Why doesn't Sonic's voice sound like it used to? 

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Meanwhile, the voice of Eggman: "You guys are getting recast?"

It's kinda funny that Shadow's voice was based on Griffith's roommate. Like, imagine living with Shadow the Hedgehog lmao

I love how each voice actor brought something special to Sonic, I find it very hard to choose a favorite honestly.

Don’t forget about his single voice line in Sonic CD. “I’m outa here!” Which was entirely different than any other Sonic voice and was noticeably stylistic.

My favorite Sonic voice is Griffith's because he actually sounds youthful and energetic, plus he's got that "hell yeah" attitude, but also has that tone that he's a nice guy. EDIT: First, I'd hate to be cliched, but thanks for all the likes! Secondly, I've been warming up quite a bit to Ryan's Sonic to the point where he's my favorite.

That's so cool that Jaleel had a goal of "no race" for his Sonic's voice. I think he really achieved what he set out to do.

Jaleel, Ryan, Jason, Roger, and Ben are all equally great Sonic VAs in my eyes. They all do a good job at giving Sonic his unique attitude while putting their own personal spin on it without straying too far from the other’s takes.

usually i hate voice actor changes but all the voices for sonic fit so well

It's surprising to think that, at one point, Jason Griffith as Sonic was CONTROVERSIAL. Nowadays, pretty much everyone PRAISES his voice as Sonic.

Fun Facts: 1) Sonic's Japanese VA has been voicing him since Sonic Adventure and is still voicing him today. 2) The only voice that remained the same after the Colors recast was of Dr Eggman played by Mike Pollock

Ryan and Jason will always be the “true voices” of sonic for me in terms of the games. Roger Craig Smith still kinda weirds me out with his take, but I understand his “aged” voice was requested by Sega. Ben Schwartz is awesome though, as a live action, and hell, maybe even a possible game voice actor.

Honestly, I feel like the idea of Sonic voice always changing makes it more realisitc, shows how he grows up as a character and so his voice changing throughout the games makes a lot of sense.

I personally prefer Jason Griffith's voice. His performance in Unleashed was just perfect.

jason griffith feels perfect for the role. young without being childish and can be effortlessly cool, calm, energetic, or mature when it calls for it

Sonic Adventure 2 was the first time I ever heard Sonic speak, and so Ryan Drummond will forever be the PURE iconic voice of Sonic for me. Roger Craig Smith does an excellent job and I love him for his performance. However I will always be comparing every voice to that iconic during the hay day of Sonic games.

13:55 Sonic's Voice started to be come more grown up. 14:05 *plays the most grown up sounding audio in Jason Griffith's career*

"You're going to play in my schoolhouse" sounds like something the police should be notified of

Ryan Drummond will always have a soft spot in my heart. Mostly because I've played the living daylights out of Sonic Adventure 2. Roger Criag is really solid however. He really has the role down at this point.

Now roger’s sonic voice is even deeper

Griffith stays and will always be my favourite Sonic VA. He just sounded so good and Sonic sounded so tough and mature, which were one of the main things I loved about him. By Griffith's voice, you could really tell Sonic has grown and evolved through the years and that he really is 'the modern Sonic' as we should refer till the day of today. Sonic Unleashed is a very good and cool example of that.

Interesting to hear how Ryan walked in and landed himself the role. He really lucked out.

Jason’s voice was my childhood but also I think he’s the perfect evolution from Ryan Drummond’s sonic, he felt like an older more mature version of the character especially from Unleashed. His sonic will forever be my favorite.

Sonic Underground was my childhood, even if i was born 2016, i still LOVED Sonic Underground, it was my first ever show that was a favorite. I remember singing the intro sonic when i was 1-3 years old saying "Sonic Underground" repeatedly.

Much respect for Jaleel making sonic of no specific race. Just hero.

Still waiting for "Why doesn't Thomas Game Docs' voice sound like it used to"

"Why doesn't Sonic's voice sound like it used too?" Me, an intellectual: "Isn't Sonic a teen? Isn't it just puberty?"

Sonic schoolhouse nearly made me cry when I heard that voice the first time, it’s just so jarring

I like how Sonic’s voice progressively get older

I’m to this day still so disappointed that JUST as Jason was really settling into his role, he was booted. I grew up with his voice, and it’s my all time favorite Sonic. I love all the other VA’s, but Jason’s Sonic just had a certain something that I really can’t explain

i do love that the Japanese voice has been the same since adventure

This may be an unpopular opinion, but my favourite is Roger. It’s the fact that he sounds mature and everything since Sonic is now 30 or 31, so I think it fits him.

"Why doesn't Sonic's voice sound like it used to?" *Cause the voice actor is old as hell.*

The fact that Roger Craig Smith can nail the Sonic voice then turn around and nail the Batman voice has always astounded me!

You can tell Ryan was very passionate about voicing Sonic. He had been doing the voice for five years by that point. So it's very infuriating to hear how SEGA did him and rest of the original cast dirty like that by secretly firing them over a cartoon.

as someone who actually met Roger Craig Smith through skype, he's such a nice dude and I love him sm man, it was a surprise for me when he brought out the Sonic voice that made me fangirl a lot, its nice to meet VAs, even if you have known one for your whole entire life lol *looks at Jon ST Jon (VA for Heroes Big the Cat and Duke Nukem)*

13:33 he also took the part for shadow… I’m sorry WHAT HOW not going to lie cool!

I actually really like Jaleel white as the voice actor. It really fits the attitude sonic had in the 90’s. But my favorite modern sonic voice actor has to be Jason Griffith

Japanese executives spent more money flying back and forth to argue about Ryan Drummond than it would have cost just to pay the man fairly for Generations on.

All voices were great and can't really pick a favourite. I think what matters most is that Sonic's personality remains unchanged.

I actually like all of Sonic's voices. They keep the character design in mind and make it their own (for reference my first game was Sonic Heroes so I grew up listening to Ryan). It's really cool. Too bad the games haven't been good for a while though.

You missed his voice actor in Sonic CD. If you wait for 3 minutes in a level of the game without moving or doing anything, Sonic will literally jump off the stage and yell "I'm out of here!"

I'll be honest, I love all the Sonic voices the same amount! Except the Sonic Schoolhouse one, it was a different time back then

I have to be honest, late 2000s Jason Griffith was my favorite Sonic voice. It just sounds so heroic and genuine.

man your vids never dissappoint

I was ecstatic when Ryan Drummond reprised his role as Sonic in EmuEmi's Sonic & Tails R, alongside Jason Griffith as Shadow, and I know I wasn't alone in feeling that way. Ryan Drummond and Jason Griffith will forever be Sonic to me. I have a soft spot for Jaleel White, and even Martin Burke (I feel like they both capture Sega of America's and Sega of Japan's interpretations of Classic Sonic, respectively, very well). I may not enjoy Roger Craig Smith in the games (he sounds far too old and different from the prior voices, just in my own personal opinion), but I do think he's incredible in the Sonic Boom TV series, as I've always viewed that incarnation of Sonic as older than the character in other continuities. Really, I've greatly enjoyed all of the English Sonic actors (barring Meg Inglima, lol) and I do hope some of them can return in future projects from SEGA. Maybe in their animated projects or potential remakes/remasters? We'll see.

When Steve said "If you can't already tell,I'm black,so I wanted to make Sonic's voice a voice that you can't tell race from,you can't really wonder "Is he black? Is he white? Is he surfer?" No. He's just hero. And fast" My respect for him skyrocketed even more. I really like that tactic.

Martin Burkes portrayal of sonic is perhaps one of ny favorites ever, even if he is out of character sometimes.

It's interesting to watch this video again with the announcement of Sonic (and most of the other Sonic characters) getting a new voice once again in the upcoming Sonic Prime show. Maybe they were planning on having the Prime voice cast, or at least some of them, take over for the games as well earlier in the show's development, but went back on that to avoid a controversy like the 4Kids recast in the early 2000s. Who knows, I wouldn't be too surprised if they're still planning on doing that sometime in the near future, but just waiting to properly gauge the fan reception to the new voices first.

Ryan Drummond will always be my Sonic he really nails down Sonic’s Personality. That’s not to say the other VAs are bad, it’s just my preference.

My favorite English Sonic voice is ALWAYS gonna be Jason Griffith. I technically first heard White's Sonic voice when I was little, but it's been so long that I can only recall it if I actually hear it. I mostly grew up watching Sonic X, and playing games like Black Knight and Unleashed (Jason's best performances imo), so Griffith is always the first voice that comes to mind when I look at Sonic. I do of course still enjoy Roger's take on the character. He really did shine in Sonic Boom and his voice direction in Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 was AMAZING, and I'm glad it seemed to stick, considering he sounded equally great in Rise of the Wisps.

Bro this is a great vid ❤

Looking back, there was a time that I wanted Ryan to come back, but honestly, I like and appreciate every single actor that voiced the blue hedgehog, they all bring a uniqueness to the character, and RCS has done justice for Sonic, and so far, he's been the longest voice actor for the game series.

As much as I like Roger Craig Smith and am glad he's keeping the role, I do kinda miss Jason Griffith's Sonic sometimes. That might just be because I grew up playing the games he stared in, but when you think of Sonic's voice, his take is really the first thing you think of. Ironically, it's also the most heavily mocked version of Sonic's voice, but that's probably because it was just so iconic and memorable.

*everybody knows the best Sonic the Hedgehog voice is his voice from “Sonic Schoolhouse”, great job Meg.*

Great video, i always wanted to know why Ryan Drummond was dropped. Sad really. Hopefully he returns one way or another.

For my opinion, I think I would say I like Jaleel White’s voice of Sonic best. This is mainly because I grew up watching Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Underground. It just feels wrong when I hear Sonic’s newer voice actors since Jaleel White’s just gives me that nostalgia. I don’t really like the newer voices, but I have gotten to know them a little. But if you ever ask me who the “true” voice of Sonic is I would have to say Jaleel White is. I respect everyone’s opinion, but I feel that he does the best job when it comes to voicing the character.

I really liked Jason Griffith and his aggressive Sonic voice. I'm sure you all loved that, "NOW I'LL SHOW YOU ARGHHHHHHH!!."

My favourite thing about Jalell White's interpretation is that he sounds like every kid in the playground when they're playing action roles during play time. It's really charming.

14:55 „tying”

yooo this is nice go on with the good work

I really like Smith's voicing in the Boom cartoon series, though I feel like a lot of that comes from him being set up there as jaded and snarky and just excessively done with everything about Eggman, which doesn't work so well in one of the mainline games.

Jaleel White & Jason Griffith were really the best two sonic voice actors

A video on Eggman’s voice will also be super interesting, provided you also include his Robotnik voices as well.

man sonic is one of my childhood cartoon one of my favorite

I really like Roger Craig Smith’s performance, especially in the newer media. Jason Griffith did a really awesome job in Unleashed though. I like these 2 the most.

4:17 Actually, Sonic was played by a woman named Paula Arundell in Sonic in Sydney as well. It was a stage musical performed at an Australian amusement park in 1997, but all we have are some pictures and a CD that has the full audio of the show and the full length songs, because for some reason only about a third of each of the songs was in the performance

I didn’t even grow up with Ryans sonic voice, I only heard Jasons as a kid but Ryan sounds like how Sonic sounds in my head.

17:31 no he did not leave like ryan, they dumped ryan.

I personally think that Roger fits as Boom Sonic the best, Jason fits best as Modern Sonic, and Ryan fits Sonic’s Classic the best. Also, pretty angering to see that SEGA didn’t even give the Adventure - Heroes VAs a warning before just pulling the plug and saying, “Sucks to be you!”

Sonic's voices in the last decade or so have really taken a "goofy, smart aleck" turn. It's interesting. The "cool, confident" kind of voice Griffith and Drummond went for were totally different. Griffith is probably the best and most iconic, but I think the script and performance of Smith in Sonic Boom are pretty fantastic.

“Damn not here” brings back so many memories on that game

And now we got the voice of sonic from sonic prime, and from the live action movies

Jaleel is my favorite, because he brought us "That's no good!"

To this day, I still think Jaleel White should've voiced Classic Sonic in both Generations and Forces. Yes, I know he is an adult and back then he was young. So I understand that Jaleel wouldn't have the same pitch for Classic's voice. But I wouldn't mind if he tried.

Drummond;s voice in Sonic Adventure 2 - was toooo 'good guy' 'hero' 'please like me, I'm perfect' to me. Griffith was my favorite sonic voice.

Casting for Sonic characters has always been super fitting imo and Sonic especially has such a recognisable voice that even with the difference in delivery with the different VAs it doesnt waver the immersion

There’s actually another sonic voice actor He’s Ben Schwartz He plays Sonic in the Sonic The Hedgehog movie

Ryan and Jason are probably my favorites. Though that’s my biased as I grew up on those voices. Will say I do love how the first voice actors take on Sonic still has some elements in Sonic’s voice as we know today.

the voices kinda match since he’s growing up like how he was tiny at first in the games and in the first released cartoons and then turns slowly into a teenager and a deep voiced mature adult

I didnt really like or watch/play much to do with Sonic (i didnt dislike it neccesarily just wasnt my thing as a kid) but the voice from @6:43 is the voice i remember hearing as a kid for sure. No wonder the meme sonic videos ive been watching sound sooo different

Wow, Sonic's voice has been changing a lot more than I thought.

Would’ve been odd if you talked about Sonics Japanese voice being that he’s had the same VA since 1998

I think you forgot something. Ben Schwartz was the voice of Sonic in the 2020 version of the Sonic the Hedgehog movie. The same would go for Sonic 2 and maybe Sonic 3. You forgot to add that.

Fun fact, even the Hebrew voices of Sonic had a history (though it's only the sonic cartoons that I know that had a Hebrew dub and only 4 of the current five sonic cartoons as of now): in his first cartoon: adventures of Sonic the hedgehog, Sonic was voiced by Dan kiesler (who would also voice jay from ninjago, Gideon from gravity falls, Theodore from the CGI cartoon of Alvin and the chipmunks and bling bling boy from Jhonny test. He would also reprise his role as sonic in wreck it Ralph). in the 1,993 cartoon, sonic is voiced by liron Lev (who would voice Alvin from the CGI cartoon of Alvin and the chipmunks, prince zuko from avatar the last Airbender, agent oso, fanboy from fanboy and Chum Chum, rob from the totally spies movie, neji from Naruto, Walter from the muppets films, Cedric from sofia the first and trunks from dragon ball and Iron man from Marvel in many media appearances and many more characters. He would later reprise his role as sonic in the second live action sonic film). In sonic x, sonic is voiced by Ido musseri (also known as the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants, kuzco from the emperor's new groove, syndrome from the Incredibles, Hollywood fish from chicken little, peck the rooster from the barnyard film, crane from the film trioligy of kung fu panda, terry McGinnis from batman beyond, Elliott the deer in open season 2, Rick in camp candy, cardcaptor Sakura as Toya kinomoto, Tintin in the adventures of Tintin: secret of the unicorn, Lefty maginnis in everyone's Hero, Freddy frogface from Freddy frogface,ham from space chimps, captain N and mega man from captain N the game master, gnomeo from gnomeo and Julia, marty from Madagascar and turbo from turbo). In Sonic boom, sonic (along with shadow) is voiced by Eran mor (who Also voiced kaos in Skylanders academy, Soos and rumble from gravity falls, danzel, mark, dark laser, francis and juandissimo from the fairly odd parents, rocket raccoon in the guardians of the Galaxy and guardians of the Galaxy origins cartoons, crane, ke pa, Tong fo and Bian zao from kung fu panda legends of awesomeness, Metalbeard and han solo from the Lego movie, tweety in baby Looney tunes and the looney tunes show, Alec, Kim, nino, plagg and hawkmoth from miraculous, Emile from a monster in Paris, Mr. Bean from Mr. Bean the animated series, pops and muscle man from regular show, Jack frost from rise of the guardians, toffee and Tom from star vs the forces of evil, player one from underdogs, patchi from walking with dinosaurs, belly bag from uncle grandpa and Nick Wilde from Zootopia).

Personally, I think they all fit in their own way. They brought to life a beloved character that has grown over time and gained new experiences. While the earlier voices are very obviously products of the 90s, they still work just as well for how the character was portrayed as the current one does for who the character has become since.

So that’s why Roger has lasted for so long. No contracts to hold him back, none to stop him. The best circumstances.

I loved all of the voices for Sonic, but my absolute favourite would have to be Roger Craig Smith's. He puts so much soul into it I mean you can't help but to feel good when watching Sonic Boom. And I hope and pray that he get to voice Sonic in the upcoming third movie (given that Sonic is older by then and would fit the voice rather nicely - especially if Jason Griffith becomes the voice of Shadow once again)

Sonic the hedgehog has always been popular to Sega, like how Mickey Mouse is popular to Disney, or how Bugs Bunny is iconic to Warner Bros..

Actually, Ryan Drummond, Jason Griffiths, and Roger Craig Smith are all the same person in different disguises. He has to change Sonic's voice every so often so that nobody figures it out. The rest are different people though.

Man, i Really Miss Drummond as Sonic Roger is not bad either, but that "OH YEAH, THIS IS HAPPENING" gives me 10 years to live

Just want to note that it could have been nice to delve into Jaleel White's performance in Sonic Underground because he was an adult at that time and had a similar but older sounding direction for Sonic. Otherwise really nice video for historical purposes.

Ryan Drummond and Jason Griffith were/are the best Sonic voices. They nailed the cool and crude attitude perfectly.

I’m surprised you didn’t mention Ben Schwartz, who does Sonic’s voice in the new movies. He does great job portraying the character as well

Jaleel White is my favorite Sonic the Hedgehog voice actor, hands down. And by the way, DiC is not pronounced "Dee-Eye-See". It's pronounced "Deek".

12:30 pefcly cut scream

I personally like all the voices.

“D-I-C entertainment”, cmon thomas…spit it out ;)

I grew up with Jason Griffith’s voice. Sonic rush was my first sonic game and I grew up watching the sonic X anime. So when I heard it changed to Roger Craig Smith I was absolutely stunned. However I have to say that each of the son of VAs do a great job portraying sonic in their own way!

Jason Griffith’s Shadow sounds SO SIMILAR to his Kalin Kessler voice from Yu-Gi-Oh 5D’s 😭 lowkey so nostalgic