Sonic Underground

Sonic Underground (Sonic le Rebelle in French) is an (originally French) animated television series that follows the adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and his siblings, pink-hued Sonia and green-hued Manic. Sonic Underground bears little relation to the often complex Sonic universe (including previous animated series, as well as Sonic comics and games), and shares only three established characters.

While it was believed for a while that 65 episodes were made of which only 40 aired, Ben Hurst, a notable writer from the Sonic the Hedgehog television show (dubbed "SatAM" by fans), whom was also involved in Sonic Underground's production, stated in a SAGE chat that only 40 were produced. According to Hong Ying, the animation studio who animated Sonic Underground list 40 episodes which is the complete series. Sonic Underground takes place on Mobius, similar to SatAM, but with notable differences. Elements that are not included in Sonic Underground but were present in SatAM include Snively, power rings, Knothole Village, and the Freedom Fighters. Though the Freedom Fighters were included, many of the characters in the Freedom Fighter group that were in SatAM are completely left out (including Tails). Another difference with the Freedom Fighter group is that Freedom Fighters do not remain in one Knothole-like refuge but instead travel around Mobius to battle Robotnik's forces on a global scale; and that Robotnik has left most of the Mobian people de-roboticized, leaving multiple cities, a poor underclass and an aristocracy for the heroes to interact with.

Another notable difference is Robotnik's choice of law enforcement in the two continuities. While both versions featured SWATbots as Robotnik's grunt troops, their designs differed by a mile and more. The SatAM SWATbots also all looked identical, while the Underground SWATbots had two different head designs

Jaleel White provided the voices for all three siblings. The main theme was composed by Robbie London and Mike Piccirillo. The musical underscore was composed by Jean-Michel Guirao and Mike Piccirillo. The series featured 40 songs spread over the series as featured music videos. Each of these songs were composed by Mike Piccirillo.

Plot
Sonic, Sonia, and Manic are the children of Queen Aleena Hedgehog, the rightful ruler of Mobius, and are pursued relentlessly by Doctor Robotnik and his bumbling bounty hunters sidekicks, Sleet and Dingo. As infants, the siblings were separated and placed in hiding to fulfill a prophecy made by the Oracle of Delphius (a spoof of the Oracle of Delphi of Ancient Greece) that the triplets would grow up to find their estranged mother, overthrow Robotnik, and take their places once more as Mobius' rightful rulers.

The three siblings possess enchanted medallions that transform not only into musical instruments, but also into weapons:
 * Sonic's medallion transforms into an electric guitar and laser rifle.
 * Sonia's medallion transforms into a keyboard and laser rifle.
 * Manic's medallion transforms into a drum kit which also has the ability to control seismic activity (triggering earthquakes, rockslides, etc).

Aside from doing battle with Robotnik, with their medallions in instrument form, the trio perform as their underground rock band, Sonic Underground.

Program history
During the build-up to the launch of the Sega Dreamcast, Sega began heavily advertising their major franchises. For Sonic, they contacted DiC Entertainment, who previously made both TV shows Sonic the Hedgehog and Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, to make a new Sonic cartoon. Due to low popularity, Sonic Underground ran for only one season, 1999 to 2000. Since then, the show can now be found in syndication on a few channels, including UPN at 8 AM.

It is now also airing on the UK Channel "POP" at various times. POP has now aired all three DiC produced Sonic animated series. CITV also transmitted the show. All three series will move to Boomerang as part of Boomeraction in 2009. In October 2010, American channel This TV announced they would air the series alongside Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog as part of its Sunday morning line-up.

Sonic Underground is currently airing on Disney XD.

Netflix also features the complete series, though half the episodes have french subtitles.

USA

 * UPN (1999-2000)
 * Cartoon Network (2000-2002)
 * The WB (2006-2010)
 * This TV (2010-2011)
 * Disney XD (2012-current)

Canada

 * Teletoon (1999-2000)

France

 * TF1(1999-2001)

Argentina

 * Canal 13 (2000-2002)

Portugal

 * Fox (1999-2004)
 * HBO (2004-present)

Germany

 * Super RTL (1999-present)

UK

 * ITV1 (1999-2000)
 * ITV2/CITV Channel (2005-current)
 * POP (2006-current)

Ireland

 * RTÈ TWO (2000-2003)

Australia

 * FX (2000-2005)

New Zealand

 * TV3 (1999-2010)

Finland

 * TV Finland (2003-2005)

Brazil

 * Rede Globo (1999-2000)
 * SBT (2002-2004)

Turkey

 * Kidsco TV (1999-2000)
 * Cinemax (2000-present)
 * actionmax (2007-present)

Italy

 * Italia 1 (2000)
 * Boing (2005)

Greece

 * ET1 (2012)

Characters

 * Sonic the Hedgehog: The world's fastest hedgehog and leader of the Sonic Underground. Sonic has two sets of guardians, a couple who were captured by Robotnik and their house set ablaze and his "Uncle Chuck" (he was also in Sonic "SatAM") and in this story, he has a brother and sister (below) and is known to be a prince. He is the lead singer, his medallion transforming into a laser-blasting electric guitar (which can act as a bass sometimes). As fast as the speed of sound, Sonic can easily outrun and outsmart Robotnik's forces. He is a big fan of chili dogs (just like in SatAM and AoSTH) and is rarely far from a chili dog stand. He is terrified of water as he cannot swim. In an alternate reality, Sonic and his siblings were the rulers of Mobius, but Sonic was a cruel, spoiled obese hedgehog from eating so many chili dogs and had banned music on the planet. Sonic makes extensive use of catchphrases in his dialogue, including: "Way past cool", "Bummer Majores!", "It's juice and jam time!" and "Let's do it to it!".
 * Sonia the Hedgehog: The only female member of the Sonic Underground and Sonic's sister. Unlike Sonic and Manic, she was raised by an aristocratic foster family, and she hates getting dirty. She is great at gymnastics and karate. Her medallion can transform into a laser-blasting keyboard. Sonia has a pink motorbike to try and keep up with Sonic. Sonia develops an attraction towards Knuckles at the Flying Fortress saga of the series. Some fans consider Sonia to be a clone of Amy Rose, minus the attraction Amy feels for Sonic. In an alternate reality, Sonia and her brothers are rulers of Mobius, but she likes fashion and finery, not wanting to rule and having to deal with Mobius' problems.
 * Manic the Hedgehog: A cool and calculating hedgehog who was raised by thieves, unlike his siblings. Manic became an expert thief and eventually met his siblings, who disapprove of him stealing. Manic is the drummer of Sonic Underground, his medallion hiding his drums, which can cause earthquakes. Manic is the most often captured of the siblings; he has been under mind control, becoming Robotnik's spy, nearly Roboticized (but was freed), put to sleep, and hypnotized (for a short while). In an alternate reality, Manic and his siblings are rulers of Mobius, but he took away everyone's money for his own greed and enjoyment. In the Flying Fortress saga at the end, Manic's drum kit is destroyed by Dingo when he is a chaos monster.
 * Queen Aleena: Sonic's, Sonia's, and Manic's mother. She had to give them up in order for the prophecy to work. She now is on the run from her own children, until the time is right. Aleena has many allies, including the Oracle of Delphius and Knuckles. She often appears during the episodes, usually to provide guidance or a helping hand, and provides the opening narration at the start of each episode.
 * Knuckles the Echidna: The guardian of the Master Emerald and Angel Island. He is very protective of his island home, and has set many traps about the island. He has a pet Dinosaur called Chomps. His great-grandfather Athair warns him he must stay on the island, in order to play his part in the freedom of Mobius. In the series, the Master Emerald has been changed to a Chaos Emerald, probably due to the fact that the Chaos Emeralds weren't well established in the series and adding the Master Emerald would cause confusion.
 * Dr. Robotnik: Robotnik is the ruler of Mobius, after conquering it with his army of SWATbots. Robotnik lives in Robotropolis where he captures Freedom Fighters and Roboticizes them into his robotic servants. Robotnik's main minions are Sleet and Dingo. Robotnik's round shape doesn't help him stand up straight and when standing on unstable ground, (such as that of Manic's drums causing earthquakes) he bounces about much like a ball.
 * Sleet: One of Robotnik's canine bounty hunters. This cunning wolf leads the bumbling Dingo about on missions to capture the hedgehogs. Sleet has a voice like that of Igor and has a morphing device that can transform Dingo into anything he wishes. Sleet may seem to be a serious villain but he is always failing at missions, only succeeding sometimes. Sleet is constantly being crushed by Dingo and is usually the one who suffers. He does however appear to get away from being Roboticized no matter how angry he makes Robotnik.
 * Dingo: One of Robotnik's canine bounty hunters. Dingo is a huge, muscle-bound dingo who has a relentless crush on Sonia. Sleet has a morphing device which can morph Dingo into anything he chooses (e.g. a chili dog cart, a carpet, or even a woman). In the Flying Fortress saga, Dingo breaks a Chaos Emerald which transforms him into an enormous out-of-control beast that threatens to destroy Mobius, but eventually reverts back to normal (crushing Robotnik in the process).
 * The Oracle of Delphius: An odd, warty, reptilian anteater in a cloak. The Oracle prophecised that when Robotnik invaded Mobius, Aleena and her children would form the Council of Four to overthrow Robotnik and free Mobius. The Oracle lives in a cave somewhere in a cold region of Mobius, and is quite good at making chili dogs.
 * Bartleby: A posh mink who is one of Robotropolis' richest aristocrats. Bartleby is Sonia's former fiancé, who dislikes her brothers and works as an agent for Robotnik. Eventually, Bartleby flees from Robotnik and joins the Freedom Fighters.
 * Cyrus: Cyrus is a lion and the head technician in the Freedom Fighters. He is an old friend of Sonic. In his first appearance he was working as a spy for Robotnik but later quit. Cyrus has appeared several times afterwards. His father was roboticized.
 * Trevor: A mouse who is an old friend of Sonic and resembles a hippie. He is easily captured, but is just as easily freed. Only seen about once or twice.
 * The Freedom Fighters: The Freedom Fighters play an important role in the show as Robotnik's opposition. Notable members include Sonic, Sonia, Manic, Knuckles, Queen Aleena, The Oracle of Delphius, Cyrus, Trevor, Renez and Bartleby.

Other Characters
The Freedom Fighters plays a large significant role in Sonic Underground, opposing Dr. Robotnik's evil reign over Mobius. The leaders are the Sonic Siblings. Cyrus is the head technician, with Trevor as his somewhat assistant. Other notable members are Knuckles, Queen Aleena and the Oracle. Below is a list of other one-time characters, many are Freedom Fighters.
 * Uncle Chuck/Sir Charles Hedgehog: Sonic's uncle from the Archie Comics and the original SatAM series. Like in the comics and the cartoon, he is Roboticized. (He doesn't appear to be Sonic's biological uncle this time around, as he was known to Sonic as "Uncle" through his adopted parents).
 * Lady Windimire: Sonia's foster mother. She was Roboticized.
 * Ferrell: An odd insect-like creature who was Manic's foster father. He was a clever thief who showed Manic the ropes, but he too was Roboticized.
 * Argus: Queen Aleena's body guard. He was captured and Roboticized.
 * Mayor Winniham: A horse who is the Mayor of Mobodoon, the Sonic Underground band's hometown.
 * Mindy LaTour: Mindy is Sonia's old friend and a fashionista. Her father is Mr. LaTour.
 * Mr. LaTour: Father of Mindy, of whom he is very protective. He was forced to create robotic watches for Robotnik.
 * Max: A pickpocket who leads a small group of thieves. After helping the Sonic Underground, he and his posse are given homes.
 * Captain Squeege: A sea sponge who is the captain of the Queen Aleena ferry.
 * Moby Deep: A giant whale mistaken for a sea monster. A parody of Moby Dick.
 * Raphi: A desert dwelling dog who lives in the city of Tashistan with his mother, father and grandmother. His best friend, Sonia, momentarily loses her memory. He is Roboticized in the legs (like Bunnie Rabbot from SatAM).
 * Stripes: A tiger who lives in Lake Valley. He has a crush on Sonia, but originally was a spy for Robotnik only to protect his home.
 * Speed-Bot: A Roboticized chimera-like robot made up of some of the fastest creatures on Mobius. Used by Robotnik in a race to capture Sonic.
 * Berlock: An elderly vampire bat who is the caretaker of Worst Castle, which is supposedly Sonia's ancestral home. He has a pet owl called Hooter. He cannot stand loud noises and is very humorous.
 * Chomps: Knuckles' pet dinosaur. He tries to eat Sleet and Dingo but instead eats their hologram projector. Only seen in "Friend or Foe?".
 * Mantu: The chief of the Speedster Island tribe.
 * Ifyoucan: The tribe leader of a desert clan. He has actually been half-roboticized and hides his mechanical limbs.
 * Aman-Rapi: A deceased Pharaoh who is Sonic's ancestor (and looks and sounds like Sonic). Like Sonic, he adores music.
 * Do-Bot: A robotic hairdresser who hypnotizes her patrons into revealing secrets to her which are sent to Robotnik via a cassette tape.
 * Titus: A scientist who has built a De-Roboticizer. It is revealed it is a fake and it is made into a Roboticizer. Titus falls into it and is Roboticized.
 * Renée: The leader of the Resistance in Anez. She appears in "Sonia's Choice".
 * Queen Sauna: An ancient queen who resembles Sonia. She is worshiped by penguins.
 * A.R.T.: A learning robot built by Robotnik. A.R.T. stands for Artificial Robot of Technology, and he was capable of learning and evolving into more formidable forms. He betrayed Robotnik and joined Sonic Underground. A.R.T. was sadly crushed when Sleet activated a shrinking room in Robotnik's base.
 * Vince: A black-market salesman. Manic sells an orb to him before realizing it is a bomb, but by the time they get there, Vince has sold it to Bartleby. Vince ends up getting Roboticized by Sleet.

Episode list

 * Main Article: List of Sonic Underground episodes

Note: It is not fully known what the exact ordering of episode listing is. Though the closest to official episode list (the version used here) is taken from the Anchor Bay Sonic Underground DVD boxed set. To the right of the episode is the name of the song in it. An alternate episode order was featured on Netflix, the one below is the airing order, while the Netflix is in random order.
 * 1) "Beginnings"* - Someday
 * 2) "Getting to Know You"* - Working Together In Harmony
 * 3) "Harmony or Something"* - We're All In This Together
 * 4) "Wedding Bell Blues" - When Tomorrow Comes
 * 5) "To Catch a Queen" - Have You Got The 411?
 * 6) "Mobodoon" - I Found My Home
 * 7) "The Price of Freedom" - Money Can't Buy
 * 8) "Underground Masquerade" - Let The Good Times Roll
 * 9) "Tangled Webs" - The Children Light The Way
 * 10) "The Deepest Fear" - Face Your Fear
 * 11) "Who Do You Think You Are?" - We Need To Be Free
 * 12) "The Last Resort" - Listen To Your Heart
 * 13) "Come Out Wherever You Are" - Society Girl
 * 14) "Winner Fakes All" - Built For Speed
 * 15) "A Hedgehog's Home is Her Castle" - Let's Do It To It
 * 16) "Artifact" - You Can't Own Everything
 * 17) "Bug!" - Never Give Up
 * 18) "Sonic Tonic" - The Fastest Thing Alive
 * 19) "Friend or Foe" - Not Always What They Seem
 * 20) "Head Games" - Take A Chance
 * 21) "When in Rome" - Where There's A Will, There's A Way
 * 22) "The Jewel in the Crown" - The Cosmic Dance
 * 23) "Three Hedgehogs and a Baby" - Being A Kid Is Cool
 * 24) "Dunes Day" - True Blue Friend
 * 25) "Mummy Dearest" - We Are Sonic Underground
 * 26) "The Hedgehog in the Iron Mask" - Part Of The Problem
 * 27) "Six is a Crowd" - I Can Do That For You
 * 28) "Flying Fortress"** - No One Is An Island
 * 29) "No Hedgehog is an Island"** - Learn To Overcome
 * 30) "New Echidna in Town"** - The Mobius Stomp
 * 31) "Country Crisis" - How You Play The Game
 * 32) "Haircraft in Space" - Don't Be A Backstabber
 * 33) "Healer" - We're The Sonic Underground
 * 34) "Sonia's Choice" - Never Easy
 * 35) "The Big Melt" - Fun In the Sun
 * 36) "Sleepers" - Have It All Again
 * 37) "Bartleby the Prisoner" - Justice Callin'
 * 38) "The Art of Destruction" - The Sound Of Freedom
 * 39) "The Pendant" - Liberty's Gonna Rock
 * 40) "Virtual Danger" - Don't Let Your Guard Down

(*) Part of the 3-part Beginnings saga (**) Part of the 3-part Flying Fortress saga

Cast

 * Jaleel White as Sonic/Sonia/Manic
 * Gary Chalk as Doctor Robotnik
 * Maurice LaMarche as Sleet/SWATbots
 * Peter Wilds as Dingo
 * Gail Webster as Queen Aleena
 * Ian James Corlett as Knuckles/Cyrus
 * Phil Hayes as Bartleby
 * Matt Hill as Trevor
 * Frank Welker as Uncle Chuck
 * Louise Vallance as Mindy LaTour
 * Blu Mankuma as various roboticized residents

Singing cast

 * Sam Vincent as Sonic
 * Louise Vallance as Sonia/Mindy LaTour
 * Tyley Ross as Manic

Trivia

 * For the longest time, people believed there were 60 episodes, but it was cancelled before they could air the next 20. However, an interview confirmed that only 40 were made.
 * Sonic, Sonia, and Manic often refer to Robotnik by the derogatory nickname "Robuttnik" or "Buttnik".
 * This is the first American Sonic series to feature Knuckles and only one to not feature Tails.
 * It is also the only feature a relative of Knuckles: his great-grandfather Athair (originally featured in the Archie comics), who was thought to have been voiced by Sean Connery, while it was in fact voice actor Maurice LaMarche.
 * In the episode "Sleepers", Manic's voice is a little deeper than normal, whereas in the episode "Wedding Bell Blues", Sonic's voice was more high-pitched than normal. In "To Catch a Queen" Manic's voice sounded more like Sonic's as he commented on parts he was stealing for an invention. Sonic's pronunciation of "Sonia" also differed throughout the series. This was probably an oversight by Jaleel White, who voiced all three siblings.
 * The Archie Sonic comics consider Sonic Underground as an alternate universe version of Sonic, and has made one appearance in the series, in Sonic Super Special #10.
 * There are only a few references to the games, including a circular floating fortress that resembles the Death Egg, a large Freedom Fighter-eating spaceship called Predator which closely resembles the Egg Carrier, and Floating Island (Now known as Angel Island) which first appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 along with Knuckles.
 * In the first episode "Beginnings," just at the beginning, there is a statue that strongly resembles King Acorn from the SatAM series.
 * Some fans have commented that the sanctuary at the end of Episode 20, Three Hedgehogs and a Baby, resembles Knothole Village from SatAM.
 * The SWATbots in "Who Do You Think You Are" have a different voice.
 * In the episode Wedding Bell Blues, when the trio are carpet cleaners, Manic and Sonic look like the Mario Brothers.
 * In the episode Mobodoon, Manic states that, "when the moon is full on the second even day of the third month, BAM, it shows up just like clockwork. Today's the day, and I just know that when Mobodoon shows up, so will Mom!" In that particular episode, the hedgehogs had stated that it was their birthday. So, their birthday is, in fact, March 4.
 * Sonic cried once through the whole series (Beginnings), Manic cried four times (Mobodoon, Three Hedgehogs and a Baby, Six is a Crowd, and The A.R.T. of Destruction), and Sonia cried the most out of all (nine times).
 * Sonic's last words in the series were "Game over, 'Buttnik!"
 * There are several errors that always occur, such as when Medallions are missing, Manic has his earrings on his right ear, Manic's fanny-pack is missing, and gloves or arms are in a different color. There have also been perspective issues.
 * In the episode, "The Big Melt", when Manic comes out of the water and coughs, it's in Sonic's voice, and in "Beginnings" and "Haircraft in Space", you can see Sonic's mouth move to Sonia's voice, and vice versa.
 * In the episode "Beginnings", when the photo of the three is shown, they are not babies, but toddlers. But, Aleena separated them when they were babies.
 * The medallion strings are in different colors rather than what many people think to be green, blue, and pink. Sonic has a red string, Sonia has a yellow string, and Manic has a blue string.
 * In the episode "Underground Masquerade", the purple mask worn by Manic and Max bares slight resemblance to NiGHTS, another game by Sonic Team.
 * The episode "Sonic Tonic" recycles the general plot of the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog episode "Full-Tilt Tails".
 * The siblings' father was never mentioned. However, the French theme song of the show implied that there was no king at the time that Sonic and his siblings were born.
 * In episode 7, Sonic is holding a yellow controller similar to a SEGA Genesis controller.
 * In the episode "The Big Melt", Sonic and Manic are shown joining their force to do a huge version of the "Sonia Spin", a move that Sonic and Sonia were shown doing together before. But, as Manic doesn't have any physical superpower, he normally can not perform this move.
 * If you take the "Son" in Sonia and "ic" in Manic it makes up "Sonic" and if you take the remaning "Man" in Manic and "ia" in Sonia it makes Mania for "Sonic Mania".
 * The series is now streamed on Netflix but the episodes are completely out of order on Netflix and from episodes 27-40 the title screen for the episodes and the end credits are in French.