Griffith Out; Widespread Change Effective for Colors, Free Riders
It was touted as “franchise changing news” by Sega Europe’s Kevin Eva on his independent radio broadcast Sunday. We opted not to cover it on it being yet another “announcement of an announcement,” the last of which was underwhelming at best. In truth, upon the actual announcement today, the only thing changing for the Sonic franchise will be the voices behind them–not the direction of the games themselves.
Sega affirmed Roger Craig Smith is the new voice of Sonic in-game minutes ago, replacing Jason Griffith, who had voiced Sonic since 2005. The 34 year old Smith has voiced numerous characters for games and ANIME, notably for both ends of the Naruto franchise, and as the voice of Chris Redfield in Resident Evil 5. For Tails, Kate Higgins assumes the role. The 40 year old is also a Naruto alum, and she has also voiced an array of game and ANIME characters. For Sega, she most recently voiced Valkryia Chronicles and MadWorld.
Mike Pollock retains his role as Dr. Eggman.
The changes are effective as of the next two Sonic games, Sonic Colors for the Nintendo Wii, and Sonic Free Riders for XBOX’s Kinect. Sega’s statement notes that “just about everybody in the ‘active’ cast” was replaced.” Knuckles is confirmed to appear in SFR, and Amy’s likely to appear in Colors, and those voices too will be changing as will others like Shadow, TSSZ News has learned, but it’s presently unclear who will assume those roles.
On Tuesday, Sonic Stadium webmaster Svend Joscelyne let half the cat out of the bag, reporting from sources Griffith was out. We’ve also learned through another independent source that the circumstances of Griffith’s depature weren’t so rosy, and we’ll give you that angle in the coming days. The third component of this is whether fans will truly will see this as “franchise changing,” as Eva touted Sunday. Do you? Talk about in our comments section. We’ll gauge fan reaction later this evening.
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This isn’t a bad thing, since the Sonic franchise has changed their voice cast many times. Stop whining and complaining, since you all got your wish already.
Is it weird that I want to see Peter Cullen voice Omega and/or Tara Strong voice one of the female characters in the Sonic franchise?
I can’t believe it either, this happens in a ton of other franchises and none of those fans claim the news as franchise changing. half the time As far as i know VA changes are rarely ever made a big deal except in this fanbase.
Hmm, this will be interesting.
Aw. . . I liked Griffith. . .
You gotta’ be kidding me. Now theres gonna be another side of the fan base arguing with the Drummod and Griffith sides of the fan base.
Talk about a sucker for punishment. Does SEGA think Sonic 4 and Colors will make it all better?
There better be a good reason for letting Griffith go. I mean he did a good job so far since Unleashed and Secret Rings.
This IS franchise changing news. All Sonic news is franchise changing news. When a new update is released on a game, it’s franchise changing news because it changes what we previously knew about the franchise
On a very, very technical level, Edge, you’re right.
On a purely hyperbolic level, which this was clearly intended to be, don’t kid yourself–not so much.
-T
Then what is it if it isn’t franchise changing news? Are you suggesting that the only franchise changing news are the announcement of a new cartoon, anime, comic or game? Then by that logic the announcement of a new cast would also be just that. No matter what you split it, this *is* franchise changing news. I don’t understand why anyone would think otherwise.
I think Kate Higgins fits Blaze better then Tails & Smith sounds like a perfect Sonic right next to Ryan & Jason
UGH! I have no choice but to face the fact that Sega is not going to Ryan Drummond as Sonic. This makes me so infuriated. Course, it’s good they booted off Griffith. But still, I wish they brought Drummond.
Okay guys, here’s top 15 of other new Sonic voice characters:
1.Knuckles: Jack Black
2.Espio: Johnny Depp
3.Silver: Pete Capella
4.Rouge: Lani Minella
5.Blaze: Melissa Altro
6.Omega: Jon St. John
7.Shadow: David Humphrey
8.Vector: Danny DeVito
9.Metal Sonic: Ryan Drummond
10.Amy Rose: Kyla Pratt
11.Jet: Jason Griffith
12.Storm: Dan Green
13.Wave: Cree Summers
14.Cream: Rebecca Handler
15.Big: Patrick Warburton
Do you like my ideas guys?
@Ryan OMG BIG PLAYED BY PATRICK WARBURTON WOULD BE THE BEST VOICE EVER.
I’m so happy to hear that the 4Kids cast is being kicked to the curb; and that they kept the va I warmed up to. I’m looking forward to hearing their voices~
*moment of silence* congratulations on a good run, jason, and wish the best of luck for the rest of your career. Though fans gave you and the rest of the cast a hard time I can honestly say that you finally captured the spirit of sonic in unleashed and SatBK. You did a wonderful job from the beginning with shadow by the way. I hope SEGA chose well
I don’t consider it franchise changing. Years ago I was a little whiny fan brat who put too much stock into the voice acting. Now I’ve come to realize that I shouldn’t have put so much focus on it. So nah. Maybe back then I would have considered it franchise changing because heh. I kinda did. But not now.
But if Jason Griffith and Dan Green and all of others decide to continue voice acting then I wish them the best of luck!
I don’t think Kyla Pratt is gonna have the role of Amy Rose. She doesn’t fit well with the role i think. As for the rest of the 4Kids cast, I think they got sucker punched on the face with this kind of announcement.
Tristan, AAUK admitted that the term “franchise-changing” was a bit overdramatic but did say it would have been a noticeable difference.
Don’t change Dan Green! He was awesome as Gawain!
I personally liked Jason Griffith as Sonic, but as long as Mike Pollock stays as eggman I’m happy, he does a great job as eggman.
Soul, regardless of his backing off, AAUK should have known full well not to say it in the first place. It still promoted a Hell of a lot of hysteria for not a lot of returns, and in a situation we’ll speak of Friday, it prompted the release of something originally intended as private.
If anything, it should discourage “announcements of announcements” like this in the future. People are beginning to grow tired of it, myself included.
-T
yes. maybe tails will sound bearable, rouge won’t sound about fifty, and cream’s voice will drop down to a more tolerable frequency. I didn’t care for Knuckles or Amy’s voices either. Those were the only complaints for me. (Wait Jet…that TERRIBLE voice…) I didn’t mind Sonic’s voice, or Shadow’s and a few others.
Aw. I loved how Jason Griffth voiced Sonic. It was the bomb.
Its hilarious because before people talked about how much they loved Ryan Drummond and hated Jason Griffith, whereas now people talk about how much they loved Jason and are unsure about the new VA.
Jack Black as Knuckles?
I laughted, and hard lol <– It's a smiley
I can hardly imagine him as Knuckles X'D *Globox´s voice talking in her mind*
And waaaait….
Vic Mignonga? Nooooooo no no nooo X'DDD (Not that I don't like him, he's good)
And defenitely not Johnny Depp \o/ I don't think he would fit
But anyways…. I'm happy about these news, I kinda hated Tails' voice actress! And I actually never got used to Jason, I always liked Ryan better! I do hope this new one is GOOD
I also hope Amy gets better voice actress! Not that I didn't like her previous voice, but… I just think she need better voice
Oh yeah, Musikman!
Jet’s voice actor was Jason Griffins X’D
He was also Shadow : D
Actually, this change might be good for the franchise.
With the new VA’s might bring in new fandom (Come on, anyone who loved Ezio from Assassin’s Creed has got to be at least interested), that piled with the new (eventual) releases of Sonic 4, Sonic Colours and Sonic Free Riders might bring more profit for Sega, which would be a good thing.
I don’t think it would change everything, but it would bring in a few curious fans of these popular voices.
I’m still gonna miss Jason tho, he made a good Sonic and a great Shadow (and a meh Jet).
Aw, but I liked Lisa Ortiz being the voice of Amy! D:
Does this mean Sonic will punch boulders in Colors? :O
(Since Roger IS the voice of Chris Redfield in Resident Evil.)
Very curious on how they’ll work… Can’t go wrong with a more professional cast though.
Which new voice actor for Amy Rose for new Sonic games?:
A.Lisa Ortiz
B.Kyla Pratt (My favorite female movie actor ever!)
C.Jennifer Douillard
D.Melissa Altro
Pick a vote, guys….
People just complain because they are afraid of change, personally I can’t wait to hear Roger’s Sonic voice, I hope he at least will try to bring a new sound to the table instead of just copying the old actors or the Japanese one, it would be interesting.
wow. a 40 year old woman voicing tails. that’s just gay.
While I’m quite glad that Eggman’s voice is going to remain the same and Tails’ voice actor is changing as well, I’m also a bit bumbed. Sonic’s and Knuckles’ voice actors were really good in my opinion, excluding the english dub of Sonic X, ever since Sonic X was cancelled, I think all of the voice actors have come a long way. What I’m really upset about the most though is the fact that Dan Green won’t be playing Knuckles anymore, Dan Green was really the only one that I always had a special place in my heart for. His voice just fit Knuckles so well, personality wise. I just wish they weren’t replacing mostly all the characters’ voice actors.
I also think this change will help the franchise though, with the new VA’s and all. Alot of the new VA’s have been in other things, so it might bring in more fans, which will really boost up Sega’s profit income.
Hopefully all this change will be worth while, and I have a good feeling Sonic will finally get his place up at the top.
Which new voice actor for Amy Rose for new Sonic games?:
A.Lisa Ortiz
B.Kyla Pratt (My favorite female movie actor ever!)
C.Jennifer Douillard
D.Melissa Altro
Pick a choice, guys.
@ zesty
Yeah. And now check how old is the Japanese VA of Max/Masato from Pokemon anime.
“If this happened then there is a chance that the Japanese Sonic actors could change.”
Please no. I became a Sonic fan a bit more than a year ago because of Sonic’s Japanese VA (Jun’ichi Kanemaru) and would be sad if he had to stop voicing Sonic now.
However, changes in the Japanese cast are much less likely than those in English cast. In Japan, most of the characters are still voiced by the same people as in Adventure/ Adventure 2/ Heroes/ whatever other game the character debuted in. Only exceptions I can think of are Tails (yeah, if you want your character to be voiced by a pre-pubescent boy, keep in mind that for the sequel you will probably need a new VA for this character – and this applies for both Japanese and English version; in both Tails’ VA switching ended when they finally hired a woman to voice the young fox), Big (his Japanese VA from Adventures died) and Amy (had a different VA in Shuffle, I don’t know why). So I don’t think that the Japanese cast will change, unless SOJ had a really good reason. (Speaking of reasons, I wonder why is actually the English cast being changed now.) And if even this happened, at least I wouldn’t have to worry about new voices – Japanese VA are usually good.
Anyway, I hope that Smith will voice Sonic as good as Drummond and Griffith (I personally think they were both great as Sonic, although no match for Kanemaru) and that I will like new voices of Knuckles and Rouge much more than the current ones.
i hate griffith as sonic but i like him for shadow
tails voice just sucks since shadow the hedgehog
i love tails voice in sonic adventure 2 and i hope that Kate Higgins do a good job with tails :3
Mike Pollock had done an awesome job as Eggman after that Deem Bristow passed away u.u
sorry for my bad english
Hmm, I wonder if Griffith will stick around as Jet, I think he was OK there. But yeah, Chris Redfield as Sonic. So is Shadow gonna be Wesker? lol This should be pretty cool. I can totally see Kate Higgins as Tails, though I woulda picked Maxey Whitebeard (Alphonse-FMA:Brotherhood) or Zack Tyler Eisen (Aang-Avatar:The last Airbender).
How is it so many people liked Griffith’s Shadow though? I mean, I guess I shouldn’t say I hated his Shadow, I mean most of the time I couldn’t hear it so I guess I don’t have any material to judge it on. Hey what if Crispin Freeman got to be Shadow. That would be some raw shit there. Hell, either C. Freeman or Steven J. Blum would be amazing. Also Silver should totally be Johnny Young Bosch or Vic Mingona.
@Skai Cyan: I think Kyla Pratt should voice Amy and Jack Black should voice Knuckles but they had to contract with Sega first.
Wait… I just noticed something… why is anime spelled in ALLCAPS!!!! ?
I liked Griffith & co… but I love Chris Redfield too! But… I hate new Chris with his boring voice and muscles… XD So… well, I love resident evil and madworld so I give the new ones a chance.
YAY! NO MORE JASON GRIFFITH! Although I think he got better towards the end of his Sonic career, I’m glad he’s gone! I heard demo clips for both Smith and Higgins, and I can tell that SEGA is making the right decision on this one! YAY! -dance party-
@Edge
they said “most” of the cast will change so there a good chance they might keep Bella Hudson as Blaze voice. Bella is the only ture voice for blaze!