Sonic the Hedgehog is finally making the leap from the video game screen to the movie screen and it will be Ben Schwartz who will give him a voice. Schwartz does a lot of voice over work, and if you look at the collection of characters he's brought to life in recent years, and interesting pattern seems to emerge. Many of the characters reached their peak popularity during the decade of the '90s. This isn't an accident.
From Sonic the Hedgehog, to Ducktales, to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Ben Schwartz has been part of several properties that brought back popular '90s characters for a new generation, and the actor recently told CinemaBlend's own Jeff McComb that this is all entirely intentional. Schwartz says he auditions for projects related to things he was personally a fan of as a kid. Check out his comments in the clip below.
And I mean, can you blame him? We all grew up as fans of something, a movie, a TV show, a video game, and if we had an opportunity to be part of that thing we loved, who wouldn't jump at that chance? Ben Schwartz has simply been in the position to actually make good on that love. Most of us would be happy being part of one of our favorite movies or shows, and he's been able to do several.
Ben Schwartz mentions The Disney Afternoon, the place where most us saw Ducktales for the first time. Now, as part of the rebooted Disney Channel series, Schwartz plays Dewey. He has also voiced Leonardo as part of Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, characters that every kid of the 1990s will know from various animated series that started in the late '80s and ran through most of the '90s. Schwartz has spoken about how he worked hard to get the Sonic job. Clearly, these are more than just jobs to him.
He'll also be joining a Marvel property as a voice in the upcoming M.O.D.A.K animated series.
And those things that he loved were great because other creative people, game designers, animators, and voice actors, made something that he loved, and so he sees this as his opportunity to pay it forward. In 30 years when Sonic the Hedgehog gets rebooted, maybe its voice actor will reveal that they fell in love with the character because they saw this weekend's new movie as a kid.
And based on the early word, it seems like something like that might actually happen. Sonic the Hedgehog has solid reviews going into its opening weekend and it's poised to win the domestic box office. The movie has come a long way considering the first look at the high speed hedgehog had viewers freaking out a little over the character design.
And if that success does come through, Ben Schwartz could become the voice of Sonic for a generation, as it seems clear the movie is looking to build a franchise off the little blue guy.
