SONIC UNDERGROUND

'Sonic Underground' is an animated television series that follows the adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and his siblings, pink hedgehog 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 shared few 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), who was also involved in Sonic Underground's production, stated in a chat at the Sonic Amateur Gaming Expo (http://www.sagexpo.org) that only 40 were produced.^[1]
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 unroboticised, leaving multiple cities, a poor underclass, and an aristocracy for the heroes to interact with. Also, unlike SatAM Sonic and AoStH, many of the minor characters were not easily recognisable as being based on Earth animals, instead appearing far more alien.
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.

Contents

Show summary

Program history

Airing history

DVD release

Characters

Episode list

Trivia

References

Show summary

Sonic, Sonia, and Manic are the children of Queen Aleena Hedgehog. They are chased by Doctor Robotnik and his bumbling bounty hunter sidekicks, Sleet and Dingo. The reason that he is chasing the three is because of a prophecy made by the Oracle of Delphius (a spoof of the Oracle of Delphi of Ancient Greece) - saying that the Queen's three children will one day find their mother, overthrow Robotnik, and together become the rulers of Mobius again.
The three siblings have powerful medallions that not only change into musical instruments but also into weapons when the triplets are in perfect harmony with each other. Sonic's medallion is an electric guitar/gun, Sonia's medallion is a keyboard/gun, Manic's medallion is a drumset/Earth controller/gun. The three use the amulets not only to fight Robotnik's forces but to also have instruments for their underground rock band, ''Sonic Underground''. Sonic, Sonia, and Manic also call Robotnik "'Robuttnik", as opposed to just Sonic referring to him by that name.

Program history

During the run up to the launch of the Sega Dreamcast, Sega began to heavy advertise all its big products. For Sonic, it contacted DiC, who previously made both TV shows Sonic the Hedgehog and Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, to make a new Sonic cartoon. ''Sonic Underground'' ran for one season, 1998 to 1999. Since then, the show can now be found in syndication on a few channels around the world.

Airing history

★ 'USA'

★
★ Television syndication (1998-1999), (2003-2006)

★
★ Toon Disney (2007-current)

★ 'Canada'

★
★ Teletoon (1999-2000)

★
★ Family Channel This Winter 2008)

★ 'France'

★
★ TF1

★ 'Portugal'

★
★ TVI

★ 'Germany'

★
★ Super RTL

★ 'UK'

★
★ ITV1 (1999-2000)

★
★ ITV2/CITV Channel (2005-2007)

★
★ POP (2006-Current)

★ 'Spain'

★
★ Canal Super 3

★ 'Australia'

★
★ Seven Network

★ 'New Zealand'

★
★ TV3

★ 'Finland'

★
★ TV Finland

★ 'Asia Pasific'

★
★ Disney Channel Asia

★ 'Turkey'

★
★ Cine5

★ 'Malaysia'

★
★ TV3

★ 'Indonesia'

★
★ Global TV

★ 'Lithuania'

★
★ TV3

DVD release

The complete Sonic Underground series, comprised of 40 episodes total, was released by Anchor Bay, compatible only with region 2 players.^[2]
Shout! Factory has announced that Sonic Underground will be released on DVD; it will be a region 1 release. Volume one is set for release on December 18, 2007.^[3]
6 Volumes of this series have been released in Australia. They each contain 4 episodes. It is unknown if anymore volumes will be released.

Characters

★ Prince Sonic

★ Prince Manic

★ Princess Sonia

★ Dr. Robotnik

★ Sleet

★ Dingo

★ Knuckles the Echidna (recurring character)

Episode list

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 boxset. To the right of the episode is the name of the song in it. To learn more about the episode plots, go to List of Sonic Underground episodes.
# Beginnings
★
★ - Someday
# Getting to Know You
★
★ - Working Together In Harmony
# Harmony or Something
★
★ - We're All In This Together
# Wedding Bell Blues - When Tomorrow Comes
# To Catch a Queen - Have You Got The 411?
# Mobodoon - I've Found My Home
# The Price of Freedom - Money Can't Buy
# Underground Masquerade - Let The Good Times Roll
# Tangled Webs - The Children Light The Way
# The Deepest Fear - Face Your Fear
# Who Do You Think You Are? - We Need To Be Free
# The Last Resort - Listen To Your Heart
# Come Out Wherever You Are - Society Girl
# Winner Fakes All - Built For Speed
# A Hedgehog's Home is Her Castle - Let's Do It To It
# Artifact - You Can't Own Everything
# Bug! - Never Give Up
# Sonic Tonic - (I Wish I Was) The Fastest Thing Alive
# Friend or Foe - Not Always What They Seem
# Head Games - Take A Chance
# When in Rome - When There's A Will, There's A Way
# The Jewel in the Crown - The Cosmic Dance
# Three Hedgehogs and a Baby - Being A Kid Is Cool
# Dunesday - True Blue Friend
# Mummy Dearest - We Are Sonic Underground (Egyptian version)
# The Hedgehog in the Iron Mask - Part Of The Problem
# Six is a Crowd - I Can Do That For You
# Flying Fortress
★ - No One Is An Island
# No Hedgehog is an Island
★ - Learn To Overcome
# New Echidna in Town
★ - The Mobius Song
# Country Crisis - How You Play The Game
# Haircraft in Space - Don't Be A Backstabber
# Healer - We're The Sonic Underground (Rock version)
# Sonia's Choice - Never Easy
# The Big Melt - Fun In The Sun
# Sleepers - Have It All Again
# Bartleby the Prisoner - Justice Callin'
# The Art of Destruction - The Sound Of Freedom
# The Pendant - Liberty's Gonna Rock
# Virtual Danger - Don't Let Your Guard Down
(
★ ) Part of the 3 Part Chaos Emerald saga
(
★
★ )Part of the 3 Part Beginnings saga

Trivia

★ This is the final Sonic cartoon where Sonic's voice is provided by Jaleel White.

★ This cartoon was originally made in France and titled "Sonic Le Rebelle" (Sonic the Rebel).

★ This is the first American Sonic series to feature Knuckles and the only one to not feature Tails.

★ Also as a reference to Sonic SatAM, Uncle Chucks' office as shown in the first episode is a nearly exact replica of the one used by the Robotic Uncle Chuck from Sonic SatAM, right down to its door being concealed behind a garbage heap and swinging upwards to open.

★ It is also the only one to feature a relative of Knuckles: his great-grandfather Athair (originally featured in the Archie comics), who was voiced by Sean Connery^[4].

★ 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. Two characters from the comic's possible future storlyine '' were also named Sonia and Manik after the Underground characters.

★ 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.

★ Sonic's singing voice sounds strikingly similar to Edd (Double 'D') from Ed, Edd, and Eddy. Double 'D's voice actor, Samuel Vincent, actually does Sonic's singing voice. This is fairly ironic due to the fact that Sonic and Double 'D' have widely differing personalities.

★ In the episode Wedding Bell Blues, when the trio are carpet cleaners, Manic and Sonic look like the Mario Brothers. DiC, which produced "Sonic Underground" previously produced three "Super Mario" cartoons between 1989-1991.

★ The Episode "Underground Masquerade" the purple mask worn by Manic and Max bares slight resemblance to NiGHTS, another game by Sonic Team.

★ The Sonic Underground's father was never mentioned. However, the French theme song of the show inferred that there was no king at the time that Sonic and his siblings were born.

★ Opposed to the SatAM series, Robotnik's tyranny is never brought down at the end of the series.

★ Denny's had a special where they would represent the show and sell Sonic and Knuckles dolls.

References

1. According to Hong Ying Animation works of 1998, the animation studio who animated Sonic Underground list 40 episodes which is the complete series.
2. Anchor Bay's Sonic Underground Release.
3. Shout! Factory's Brian Ward announces that volume one of Sonic Underground will be released on December 18, 2007.
4. http://www.tv.com/sean-connery/person/86683/appearances.html