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Several Voice Actors Leave The Sonic Franchise

Discussion in 'General Sonic Discussion' started by jubbalub, Jan 28, 2021.

  1. Azookara

    Azookara

    yup Member
    Doubt it's that deep. Boom Sonic acts different than Sega Sonic too, and RCS still voiced both.
     
  2. SuperSonicRider

    SuperSonicRider

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    I remember at points in Colors thinking his voice sounded too low and awkward at points, but I think he did well after that, with my favorite performances of his being in Forces and Puyo Puyo Tetris 2. I've said this in some other thread but Forces has one of my favorite voiced portrayals of Sonic; he has a lot of good lines regardless of the overall messy plot and Roger sounded really casual in the role at that point. He also seems great in the OK KO crossover, but I've only seen clips of that so far.
    Also though, Roger always seemed to give off good vibes in SEGA livestreams, interviews and such. Like others have said, it seems he will be ultimately fine career-wise. I'll just really miss him as Sonic, and hope he's doing OK.
     
  3. Nova

    Nova

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    Roger's my favourite but let's at least get Jaleel White back, come on

    Nah for real though Martin Burke
     
  4. Billy

    Billy

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    I almost want this to happen, just to see how people would react.
     
  5. Metalwario64

    Metalwario64

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    I know, but I'm just going off of the assumption that Sega wants to tie things in with the movie that I've heard from several people. People speculating that the Netflix series will be based on the movies, and expecting Schwartz to voice Sonic in the games now, but I'm just saying that if Sega wants to make the games fit more in with the movies (which I honestly don't want), then if they made his personality a bit more like the movies, then that might mean they'd ease up on the mandates for what the characters can and can't do.

    Basically, I'm just going under the idea that maybe Sega might see the $$$ that the movie made and they will try making the games more like the movie, not that just casting the same actor would alone affect the writing. But I personally want the games to retain their own identity, because honestly the movie was so far removed in so many ways despite so many people's love for it (I just found it decent myself).

    On the topic of Jaleel White, if they insist on bringing back Classic Sonic again in the future, I really would like for them to get him back. Even if his voice changed, I'm sure he could still do a decent take. I recently rewatched AoSTH (and all of SatAM, which I only watched half of back in 2011 when I bought the DVDs), and he honestly gave a very good performance. If other adults can imitate young Jaleel White, I feel like the man himself can still do a decent take.
     
    Last edited: Jan 28, 2021
  6. Antheraea

    Antheraea

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    upload_2021-1-28_17-29-56.png
     
  7. Gestalt

    Gestalt

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    Damn, what in the world are you up to, Sega? Roger was a star! Getting a bit excited for what's to come next.
     
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  8. BadBehavior

    BadBehavior

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    I'm basically the same. My only worry is that... ok, it was established that Sega replaced Drummond with Griffith to bring the games closer in line with Sonic X. So it stands to reason that if Sega cared about consistency, they'd hire Schartz?

    But since Sega is Sega, is there any guarantee that this will be the case? What are the chances that they are not gonna do that, and instead do something cuckoo bananas that will satisfy nobody?
     
  9. Mecha Sally

    Mecha Sally

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    Damn, this was a shock. I thought he was a great Sonic. Best of luck to him!

    Curious as to who the new actor would be. I'd be okay if Schwartz was the main voice but I doubt Sega will have that kind of money.
     
  10. jubbalub

    jubbalub

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  11. Metalwario64

    Metalwario64

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  12. lopinjop

    lopinjop

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    Plain and simple, I'm tired of SEGA's bullshit. This is the third time they've swapped Sonic's VA as they were hitting their stride. Ryan Drummond sounded great in Heroes. Jason Griffith was really starting to bring it in Black Knight. Roger Craig Smith was great in the Sonic Boom show but was never given any good material in the games.

    Bullshit and disrespectful. What a way to kick off Sonic's 30th anniversary.
     
  13. I'm almost certain Sega were the ones who sacked him to save money, and this more or less gives credence to that.

    So I highly doubt Ben Schwartz will ever voice Sonic if thats' the case. If this is how Sega treats Roger, imagine how they'd treat him.
     
  14. Turbohog

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    It really does seem like Sega of America treats voice artists like shit. Ryan Drummond even had a chance to return after Griffith, but they wanted him to leave his union.
     
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  15. lopinjop

    lopinjop

    Sonic 25th Anniversary Party Enthusiast Member

    https://twitter.com/RogerCraigSmith/status/1354961709564219402?s=19

    Roger comments on Tara Strong's tweet with some kind of inside joke and doesn't correct her on the situation. I think it's very safe to assume Roger was let go.

    This probably just goes as deep as SEGA being shit and treating their voice actors as disposable, as Tara has pointed out.
     
  16. Beltway

    Beltway

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    I wonder if someone within Sega (of America) has floated the possibility of just nuking English VAs from the franchise altogether. If saving money is the big reason they keep dismissing VAs, the logical zenith would surely be to stop hiring them completely.
     
  17. Sid Starkiller

    Sid Starkiller

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    I cannot possibly imagine such a decision going over well with people. 100% every single review and casual gamer will call Sega cheap fucks if they jettison English VAs.
     
  18. JaxTH

    JaxTH

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    Jack shit.
    Could this be another cass of Sega Japan throwing around their weight again when they made Sega of America use the 4KIDS voice actors back then?

    I kind of doubt it since SOA is supposed to be in charge of the Sonic brand now, but who knows.
     
  19. Frostav

    Frostav

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    Despite being a diehard Adventure kid, I can say that I liked Roger Craig Smith's take on Sonic--when he was doing funny Sonic. And I mean actually funny, like the Boom TV Show. I could never imagine Drummond or Griffith doing that kinda stuff as Sonic, so Smith fit very well in that. However, he is a poor fit for any time the series wants to be at least a little dramatic. Of course maybe it's just his direction, and he could do a fine job if given a good script and direction. We'll just never know.

    The problem with this is that even if they give Sonic a great VA, or hell, recast everyone (but Eggman), they'll still suffer from bad voice direction and scripts. Even a diehard Adventure fan like me will admit: Sonic has never had a consistently high-quality script except for probably Unleashed, and the voice direction is always just off in some way (even in Unleashed, Chip's VA clearly struggles to maintain the high pitch he needs and a lot of his lines just blatantly feel like they hastily used the second or third take and didn't care if it sounded a bit bad). I really wish they would at least improve their direction in that quality, but I doubt they will, so it doesn't matter what new face comes in, they're gonna get dragged down by the direction and script.

    I will concede though that the direction got a little bit better in the boost era. The Adventure era has a lot of really awkward direction, especially SA1 where damn near every line feels like it was recording completely out of context of each other line and yes I know that's how American dubbing works but it's super bad and distracting in it. SA2 still has some weird stuff but feels a lot better, Heroes is way worse, Shadow is...actually decent, and 06 is once again back to being painfully stilted. Except for Eggman, somehow. They give the villain better direction than the hero! Or maybe it's because Eggman's thespian villain lines are harder for bad direction to mess up.

    Also there was that one line in Shadow's story in 06 where they straight up used a flubbed line take where the VA repeats himself and like...come on, SEGA.
     
    Last edited: Jan 29, 2021