Using Real Young VAs vs Professional VAs

[RedFox99]

This is something that I tend to think especially when it comes to the Sonic franchise. Early on (with the earlier TV series, OVA, and first 3D games) Tails used to be voiced by an actually kid however with the dub of Sonic X and onward he's gone to being voiced by adult women. Now this makes me wonder if it's better to have a young kid voice him as it will sound more authentic or to have a professional voice actress do the job as it might sound better. What do you think?

[E-122-Psi]

Done correctly, I prefer professional VAs. Yeah there's the whole dispute over grown actors voicing kids, but I do like that through that they can provide their own quirks to the portrayal, and besides that only a few kids manage the same enthusiasm.

 

Tails SA1/2 VA is painful to sit through, I'm sure he's trying his best, but whenever the story is trying to get serious, he sounds so clunky and rarely gives the right amount of emotion. Even besides that he just sounds like a standard kid for better or worse, his voice doesn't feel distinctive. To compare I love Tails Boom onward voice, not only is she a better sounding actress, but she can sound plausibly like a child while still adding a bit of goofy charm to him based on his personality.

[Diogenes]

The thing about kids is that they grow up, and the thing about fictional characters is that they often don't. Tails is always going to be 8-ish, he's always going to need a young-sounding voice, so long as this series keeps producing games with voice acting in them. Bringing in an actual young boy to play Tails means inevitably having to replace him with someone new once puberty hits. Hiring an adult woman dodges that issue, plus they'd likely have more experience at the job than a kid.

[RedFox99]

You two make good points. Though I can see why others prefer actual kids as it can sound natural. 

[Tara]

It honestly depends on what direction they're taking the character.  I really liked that SA1 tried to make Tails sound like an actual kid not only in the timbre of his voice, but in his mannerisms and charms.  In modern times, Tails (and by extension most child characters) are basically "adults that happen to be kids."  He's expected to sound, behave, and react the same way a fully grown adult might (simply by virtue of the fact that most writers are adults themselves) with maybe a few hints thrown in here and there that he's just a kid.  For that sort of direction, Kate Higgins does a fine job.

I always kind of preferred Tails to have a sort of childishness to him.  He's only 8.  His language isn't fully developed, his wise cracks are perhaps not the most wise, and his energy levels should mirror that of a child his age.  To that end, I do really like the authenticity of having an actual child play him, but at the end of the day, the person behind the voice honestly shouldn't matter as long as they're doing the character justice, regardless of what direction they take with the character.