Sonic Prime[4] (ソニック プライム Sonikku Puraimu?) is a Canadian-American computer animated Netflix television series based on the Sonic the Hedgehog series. It is the sixth animated show based on the series, the second to be computer-animated, following Sonic Boom, and the first to make its debut on a streaming service.[2]
The series is aimed at children, teenagers, and longtime Sonic fans. It follows Sonic on a world-shattering adventure, as he tries to save his friends Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Rouge and Big from a catastrophic event he caused after a fight with Dr. Eggman. The series also features Shadow, as well as other established characters from the franchise.
Originally announced as a 24-episode show, Netflix decided to split it into three seasons.[5] The first season was released on December 2022, with the second one following on July 2023, and the third and final season was released on January 11, 2024.[6] The first season was later released on Blu-Ray by NCircle on March 12, 2024.[7]
The show is considered canon to the continuity of the Sonic the Hedgehog games, making it the first Sonic show to have this distinction, and takes place at an undisclosed point sometime after the events of Sonic Advance 3.[8]
Development[]
On 10 December 2020, it was announced that a 3D animated series based on the Sonic the Hedgehog series was in development by Man of Action Entertainment and WildBrain. However, the announcement was quickly withdrawn by its source.[2]
On 1 February 2021, a press release was revealed that unveiled that Sonic Prime would be animated at WildBrain's Vancouver studio. Sega and WildBrain would jointly participate across production, distribution and licensing while Man of Action would act as showrunners and Executive Producers for the series. It was announced that Sonic Prime would be expected to have 24 episodes and be released sometime in 2022 on Netflix.[1]
On 3 May 2022, a teaser for the show was featured at the end of Netflix's "Netflix After School" preview for 2022, along with other upcoming animations.[9] During the Netflix Geeked event on 10 June 2022, another sneak peek at the show was shown, showcasing Big and Froggy, as well as a few more plot details about the show. It was also revealed that the show would feature a "reinvented cast". On 7 June 2022, Sonic Prime was featured on the Sonic Central video presentation once more, where a promotion of the show was presented, along with a sneak peek showcasing Shadow dashing through Green Hill.
On 20 September 2022, it was announced that the show would debut with one 40-minute episode and seven 20-minute episodes.[10] On 27 October 2022, it was revealed that Sonic Prime would be released on 15 December 2022. Character posters including newly revealed characters Knuckles, Tails, Amy and Rouge were also released.[11] A teaser trailer was also released later on in the day, first revealed through Netflix Geeked's Twitch livestream. A few days later on 17 November 2022, the official trailer was shown.
On 6 December 2022, it was announced that Sonic Speed Simulator would hold a virtual viewing of the show's first episode premiere on 10 December, just five days before the official premiere of the show on Netflix.[12][13]
On 18 January 2023, Netflix Geeked published three images of episodes from the show's second season[14], and in 17 May 2023, it was confirmed that the second season would be released on 13 July 2023.[15] On 23 June 2023, the official full-length trailer for season two was shown at Sonic Central. The first two episodes of season two were eventually uploaded to the Netflix After School YouTube channel.
On September 26, a teaser poster at the sneak peek at the 3rd season being revealed through Netflix's "DROP 01" livestream was posted by the official Sonic account on Twitter.[16] On November 10, a clip of Sonic Prime's third season would be featured in Netflix's "Netflix Geeked" livestream, along with the season's official release date being confirmed as January 11, 2024.[6] On December 14, the official full-length trailer for the third season released. The first two episodes of said season were released on YouTube later on.
Synopsis[]
Sonic Prime is described as a "high octane adventure" and a "journey of self-discovery and redemption" following Sonic and his race to save a "strange new multiverse."[1] A fierce battle between Sonic the Hedgehog and Dr. Eggman results in a universe-shattering event which prompts Sonic to set off on a quest to restore the Shatterverse and save his friends, whom up until the moment he had taken for granted. Along the way, Sonic discovers both new worlds and new allies.
Plot[]
Completely unaware of Dr. Eggman's latest scheme, Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends embark on a journey to locate a mysterious object known as the Paradox Prism. Whilst trying to keep the prism from falling into Eggman's hands, Sonic accidentally breaks it to pieces and vanishes. He awakes to find himself in a multiverse, suffering from short-term amnesia, and facing doppelgängers that are not the ones he once knew. Fortunately, his search for the lost shards is assisted by a doppelgänger named Nine, who grants him special technology beyond his imagination. Trapped in the Shatterverse, Sonic finds himself traveling from dimension to dimension, putting things right that once went wrong, and hoping each time that reassembling the prism will take him home. Along the way, he and his new friends learn the importance and consequences of trust and faith, especially when Nine plans to use the Prism for his own purposes.
Contradictions to the games[]
Although Sonic Prime is considered canon to the game continuity, several elements of the show contradict established lore in the games, either for presentation purposes, or other reasons:
- Sonic Prime claims Green Hill Zone is Sonic's home, but the TailsTube series claims Sonic has no real home and is instead a wanderer.
- The supporting cast are claimed or implied to live in Green Hill, something that is not true in the games. Big and Froggy live in Mystic Ruins and Knuckles on Angel Island. The series isn't clear on where Amy and Tails live (with information varying between Station Square or Central City), but this is the first time showing them living in Green Hill.
- In the first episode, "Shattered", Sonic is surprised to find Badniks that aren't powered by Flickies, calling it "new". This contradicts multiple videogames, as Dr. Eggman has used robots not powered by animals in the past. For example, the mass-produced Egg Pawn series are powered by Power Cores, not animals.
- In Sonic's flashback to the events of Sonic 3 & Knuckles, he meets Knuckles in Hidden Palace Zone as opposed to Angel Island Zone, and meets the echidna in his standard form as opposed to his super transformation. Tails is also completely absent during Sonic and Knuckles' meeting. Additionally, the unused emerald from Sonic the Hedgehog 2's deleted zone, "Hidden Palace", lays in the room where Sonic and Knuckles fight instead of the real Master Emerald.
List of characters[]
Main characters[]
The main characters in Sonic Prime.
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- Miles "Tails" Prower (Nine, Mangey, Sails)
- Amy Rose (Rusty, Thorn, Black Rose)
- Knuckles the Echidna (Knucks, Gnarly, Dread)
- Rouge the Bat (Rebel, Prim, Batten)
- Dr. Eggman (Mr. Dr. Eggman, Dr. Babble, Dr. Deep, Dr. Don't, Dr. Done-It)
- Shadow the Hedgehog
- Big the Cat (Denizen 1998, Hangry, Catfish)
Recurring characters[]
- Birdie (New Yoke, Boscage Maze)
- Froggy (New Yoke, Boscage Maze, No Place)
- Squad Commander Red
- Jack
- Chaos Sonic
- Orbot
- Cubot
Cast[]
Episodes[]
Home video and digital releases[]
Blu-ray[]
- NCircle Entertainment:
- Sonic Prime - Season one (March 12, 2024)
Reception[]
Sonic Prime was generally-well received by critics. The first season of the series scored an 8/10 on IGN. It was praised for having a new, interesting story and the way it could be understood by non-Sonic fans. However, it was criticized for issues in pacing.[19]
The second season scored 9/10 on IGN. It was praised for being "engaging and, in some aspects, [an] improved follow-up" to the first season. Citing the "slapstick humor, vibrant animation, and over-the-top action" as helping in balancing the mature aspects of the series. On the other hand, the season was criticized for having "repetitive battles".[20]
For the third and final season, it scored 6/10 on IGN. It was criticized for plot stagnation and focusing on "prolonged" and "redundant" battles. The climax also felt "rushed and anticlimactic" that does not fulfill the "closure that was expected of the final season" according to the reviewer. Despite this, the reviewer praised the "vibrant animation" and the cast performance, appreciating the "heartfelt moments" between Sonic and Nine as performed by the cast.[21]
Audience[]
The show saw great success since its debut. Season one ranked as the fifth most watched English TV show on Netflix in the week of December 12-18 of 2022, with 27.7 million hours watched. It retained its position for the following week, where it reached the Top 10 in 61 countries.[22] It fell to ninth in its third week.[23] In its first three weeks of release, the season was watched for 67 million hours, a new high for Netflix original animated kid series.[24] [25]
The second season also made it to the Top 10 of Netflix most watched English television shows in the week of July 10-16 of 2023, with 7.9 million hours watched. It ranked 10th and reached the Top 10 in 19 countries. It maintained its position for the following week, with an additional 6.8 million hours watched.
In a report by Parrot Analytics in October 2023, it was revealed that Sonic Prime had an audience demand 9.9 times higher than the average television show in the United States (only 2.7% of all shows in the country had this level of demand). It also ranked very high in the children genre, where it had a higher demand than 91.4% of all children titles. Its second biggest market was Russia. [26]
The third season reached the Top 10 of Netflix most watched English TV shows in the week of January 8-14 of 2024, with 5.9 million hours watched, ranking tenth. It climbed to 8th the following week, with 5.1 million hours watched.
Accolades[]
- Leo Awards:
- Best Animated Program or Series (Sonic Prime) - NOMINATED
- Best Direction Animation (Kiran Sangherra and Ishi Rudell, for "Escape from New Yoke") - NOMINATED
- Best Sound in an Animated Program or Series (Jeff Davis, Fanny Riguidel, Gregorio Gomez, David Green and Kerthekan Balasubramaniam, for "The Yoke's on You") - NOMINATED
- Best Original Music, Animation (Steffan Andrews and Mike Shields, for "Situation: Grim") - NOMINATED
- Best Art Direction in an Animated program or series (Alan Cook for "Escape from New Yoke") - NOMINATED
- Children's and Family Emmy Awards:
- Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation, Character Animation (Joey Pogoy, Sonic Prime) - WINNER
- Canadian Cinema Editors Awards[27]:
- Best Editing in Animation (Orion McCaw, Margaret Reid, Rob Smith, Matthew Innanen and Maddison Varas, for "Avoid the Void") - NOMINATED
Trivia[]
- A few of the Canadian cast members for the show have worked for the Sonic the Hedgehog series beforehand:
- Brian Drummond, who previously voiced Knuckles in Sonic Underground, now voices Dr. Eggman.
- Shannon Chan-Kent, who previously played the Roadhouse Waitress in the 2020 Sonic the Hedgehog film, voices Amy.
- This series marks the first Netflix series to be based on the Sonic franchise.
- This is the first piece of media in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise (including films and television series) to be dubbed in Catalan, Galician and Basque.
- This is the first time since Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing where Roger Craig Smith, Cindy Robinson, and Kirk Thornton do not voice Sonic, Amy, and Shadow, respectively. This was mostly due to Canadian union laws requiring Canadian productions requiring to have a majority of it's voice cast be Canadian.[28]
- This is also the first time since Sonic Advance 3 in 2004 where Mike Pollock does not voice Eggman.
- List of changes in voice cast for foreign dubbings:
- The voice actors for the French, Italian, Japanese, and Peninsular Spanish dubs of the games reprised their roles, with the exception of:
- In the Japanese dub of season three, Eggman is voiced by Mitsuaki Kanuka instead of Kotaro Nakamura for the final season due to Nakamura's temporary break related to his poor health.[17]
- Rouge in the French dub, who is voiced by Charlotte Correa instead of Marie Lenoir.
- Rouge and Big in the Italian dub, who are voiced by Ilaria Silvestri and Marco Balbi instead of Jasmine Laurenti and Andrea De Nisco, respectively.
- Orbot and Cubot in the Peninsular Spanish dub, who is voiced by an unknown actor and Adrián Pineda in the first season and Oriol Conangla and Óscar Fernández in the third season instead of Albert Vilcan and Xadi Mouslemeni Mateu.
- In the German dub, only Tails, Amy and Big's respective voice actors from the games, Paulina Weiner, Anna Gamburg, and Viktor Pavel, reprise their roles while the rest of the characters have different voice actors.
- In the Brazilian Portuguese dub, all voice actors from season two of the Sonic Boom television series reprised their roles, with the exception of Amy, who is voiced by Bia Menezes, taking over the role from her mother, Ana Lúcia Menezes, who passed away in 2021.[29]
- In the European Portuguese dub, most voice actors reprised their roles from previous productions:
- Sonic and Knuckles are voiced by Gonçalo Carvalho and Guilherme Barroso respectively, as in Sonic Boom and the Sonic the Hedgehog film series.
- Tails and Dr. Eggman are voiced by Marta Mota and Luís Barros, respectively, reprising his role from the Paramount film series.
- Luís Barros previously voiced Sonic in the second dub of the Sonic X anime series.
- Amy Rose is voiced by Carla García, reprising her role from the second dub of Sonic X.
- Shadow is voiced by Pedro Leitão, who reprised his role from Sonic Boom.
- Carlos Macedo, who has voiced Sonic in both the Sonic the Hedgehog television series and Sonic Underground now voices Big and some background characters as additional voices.
- In the Latin Spanish dub, Tails is voiced by Marisol Romero, who reprised her role from the Paramount film series.
- The voice actors for the French, Italian, Japanese, and Peninsular Spanish dubs of the games reprised their roles, with the exception of:
- Just like some scenes in Wildbrain's previous cartoon, Mega Man: Fully Charged, the flashbacks are animated in a pixel style, this time being similar to the sprites of the original Sega Mega Drive games.
- The in-universe text seen in the show was proven to be legible by fans, as it appears to be a simple substitution cipher.[30]
- Counting Shatterspace variants, this is the first Sonic series to feature Knuckles and Rouge in every episode.
- This is the first show in the Sonic series to be rated TV-Y7 not for "fantasy violence", but for "fear".
- In the English subtitles for Sonic Prime's season one trailer on Netflix, when Sonic collects a Ring at any point in the trailer, the subtitles say "[Coins shimmering]", while in the second trailer for season one, the subtitles say "[rings dinging]". However, in "Shattered", the subtitles simply state "[ringing sound]".
- Sonic Prime is the third Sonic television series to have a theme song without lyrics, the second being Sonic Boom and the first being Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog.
- Although the series was initially stated to have all of the three seasons consist of eight episodes, leading up to a 24-episode list, only seven episodes were released in season three, bringing the total up to 23. This is possibly due to the first episode being roughly the length of two regular episodes.
- Almost all of the official 3D promotional renders for Sonic Prime are just poses ripped right from the show.
Videos[]
Trailers and advertisements[]
Clips[]
International trailers[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 SONIC THE HEDGEHOG SPEEDS OVER TO NETFLIX IN THE ALL-NEW ANIMATED SERIES SONIC PRIME. WildBrain (1 February 2021). Retrieved on 1 February 2021.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Skrebels, Joe (10 December 2020). Netflix Seemingly Working on Sonic the Hedgehog Animated Series for 2022. IGN. Archived from the original on 10 December 2020. Retrieved on 10 December 2020.
- ↑ Justin Peniston (@HunterBlackComx) on Twitter. Twitter (1 February 2021). Retrieved on 2 February 2021.
- ↑ NX (@NXOnNetflix) on Twitter (1 February 2021). Retrieved on 1 February 2021.
- ↑ https://twitter.com/Kennyufg/status/1602448305866276865
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Geeked Week 2023 | Damsel, Devil May Cry, One Piece, & More | Saturday Showcase | Netflix. YouTube (11 November 2023). Retrieved on 11 November 2023.
- ↑ Tails' Channel on Twitter. Twitter. Tails' Channel (27 December 2023). Retrieved on 27 December 2023.
- ↑ Ian Flynn on Twitter. Twitter (11 January 2024). Retrieved on 11 January 2024.
- ↑ Sonic Prime, Kung Fu Panda & More | Animated Series Preview | Netflix After School. YouTube. Netflix After School (3 May 2022). Retrieved on 3 May 2022.
- ↑ Sonic Prime 3D Animated Series Streams Teaser. Anime News Network (20 September 2022). Retrieved on 20 September 2022.
- ↑ Griffin, David (27 October 2022). Sonic Prime: Exclusive Release Date and Character Posters Reveal for Netflix Animated Series. IGN. Archived from the original on 27 October 2022.
- ↑ Sonic Prime's Shatterverse Comes to Life in These First-Look Images. Gizmodo (6 December 2022). Retrieved on 6 December 2022.
- ↑ Experience The First Episode Of Sonic Prime At The Global Virtual Premiere Event On ROBLOX. nothingbutgeek (9 December 2022). Retrieved on 9 December 2022.
- ↑ Netflix Geeked on Twitter. Twitter (18 January 2023). Retrieved on 18 January 2023.
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog on Twitter. Twitter (17 May 2023). Retrieved on 17 May 2023.
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog on Twitter. Twitter. Sonic the Hedgehog (26 September 2023). Retrieved on 26 September 2023.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 ソニック・ザ・ヘッジホッグ【公式】 on Twitter. Twitter. ソニック・ザ・ヘッジホッグ【公式】 (9 January 2024). Retrieved on 9 January 2024.
- ↑ 美坂 咲良 on Twitter. Twitter. 美坂 咲良 (13 July 2023). Retrieved on 13 January 2024.
- ↑ Sonic Prime. IGN.
- ↑ Sonic Prime Season 2 Review. IGN.
- ↑ Sonic Prime Season 3 Review. IGN.
- ↑ https://www.netflix.com/tudum/top10/tv?week=2022-12-25
- ↑ https://twitter.com/orchetect/status/1648929532832018433
- ↑ https://thestoriest.com/entertainment/246959.html
- ↑ https://twitter.com/TailsChannel/status/1616797604779823104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1616797604779823104%7Ctwgr%5Ef6de6e36c1aa1efe8537aa99632c2814f4addab6%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fthestoriest.com%2Fentertainment%2F246959.html
- ↑ https://tv.parrotanalytics.com/US/sonic-prime-netflix
- ↑ https://cceditors.ca/fr/2024/01/29/14th-annual-cce-awards/
- ↑ https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/02/tails_voice_actor_wont_be_voicing_the_character_in_sonic_prime
- ↑ Personagens Com os Mesmos Dubladores! on Twitter (Portuguese). Twitter (15 December 2022). Retrieved on 14 January 2023.
- ↑ AlexandreCarCab on Twitter. Twitter (10 December 2022). Retrieved on 25 January 2023.
External links[]
- Sonic Prime on Netflix
- Sonic Prime at the Internet Movie Database
