Home Video Release Sonic 2 Releases Tomorrow on Digital/Paramount+, with New Animated Short [U]

[VO.SUPER]

If you’ve been waiting to watch Sonic 2 from the comfort of your home, wait no longer! …Well, wait a little longer. Just a little though.

And sure, that's all well and good, but if you're like me, these releases aren't about the movies, they're about the special features, and according to the iTunes listing (when viewed within iTunes), there are some solid bonuses here, including deleted scenes, a behind the scenes featurette, Q&A with Sonic's voice actor Ben Schwartz, and most significantly, a new animated short!

UPDATE: A brief clip from Entertainment Tonight shows off quality animation, and a non-Elba voice voice swap for Knuckles:

via Twitter

No word yet on if these will hit Paramount+ or the disc release (it probably will, but we don't have confirmation), so keep an eye out, and once again enjoy that one scene where Knuckles misinterprets a lighthearted thing in a deathly serious manner.

Thanks to @tailsBOOM!and @VO.SUPER for the news tip and @Jason Berry for the video link!

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[Rabbitearsblog]

I think that Knuckles is just being brash in this short too rather than being dumb.  I guess we'll see what's really going on once this short releases, which I'm really excited for! 

[CaptainRobo]

According to Pat, the development of the short movie had started while Jeff was filming Sonic 2.:

The writing process was the same. The only differences are the production and the editing.:

 

[Rabbitearsblog]

17 minutes ago, CaptainRobo said:

According to Pat, the development of the short movie had started while Jeff was filming Sonic 2.:

The writing process was the same. The only differences are the production and the editing.:

 

Interesting. I wonder if they knew how the characters would go as they were writing this short.

[CaptainRobo]

2 minutes ago, Rabbitearsblog said:

Interesting. I wonder if they knew how the characters would go as they were writing this short.

I don't know, but we will see.

I'm not sure why Colleen and Idris didn't reprise their roles, while, Ben was able to come back for the short movie. I guess Ben had the time doing it, while Colleen and Idris had other stuff they need to do.

[Rabbitearsblog]

1 minute ago, CaptainRobo said:

I don't know, but we will see.

I'm not sure why Colleen and Idris didn't reprise their roles, while, Ben was able to come back for the short movie. I guess Ben had the time doing it, while Colleen and Idris had other stuff they need to do.

If this short was made during the production of the second movie, they might have made this short before they decided on getting Idris Elba and Colleen to voice Knuckles and Tails.

[Austroid]

I like the animation but wow, the short seems like its on a sugar rush with the pacing. With Knuckles' voice I don't mind it too much.

No offence to Idris Elba, but his words slurred together sometimes and made him hard to understand.

[VO.SUPER]

4 hours ago, CaptainRobo said:

According to Pat, the development of the short movie had started while Jeff was filming Sonic 2.:

The writing process was the same. The only differences are the production and the editing.:

 

These basically have to be the case for these kinds of shorts. It was something animated on the downtime following the wrapping up of the film and the refinement process of the digital re-release. Basically as a way to justify keeping the animation staff together once production wrapped. 

[caitash]

Just watched it, The animation was nice , the models felt a tiny tiny bit different to the movie versions (but that could just be the effect of the more fluid animation) it did feel like it was on a bit of a sugar rush. Knuckles was okay. Sonic was okay. Tails felt a bit annoying (both his lines and his voice) which is kinda sad after the movie. I love that Knuckles was returning Maddie’s library books, one of which was titled “Parenting adopted children” so hopefully that’s all the confirmation we need that they’re all family now.

[Kuzu]

We got confirmation of new actors for Tails and Knuckles.

 

[Haru]

I thought it was passible. I found everyone too unlikeable. Nice animation though. 

[DaBigJ]

1 hour ago, Kuzu said:

We got confirmation of new actors for Tails and Knuckles.

 

How much you wanna bet they'll be in Sonic the Hedgehog 3?

[MGA_Gamer]

2 minutes ago, Jake_LeOFFICIAL said:

How much you wanna bet they'll be in Sonic the Hedgehog 3?

If Elba is staying for the Knuckles show, then he'll definitely be in Sonic 3.

Not sure about Packard as Tails though. May depend on how big a roll he has in that film.

[caitash]

7 minutes ago, Jake_LeOFFICIAL said:

How much you wanna bet they'll be in Sonic the Hedgehog 3?

I really, really hope not. Colleen has gone on record recently saying she will voice Tails like this for ‘as long as they’ll have her’ so she is clearly willing and wanting to go on. I think the only thing that might break that is 1) Scheduling clashes (but surely, SURELY, they will arrange it all in time to be able to schedule in)  or - and I think this one might be the bigger issue - 2) Money. She did a good job, most people praised her for doing a good job except for a handful of critics. Fans seem to want Colleen to stay on, which would be a bargaining chip. If her agent asks for more than the film studio are willing to pay for the role, they could just go with another cheaper, lesser known VA. And these shorts might be them lining up their ‘Plan B’ actors I guess?
 

But honestly now we’ve had Colleen doing her SCU!Tails performance for the first 2 movies, it would feel disappointing to get someone else in the role for Sonic 3.

 

[CaptainRobo]

Here is the full movie.:

Also, cool to see that Marza did the animation for this cool little movie.

[MGA_Gamer]

I've seen it, and I really enjoyed it. Superb animation, the character dynamics were excellent and I thought the comedy was decent (Especially Knuckles!).

My only gripe was that they didn't get the VAs for Knuckles and Tails, which is a bit off-putting. Still its only, what, 5 minutes long so they don't outstay their welcome.

[VO.SUPER]

3 hours ago, Kuzu said:

We got confirmation of new actors for Tails and Knuckles.

 

"Temporary" would be better words. These were actors just pulled from someone's back pocket because Colleen and Idris weren't available at the time and it was just some extra fun for the digital release. We don't need rumors starting about Idris and Colleen being replaced because of wording, look how much something started on these boards.

 

1 hour ago, Jake_LeOFFICIAL said:

How much you wanna bet they'll be in Sonic the Hedgehog 3?

Unless there are serious contract disputes there is seriously no chance of anyone's voice being replaced. 

[Sega DogTagz]

All these years and Marza is still knocking it out of the park. They were the Tyson Hesse of the franchise before Tyson Hesse.

I swear everything they touch is gold.

[Mega]

Let's not forget that Idris is already confirmed for the Knuckles series.

[Zaysho]

They likely aren't replacing the actors for Knuckles and Tails (it's especially weird Colleen wasn't in it though) but it's either a contract thing or a scheduling issue.

[Willsy]

Idris was likely too expensive for what is a small bonus thing. Colleen might have been busy with Frontiers or another project at the time? 

[KingMario05]

5 hours ago, VO.SUPER said:

"Temporary" would be better words. These were actors just pulled from someone's back pocket because Colleen and Idris weren't available at the time and it was just some extra fun for the digital release. We don't need rumors starting about Idris and Colleen being replaced because of wording, look how much something started on these boards.

 

Unless there are serious contract disputes there is seriously no chance of anyone's voice being replaced. 

Yeah. I mean, Idris is a busy guy these days. Between George Miller's (Mad Max) new genie pic, survival film Beast for Will Packer/Universal, an extension of the BBC's Luther for Netflix and potentially showing up as DC's Bloodsport once more (fingers crossed!), there was no time to get him back for five extra minutes as Knux. But Paramount has already confirmed that Elba Knuckles is getting his own damn series, so I'd find it highly unlikely that he'd return for that and not Sonic 3.

Spoiler

With it having a working title of Sonic: OW THE EDG3, of course.

As for Colleen... well, we dunno. She's willing to do it and based in LA, so I hope she can stay on until at least when Tails Wachowski hits puberty. Then again, it's Tinseltown and the film industry can be a bitch, so we can never really be sure.

[Rabbitearsblog]

Just saw the short and I thought that it was pretty cute.  Not sure how I feel about Knuckles' and Tails' characterizations, but for what this short is, I liked it.  Although, I will admit that I was a bit surprised that Colleen and Idris didn't voice Knuckles and Tails in this short.  Maybe this short was made before they casted Colleen and Idris to voice Knuckles and Tails in the movie.  But, I really loved the animation and I hope that the new Knuckles TV series is animated this way.

[mundiaxis]

Where can I find the high quality version of the short?  The Youtube one looks like someone recorded it off their screen.  I don't see it on Paramount Plus.

[VO.SUPER]

26 minutes ago, mundiaxis said:

Where can I find the high quality version of the short?  The Youtube one looks like someone recorded it off their screen.  I don't see it on Paramount Plus.

You need to purchase the digital edition.