due to being set sometime before the present, Gordon is merely a lieutenant rather than a commissioner, although he is promoted to captain near the end of the film.

Cranston was a name fans wanted attached to a DC property for years, but he almost didn’t play the part. Despite his voice-acting background, he admitted he “wasn’t aware of this level of storytelling in animation“. Cranston gives a respectable performance as Gordon, with his firm delivery matching that of a man who wants to truly lay down the law in a city teeming with corruption. His co-star, Ben McKenzie, who plays Batman in Year One, would go on to perform another version of James Gordon for the Batman prequel series, Gotham.

4

Vitaly

The Macho Russian Tiger in Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted

Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted features Bryan Cranston as Vitaly, a Siberian tiger who previously jumped through hoops for a circus that crosses paths with the cast of the previous Madagascar films. Cranston appropriately uses a faux Russian accent for the role. The group lies about being circus animals to gain passage back to New York with the troupe but is distrusted by Vitaly. The tiger’s backstory is revealed by his colleague, an Italian sea lion named Stefano (Martin Short), who mentions that his previous feat of jumping through increasingly smaller hoops, lubricated by olive oil, led to his fur being singed and his wife leaving him, along with the circus being thrown into its current predicament.

Although Vitaly is able to jump through a ring-sized hoop by switching lubricants, the circus folk discover they are being used. Despite this fact, they decide to save them from being executed by Captain Chantel DuBois (Frances McDormand), an animal control officer who has chased the zoo animals across the world. All in all, Cranston gives an enjoyable, but largely reserved, performance as the Tiger.

3

Stradivarius Cain

Homer’s Imaginary Friend in The Simpsons (E506)

One such actor with the privilege of appearing in The Simpsons was Bryan Cranston, debuting as Stradivarius Cain in the 20th episode of the 23rd season, The Spy Who Learned Me. Cain is a fictional spy who has starred in multiple films. His appearance and mannerisms are reminiscent of those of James Bond, a character who has grown somewhat notorious for his womanizing ways. A hallucinatory version of Cain attempts to aid Homer Simpson in becoming irresistible to Marge. This comes after Homer’s relationship with Marge suffers as a result of his behavior during one of Cain’s movies.

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Cranston’s charisma allows him to sell the smoldering, straightforward confidence this sort of voice role requires. Bryan Cranston also made a live-action cameo as Walter White for the couch gag in the following season’s episode, What Animated Women Want. Said gag was inspired heavily by Breaking Bad, and also featured Aaron Paul appearing alongside Cranston as Jesse Pinkman.

2

Eddie Barrows

The Obnoxious Police Officer in Armitage III

• Film: Armitage III
• Director: Hiroyuki Ochi
• Studio: AIC
• Licensed by Universal/Sony in AUS, Crunchyroll in NA

Armitage III follows Naomi Armitage, a “third”, which is a type of robot that is far more human-like than previous iterations. She is a police officer on a colonized Mars, partnered with Ross Sylibus, who is deeply prejudiced against robots due to losing a previous partner to one. Thirds are persecuted after their seamless integration with humans is revealed. Once Armitage’s cover is blown, Ross decides to aid her, with the pair’s relationship eventually becoming romantic.

Cranston voices Eddie Barrows in the English dub, another Martian police officer, who is known for his somewhat relaxed, smarmy, and comedic persona, which can annoy his colleagues. While Cranston has a background as a comedic actor, this character is fairly different from a lot of his major roles. This performance combines relaxed and sardonic elements that make it a relatively different style of acting than what most know him for.

1

Chief

A Dog Distrustful of Humans, But One Who Finds a Big Heart in Isle of Dogs

Isle of Dogs (2018) is the second stop-motion animated film directed by Wes Anderson. It focuses on a dystopian future in a Japanese city known as Megasaki, where the dogs are forced onto a glorified junkyard known as Trash Island by a cat-loving politician, Mayor Kenji Kobayashi (Kunichi Nomura), who uses a canine flu outbreak as a pretext. Cranston stars as Chief, a stray dog who aids Atari Kobayashi (Koyu Rankin), Kenji’s nephew, in his efforts to reunite with his guard dog, Spots (Liev Schreiber).

As the film progresses, it is revealed that the outbreak is a conspiracy, as the mayor and his party spread the disease in an attempt to quarantine and subsequently exterminate the dogs. Eventually, Atari, Chief, and their allies are able to resolve the issue and re-integrate dogs into Megasaki. While the role doesn’t necessarily require Cranston to alter his voice too heavily, his natural range, which switches from deep and commanding to somewhat casual and matter-of-fact depending on the scenario, is on full display. Cranston would later re-team with Anderson for Asteroid City (2023), a subsequent live-action film.

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