![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I borrowed the new PoA audiobook we got in at work, thinking it might be a bit of a laugh. I wondered how much Jim Dale would tend to voice acting rather than straight reading. I took a guess at what would be a good bit and popped in the ninth disc, which happily turned out to start with "The Servant of Lord Voldemort" (Snape shows up in the Shack, argues with Lupin, threatens Sirius, Trio simultaneously Disarm him, eventually Lupin and Sirius force Peter to transform back, etc.). "Glee! This should be good."
It was appalling.
Harry was okay. Lupin was slightly disappointing. Hermione was silly, but then this is a middle-aged man reading a fourteen-year-old girl's lines. Sirius was eyebrow-raising, rather weird actually; I guess maybe he's trying to get that "this man has hardly spoken during his twelve years in prison" thing, but I'm not sure it worked. And Snape-- well.
I know we can't all be Alan Rickman, or Snapecast's Chris for that matter. But honestly, even I do a better Snape voice (she says, dropping pitch, drawing words out more slowly, and seasoning to taste with contempt).
That? That was -- that was Gargamel.
I only got to "GET OUT OF THE WAY, POTTER!" (about three pages in) before I just couldn't take any more. I was embarrassed just to be listening to it. He would have done much better just to read it all straight.
Is the Stephen Fry version any better, or should I not bother my squishy little head about it? (Then again, I might never be able to get over the idea that I was having Harry Potter read aloud to me by the Guide.)
It was appalling.
Harry was okay. Lupin was slightly disappointing. Hermione was silly, but then this is a middle-aged man reading a fourteen-year-old girl's lines. Sirius was eyebrow-raising, rather weird actually; I guess maybe he's trying to get that "this man has hardly spoken during his twelve years in prison" thing, but I'm not sure it worked. And Snape-- well.
I know we can't all be Alan Rickman, or Snapecast's Chris for that matter. But honestly, even I do a better Snape voice (she says, dropping pitch, drawing words out more slowly, and seasoning to taste with contempt).
That? That was -- that was Gargamel.
I only got to "GET OUT OF THE WAY, POTTER!" (about three pages in) before I just couldn't take any more. I was embarrassed just to be listening to it. He would have done much better just to read it all straight.
Is the Stephen Fry version any better, or should I not bother my squishy little head about it? (Then again, I might never be able to get over the idea that I was having Harry Potter read aloud to me by the Guide.)
