So how did Tim Curry, camp icon and transgressive titan of pop culture get his start in animated voicework? Where did he begin? Voicing a drag queen serial killer in some seedy Ralph Bakshi picture?
No, he got his break in straight-to-video Christian media.
The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible was a series animated by Hanna Barbera which had three children from the modern day travelling back in time and meeting various figures from the Bible. And holy shit, this thing had a STACKED cast! Rob Paulsen, Alan Oppenheimer, Ed Asner, Jeffrey Tambor, Helen Hunt, Helen Slater…TONY JAY AS CAIPHAS?!
EDWARD FUCKING JAMES FUCKING OLMOS AS PHAROAH!?
YES! AND IT IS AS PERFECT AS IT SOUNDS!
But, anyway, you knew as soon as I said it who Curry ended up playing. Come on. You knew.
It’s often been said that Morgan Freeman is the Voice of God. As in, he’s just how people naturally assume God sounds like. I would like to propose Tim Curry as the Voice of Satan. There’s not really that much I can say about his performance as the serpent, suttlest beast in all the field.
I don’t know if I was expecting some sign of inexperience or roughness given this was his first voice role. But, no, he gives exactly the performance you’d expect and it’s pretty much perfect. No notes. I also do like that they gave him limbs. In Genesis, the serpent only became legless as punishment for tempting Adam and Eve which almost every depiction forgets, so kudos.
Apparently, Curry had such a nice time working with Hanna-Barbera that he decided that voicework was definitely his bag. Hallelujah.
Now, all that’s left is to categorise this in one of the four categories of Tim Curry performance.
Evil, Sexy, Evilly Sexy or Funny Accent?: Very much Evilly Sexy.
unshavedmouse 
This was a great series to watch in church, and I really remember this episode. I do not remember how old I was when I saw it (less than 8 100% sure), but I remember it scaring me. My only issue as an adult is Adam was tricked and had no idea it was the forbidden fruit.
The serpent design is great. It is accurate to The Bible, and it makes him look so creepy. I remember loving the animation when he runs down the tree.
I grew up with this show! Never had any idea who was doing the voice work, and never realized it was Tim Curry’s animated debut. I do remember that it was very entertaining and didn’t make me feel spoken down to as a child.
Oh good Lord. I’m suddenly back in the 1st Grade at my old Lutheran school.
Yeah, I remember these. No idea that it had such a big cast of big timers and rising stars. Funny the things you learn.
Of course when I think of Tim Curry and anything Biblical, the first thing that comes to mind was The Storykeepers where he played Emperor Nero (who got his own villain song because of course Tim Curry was going to get his own villain song).
And so I must sing
My sad song of despair
For the job of a poor Caesar
Is more than most could bear!
Dear realm
Your Nero is great!
Poor man, cast to type and it was only his first voiceover role! (Amusingly, the first animated series with Mr Curry in it from which I can clearly remember his performance was THE WILD THORNBERRIES, in which he is clearly playing against type).
Oh hey, I somewhat remember these. We’d rent them from time to time when my great aunt babysat because she had Views about the levels of violence and such in even most Disney features. Weird because she was also obsessed with Murder, She Wrote, and didn’t mind us watching that with her.
Not too bad a production compared to most religious media, if I recall. In addition to the stellar voice cast, animation seems to have been pretty decent for something direct to video. Probably because it was something of a passion project for Joe Barbera, a proud Sicilian Catholic, seems to have mostly been his baby.
Don’t remember this episode in particular, but I definitely saw several of these. Man, look at some of the voices they got. David Ackroyd, James Earl Jones, Helen Hunt, even Vincent Price. Curry was in some good company, here.
Murder She Wrote was pretty tame when it came to violence.
An amusing thought tangentially related to the Biblical subject matter in this review which has only just struck me is that Mr Jason Isaacs playing the lead role in that RED SON adaptation is a positive invitation to make “This looks like a job for SUPERMAN!” “You rang?” jokes in an ARMAGEDDON review.
If memory serves, his character in the latter even wears spectacles (It has further struck me that you could get an extra gag from Mr Ben Affleck going on to play a mildly murderous version of Batman).