Jim Cummings, The Voice Behind All Your Childhood Heroes, Speaks On Singing In Character

Picture your favourite childhood characters, both cartoons and animated, and think about the many vast forms they take. Well, it might surprise you to learn that there is one artist behind many of those beloved identities - Jim Cummings.

In October/November of this year, Cummings will join thousands of fellow world builders at Supanova Comic Con & Gaming in Adelaide and Brisbane, treating fans to a behind-the-scenes look at his vast catalogue of characters.

In the history of The Music, Cummings may be the most industrious artist we have interviewed to date, starting his career at the not-so-ripe age of five years old.

Enamoured by his role model, Mel Blanc (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird, etc.), who was referred to as “The Man of A Thousand Voices” in his time, Cummings threw himself into an industry with no roadmap. In fact, the story goes that when Mel Blanc himself heard Cummings' demo tape, he said, “Tell the kid he’s got it”.

Cummings told The Music, “My dad said this is the guy who does Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Taz the Tasmanian Devil. And I thought, well, he doesn’t have to get kicked out of class or sit in the corner for being weird for doing these crazy voices. So, I’ll do that!”

“I knew I was going to be doing this at the age of 5. I always tell people, the sooner you get your focus, the sooner you aim at your target, the better off you are.”

In addition to developing a backstory, voice and persona for each of his characters, he can also sing in character.

Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Darkwing Duck, and many of his characters have slipped into song on our screens over the decades, all while Cummings does not break character. This seems like pushing the talent, but Cummings assured us that this is actually a skill he perfected at a young age, around 13, and the result of his deep love of music.

“I was the lead singer in all of the bands I have ever joined. It was natural to me. We would be doing a song by The Temptations, or Smoky Robinson & The Miracles, or Bruce Springsteen, or The Beatles… I took it upon myself to try to sound like them,” Cummings says.

He adds, “It just accidentally, or on purpose, developed that musical air in me. I was fairly musical already and a fairly decent mimic. You put them together, and it was kind of a lot of fun. When I finally made it to what I am doing now for the past 40 years, I had accidentally been practising… so to speak.

“From having been in so many bands and musicals - I just put it all together and made a demo tape a hundred years ago, when tape recorders were first invented, and I got my first job from my demo. And I got an agent, and all these years later, I get to hang out with you.”

There is no way that Cummings could have known that his band practice as a young boy would play a part in his storied career, enshrining his characters (and himself by proxy) into the hearts of millions of people all over the world.

“I’ve been doing a lot of Comic Cons lately, in the last few years, and sometimes people will come up and say, 'There’s grandma, she’s 72, there’s the daughter, she’s 43 and the granddaughter who is 8’… well all three of them are completely familiar with everything I have ever done,” Cummings says.

“I've been doing it for so very long, I even did it in high school. I was born in Youngstown, Ohio, and went to all these speech tournaments, and I would do cuttings from plays like No Time for Sergeants was one, Guys and Dolls was another.

“I would do all these voices - every voice from a scene, and apparently, I did rather well. I got tonnes of trophies and went up in the newspaper, and thought, well, I can do this. This is something I’m good at.”

Cummings looks forward to heading to Australia, the home of one of his iconic characters - Taz the Tasmanian Devil.

Supanova Comic Con & Gaming is a three-day event that will kick off in Adelaide on October 31, followed by Brisbane on November 7. Tickets are still available.