Sonic Drone Home[1] is an animated short set in the continuity of the Sonic the Hedgehog film series produced by Paramount Pictures. It was included as a bonus feature with the home media and digital releases of Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
Synopsis[]
In this deleted ending scene/epilogue to Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails encounter an abandoned Badnik drone which upgraded itself using parts from a junkyard, with the intention of conquering the world.[1]
Appearances[]
Characters:
- Badnik
- Unit (first appearance)
- Dr. Robotnik (mentioned)
- Maddie Wachowski (mentioned)
- Team Sonic
- Wade Whipple (mentioned)
Races and species:
Locations:
- Earth
- United States
- Montana
- Green Hills
- Green Hills Junkyard (only appearance)
- Green Hills
- Montana
- United States
Items:
- Chili dog (mentioned)
Plot[]
In Green Hills, Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails are walking down a path in an open nature field. While walking, Sonic is talking about how the town of Green Hills is a nice, quiet place, albeit too quiet. Tails soon points out though that the path they are on is not the way to the library, and Knuckles brings up his sworn oath to Maddie to return the three library books he has with him entitled "Parenting Adopted Children", "The Blended Family" and "North American Mammals", which he refers to as "sacred tomes", to the library in time or Maddie will be dishonored with late fines while treating the errand of returning the books like a hero's quest. Sonic assures his companions that this is just a shortcut, before turning forward and talking to himself about how Knuckles and Tails have no idea that something mysterious is going on at the junkyard. Concerned, Tails asks Sonic of who he is talking to, to which Sonic explains that he is narrating, citing that cool heroes in detective movies always do that. Wishing to narrate too, Knuckles begins talking about how handsome and strong he is, and that he is much stronger than Sonic. Joining in, Tails narrates about how he is just excited to be included.
All the way, the trio walks into the Green Hills Junkyard, with Knuckles narrating about how Tails' narration was weak and sad. Shushing his friends, Sonic tells them that they are currently on an investigation. As it turns out, Wade has told Sonic that there has been strange noises at the junkyard at night. With some noises coming from inside the junkyard, Knuckles slowly makes his way forward while Tails hides behind Sonic. Although a little displeased by this, Sonic nonetheless makes his way forward, with a scared Tails walking behind him. From behind some junk, Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails spot an aerial Badnik drone called Unit with a robotic body made of junk. Rummaging through the junk for parts to build himself up with, Unit proclaims his intentions to continuously upgrade himself and conquer the world. As Sonic recognizing it as one of Dr. Robotnik's drones, Tails deduces that it is upgrading itself. Standing up, Knuckles proclaims that it is no match for him. However, Unit detects biologicals nearby and proceeds to fire lasers at Knuckles, whom they barely miss, but still succeed in blowing Knuckles off his feet. Knuckles then notices to his shock that one of the lasers has pierced all of Maddie's books. Insisting that they need a plan, Sonic starts telling Tails to take up a flanking position. However, Knuckles begins narrating that he is pretending to be listening, all while he makes his way towards Unit, much to Sonic's confusion and shock. Unit begins firing lasers as Knuckles, who blocks it with a stop sign in the junkyard before at Unit to deliver a "Knuckles Sandwich" to him. However, Unit manages to catch Knuckles inside an old refrigerator, which he then promptly launches far into midair. As the refrigerator flies through midair, Knuckles gets its open and jumps out of it, only to hit and get stuck in a large town advertisement sign for Green Hills.
Sonic is unexpectedly hit with a purple gas from Unit.
Back in the junkyard, Unit grabs a broken car and throws it at Sonic and Tails. Noting that they should go, Sonic grabs Tails and begins running through the junkyard at super speed in order to gauge Unit's speed. As Unit fires laser at them, Sonic manages to dodge them all until one of them blows them into the air. While Tails takes flight, Sonic curls into a ball and begins launching a series of homing spin attacks into Unit's body. As Sonic lands his final blow that brings Unit to his knees, Sonic stops up and picks up a part that flew off Unit, noting sarcastically that he is hoping that it is not important. However, Unit reports back, just as the component sprays pink spray paint into Sonic's face. With Sonic now distracted by trying to clean his eyes, Unit gets back on his feet. Telling Sonic that he is coming to his rescue however, Tails pulls out a handgun and uses it to fire a bola at Unit. However, Unit deflects it at Sonic's legs, causing Sonic to get tried up and trip, and Tails to realize his mistake. Moving in on Sonic, Unit proclaims that Robotnik programmed him to think for himself. Unit proceeds to slam his large hand down on Sonic. However, shortly thereafter, Unit sees that Tails is carry Sonic through midair, which he finds "most interesting". In response, Unit folds out a helicopter rotor and uses it to take flight, proclaiming that Tails' speed is no match for his processing power. As Tails tries to fly away from Unit while Sonic starts to panic, Unit manages to grab Sonic by his feet and pull both him and Tails down to the ground, slamming them into it.
As Unit proclaims himself victorious, Tails tells Sonic to do something. Sonic notes that he would be happy to, but he cannot move since he tied his legs together. However, Tails tells him that he can still talk. Taking Tails' advice, Sonic gets up to his feet and asks Unit of how he is doing, just as he draws all his weapons. Sonic then follows it up with a request for a question before Unit can blow them up. Since no one else has asked Unit a question before, the Badnik finds this most interesting. Faking curiosity, Sonic asks Unit of why he is doing all of this. Unit responds by saying that he is programmed to conquer the world, but Sonic notes that this is how Robotnik thinks, not Unit himself. As such, he asks Unit what he himself is in to. Surprised by the question, Sonic notes that he has a flare for design and inquires him about his creative side. Withdrawing his weapons, Unit shyly admits that poetry is his passion. Sonic thus suggests that he should try conquering the world with poetry while Tails says that they would love to hear his work. At first, Unit is reluctant, noting that his work is too personal, but seeing that they insist, Unit puts on a pair of glasses and pulls out a poem he has written on a piece of paper. Sonic and Tails thus make themselves comfortable as Unit begins reciting his poems.
Tails is permitted to keep Unit.
As the sun begins to set, Unit his reaches his poetic phrase number seventy-three when Knuckles suddenly appears from the side and smashes Unit into junkpile and starts punching him rapidly and repeatedly and in the the process dismentling his upgrades, claiming victory. Sonic and Tails try to tell Knuckles to stop, but Knuckles insists that he cannot hear them over his fighting. As Sonic tries telling him that not everything requires punching, Knuckles finally stops and insists that he is so good at it despite that. A sad Tails then begins rummaging through the junk, noting that Unit was not trying to kill them anymore and just wanted to recite poetry. He soon after finds Unit's core module, which is still operational. Unit remarks that his last poem was not the best, and so thanks them for the ’destructive criticism.’ Happy that Unit is alive, Tails asks Sonic if they can keep him. Sonic is not sure, but when Tails insists that Unit is not bad anymore, Sonic gives in, although he notes that Unit will be Tails' responsibility, which means cleaning up after him and changing his batteries. As Sonic then hops away, Tails is pleased when Unit says his battery will last for one billion years. Knuckles, however, still does not trust Unit. While Tails insists that Unit is now an artist, Unit gets into the air and tells Knuckles that he will soon master poetry and make the world cower with it, and that Knuckles will be the first to summit to his superior prose. Knuckles takes this as proof that Unit is still evil, and as such demands justice for Maddie's books. Paying no mind, Sonic lets Tails fly him away as he begins narrating again about how another adventure for Team Sonic is over, and that their biggest adventure was coming up: picking up some chili dogs on the way home.
Promotion[]
Prior to the full short's release, a small clip of it was exclusively showcased on ET Online, the website of the syndicated news magazine Entertainment Tonight (which is produced by Paramount subsidiary CBS Media Ventures).[1]
Credits[]
- Producers: Neal H. Moritz, Toby Ascher, Toru Nakahara, Hitoshi Okuno
- Executive Producers: Haruki Satomi, Yukio Sugino, Shuji Utsumi
- Co Producer: Sammy Warshaw
- Writers: Pat Casey & Josh Miller
Based on the SEGA Video Game *SONIC THE HEDGEHOG*
Voice Cast
Voice recordings made possible by Outpost Media
a MARZA Animation Planet Production
- Studio Supervisors: Hideki Okamura, Akira Sugano, Haruhiro Uchida
- Producer: Mayumi Tachikawa
- Line Producer: Makoto Miyazaki
- Director: David Nelson
- Storyboard Artist: Brent Forrest
- CG Supervisor: Satoshi Tomatsu
- Production Managers: Hideyuki Yanagisawa, Mariko Asada, Tomohiro Mitsui
- Coordinators: Aki Fukuda, Lee Sua
- Art Director: Toshiya Umeda
- Concept Artist: Ryan Wheeler
- Digital Matte Painter: Kiyoaki Kamei
- Character Modeling Supervisor: Satoshi Kounosu
- Character Modelers: Fumiaki Tahara, Ka Mon, Hikaru Inaba, Takuya Ueda
- Environment Supervisor: Koji Nagata
- Environment Artists: Kazushige Hayakawa, Escosora Morales Clemhyn
- Look Development Artist: Yusuke Sato
- Previz & Layout Artists: Tatsunori Tomiyama, Kyoko Yonemoto
- Animation Supervisor: Shashwat Brahmbhatt
- Animators: Pralhad Shivane, Daniel Darmawan, Sesarini Hambali, Victoria Oentoeng, Kenshin Morishita, Ryohei Sakumi
- Rigging Supervisor: Mohammad Jafarian
- Rigging Artists: Maria Dolores Paculan, Ryoya Otani, Somchai Thongyod, Ryohei Nagamine
- Simulation Artist: Kenta Morinaga
- FX Supervisor: Shohei Ozazaki
- FX Artists: Daisuke Satoyoshi, Takio Koizumi, Haruhi Oshima
- Lighting & Composite Artists: Takuro Matsuda, Shinya Suzuki
- Color Management Supervisor: Yasaharu Yoshizawa
- Editor: Yuta Saito
- Pipeline Engineers: Takamasa Matsunari, Efrizal Hardiman, Sol Kim, Gaetan Guidet
- System Engineers: Yuki Akishige, Hiroki Murakami, Maya Nakashima
- Production Support Team: Kenichi Yoshioka, Minoru Fukuda, Koji Ito, Miyuki Ogihara, Kazuma Aono, Akihiro Abe, Hiromi Sato, Hiyori Iwano, Tsukasa Umemura, Marian Anderson
- Post Production Facility: Soundfirm Australia
- Post Producers: Gemila Iezzi, Skye Hollingsworth
- Mastering: Tim Morton
- Sound Designer: Dylan Burgess
- Mixer: Roger Savage
- Music Editor: Skye Hollingsworth
© 2022 Paramount Pictures Corportation and Sega of America, Inc. All rights reserved.
Trivia[]
- This marks the first and yet only media of the Sonic the Hedgehog film series to not feature human characters.
- The short was made during post-production of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, as confirmed by Pat Casey, co-writer of the short.[2]
- Casey also confirmed that the short takes place roughly one month after the conclusion of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (film).[3]
- The title of this short is a reference to the quote "E.T. phone home." This is a famous quote from the movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
- In this short, Knuckles and Tails are respectively voiced by Fred Tatasciore and Alicyn Packard, in place of Idris Elba and Colleen O'Shaughnessey, who voiced them in the films. Ben Schwartz is the only voice actor to reprise his role as Sonic.
- Aside from Sonic Colors: Ultimate, Sonic Drone Home is the first time since being first cast as Tails that Colleen O'Shaughnessey does not officially voice him.
- During production, the producers suggest this short would originally be the final scene in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. But Jeff Fowler ends the film with the baseball scene that takes place before the short, so the short is included as a bonus feature with the home media and digital releases of the film instead.[4]
- Sonic Drone Home contains the following Easter eggs and references:
- One of the objects seen in the Green Hills Junkyard is a statue of a princess holding a burger. This statue was originally intended to be featured in a scene in the Sonic the Hedgehog film, where it was used at a "Burger Princess" fast-food establishment. However, the scene, and by extension the statue, were cut from the final film.
- An object seen in the Green Hills Junkyard is the baseball scoreboard from Sonic the Hedgehog 2, still possessing a noticeable hole from where Knuckles punched the baseball through it.
- However, the scoreboard featured in the short showcases the hole to be in a different position compared to the one from the film.
- The base of Unit appears to be made out of the damaged body of Tom's truck from the first Sonic the Hedgehog film.
- For some reason, this short is not streaming on Paramount+.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Watch Sonic the Hedgehog Try to Rescue Knuckles in 'Sonic Drone Home' Animated Short. ET Online (23 May 2022). Retrieved on 23 May 2022.
- ↑ Screenshot of a response from Pat Casey.
- ↑ Screenshot of a response from Pat Casey.
- ↑ The short is the deleted final scene in Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
