Corey Burton

Early career

Burton's grandparents immigrated from Transylvania.^[1] Burton was initially hesitant to pursue voice acting due to his shy demeanor and Asperger syndrome, but credits the design and storytelling of Disney's The Haunted Mansion attraction as his inspiration to move forward.^[2] He also cited The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends (which he watched during his childhood) as an inspiration. Burton started his career at age 17 under the stage name Corey Weinman, with an imitation performance of Hans Conried for a filmstrip by Disney, titled Chef Ahmalette's Health Diet.^[3] He studied radio acting with Daws Butler for four years and went on to work with nearly all of the original Hollywood radio actors in classic-style radio dramas.^[3][2][4]

Disney

Burton has done extensive voice-work for Disney, including animated features and theme park attractions at the Disneyland Resort, Walt Disney World, and Tokyo Disney Resort.^[5] He provided the narration for many of the behind-the-scenes programs of Disney movies on many of their VHS issues from the 1990s. He provided the voice of Captain Hook since 1977^[4] and dubbed the voice of Deems Taylor in Fantasia for the film's 2000 and 2010 re-releases.

Burton has voiced sound-alikes and original characters for over 50 Disney Storyteller records.^[4] His roles include:

• Ludwig Von Drake since 1987
• Dale and Zipper in Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers.
• The How-to Narrator in Goof Troop and later Disney media
• The White Rabbit, Mad Hatter, Dale, Captain Hook, and Chernabog in House of Mouse.
• Gruffi Gummi and Toadwart in Adventures of the Gummi Bears (following the death of Bill Scott).
• Zeus in the animated series Hercules (replacing Rip Torn).
• Quint and Speedy the Snail in Timon & Pumbaa.
• Gaetan "Mole" Molière in Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Atlantis: Milo's Return.
• Ansem the Wise in the Kingdom Hearts series.
• Professor Owl in the Disney Sing-Along Songs series.
• King Stefan in Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Follow Your Dreams.
• Yen Sid and Captain Hook in the Epic Mickey and Kingdom Hearts series.^[6]
• Doc Hudson in various Cars media and Radiator Springs Racers (replacing Paul Newman).
• General Knowledge from the former Cranium Command attraction at Epcot.^[7]
• Dale, Bruno Biggs, and Moe Whiplash from Walt Disney World Quest: Magical Racing Tour.

Paul Frees

Burton, for many years, served as a protégé to voice actor Paul Frees. Following Frees' death and his son Fred's temporary takeover, Burton stepped in and imitated Frees' voice as the Ghost Host in Disneyland's Haunted Mansion Holiday attraction.^[8][4] He also recited the classic line "Welcome, foolish mortals," in the opening of the 2003 film adaption and currently serves as the Ghost Host's voice in every Haunted Mansion franchise-related media, adoptions, and events. He was approached to record a new safety spiel for the intro to the original Haunted Mansion ride. He declined and the spiel was instead recorded by voice actor Joe Leahy.

He provided many other 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 the guests on and off the boat), Grumpy on the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train attraction,^[9] and several voices in Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.^[10]

Burton also performed Frees imitations for comedian Stan Freberg's album Stan Freberg Presents The United States of America, Volume Two,^[11][4] and as the voice of the announcer in the 1999 film Dudley Do-Right, and did likewise as the voices of the alien foreheads in Larry Blamire's 2008 satire Trail of the Screaming Forehead.^[4]

Transformers

Burton appeared as Shockwave, Sunstreaker, Brawn, and Spike Witwicky in the original Transformers animated series by Sunbow Productions and Marvel Productions. He would later voice Megatron, Ratchet, Ironhide, Brawn, Cyrus "The Colossus" Rhodes, Spike, and Longarm Prime/Shockwave in Transformers: Animated by Cartoon Network.

Burton stated in an interview that Shockwave was by far his favorite character to perform in the original series. Despite this, he turned down the offer to reprise the role in Transformers: Dark of the Moon, as he felt he had voiced the character enough times.^[12] Consequently, the part was given to Frank Welker, the voice of Megatron/Galvatron.

Star Wars

For Star Wars, Burton voiced Luke Skywalker in Disney-produced read-along records in 1979-1983,^[3][13] and dubbed one of Hobbie Klivian's lines in The Empire Strikes Back.^[13] He also voiced Count Dooku, Cad Bane, and Ziro the Hutt in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and has continued to voice Bane in Star Wars: The Bad Batch^[14] and The Book of Boba Fett. He has also voiced several characters in video games.^[15]

Kingdom Hearts

For the Kingdom Hearts series, Burton voiced Ansem the Wise in Chain of Memories, Birth by Sleep, and Dream Drop Distance due to Christopher Lee's health problems. For the cinematic version of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Burton re-dubbed Lee's lines that he had previously recorded for the Nintendo DS version. He reprised his role as Ansem for Kingdom Hearts III.

Brainiac

Burton has portrayed the supervillain Brainiac in the DC Animated Universe. He appeared as the character in Superman: The Animated Series, Justice League, Static Shock, and Justice League Unlimited, as well as the non-DCAU media Legion of Super Heroes, DC Universe Online, and Lego DC Super-Villains.

Highlights

• Narrated the 1992 Discovery Channel documentary Great White!.
• Scarecrow, Ronald Marshall and Yuri Dimitrov in Batman: Gotham Knight.
• V.V. Argost and Leonidas Van Rook in The Secret Saturdays.
• The titular character in James Bond Jr..
• Invisibo in Freakazoid!.
• Old Queeks in Mike, Lu & Og.
• Captain Marvel and Solomon Grundy in Superman/Batman: Public Enemies.
• Red Tornado, Silver Cyclone, Doctor Mid-Nite, Will Magnus, Joker (Scooby-Doo version), Mercury, and Thomas Wayne in Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
• Count Dooku, Cad Bane, and Ziro the Hutt in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
• 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.
• Dash Whippet for Pound Puppies.
• Brainstorm, Malware, and Mr. Baumann in Ben 10: Omniverse.
• Dracula in Avengers Assemble and Ultimate Spider-Man.
• Ranger Smith in Boo Boo Runs Wild, and A Day in the Life of Ranger Smith, both standalone projects produced by Spümcø based on the character Yogi Bear.

Other work

• Played Jerry Lyden in the radio series Alien Worlds.
• Has done work for the Universal Studios theme parks,^[5] voicing the Narrator and Snidely Whiplash in Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls,^[16] the Fish and Safety/Emergency Announcer in The Cat in the Hat,^[17] Tick-Tack-Joe in If I Ran the Zoo,^[18] and the Grinch in Sneech Beach Area and the Seuss Landing Street Show.^[19]
• Does voice-overs for Old Navy commercials and a promo for Final Fantasy XII.
• Provided voice-overs for WWE's WrestleMania XXV recap segments.
• Various characters in the 1980 cult classic Closet Cases of the Nerd Kind.
• The titular creatures in the Critters film series.
• Narrator for the video game Brütal Legend.
• Volteer the Electric Guardian Dragon, Exhumor, and Mason in The Legend of Spyro trilogy.
• Zeus in the God of War series.
• Numerous supporting roles on Focus on the Family's radio drama Adventures in Odyssey.
• Doctor N. Gin, Doctor N. Tropy and Nitros Oxide in the Crash Bandicoot series.
• Jack in the theme park attraction The House at Haunted Hill.
• Narrator of the film The A-Team.
• Hugo Strange in Batman: Arkham City and Lego DC Super-Villains.
• John Grey (Jean Grey's father) for Wolverine and the X-Men.
• Provided voice samples for the song "Machete" by DJ Hazard (reused from Grindhouse^[5][20]) and the album Universus by ShockOne.^[21]
• Announcer for the Bounty Law promo in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.^[5]
• Announcer for the El Rey Network.
• Played the Narrator and the Guest in Flying Logos.
• Still heard on the safety info for the parking lot trams for Disneyland and Magic Kingdom (as of 2011).

Film

Television

Video games

Radio

Theme parks

• Alice in Wonderland – White Rabbit, Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum, Playing Cards^[29]
• Cranium Command – General Knowledge, Chicken, Male Recruit, Drill Sergeant^[30]
• Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls – Snidely Whiplash, Narrator^[16]
• Fantasmic! – Chernabog, Captain Hook, Magic Mirror, Pirates^[4]
• Festival of Fantasy Parade – Opening Spiel (2014–20)
• Haunted Mansion Holiday – Ghost Host^[8]
• Horizons – Futureport "Brava Centauri" Announcer
• If I Ran the Zoo – Tick-Tack-Joe^[18]
• Journey Into Your Imagination – Figment^[31]
• Mickey and Friends Parking Tram – Spiel
• Mr. Toad's Wild Ride – Cop, Judge, Farmer^[10]
• O Canada! – Invisible Narrator (2007–19)
• Parking Lot Trams – Safety Spiel
• Peter Pan's Flight – Captain Hook, Mr. Smee^[32]
• Pirates of the Caribbean – Stuffed Pirate, Safety Spiel
• Radiator Springs Racers – Doc Hudson^[33]
• Seven Dwarfs Mine Train – Grumpy^[9]
• Sneech Beach Area – Grinch^[19]
• Seuss Landing Street Show – Grinch^[19]
• Tapestry of Nations – Sage of Time
• The Cat in the Hat – Fish, Safety/Emergency Announcer^[17][19]
• The House at Haunted Hill – Jack
• Walt Disney World Railroad – Conductor Spiel (2022–present)^[34]
• Wonders of Life – Narrator