Roger Craig Smith and Kate Higgins are the new Sonic and Tails VAs

While wandering around the internet today, I stumbled across a little Egg treat for you guys. I somehow ended up browsing a VA websites' blog, and found a comment by Mike Pollock explaining how he got the role of Eggman.

 

There's a reason Sega kept Pollock after dumping the rest of the 4Kids cast; he's an awesome Eggman.

 

Pollock is definitely one of the better VA's for the good doctor. He's up there with Long John Baldry and Deem Bristow for sure.

 

While I'm not sure if Mike Pollock is my favorite Dr. Robotnik, he's truly is a great Dr. Robotnik and deserves his role. (Edwin Neal from the Sonic anime film might be my favorite Eggman but it's hard to decide.) I really like the new voice direction for Sonic and feel its the best Sonic voice yet. I'm also pretty pleased with the new Tails actor but I'll most likely always feel Bradley Pierce from SatAM was Tails' best actor. As for the other characters, I'm don't own Sonic Free Riders or Kinect for that matter so I'm not used to the new voices enough to have a solid opinion. From what I've heard, Knuckles's and Rouge's new actors do sound good though.

 

My favorite Robotniks are dead, but Pollock ain't too bad.

 

Pollock is just the right amount of serious and silly. Bristow was super serious, while Baldry was super silly.

And let's not talk about Jim Cummings and Gary Chalk, shall we.

 

Lisa Ortiz was the best Amy

 

Everyone always forgets about Adrian Payne, who voiced Robotnik for that Sonic Live in Sydney show. He was pretty good, sounded just like Baldry to me. The icing on the cake is that this one's still alive!

 

Sonic Live? Wut?

 

inb4 Archie Sonic comics

 

I must ask why. You can belittle Chalk all you want (I hate his Robotnik also) but Jim? Jim Cummings can not only do a serious, menacing figure, but he can also pull off a goofy, affably evil guy as shown in the Adventures Pilot. He does what Pollock attempts to do but a thousand times better. You could simply tell him the direction you want him to go with his voice, and he would pull it off spectacularly.

In fact, when Sega wanted to go for people who were highly illustrated in their careers, the first man they should have approached was Jim Cummings. He is infinitely the Robotnik more so that Pollock will ever be. My overinflated opinion of course, but why should I give a damn if you disagree. I want Robotnik back, not the Big Egg.

No offense against Pollock, though. He's a real nice guy, but I don't want him to be "Eggman" anymore. Not when I can have a better Robotnik in Cummings. Cummings has character. Something Pollock pales in in comparison despite being a decent voice actor.

 

My mind was blown when I found out the guy who voices the "SNIVLAAAY" Robotnik also voiced Winnie the Pooh and Tigger.

I still think Baldry was better than any of them, though.

 

I hate Jim Cummings. I have a laundry list of cartoon characters who I hated as a kid because of their voice, and I have recently come to the realization that Jim Cummings voiced all of them. SatAM Robotnik, the detective from Bonkers, Darkwing Duck, and Pete from Goof Troop, to name a few.

 

You must have never heard him do Treecko, then. + - ...or normal Yugi.  

I used to like Jim Cummings, but I've heard him do so darn many roles that now when I hear his voice it's grating. He even does narration for movie trailers! In most shows, he doesn't do one, but two voices - Bonkers and the detective, Pooh and Tigger. After awhile, hearing him spammed everywhere gets old. And he can't sing, but he keeps trying.

I'm afraid I don't like Pollock, either. He sounds like he's straining to do the voice, as opposed to the way it sounds natural coming from Baldry.

Edwin Neal will always be the best Eggman voice, for me at least.

 

It was a Sonic-themed puppet show at the now-demolished Sega World Sydney. If you haven't listened to the audio yet, you should. The voices (except Robotnik) are horrible, the plot is odd, characters randomly break into song, and Robotnik hits on Sally Acorn.

 

Jim Cunnings is a great actor, no doubts about that. However Eggman is a layared character that can be both amusing and threatening. While Cunnings' voice for SatAM fits the threatening part quite well, it doesn't fit the fun one at all. I have another qualm with Cunnings voice though. To me, Pollock's Eggman sounds both threatening and amusing at points, which is something even harder to do then what I've mentioned before. I'm not sure if Cunnings could do it. However and even if he was, and from Greg's post, Eggman isn't what SatAM Robotnik fans want to hear, so it would be futile to recast the guy.

I have a similar problem with John Baldry. The guy has a fun voice but I doubt he can do a threatening one, let alone mixing both. However his voice is probably one of my favourite Robotnik voices. It's a deliciously fun voice and it had so much charm (prrrromotion). However, I like Edwin Neal a lot as well.

Bristow was amazing and Pollock is just as amazing. There's something rather sinister of Bristow that I really (mincemeat out of you, because you just told fox boy) but Pollock is a bit more bouncier which I rather I like as well. I can't decide between both either.

Eggman's voices have been always great (including the Japanese cast), though considering them all, Cunnings is probably the worst for me (can't say anything for Underground's voice actor, I never watched that one in English).

 

I'm with you, dude.

Kate Higgins has done the best voice so far, by miles. And Sonic finally has some range to his voice. What I love the most, something you have already pointed out, is that the writing was at a level where it didn't feel too forced or silly. It was spot on for the tone of the game and with some new attitude for his new voice, Sonic definatly came out on top for once in the VA department in this game. Eggman as always was wonderful. I recognised a few voices in there from previous games. One of the henchmen robots was voiced by the same person who did the voice for Proxy, Starkillers droid companion in The Force Unleashed. I believe he used the same voice actually. I'm really looking forward to what these new actors can achieve, hoping of course Sega realises they can give him a voice snd dialogue that doesn't make me want to rip my testicles off.

 

Pollock makes a really good Robotnik, but unlike Baldry or Bristow's Eggman, there's an occasional "sneering" nasally quality to his performance whenever he's trying to express annoyance and the like. It's admittedly a nitpick, but it's just something I frequently pick up on. I love Baldry's sort of majestic, rolling cadence to his Robotnik performance, but I'm not sure I can ever take it as seriously as a Bristow or even a Pollock. It's amusing, but not threatening. Bristow was menacing and sinister, and Pollock is able to manage it much better than I can imagine Baldry could.

Cummings is exceedingly evil and sinister, even having that sadistic quality in his voice that I frankly don't hear in any other Robotnik voice, but it still sounds like every other one of his performances. The only noticeable difference to it is a particularly snakey lisp he adds to it. I guess I wouldn't mind him reprising his role as Robotnik, but I'm not sure if he can pull off goofy and silly the same way Baldry or Pollock do. So, yeah, I'd stick with Pollock, but just for kicks, I would love to hear Baldry give it a try were he still around.

Kate Higgins as Tails may not pull off a legitimately boyish a tone as, lets say, Chris Welch, but she definitely pulls it off with better finesse than Amy Palant and Corey Bringas. Best Tails I've heard since, well, Adventure I guess. I'm also quite taken with Smith's Sonic.