Hello everyone. As you may be well aware of by now, SEGA's Sonic and the Black Knight for the Nintendo Wii has recently hit US retailers and many people have already played through the game's main story. With this game, however, does NOT come Ryan Drummond's return as the voice of Sonic the Hedgehog. However, while looking through the credits at the end (or even near the end) of the game, one can spot a couple tidbits pertaining to how SEGA may undergo voice casting for various characters.

First, let's take a look at the usual cast we're all familiar with from 4Kids Entertainment.



First of all, let's look at the producer and directors of the 4Kids voice recordings for this game. While many people tend to believe that SEGA and Sonic Team send their own producer and/or director to 4Kids' studio to oversee the recordings for their games, these credits once again show that such is not the case. Salvatore Oppedisano, Chris Collet, and Julie Rath are all people who are stationed within 4Kids and have worked on many of 4Kids' own shows and previous Sonic games (go look them up on google and you'll see), with no mention of anyone from SEGA or Sonic Team overseeing any of their recordings. Something to consider when it comes to the quality of the voice acting being done there, I suppose.

Second, let's look at the voice cast itself. Nothing really out of the ordinary here, with Jason Griffith voicing Sonic and Shadow (Sir Lancelot), Dan Green voicing Knuckles (Sir Gawain), Bella Hudson voicing Blaze (Percival), Amy Palant voicing Tails (The Blacksmith), and Lisa Ortiz voicing Amy (The Lady of the Lake). But wait a minute, that leaves out three characters from in this game's story, specifically Caliburn, The Black Knight, and Merlina. Who are they voiced by if it isn't any of these listed actors from 4Kids? Well, you might be surprised...



That's right. Not only were these characters all voiced by actors OUTSIDE OF 4KIDS, but these are also actors who had previously worked on other SEGA games. Casey Robertson was reported to have worked on SEGA games such as Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller, Chromehounds, and Nights: Journey of Dreams, while Gavin Hammon has voiced for SEGA's Iron Man, and Melissa Hutchison has voiced for SEGA's Shining Force EXA. This wouldn't be the first time SEGA has hired their own voice actors to voice certain characters in more recent Sonic games, however. In Sonic Rush Adventure, Captain Whiskers and Johnny were voiced by Lonnie Hirsch and Christopher Pellegrini respectively, two voice actors who have also worked on some of SEGA's previous games.

So what could this mean for us and our cause exactly? Well, from a technical standpoint, this could pretty much dissolve any rumors there are of SEGA and 4Kids having an "All or Nothing" contract deal, in which SEGA would have to use only voice actors working with 4Kids and no one else. Seeing as no such deal has been put in place, there could be a strong possibility for Ryan Drummond to return as the voice of Sonic even with other members of the 4Kids cast remaining in their respective roles. While that may not be a total victory for some of us here, it may definitely be something for SEGA to strongly consider.

To be fair though, lot of what I've stated above could be considered as speculation, but I do think this is something we should all think about and possibly research on. After all, it never hurts to think and talk these things through carefully. So please, feel free to post a comment below and let me know what you think!

*dons a Charmy Bee Sing/song voice* I smell a loop hole! A very interesting find you've got there SF! Perhaps we can use this to our advantage. I mean, I think it's pretty obvious that Ryan Drummond has voiced for a SEGA game before! Besides, isn't Pete Capella (the voice of Silver the Hedgehog and Chip) working outside of 4KIDS now? Perhaps if we brought this information up to Ryan himself, we could see what he could do about it. Fantasy has some ties to Ryan doesn't she? Perhaps she could relay some of the to him! This definately pokes my interest, I'll say that much! Good find!

Yesterday, I was watching SatBK's credits (I'm spoiling myself on this one, guys!) and noticed that same thing, SF.
I didn't know who those guys were until you brought it up, I just thought of it for a while (as I danced "The Knight of the Wind"), and assumed they would be the voice actors of Caliburn, King Arthur and Merlina, three new characters voiced by, possibly, no one from 4Kids. I'm glad I have confirmation. Thanks.

Let's hope Ryan Drummond comes back.
But even if it takes a while more listen how Jason makes in this game two of Ryan's famous lines "Too easy, piece of cake." and "That was tight!". They sound very similar to how Ryan sounded, not voice wise, but tone and timing wise. Which is awesome. I want Ryan to come back, but until he comes, I want Jason to sound as good as possible.

Is it possible that Jason's performance is due to a different direction? What do you think? I mean, he sounded just like Ryan!

Well that kind of makes me more disappointed.

Ryan is available outside of the 4Kids cast and yet they didn't call him in???
This is bad. We need to go bigger. Because frankly, Jason Griffith did even better than in Sonic Unleashed. Pretty soon our voices calling for Ryan's back are going to fade into nothingness (if they hadn't already). People are getting used to these voices!!!

What is even more interesting is that it's in 4Kids' studio with the same directors of their other shows. And some of them have preeeeeety terrible acting. Parts of the scenes actually have good acting from the 4Kids cast. I would think that if some of the directors from the studio that the original cast worked with came to NY to do directing, then the acting would be terrific.

Until that time comes when Sega rehires the original cast back, I'd like it if the current crew kept up the good job, and minimize the bad parts.

Hey guys, I noticed that too and it's kind of suprising and interesting! And look when Jason said "Too easy, piece of cake" he sounded a lot similar like Ryan! Jason has gotten a bit better, I think. I'm still hoping that Ryan Drummond will return. Besides, no one can't do any better than....Junichi.

I bet you anything they played Ryan's voice clips from games ala Heroes and said, "Jason, sound like this." So Jason said the line the same way, but the voice still didn't change. Also in battle mode Jason says "Piece of cake, too easy!" (Heroes result) and "Hey guys, better luck next time!" (from Heroes 2-player mode, and one of my favorite Ryan lines). To me, this just shows that even when Jason has his line delivery right (which he definitely has gotten better with), he still doesn't compare to Ryan cause his voice just doesn't fit a little guy like Sonic, IMO.

One scene I especially recall thinking this is one of the last ones, when Merlina transforms into the Dark Queen or whatever. The storyboard shows Merlina standing on one side, and Sonic standing on the other side of the screen, and he doesn't even go as tall as her waist. I just kept thinking, "It just doesn't fit. Jason's voice is too deep to come out of a little guy like that."

Yeah, you're right, though. Jason's voice doesn't seem to be right for Sonic because it's sounds deep like you said. Ryan's voice fits Sonic the most, because it's energetic and youthful to come out of a little guy like Sonic! Let's get Ryan back!

Dear Save Sonic,
Thank you so much! I'm so excited to join as a member of Save Sonic because I believe this is an oppurtunity for us Sonic fans to work together to help ans support Ryan Drummond. This proves us Sonic fans that we are loyal, have a heart, and supportive. I'm hoping to work for a campaign and other crazy ideas to get Ryan back! I know that we all work really hard to get Ryan back, but I wasn't really aware of it in the past- I'm sorry, but now this is the year of 2009 that Ryan WILL return, and in the end we will be....

SONIC HEROES!!!!

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