How has voice acting affected your perception of the characters?

[Kuzu]

Just want to make a disclaimer that this is not asking who your favorite voice actors are or aren't but rather if the voices themselves have had an effect on how you view the characters. 

Anyone that's been in the series for a long enough time has probably seen the idea that the series shouldn't have voice acting because "it makes the characters annoying". Obviously that's a very loaded statement and ignores a lot of subjectivity about the circumstances, but I do want to know where exactly does it come from and why.

I recall there was a topic a few years back that claimed "Sonic isn't cool anymore" and I saw a video from three years ago that asserts a similar viewpoint, but the video in particular zero'd in on the voice acting itself being a contributing factor on the idea that "Sonic isn't cool anymore" 

 

So the topic asks if the voice acting of the series, or even a specific voice actor, has affected your opinion or feelings about the cast and how you perceive them.

 

For my part, I grew up on games with voice actors, so it never came off as weird to me to begin with; but I do remember feeling a bit of disconnect when the series first swapped voices in 2005. It was very jarring because none of the 4Kids voice actors sounded anything like their predecessors, and it took me a while to realize that it was the same voice cast from the Anime. And needless to say, there was a similar feeling when the Studiopolis cast came in 2010,  though less so since I was already familiar with a lot of the voice actors from all of the television and Anime I watched. 

[StaticMania]

Voice acting rarely ever does anything for me...

It's like the least important thing.

[Diogenes]

I wouldn't say that Sonic characters shouldn't talk, but I do think that they've relied on spoken dialogue too much, while neglecting animation and physical acting despite the characters having such strong designs. So many cutscenes in the series are basically just the characters standing around talking to each other, and it just ends up being boring. The way a game tells its story should match the rest of it stylistically, but you can't match Sonic's speed, energy, and style with characters just spitting exposition.

But again that's not to say voice acting is wrong for the series. I think Sonic's attitude, and thus his overall presence, could really be amplified with solid dialogue and voice acting, it's just that the writing rarely hits the mark. And I think Eggman has really benefited from being voiced; you take classic era Eggman and he's a fine enough video game villain for the time period, but it's when the character's given a voice (not just in games but in other media as well) that he really crystallizes into something memorable and iconic.

Plus you can't really put the genie back in the bottle anyway, certainly not 20+ years later. Classic aside, these characters aren't going to stop talking, so they need to pull back and reevaluate how they're using spoken dialogue to figure out how to get the most out of it.

[Kuzu]

Eggman is actually point I forgot; he's the only character who's voice actor was not controversial in some way or form as every one has its following but doesn't attract ire the way the other characters do.

So why does voice acting benefit Eggman more than say, Sonic or Tails?

Eggman is definitely the most animated character, even within the modern era and Mike Pollock's ability to ham it up probably plays a significant role in him being fun to watch.

But it doesn't quite work with Sonic and Tails and I've noticed that people have far bigger problems with them than anyone.

[Sonario]

Eggman is definitely the one who benefits from voice acting the most. While Sonic's tude, Tails' helpful friendly nature and Knuckles' boisterousness and dedication to duty can be expressed quite well without words (seen by Sonic Mania Adventures), Eggman's bombasticness is further bolstered by the glorious voice of both Deem Bristow and Mike Pollock. Eggman's voice lets the doctor's personality shine brilliantly,, in both his comical and menacing moments.

Though to me, personally, a few other voices also bring the characters personalities to life better. For example, Rouge and Shadow. Shadow's serious, no-nonsense and broody edginess is exemplified by his deep, calm, somewhat gruff voice. Jason Griffith's was my favorite for Shadow and his deliveries on many of his greatest lines (like his ending in 06) really shows off Shadow's true character. Rouge's sultry and smooth voice is also one that brings her character up front. Lani Minella's voice was my favorite, but Karen comes close, and her huskier voice sounds more fitting without going as deep as Kathleen. (she does sound off in TSR though)

Overall though, I say the voice acting has become an integral part of the series since the Adventure days. While it's fine for shorts like TSR Overdrive, it'll just feel like something's missing if the Modern characters stop talking in the games (at least for me anyway). The current voice cast has mostly grown on me and it'd be a shame not to hear their voices play the characters for a mainstream appearance.

[iambitter21]

sonic and his friends talking doesn't shake me up, in fact, I grew up on voice acting, thank sonic X for this, and when they didn't it was the weirdest thing for me. I saw the CD opening later In my life when I got the Taxman remastered version, and he was just sooo cool! words cannot describe how awesome it looked for me back then. I was-and probably still am-wowed on the Toei sonic look, it was waaay different from the sonic I grew up with, but I looked awesome nonetheless...….doesn't beat the dreamcast 3d model!

But going back to voice acting, in the Sonic X anime, Jason actually sounded a lot like what sonic would sound like, Roger Craig Smith was a weird fit, but I didn't mind it. Ryan Drummond though, he was awesome as sonic, sounding EXACTLY how he should like: A Teenager.

[Kuzu]

8 hours ago, Sonario said:

Eggman is definitely the one who benefits from voice acting the most. While Sonic's tude, Tails' helpful friendly nature and Knuckles' boisterousness and dedication to duty can be expressed quite well without words (seen by Sonic Mania Adventures), Eggman's bombasticness is further bolstered by the glorious voice of both Deem Bristow and Mike Pollock. Eggman's voice lets the doctor's personality shine brilliantly,, in both his comical and menacing moments.

Though to me, personally, a few other voices also bring the characters personalities to life better. For example, Rouge and Shadow. Shadow's serious, no-nonsense and broody edginess is exemplified by his deep, calm, somewhat gruff voice. Jason Griffith's was my favorite for Shadow and his deliveries on many of his greatest lines (like his ending in 06) really shows off Shadow's true character. Rouge's sultry and smooth voice is also one that brings her character up front. Lani Minella's voice was my favorite, but Karen comes close, and her huskier voice sounds more fitting without going as deep as Kathleen. (she does sound off in TSR though)

Overall though, I say the voice acting has become an integral part of the series since the Adventure days. While it's fine for shorts like TSR Overdrive, it'll just feel like something's missing if the Modern characters stop talking in the games (at least for me anyway). The current voice cast has mostly grown on me and it'd be a shame not to hear their voices play the characters for a mainstream appearance.

Rouge and Shadow were designed with the modern era philosophy of voice acting, so this makes sense.

 

Shadow's entire character doesn't really work without having a voice to explain his backstory.

Post-classic era characters seem to have this quirk too.

[NotMetalSonic]

I thought Ryan Drummond did ann amazing job as Sonic and also Metal Sonic, the one time Sega allowed him to even speak. With Metal, the strange voice range shift was strange to me. I never played Sonic Heroes, but I have seen cutscenes thanks to the Internet, and the voice is exactly what I would expect from an evil copy murder bot.

[thumbs13]

I think classic characters benefit less than modern characters from voice acting to an extent, because they could already show off their personality. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles were very animated characters without dialogue, so the switch didn't help much. Characters like Eggman, on the other hand, had their traits amplified by voice acting, and it worked fine. The modern characters were made with specific voices in mind, so the voices feel better attached to the characters. 

[Kuzu]

I feel like the dialogue itself also plays a role here. @Diogenes mentioned that most of the dialogue is just characters spouting exposition with minimal movement. It's not interesting to watch and it can be grating to listen to.

Dialogue should serve to enhance the characterization but this series can never seem to do that very well. Even some Modern characters suffer from this and its probably why they tend to grate on people's nerves.

 

I feel like the only modern characters to truly benefit from voice acting are Shadow and Blaze, and even then Shadow is pretty contentious in that regard.

 

I suppose TSRO and Mania Adventures are a good argument for why there should be less voice acting overall, but it's not exactly something that you can just exercise from the series given how ingrained it is.

[caitash]

I grew up with the silent-character classics on MegaDrive and distinctly remember my parents while witnessing me starting Sonic Adventure telling me Sonic “doesn’t sound right with that voice” (I pointed out Sonic didn’t ‘sound’ at all before that game) and I never had a problem when they started getting voices, but the only voices I’ve had a problem with was the 4Kids cast. They were so grating that looking back I think that’s what put me off the games for a while, even though with hindsight and things I know now it was probably the voice direction that made them grating rather than the actors themselves. It did put me off the series for a while, I didn’t buy any of the games circa-2005 to 2010 (Colours was my first Sonic game for a long time) and at the time I thought I was ‘going off’ the franchise but really it was the voice acting. I hated Tails the most, and he’s my absolute favourite, but the way his 4Kids voice actress delivered the lines made me want to claw my eyes out.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Nope. The script has.

Even the best VA can suffer when the script is atrociously written. Rodger Craig Smith is an excellent voice actor given his voicing of Ezio Auditore, but listening to him read the script in Forces is baaad.

[Wraith]

I always imagined Sonic as a character who was chatty so not much changed when I heard his voice. It was even high pitched like I thought it would be.

What tripped me out was that I thought Knuckles was a girl because he had long hair and that's how my mind worked at 5 years old. Then he pulled up with his depressed rick ross sounding ass voice in SA2 and it changed me for ever. 

[Kuzu]

15 minutes ago, With Me said:

What tripped me out was that I thought Knuckles was a girl because he had long hair and that's how my mind worked at 5 years old. Then he pulled up with his depressed rick ross sounding ass voice in SA2 and it changed me for ever. 

This is the greatest description of SA2 Knuckles ever. 

 

 

 

I think for my part, and this might be due to the Sonic CD opening, but I always felt like Sonic was the type of character who spoke with his actions than his words. He could definitely talk shit, but he'd rather get straight to the nitty gritty rather than just bantering all day. It fits his "gotta go fast" mentality that he'd prefer to take action over talking. Heck, Sonic X even played into that by making him rather distant and aloof somewhat. 

But I suppose that type of characterization makes him too much like Shadow, so I get Sonic being talkative makes a lot more sense/ 

[batson]

Well I grew up with the Mega Drive games, but I also grew up with the cartoons of the era, where the characters obviously talked, so once the characters started speaking in the games it didn't seem at all strange to me. I was more confused over the fact that the characters now lived with realistic humans and that Robotnik was suddenly called Eggman.

[DaMan]

On 7/6/2020 at 8:14 PM, Won't Stop, Just Go said:

I always imagined Sonic as a character who was chatty so not much changed when I heard his voice. It was even high pitched like I thought it would be.

What tripped me out was that I thought Knuckles was a girl because he had long hair and that's how my mind worked at 5 years old. Then he pulled up with his depressed rick ross sounding ass voice in SA2 and it changed me for ever. 

I’m glad that Scott improved a lot from SA2 in Heroes even if I still like his SA2 voice and there’s barely any cutscenes in Sonic Heroes. He gave him a lot more energy while still at times sounding chill.

[Kuzu]

I'm starting to feel like Scott's rather plain delivery in SA2 gave a different impression of Knuckles. Because yes, he became a lot boisterous and loud with Knuckles after Heroes.

[azoo]

Roger Craig Smith poopoo and I hate him. 

 

JK of course, but he's not my fav Sonic. He wasn't so bad at capturing that spritely Sonic-y quality I like in that OKKO special, though, so it's likely a lot of the time the voice direction rather than the voices themselves. He's a fine VA, but I'm not a fan of how Sonic has sounded so chadly the past decade. But I guess it's better than Griffith..??? Maybe? IDK, I've grown to have a tiny soft spot for ol' JaSoN gRiFfItH.

Really more than anyone else I've felt that Knuckles and Rouge have gotten beat worst with the bad-VA stick over the years. Knuckles has just been a downhill descent into further and further ill-fitting voices, and Rouge's voice circa TSR was. Uhh. Not great! Even though it's the same VA as from Generations, but it certainly fooled me! 

Also Tails occasionally sounds like a Jimmy Neutron expy and Mike Pollock's Eggman sounds bored these days, but I imagine that's more of the script than the voices underplaying their ability.

Again, all of it seems to come down to voice direction just being poor. That, and depending on dialogue too much to further story instead of letting the personalities come out of the characters in different ways, as said earlier. Eh.

[Fish964]

The best example I can use for this topic from my own experience with Sonic VA is to compare the somewhat jarring transition from Sonic Heroes (2003) to Shadow the Hedgehog (2005), the latter being a spiritual sequel to the former. To avoid straying off-topic or specifiying a preference towards any voice actor(s), I will get straight to my point.

Yes absolutely, certain voice acting influences how I see characters. I found Rouge in Sonic Heroes incredibly annoying, yet in Shadow the Hedgehog, she has this much calmer, almost bored-with-life demeanor which I actually kind of like about her. I felt it was more in line with her character.

On the other hand, Vector's voice in Heroes really gave off his world-wary, commanding prescence. Like in that game,he is the BOSS. In Shadow the Hedgehog.... Well I am sure many of us are aware of his tendancies to computer rooms..... But that aside, he just sounds so annoying! I wish there was a better way of putting it. Not that the acting is poor,he sounds very.. crocodiley? But it did make me think of him as this super annoying side-character.

So I think it does make a difference with certain characters. Whereas others like Sonic or Knuckles are kind of pretty much the same regardless of their voice.

Disclaimer: I am aware that the official VA for the Sonic franchise changed around the mid 00s. 4kids rings a bell. Not sure which of Heroes or Shadow they provide voices for. Apologies if I come across misinformed but having grown up in the early 00s myself, my own experience with Sonic voice acting are these two games.

Thanks for reading!

[Wildcat]

Never had any problems with them talking. They should be able to talk.

I don’t have a preference for voice actors. I just imagine they sound a bit different from getting older or whatever. Not something I pay much attention to. Never thought Sonic sounded off in SA. Not even the first time.

Looking back at the old cartoons Jaleel White’s Sonia was pretty nasally compared to Sonic and Manic.

[Kuzu]

11 hours ago, azoo said:

Roger Craig Smith poopoo and I hate him. 

  Reveal hidden contents

JK of course, but he's not my fav Sonic. He wasn't so bad at capturing that spritely Sonic-y quality I like in that OKKO special, though, so it's likely a lot of the time the voice direction rather than the voices themselves. He's a fine VA, but I'm not a fan of how Sonic has sounded so chadly the past decade. But I guess it's better than Griffith..??? Maybe? IDK, I've grown to have a tiny soft spot for ol' JaSoN gRiFfItH.

Really more than anyone else I've felt that Knuckles and Rouge have gotten beat worst with the bad-VA stick over the years. Knuckles has just been a downhill descent into further and further ill-fitting voices, and Rouge's voice circa TSR was. Uhh. Not great! Even though it's the same VA as from Generations, but it certainly fooled me! 

Also Tails occasionally sounds like a Jimmy Neutron expy and Mike Pollock's Eggman sounds bored these days, but I imagine that's more of the script than the voices underplaying their ability.

Again, all of it seems to come down to voice direction just being poor. That, and depending on dialogue too much to further story instead of letting the personalities come out of the characters in different ways, as said earlier. Eh.

What's your preference when it comes to how you think Knuckles should sound if most of his VA's are ill fitting?

[Shadowlax]

HMm

I think the only perception change I have had is sonic. And its not due to VA alone but its voice + direction. Sonic has gone from a teen trying to be cool to kind of a lazy older teen or possibly adult. Just how's he's voiced and presents himself. Sonic boom is the peak of this ( and the only good version of this direction ) .

Wait that's a lie, amy. Amy but in a good way. Much like sonic a combination of voice and direction but she went from like some annoying bratty girl to like a cool girl who can hold her own and in cases like boom apart of the crew. Its very clear earlier in the voice actresses direction they were leaning towards more minnie mouse but as time went on and they let amy be amy. The character grew into this role that just fits and the voice is a cherry on top. Brings everything together

The other voices for me are generally fine? I don't like shadow's voice, but my perception of the character hasn't changed... I just dislike his voice. Same with TSR knuckles.

[Eurisko]

I've never shied away from the fact that I think Roger Craig Smith is the best Sonic.

I'll also go as far to say that I think I speak for everyone when I say that when you read anything that is spoken by Eggman, you'll forever hear @itsamikein your head.

But as far as change of perception.......No one character has grown for the better more the Amy Rose thanks to Cindy Robinson and her brilliant take on the character as well as some much better writing in recent times. I couldn't stand Amy back in the Adventure days but now she's one of my favourite cast members in the franchise.

[batson]

On 7/10/2020 at 10:58 PM, Fish964 said:

On the other hand, Vector's voice in Heroes really gave off his world-wary, commanding prescence. Like in that game,he is the BOSS. In Shadow the Hedgehog.... Well I am sure many of us are aware of his tendancies to computer rooms..... But that aside, he just sounds so annoying! I wish there was a better way of putting it. Not that the acting is poor,he sounds very.. crocodiley? But it did make me think of him as this super annoying side-character.

Oh God, I know. Vector's voice in Sonic Heroes was perfect. He sounded gruff but almost kind of paternal. Perfect for a big muscular guy with hidden depths of intelligence and compassion. Then in later games he got that grating cartoon-voice that makes my ears bleed and makes him sound like a total doofus. It really sucks.

[Fish964]

In my post about why I love Shadow the Hedgehog (the game), one of my points was that the story and its multiple, potential outcomes really worked for me. A lot of that was owing to Shadow himself. I'm not sure who did his voice for that game but I felt he conveyed the numerous different sides to Shadow beautifully. As an anti-hero, he is gentle yet lonely, as a full hero he is optimistic and confident, and as for all of the rest (neutral, anti-dark, full dark) he is formidable and intimidating. I love this voice acting and I understand people harbour ill feeling towards Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) for some admittedly justifiable reasons, yet I simply love his character in this game. Frankly his voice is so...... Shaodwy! And love it.

P.S. Very weird bit of random (and pointless?) trivia here but when my mum overheard me playing Shadow the Hedgehog back in the day, she used to find his voice really sexy XD