Sonic Boom (TV series)

For other subjects with the same name, see Sonic Boom (disambiguation).

Sonic Boom known as Sonic Toon  (ソニックトゥーン, Sonikku Tūn  ) in Japan, is an American-French CGI-animated television series developed by Sega of America in collaboration with OuiDo! Productions, based on the Sonic the Hedgehog video game franchise created by Sega. Sonic Boom is the fifth animated television series based on the Sonic franchise, the second developed by SEGA following Sonic X (plus the second series co-produced in France following Sonic Underground) and the first ever television series in the franchise to be produced in computer-generated animation and in high definition.

The series premiered on 8 November 2014 in the United States on Cartoon Network and released on November 19 in France on Canal J. The show launched in Spring 2015 on the French children's network Gulli, and was followed by an international launch on other countries. The series is a part of the Sonic Boom spin-off franchise, which consists also of two video games, a comic book series and a toyline.

The series is aimed at children, teenagers and adults, and centers around Sonic and his friends Tails, Amy, Knuckles and Sticks, and their never ending search for adventure and their battles with their arch nemesis Doctor Eggman. Other characters, both new and old, also join the ensemble.

The series was announced to be available for streaming off Hulu by the end of May, 2016 and has been since 18 May. Due to Hulu being a US exclusive service, the series has been made available for streaming outside of the US on Netflix as of December 23, 2016.

Production
The Sonic Boom animated series was designed as a spin-off from the main Sonic continuity so the staff could take the characters and their world in directions the main series could not. It was first announced in October 2013, revealing a teaser image featuring the show's four main protagonists, Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Knuckles, in silhouette form. The series, which originally consist of 52 episodes with eleven minutes of running time each, is co-produced by Sega of America Inc. and OuiDo! Productions and was developed by Evan Baily, Donna Friedman Mier, and Sandrine Nguyen, with Baily and Bill Freiberger as showrunners, under the supervision of Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka to ensure that it was true to the Sonic characters and universe. Mike Banker also assisted with writing the television series. On 6 February 2014, Sega revealed the first trailer for the series, showcasing the new designs for the characters.

Many of the current voice actors for the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series returned to voice the characters of the series, including Roger Craig Smith as Sonic, Travis Willingham as Knuckles, Cindy Robinson as Amy, and Mike Pollock as Dr. Eggman, while voice actress Colleen Villard succeeded Kate Higgins in the role of Tails. The series also introduced a new character named Sticks the Badger, a crazy and paranoid hunter who has been living alone in the wilderness for many years before meeting Sonic and his friends, who is voiced by Nika Futterman. In an interview with Polygon, Iizuka stated the series came about as a desire to appeal more to Western territories, following the 2003 Japanese anime series Sonic X, with Iizuka also stating that the franchise will run in parallel with the 'Modern' series of Sonic the Hedgehog games. Baily has stated the series is a mixture of action and comedy, featuring an episodic structure. On 4 October 2014, Sega announced the air date of the series in the United States to be 8 November 2014.

On February 19, 2015, Cartoon Network announced in a press statement that Sonic Boom, along with ten other shows, will return for the 2015-2016 TV season. This was subsequently confirmed by executive producer Bill Freiberger in a fan commentary to not be an indicator of a renewal or second season at this time. However, on October 10, 2015, Lagardère Entertainment Rights announced that a second season is currently in production. The final animatic of the second season would be edited on November 27, 2016. Like season one, season two will include 52 episodes of eleven minutes length each. At Tomy’s Toy Fair in New York, the second season was given an official premiere on Cartoon Network in Fall 2016.

Jordi Valbuena would return for season two as the series' storyboard artist, like in season one. At Sonic Revolution 2016, Bill Freiberger announced that "if there is a season two," there would be both new and old characters (like T.W. Barker, the Stunt Bears and D.B. Platypus ) and other surprises from other areas of Sonic. It was later confirmed that Shadow and "more characters from the Sonic game universe" would make an appearance in season two.

Sega itself officially pulled back the curtain on the second season at the Sonic 25th Anniversary party in San Diego with a sneak peek of "Spacemageddonocalypse". Later, the video game Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice would feature sneak peaks on concept art revealing characters, storylines and subjects to be introduced in season two. Following the premiere of "Tommy Thunder: Method Actor" on Cartoon Network, it was announced on November 10, 2016, that the remainder of season two will air on Boomerang to make the channel more desirable On 9 February 2017, Lagardere Studios Distribution signed pre-sales to more than ninety countries around the world to air the second season of the show.

On December 17, 2016, storyboard artist Clemence Liberge stated on Facebook that there will be a third season for Sonic Boom. This has yet to be officially confirmed. A Japanese dub of the series was announced to premiere on Netflix on 1 July 2017.

Plot
Sonic Boom is set in a wide-open world on Seaside Island, where most of the characters live in and around Hedgehog Village. This vast landscape is filled with jungles, mountains, undersea civilizations, cloud cities and all kinds of other environments. Residing on this island are Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends: Miles "Tails" Prower, Knuckles the Echidna, Amy Rose, and Sticks the Badger. The gang spend their days trying to ward off the evil (and often zany) plans of Dr. Eggman, who is bent on taking over the island and subsequently the world. In this ensemble of a comedy that pokes fun at action-adventure storytelling, Sonic faces regular battles with Eggman’s henchmen, including loyal robots Orbot and Cubot, evil interns, and giant, robotic monsters.

Cast and characters
The cast for Sonic Boom was confirmed by Sega on 25 February 2014. Jack Fletcher works as the voice director.


 * Roger Craig Smith as Sonic the Hedgehog/UT/Dave the Intern/Young Gogoba/Admiral Beaverton/Professor Cluckins/Morpho
 * Colleen Villard as Miles "Tails" Prower/Mrs. Vandersnout/Zooey/Belinda
 * Travis Willingham as Knuckles the Echidna/Burnbot/Obliterator Bot/Old Monkey/Soar the Eagle/Mr. Slate
 * Cindy Robinson as Amy Rose/Perci /Elderly Gogoba/Justin Beaver
 * Nika Futterman as Sticks the Badger /Diane Aardvark
 * Mike Pollock as Doctor Eggman/Fastidious Beaver/Mayor Fink
 * Kirk Thornton as Orbot /Shadow the Hedgehog/Wolfie/Leroy the Turtle/T.W. Barker/Chameleon/Monkey-Boy/Salty/Charlie/Redd Heron
 * Wally Wingert as Cubot /Gogoba Chief/Dixon/D.B. Platypus
 * Bill Freiberger as Comedy Chimp/Lady Walrus/DangerCo Deadly Equipment Warehouse Worker/Process Server
 * Robbie Rist as Swifty the Shrew
 * Mike the Ox
 * Metal Sonic
 * Bee Bots
 * Crab Bots
 * Motobugs
 * Gogobas
 * Weasel Bandits
 * Earl

Reception
The series has received mostly mixed to positive reviews and currently holds a 6.3 rating on IMDb. Common Sense Media gave Sonic Boom 4 out of 5 stars. Critics pointed the show out for being a bit violent for children and making usage of name-calling, but praised it for its light humor and recurring themes about friendship and teamwork. Sonic Boom later won the award for Best Animation at the 2017 Chico Independent Film Festival, namely under the director, Natalys Raut-Sieuzac.

Sonic Boom was also selected for the annual Export Awards of 2017 in France, which rewards the best-selling french television programs worldwide. On the twentieth of June 2017, Sonic Boom was nominated for a "Teen Choice" award for animated TV shows.

Trivia

 * This is the first Sonic the Hedgehog television series to have fully computer-generated (CG) animation.
 * The intro sequence for the show in the United States is actually a shortened version of the actual intro sequence. This full intro sequence is used in France. According to Bill Freiberger, this is because the two countries' channels (Cartoon Network and Gulli respectively) have different delivery requirements.
 * The intro shows all the main characters in order of appearance with Sonic being first, then Tails, Amy, Knuckles and finally Sticks.
 * Although it has been confirmed that OuiDO! is doing the production for the show, the first reveal of the show credited the company's original name, Genao Productions. OuiDO! was later acquired by Technicolor Animations Productions and they are now credited with producing the show under that name.
 * Each episode in the Sonic Boom television series takes about eighteen months to produce.
 * When writing episodes, the staff break the stories together by writing the scripts separately and then doing a group punch-up session at the end.
 * The max allotted time the staff has for the recording session of a Sonic Boom episode is four hours, every two weeks. Actors that are absent at the appointed time are recorded next time. The lines themselves are recorded over a year before the episode airs.
 * This is the third Sonic the Hedgehog animation to be produced by Sega; the first being Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie and the second being Sonic X. This is also the second Sonic the Hedgehog animation to be made in France, the first being Sonic Underground.
 * Very similar to the canon of the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog television series, every episode will be a standalone.
 * A number of Sonic Boom video games have been given a timeline placement in accordance to the television series:
 * Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric and Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal are prequels to the series.
 * Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice takes place sometime during season two of the series.
 * It is the longest time to wait for a new show in the series - eight years passed from the original airing of the last episode of Sonic X (2003-2006) to air the first episode of Sonic Boom.
 * The voices of the Team Sonic (except Sticks) and of Dr. Eggman in the Portuguese Brazilian dub are the same as the voices of Sonic X.
 * Bill Freiberger said that the developers have no rights to use characters from non-Sonic Boom versions of Sonic, meaning no Archie Comics characters, no characters from the other TV series in any Sonic-related media and no characters from games outside the main series.
 * The staff does not use locations from the Sonic games as more than references or dialogue jokes in the TV series.
 * When creating characters for the show, the writers do not tend to specify the characters' species unless it is motivated by the story. Instead, they leave the animation team to decide the design.
 * In several episodes where written text is showcased, the words and sentences either appear obscured or are written in gibberish. Bill Freiberger has explained that Sonic Boom does not show words because it is an international coproduction and thus needs to play in many different languages.
 * In Singapore, Sonic Boom ' s first season is treated as two separate seasons.
 * Throughout the first season Orbot's and Cubot's voices were changing from lower-pitched to higher-pitched in the Russian dub.
 * In Finland, the show was available on Ruutu.fi called web page, where all broadcasts can be watched afterwards. The show was available to be watched for Ruutu+ having users during April. The show's real starting date in Finland is September 5, 2016.
 * Although the second season of Sonic Boom premiered on Cartoon Network on October 29, 2016, the trailer for the second season first came out on November 17, 2016, five days after its debut on Boomerang and one day before the premiere of "Spacemageddonocalypse" on the same channel.
 * There will be multi-part episodes in the second season of Sonic Boom.
 * Hulu lists the episodes in broadcast order while internationally, Netflix lists the episodes in production order.
 * Additionally, Hulu lists every two episodes as one show (similar to how the show originally aired its first 6 episodes) making the number of episodes listed as 26, while Netflix lists each episode individually and lists 52 episodes.
 * A cat screech can be heard in every episode of season two.

Trailers
TV Trailer = Get to Know Sticks Trailer = E3 2014 Trailer = Behind the Scenes = Sonic Boom 2014 Event Trailer = American TV Commercial = Australian TV Commercial = UK TV Commercial = Season 2 Trailer = Japanese Netflix Trailer (Season 1) =

Intro sequences
English = French =