Since beginning his career, Ian Hanlin has established himself as one of Canada’s most in demand Voice Actors, and he currently appears as Shadow and Big the Cat in Netflix’s Sonic Prime. Ian’s other prominent roles include: Red & Neiderflyer in Angry Birds: Summer Madness; Owen Grady in LEGO: Jurassic World; Thor in Marvel Battleworld; Killvearn in DragonQuest: The Adventure of Dai; Sunburst in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and Dad Pocket in Polly Pocket. We at Survived the Shows had the incredible chance to speak with voice actor Ian Hanlin, about his experience on Netflix’s Strawberry Shortcake’s Perfect Holiday and about his career in general. Check out the full interview in the video below!
Can you tell us a little bit about your role in Netflix “Sonic Prime”?
IAN HANLIN: Well, in Sonic Prime I play Shadow the Hedgehog and Big the Cat, and it’s been a joy getting to do both of them.
Partly because in every session I get to have the the darker, sort of grittier stuff with Shadow and then I get to have like the lighter, more fun stuff with Big. So I always get both ends of the spectrum every time I get to go work on on Sonic Prime. It’s been a real treat getting to be part of such a cool project. It’s been around for a long time. I grew up playing Sonic myself, so it was really, really exciting.
Getting to jump into those characters and and that world and playing characters that have been around for a while and have been embodied by a few other actors before is a really interesting challenge.
Because, you know, everybody’s always going to have their favorites, of course, and that’s great. But a lot of these characters, you know, nobody bats an eye when another performance of Hamlet happens or something like that, because it’s a it’s a new interpretation and the core is going to be there, but everybody gets to put their own spin on it.
And so I’ve had a really wonderful time getting to sort of put my little fingerprint on these characters for my time and that’s been really, really fun for me.
Plus my nephews are into it, which is always a big plus when you’ve got young people in your life who think that what you’re doing is cool and fun. So that’s been a real treat too. I’m really, really, really proud of the show. I think it turned out fantastic.
The cast is incredible. The writing has been awesome. The direction has been great. The animation is outstanding and I’m very, very excited for people to see the next piece of it that’s coming out soon. So yeah, it’s been a joy getting to work on Sonic Prime.
What can you tease about your next projects?
IAN: Well, most of the time they have us under lock and key with with non disclosure agreements and stuff like that. But I do have some really fun stuff coming up in a few different genres, not necessarily just animation. So that’s been exciting to get to do. And yeah, I get to play around with a few different types of characters that I’ve never really gotten to do before. So that’s been an exciting little run for the last little bit. So I can’t wait to share all of that with everybody once it’s available and hopefully I get to keep doing more and more stuff because it’s really wonderful work and I’m very grateful that I get to do it.
The interview with Ian Hanlin has been edited and condensed for lenght and clarity. Watch the full video interview at the top of the article!
Keep following us for more news on Hallmark Channel, Lifetime and Great American Family Networks!
Desirèe
Please step by our Facebook page SurvivedtheShows, Instagram page @survivedtheshows and Twitter page @SurvivedShows to keep yourself updated!
