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

[Meta77]

No comedy for the love of god. X was bad enough with its horrible english soundtrack and jokes throughout. I can think of maybe 8 serious moments in that series and the rest was ruined for me by chris and the jokes. The first episode/first like 6 minutes is what i hoped the series was going to be and the moment i saw chris ho ho ho buddy i knew i was in for some pain.

[Zaysho]

Posting to make it clear and remind everyone that whatever information Hogfather has is not up for discussion and please do not bother him about it. He made it clear why he's not divulging more than he has. Posts along these lines after this will be deleted if I see them.

[Leebo4]

you think they can attempt a crossover with the upcoming Cuphead show, looking forward to that one

[Mountaindewandsprite]

I just really hope this is a story driven Sonic series. Regardless, though, I can't wait to see how it will turn out. Hearing that Man of Action is involved in the development actually gives me high expectations.

[Red Hot Jack]

So how about ideas and hopes? What characters, zones, plots and possible lore do you want to see in the show?

If anything, this would be the place to flesh out the cast and lore, if the writers are competent.

[Dr. Detective]

43 minutes ago, Jack out of the comics! said:

So how about ideas and hopes? What characters, zones, plots and possible lore do you want to see in the show?

If anything, this would be the place to flesh out the cast and lore, if the writers are competent.

Characters? Pretty much everyone. I can't really say I hope any of the current cast gets left out. 

Plot? Dunno. I'd prefer a continuing narrative, even if thats achieved through something that feels like every episode can be relatively self-contained. There's been shows that can handle both. Of course, something that functioned as an action-adventure series again would be nice. It'll be nice having another one of those since X ended so long ago at this point.

Zones? Sheesh. Do they even put zones in the shows? I guess X had to for the Adventure arcs (even mentioning Crazy Gadget by name) but outside of that nothing. I have a feeling this could be the first show to actually try though. It might start out in Green Hill or something. If I had to choose, I'd go with the one I always pick, Hang Castle.

Lore is a tough one to talk about because that's largely dependant on whatever direction they plan to take things. I would prefer they utilize what I knew about the Sonic series before info came out that made it make as little sense as possible and not just underwritten like it used to be. One world instead of two, money exists again, Team Dark are friends, etc. I can't say too much outside of that.

If Silver appears I'd like an explanation for how his time travel works. I know time travel is always the pits but an explanation would be lovely compared to the nothing we have at the moment.

[Mountaindewandsprite]

40 minutes ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

Characters? Pretty much everyone. I can't really say I hope any of the current cast gets left out. 

On the topic of characters, as unlikely as it is, maybe we can get the Hooligans (as antagonists), Mighty and Ray, Heavy and Bomb, The Witchcarters, The Great Battle Kukku XV (also antagonist), and maybe Honey. I seriously hope that stupid "separate dimensions" mandate doesn't apply to the cartoon.

[Rabbitearsblog]

I'm really excited for this new series!  I'm glad that Sonic is getting another cartoon after Sonic Boom ended its run.  What I hope to see in this new cartoon series is that it's more story focused and we get to see some development in the characters.  It's been awhile since we had a Sonic cartoon series that got into depth with the characters.  Also, I would like the series to focus mostly on Sonic and his friends, don't introduce a human character that will overtake the series, like they did with Sonic X and Chris.  Here's to hoping that the new Sonic series is good!

[Red Hot Jack]

That is why I would rather humans stay away from this. 2 worlds is a good fit if they can just ignore humans.

I kinda want them to stick to Modern Sonic in general but with new plots, like no direct adaptations, new stories and new lore. They can have seasonal big bads, like season 1 could focus on Eggman with a robot of the week in each episode, a la Sonic X, but with plenty of self contained new plots. And a direction for an ongoing plot. The final scene of season 1 could feature Shadow to tease season 2, for example.

Also I just had a thought, does the comparison with MM Fully Charged still work? With CGI graphics, it's the same studio yep, but that was on CN, Netflix usually has a bit of a higher budget. Which kinda gives me hope for a good looking cartoon

Also this may get longer episodes again due to Netflix not having the same strict rules as CN. Fully Charged had 11 minutes because it's standard for that network. Probably.

[Dr. Detective]

2 hours ago, Mountaindewandsprite said:

On the topic of characters, as unlikely as it is, maybe we can get the Hooligans (as antagonists), Mighty and Ray, Heavy and Bomb, The Witchcarters, The Great Battle Kukku XV (also antagonist), and maybe Honey. I seriously hope that stupid "separate dimensions" mandate doesn't apply to the cartoon.

If it applies to the Comics, I'm not sure why it wouldn't apply to this cartoon. 

2 hours ago, Rabbitearsblog said:

Also, I would like the series to focus mostly on Sonic and his friends, don't introduce a human character that will overtake the series, like they did with Sonic X and Chris.  

 

2 hours ago, Jack out of the comics! said:

That is why I would rather humans stay away from this. 2 worlds is a good fit if they can just ignore humans.

So are you guys okay with a non-human character coming in and overtaking the series than?

Because the problem with that had nothing to do with Chris being a human. It still kind of irks me a bit to hear it spoken as if it would have been totally okay if he were an animal character instead. That's not what the problem was.

Eggman is a fantastic character. His design is insane and his personality is bonkers. He fits within the Sonic universe just fine as a human. They can do more of that. The fact that they haven't tried outside of something like Unleashed is more a testament to laziness. As a fan of One Piece, I've seen how insane and out of this world the design, personalities, and powers of human characters can get. I really would rather this two worlds thing just not be a thing and instead for them to just suck it up and get more crazy and creative with their humans so that they fit more. It's okay for humans to be weird too. Sonic's world is freakishly weird. 

[Scritch the Cat]

20 hours ago, Meta77 said:

No comedy for the love of god. X was bad enough with its horrible english soundtrack and jokes throughout. I can think of maybe 8 serious moments in that series and the rest was ruined for me by chris and the jokes. The first episode/first like 6 minutes is what i hoped the series was going to be and the moment i saw chris ho ho ho buddy i knew i was in for some pain.

I’m sorry, but frankly Sonic isn’t Sonic without comedy.  That doesn’t mean plots can’t have serious stakes, but one of the hallmarks of our hero is that he makes light of them, reassuring himself and annoying the villains.

[Mountaindewandsprite]

Quick question: Does Ian Flynn not write for the comics anymore? 

If so, I'd imagine him being on board with writing the cartoon.

[Dr. Detective]

1 hour ago, Mountaindewandsprite said:

Quick question: Does Ian Flynn not write for the comics anymore? 

If so, I'd imagine him being on board with writing the cartoon.

He does. He's writing the Bad Guys Mini series right now. 

He could probably write a few episodes for the cartoon regardless. He has a lot of different projects he's doing, not just Sonic. He can do more than one thing at a time.

He's not like Penders who hasn't made a single issue of his alleged comic series after almost 10 years. He's got shirts and mugs and a shitty, broken app for his comic that doesn't exist though but that's kind of the Sonic Boom route of worrying about merch before you make sure you have a popular, successful thing first.

[Rabbitearsblog]

30 minutes ago, Mountaindewandsprite said:

Quick question: Does Ian Flynn not write for the comics anymore? 

If so, I'd imagine him being on board with writing the cartoon.

Ian Flynn is currently writing the Bad Guys series in the IDW comics.  So, he's still writing for the comics, just not the main comics.  Evan Stanley has taken over for the main comics.

2 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

So are you guys okay with a non-human character coming in and overtaking the series than?

Because the problem with that had nothing to do with Chris being a human. It still kind of irks me a bit to hear it spoken as if it would have been totally okay if he were an animal character instead. That's not what the problem was.

Eggman is a fantastic character. His design is insane and his personality is bonkers. He fits within the Sonic universe just fine as a human. They can do more of that. The fact that they haven't tried outside of something like Unleashed is more a testament to laziness. As a fan of One Piece, I've seen how insane and out of this world the design, personalities, and powers of human characters can get. I really would rather this two worlds thing just not be a thing and instead for them to just suck it up and get more crazy and creative with their humans so that they fit more. It's okay for humans to be weird too. Sonic's world is freakishly weird. 

Oh, I meant like don't make this new cartoon series into a human-focused adaptation.  The problem with Sonic X was that Chris often took over the important roles from other Sonic characters, like he pretty much took over as the best friend towards Sonic from Tails and the scene where he convinces Shadow to become good was taken from Amy in the games.  I don't mind having human characters in the show and Eggman is a very good human character like you said, but I wouldn't want this series to be focused on another character who is not Sonic.

[Dr. Detective]

1 hour ago, Rabbitearsblog said:

Oh, I meant like don't make this new cartoon series into a human-focused adaptation.  The problem with Sonic X was that Chris often took over the important roles from other Sonic characters, like he pretty much took over as the best friend towards Sonic from Tails and the scene where he convinces Shadow to become good was taken from Amy in the games.  I don't mind having human characters in the show and Eggman is a very good human character like you said, but I wouldn't want this series to be focused on another character who is not Sonic.

I figured that's what you meant. I'm just saying it's got nothing to do with being human.

I don't totally agree that Chris took over a ton of important roles from the other characters. I feel like he did that once or twice in those exact examples you listed but one of those instances was something that happened in a single story arc (Amy in SA2) and the other was a balancing issue that I felt was fixed by the third season (that being Tails). I feel like his actual problem was that his importance was heightened to account for the story they were trying to tell about forming connections on a planet you'll have to one day say goodbye to. They did that rather well with Rouge and Topaz actually but for Chris it got rather out of hand. He should have functioned more like he did in the third season where he shared screen time with the others in the background until specific moments put him at the forefront.  

A lot of this comes down to balance because this is a trap a lot of originally created characters can fall into rather easily. If you create a character called Tommy the Turtle and he turns out to be hanging out with Sonic all the fucking time and he's the only character anyone gives a crap about in your cartoon, we'd have the same problem on our hands.

Balance when it comes to who gets the focus and when is an extremely important thing to try and nail down. It can be a dangerous thing to manage when you've got a large cast but I think the Sonic cast is significantly different enough from one another that it could be managed rather well in the right hands.

 

[VO.SUPER]

I think the problem with most human character has and always been that human is code for: normie. 

These characters have no powers or any kind of agency when the story needs to involve action scenes, so when they get focused on, like Chris and some of the others, its just kind of boring.

While I dont want to go back to the Adventure days of "everyone is human except for the 5 anthros running around" I can get behind more humans if they can be anything other than normies if they aren't background characters.

I agree that Topaz was one of the better ones in Sonic X because she had a real working dynamic with Rouge in the story. But characters like Chris and his family, you couldn't pay me to care about. 

[Scritch the Cat]

40 minutes ago, VisionaryofSUPER said:

I think the problem with most human character has and always been that human is code for: normie. 

These characters have no powers or any kind of agency when the story needs to involve action scenes, so when they get focused on, like Chris and some of the others, its just kind of boring.

While I dont want to go back to the Adventure days of "everyone is human except for the 5 anthros running around" I can get behind more humans if they can be anything other than normies if they aren't background characters.

I agree that Topaz was one of the better ones in Sonic X because she had a real working dynamic with Rouge in the story. But characters like Chris and his family, you couldn't pay me to care about. 

As obviously true as that all is, the Sonic series populated entirely or mostly by anthropomorphic animals haven’t avoided being filled with normies either.  Antoine’s primary trait was that he was a hapless loser, and in Boom we got quite a few such characters.

[VO.SUPER]

1 hour ago, Scritch the Cat said:

As obviously true as that all is, the Sonic series populated entirely or mostly by anthropomorphic animals haven’t avoided being filled with normies either.  Antoine’s primary trait was that he was a hapless loser, and in Boom we got quite a few such characters.

I feel like when they tried to make Antoine a normie, they were subverting what we knew about Anthros like Sonic and Tails. (The ones in Boom are just service to the jokes.)

I think it'd generally be more interesting if the human half of Sonic's world were like the My Hero Academia society where everyone is just super powered in some weird way barring exceptions. 

[DabigRG]

On 12/10/2020 at 1:55 PM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

. Hopefully we're not in for a surprise re-design where Sonic's even taller and wrapped in belts instead of sports tape. 

Nomura!

On 12/10/2020 at 1:55 PM, Dr. Detective Mike said:

If I'm lucky I might see all the Chaotix and Omega in this one. Oh snap. Silver and Blaze might finally appear in a Sonic cartoon 15 years after they debutted.

Yeah, finally.

Although those last two could be a can of worms.

On 12/10/2020 at 3:39 PM, VisionaryofSUPER said:

I like bad puns.

 

1. It started to develop into a well meaning action show by the end. It wasn't amazing, but it did show some dedication to serious storytelling. 

2. A show that doesn't make any effort even in the long run, or even commit to a vision. Or just one that really dumb things down. Pac-Man comes to mind. 

How do you dumb down eat dots and blue ghosts?

On 12/10/2020 at 6:51 PM, Wildcat said:

.

Imagine if they reintroduced the Freedom Fighters? Or at least Sally. It is technically from the same company that did SatAM right? Not in the same continuity obviously but it could be a safe way to test out the character(s) again in a new version.

I was kinda wondering about that myself.

On 12/10/2020 at 10:27 PM, Rabbitearsblog said:

Didn't Man of Action worked on Big Hero 6, which was pretty successful?

Dammit, I knew I might've been forgetting something.

 

Oh boy. ..

[DabigRG]

On 12/11/2020 at 10:38 AM, Blueknight V2.0 said:

 

I don't think it's gonna turn out like MM:FC or even that CGI Pac-man cartoon from a few years ago...oohh boy! From my understanding, Pontaff had a hand in that shows writing & after watching a seasons worth of episodes, yeah. I was clearly Not the shows demographic. Pac-Man & the ghosts look good, so are their interactions...but that's about it.

To be fair, they only joined after five or six episodes in.

On 12/11/2020 at 10:38 AM, Blueknight V2.0 said:

I'm sure the shows games turned out better.

 

Eh hehehehe...nah.

[Silvereyes]

Some thoughts:

* I think this will definetly be a new continuity, so much so that I would bet money on it. I doubt any writer would want to come on board and have to deal with the mish mash continuity of 20 years of Sonic games, with Sega's weird rules on what is and isn't canon. Writers will want to pick and choose ideas, characters, storylines they want to do. (Although I assume there will still be Sega mandates to some extent, but I imagine it's alot easier to deal with in your own playbox, rather than trying to use someone elses.) To me the actual question is: how closely will the show be to the video game continuity?

*Mixed thoughts on 3D animation. On the one hand, TV quality CGI is getting better and better. I actually think Sonic Boom was a pretty great looking show for 2014 CGI TV. Certainly leagues better than the likes of New Captain Scarlet which I watched as a kid. So I do hope this show will look good. But I also think 3D animation could mean it is harder to really pull off stuff like Sonic's speed, the fact you really can't do crowds, limited character models. I imagine if Boom was 2D, you'd of had more guest characters than just Vector turning up, since in 2D you don't need to build a new model for every character. Still, I feel optimistic. 3D animation is just getting better and better, and this show could look great. Thunderbirds are Go was often gorgeous, don't see why this couldn't be theoretically, but it could mean a real limit on which characters turn up.

*I enjoyed Boom for what it was, but I definetly don't want another Boom. Saying that though, I do want to say that I think Boom got something very right was that it knew how to right the Sonic characters as, well, characters. The gang in the show each have obvious drives and obvious flaws. It seemed to really understand how each character operated, I think it has the best iteration of Amy, and I think Sonic and Tails iterations are up there as some of the best. There are elements of Boom I don't want back, don't want any fourth wall humour, don't want the show to be an outright comedy, don't want the cynicism back actually, I think Boom maybe the most cynical Sonic product I have ever seen and I don't think it gels with me.

*I guess in terms of wishlist, 22 minute length episodes, some serialisation and continuity, doesn't mean there can't be simple single episodes. Want it to be fairly close to the games like the IDW run. Want the show to at some point have basically every current major primary and secondary character in the series show up. (Team Sonic, Team Rose, Team Dark, Team Chaotix, Blaze, Silver, others I'm probably forgetting.) At least 1 new main character like Sticks. Just, basically, a good show that while designed for kids can always be watched and enjoyed by adults as well.

[DabigRG]

5 hours ago, Dr. Detective Mike said:

He does. He's writing the Bad Guys Mini series right now. 

 

 

5 hours ago, Rabbitearsblog said:

Ian Flynn is currently writing the Bad Guys series in the IDW comics.  So, he's still writing for the comics, just not the main comics.  Evan Stanley has taken over for the main comics.

 

Actually, he Wrote the Bad Guys Miniseries.

[Mountaindewandsprite]

26 minutes ago, Silvereyes said:

I think this will definetly be a new continuity, so much so that I would bet money on it. I doubt any writer would want to come on board and have to deal with the mish mash continuity of 20 years of Sonic games, with Sega's weird rules on what is and isn't canon. Writers will want to pick and choose ideas, characters, storylines they want to do. (Although I assume there will still be Sega mandates to some extent, but I imagine it's alot easier to deal with in your own playbox, rather than trying to use someone elses.) To me the actual question is: how closely will the show be to the video game continuity?

This is a great point. I doubt anybody, not even the likes of Ian Flynn would want to try to write around the whole "Two Worlds" and other crap Iizuka pulls out his ass. I was actually hoping for this to be a cartoon adaptation of Post-SGW Archie Sonic comics, but who knows.

[StaticMania]

1 hour ago, Silvereyes said:

since in 2D you don't need to build a new model for every character.

Model sheets are essentially the same thing...

SatAM and Sonic Underground are the only Sonic shows without 4th wall breaks, oddly.

[DaddlerTheDalek]

I would love to see Blaze, Silver, Marine, Omega and Gemerl in this. Especially Blaze and Silver.