Ryan Drummond Almost Returned

[Winston]

I'M IN THAT PICTURE

I'M FAMOUS

Aren't you already? You are Wario, after all.

[Jango]

It's weird how nobody comented about the Sega's wish of bring Ryan back was a hint that they were considering make Sawnicz Adbenturee Tree.

Also, Hogfather what are you doing with Internet Explorer? XD

Edited September 10, 2012 by Jango

[Aquaslash]

Ok, so what I'm hearing is:

• Drummond auditioned for the role of Sonic in the recast
  
• Evidently had the best performance, even beating out Smith, and was given the role
  
• The "fine print" in the contract asked him to leave his union, and accept lowball rates
  
• He then turned down the role because said conditions are completely unreasonable.
  
• His turning down resulted in Smith getting the role
  

This is...bittersweet to say the least. Drummond of course did the right thing here. Unions exist for a reason, and it sounds like it would have been financial suicide for him to accept these terms. The Studiopolis guys are non-union, and obviously have different things going on in their lives where they than can take on this job no problems. This is reminiscent of how Saban had to deal with Union actors back when they had more toku on TV than just Power Rangers.

Now let's talk about the voice. First off, I currently prefer Smith as Sonic, as his voice is fan-freakin tastic. He, like Drummond, simply has the voice. I feel that Sonic's the kind of character who has to have a certain voice, where even the smallest lines just ooze with attitude. White, Drummond, and Smith all have this, Burke has the wrong kind of attitude (and sounds stuffy to boot), and Griffith just didn't have it at all.

The real killer here is direction. Smith's Sonic voice is able to shine because the direction is fantastic for a change. A good example of how much of a difference direction can make is to compare Sonic in Free Riders to Colors. Sonic, while having the same voice in both, sounds markedly different in both. The direction in Free Riders makes it evident that it was just a cheap cash in title to try to capitalize on the Kinect launch. (Everything in that game shows that actually, but that's another thread) Sonic Adventure's direction was ass. There's no getting around that. Adventure 2 was still ass, but markedly better. The direction in most of the 4kids voices games was crappy, with Storybook, Rivals 2, and Unleashed being the only quality efforts. The point in all of this is that Drummond never really had a chance to really shine as Sonic. I think that if Drummond were put under the helm of the directors now, he'd do a phenomenal job, right up there with Smith, and maybe even on White's level. It's quite the "what could have been" scenario.

That said, if you haven't already, I think it's time to accept the fact that he's gone for good now. As much as he wants the role, he's not gonna leave his union, and the powers that be have already shown that they're at Saban Brands levels of cheap. Might even be worse. I can't really be too upset at it though, because as mentioned at the outset; Smith is the shiz. I'd hope he has the role for good now. SEGA doesn't really have a reason to drop him.

In other news, SEGA conducts crappy business. Film at 11

EDIT: typos

Edited September 10, 2012 by Aqua Buster

[TheDanimator]

^ This guy knows what hes talking about.

One thing I gotta say though is that I think despite the fact

Drummonds probably not comming back I dont think its

irrational to think in a weird way he almost has more of a chance of

coming back than people originally thought.

Sounds like allot of people at Sega really like him.

So thats cool at least.

Edited September 10, 2012 by TheDanimator

[Kuzu]

OK, I may have jumped the gun with the Sega hate and don't really know how the ins-and-outs of unions work, but that still doesn't change the fact that Sega told he had the job, got everything prepared for a meeting, and decided to bring up unforseen terms and agreements. I'm not saying Sega are wrong for doing what they did, but they really should have handled that situation better.

[Milo]

(edit: not to mention the irony of finding a person under the monicker "Hatsune Miku" hating SEGA)

Edited September 10, 2012 by Miku Hatsune

[PerfectChaos]

AW NO! DIS AIN'T HAPPENIN'!

[Solkia]

Well shit, ran out of likes for today.

I don't really see a problem.

[Kuzu]

Well shit, ran out of likes for today.

I don't really see a problem.

Sega suck at doing business.....then again this isn't exactly news.

[Mauro Fonseca]

>replies to topic with post that merely expresses disapproval of Sega's actions

>post is viewed as another FUCK YOU SEGA comment

>implying the post merely expressed disapproval of SEGA

>"But yeah....Sega's treatment of Drummond....douche move.

*insert Sonic 1 1-UP jingle here*"

>"Meh, it seemed more like restating the obvious that Sega are a bunch of hacks in my opinion"

>Implying there's no irony on a vocaloid fan saying SEGA are hacks and douches

>implying

See I can play 4chan too. What's next, shall I sage this thread?

Sega suck at doing business.....then again this isn't exactly news.

I've yet to see evidence they did any bad business decision in this whole thing. Don't confuse "SEGA didn't do what I wanted!" with "SEGA has terrible business sense!"

That's for Capcom discussions.

Edited September 10, 2012 by The KKM

[Solkia]

Well, I don't really give enough of a damn to read the actual article, but I scanned through this thread, and this is what I've gathered.

-Sega sux0rz !!!111

-He didn't like the offered pay, and we have no idea what said pay was.

-He couldn't leave his union because it's how he makes a living, and apparently SEGA are assholes for that, even though we don't know their reason behind making that one of the conditions, nor do we know if they were actually AWARE the union is how he made is living.

-He was told they were hiring him and then took back their word blah blah blah and when they were about to finalize the deal, HE turned it down.

I'm not going to call everyone nostalgiafags or anything, but I too would like more info before making assumptions.

[Aquaslash]

-He couldn't leave his union because it's how he makes a living, and apparently SEGA are assholes for that, even though we don't know their reason behind making that one of the conditions, nor do we know if they were actually AWARE the union is how he made is living.

I think the professional thing for SEGA to do would have been to come right out of the gate and say that they weren't looking for union actors. That would have at least saved Drummond a whole lot of time, effort, and possibly travel money. There does seem to be a lack of communication within SEGA itself though. You have one department that clearly wants this one specific actor back, and were able to pull enough strings to make a recast even happen in the first place. They could have had it set in their minds that they were going to hire him, and then set aside the budget for paying him or what have you.

Granted, we only have one side of the story, but it does look like SEGA could have handled this a whole lot better.

[Nepenthe]

Sega saving money by paying their voice actors as little as possible is actually excellent business sense.

However, Sega telling Ryan he had the job, then telling him to abandon his primary source of income, then telling him on top of that do some work for them for no compensation, along with other potential deal-breaking terms alluded to that he had to agree with if he wanted the job back- if we are to go off of Ryan's and XD's words alone- is ethically repugnant for being both a bait-and-switch and a waste of time for Ryan, hence all of the ire being levelled towards Sega in this thread.

Of course it would help to know every single potential side of this issue. But I don't know why we basically can't have an opinion now in regards to the only two news sources we have on this incident, that we should sit back and say absolutely nothing in regards to Sega's actions. If more news about this incident comes in from Sega's side (which I would love to read, just for curiosity's sake) and their explanation is reasonable, I'll happily stop being disappointed in Sega and, hey, you guys can bask in the glow of being right through neutrality. But as it stands now, I think there is plenty of reason to be disappointed in Sega with what we've been given.

[Solkia]

Well, like Hogfather, I'd like to know what union he's with before I start getting angry at SEGA. I mean shit, they must have SOME reason for having him drop out from it before they hired him. I doubt they'd list it for shits and giggles.

I have no problem with people being disappointed with SEGA, but I personally want to know their reasons behind those conditions first.

[Nepenthe]

If dropping out of the union was the only reason Ryan cited for not taking the job, Hogfather's posts about union power and their potential to make business untenable would add far more weight onto the idea that Sega had their hands tied and couldn't hire him in their own interests, and I think it would've been fine and not stirred up any more bad blood. Business is business and I'm sure Ryan understands that there are some places he can't work as a result. But then he basically said they weren't going to even pay him much anyway even after giving up the union. He literally called the deal a slap in the face, so there was clearly more to it than just fear of union intervention on Sega's end, hence why I don't see why we need to know about the union to make a value judgement of Sega in this instance.

[Solkia]

I want to know what said pay was first. I'm not going to call him a liar, but at the same time, I doubt they'd just blatantly ask him to shoot himself in the foot that's capcom's job.

[Nepenthe]

You have a hard time believing that a multi-million dollar corporation would ever ask one of its employees to accept some shitty terms that may not benefit them, especially in the interest of saving money??? Uh, that's Corporate Management 101. Large companies are not known for their bleeding hearts and actually giving a shit.

But even assuming Sega did have everyone's best interests at heart and that this union Ryan's apart of was one of the worst imaginable to work with, asking him to leave it is indeed asking him to shoot himself in the foot. The fact of the matter is that he makes his living off of the union, so with that one term alone it was either voicing Sonic or being poorer unless they were somehow going to overcompensate him, but clearly that wasn't the case. If it were, Ryan would be back.

[Milo]

>implying the post merely expressed disapproval of SEGA

Whether or not a decision someone considered a "douche move" is a mere expression of disapproval is subjective, but considering that you view this as the equivalent of a FUCK YOU SEGA, I'll take your word for it that it's not a mere expressal of disapproval.

>>"Meh, it seemed more like restating the obvious that Sega are a bunch of hacks in my opinion"

>Implying there's no irony on a vocaloid fan saying SEGA are hacks and douches

Since when did I even hint at this in the previous post? I wasn't even responding to that.

See I can play 4chan too.

Good for you.

Replies in bold.

Edited September 10, 2012 by Miku Hatsune

[Scar]

I think its pretty well known at this point that SEGA are a corporation and executive decisions involving working conditions are the things that turned Ryan off regaining his role as Sonic. Yeah, its SEGA's fault that they have harsh company policy and for presenting such harsh (really don't know what that means) conditions. However, SEGA didn't screw him over as some people seem to think. They just presented the offer as per their company policy, Drummond just didn't like what he saw. If Drummond felt screwed that's really his problem, cause from what I understand here he just wasn't.

[Auther]

About the supposed low pay, did Ryan know how little Sonic speaks in Generations compared to Adventure? I mean that Ryan probably expected Sega to pay like they did in the Dreamcast era, but now Sonic speaks so much less and there's really no changing any time soon. Sega must be paying Sonic's voice actor much less compared than before because to this.

I really need to organize my thoughts better...

[Shane]

Ryan didn't reject the offer due to low pay, he just didn't wanna quit his union. He wasn't even asked to quit his union at first, either. The fact that the union thing came up much later is the issue some of us have here. SEGA was referring to Ryan as the "official voice of Sonic the Hedgehog" (right to his face, too) for a pretty long time before they broke it to him that they needed him to quit his union.

[Voyant]

SEGA was referring to Ryan as the "official voice of Sonic the Hedgehog" (right to his face, too) for a pretty long time before they broke it to him that they needed him to quit his union.

Edited September 10, 2012 by Voyant

[Shane]

So recently, SEGA has gotten the licenses for Crazy Taxi iOS music, Jet Set Radio HD music, and they put out the time and money for the original voice actor for Vyse in ASR2.

Vyse was originally replaced by none other than Roger himself, probably also due to funding issues. But lately it seems like SEGA is getting more funding from Sammy.

Speaking as someone who has connections on the inside, I think if Roger was badly-received or the voice switch happened now instead of in 2009, things would be a bit different.

[SenEDDtor Missile]

So recently, SEGA has gotten the licenses for Crazy Taxi iOS music, Jet Set Radio HD music, and they put out the time and money for the original voice actor for Vyse in ASR2.

Vyse was originally replaced by none other than Roger himself, probably also due to funding issues. But lately it seems like SEGA is getting more funding from Sammy.

Speaking as someone who has connections on the inside, I think if Roger was badly-received or the voice switch happened now instead of in 2009, things would be a bit different.

[Shane]

I meant if Roger Craig Smith was badly received in his Sonic roles.