Sonic Underground

Sonic Underground

## **More Information**

***Sonic Underground***, named ***Sonic le Rebelle*** in French, is a 1999 American-French animated television series loosely based upon the original *Sonic the Hedgehog* franchise.

It was directed by Marc Boreal, François Hemmen and Daniel Sarriet and was co-produced by DIC Productions, L.P., Les Studios Tex S.A.R.L. and TF1. It is the third *Sonic the Hedgehog* animated series, and also the last one produced by DIC.

The series first aired in France from January to May 1999 on TF1, and then premiered in the United Kingdom in May 1999 on ITV on the GMTV strand and finally in the United States in the syndicated children's block BKN Kids II from August to October 1999. It also aired on the Sci-Fi Channel on weekday mornings starting October 1999, lasting until October 2000. The show ran only for one season consisting of forty episodes. It was also the first *Sonic the Hedgehog* television series to be sold on the iTunes Store.

This series contains Sonic with his two siblings, Sonia and Manic, that are collectively part of a royal family who were forced to separate from their mother, Queen Aleena, upon Doctor Robotnik's takeover of Mobius due to a prophecy told by the Oracle of Delphius. Along the way, they encounter other resistance groups against Robotnik as well as powerful artifacts that could wreak havoc on the world, all the while searching for their long-lost mother Queen Aleena.

## Overview

### Season 1

Sonic and his royal siblings seek to find their mother and defeat the tyrant, Robotnik.

## Cast

* Jaleel White as Sonic the Hedgehog/Sonia the Hedgehog/Manic the Hedgehog/Aman-Rapi
	+ Sam Vincent as Sonic the Hedgehog (if singing)
	+ Louise Vallance as Sonia the Hedgehog (if singing)/Mindy LaTour
	+ Tyley Ross as Manic the Hedgehog (if singing)
* Gary Chalk as Doctor Robotnik/Moby Deep/Abdul/Vince/Tax Payer/Royal Chef/Derobotisizer Subject
* Maurice LaMarche as Sleet/Oracle of Delphius/Swatbots/Uncle Chuck/Yellow Floaty Thing/Bidding Lion/Ifyoucan/Hotep/Luke Periwinkle/Athair
* Peter Wilds as Dingo
* Gail Webster as Queen Aleena
* Brian Drummond as Knuckles
* Ian James Corlett as Cyrus
* Phil Hayes as Bartleby
* Matt Hill as Trevor/Max
* Kathleen Barr as Doo Bot
* Merrilyn Gann
* Adrian Hughes
* Terry Klassen as Bat
* Blu Mankuma as Fodder/Various roboticized residents
* Cusse Mankuma
* Tabitha St. Germain as Lydia/Fruit-Carrying Girl/Hip Hedgehog/Renée/Emerald Peninsula Lady/Emerald Peninsula Fairy
* Lee Tockar

## Episodes

It first premiered in France on 6 January 1999 and aired on TF1 on the *TF! Jeunesse* block on Wednesdays and Sundays. The show later premiered in English in the UK on 2 May 1999 and aired on ITV1 on Sunday mornings. ITV1 aired the first 18 episodes in the original UK run before cancelling the show. *Sonic Underground* premiered in USA on 30 August 1999 and aired on the Bohbot Kids Network syndication block on weekday mornings at 6:00 AM Central Time.

While it was believed for a while that *Sonic Underground* had 65 planned episodes of which only 40 aired, Ben Hurst, a main writer for the series, stated in an online live chat at the Sonic Amateur Games Expo 2006 that only 40 were produced.

## Production

It is often claimed that the newly Sega of America CEO Shoichiro Irimajiri contacted DIC CEO Andy Heyward to make a new Sonic cartoon, which would help gain interest in buying their new console, the Dreamcast. *Sonic Underground* started production in early 1997, around the same time the development of both the Dreamcast and *Sonic Adventure* had started. The show bible was written as early as March 1997. The show was publicly announced as early as December 1997.

When the show was in development, two episodes per week were produced, and the writers felt that they were not given enough time to "tie everything together" in the plot, being limited to a three-part "Origins" saga for coherency. DIC used cattle calls to generate episode plots. Periodically, about twenty unaffiliated writers were brought into the studios to learn about the established characters and brainstorm possible plots for episodes, after which about one or two would be selected. According to Mike Piccirillo, when he was writing songs for the show, there were no storyboards done yet, so he could only work off of the scripts, which often said what moral or lesson the song should be about in each episode. The show's animation was outsourced to the Taiwanese animation studio Hong Ying Animation with the main title animation done in Madrid, Spain by Milimetros, S.A. (also responsible for the animation in the Saturday morning Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon), pre-production services provided by Le Studio Ellipse, layout services by Arles Animation and video and audio post-production services by Les Studios de Saint-Ouen. According to Robby London, Sega of Japan had an active role in the approval process for *Sonic Underground*, going so far as to force DiC to reanimate the characters with five fingers instead of the usual four due to the Japanese association of four fingers with the Yakuza.

While it was once believed that 65 episodes were made of which only 40 aired, Ben Hurst, a main writer from *Sonic the Hedgehog* (dubbed *SatAM* by fans), who was also involved in *Sonic Underground'*s production, stated in a chat at the Sonic Amateur Games Expo 2008 that only 40 were planned to be produced from the beginning.

*Sonic Underground* first premiered in France on 6 January 1999 and aired on TF1 on the *TF! Jeunesse* block on Wednesdays and Sundays.

The show made its English premiere in the United Kingdom on May 2, 1999, airing on ITV's GMTV strand, on the Disney-produced block Diggit, which was programmed by the show's distributor Buena Vista International Television and had also aired other programmes produced by DIC Entertainment at the time. ITV aired the first 18 episodes of the series on Sunday mornings before the series was removed from the Diggit schedule.

In 2005, DIC pre-sold the series to GMTV, and so the series reran on ITV2 in 2005 as part of the GMTV2 Kids strand.

By 2006, alongside the other Sonic cartoons, the series began to air on Pop, and by 2012, was airing on its sister channel Kix!

In January 1999, it was announced that Bohbot Entertainment had acquired the North American broadcast rights to the series to air on their BKN syndicated strand. The series premiered in the country on 30 August 1999 on the company's then-new BKN Kids II on weekday mornings at 6:00 AM Central Time., and ran until 22 October 1999.

The series also aired on the Sci-Fi Channel which BKN also had a broadcast deal with at the time, however, the episodes that were supposed to air on Fridays were skipped because *Double Dragon* and later *King Arthur and the Knights of Justice* were airing instead, therefore only 32 of the 40 *Sonic Underground* episodes aired on that channel.

On 19 January 2006, CBS announced a multi-year deal with DIC to broadcast some of their shows on the "CBS's Secret Saturday Morning Slumber Party" segment, including *Sonic Underground*, however, the block would not end up running the show in the end.

In 2009, reruns of *Sonic Underground* aired on Firestone Communications' Sorpresa, a Hispanic children's station (Channel 850 on Time Warner Cable) in the United States, broadcasting the audio-dubbed Latin Spanish dub.

Re-runs of the series aired on Disney XD starting 11 June 2012 and ending on 14 December 2012. This marked the second time a *Sonic the Hedgehog* cartoon has aired on a Disney-themed channel, with the first being *Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog* on the now-defunct Toon Disney from 1998 to 2002.

The series aired in Canada on Teletoon.

In Australia, *Sonic Underground* premiered on The Seven Network during *The Big Breakfast* in 1999.

In 2011, the show was broadcast by KidsCo in regions the channel broadcast from.

In South Africa, Fox Crime had originally planned to air *Sonic Underground* on 21 August 2015 as Case File Toon service of DStv, TopTV, SpaceTV, My.T and ZAP, but has been put on hold. In December 2018, reruns of the series began airing on Starz.

## Trivia

* This is the first animated adaption to have animation done digitally.
* This is the first *Sonic* television series to feature Knuckles the Echidna and the only one to not feature Miles "Tails" Prower.
	+ This was also Knuckles' only appearance in a *Sonic* TV show produced by DiC Entertainment
	+ Coincidentally, neither character was shown with the other in any of the three animated series produced by DiC, although both were portrayed as close allies/friends of Sonic.
* It is the only Sonic television series to show a relative of Knuckles: his great-grandfather Athair.
* This is the first *Sonic the Hedgehog* series animation to be made in France, the second being *Sonic Boom*.
* According to the oracle's prophecy, the triplets someday will meet with their mother, and will join forces to defeat Robotnik and return everything to normal. This never happened in any episode.
* The siblings' father was never mentioned. However, the French theme song of the show implied that there was no king at the time that Sonic and his siblings were born.
* In the episode "Sleepers", Manic's voice is a little deeper than normal, whereas in the episode "Wedding Bell Blues," Sonic's voice was more high-pitched than normal. In "To Catch a Queen," Manic's voice sounded more like Sonic's as he commented on parts he was stealing for an invention. Sonic's pronunciation of "Sonia" also differed throughout the series. This was probably an oversight by Jaleel White, who voiced all three siblings.
* The Archie *Sonic the Hedgehog* comic series considers *Sonic Underground* as an alternate universe version of Sonic, and has made one appearance in the series, in *Sonic Super Special* #10.
* 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 which first appeared in *Sonic the Hedgehog 3* along with Knuckles.
* The sanctuary at the end of episode 20, "Three Hedgehogs and a Baby," has been compared to Knothole Village from the *Sonic the Hedgehog* television series.
* Jaleel White had not done his own juvenile voice in *Sonic the Hedgehog* (it was done by Tahj Mowry), but he does do it in this show.
* There are several errors that always occur, such as when Medallions are missing, Manic has his earrings on his right ear, Manic's fanny-pack is missing, and gloves or arms are in a different color. There have also been perspective issues.
* In the episode, "The Big Melt," when Manic comes out of the water and coughs, it is in Sonic's voice, and in "Beginnings" and "Haircraft in Space," one can see Sonic's mouth move to Sonia's voice, and vice versa.
* The medallion strings are in different colors. Sonic has a red string, Sonia has a yellow string, and Manic has a blue string.
* The series was streamed on Netflix, but the episodes are completely out of order on Netflix and from episodes 27-40 the title screen for the episodes and the end credits are in French. As of 31 October 2013, *Sonic Underground* is no longer on Netflix. In 2014, *Sonic Underground* returned to Netflix, but was removed again on 2 January 2018.
* This is the last *Sonic* television show to feature Jaleel White as the voice of Sonic.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 *Sonic Underground* on Wikipedia
2. ↑ *Sonic Underground* on IMDB
3. ↑ List of Sonic Underground episodes on Sonic News Network

 ***Series***

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