Corey Burton

Corey Gregg Weinberg (born August 3, 1955), known professionally as Corey Burton, is an American voice actor known as the current voice of Ludwig Von Drake, Captain Hook and many other characters for numerous Disney projects, Brainiac in the DC animated universe, several central characters (Count Dooku, Cad Bane, and Ziro the Hutt) for numerous Star Wars projects and Spike Witwicky and Shockwave in the Transformers universe. He has worked on numerous cartoon series for major networks such as Cartoon Network and has worked extensively with The Walt Disney Company and Disney theme parks.

Early career
Corey Burton began his career at age 17 under the name Corey Weinman, with an imitation performance of voice actor Hans Conried for Disney. He studied radio acting with Daws Butler (Time for Beany, Merrie Melodies, Yogi Bear) for four years and went on to work with nearly all of the original Hollywood radio actors in classic-style radio dramas. Burton was unsure at first about pursuing voice work, due to his shy demeanor and Asperger's syndrome, but credits the diverse world & character design of Disney's Haunted Mansion attraction as his inspiration to move forward.

Disney
Burton has done extensive voice work for Disney including feature animations and interactive sections of the company, as well as many attractions at the Disneyland Resort, Walt Disney World Resort and Tokyo Disney Resort. He provides the "Feature Presentation" voice on numerous Disney home video releases and can be heard as the tram narration voice at Disneyland Park. He provided the voice of Captain Hook in Disney's Return to Never Land and overdubbed the voice of Deems Taylor, the Master of Ceremonies in Fantasia, for the film's 2000 and 2010 video and DVD releases, as some of Taylor's original soundtracks had been lost.

Burton has voiced sound-alikes and original characters for over 50 Disney Storyteller records. His roles include:
 * Ludwig Von Drake in DuckTales, Raw Toonage, Bonkers, Quack Pack, Mickey Mouse Works, Disney's House of Mouse, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Mickey Mouse, Mickey and the Roadster Racers and DuckTales.
 * Dale in Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers.
 * Mad Hatter in Bonkers, Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse and Disney's House of Mouse.
 * Gruffi Gummi and Toadwart in Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears (following the death of Bill Scott).
 * Zeus in Disney's Hercules: The Animated Series (replacing Rip Torn).
 * Quint and Speedy the Snail in The Lion King's Timon & Pumbaa.
 * Gaëtan "Mole" Molière in Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Atlantis: Milo's Return.
 * Captain Hook in Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse, Disney's Villains' Revenge, Disney's House of Mouse, Return to Never Land, Mickey's House of Villains and Jake and the Never Land Pirates.
 * Captain Hook, Dale and Yen Sid in the Kingdom Hearts series.
 * The White Rabbit, The Doorknob and Flotsam and Jetsam in Kingdom Hearts.
 * The MCP, Santa Claus, Sark, Shan Yu and The Peddler in Kingdom Hearts II.
 * Ansem the Wise/DiZ in Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (HD 1.5 Remix).
 * The Magic Mirror and Grumpy in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep.
 * Claude Frollo in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance.
 * The Narrator in Goofy appearances (1992–present).
 * Professor Owl in the Disney Sing-Along Songs series.
 * King Stefan in Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams.
 * Mr. Smee in Disney's Villains' Revenge.
 * The White Rabbit in Disney's Villains' Revenge and Disney's House of Mouse.
 * The Ringmaster from Dumbo in Disney's Villains' Revenge.
 * Buzz Lightyear and other additional voices in the Disney on Ice adaptation of Toy Story 3.
 * Yen Sid and Captain Hook (the latter through vocal effects) in Epic Mickey.
 * Doc Hudson in the Cars media and Radiator Springs Racers (replacing Paul Newman).
 * General Knowledge from the former Cranium Command attraction at Epcot.
 * Dale, Bruno Biggs and Moe Whiplash from Walt Disney World Quest: Magical Racing Tour.

Paul Frees
Burton is perhaps best known to Disney fans for his imitation of the late voice actor Paul Frees as the Ghost Host in Disneyland's Haunted Mansion Holiday attraction. Burton also recited the classic line "Welcome, foolish mortals" in the opening of the film version of The Haunted Mansion.

Burton was also approached to record a new safety spiel for the beginning of the original Haunted Mansion ride. He declined and the spiel was instead recorded by voice actor Joe Leahy.

Burton provides many others Paul Frees-like voices for Disneyland Park, including several newer pirates in the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction (like the "Pooped Pirate" and the pirate voice that guides you on and off the boat), Grumpy on the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train attraction, and almost every voice in Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.

Burton performed another Frees imitation for comedian Stan Freberg's album Stan Freberg Presents The United States of America, Volume Two.

Burton performed a Frees imitation as the voice of the announcer in the 1999 film Dudley Do-Right.

Fantasia
In the 60th Anniversary Edition and the 2010 special edition of Disney's Fantasia, Corey Burton voiced all of Deems Taylor's voice-over work. The original audio elements for Deems Taylor's commentaries were getting so deteriorated that they could not be used anymore. Disney decided to have Corey Burton re-record all of Deems Taylor's commentaries for consistency.

Transformers
Burton appeared as Shockwave, Sunstreaker, Brawn and Spike Witwicky in the 1984-87 Transformers cartoon series by Sunbow Productions & Marvel Productions. He later does the voice of Megatron, Ratchet, Ironhide, Brawn, Cyrus "The Colossus" Rhodes, Spike Witwicky and Longarm Prime/Shockwave in the Transformers Animated series by Cartoon Network.

Burton stated in an interview that Shockwave was by far his favorite character to perform in the original show. However, he turned down the offer to reprise the role in Transformers: Dark of the Moon, so the part was given to Frank Welker, the voice of Megatron/Galvatron.

Star Wars
For Star Wars, Burton voiced Count Dooku in Star Wars: Clone Wars, Star Wars: The Clone Wars and several Star Wars video games.

Kingdom Hearts
For the Kingdom Hearts series, Burton voiced Ansem the Wise/DiZ in Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance due to the late Christopher Lee's failing health. For the cinematic version of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days which was part of Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix, Burton played the role of DiZ in one of the new cutscenes and re-dubbed all of Lee's lines from the original Nintendo DS version.

Brainiac
Burton has portrayed Brainiac in the DC animated universe. He appeared as Brainiac in eight episodes of Superman: The Animated Series, two episodes of Justice League, two episodes of Static Shock, and five episodes of Justice League Unlimited. Although not set within the DCAU, he also voiced Brainiac in three episodes of Legion of Super Heroes and reprised his role in the online game DC Universe Online.

Other television highlights

 * Narrated the 1992 Discovery Channel documentary Great White!, by Barry Clark Productions and directed by underwater photographer John McKenney.
 * The Russian, Ronald Marshall and The Scarecrow in Batman: Gotham Knight.
 * V.V. Argost and Leonidas Van Rook in The Secret Saturdays.
 * James Bond Jr. in the animated series of the same name.
 * The Pupununu in Tak and the Power of Juju.
 * Invisibo in Freakazoid!.
 * Old Queeks in Mike, Lu & Og.
 * Captain Marvel in Superman/Batman: Public Enemies.
 * Red Tornado, Silver Cyclone, Doctor Mid-Nite, Doc Magnus, Mercury and Thomas Wayne in Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
 * Ziro the Hutt in the 2008 Star Wars: The Clone Wars film and in the television series (2008-2014), Count Dooku and Cad Bane.
 * Tomax in G.I. Joe.
 * Goon, Kanawk and Tauron in Robotix.
 * Law in G.I. Joe: Renegades.
 * Brain, Dudley H. Dudley, Hamilton Hill, James Gordon, and Wizard in Young Justice.
 * Burglar in The Powerpuff Girls episode "Burglar Alarmed".
 * Dash Whippet and additional voices for Pound Puppies, starting in season 2.
 * Brainstorm, Malware and Mr. Baumann in Ben 10: Omniverse.
 * Dracula in 'Avengers Assemble' and 'Ultimate Spider-Man'.
 * Ranger Smith in the Spümcø animated specials, Boo Boo Runs Wild and A Day in the Life of Ranger Smith.
 * Various male characters on Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi.

Other work

 * Burton played Starlab Controller Jerry Lyden in the syndicated radio drama series ''Alien Worlds.
 * Burton has done work for the Universal Studios - Islands of Adventure theme park in Orlando, Florida in addition to the Universal Studios Japan theme park.
 * Burton does voice-overs for many commercials and promos; for instance, Burton's voice is featured in some Old Navy commercials, a role he inherited after the death of Bill Wendell. He recently provided his voice for the Final Fantasy XII TV promo.
 * In the WWE, Burton provided voice-overs for the WrestleMania XXV recap segments.
 * Almost all character roles in the 1980 cult classic Closet Cases of the Nerd Kind.
 * In the Critters film series, he provided the voices for the Krites, but he was only credited for the first one, and he also developed their language (as revealed on his website).
 * The narrator for the video game Brütal Legend.
 * Tromell Guado and Maester Kelk Ronso in the PlayStation 2 video game Final Fantasy X.
 * Volteer the Electric Guardian Dragon, Exhumor, and Mason in The Legend of Spyro trilogy.
 * Zeus in the video game God of War II for the PlayStation 2, God of War III for the PlayStation 3, and God of War for the PlayStation 4.
 * Footman, Bricabrac, Goggles, Fluffy Show Announcer and WACME Quiz Master in the 1996 adventure game Toonstruck.
 * Numerous supporting roles on Focus on the Family's radio drama Adventures in Odyssey, voicing over 90 characters, most notably Jesus Christ, Walter Shakespeare, Cryin' Bryan Dern, and The Great Wishy Woz.
 * Doctor N. Gin and Doctor Nefarious Tropy in the GameCube and PlayStation video game Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex.
 * Jack the animated pumpkin that narrates the haunted attraction The House at Haunted Hill.
 * Narrator of the film The A-Team.
 * Hugo Strange in the video game Batman: Arkham City.
 * John Grey (Jean Grey's father) for two episodes of Wolverine and the X-Men.
 * Provided voice samples for some songs, most famously in DJ Hazard's drum and bass track entitled "Machete", he is also working with Australian producer ShockOne to provide voice samples for his new album named Universus.
 * Game Narrator for Disney Coaster.
 * Announcer for the El Rey Network launched by Robert Rodriguez.
 * Yoda in the Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back Read-Along Storybook and CD and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi Read-Along Storybook and CD.

Theme parks

 * Seven Dwarfs Mine Train – Grumpy
 * Radiator Springs Racers – Doc Hudson
 * Haunted Mansion Holiday – Ghost Host
 * Journey into YOUR Imagination – Figment
 * Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls – Snidley Whiplash, Narrator
 * Fantasmic! – Chernabog, Captain Hook, Pirates
 * Cranium Command – General Knowledge, Chicken
 * Goofy About Health – Narrator
 * Horizons – Futureport 'Brava Centauri' Announcer
 * Pirates of the Caribbean – Stuffed Pirate
 * Alice in Wonderland – The White Rabbit/Cards
 * Peter Pan's Flight – Captain Hook, Mr. Smee
 * Mr. Toad's Wild Ride – Judge, Cop, Farmer
 * The Cat in the Hat – Fish