Sonic Colors: Rise of the Wisps Animation Announced

[Dr. Mechano]

Just now, Jack-al said:

Can we formally declare Orbot and Cubot as core Sonic characters anyway? And not some meta-era inclusion that doesn't fit.

I feel like it's safe to say they aren't going anywhere.

They (or at least Orbot) had a speaking role in every 3D game since Unleashed aside from Generations, regularly appear in the racing/sports spinoff games, and featured as recurring characters in the Sonic Boom cartoon, Archie, IDW, etc.

They're more "core cast" than a number of Sonic's friends at this point.

[Empire88]

Yeah the writing was a lot better than the game itself imo.  Sonic and Tails both had personality and were humorous with each other and it fit the context of what was going on. The voice direction was really good. I wish they were portrayed this way with more energy in the cutscenes in the recent games. I would be happy to see more writing like this in the games. (Judging from the first episode only). 

[StaticMania]

Ok, I see the problem here...

Kate's Tails voice is a bit higher here, it's actually noticeable when emoting.

And Tails didn't really have that range before when emoting in Colors and Lost World.

[QZX343]

I loved this short. Sonic's and Tails' have great chemistry here. Also I would love to see more interactions between Metal Sonic, Orbot, and Cubot. This short reminded me that these three are technically brothers.

[Meta77]

Sonic was fine, Metal look great, Eggman was odd but then again it is colors and its meant to be on of the more goofy sides of the franchise I just hope the writing for the netflix series and the game in 2022 stay away from this type of story though.

[SBR2]

2 hours ago, Jack-al said:

Can we formally declare Orbot and Cubot as core Sonic characters anyway? And not some meta-era inclusion that doesn't fit.

1. I've personally always considered them core characters. 2. Can we stop calling it "The Meta Era"!? That name is nonsense and does nothing but convince me that people are only mad because there's jokes at all.

[MetalSkulkBane]

I think I'm the first person in this topic that didn't loved it. Didn't hate it either, just sorta... there.

I guess everything was cute enough, but I was just spoiled by Mania Adventures. Face expressions, movement, it all just felt 20% less Hesse.

And as Metal worshiper, I am a bit underwhelmed. He was capturing those wisps like it was Tom and Jerry, not sonic-fast engine of cold robot fury,

[Cosmos Rogue]

I was disappointed by the short. As someone who thinks Colors is probably the best written 3D Sonic game (this is damning with faint praise) I think the film deserves the criticisms leveled at Colors' writing more so than the game does.

Cubot using the Good! Great! Amazing! voice lines was a good bit, though.

[Empire88]

To each their own of course as we will all have our own opinions. To be clear I didn't think it was a masterpiece either but it was enjoyable.

For me, the reason I felt like it was a decent step up from Colors and recent stories is that felt less... memey so far? Rather the humor being created out of awkwardness. And the way Sonic and Tails are interacting are more like actual friends and just more expressiveness in general. Again, I can't explain it, but there is something about where I felt the characters came off more likable and natural whereas it felt certain jokes in Colors and later games were forced.

There are some points you can criticize still for sure (a bit of Sonic's attitude for example) here and there and I get it wasn't perfect. But at the end of the day it felt a lot more lively and in character than we have seen in a long time (e.g. Forces where characters just stand around so on). But again, I get we will all have different opinions.

Edit:

Quote

I guess everything was cute enough, but I was just spoiled by Mania Adventures. Face expressions, movement, it all just felt 20% less Hesse.

I think that may be because of how they seem to portray the classic series compared to the Modern series. They seem to allow the classic characters to be a lot more expressive and cartoony so on. My guess. I notice this in all the recent classic stuff like the comics too. 

[Grunt]

I thought it was great! I am excited to see more. It made me go back to revisit Mania Adventures this morning, also great. I'm glad they're making these.

[KHCast]

33 minutes ago, Cosmos Rogue said:

As someone who thinks Colors is probably the best written 3D Sonic game (this is damning with faint praise) I think the film deserves the criticisms leveled at Colors' writing more so than the game does.

Interesting you say this when so far everyone seems to feel the reverse. Most say this is what the game should have been in terms of writing 

[Cosmos Rogue]

8 minutes ago, mitsunari88 said:

There are some points you can criticize still for sure (a bit of Sonic's attitude for example) here and there and I get it wasn't perfect. But at the end of the day it felt a lot more lively and in character than we have seen in a long time (e.g. Forces where characters just stand around so on). But again, I get we will all have different opinions.

 

3 minutes ago, KHCast said:

Interesting you say this when so far everyone seems to feel the reverse. Most say this is what the game should have been in terms of writing 

Humor is about as subjective as things get and I'm not interested in going to bat for Baldy McNosehair; suffice to say I thought most of the gags in Rise of the Wisps fell flat. But if Colors is guilty of having characters just stand around talking, Rise of the Wisp is even worse in the regard. Let's compare RotW to Color's opening cutscene:

The two scenes have a lot in common. Both scenes feature Eggman's robots menacing the Wisps. Both scenes feature Sonic and Tails learning about the Wisps' plight. Both scenes demonstrate some of the Wisps' powers. But in Colors we also see Sonic and Tails infiltrate Eggman's amusement park, learn about his get rich quick theme park scheme, and at the end Sonic leaps into action to protect the Wisps. In Rise of the Wisp Sonic and Tails do none of these things. They instead sit, stand, and lie around while Jade tells her tale.

[Empire88]

Right, I get that in both scenes characters are just standing. But there is a lifeless to it in the in game cutscenes, especially Forces. Most video game scenes are characters standing, but it feels like in recent games there is a lack of expressiveness or personality. 

And like I mentioned, I don't think the short is perfect either. But I don't know. I guess it's hard to explain why I felt like it comes off better than Colors did to me. I respect your opinion though. 

[StaticMania]

11 minutes ago, Cosmos Rogue said:

Rise of the Wisp is even worse in the regard.

The problem is frequency of that...

As someone who liked to pedantically point out how many scenes in the modern games are not in fact the characters just standing around talking, just  going "look, this thing is doing it too" and disregarding context is not exactly going move people.

This right here is like the first translator scene that's in Colors already, except with flashback of the bad thing that Sonic actually needs to know about and then Sonic just runs off.

There's nothing wrong with characters standing around and talking, by itself, but if the majority of scenes are like that...there's your problem.

Subpar animations of the games aside, which also doesn't help.

[Empire88]

1 minute ago, StaticMania said:

There's nothing wrong with characters standing around and talking, by itself, but if the majority of scenes are like that...there's your problem.

Yeah I think your comment captured an aspect of what am thinking better. I like RPGs and have played several games where there is standing around and talking so that in itself isn't inherently an issue. But I think with Sonic the issue is both the quantity, and relatively low lack of expression. Even if this short was essentially sitting around, it did it in a way that felt more engaging for me personally, but again, I understand why other's feel the way they do. 

[Wraith]

I didn't notice a substantial difference in this from Colors tbh. It feels like they were intentionally trying to create something that you could drop in seamlessly as a subplot in that game and nailed it. Colors's whole stick was using humor to shave off tension and that's what this does.

[Natie]

nice little character bit from sonic at the end there that grounds things nicely.

[Soniman]

4 minutes ago, Wraith said:

I didn't notice a substantial difference in this from Colors tbh. It feels like they were intentionally trying to create something that you could drop in seamlessly as a subplot in that game and nailed it. Colors's whole stick was using humor to shave off tension and that's what this does.

The dialogue was more natural and flowed better but I agree it isn't all that removed from the main thing that people are making it out to be, (which from my own perspective I don't see as a bad thing) it's just more acceptable because it's not a game being played nor is there false promises of a deeper narrative so it works.

Like if you took this short, used in game assets and plopped it in the game I don't think it'd stick out really. But that's a good thing for maintaining a good consistent tone between the short and the game they're promoting 

[Rabbitearsblog]

Just saw the short and I loved it!  Even though I haven't played Sonic Colors yet, I really liked the dialogue and humor in this short.  It was great seeing that brotherly banter between Sonic and Tails, as Tails gets annoyed by Sonic's immature behavior, while Sonic is still amusing while he's acting immature.  But then towards the end of the short, Tails has confidence in Sonic saving the day, while Sonic makes it clear that he doesn't like bullies and is willing to help the wisps anyway.  That's the type of relationship between the characters that I really missed in the games and I hope that we see this type of relationship again in the games soon.  I also liked the introduction of Metal Sonic since it's been years since we last seen him and I'm glad that he's playing a big role in these shorts.

[Kuzu]

17 minutes ago, Wraith said:

I didn't notice a substantial difference in this from Colors tbh. It feels like they were intentionally trying to create something that you could drop in seamlessly as a subplot in that game and nailed it. Colors's whole stick was using humor to shave off tension and that's what this does.

To clarify, Heese mentioned that is specifically what was asked from him and the team, to make something in line with Colors' specific tone. 

https://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?threads/sonic-colo-u-rs-ultimate-releasing-september-7th.40169/page-45#post-989920

Quote

We were specifically asked to make it feel like Sonic Colors' writing at several points, making it more lighthearted and quippy. Particularly when it came to Sonic's dialogue. It makes sense because at the end of the day it's meant to advertise Colors specifically, which had a very specific tone. But I do hope to get to write one of these like an action cartoon one day.

 

[SBR2]

I do like Tyson and his team did realize that Sonic isn't just a jokey jokester who doesn't take anything seriouslylike the majority of people seem to think he is in that game.

I've seen a lot of praise for the ending bit with him talking about kicking Metal's ass some saying it's the best he's been written since Black Knight but like that's literally how he is in the game. 

Everyone is like "ugh Baldy McNosehair it's like it's his job or something" but the game makes it very clear that Sonic is disgusted by what Eggman is doing. "That's pretty low. Even for Eggman", The entire scene with the Nega Wisp converter, "I don't like what you're doing to my friends!" and him making sure Tails is safe from the final battle all make it pretty clear that he is takingthe situation seriously when he sees the absolute depth of what's happening.

[Wraith]

19 minutes ago, Kuzu said:

To clarify, Heese mentioned that is specifically what was asked from him and the team, to make something in line with Colors' specific tone. 

https://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?threads/sonic-colo-u-rs-ultimate-releasing-september-7th.40169/page-45#post-989920

 

I figured as much. I was a little surprised to see GGDG credited when this didn't really read like her stuff.

"They nailed it" is my roundabout way of saying this wasn't really to my tastes at all btw. It's got that same "way too chatty" problem, comedy that isn't great is prioritized over investing us in the story beats etc. You've heard it all before. 

Hopefully Tyson gets in a position where he has more creative control soon.

[Kuzu]

Man, the translator joke takes an entirely different meaning now with that context. Now it sounds like a cry for help from him.

[Empire88]

Yeah that is fair. I prefer the more Adventure take on Sonic, hence I didn't care for the story of the original Colors. So I can imagine Heese wants to do something like that which would be the dream. 

I am satisfied with what we got given it is Colors (and I think it is a fun watch), but I want to see a more serious/action take like Heese suggested he wanted to do. 

[JezMM]

This was enjoyable, I chuckled a couple of times. My only issue is I feel the modern shorts are just slightly more "flash-animated" looking than Mania Adventures, which all felt smooth as butter frame-by-frame hand-drawn animation (even though I expect it wasn't for plenty of shots).  I dunno if I'm imagining it, whether these ones just have slightly reduced budget compared to SMA, or if it's just a practical choice because the Modern character designs just aren't quite as bouncy/flexible/tailor-made for animation as Tyson Hesse's own classic designs.  Luckily, there were a bunch of great moments of wonderful expressiveness, especially from Sonic, which pick up the slack.

But yeah, it definitely felt like you could just drop this right into the game and have it be at home there.  Which may well be their intention, considering Ultimate's cut-scenes seem to just be upscales/re-renders of the original game's cut-scenes, I'll be surprised if they bother to contextualise the Metal Sonic Rival races with new cut-scenes in the actual game.  So this sorta fill that role.

Also, unless they have speaking lines in episode 2, it'll be kind of funny if the scenario here was a clever workaround for Eggman and Cubot's voice actors not being available for this lol.  Pretty inspired jokes to cover that up if so.