Sega recasting voice actors for main characters(Sonic, Tails Amy etc)

[Red Hot Jack]

I don't think there is anyone else alive more fitting than Pollock in the role at the moment, so it's great he stays.

Also means they aren't changing direction with Eggman, unlike the rest of the voice cast, probably.

If Colleen isn't voicing Tails in Prime she's no longer Tails, period. Same thing happened with Sonic X and Sonic Boom.

[Johnny Boy]

Well if Colleen is out as Tails then I hope someone like Debi Derryberry (aka Jimmy Neutron), EG Daily, or Tara Strong can take over.

[SSF1991]

I think there's a very simple reason why Mike Pollock has lasted so long as Dr. Eggman.

Roger had "Sonic's too deep" criticisms. Cindy "sounds too like Minnie Mouse". There's some that felt Shadow's voice was off. And Tails' voice. I don't recall anyone minding Knuckles' voice, but I also don't think anyone outright loved it either. And even though these criticisms aren't as widespread as I feel they were a decade ago, they haven't completely gone away. And because of that, there's been a little pressure to find voice actors that could do the roles better.

But Just about everyone in the Sonic fanbase loves Mike and how he voices Eggman. i've rarely seen, if at all, a single criticism about Pollock's Eggman. If it ain't broke, and a lot of Sonic fans don't think Eggman's broke, then don't fix it.

[Blue Blood]

Interesting that Pollock was so specific about the games. It sounds like he's either not voicing Eggman in Prime then, which is probably because of those Canadian regulations people have pointed out. Or less likely is that he's not voicing Eggman in Prime because Eggman isn't in Prime. But I find that to be highly unlikely. 

I just really hope that we don't end up with a big split in VA cast opinions because the games have a wildly different cast to Prime. It was a problem with X and Heroes and it certainly wasn't resolved when the X cast took over everything in 2005. All of the possibilities here are problematic. Still it's good that Pollock is sticking around even if it's just in the games.

I'd been listening to more of Sonic and Tails R. And yup, I still think Drummond has got it. All of the cameo cast in the show have got it. It's a fan production though so of course the direction is going to be lower quality overall. If this is a taste of what they can still do, I'm all for it. Not going to hope for any of them to return though. 

[caitash]

After Tara Strong’s very vocal criticism of the way Roger has been treated I would be very surprised if she has accepted one of the recasted roles tbh. Not an impossible scenario of course but yeah I’d be surprised if she accepted a role for an employer who she was just last week throwing criticism around for.

[Jango]

9 hours ago, Winston said:

 

 

Mike is sticking around. He survives the voice actor changes once more. 

Oh yeah babe.

[Piko]

While I wouldn’t mind if Mike had been replaced, I’m thrilled that he’s here to stay. He fits the role like a glove. Plus he’s been voicing Eggman for almost 2 decades; at this point he is to Eggman what Charles Martinet is to Mario.

[Wraith]

53 minutes ago, caitash said:

After Tara Strong’s very vocal criticism of the way Roger has been treated I would be very surprised if she has accepted one of the recasted roles tbh. Not an impossible scenario of course but yeah I’d be surprised if she accepted a role for an employer who she was just last week throwing criticism around for.

More like I'd be surprised if they called her in the first place lol

[Razule]

1 hour ago, Piko said:

While I wouldn’t mind if Mike had been replaced, I’m thrilled that he’s here to stay. He fits the role like a glove. Plus he’s been voicing Eggman for almost 2 decades; at this point he is to Eggman what Charles Martinet is to Mario.

Would be nice if the main character of the franchise and mascot of the company could have a voice actor like that as well. Fourth time's the charm..?

[Stritix]

I'm glad Mike Pollock hasn't been replaced. He does only mention the "video games". It's possible Sonic Prime will have its own voice cast or he simply isn't able to yet clarify whether he's part of Sonic Prime or not.

[Kuzu]

4 hours ago, SSF1991 said:

I think there's a very simple reason why Mike Pollock has lasted so long as Dr. Eggman.

Roger had "Sonic's too deep" criticisms. Cindy "sounds too like Minnie Mouse". There's some that felt Shadow's voice was off. And Tails' voice. I don't recall anyone minding Knuckles' voice, but I also don't think anyone outright loved it either. And even though these criticisms aren't as widespread as I feel they were a decade ago, they haven't completely gone away. And because of that, there's been a little pressure to find voice actors that could do the roles better.

But Just about everyone in the Sonic fanbase loves Mike and how he voices Eggman. i've rarely seen, if at all, a single criticism about Pollock's Eggman. If it ain't broke, and a lot of Sonic fans don't think Eggman's broke, then don't fix it.

This is giving way more credit to the opinions of people on the internet than what's warranted. Sonic fans complain about everything under the sun, so I doubt this decision was made with them in mind.

 

 

 

If I had to guess why Mike is able to stay....he's cheap. His resume is nowhere near as big as the rest of the voice cast, so Sega can get away with giving him chump change.  The others have way larger resumes and appear in a lot more works. 

Usually when acting changes are made, its because the company doesn't wanna pay for the original actors and will opt for the cheap option. Remember how Ryan Drummond wanted to come back, but Sega demanded he leave his union and accept basically nickles and dimes for it.

 

 

When thinking about it from a business standpoint, I doubt this change is because of some arstic vision that Sega has for Sonic....and more they're just being cheap and cutting corners in any way they can. Which really makes me wonder how much of a budget this game is gonna have if they're skimping on voice acting of all things, which I have noted is already pretty cheap to begin with.

[Janshal]

8 hours ago, SSF1991 said:

I think there's a very simple reason why Mike Pollock has lasted so long as Dr. Eggman.

Roger had "Sonic's too deep" criticisms. Cindy "sounds too like Minnie Mouse". There's some that felt Shadow's voice was off. And Tails' voice. I don't recall anyone minding Knuckles' voice, but I also don't think anyone outright loved it either. And even though these criticisms aren't as widespread as I feel they were a decade ago, they haven't completely gone away. And because of that, there's been a little pressure to find voice actors that could do the roles better.

But Just about everyone in the Sonic fanbase loves Mike and how he voices Eggman. i've rarely seen, if at all, a single criticism about Pollock's Eggman. If it ain't broke, and a lot of Sonic fans don't think Eggman's broke, then don't fix it.

Pretty sure sega doesn't give a damn about the voice acting criticism. It's more than that

[Guest]

8 hours ago, Johnny Boy said:

Well if Colleen is out as Tails then I hope someone like Debi Derryberry (aka Jimmy Neutron), EG Daily, or Tara Strong can take over.

Oh man E.G. Daily would be amazing. But nah SEGA would never do that. We know they wouldn't.

[SSF1991]

12 hours ago, Kuzu said:

This is giving way more credit to the opinions of people on the internet than what's warranted. Sonic fans complain about everything under the sun, so I doubt this decision was made with them in mind.

 

9 hours ago, Janshal said:

Pretty sure sega doesn't give a damn about the voice acting criticism. It's more than that

Maybe so, but I think fans do underestimate just how much SEGA keep them in mind.

[Wittymations]

On 2/5/2021 at 11:58 PM, PaddyFancy said:

The longer they keep Mike Pollock on but every so often they give everyone else the boot just makes less and less sense. What does this say about their attitudes to everyone else? Do they think they are that bad? Why does Pollock get special treatment over everyone else?

I think part of it is Eggman, at least game Eggman, just has a very distinctive voice that's harder to perform than the rest of the characters. Like I'm having a hard time imagining anybody doing it besides the late Deem Bristow and, of course, Mike Pollock.

Obviously, others CAN do it, maybe someone has clips of other actors doing other roles that could fit the doc. But just tough to imagine.

[Kuzu]

10 minutes ago, Wittymations said:

I think part of it is Eggman, at least game Eggman, just has a very distinctive voice that's harder to perform than the rest of the characters. Like I'm having a hard time imagining anybody doing it besides the late Deem Bristow and, of course, Mike Pollock.

Obviously, others CAN do it, maybe someone has clips of other actors doing other roles that could fit the doc. But just tough to imagine.

Is that because Mike has been on the longest or not though? Would this be true if Pollock got the boot back in 2010?

[Wittymations]

3 minutes ago, Kuzu said:

Is that because Mike has been on the longest or not though? Would this be true if Pollock got the boot back in 2010?

Of course. I was open that thought too.

But also because I'm an animator and go through demo reels if I want to reach out to people interested in making fanworks with me.

Eggman is less touched up on. But if done they're usually not very good. Like their Sonic is may be good, Knuckles may be good, Espio may be good, but Eggman not so much.

Not saying I haven't seen good fan Eggman voice actors. I work with one, Martin Lis, in my satire series, Spinning Egg Zone (linked in my signature if curious). But they're significantly rarer than a good Sonic.

There's numerous possible reasons to why it's harder to find a good fan Eggman voice actor and why Mike lasted so long. But I think Eggman having a distinctive voice does play into it.

[Kuzu]

2 minutes ago, Wittymations said:

Of course. I was open that thought too.

But also because I'm an animator and go through demo reels if I want to reach out to people interested in making fanworks with me.

Eggman is less touched up on. But if done they're usually not very good. Like their Sonic is may be good, Knuckles may be good, Espio may be good, but Eggman not so much.

Not saying I haven't seen good fan Eggman voice actors. I work with one, Martin Lis, in my satire series, Spinning Egg Zone (linked in my signature if curious). But they're significantly rarer than a good Sonic.

There's numerous possible reasons to why it's harder to find a good fan Eggman voice actor and why Mike lasted so long. But I think Eggman having a distinctive voice does play into it.

So what makes Eggman's voice more distinctive than everyone else's.

[thumbs13]

3 hours ago, Kuzu said:

Is that because Mike has been on the longest or not though? Would this be true if Pollock got the boot back in 2010?

Bristow's Eggman voice was already pretty distinctive, and Pollock started off doing an impression of him before slowly evolving the voice. Even if he left in 2010, Eggman would still have a certain sound in mind because of what was established in Adventure. 

[Tracker_TD]

https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/sonic-the-hedgehog-ben-schwartz-take-over-voicee-games/

Quote

Right not, Schwartz is focused on the release of his Disney+ movie Flora & Ulysses. Still, he has plenty of Sonic on the brain. "Let's all, for a second, before we even say that, Roger Craig Smith is an absolute legend," Schwartz said. "Like, his VO work, Sonic being one of them, but his career is unbelievable for a VO artist. He is so talented."

As for whether or not he would like to step into some of the Sonic roles which have been occupied by Smith, Schwartz admits, "I haven't thought about it."

"I haven't thought about it, I haven't really thought about it," he explained. "The first time that it's ever come up was because Roger seems to be stepping away, so, the first time ever, people are asking me I wonder, nobody's asked me, between you and I, I haven't really answered this question yet but nobody's come up to me and said anything so my assumption is that, who knows? But I wonder. I love the world of Sonic, and I love the fan base. The fan base has been so supportive and lovely. So, I don't know. I wonder, I wonder what would happen. But as of now, nobody's had a conversation with me about any of that. But I do just want to say, that you know like, of course that whole you know, Jaleel, Ryan, all those guys are incredible, but it was incredible to be a part of that legacy and then to hear that Roger is stepping down just to say again how amazing he was."

So I guess that's Schwartz possibly out of the equation, for now at least. 

[Blue Blood]

As I said in the statuses and over on Retro...

Interesting. Schwartz isn't who I would personally want to voice Sonic, but he'd have been absolutely fine. The fact that he's not taking over the role leaves me a bit more apprehensive. I'll be eagerly awaiting any actual news.

I kind of think that casting might still be up in the air. SEGA was very upfront about the 2010 recastings, but in this instance, they had to be egged on by Smith publicly announcing that he was leaving. A handful of the other actors followed suit, with Pollock skirting around the issue before eventually confirming that he was still playing the role of Eggman in the game. SEGA however has been radio silent. It leads me to believe that SEGA's been caught in the middle of the process. Perhaps they were in the process of writing up contracts when they couldn't reach agreements with many of the cast members, and therefore they're currently in (or just out of) the casting process? I dunno. Just guess rather baseless work from me.

The again, if Prime and the games are going to share a cast... isn't it a bit late for Prime? Of course we don't know that the two will share a cast. Plus Pollock confirmed he was voicing Eggman in the games and Villard confirmed that she wasn't voicing Tails in Prime, so who knows? Having a consistent cast just seems sensible for the brand, and that's also exactly why 4Kids took over the games during X's run on TV. Although we don't know when in 2022 Prime is launching, so it may not yet be too late.

In an ideal world Smith would never have left. In an almost ideal world, Drummond would be reprising the role. But if these past 12 months have taught us anything, this world ain't ideal. If the past is anything to go by, whoever they get to voice Sonic should be fine. I've enjoyed all of his English voices, with Griffith being the only one who I didn't think was great but was merely pretty good (at least in his later years).

[Wittymations]

4 hours ago, Blue Blood said:

if Prime and the games are going to share a cast... isn't it a bit late for Prime?

Depends how far in development Prime is. If they're animating already, then yes. While I'm unsure how the industry standard is, I sync animation to voice rather than voice to animation (except dubbing, obviously.) 

 

Basically, they could be at a point where they're still writing or developing the models and have yet to cast voices. But if they're animating, likely have most of the cast. Definitely main cast.

[SBR2]

It's possible that the next game could have the previous cast. Everything about this makes it sound like it's a recent development so I'd bet they already recorded dialogue for the new game and Prime will debut the new cast. 

[Razule]

50 minutes ago, SBR2 said:

It's possible that the next game could have the previous cast. Everything about this makes it sound like it's a recent development so I'd bet they already recorded dialogue for the new game and Prime will debut the new cast. 

That depends on how long it is before they start doing voice overs for the English dubs. And this could be a decision that was made a while ago that we're only hearing about now.

[Wittymations]

1 minute ago, Razule said:

That depends on how long it is before they start doing voice overs for the English dubs. And this could be a decision that was made a while ago that we're only hearing about now.

Right. A game dub doesn't really need to change much up for animation. So it's not like SEGA really needs to get a new va in a timely manner.

Timing is quite less of an issue for games compared to a 22 minute long animation. Especially since there's automatic lip syncing technology. A dubbed line just needs to have the same timing and energy.