Roger Craig "Consoles" Smith new voice of Sonic & The God Damn Batman!

[SenEDDtor Missile]

Ryan Drummond is a good actor. I cringe at his acting in Sonic Adventure and I thought he was okay in Adventure 2 and Heroes.

In the pre-4Kids 3D games (when AudioGodz was in charge of dubbing), the acting was directed by a woman named Lani Minella. Unfortunately for the cast members, her direction was downright awful. I can't speak for the cast outside of Ryan Drummond, but he has gone on record saying the conditions in which they were forced to act were not unlike being in a nazi gas chamber (as tasteless as that may have been) and that even if they tried to do a good voice, Lani wouldn't approve. To add insult to injury, the scripts SEGA provided were pretty much said to be impossible to properly act to. I don't know how many have heard Ryan actually do Sonic's voice the way he'd like to, but he pretty much has it nailed in my opinion. I don't mind Roger being Sonic, but I just wish Ryan had a chance to show us what he could really do. I'd take a guess and say Jason's made of a lot more than what SEGA had him doing, but I've never actually heard him do the voice outside the games outside of that Sonicon video which wasn't the highest of quality.

Lani's foul direction was later heard in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, outside of certain characters like the Pokémon, Snake, and Sonic (being provided by The Pokémon Company, Konami, and SEGA respectively) and characters that used stock audio clips like Mario.

Woooooow...I never even knew that was the case. Sounds like a royal pain in the ass.

[TrueBlue]

Ryan Drummond is a good actor. I cringe at his acting in Sonic Adventure and I thought he was okay in Adventure 2 and Heroes.

In the pre-4Kids 3D games (when AudioGodz was in charge of dubbing), the acting was directed by a woman named Lani Minella. Unfortunately for the cast members, her direction was downright awful. I can't speak for the cast outside of Ryan Drummond, but he has gone on record saying the conditions in which they were forced to act were not unlike being in a nazi gas chamber (as tasteless as that may have been) and that even if they tried to do a good voice, Lani wouldn't approve. To add insult to injury, the scripts SEGA provided were pretty much said to be impossible to properly act to. I don't know how many have heard Ryan actually do Sonic's voice the way he'd like to, but he pretty much has it nailed in my opinion. I don't mind Roger being Sonic, but I just wish Ryan had a chance to show us what he could really do. I'd take a guess and say Jason's made of a lot more than what SEGA had him doing, but I've never actually heard him do the voice outside the games outside of that Sonicon video which wasn't the highest of quality.

Lani's foul direction was later heard in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, outside of certain characters like the Pokémon, Snake, and Sonic (being provided by The Pokémon Company, Konami, and SEGA respectively) and characters that used stock audio clips like Mario.

While the circumstances do indeed sound tragic, I doubt even good direction could have made some of the stuff that the actors (past or present) have come out with. See Sonic 2006. I doubt even the best direction in the world could have made some of the performances (and script for that matter) better. Sure, you can lay some blame on Lani's "foul direction", but at the end of the day, the actors should not be entirely absolved from blame for poor performances. Be it Sonic, or anything else.

Edited December 19, 2011 by Ringo ~

[Shane]

I do see your point, but the Sonic 2006 example works great with the point I was trying to make. Jason was great in Sonic X, pretty good in Shadow the Hedgehog, and pretty good in Sonic Unleashed. So one would think his acting in a game that was in the middle of all of that would be good, right?

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Some of Sonic's best grunts came from that game though.

Edited December 19, 2011 by XD375

[Chaos Warp]

I do see your point, but the Sonic 2006 example works great with the point I was trying to make. Jason was great in Sonic X, pretty good in Shadow the Hedgehog, and pretty good in Sonic Unleashed. So one would think his acting in a game that was in the middle of all of that would be good, right?

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Some of Sonic's best grunts came from that game though.

I would argue that Sonic's best grunts (with Griffith) would be from Unleashed. They just had so much more kick and energy then 06's grunts ever had. But my all time favourite grunts come from Roger, from Generations.

[Shane]

I played Unleashed in Japanese mostly... I remember Sonic's "whoo!" being really annoying in English, though.

Edit:

GameSpot: Do you feel like the voice actor sometimes gets blamed for poor choices on the part of the producer or a badly written script? And can you make suggestions for script changes, or are you often stuck to what's on the page?

Lani Minella: Oh yeah, there's the real problemo! Like, sometimes, the scripts suck big-time, and we gag our way through. Many of the voices chosen for certain parts would not be my logical choice, but you go with what the client wants. It's amazing when the client thinks the talent ought to look like who they are portraying, or sound like a hottie that they like the looks of. Geesh, Pamela Anderson's voice is definitely not babe-a-licious.

Actors get blamed all the time for what they read, but no one thinks about that. When doing overdubbing of English you have to add a lot of padding because English takes less time to say than Japanese. So you have to make "I dont know" last 7.3 seconds. It ends up being rewritten like, "It is my duty to tell you, that, at this time, because of the situation, I do not know the answer to your question."

I'm not trying to diss all writers, but many times the script and the voicing are the last darn thing anyone messes with and it shows. So many people can't write for the spoken word, or write lines so corny or dry not even Patrick Stewart could make them great. As a good director, I try and add nuances, lead-in breaths, vocalizations - or I may rewrite as I go, if allowed. Many times I line-read other actors and show them ways to create a whole new dimension to their voice.

Edited December 19, 2011 by XD375

[TrueBlue]

Honestly? In my opinion, Jason really started to get it together when Brawl released. Sonic X had a few bright spots here and there, but a lot of it was terrible. ShTH was uninspiring and Sonic 2006 was abysmal. Then Secret Rings came along and he showed some signs of improvement, but again, it was nothing special.

Then Brawl came out and I personally saw a huge improvement. Nearly every line was delivered well, whether it be overly cocky, excited, determined or taunting. I mean, "You're too slow!" "Sonic's the name, speed's my game!" and "NOW I'LL SHOW YOU! HRRRRRRRRRAH!" as well as those grunts sounded great in my opinion. Then came Unleashed and Black Knight and the rest is history.

I mean, this is all personal conjecture. But in my opinion, direction doesn't really have that big of an impact on a performance. If Jason could improve himself even after direction like 2006, yet Ryan couldn't couldn't under Lani...then sorry but, perhaps Jason was just able to apply himself better. Jason was terrible in 2006, and no amount of good direction otherwise could have changed that. In my eyes, anyway.

Edited December 19, 2011 by Ringo ~

[Ferno]

I still think it's one of those things where we just won't ever know because it never happened. It's easy to say that "it wouldn't have been any better" because that's the only point of view we'll ever have at this point, but I'm sure that if there was an alternate universe where the actors actually got a say in how they did their lines, they would've done a better job and it would've sounded better, but that's the thing, we'll never really know, atleast, that's what I think.

[Kuzu]

I still think it's one of those things where we just won't ever know because it never happened. It's easy to say that "it wouldn't have been any better" because that's the only point of view we'll ever have at this point, but I'm sure that if there was an alternate universe where the actors actually got a say in how they did their lines, they would've done a better job and it would've sounded better, but that's the thing, we'll never really know, atleast, that's what I think.

Don't most Anime VA's have a say so in the way they portray their characters?

[Shane]

That all depends on the company behind the production, Shadic.

[Ferno]

Don't most Anime VA's have a say so in the way they portray their characters?

I'm not sure, though we're talking about games, which is pretty different to how they do their recordings for anime, or so I've heard.

I can't remember the source, but I once read in an interview someone did with Brina Palencia, (a Funimation va,) that most times when recording for games, even games based off of an anime, that they usually just record the lines without seeing the actual scenes for reference, like they usually get to do when they record for anime. I remember one thing in particular that she said, *paraphrasing here from memory*: "Later when I saw the cutscenes in the final game, I would often go, 'oh man, I would've said that particular line differently if I knew this is what the character was doing..."

I think it's probably been like that for some of the past Sonic series actors as well, and it's probably why voice acting for video games in general is sometimes kinda "off" compared to other media.

Edited January 4, 2012 by Inferno

[Ultimate Waffle]

Mike Pollock is the best voice actor ever. No buts, its, or hows.

Everyone else sounds improved honestly. Roger improved his Sonic voice since Colors, and Cindy has gotten.... better, as Amy.

[Kuzu]

I'm not sure, though we're talking about games, which is pretty different to how they do their recordings for anime, or so I've heard.

I can't remember the source, but I once read in an interview someone did with Caitlin Glass, (a Funimation va,) that most times when recording for games, even games based off of an anime, that they usually just record the lines without seeing the actual scenes for reference, like they usually get to do when they record for anime. I remember one thing in particular that she said, *paraphrasing here from memory*: "Later when I saw the cutscenes in the final game, I would often go, 'oh man, I would've said that particular line differently if I knew this is what the character was doing..."

I think it's probably been like that for some of the past Sonic series actors as well, and it's probably why voice acting for video games in general is sometimes kinda "off" compared to other media.

That kind of explains why things like Dragon Ball Ultimate Tenkaichi sound way off compared to Kai.

[Burning Finger]

You know I never really understood why Jason or for that matter most of the 4Kids cast got so much hate, when the games with them had far better acting than Ryan and the others. Sure there are few questionable voices (Rouge comes to mind), but most of them fit their respective characters IMO. I think it all comes down to the fact they've worked on 4Kids dubs. But regardless most of the hate went towards Jason.

I don't hate Roger's Sonic, but I don't like it either. Perhaps the voice still needs to grow on me, but I'd cast Jason as Sonic over Roger any day. Its not that Roger's acting is bad, its great, to me the voice is wrong and just doesn't sound like Sonic but some random anime guy. Whenever I see Sonic I hear Jason's voice in my mind not Roger's.

As for everyone else;

Shadow - Kirk Thornton has me confused with this one. If he would use the voice he gave Brandon in the Gun Grave anime he would sound almost exactly like David Humphrey. Why isn't he doing this? I hate the way he makes Shadow sound like he's trying to hard to be dark and mysterious, I'd rather have Jason back in the role instead of this.

Tails - Kate Higgins is awesome, Tails finally has a voice thats fits him as much the voices he had in SA1&2.

Amy - Hate it, Lisa Ortiz honestly had the best voice fit Amy perfectly. I don't understand why Cindy Robinson is doing a Minnie Mouse impression for her.

Knuckles - Sounds pretty much the same as Dan Green with less gruffness. Would rather go back to the kind of voice Scott Drieir gave him. I like it though.

Rouge - She sounds better than ever! I didn't like the voice Lani Minella originally gave her, and I didn't like the voice 4Kids gave her either. But now, Rouge actually sounds as seductive as the character is suppose to be.

Cream - Sounds good, better than the overly high pitched voice Rebeca Honig turned into (If you go back to the first few episodes of Sonic X she actually sounds good).

Vector - Sounds exactly like his 4Kids voice delivery and all. I much prefer his original Sonic Heroes voice.

Espio - The voice isn't really that different from any of the previous ones, no issues here.

Charmy - Fits the character, but for the record Amy Birnbaum's Charmy never annoyed me.

Eggman - Still awesome, I'm glad he wasn't replaced. Mike makes a much better Eggman than Deem Bristow ever did IMO.

Blaze - I like it, but I liked Bella Hudson's voice too.

Silver - Its good, its not much different though.

Babylon Rogues - Both Wave and Storm sound pretty much like Hudson's and Dan's portrayals though. Jet's new voice is worse than Jason's.

Big - I don't think we've heard Kyle's Big yet. I'm sure it won't be much different the previous actors though.

Regardless of what I think, I hope the current cast is here to stay for good. I want these characters to have official voices like Mickey and the gang.

Edited December 19, 2011 by Talon TSi

[Aquaslash]

This is why I was against the 4Kids overreaction and hate mail, calls...etc...SEGA has now punished us with this cast, to all those who contributed, enjoy your Smith! I'll give the guy a second chance just because I really don't wanna switch to another language...after I play SG maybe I'll have a second opinion on this, or it might remain unchanged...we'll see.

They need to punish us more often then! Pretty much everyone's better now so...yeah!

[Space☆Tomoki]

Opinions of current English cast.

This pretty much sums up my opinions of the current cast for the most part. Also, you can hear Kyle Hebert's Big voice briefly in Colors DS.

[Kuzu]

You know I never really understood why Jason or for that matter most of the 4Kids cast got so much hate, when the games with them had far better acting than Ryan and the others. Sure there are few questionable voices (Rouge comes to mind), but most of them fit their respective characters IMO. I think it all comes down to the fact they've worked on 4Kids dubs. But regardless most of the hate went towards Jason.

Two Reasons:

1. Voices suddenly became serious business in the fandom, and people were bitching because their precious Ryan Drummond was gone.

2. It took them almost five years to finally act with some decency, not that its the actors fault, but still.

[Burning Finger]

1. Voices suddenly became serious business in the fandom, and people were bitching because their precious Ryan Drummond was gone.

Yeah, Ryan Drummond was a big deal lol. I actually think Ryan had a great voice for Sonic, but I don't think he truly got a chance to shine due to bad scripting and very bad directing. SA2 is probably his best outing, It'd be interesting to see what he could do with the role now under the current scripting and directors.

[Echidna Adventurer CC14]

Yeah...that was a bit much. Sorry. I probably should have just ended with the note with Smith and White being the only American VAs that make me feel like I'm hearing Sonic.

No problem. We can all jump the gun a bit at times.

Yeah, but I'm not sure I can put it nicer terms and I'm not sure "without sounding too old" really justifies how I felt about the previous voice. ...though then again, I probably shouldn't have mentioned it at all. >>;

Then I guess we can drop it and you can just sum it all up with a Ren & Stimpy-style, "No sir, I don't like (her performance.)"

Well, putting the whole "Dan Green is just doing Dan Green" bias aside I had back in the day (now-a-days I've come to terms with people not having the range of...well...Frank Welker), yeah, he definitely was the better cast members in the 4kids cast and he would sound better with better direction. He has sounded better in stuff like GaoGaiGar (...though over-the-topness is welcomed there XD), and other things. So yeah...definitely.

Yep! What he may lack in range, he makes up for in acting talent. I especially loved his performance in SatBK. He was the only one of the knights to attempt a more "arthurian" take on his usual voice and that made Gawain a lot more fun to watch. He was also great in Rivals 2.

I don't doubt it, but I didn't hear his outings in Rivals 2. And, he sounds like Eric Vale's Trunks...and I don't like Eric Vale's Trunks. The voice anyway. His acting improved in Kai, but...yeah, that gruff he puts on doesn't make much sense.

Ah. I wouldn't know much about Eric Vale's Trunks. When I watch DBZ, I'm usually too busy listening to Android #17. I luvs me some Chuck Huber. (Ku Ku Ku!)

Two Reasons: 2. It took them almost five years to finally act with some decency, not that its the actors fault, but still.

Well, not really. I thought that most of them drastically improved and started turning in pretty good performances starting with SatSR. In my opinion, the only games they turned in an undeniably bad performance in were Riders and 06. I feel as if people have over-exaggerated exactly how long it took for most of them to hit their stride.

Edited December 19, 2011 by Christmascontrol14

[Dreamcast]

Imagine the raging if Sonic has voice clips in Sonic 4 Episode 2 XD

[Tornado]

Oops. Wrong thread.

Edited December 22, 2011 by ChristmasJack

[Aquaslash]

Imagine the raging if Sonic has voice clips in Sonic 4 Episode 2 XD

Considering that it'll likely still be Modern Sonic, who always has voice clips, I don't think anyone will care =P

[sonfan1984]

Considering that it'll likely still be Modern Sonic, who always has voice clips, I don't think anyone will care =P

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

Sega I want you to change the VA for Amy NAO. Lisa Ortiz was perfect and now you replaced her with someone who does an impression of Minnie Mouse which makes her voice really annoying to listen to.

Once Amy gets a huge role in one of the future games, it will just annoy us with her voice and she's like my favorite character...just change the VA please...

Honestly I don't know why Sega replaced all of the VA ('cept Eggman) which some of them don't need changing at all.

[sonfan1984]

Honestly I don't know why Sega replaced all of the VA ('cept Eggman) which some of them don't need changing at all.

Maybe cause a lot of fans were unhappy and complaining about the 4Kids VA so much ever since they've replaced the Sonic Adventure actors? Now it seems like it's happening all over again.

I hope they hire voices that SEGA is happy with and permanently stick with them. It's annoying that they keep changing voices about every 5 or 6 years just when you're finally getting use to them. They should only replace a voice actor when that actor dies, quits, retires. etc but don't change the whole cast.

Edited December 28, 2011 by sonfan1984

[Kuzu]

Sega I want you to change the VA for Amy NAO. Lisa Ortiz was perfect and now you replaced her with someone who does an impression of Minnie Mouse which makes her voice really annoying to listen to.

Once Amy gets a huge role in one of the future games, it will just annoy us with her voice and she's like my favorite character...just change the VA please...

Honestly I don't know why Sega replaced all of the VA ('cept Eggman) which some of them don't need changing at all.

Wow, its like Deja vu all over again, I remember a similar statement 5 years ago, except replace Lisa Ortiz with Jennifer Douliard.