Team Chaotix' Voice Actors: Thoughts?

[charmsb]

We drone on and on all day about who's the best fit for our poster boy Sonic... but what about some lesser used characters? Like Team Chaotix?

Being my favorite characters of the entire bunch, mostly for their portrayals in Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic Heroes, I thought I'd create a topic to hear the community's thoughts on the voices for these guys.

Keep in mind that just because you dislike a voice shouldn't mean you dislike the person. We've seen that a lot from immature fans regarding the hot topic of Sonic's voice, and I don't want that here. You can criticize, but do not insult.

VECTOR

ESPIO

 

CHARMY

 

Sonic Heroes (2003-2005)

Probably my second favorite cast for these guys. It was enough for me to fall in love with these characters after all - Sonic Heroes being my first 'real' exposure to them.

Vector's voice is definitely the best ever here IMO. You can tell they were looking for "macho detective with a goofy undertone" and not... whatever they're doing now. Barney? It's a voice that works with both sides to his character, and I love that.

Espio is pretty good here too. I think there's a little more 'gruff' here than I would expect, but it's not exactly unwelcome. I definitely think a little less 'gruff' would be nice considering I always viewed Espio as a very lean and skinny guy, and the grumbly tones don't mesh 100%. But that's just a nitpick.

Charmy is also great. While I never really liked when women voice young boys (just a big pet-peeve of mine) its definitely excusable here because Charmy is like... six. He sounds like an excitable kid here, which is exactly what you want. A majority of the lines are practically screamed, which is just on point.

BONUS FACT: Espio, Charmy, and Tails in this game are all a real life family! I mean the voice actors. Not the characters. I wonder how that casting came about? Did they all go audition together? And why does voice acting run in the family for the Corkerys? I would love to see an interview of them.

Sonic X and Shadow the Hedgehog (2005)

So most of you may know that, in an effort to keep things more streamlined and cohesive, the Sonic X voice cast, eventually, was brought in to be the game voice cast as well. But there's a clear difference between Vector's voice in Sonic X and Shadow, despite being the same actor, likely as a result of different direction. I'd listen to Vector's Shadow voice clips a bit before making your conclusion and lumping these two together. In general these videos don't exactly give the greatest representation of their voices in Shadow, so do some more digging if you care.

This cast is pretty great! Probably my absolute favorite. Haven't gotten around to watching Sonic X yet (and I'm honestly not sure if I will) but I can tell the Team Chaotix parts may be a lot of fun with this cast. I have more experience with them in Shadow where they have slightly different direction (especially for Vector) which is where I would say these characters peak - though it doesn't have my favorite Vector.

Vector's voice abandoned that whole "macho detective" side for something entirely goofy, which makes it hard to take him seriously. It's not the complete end of the world though, because Vector and the Chaotix have always been goofy - but it still takes a bite out of the appeal to do this IMO. It's still funny to hear him talk, which is good. "Find the Computer Room" will never not be funny. Definitely not my favorite voice all in all.

Espio is my favorite here. Remember how I complained about the 'grumbly tones' earlier? All gone here. His voice is super smooth and serious but with a little waver in the performance that clues you in to not take him 100% seriously. It's a perfect voice for a "straight man" in a comedic trio that... isn't so straight himself. That's my ideal Espio. Talking about straight in a comedic sense, obviously.

Charmy is fantastic. I always nitpick the whole "woman voices little boy" trope, but Amy Birnbaum knocked it out of the park by adding that snotty flair to the voice. My favorite line is "Shadow, you're so cool!" from Shadow the Hedgehog. He sounds annoying, excitable, and most importantly, like a little boy. I'm not sure what else to add - it's just the voice I hear when I look at Charmy. Perfect!

BONUS FACT: Charmy shares a voice actor in this era with Cosmo. Not the fairly odd fairy, but the... weird alien plant fairy thing.

Dan Green stands in for Vector (2007-2009)

In the Olympic Games and Sonic Rivals 2, Dan Green, then-voice of Knuckles, stood in for Vector for a bit. The performance was... okay. I don't know, probably not worth it to include this bit.

BoNuS fAcT: Dan Green also voiced Grovyle, Lombre, and Mewtwo at times. Back home in the Sonic franchise, he also voiced Storm, Professor Pickle, and the Ice Cream man from Apotos.

Sonic Generations (2010-now except for Espio who changed before 2017)

I can only say that, for me, our current cast is... serviceable. Like, they aren't horrendous, but, they aren't anything special for me. Like the case for Vector back in Sonic X and Shadow, I feel that the direction they went for in the voice acting didn't actually match the character (or at least my ideal version of that character). I'll tell you why.

Vector's voice is somewhat of an improvement over the last two, but it doesn't exactly match who he is still. It's far less goofy but still just odd and Barney-ish. I get the tone that he's more gRoOvY with this casting, which I guess wouldn't be too off from his very first portrayal in Knuckles' Chaotix. (Yes I know he was in the Sonic Band or whatever). Still, not my ideal portrayal. We generally haven't seen much from the Chaotix recently anyway, except for Forces (which kinda just made them into bland and bored versions of themselves), so maybe this voice can do what I personally want it to for the character, but it hasn't been given the chance.

Espio's voice is... okay. I feel like, again, they remixed the character into something else entirely with this casting. With this voice, I feel like I'm supposed to be taking Espio 110% serious as a super stealthy ninja who can kick my ass or something. Now I think the serious side to Espio is definitely a great side to him, but it's not all of him. He's in a comedic trio after all, and this voice does not reflect that. It's serviceable, but not great. Like bland and dry chicken.

Charmy's voice... makes me mad. Okay, I know people don't generally like Charmy as much as a lunatic like me, but I feel disrespected here! Okay, that's an obvious exaggeration. But seriously, to just give Charmy Tails' voice actor? I have no problems with Colleen, but her Charmy voice... that's just Tails. All I hear is Tails. And Charmy, despite being young like Tails, is a much different character. This is more of a casting problem than anything. I mean, it would kinda work for me if it weren't for Tails sharing the actor.

BONUS FACT: Keith Silverstein also voices Torbjorn from Overwatch! I really wish I never made this connection, because now I just hear Torbjorn when I hear Vector. It has ruined my life.

Espio is also from Overwatch in Sonic Forces (2017)

Unlike the previous solo change with Dan Green, I feel this one is significant enough to talk about. So Matthew Mercer, who voices the cowboy from Overwatch, replaced Troy Baker for Sonic Forces for unknown reasons.

My jaw DROPPED upon hearing Espio speak in Sonic Forces. Not in a good way. It's an absolute parody! The performance is so serious and over the top that it makes me think Sonic straight up died a horrible gory death or something and Espio is now grizzled and scarred from the experience. It's so also just a really deep voice that doesn't seem to make sense coming out of such a small scrawny body. I've seen someone mention that it might be more fitting to give this voice to Shadow, and I think I might agree? Anyways, sure as hell doesn't fly with me for Espio. No offense towards Mercer of course, this is his standard voice for acting it seems, so it was a big casting fail first and foremost.

BONUS FACT: Matthew Mercer voiced another purple reptile with yellow horns in the form of Spyro in Skylanders once.

 

So those are my thoughts on the actors! And I'd love to hear yours.

 

 

 

 

[Dr. Mechano]

Yeah, Marc Biagi is my favorite voice for Vector, although I really can't bring myself to hate the goofier Vector voice direction from ShTH onward. While he's had different actors since then, they've all kinda gone for a similar "Reptile Peewee Herman" kind of voice. It's ridiculous and I love it.

Honestly, I'm about equally fine with all of Espio's voices. There are definitely differences between the actors but they all hit same general "cool serious ninja guy" tone well.

All of Charmy's voices are fine too, but I think Amy Birnbaum has the best voice for him. She just brought a ton of character to Charmy and kinda perfectly walked that line between cute and obnoxious.

[charmsb]

7 minutes ago, Dr. Mechano said:

Yeah, Marc Biagi is my favorite voice for Vector, although I really can't bring myself to hate the goofier Vector voice direction from ShTH onward. While he's had different actors since then, they've all kinda gone for a similar "Reptile Peewee Herman" kind of voice. It's ridiculous and I love it.

Honestly, I'm about equally fine with all of Espio's voices. There are definitely differences between the actors but they all hit same general "cool serious ninja guy" tone well.

All of Charmy's voices are fine too, but I think Amy Birnbaum has the best voice for him. She just brought a ton of character to Charmy and kinda perfectly walked that line between cute and obnoxious.

I guess I hold these guys a little too close compared to you with how nitpicky I can get over the voices. Marc Biagi and Amy Birnbaum definitely shine bright among the crowd though.

[batson]

*Sigh* The loss of Vector's voice from Sonic Heroes in favor of the awful voice's he'd had since is one of those details in this series that I've never been able to get over. I can't stand Vector's 4kids voice, and therefore I can't stand his latest voice either since the guy doing it is obviously doing an impression of the previous voice. Vector is still one of my absolute favorite Sonic characters but I awlays cringe whenever he opens his mouth in any game post Heroes.

[charmsb]

4 hours ago, batson said:

*Sigh* The loss of Vector's voice from Sonic Heroes in favor of the awful voice's he'd had since is one of those details in this series that I've never been able to get over. I can't stand Vector's 4kids voice, and therefore I can't stand his latest voice either since the guy doing it is obviously doing an impression of the previous voice. Vector is still one of my absolute favorite Sonic characters but I awlays cringe whenever he opens his mouth in any game post Heroes.

I essentially share these thoughts. It's funny, but it's not Vector.