Sonic Prime

[WarTraveller]

https://twitter.com/NXOnNetflix/status/1337079639508967425

I shouldn't be hyped...but I wanna be hyped.

[WarTraveller]

Oh. It got deleted.

[Mike Arcade]

https://www.sonicstadium.org/2020/12/a-3d-sonic-animated-series-is-coming-to-netflix-in-2022/

Either way, here you go.

[MoKat]

1 hour ago, WarTraveller said:

Oh. It got deleted.

Twitter's crap has really gotten out of hand >.<

Quote

The only information given was in a tweet, and the tweet has since been deleted. The tweet, which has been screencapped, did say that WildBrain and Man of Action are making the show.

I don't have much faith in Netflix to produce something good; in this case, I dare them to surprise me for a change. Given that WildBrain and Man of Action are making the show, they may actually have a shot at giving us something decent.

Edited December 10, 2020 by MoKat
added quote

[Wulfsbane]

12 hours ago, MoKat said:

Twitter's crap has really gotten out of hand >.<

It was deleted by the account.

 

It looks like it was a premature announcement. Maybe the deal was reached within the last few days. With the launch in 2022, it would be unwise for the official announcement to come now.

 

There's also a fake image on what it's about.

[WarTraveller]

Well, we know about it now. I agree it seems weird to announce it TWO YEARS beforehand, but then the movie was announced in 2014 and released back in February. My guess is that Sega felt pressured into the announcement after fans called them out on their radio silence after promises of BIG NEWS all year. Sonic always seems to have a history of troubled production. :P

Personally, I'm cautiously excited. It could be good, so long as it avoids the same sort of trappings X and Boom did. The problem is, as ever, how much SEGA's mandates are going to affect what the characters can do and what stories can be told.

[Wulfsbane]

On 12/11/2020 at 12:01 PM, WarTraveller said:

Well, we know about it now. I agree it seems weird to announce it TWO YEARS beforehand, but then the movie was announced in 2014 and released back in February. My guess is that Sega felt pressured into the announcement after fans called them out on their radio silence after promises of BIG NEWS all year. Sonic always seems to have a history of troubled production.

Personally, I'm cautiously excited. It could be good, so long as it avoids the same sort of trappings X and Boom did. The problem is, as ever, how much SEGA's mandates are going to affect what the characters can do and what stories can be told.

Well it doesn't help that the film went through a quasi-development hell cycle with it being moved from Sony to Paramount. I think if Sony knew it was going to encounter problems it wouldn't have been announced at the time. So I dont think it's fully a fair comparison.

Well this year is a bit of an anomaly because of the beervirus. I think they had a big roadmap planned out with announcements, developments, etc. but with the world basically shutting down in March I think a lot of their plans got delayed because of it. Had they known that everything was going to grind to a halt I dont think they would have made that promise. But again, who knew this year was going to entail? I mean look at Hollywood with nearly every film being put on hold and multiple games being delayed because the changes due.

 

Boom really wasn't that bad when you look at it what it was: more of a modern AoStH. The 4th wall breaks were great though. I'll be curious what the show will be.

[Mike Arcade]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.sonicstadium.org/2021/01/ian-flynn-confirms-sonic-netflix-not-based-on-idw/amp/

So far, this is all we know. Which is not surprising, as nothing from any of the comics has showed up in the shows. At least ever sense Athair showed up in Underground anyway.

[TheRedStranger]

On 1/30/2021 at 12:30 PM, Mike Arcade said:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.sonicstadium.org/2021/01/ian-flynn-confirms-sonic-netflix-not-based-on-idw/amp/

So far, this is all we know. Which is not surprising, as nothing from any of the comics has showed up in the shows. At least ever sense Athair showed up in Underground anyway.

Are we doing another canon then?

[Wulfsbane]

Honestly, they should just have everything aligned

[Mike Arcade]

20 hours ago, TheRedStranger said:

Are we doing another canon then?

 

20 hours ago, Wulfsbane said:

Honestly, they should just have everything aligned

So guys, I have your answer right here. The answer is yes...?

As for everything aligned, well...

http://segabits.com/blog/2021/02/01/netflix-and-sega-announce-sonic-prime-a-24-episode-3d-animated-series-releasing-in-2022/

So it's about Sonic trying to save his universe, as well as the Multiverse!

Yep, we're getting a Multiverse story.

[Wulfsbane]

So here's something interesting: Wildbrain currently holds the DiC library rights. So therefore, Sonic Prime could use material from AoStH, SatAM, and Underground if they really are going for a multiverse story.

 

I'm also going to point out it's extremely unlikely that those three will be used at all.

[Mike Arcade]

http://segabits.com/blog/2021/02/02/sonic-prime-to-take-place-in-sonic-teams-video-game-universe-sega-crossovers-not-ruled-out/

So the main world will apparently take place in Sega Sonic.

[Wulfsbane]

Sega crossovers not ruled out

 

Me

[Wulfsbane]

It's up on Netflix now, at least the main page is.

No images or text. Just says "Coming 2022"

[TheRedStranger]

On 2/6/2021 at 6:14 PM, Wulfsbane said:

It's up on Netflix now, at least the main page is.

No images or text. Just says "Coming 2022"

Updates?

[Wulfsbane]

Only thing i've seen is some guy name Justin Peniston is one of the writers. His resume is... nonexistent as he's only written 3 episodes total between 3 series. So one a piece. However, that's kinda common in cartoons now-a-days as usually there's a collective and one person does one episode and then someone else does another one and so on and so on.

Ian Flynn has said he's not currently attached to it but the way he makes it sound is that he's being considered or he has been in talks.

[TheRedStranger]

On 3/1/2021 at 11:49 PM, Wulfsbane said:

Only thing i've seen is some guy name Justin Peniston is one of the writers. His resume is... nonexistent as he's only written 3 episodes total between 3 series. So one a piece. However, that's kinda common in cartoons now-a-days as usually there's a collective and one person does one episode and then someone else does another one and so on and so on.

Ian Flynn has said he's not currently attached to it but the way he makes it sound is that he's being considered or he has been in talks.

That makes me concerned that it will be disjointed, a multiverse perspective ultimately cheapens a plot on fundamental philosophical level. Hard Multiverse Theory basically states all our choices really don’t matter, it’s all a random number generator where all potentials are actualized anyways. You make no significant cosmic differences to existence as existence allows all the  negative alternatives anyways. Heros cannot never be heroic then, the struggle of good and evil meaningless. 
 

 You can possibly do alternatives and avoid this background philosophical nihilism. But seeing how these things go...I doubt the lore will be rich enough to justify alternative Sonics in a way them makes them distinct movers and characters. I expect aesthetics over substance and a chasing of that choppily-animated (and overated) Spider-Man movie I never liked. 

[Wulfsbane]

I'm gonna assume it won't be disjointed as the process probably goes through the committee with them agreeing to the base plot line, the writer writes the episode and the committee double checks to see if it all fits.

 

Again, I don't know right now. There's been very little things to note. I'm gonna assume sometime later in the year we will get a bit info dump.

[Mike Arcade]

https://tailschannel.com/sonic-the-hedgehog/sega/expects-sonic-prime-to-strengthen-sonic-ip/

It looks like Sega is really banking on Sonic Prime to do well. Fingers crossed.

[Mike Arcade]

https://tailschannel.com/sonic-the-hedgehog/prime/concept-art-discovered/

We finally have some fortunate news in these concept art leaks. These were done so accidentally mind you, but still at least it's something considering how radio silent this project is.

Any thoughts everyone?

[MoKat]

What's up with those gloves Sonic is wearing? They look funky

Also, one Robotnik was bad enough - did he clone himself or something?

[Akessel92]

2 hours ago, MoKat said:

What's up with those gloves Sonic is wearing? They look funky

Also, one Robotnik was bad enough - did he clone himself or something?

It looks like an or something 

[Mike Arcade]

8 hours ago, MoKat said:

What's up with those gloves Sonic is wearing? They look funky

Also, one Robotnik was bad enough - did he clone himself or something?

Considering Sonic will be going through a "Multiverse", there you go. Alternate Robotniks galore!

Did anyone else get Alucion vibes from the Tribal Amy in the concept art? Also, Not-Robotropolis!

On that note, kinda dig the shoes Sonic has in this. Alternate Tails looks interesting, he's got 9 Tails too. So does that mean he's older or is he confirmed to be a Kitsune? XP

Also, in one of the portals I noticed an Echidna Flag. Makes me wonder when someone is going to make a snide remark on Twitter.

So far, it looks...okay. Just okay, though I can make some good estimated guesses on how the story could go.

@TheRedStranger @Wulfsbane @WarTraveller Thoughts?

[MoKat]

12 hours ago, Mike Arcade said:

Also, Not-Robotropolis!

Yeah, I noticed.

12 hours ago, Mike Arcade said:

he's got 9 Tails too. So does that mean he's older or is he confirmed to be a Kitsune?

Possibly both; he -is- an alternate Tails afterall

18 hours ago, Akessel92 said:

It looks like an or something 

Probably alternate versions of Robotnik, given the multiverse stuff; for a minute there I was concerned that it was something like the Bowser brats all over agian

[WarTraveller]

I get the impression this WASN'T supposed to leak like this. XD

Still tho. Honestly? It looks good!

[Wulfsbane]

It feels like this could be something to different Sonic's per dimensions. I like how the gloves and shoes change per setting.

 

On 6/23/2021 at 11:04 PM, Mike Arcade said:

On that note, kinda dig the shoes Sonic has in this. Alternate Tails looks interesting, he's got 9 Tails too. So does that mean he's older or is he confirmed to be a Kitsune? XP

 

Probably a different Tails from that dimension. Which would be an interesting concept to be honest.

 

 

Also that concept art was not supposed to be shared. The artist in question accidentally left his profile out to be public

[Mike Arcade]

We got more than just a 10 second teaser here, so that's something. XP

[Mike Arcade]

Hey we got something more substantial, and a release date for December 15th!

Also, apparently in this show Rouge is a part of Sonic’s crew, which is pretty interesting as that’s not ever really the case. No complaints on my part though, that’s pretty neat.

We also get a look at some Alternate Counterparts as well. Looks like things went bad for Tails in the Tail department.

But really, I’m shocked the show runners got away with that. Considering how uppity they were back when Rise of Lyric was in development.

On that note, Ay Yo did Amy get Mostly Roboticized!?

So yeah, any thoughts? Let us know.

[Mike Arcade]

And now we got the full trailer up. Gotta say, I’m not a fan the more I see.

[Sorzo]

I'd honestly probably be more willing to accept the majority of the dimensions being nonsensical, one-note gimmicks if the show appeared to be leaning into wacky, screwball comedy in the vein of AOSTH. It wouldn't be a particularly interesting approach suited for meaningful characterization, but it could potentially still be fun. Having what seems to be the main alternate universe be more serious clashes with this, however, and I question the wisdom of half-heartedly committing to a dystopian urban setting ruled by Robotnik(s) as the apparent main source of conflict when doing so will only invite comparisons to a certain other Sonic series that took a similar concept and went above and beyond to realize it. 

[Mike Arcade]

Well, we got a scene from our Bad Dimension Tails on how things went south for Tails in this go around.

Gotta say, it’s not a bad scene, and it’s really sweet to see Sonic perk up the lonely kid. Although the fact they had the two bullies from Origins in the Flashback makes me wonder when SEGA gave the Showrunners info on Origins to make that scene.

I’ll probably check Prime out, watched every other Sonic Series, but I’m not expecting anything great. Jungle and Pirate World really hamper my enjoyment of this show, and cashing in on the Multiverse trend doesn’t help either.

[Mike Arcade]

After much speculation and leaked concept art, Sonic Prime has finally been released to Netflix for a wide, general audience. Headed by the team Man of Action (of the Ben 10 Series) and produced by SEGA and Cookie Jar Entertainment (who hold the rights to all three DiC created Sonic Cartoons of the 90’s). There has been much speculation as to how this Sonic Cartoon will fare, after the disappointing sitcom that was Sonic Boom. Yet there is much concern to a Sonic Series focused on a “Multiverse”, something the Blue Blur was no stranger within Comic Book Incarnations. With 8 Episodes a Season out of a 24 Episode run, how is this newest take on the series? Without too many spoilers, I’ll give you my thoughts as to how this dimensional hopping adventure has been so far…

Sonic Prime: Season 1 Review
A Paradox of a Series

Premise: Taking place in a similar (or the same, according to an interview that’ll be linked toward the end) world of the games, Sonic has made a terrible mistake. After shattering a newly discovered powerful gemstone known as the Paradox Prism, Sonic has found himself in another world entirely, with different variations of friends and foes alike. The Blue Blur must find his way through different dimensions in this “Shatterverse” and hopefully find his way back home. However, these differing counterparts of familiar faces may provide more problems than expected, along with visions of his arch rival Shadow trying to tell him something, it’s gonna take a lot more than just attitude and brute force to get out of this mess.

The show itself is based on the concept of the Multiverse, something that has recently become a popular fad due to the visual mediums of Marvel showcasing it to their audience with its more recent MCU content, and Sony Miles Morales Spider-Verse films. Which means that there are Many Worlds with different versions of you or people you know, it’s been a cheap popular cop out story device since comic books of the 60’s that’s only expanded more so in recent years.

Animation: I can say that one positive of this show is that its animation is actually pretty decent, its action scenes aren’t stilted and there are several scenes that feel smooth. Simply put, this isn't like Sonic Boom which barely had any sort of a budget. XP

Voice Acting: For the English Cast, it’s an entirely different group of VAs. VA Work tends to be very contentious among fans, however there is no need to worry about that regarding this show. All the new VAs do a fine job in their roles. They definitely feel like their characters and I can’t really complain, although there are two minor issues I have. Big sounds just a bit off earlier, and for some reason they have a VA voice only the Main Knuckles, but have someone else voice all his counterparts. It’s a very strange choice which I don’t understand.

Fun Fact though, Brian Drummond (no relation to Ryan Drummond) who voices Eggman, previously voiced Knuckles in Sonic Underground all those years ago! It’s nice to see he’s got the range to voice Eggman, who for many Mike Pollock is simply irreplaceable.

There are many different languages to hear this series too, and if you go with the Japanese Dub, you’ll find the VAs of the Games!

 

Story: I can at least say, unlike in Sonic Boom there’s an actual story arc, with a few mini arcs for the other characters throughout the show. As in, there’s a recurring plot. But I’ll get more into some aspects of it later.

Characters: Sonic is the only consistent character on the show due to the show’s premise, so it’s up to him to actually keep audiences interested. I will say that he’s very much Sonic, although a little too dense for my taste, although it makes me wonder if the reason for that was so younger audiences could get what’s going on.

With a shifting roster of a cast, it’s surprising to see that we do have more of a recurring roster than you’d expect. If the mobile games Sonic Dash and Sonic Forces: Speed Battle have shown you, the most noticeable are Tails Nine (Simply refers to himself as Nine in the show) and Rusty Rose. The Former being a possibility if Tails had never met Sonic, while the Latter harkens back to something like Roboticization and Legionization. Otherwise…there’s not much else to say.

Negatives: …

The Concept of this show was a bad idea in the first place.

I mean there’s a lot wrong with this series creatively and objectively, for one the first world and main focal point of the show so far called New Yoke (yes really) is nothing more than a distaff, discount counterpart of Robotropolis from Sonic SatAM. Why they couldn’t use any characters from the previous shows or if there was some sort of budgetary reason, or internal reason as to why they can’t use such characters despite one of the producers literally having the license of those shows is still beyond me. Only the above-mentioned characters are the ones that are tolerable, with Nine being a breath of fresh air as a competent Tails after Sonic Forces.

While I know that the recent comics and Sonic Frontiers have backpedaled hard after the 2017 game, having Tails be far more pro-active in terms of tech and against robots was nice to see. That could very well be some bias in seeing such a form of the character, even if he isn’t written as well as he could have been. But he’s certainly far more tolerable compared to everyone else!

The Main Villains of that World, and possibly of the series, is a strange, macabre group of Eggmen called the Chaos Council. Comprising of Eggman clones/himself throughout time/family members, it’s very unclear what these cutouts are supposed to be. Each of them with ridiculous names (hehe, Dr. Deep), although don’t be surprised that most of them don’t do much of anything.

Yet somehow, every other character is worse. Now, I will say that the brief glimpses of the Normal Sonic Characters we get are fine, like a glimpse of a show we could have had. But the rest of these counterparts are somehow worse.

The rest of them are inane, stupid, and strangely bloodthirsty. All of which have variations of a title (example, Sails Tails) to fit the theme of their Bad, Jungle, and Pirate Worlds shown throughout these episodes. Although you can tell which characters were given a sliver of thought, as those characters are the focus of these worlds. You could cut out these insert theme world characters and literally lose nothing of value.

I’d say that these are basically for toy sales, if SEGA’s track record of Sonic Toys weren’t so poor.

What really kills this whole show is the innate nihilism of its multiversal concept. Why should we care what happens to Sonic if there are other Sonics out there? For that matter, does anything that happens in this show really hold any weight in the grand scheme of things? I’m not just talking about the show’s context, which I can get in the Spoiler tag, I mean in terms of the Sonic Series as a whole.

SEGA has a mile long track record of abandoning concepts and franchises as a whole, Sonic being no exception. Do you all honestly think after this show is over, even if it has one or two popular characters in it, that we’ll ever see them anywhere else ever again? All this does is create more variations of characters that will once more be abandoned, it doesn’t help that this show only uses content from the games only, and will very well likely not use anything from previous iterations considering this Series track record. All it does is make fans for characters you will never see again, which is just…cruel.

Like Nine and Rusty Rose kids? Too Bad! Go buy our merch that only caters to our video games, what we put out in comic books and tv screens never matters!

 

Spoiler

Bizarrely enough, the Season (if you can call it that) ends with Shadow confronting Sonic in Shatterspace, stating that their world is going because of him. Which is pretty wild to have Sonic inadvertently destroy his own home, although I do have an idea as to where the show runners will probably end things.

See, Nine builds a ship and uses one of the Prism Shards to travel to different worlds as part of this Shatterverse as he calls it. This leads him to an empty world he calls The Grim, and would like to make a new world here with the Shard to have the home he never got. I’m willing to call out and say that Sonic's World can be restored if all the Shards are gathered, but doing so will destroy all these other worlds.

Thus, not making this a “True Multiverse” in a sense. However, if that’s true they’ll probably end it with Sonic’s World restored, but that Grim World turned to a living world with all the Shatter Characters now populating this separate pocket dimension. Don’t be surprised if that happens, and if it does I so called it. XP

Overall: There are far too many allusions to previous shows in this, at least I keep finding them. They might not even be accidental, one character acts a lot like Sticks. I just don’t understand why this show exists at all. Was it because of a previous contractual obligation? Who can say? If this is to bring in a new, younger audience into Sonic, then hey that’s nice to have new fans. My problem is they’ll get roped in real quick as to how this series will dump characters you like that don’t fit the Games Canon, and there’s nothing they can do about it.

This show is not the way to get an audience, and I honestly can’t recommend it for long term fans. I doubt it’ll get better as it goes along, but I can at least say that it’s a show that is made with some sort of budget that has a recurring story. However, it’s got the opposite problem of Sonic Boom, whereas you keep hopping to different worlds and variations, not knowing who will stick. Is this a story that really needs to be told? I can give the Spider-Verse movies some credit, whereas they used established variations of Spider-Man to hit some center of nostalgia, as shallow as it can be, with a curiosity over how they are adapted. This show however needlessly creates hollow, toy themed variations with no toy to sell. To variations of characters that kids who grow up with this will never see again, all this does is create a new generation of jaded fans that'll see the tricks that'll be played, and while the series is at a high point with Frontiers being successful, if that momentum doesn't keep, what then? If they don't acknowledge that past, how can there be a future? Especially when they know fans want to see the different characters from the heyday of the series.

Who is this series for? The Younger Kids who are getting into Sonic? Or the eagle eyed fans who understand the allusions, or rather ghosts from previous entries? You can't be both and have a good show, especially if you are chasing the multiverse fad.

I’ll always recommend the older DiC Cartoons, especially SatAM, and the Movies over this any day of the week, if you still like it then enjoy it while you still can, but don't be surprised if this show's legacy ebbs away like so many others.

Bonus: Here’s a recent interview as to how the voice of Sonic and one of the showrunners view their new show, gotta say they sound far more optimistic about it than I am of it. Make of this what you will.

https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/netflix-sonic-prime-deven-mack-logan-mcpherson-interview/#7

[Mike Arcade]

…no, no I’m not. X_X

[Mike Arcade]

Like it or not, the trailer dropped for the new episodes.

Gotta say, other than Sonic and Shadow teaming up, and this new Sonic Robot at the end, these next few episodes seem to be going exactly how I thought they’d go.

But hey, it’s not like the writing in this show is that predictable, right? XP

I wonder if this new robot will go by Metal or Mecha Sonic. Hey, it’d be crazy if that’s a modified Rusty Rose. XD

[Mike Arcade]

So, it's been like forever since I posted here, but needless to say Sonic Prime is not good.

I can do more, but I think that time has passed. Maybe I should make a video review of it though? At least, gotta make it entertaining if I do so.

[MoKat]

20 hours ago, Mike Arcade said:

Maybe I should make a video review of it though?

Go for it; I'm sure you can come up with some funny things to say about it.