Yeah I thought Kirk was much bettter in Forces than he had been before (I never watched Boom). Still, the rumor I heard that he doesn't even like voicing Shadow makes me feel weird because....yes, this is just a business and a job, but damn. It's hard to appreciate a voice the actor actively disdains.
Like, isn't Sonic supposed to be a teenager in terms of the games? Even for cartoon anthro standards, I've never heard any teenager with a voice like Rogers. It's just that distracting to me that I can't see what others see (or rather, hear) in his performance. I'd just let him keep voicing Crash in 100% endings and get Ben Scharwtz for Sonic. Agreed on Shadow though. He hasn't had a big role in games recently so I can't really judge, especially since Sega mandates him to never show any emotion that isn't the smug rival smarm that defines him in the IDW comics. (I find it makes it hard to get an accurate read on his performance). And lest we forget: "TeAm DaRk ArEn'T FrIeNdS!" If I was in Ian Flynn's position, I'd just not bother writing Shadow into stories than have to deal with the Flanderization.
I mean, I guess that's another criticism I don't really get. The, "Sonic sounds like a 30/40 year old," complaint. Me and my friends I still know from middle/high school are over 30 now, and we all sound the same as we did when our voices finished changing. I've got recordings of us from back then, and it's indistinguishable. For another example, look at YouTuber KingK. Dude was making videos when he was like 19 years old, with THAT voice. If you find the voice unfitting for Sonic, that's fine. I'd even accept that this is sort of a "Reality is Unrealistic" situation, and teens in fiction are expected to sound younger. I mean, I wouldn't agree, but it'd be a good argument. But the idea that it's bad because no teenager sounds older than they are just bums me out. I'M over 30, and I still sound cool, right!? EDIT: I mean... if it's just a rumor you've heard, you should probably just assume it's not true, right? A quick bit of Googling didn't even find anyone talking about it, let alone a direct source. Come to think of it, Shadow was SO much better in Forces, I remember thinking they must have replaced him! But then he sounded off again in TSR! That's so weird. But this reminds me, I still need to watch most of Boom's second season...
Your mention of the "reality is unrealistic" argument is really a great point. Real life doesn't really matter as much when a blue anthropomorphic cartoon hedgehog is concerned. Like, people complaining about Tobey Maguire being a little bit "too old" in Spider-Man? I don't see it, because, well, the general inconsistency of real life applies to a live action film that stars the physical images of real people, and my suspension of disbelief is held up by the realistic possibility that an 18 year old could look and sound like a 27 year old Tobey Maguire. On the other hand, Sonic, a cartoon anthropomorphic hedgehog, is presented as a "teenager with attitude" type, and the youth and personality associated with that characterization can either be enhanced or broken simply by the voice he's given, since the character can look however the artists want him to look. Roger Craig Smith, regardless of how he sounded when he was 16, does not sound like a cheeky teenager who looks like this: He sounds like a 35-40 year old surfer dude. All things are not equal. Suspension of disbelief is broken here because I don't imagine a character like Sonic having a scratchy, "35 year old man" kind of voice. Sure, a real life teenager could have a scratchy "35 year old man" voice, but that doesn't mean that such a voice is or should be associated with this character.
I disagree, but (and I mean this genuinely) it's a good argument! Mostly, I think I disagree on the premise. Roger Craig Smith's Sonic never sounded like a surfer dude of any particular age to my ears, and I never thought he was a bad fit for the character. And after ten years, he's SO comfortable in the role, he embodies the charm of the character so well, and he's been doing it longer than any other English-speaking actor ever has. At this point, frankly, he just sounds like Sonic the Hedgehog to me. But, I will concede that if I'd never heard his take on Sonic before, and you played a clip and told me it was supposed to be a 15-year old, I _would_ probably think that was a bit weird. I'll agree, he doesn't really sound like your prototypical teenager with attitude. But I'd have said the same thing about Drummond. Nobody other than Jaleel White ever sounded like a teenager with attitude to me, but Sonic doesn't HAVE to sound like that to feel genuine. Just look at how many people love Martin Burke's work in the OVA. He's sounds like a nasally 1940s radio host. It shouldn't work at ALL... but it does! And given Sonic's character in the games, I think a somewhat more confident, mature, self-assured take on the voice suits him just fine. (This is also why, while I was disappointed at first, I ultimately found Ben Schwartz to be such a perfect fit for the movie. Sonic was played decidedly younger there, and while I'm sure RCS could have done a great job, his usual take on the character would have been out of place.)
Also considering Classic Sonic's biggest inspiration in his design was the OG Mickey Mouse from the 30's it makes sense he doesn't speak as an homage to that.
Its a case of cognitive dissonance (big boy word time). The voices you initially heard or grew up with are going to be the ones you associate with a character, so a new actor who doesn't even sound like the previous actor is going to create an extreme imbalance in your head. For instance, when most people think of Tony Stark nowadays, they instantly associate him with Robert Downy Jr. so if, for whatever reason he couldn't reprise Iron Man before Endgame and had to be replaced, it more than likely would have created a similar backlash. Different voices usually are only acceptable for different incarnations of a character. Batman has had way more voices than Kevin Conroy, but nobody really cares that much because most of them aren't the DCAU version everyone associates that voice with. This is even more relevant because Roger Craig Smith in Arkham Origins and he goes out of his way to sound like Conroy to stay consistent with the rest of the series. If you noticed, people have said RCS is a better fit for Boom Sonic specifically, and look at that, that is an explicitly different incarnation of Sonic. Ben Schwartz wouldn't necessarily be a better fit for game Sonic, because he's explicitly voiced a Sonic that's actually a young kid. Movie!Sonic doesn't act like Game!Sonic, so I think it's flawed to say Schwartz is a better fit. The main game issue with game Sonic's English voices is that he is supposed to be the same character in every appearance. The Sonic in Forces is the same one from Sonic Adventure, but with an explicitly different voice and writing for him. So if you were exposed to Ryan Drummond or Jason Griffith's takes first, and then heard Roger Craig Smith's version, well of course it was going to be jarring, because its not the same voice you internalized for so many years. This is why people are starting to prefer the Japanese audio hilariously, because with a few understandable exceptions, everyone has had the same actor since 1998 across all media. The movie being the only exception for Sonic. The Sonic fanbase have now become stereotypical Anime nerds who prefer the "real" voices This is also why Mike Pollock gets no flak too btw, because he's been voicing Eggman for almost 20 years now, and nobody is about to criticize him for it. That said, the current actors are the longest ones we've had to date. But ironically, have had less roles than the previous actors due to the smaller output of games. Smith only just reached the same output that Griffith had before he was replaced, but in Twice as much time. But yea, I really wish people would stop advocating replacing voice actors at literally every tenure. It just becomes a slippery slope; what happens if Roger's replacement is worse than him? Are we just gonna keep cycling voice actors until we get that magically perfect voice? Most characters will generally retain a voice for a few years and only be replaced when necessary (Like health or union issues) and not because fans complained about it. Some of y'all just need to get over it, or just switch it to Japanese and pretend like you understand what they're saying. I didn't exactly care much for Smith myself at first, but I got used to him once he settled in the role. Yes, the scripts he has to say are garbage, but Sonic scripts were garbage when Drummond and Griffith were around too and don't pretend like they weren't because I can make an essay on awkward line readings from all three of them.
hahahhaha I've never met a teenager that sounded like Drummond or Griffith either. or real people who sound like any english anime dub voices either. it's kind of a conceit you go with for cartoon people/animals.
Off topic of VA's and the like, and more on topic of Sonic Colors as a game, but do we all agree that despite our different views on the quality of it (I personally don't like the game myself) that Reach For The Stars is such a great Sonic theme? I was just just listening to it last night, and I was jamming to it. It brought me back to my 11 year old self when I first saw the trailer of Sonic Colors in late 2009.
The only thing I don't like about "Reach for the Stars" is the drum beat that's constantly drilling itself into the side of my head—but that's just a problem I have with music in general these days.
I think it's fine, but I'm with you on modern music. I'm sick of it. It's devolved into incoherent electronic sounds, messy inconsistent rhythm, and oversaturation of bass, cause people act like bass is the only thing that makes a song good anymore. I miss the days of real music.
I can't stand Reach For The Stars, Endless Possibility or any vocal theme for the avatar's levels in Forces. But I had hit 31 when I played Colours for the first time (the first time I listened to the song, it was). Late edit: I was wrong about Forces, those tracks are boring but I can stand them. I listened to all Sonic soundtracks during the spring confinement and I remember some vocal track sounding terrible to me, and I blamed Forces because Forces, but it was probably from some side game. Also, I can't stand greenlight ride from TSR; this is not the one I was mistaken about, it's just one I forgot to mention.
I'm not talking about "modern music" or "real music". I just don't like the frenzied, repetitive drum beats in the Sonic series after Jun Sunoue took the reins. I really didn't like that weird ringing noise in Sonic Mania's Oil Ocean music, either. There's a lot of things in music, even music that I love, that really grates on me and I don't know why.
Reach works for the kind of game Colours is. Even if I don't love it, it's still a rung or two above say, Fist Bump. It's a time capsule of 2010s autotune in the same way SA2/Live and Learn was a time capsule of early 2000s pop punk. If Forces was a time capsule of 2017, Classic Sonic would be default dancing to mumble rap. Are they really appealing to today's youth if they aren't? Also, Brainscratch are making a new commentary on Colours. Clement even echoes the "I like it now that everyone hates it" sentiment. Like a hipster.
Forces soundtrack is overall bad but inoffensive. The worst part in vocal tracks is more how they're arranged or performed than the composition itself. Infinite's theme, for example, sounds horrendous with its original singer(s?) but Little V's "still edgier" cover of it on YouTube is brutal, thanks to a much better voice to sing that and the extra death metal touch on it. Oh, and I can't stand autotune most of the time, I've only found enjoyables a few uses for it, the rest is just not knowing how to sing or make music.
