INTERVIEW: ‘Digimon Adventure’ heads toward the ‘Future’
Photo: Digimon Adventure re.: Future will premiere Sept. 20 in movie theaters. Photo courtesy of Fathom Events / Provided with permission.
The Digimon Adventure trilogy that has been playing in movie theaters this year is coming to a thrilling end with the Sept. 20 release of Digimon Adventure tri.: Future, featuring the voice of Colleen O’Shaughnessey as Sora Takenouchi.
In the finale, the DigiDestined have suffered tremendous losses, and yet there is still a threat from a new, mysterious Digimon. If all fails, according to a press release, the Digital World will crush the Real World, so it’s up to the DigiDestined to make things right.
The Digimon world, which is more than 20 years old, has seen many incarnations. Fathom Events has been presenting these one-night-only screenings of the franchise’s movies, but there have also been manga, anime and collectibles along the way.
O’Shaughnessey, an accomplished voice actor, has been voicing Sora for many, many years.
“So I approach it the way I approach all of my characters,” she said in a recent phone interview. “Sora is just part of me I think, so I didn’t have to do a lot of work. I know her so well, and like I just said, she’s a little piece of me. … It’s funny that her crest is the heart because I feel like she’s in my heart. I know that sounds super cheesy, but she is. I just conjure her. I don’t really have to do a lot to make her happen.”
When O’Shaughnessey began in the Digimon world, she received a lot of direction on how to develop the character’s voice during the dubbing process. Now, in Future, Sora is older and more mature, so there have only been slight tweaks to that original voice.
“It’s more about her maturity … as opposed to, oh, she’s so old now and doesn’t sound as youthful,” the voice actor said. “It’s more about her awareness, and when kids grow up, they know more and they’ve seen more. It’s having that behind it as opposed to more of the innocence that she had before.”
O’Shaughnessey has been involved in all three of the Digimon Adventure films this year, including Loss and Coexistence. When she provides a voice over the course of many projects, she does listen to a reference recording so she can use the same diction, rhythm and pacing.
“Because these characters are older, they didn’t have to be exact, and I think they wanted it to be a little bit different because it’s been however many years,” she said. “But, yes, they give you a reference, and then they’ll give you an explanation of what’s been happening, and where they’ve been and all the important details.”
O’Shaughnessey did not count herself an anime fan before she entered the Digimon recording world more than 15 years ago; however, over the years, the franchise and its artistry have won her over.
“I definitely have grown to like it a lot more,” she said. “I was so unfamiliar when I first started dubbing. I had no idea about anime and what was out there, but I definitely have a huge appreciation for it now. I don’t really watch it all that much. If I’m in something, and my kids want to go see it, absolutely. I actually took my son to see one of the Digimon movies in the theater when it was there for one day, but I definitely have a huge, huge appreciation for it, much more so than I did before because I really was unaware. And my son loves, loves, loves it, so through his eyes as well I’ve grown to really like it, too.”
When O’Shaughnessey first booked Digimon, way back during the days of Digimon Adventure the TV series, she was only beginning her trek into the voiceover world. In fact, Sora was her big break, the role that put her on the dubbing map. Today, she can count many credits on her résumé: Freedom Fighters, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Sonic Boom, Zorro the Chronicles and Naruto, among many others.
“It was my second show that I ever booked, but it was my very first dubbing show,” O’Shaughnessey said. “And it aired so quickly. With original animation, it takes a really long time because they record the voice first and then the animation. With anime, the animation is already finished, and you’re adding the voice to it. So it aired, and that [episode] I actually watched right away because I had never seen or heard my voice coming out of a character. It was really exciting to be able to turn on a TV, and that was me. It was really exciting, really, really fun.”
O’Shaughnessey performed in musical theater pieces while attending the University of Michigan. She also tried out musical therapy as a possible career path. However, after she completed college, she shifted gears after someone recommended she should check out the voiceover industry.
“Voices always came out for me,” she said. “I always did voices. If there was a baby that couldn’t talk, I would give it a voice. If an animal had a look on its face, I’d be like, I know that’s what that animal is thinking or saying. I always did it, and it never occurred to me that that could be my career. Luckily, somebody said that to me toward the end of college. They’re like, ‘You need to do voiceovers.’ And I was like, light bulb going off for me, so I moved out to L.A. and picked people’s brains. It didn’t occur to me then that I had been training for it my whole life. … That’s all I wanted to do. Once I heard that word, that was it for me.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Digimon Adventure tri.: Future will play in movie theaters Thursday, Sept. 20 at 7:30 p.m. thanks to Fathom Events and Toei Animation. Click here for more information and showtimes.
