Jonathan Taylor Thomas Voiced More Of Your Childhood Than You Probably Think
The family entertainment landscape of the 1990s and early 2000s is not complete without Jonathan Taylor Thomas. The actor played Tim Taylor's (Tim Allen) middle son Randy on the hit series "Home Improvement," and he would later play Jeremy, Bridget Hennessy's (Kaley Cuoco) tutor-turned-love-interest, during three episodes of "8 Simple Rules." He also took on the big screen with family movies like 1995's "Tom and Huck" and the 1994 Disney hit "The Lion King," which finds him playing a young version of Simba. But these are not the only beloved animated character he has brought to life.
Before taking over Pride Rock, Thomas was giving a voice to the title character in "The Adventures of Spot," a TV show based on picture books written by Eric Hill. The TV series first premiered in 1987 and follows all of the cute mishaps of this iconic pup. Thomas would play Spot during 16 episodes of the series, with his last performance as Spot airing in 1993, a year before "The Lion King" took over the big screen.
In 1996, he voiced Pinocchio in "The Adventures of Pinocchio" and played Scarecrow Jr. in "The Oz Kids" as well as other related projects. In 2000, he would join "The Wild Thornberrys," playing Eliza (Lacey Chabert), Debbie (Danielle Harris), and Donnie (Flea) Thornberry's cousin Tyler Tucker, who is introduced in Season 3, Episode 4, "Tyler Tucker, I Presume."But voice-over work is not always about the voice.
How Thomas' movements influenced the animation of young Simba
In a 1994 interview with E! News, Jonathan Taylor Thomas explained that doing a voice-over requires video as well, noting that cameras were recording him while reading his lines for "The Lion King." That's because the actual animation doesn't happen until after the lines are recorded. "So, they match the lip movements to the actual line ... Once the recording session is over, they send that video to wherever the animator is ..." he said, adding that sketches were done before recording the lines. When watching the animated product, Thomas and his mom noticed that young Simba has some of Thomas' expressions.
Thomas told People that he stepped away from the limelight to focus on school. In the early 2000s, he would briefly appear on shows like "Smallville" and "Veronica Mars." In 2013, he started directing episodes of Tim Allen's family comedy "Last Man Standing." Allen told Yahoo! Entertainment that he was shadowing director John Pasquin, who also worked on "Home Improvement."
Thomas is also spotted in a few episodes, playing John Baker during Season 2 and Season 3. But Allen said that Thomas was a little hesitant about stepping in front of the camera again. "He worried whether he still had it, and he didn't want to do this because he's had other stuff in mind. But they asked him, and he agreed to it. I was shocked, because as I said, he's just shy," said Allen. Thomas would appear again during Season 4, Episode 12, "Helen Potts," this time playing Randy, marking his last on-screen appearance to date.