Olympic fever has gripped the world, and we here at Voice Coaches are just as excited about the games as anyone. Every day since the Olympics started, there’s been water cooler talk about the previous night’s events, and there hasn’t been an unexciting evening yet. I thought it would be fun to take a look at a few really terrific commercials from the Olympics that feature some truly outstanding voice overs.

The first commercial above is a terrific piece from Molson Canadian, and boy, does it ever evoke a sense of national pride. Sure, the nation represented in the commercial is Canada, but since we love our neighbors to the north, I just had to share this great spot with you. I really, really love the voice over in this ad. The voice actor behind this commercial delivers a perfectly rugged, slightly bombastic (yet with a sense of humor) “rah rah, Canada!” high energy rant about why Canadians are “the way they are.”

I think my favorite line from this brilliantly written piece is “We have more square feet of awesomeness per person than any other nation on earth.” And the way the voice actor delivers that line, you believe him 100%. By the end of the piece, between the sweeping music and the cheerleading voice over, you feel proud as heck to be a Canadian.

Even if you aren’t one.

Normally I don’t spotlight celebrity voice overs here in Voice Overs of the World, but, come on, this is Morgan Freeman we’re talking about. For this year’s Olympics, he’s voiced a whole ad campaign made up of numerous commercials for Visa, all of which feature that deep, rich, memorable voice. But this is the one that stands out the most for me. Sure, Dan Jansen’s story is both heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time, but Freeman delivers it just perfectly. While most of the other commercials are upbeat, even humorous spots, this one requires some subtlety and real emotion.

By the end of this 30-second spot, due to the combination of the story, the music, and — of course — the voice over, I’m about ready to well up with tears. That’s a pretty impressive feat for a credit card commercial to accomplish.

Finally, this commercial for Hudson’s Bay Clothing is another terrific example of a more dramatic voice over. Unlike the Morgan Freeman narration above, which tugs at your heart strings, this spot really goes for a sense of history and pride. The voice actor is pitch perfect throughout; he’s got an incredible voice, and he really conveys a sense of having been there for the past 340 years’ worth of history.

What’s interesting is if you compare this ad to the Molson Canadian ad above, they’re similar in terms of the sweeping, dramatic background music used. So isn’t it amazing how utterly unlike each other the two ads feel thanks to two very talented but very different voice actors?

When it comes to your voice over career, simply use the same mentality as the world’s olympians: go for the gold!

Without a doubt, the Super Bowl is responsible for some of the most innovative and talked-about advertising on television every year. But it’s also a hot spot for some really terrific voice over work. While an overwhelming majority of the commercials in last night’s game featured voice overs in some capacity, I’ve selected a few to look at here in Voice Overs of the World that really feature extensive VO as an integral part of the ad.

Traditionally, this Hyundai Sonata ad isn’t one I would spotlight here as it uses a celebrity voice, but since Hyundai ran three or four ads last night, I knew some of you out there would be wracking your brains trying to figure out who it was. Yes, folks, that is indeed Oscar-nominated actor Jeff Bridges providing the voice for the Hyundai commercials. Give the man credit, though; he does deliver a terrific VO. (I guess that’s why he gets nominated for all those awards!)

Another ad with a celebrity voice, I’m highlighting this Skechers ad for a different reason. Sure, Joe Montana lends his voice to the ad as a celebrity endorsee (and as a lifelong 49ers fan, of course a part of me was very excited to hear from Joe M.), but boy, he really doesn’t have a lot of talent in the voice over arena, does he? Listen to how flat and lifeless his delivery is. This is a clear case of the celebrity name being much more important than the talent said celebrity brings to the piece. (In fact, there’s a Wheaties Fuel commercial that debuted last week with an equally weak VO by Peyton Manning.)

But right next to big Joe’s terrible performance, we have two non-celebrity voice overs at work, “Lisa” and “Nina.” Both of these voice actors do a lot in the very short time they’re given, delivering their testimonials with energy and believability, while sounding like real people instead of paid voice actors. On top of all that, there’s a Skechers-style announcer thrown into the mix. Not bad; four voice overs in a 15-second spot.

Cars.com’s “Timothy Richmond” ad is the third in a series of commercials that they’ve done over the past three Super Bowls, each one introducing us to a somewhat extraordinary (yet ordinary) person. While I think the payoff of the commercial doesn’t live up to humor and cleverness of the first 3/4ths of it, I do really enjoy the voice over in the spot. It’s got a neat vibe to it; a cross between documentary narration and a heartfelt, personal piece, as if the narrator personally knows Timothy Richmond. It’s a well-done commercial for the most part, and at a minute long versus the traditional 30-second Super Bowl commercial, that’s a pretty significant VO credit for that actor to add to his demo.

I have to admit, I got a really big kick out of this Dodge “Man’s Last Stand” commercial, in which various men stare off into the distance, slack-jawed, while their “inner voice” extols all the sacrifices they make on a daily basis (”I will watch your vampire TV shows” is my favorite line!) so that they can drive the car they want to drive. I think it’s an interesting choice to use just one voice actor for the spot, rather than trying to give each guy on screen a unique voice, but I think it’s effective as it gets across that sort of shared experience that many men have. Sure, your job, relationship, and daily chores might not be perfect, but at the end of the day, you get to drive this cool truck.

The actor’s delivery reminded me a lot of Michael C. Hall’s voice overs in Showtime’s hit show Dexter, and it turns out there’s a good reason for that: it is Micheel C. Hall. I can see why the commercial’s producers chose him for this spot; he has this fascinating style of delivery that is somehow both completely monotone and extremely expressive, and this commercial manages to tap into that perfectly. Again, another one-minute ad that’s very effective and relies heavily on its voice over to get its point across.

Ahh… E-Trade. I’ve resisted writing about these talking baby commercials for a long time, mostly because there’s so many of them that I didn’t know where to start. But since they did advertise in the Super Bowl and they do rely extensively on voice over, I felt like this was a good chance to bring them up. There were a couple of E-Trade commercials during the game, but this was the one I liked the best.

There’s no denying that these talking baby e-trade ads do have some great voice over work in them. The “main baby” that’s in most of their ads is always terrific, and I do like the way he manages to sound like a bit of a player here, the titular “wolf” of the ad. He always manages to have that cocky, self-sure attitude that resonates solely through the voice actor’s delivery, since it’s not like the baby himself is giving much of a performance (not that isn’t computer-enhanced, anyway.) But the female voice actor in the piece is equally as funny in my book, portraying a nice sense of baby jealousy over, “That milk-aholic, Wendy.” Then you get a third voice actor coming in at the end with, “Milka-what?!?” I would have love to have seen that actor’s face when she got her script… and the one word on it!

Finally, we have the ad for Universal Studios’ new Harry Potter theme park, which features a wonderfully wizardly voice over. With a British accent that’s not too strong but clearly captures the feel of the Harry Potter world, the actor clearly conveys that sense of wonder that I like so much (and that I wrote a whole column about a few weeks ago.) This was pretty different than most Super Bowl ads this year (or any year, for that matter), and so it stood out to me quite a bit, especially considering that VO drives the whole spot.

So there you have it, six of the most prominent uses of voice over in a Super Bowl that was filled with great examples. While on the whole I found this year’s advertisements a bit disappointing in terms of entertainment value, I was thrilled to see how much voice over work was generated by a single sporting event.

What were your favorite commercials and voice overs from this year’s game?

There’s an old Hollywood adage that states that actors should never work with children or animals. That may or may not be true, but playing an animal has gotten many a voice over actor a job in the past. In today’s Voice Overs of the World, I want to look at some really fun advertisements with some great voice overs that all showcase animals in one way or another.

The first video is a really clever series of commercials from the Minnesota State Lottery. There are actually seven commercials total, and they’re all included in the video above. These are really pretty brilliant in my opinion, and you’ve gotta love the amount of voice over talent utilized for these spots. (And presumably, they’re all from Minnesota, proving once again that there is lucrative VO work to be found just about anywhere!)

Now, if I went through each of these commercials voice by voice, we’d be here all day, but I do want to point out a few highlights. I really love the over-caffeinated hamsters in the third commercial. That ditzy, run-on sentence style of delivery really gets the point across. Obviously, there was probably a little bit of post-production help added to speed the voices up a little, but the delivery is still great. Especially the one hamster’s annoying laugh at the end. I can only imagine what the voice actor behind that role had to go through in the booth; she probably recorded different variations of that laugh a couple dozen times.

I also really enjoy the fourth commercial a lot. What’s interesting to me is that the female voice actor has to sound like she’s eating the whole time, and I’m trying to imagine if she actually had something in  her mouth while recording or if she just had to try to simulate the sound with her own voice. Either way, I’m sure it was a challenge to deliver a good read and sound like she was eating through the entire thing, but she pulled it off quite nicely here.

In the fifth commercial I really enjoy the frazzled office worker who can’t transfer a call. Besides the fact that I can relate because I can never transfer a call without hanging up on someone, the voice actor has a cool kind of Michael J. Fox/Dave Foley-sounding voice and he really brings to life that sense of panic that only a botched office situation can bring about.

In the final commercial, all of the voices are great, but I just wanted to point out the number of voices in a 30-second spot. I count no less than SEVEN different voice actors in just that one commercial! Eight, actually, if you count the narrator who comes in at the end, which is the one constant voice throughout the series of commercials. I like the narrator’s voice a lot, too. Combined with the upbeat, swinging music, it has a cool, jazzy vibe to it that really livens up the commercials in contrast to the boring everyday hamster life they portray.

Well done, Minnesota Lottery!

The second video above is a combination of two distinct voice overs: a narrator, and a different voice actor portraying a dog. The piece starts with a terrific upper-crust British-accented voice, describing the obviously-fake Doggie Dentures. The actor captures that perfect sort of BBC documentary approach that almost makes you think this piece is serious at first.

Then the music shifts subtly, and we get to hear things from the dog’s point of view: “You’re kidding… right?” I really like the voice the producer chose for the dog; it’s not a dopey, over-the-top voice, just a regular, everyday voice. (I think he actually sounds quite a bit like David Duchovny, personally, although I doubt that’s what the producers were going for.) Also, listen for that implied thought in his delivery (”Just… give me Dentastix.) that makes the piece sound so conversational, a nice contrast to the voice over that comes before it.

This last commercial doesn’t actually have any talking animals, but it does have lots of talking about animals. I’m can’t say for sure who the voice actor in this spot is, but I can tell you one thing: he sounds exactly like Mark Elliot. For those of you who don’t know, Mark Elliot has been the voice of Disney for many years now. Every time you hear a Disney commercial or trailer with that signature Disney sound (”Coming soon to Disney DVD and Blu-ray, all your favorite characters in an enchanting tale!”), that’s Mark Elliot. Now I’m not sure whether this is him or just a soundalike, but it’s clear that EA Games has made this trailer to emulate that Disney sound. From the dialogue (”Embrace all the adventure, fun, and mischief!”) to the delivery, it really captures the look, sound and feel of a classic Disney commercial, and I think the overall effect is both clever and effective.

So while it may remain true that as an actor, you may not want to work with kids or animals, working as a kid or an animal can clearly pay off quite nicely!