The Sonic Film/TV soundtracks: Some ups and Some downs

[The Great Egg Emperor]

The Sonic franchise is well known for its music. The games almost always have amazing soundtracks. But on the Film/TV side, it's a bit of a mixed bag.

AOSTH actually has a pretty memorable soundtrack, done by Reed Robbins and Mark Simon. It is almost as crazy as the show and fits it well. Robotnik's theme is probably the most iconic piece of music from the show.

I haven't actually seen enough of SATAM to know if it has a good soundtrack or not. It had three composers, though: Michael Tavera for Season 1 and Matt Muhoberac and John Zuker for Season 2.

Underground has a very rock inspired soundtrack that is decent, but the vocal songs are garbage. It is unknown who did the soundtrack to this.

The OVA has an amazing soundtrack, done by Mitsuhiro Tada, and it is a shame it was never fully released. 

X is interesting, as there are technically two different soundtracks. The Japanese one was done by Yoshihiro Ike, and the American one was done by in-house musicians at 4Kids. Both have their pros and cons. The Japanese OST is good, but tracks tend to be reused a lot. The American OST is an overbearing fake orchestral score, but at least it keeps it unique for every episode.

Boom's OST was done by Michael Richard Plowman. It's very actiony, and gets the job done, but it isn't that memorable.

Finally, we have the OST for the movies, which was done by Tom Holkenborg, also known as Junkie XL. I was really looking forward to how the OST would turn out. He did do the music for Mad Max: Fury Road and Deadpool, so my expectations were high. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed with the end result. It felt way too generic, and could be in any other movie out there, TBH. Maybe Junkie was being restrained by the studio, or maybe he wanted to do something different. Either way, his music did not work for this movie. I don't have any hate towards him, but I hope that the third movie and the Knuckles series get a new composer.

What are your thoughts on the soundtracks for the Sonic movies and shows?

[Starnik]

Sonic X T.O.P.

The Sonic OVA was pretty atmospheric. Sonic Boom and Sonic X I don’t think about much. Although the Sonic X theme is pretty catchy in the American, Japanese, and Italian version. And I love some of the songs like Sonic T.O.P, Natsu No Hi, Mi Ra I, and The Shining Road. Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog is silly, fitting for the show. 
 

Sonic X Italian Theme

 

[Cuz]

I probably wouldn't return to X as much without Shining Road and Natsu No Hi. They really elevate the show for me.

SatAM has the opening and the incredible atmopheric theme of Robotnik in it, but otherwise I don't think of it musically.

Robotnik's Theme