Ok, neeeow. Time to put some rumors to rest. I’ll start off with Sonic X. That’s the new Sonic The Hedgehog anime from Japan that is coming over to the U.S., premiering very soon on the Fox Network. Now, a whole lot of you wrote in asking if I was going to be providing Sonic’s voice for this project. Sorry I didn’t get back to many of you yet, for a while there I was getting around 20 Emails a day asking that question and I just couldn’t keep up. But now I’m going to answer the mystery once and for all.The full story is this: I told my contacts at Sega that I wanted to at least have the opportunity to audition for what I believed to be ‘my’ part. I was hoping that I would just be offered the part, but that didn’t happen. Sega told me that the production company who owns the rights to the anime, ‘4Kids Productions’, had all the power in the Sonic X series, and that Sega Team had nothing to do with it. Sega was nice enough to recommend me to ‘4Kids’ and told them I should at least be considered for the role that I’ve been portraying for four years now. At that point, I waited for 4Kids to call me. Never happened. After a while and over 500 Emails from fans asking whether or not I was going to voice Sonic for this cartoon, I decided to call 4Kids myself and find out what was going on. So I put in a few calls and Emails, and after a week, heard back from the assistant of someone I tried to contact. She told me that her boss was ‘too swamped’ to talk to me, and suggested I call the production office. I did, and left a message for someone named ‘Julie’ who I was told was ‘in charge of casting’ for Sonic X. I received an Email back from ‘Julie’s’ colleague. Here’s what it said:
” Dear Mr. Drummond,
I understand that you left a voice message for my associate, Julie Rath today. Ryan, I can imagine how you must feel about having another actor voice Sonic. I can only assure that it was never the aim of 4Kids to change the original voices or replace any of the game voice actors. The simple reality is that we need to hire actors who live in the New York area. Not only are the actors required to voice the shows, but they must be constantly available to record changes and promos on very short notice. Even if the original actors were willing to fly to New York on a regular basis, the compensation for the job and our ever-changing schedule would make it unworkable. Because the voices must match the pictures, phone patches would be impractical. I am truly sorry that circumstances prevent the original game voices from being in the series, and I sympathize with all the game actors. It’s unfortunate that we weren’t all based in the same place. In any case, I wish you continued success.
Sincerely, Michael Haigney Producer of Sonic X”
So there you have it. I am not voicing Sonic for Sonic X simply because I don’t live in New York City. I did respond to Mr. Haigney, thanking him for his honesty, and also telling him that I would have GLADLY re-located to New York for as long as was needed, even if I had to pay my own way there. I also said I thought it was inexcusable to not even give me a call to tell me why I wouldn’t be cast before casting the whole project. Bottom line is, if they would’ve just called me, I would’ve told them that I’d come to New York and be there as long as they needed. But, my friends, 4Kids didn’t even bother to call. I wish them all the luck. Hope it’s a good cartoon.
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