Sonic the Hedgehog Cinematic Universe (now with open spoilers)

Where's Colleen O' Shaughnessey's credit?

 

Ben wasn't even on the first poster for the film. So I am not surprised by Colleen's absence.

 

Certainly explains why Tails has been somewhat absent from the marketing.

 

You are absolutely correct. However the minute a company takes a leak down then it makes the public suspicious that the leak is legit.

It’s not surprising that Shaughnessey’s not on the poster but it’s still a disappointing reminder of how Hollywood devalues voice actors. The only VAs on the poster are celebs... and even they are listed AFTER James Marsden. In the Poster for the Sonic the Hedgehog movie, SONIC’s voice actor get’s second billing!

 

Sadly Ben wasn't even on the first poster. I know I know, Ben may not be the Hollywood name of Marsden or Carrey... and even worse he may only be on the second poster cause Elba is.

Which isn't me saying Ben doesn't deserve to be, he is the star of the film after all. Sadly there is also a lot of politics in how those top name billing are even ordered. Let alone who is up there. :/

 

Tika Sumpter isn't on there either. She and Colleen aren't famous like the other 4 are.

 

Men men manly men men men.

The positioning is often important too. There was a YouTube video documenting how posters are designed for films like this.

 

I'm old enough to remember when this whole movie series was originally confirmed as being made by Sony Pictures

 

The annoying part about Colleen being snubbed on the poster is that it feels like it was a concession she had to agree to in order to reprise her role, otherwise they would have just casted someone more famous for Tails instead.

It paints an extremely cynical picture about how voice actors of iconic characters are treated over big time Hollywood stars.

I'm reminded how Charles Martinet, the voice of one of the most famous video game icons of all time, not only was replaced by Chris Pratt, but his name is literally at the bottom of the listed stars. Its disgusting.

 

Right, and when a star more known for their live action work does voice acting for a movie or show, they get hyped up much more than other established voice actors. A casual Simpsons fan probably couldn't tell you who voices anyone in the main family, except maybe Dan Castellaneta, but they could probably name a ton of the guest stars that have had one-off roles over the years due to how celebrated that kind of stuff is. "Hey everyone, a REAL actor is going to be in this cartoon, so you'd better not miss the next episode!"

 

It is sad. Though this is a good watch. Haha.

 

It's also the stuff SEGA were peddling to explain Two Worlds in the games. It's a bit of a ill taste at the moment for fans who like the lore until right around Sonic Colours.

 

While this happening is obviously not a good thing, I think your painting your own picture here. As others have stated, this is absolutely nothing new, and it's pretty much the norm in the west.

It's not even isolated to the voice actor problem. In Superman, Christopher Reeve got third billing in his own movie behind Brando and Hackman, because they were the big stars who sold the picture.

 

Am I not allowed to express my thoughts about it? I didn't say it was anything new, just saying that its a shame that it even happens to begin with.

 

You're allowed to express your thoughts. No one's saying you're not. I just think you're wrong. Colleen isn't that famous. I'm excited that she's voicing Tails, but I'm surprised that he isn't being voiced by someone with more star power. On a scale of fame it's:
Jim Carey
Idris Elba
James Marsden
...
Ben Schwartz
...
a long way down
...
Colleen

It's the same with Chris Pratt and Charles Martinet.

 

Ya the more famous names make it onto posters but I doubt they intentionally left her off. How many names are supposed to be on there? What about Tika Sumpter and Lee Majdoub? It does not mean you’re snubbed or a prerequisite.

Like mentioned Ben was not on the first.

 

Right. But they shouldn't be.

 

Exactly.

If you think of the poster as ‘credits’ then your always going to be disappointed to some degree and while I empathise that people may be upset… I don’t think a hashtag on Twitter is going to change marketing.

The poster is a question of how do we get butts into seats versus information about who is in the film.

That’s why you see ‘from the director of…’ versus the directors name. Because the name alone won’t fill seats… but a popular film might.

I mean… the Simpson Movie poster mentioned not one actor in that film. And it’s the Simpsons!

Why? Because knowing that Yeardley Smith or Dan Castellaneta is in the film won’t matter to the general public.

And it certainly isn’t the director snubbing the talent, it likely isn’t in Jeffs control.