Nancy Cartwright makes Bart Simpson's pleasure in misbehaviour difficult to resist. We rate the spontaneity she brings to his defiance, backed by the skill to keep several recurring characters vocally distinct across decades.
Fi1m perspective
Bart sounds pleased with himself before we have decided whether he deserves to be. In The Simpsons (1989), Nancy Cartwright makes his defiance feel spontaneous, as though the pleasure of being cheeky has got ahead of any thought about the consequences. We have laughed when we ought to have found him tiresome, because she makes that pleasure so audible. The provocation need not sound rehearsed or even particularly clever. There is still a child doing it.
Cartwright auditioned for Lisa for The Tracey Ullman Show shorts in 1987 and was cast as Bart instead. Her work on the series also includes Nelson Muntz and Ralph Wiggum. She has sustained distinct voices across decades, a considerable technical achievement. With Bart, though, what we value most is how little effort we hear: the cheek sounds unforced.
Yeardley Smith's Lisa is a useful comparison, with an earnestness that lets us hear how much she needs somebody to listen. Cartwright gives Bart an equally recognisable appetite for provoking people, and together those performances help the programme remain affectionate towards children who can be difficult company. The reservation lies in the writing, which can reduce a character to whatever the joke needs done; Lisa being pressed into service as the sensible one is a recurring example. We recommend The Simpsons warmly, but a familiar voice cannot make every use of a character interesting.
Her other animation work includes Rufus in Kim Possible (2002), while the Simpsons film (2007) brings several of her familiar roles to the cinema. She has also written an episode of The Simpsons and co-written and produced In Search of Fellini (2017). That move into writing is worth acknowledging without letting it distract from the acting that makes us want to return. Start with the sharper stretches of The Simpsons; appreciating Cartwright does not require a promise to watch every episode.
Biography
Nancy Cartwright is an American actress and voice artist. She is best known for providing the voice of Bart Simpson, as well as Maggie Simpson, Nelson Muntz and Ralph Wiggum, on the animated series The Simpsons (1989–), on which she has also written. She was born Nancy Jean Cartwright on 25 October 1957 in Dayton, Ohio.
Cartwright moved to Hollywood in 1978 and trained with voice actor Daws Butler. She has voiced characters in numerous other animated productions, including Rufus in Kim Possible. She received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance in 1992 and an Annie Award for Best Voice Acting in the Field of Animation in 1995, both for her work on The Simpsons. She is the author of the autobiography My Life as a 10-Year-Old Boy (2000) and wrote and produced the film In Search of Fellini (2017). She is publicly known as the aunt of singer Sabrina Carpenter.
