Sonic Prime (Netflix Animated Series)

I finished the whole 8 episodes. Ya know, I actually had taken the whole "shatter" thing to be just a cool snappy way to refer to alternate universes, so I spent the whole show thinking that the shatterspaces were just alternate timelines that had always existed concurrent to the "main" universe, not things that were created because of the paradox prism.

 

Spoiler: The Shatterverse

But that's exactly why all of the alternate universes have a single piece of the Paradox Prism!

 

People without Netflix can watch the first episode for free (legally) here:

 

Just watched the first two episodes and I loved them. The animation is great. It looks halfway between the CG in the games and a lower fidelity claymation style. Seeing Knuckles and Rogue glide from building to building was a particular highlight.

The voice cast is great. I prefer prime Sonic’s voice over Roger, although I like Pollack’s eggman and Collen’s Tails more than their prime voices. Jury’s still out on the rest of the cast. Regardless of my preferences their haven’t been any bad performances yet.

I loved Sonic’s characterization: he reminded me of SATAM sonic. The music isn’t incredibly distinctive but it is more distinctive than the soundtrack for the movies.

Shadow’s characterization is better than it’s been but he’s not where I’d like him to be. Someone pointed out that his modern characterization is much less SA2 and much more ShadowTH05. This could be a real issue in Sonic movie 3… which y’know adapts SA2. The movie crew has said they’ve convinced Sega to compromise on stuff in the past… so we’ll see.

It seems you’d have to squint for Prime to be in continuity with the games, but so far I don’t mind. I like what we’re getting so far and honestly having the games, comics and show all being in continuity with each other can be difficult to manage. I completely understand why they’re hiring a lore manager. I want the games to be in continuity with each other but I’m fine with alt versions in other forms of media.

 

Finally watched the first episode (thanks, Sneekie!), will get around to the rest when I feel like it. Taken on its own merits, the show (FYI I’ll be using “show” and “episode” interchangeably for now) is mostly quite solid. Despite some model choices I’m not a huge fan of (ie the pronounced shoulder and neck areas on Amy’s dress and Big’s eye masks being used for brows instead of changing the shape of his eyes themselves), the visuals and animation of the show are great, with certain shots straight up looking like a Marza production. Characters are animated brilliantly (Rouge’s introduction in Tails’ workshop is my highlight of the episode on this front) and sound like existing VAs or composites of several (for the record, my preferences are game Sonic, Prime Tails, Prime Amy, game Knuckles, game Shadow, Prime Rouge and game Eggman).

Unfortunately, I’ve got two big sticking points. First is that Sonic feels off. He feels a little too dense and hasty in a way isn’t true of the game or comic writing (ie straight up ignoring his friends) and the character moment with Tails at the beginning of the episode feels forced and melodramatic (Tails isn’t so thin skinned that being ignored once will put him in a dour mood). Second is that the canon inconsistency just seem to be so needless. The story doesn’t seem to hinge on Green Hill being everybody’s home, nor the idea of badniks without flickies being new, nor the Tornado being Tails’ plane, and yet here they are. They’re all such easy flubs to avoid as well because they’re such basic facts about the setting. It doesn’t kill the show in a vacuum but it’s so jarring when the IDW comic has been nailing things like this, not to mention Ian having a role in the show, but I want to say my piece on it regardless.

Anyway, only other thing from me is that Babbles is quite effective. There’s something genuinely unnerving in his mannerisms and the fact that you have no idea what he’s saying or thinking, like a dark take on Bon Bonne.

 

Marza was also involved with the show.
Source: https://www.thisweekmedia.net/interviews/omarspahi-sonicprime

 

I was honestly surprised. The show is really good. It has the right balance of action / funny moments, and even the pretty generic stuff like

Spoiler

pirate world, jungle world,

got an unique spin on things. Unfortunately, I can't say the same about Council of Chaos. The Eggmen are pretty generic/common tropes.

Anyway, the action, the animation, the music - it's all good. Let's see where the plot goes, as for now, my only complain is that Shadow

Spoiler

is being a dick to Sonic, picking a fight without any proper reason

, but maybe they will explain his motives a bit better in season 2.

Also the voices. Oh my God the voices. I just love how Sonic's VA is portraying the character, he channels that Drummond / Griffith energy. I wish he could replace RCS in the games. The rest of the cast is pretty good too.

 

You mean in the rest of season 1?

I refuse to call what we've gotten so far an entire season. At best it was an Act. Act 1 of 3. Of Green Hill Zone.

 

I just realized the episodes are 40 minutes long. That's a lot.

 

Rusty Rose carries the show for me, tbh. I know her personality is generic but its funny seeing Amy in that role, and its fun to watch her stretch around. In general the characters are animated very nicely.
That being said, the pixel art segments gave me Newgrounds sprite animation flashbacks, ngl. I hope they stop doing that.
All in all, a decent show, and probably the best Sonic TV series.

 

Only the first episode. You can find the run times here: Sonic Prime.

 

I was glad to see that her rather long legs from one of the promo shots/stills were from her using extendable limbs rather than just distractingly lanky proportions.

I also appreciate Rusty Rose + - being temporarily reprogrammed to join in on the ass-kicking rather than truly converted to the rebel's side within two episodes. I don't recall the trailers even revealing she'd be an antagonist, much less a recurring one, but I appreciate them committing to it (for now, at least) and seeing the possibilities it opens up, like what we saw in pirate world.  

 

Amy came a long way since little planet, huh?

I agree, Rusty Rose is great. The team really likes Amy, and gives her nice alternate versions.

Also is it me, or is Rusty an amalgam of Bunnie & Mecha Sally? Overall - New Yank = Robotropolis. kinda.

 

I prefer Roger but reading this made me think that there should be mods for playing with Deven's voice. Any modders in the chat reading this message that wanna do it?

 

It's crazy to me, but this is close to mine, but I like Colleen O'Shaughnessey as Tails better. I dunno why, but the way Prime Tails talks sounds off. Prime Amy is good, but it's crazy how much I like Prime Shadow and Prime Rouge better than their game VAs. I think Shadow in Prime works better because it feels more just like a talking voice rather than someone like, trying really hard to sound brooding.

 

At first I thought he sounded really similar to Griffith, but then it felt like the actor was trying / couldn't really match his voice with the character.

I hope he finds his unique voice for Shadow, seems like he's a good match.

 

Was rewatching everything and reading some interviews. One interview mentioned five worlds were going to be seen. So prime and the 4 fragmentary ones. So that makes me think the side worlds will all get some more elaboration as we go on. Here I was thinking that the shards were going to be recombined and create new mashup worlds with elements from each. Still kind of thinking that might happen to some extent with whatever the Chaos Council is going to try and pull. Certainly leaves me wondering exactly what direction that will take things later on.

 

I'm still trying to figure out the logistics of the worlds. I really would have liked Split Timeline Worlds where a specific event in the past changed, resulting in a wildly different outcomes based on that single change, but I'm just a sucker for those.

Still, why a jungle world? Why an ocean world? I mean, I can tie the latter into the above, but I'm just trying to figure out why they exist in the first place beyond... I dunno, popular stock tropes? I've mentioned before I'd think they tie the focused on characters in each world to their worlds existence, but I don't think Knuckles would fit as a Pirate Captain. Though honestly, Knuckles should be up on Angel Island guarding the Master Emerald: we just got his characterisation back on track with Sonic Frontiers...

If I had control over the next set of episodes, I'd make some quick changes to the worlds: either I'd change them to be reflections of the characters in a twisted way, as I've mentioned I think they should've been doing and had Knuckles be the focus of the Jungle World and Rouge the focus of the Pirate World, but a quick BSing later to accommodate what we now have and the Jungle World is Amy's due to her desiring to keep nature safe from harm (from Robotnik on the Prime world), but twisted so that it's actively harming the nature she strives to protect and causing her to chase her friend away, while Knuckles is the Pirate Captain + - due to what he knows of what happened long ago with the Knuckles Clan and Chaos, and it's reflecting his fear of being just like them, obsessing over a powerful gemstone that he claims at the end of what we've seen thus far that may or may not backfire...  

Or alternatively, they're still timeline splits: obviously a world where Sonic never existed for Robotnik's world, but for the Jungle World, a world where the Echidna never made their attempt on the Master Emerald, and as we know Chaos Emeralds pump life into the world as seen in the ending of Sonic the Hedgehog (Mega Drive) it results in a world where life just keeps growing and growing and growing, while for the Pirate world, I've an idea I'm doodling and may or may not post later

I just kind of wish the show took more advantage of it's "canon to the games" status and built on that world the games have already built up. They've already tied themselves to the Sammy SEGA Canon via the Tails flashback, and have apparently talked to the lore team despite the many reasons I doubt that, so take advantage of that and do more with it.

I know I'm probably going to see people say things like "it's just a kids show". But Batman: The Animated Series never held back "because it's a kids show" and it was an immensely popular show. Steven Universe didn't hold back "because it's a kids show". They had dark plots, world building, to the point the former built itself into an entire Animated Universe, and mature focuses. Hell, the latter helped me through a massive life-long insecurity I had had as an adult. I don't see why Sonic Prime has to hold back world-building due to being a kids show.

But alas, those are just my thoughts on a kind of eh show thus far. Perhaps the next set of episodes will see this change...

 

Jungle world is Jungle because Green Shard
Pirate world is seas because Blue Shard
Red Shard gave us a red-tinted city ruled by Eggmen
Purple Shard gave us a lifeless void of a world?

There are only four shards, anyway, and currently three of them are currently held by characters.