Megathread MT | Sonic Prime (Netflix, TV Series) - General Discussion

[Zoomzeta]

 

11 minutes ago, Razule said:

Could be an 8 episode season with only 4 or so different universes. That'd keep the budget small. 

And you're basing this on..?

[GentlemanX]

21 hours ago, Zaysho said:

I don't believe Wildbrain owns the shows anyway, they're a distributor. I even checked their website and none of those shows are mentioned in the catalog (though a promotional image for one of them with a blue-armed Sonic is on the site). The only hurdle is Sega, who does own them, and I stopped holding my breath a long time ago.

Wildbrain does own the old DiC shows and they appear on page 66 of their catalogue. The order of events was as follows: DiC produced the shows in the 90s airing the series on television and releasing them on VHS and DVD, Dic and their content was purchased by Cookie Jar in 2008 (this is why early Shout Factory releases used the DiC logo while the last volume of AOSTH they put out had the Cookie Jar logo), Cookie Jar was then purchased by DHX Media in 2012 transferring the DiC shows to the, and finally in 2019 DHX rebraneded to Wildbrain as it exists today. Wildbrain's control over the series allows them to license the titles out to other parties such as DVD retailers (notably NCircle Entertainment which also handles the release of Sonic Boom for SoA, though Discotek got the rights to AOSTH for the upcoming blu-ray set).

But specifically, Wildbrain owns the shows themselves, not the actual content introduced in them which are owned by Sega. For example, Wildbrain owns all 40 episodes of Sonic Underground which is why Sonic Underground continues to get DVD releases from,  time to time appears on television, and is streaming on places like Wildbrain's Youtube channel. That's all negotiated through Wildbrain because they own the episodes DiC produced. However, the content in Underground (Manic, Sonia, Sleet, Dingo, etc.) is owned by Sega who can do whatever they want with that material if they feel so inclined (the one possible exception to this is Athair, because if he's in fact based on the Archie version he'd be owned by Mike Gallagher - it's never really been talked about how Athair ended up in Underground). Same applies to the other toons - Wildbrain can do what they want with the 26 episodes of SatAM and the 66 episodes of AOSTH, but Sega still owns characters like Naugus and Breezie - which is why they were allowed to still appear in Archie Sonic post-reboot.

So while Wildbrain owns the shows, that ownership doesn't really make it easier or harder for that content to appear in Prime. The only one controlling those characters, settings, and other concepts is still Sega. You could argue Wildbrain could push to include those elements as promotion for the DVDs or streaming of the shows - "Hey kids, did you like seeing the universe Sonic visited this episode where he was a prince and had siblings? Buy Sonic Underground now on DVD!" - but its not something they could just do - Sega would still have to approve their use of that material.

11 minutes ago, Razule said:

Could be an 8 episode season with only 4 or so different universes. That'd keep the budget small. 

The initial press release said the order was for 24 episodes. I don't think they'd announce multiple seasons like that without clarifying that was the case, so I think we can assume all 24 are "season one" (if the series goes beyond 24 episodes that is).

[Zaysho]

52 minutes ago, GentlemanX said:

Wildbrain does own the old DiC shows and they appear on page 66 of their catalogue.

That's definitely my mistake. I had browsed the website and didn't see the shows themselves compared to a lot of other things (couldn't tell if I was looking in the right place either) so I assumed they were just another distributor.

[Silvereyes]

14 hours ago, Kuzu said:

Everyone else is honestly a toss up and depends entirely on the whims of the creators. While this type of setup lends itself to potential creative use of the cast, I have to start wondering just how well known creators even know these characters outside of the four I just outlined, and not just the cliff notes versions either.

Pretty much I suppose. Certainly wouldn't be surprised if we saw alot of original characters instead, rather than taking the opportunity to use existing characters. As much as I liked Boom, it did feel like an original show with Sonic characters and elements draped over it. And while I haven't properly watched Mega Man: Fully Charged, it does seem a show which was rather divorced from any Mega Man continuity.

Not that is a bad thing by itself potentially. But I suppose it does feel irritating when Sonic spin-off media seems to keep leaping very far away from the source material to do its own thing, and keeps producing all these continuities with their own characters, concepts, tones, and little weird details. Prime will be very different from the Movies and will be different from the game continuity in the same year of release. And I get the feeling alot of fans, including me, would rather just have a show that felt like it could be part of the game continuity, or at least strongly influenced by it.

It probably doesn't help either that the whole multiverse idea is something Spiderverse used to great effect, mining the huge amount of lore and stories Spider-Man has built up over the years, and indeed the multiverse concept is something that this phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe seems to want to mine for the time being after Avengers Endgame. Certainly with how many characters, stories, and concepts Sonic has endured over the years, it does feel intoxicating to have the idea of a show dedicated to exploring those alternate continuities. Or even just touching upon some of them, like hey, remember that time Sonic has 2 siblings and they fought Robotnik with bad rock n roll?

I guess we'll see at the end of the day.

 

[Kuzu]

2 hours ago, Silvereyes said:

Pretty much I suppose. Certainly wouldn't be surprised if we saw alot of original characters instead, rather than taking the opportunity to use existing characters. As much as I liked Boom, it did feel like an original show with Sonic characters and elements draped over it. And while I haven't properly watched Mega Man: Fully Charged, it does seem a show which was rather divorced from any Mega Man continuity.

Not that is a bad thing by itself potentially. But I suppose it does feel irritating when Sonic spin-off media seems to keep leaping very far away from the source material to do its own thing, and keeps producing all these continuities with their own characters, concepts, tones, and little weird details. Prime will be very different from the Movies and will be different from the game continuity in the same year of release. And I get the feeling alot of fans, including me, would rather just have a show that felt like it could be part of the game continuity, or at least strongly influenced by it.

It probably doesn't help either that the whole multiverse idea is something Spiderverse used to great effect, mining the huge amount of lore and stories Spider-Man has built up over the years, and indeed the multiverse concept is something that this phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe seems to want to mine for the time being after Avengers Endgame. Certainly with how many characters, stories, and concepts Sonic has endured over the years, it does feel intoxicating to have the idea of a show dedicated to exploring those alternate continuities. Or even just touching upon some of them, like hey, remember that time Sonic has 2 siblings and they fought Robotnik with bad rock n roll?

I guess we'll see at the end of the day.

 

I'd imagine its just simply easier for creators to work with their own creations because they're more likely to have personal attachments to them and have much more creative freedom over them, versus using characters that already exist within an established universe and are licensed by another property and probably have guidelines that need to be followed. 

For Sonic, it definitely sucks because it limits what other creators can do with these characters and the original creators don't seem interested in them either, so they're basically SOL. 

[KingMario05]

12 hours ago, Razule said:

Could be an 8 episode season with only 4 or so different universes. That'd keep the budget small. 

Oooh, Lord, don't let me down before we've even seen it. Because as sucky as that'd be... it's also probably what they're doing.

[Kazhnuz]

Even if I wouldn't be unhappy with a smaller, more story-focused serie à la Marvel/DW:Flux, I don't they they'll go these road, it's not really well adapted to children. I think it'll be more a classical 20~10 minutes épisodes.

EDIT : For what I've seen, it seems to be a 24 episodes series ( https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-02-01-netflixs-sonic-prime-animated-series-confirmed-for-2022 ). So I suppose they'll be ~20 minute épisodes.

[Rabbitearsblog]

4 hours ago, Kuzu said:

I'd imagine its just simply easier for creators to work with their own creations because they're more likely to have personal attachments to them and have much more creative freedom over them, versus using characters that already exist within an established universe and are licensed by another property and probably have guidelines that need to be followed. 

For Sonic, it definitely sucks because it limits what other creators can do with these characters and the original creators don't seem interested in them either, so they're basically SOL. 

It makes me wonder if SEGA will ever let the creators do whatever they want with their characters.  I mean, I understand that SEGA owns these characters and there needs to be some brand consistency with these characters.  But, can't SEGA just let the characters feel emotions or put them in situations that will test their moralities and emotions every now and then?

[Kazhnuz]

They won't ever let the creators do "whatever they want with their character", it'll always have limitations, because the characters have to be in character, have to be depicted the way they want. And that they're more "locked" than OC, because well, they already exists, and already have a way to be. Now, we could discuss the exact flexibility and range of emotion they should allow to each character. How "angry" can a character like Tails get ? Cream ? How sad can be Sonic ? In what circumstances ? TBH, I think there is also a question of "what emotions we want these character to get, what story we want to write with them". How much can we do in their range ?

In the game, I would say that the issue isn't that much that the character "doesn't feel emotions" (I would say, especially after IDWSonic), more than most of those emotion moment in the game are kinda bad (Sonic Lost World being a prime exemple of that : they're trying too hard to put conflict and emotion between characters, and without a good source of the conflict, so it fails. They even have tried the return of "Fortune Cookie Sonic" in Forces, lol). With that it's way better handled in IDWSonic, I'll chalk it up to "current writers bad", mostly. ( Which is "funny" when some of the Sonic Channel story put interesting way of handling the characters inner thought, for instance Metal Sonic and Shadow )

 

So I don't think that saying "can't SEGA just let the characters feel emotions" is that much right with the current situation. It's mostly "complex motivation" (if we ever had them) that aren't really easy to get, and that the character have to stay "in character"… with sometime a vision of this "in character" that we don't like (Shadow, for instance). And that they won't go in the same length than some current storytelling.

There is also the question of how to handle Shadow's emotion, as he doesn't exteriorize them much in the current writing, whereas Flynn was a master of making him make a monolog to explain what he feel/think (all combined with being more of a jerk AND acting more ruthless, which make difficult to pull a "tough words softer actions") xD

[CaptainRobo]

Imagine, if the animation look like this.:

 

[phobs]

Surprised that no one posted it here yet, but someone was able to obtain clips from last year's WildBrain's investor's call regarding Prime.

In the case, if both clips will be taken down (or you just don't want to watch these clips), here is the summary

• Sonic Prime is created with new technology that helps to create cinematic look which makes the show feel like "Marvel movie", especially during action sequences
• Sonic Prime is limited 24 episode series
• Sonic Prime has the highest budget CG production in the WildBrain's history
• "Representing Classic Sonic in Europe" (?)

 

 

[DaddlerTheDalek]

Hm. I hope we see something in the near future.

[Razule]

Good to know it'll be better looking than Wildbrain's other CG shows.

[SBR2]

Hmm so it's a single season. ...That honestly kinda makes me think it'll be Game Canon even more TBH. 

Honestly if Sega tries to supplement the time in-between major game releases with spinoff games AND ventures into TV then I'm all for it. Do some novels maybe game canon comics and do a Sonic expanded universe if we aren't actually getting a game every year anymore. 

[Rabbitearsblog]

On 3/17/2022 at 5:41 PM, phobs said:

Surprised that no one posted it here yet, but someone was able to obtain clips from last year's WildBrain's investor's call regarding Prime.

In the case, if both clips will be taken down (or you just don't want to watch these clips), here is the summary

• Sonic Prime is created with new technology that helps to create cinematic look which makes the show feel like "Marvel movie", especially during action sequences
• Sonic Prime is limited 24 episode series
• Sonic Prime has the highest budget CG production in the WildBrain's history
• "Representing Classic Sonic in Europe" (?)

 

 

Interesting.  I'm glad that the show is getting a higher production, although I'm kind of disappointed that this show only has 24 episodes.  Or maybe, if the show does well, Netflix might give it more seasons down the line.

[Rabbitearsblog]

50 minutes ago, The Great Egg Emperor said:

Well, at least Wildbrain is putting in time and effort into the show and not just doing half the work. More budget means better looks.

Agree!

[Piko]

7 hours ago, The Great Egg Emperor said:

Well, at least Wildbrain is putting in time and effort into the show and not just doing half the work. More budget means better looks.

Agreed. At first I was expecting it to look like Boom but slightly better, but considering they're getting that sweet, sweet Netflix money, I hope they're gonna use it to make it look really good and potentially give the show a unique visual identity.

[phobs]

You all probably saw Netflix's recent tweet saying that Sonic Prime is still coming in 2022. However, it looks like that they now deleted the tweet. Is the delay actually coming?

 

[phobs]

Sonic Prime has been rated TV-Y7.

A lot of things are happening this morning, huh?

 

 

[Razule]

That'll make the people who are insecure about Sonic being a kids' aimed property upset.

[phobs]

1 minute ago, Razule said:

That'll make the people who are insecure about Sonic being a kids' aimed property upset.

*gasp* kids cartoon based on the property targeted at kids??? How awful

Where is my R-rated gory animated show about Sonic trying to avenge his murdered friends?

[phobs]

5 minutes ago, The Great Egg Emperor said:

Making fun of Arcane and Castlevania fans, I see.

I never intended to make fun of them lol. The trope I mentioned is not exclusive to either Arcane or Castlevania, there are a lot of shows/movies with such premise

[Rabbitearsblog]

I don't see a problem with this show being rated Y7. I've seen lots of shows that have TV Y7 ratings and yet, they still told some pretty mature stories.  Also, the previous Sonic the Hedgehog shows were Y7 or Y at best.

[Scritch the Cat]

Am I the only one who feels people here are overthinking the Y7 rating just because they're so desperate to have any news to discuss about this series?

[MGA_Gamer]

3 minutes ago, Scritch the Cat said:

Am I the only one who feels people here are overthinking the Y7 rating just because they're so desperate to have any news to discuss about this series?

You're not alone. How long has it been? Over a year? I thought I would've been released by now.