Sonic The Hedgehog (2022 Animated Series)

Sonic The Hedgehog is an American-Canadian animated series based on the 2020 Sonic The Hedgehog Film, for Nickelodeon and Paramount+. Sonic The Hedgehog serves as a comedic yet adventurous adaptation to the Sonic The Hedgehog franchise with a few changes. The show premieres in 2022 on Paramount+ and Nickelodeon

Plot
Sonic The Hedgehog is set in the cities of Green Hills, and Station Square. While Green Hills is a small, rural town in Montana, Station Square is a densely populated glimmering urban center on California's southern coastline. Residing in these cities are Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends: Miles "Tails" Prower, Knuckles the Echidna, and Amy Rose. The gang spend their days trying to ward off the evil (and often zany) plans of Dr. Eggman, who is bent on taking over the world. In this ensemble of a comedy that pokes fun at action-adventure storytelling, Sonic faces regular battles with Eggman’s henchmen, including evil interns, and giant, robotic monsters.

Main

 * Sonic the Hedgehog: Team Sonic's leader in the series, a blue hedgehog with super speed. Sonic is good-natured and brave, but can be inconsiderate of others' feelings, sarcastic, and impatient. He also enjoys the benefits of being a hero and dislikes competition.
 * Miles "Tails" Prower: A two-tailed yellow fox who is Sonic's sidekick and best friend and the youngest of the group. He sports goggles and a tool belt and serves as the group's mechanic and technology expert. Tails' inventions do not always work out as intended, though he's highly competent in his abilities. He maintains the same personality overall, though he can be immature, quiet and more openly cynical.
 * Knuckles the Echidna: A red echidna and the muscle of Team Sonic, Whereas other versions of Knuckles have a history of being naive, (Much Like with Sonic Boom) Nickelodeon Knuckles is dull-witted at times which often annoys his teammates.
 * Amy Rose: A pink female hedgehog who is the peppiest member of the group. Amy wields a giant hammer in battle. Just like her main-series counterpart, Amy has a crush on Sonic, but unlike other versions of herself, she tries to keep it concealed. Eggman has referred to her and Sonic as if they were a married couple, and to Amy as Sonic's girlfriend. She is the more emotionally mature member of the group, offering common sense when the rest of the team gets carried away.
 * Doctor Eggman: A mad scientist and Sonic's arch-nemesis, whose goal was to capture Sonic and use his super-speed for world domination, but was instead defeated by the blue hedgehog and subsequently had any evidence of his existence erased by the U.S. government. Now more insane than before as a result of being stranded on an alien planet for two years, he seeks to return to Earth, get revenge on Sonic, and achieve his dreams of world conquest. Robotnik teams up with Knuckles to find the emerald, knowing that he's only using him to achieve his goal.
 * Tom Wachowski: The sheriff of Green Hills, Montana, who helped Sonic recover his rings and defeat Robotnik in the first film. He is now Sonic's adoptive father.
 * Tika Sumpter: Tom's veterinarian wife who had helped Sonic in the first film. She is now Sonic's second adoptive mother, after Longclaw. Adam Pally as Wade Whipple: Tom's chief deputy.
 * Rachel: Maddie's older sister.
 * Diego Márquez: An eight-year-old Latino boy who speaks English and Spanish as well as the language of animals and rescues animals in trouble.
 * Alicia Márquez: The eleven-year-old sister of Diego who helps him in any campaign. She frequently uses her laptop computer to discover interesting things about these animals.
 * Nico Márquez: The father of Diego, Daisy, & Alicia. Diego's father encourages Diego in a lot of rescues.
 * Sabrina Márquez: Diego, Alicia, and Daisy's mother. Just like Diego's father, Diego's mother has phrases that encourage her son, such as "No hay que darse por vencido" (You must never give up) and "Nada puede separar a la familia" (Nothing can keep family apart). She appears to love Nico a lot because she almost always has her hands on her husband. Diego's mother really loves Diego and encourages her son on his animal rescues.
 * Baby Jaguar: A jaguar and a friend of Diego. Baby Jaguar met Diego when he came to his aid. He is bold, daring and always ready to help animals in trouble.
 * Rescue Pack: An orange backpack that can provide any object that Diego needs. Diego uses his backpack to overcome obstacles while rescuing animals.
 * Dora: A heroic Latina girl who embarks on countless adventures in every episode in order to find something or help somebody in need.
 * Boots: A monkey who's Dora's best friend. Boots is always enthusiastic and usually has no clothes, but he wears a pair of red boots.
 * Backpack: Dora's backpack. She goes wherever Dora goes, and helps out by getting objects that Dora and Diego need.
 * Map: Dora's map. He lives inside Backpack’s side pocket. He helps out by showing Dora and Diego where they need to go.
 * Tico: A 4-year-old squirrel who is a good friend to Dora and Boots. He speaks Spanish and loves to help them.
 * Benny: 6-year-old bull who is a good friend to Dora and Boots and likes to ride his hot air balloon.
 * Isa: 6-year-old iguana who is a good friend to Dora and Boots. She loves her flowers and waters them to help them grow.
 * SpongeBob SquarePants: is a yellow anthropomorphic sea sponge who usually wears brown short pants, a white collared shirt, and a red tie. He lives in a pineapple house and is employed as a fry cook at a fast food restaurant called the Krusty Krab. He is relentlessly optimistic and enthusiastic toward his job and his friends. SpongeBob's hobbies include catching jellyfish, blowing bubbles, playing with his best friend Patrick, and unintentionally irritating his neighbor Squidward. He first appears in "Help Wanted".
 * Patrick Star: a pink starfish who lives under a rock and wears flowered swim trunks. His most prominent character trait is his extremely low intelligence. He is best friends with SpongeBob and often unknowingly encourages activities that get the two into trouble. While typically unemployed throughout the series, Patrick holds various short-term jobs as the storyline of each episode requires. He is generally slow and even-tempered but can sometimes get aggressive, much like real starfish, and occasionally performs feats of great strength.
 * Squidward Tentacles: a turquoise octopus with a large nose who works as a cashier at the Krusty Krab. He is SpongeBob's next-door neighbor with a dry, sarcastic sense of humor. His house is between SpongeBob's and Patrick's houses. He believes himself to be a talented artist and musician, but nobody else recognizes his abilities. He plays the clarinet and often paints self-portraits in different styles, which he hangs up around his moai house. Squidward frequently voices his frustration with SpongeBob, but he genuinely cares for him deep down. This has been revealed in the form of sudden confessions when Squidward is in a dire situation.
 * Eugene Krabs: A red crab who lives in an anchor-shaped house with his daughter Pearl, who is a whale. He dislikes spending money but will go to great lengths to make Pearl happy. Krabs owns and operates the Krusty Krab restaurant where SpongeBob works. He is self-content, cunning, and obsessed with the value and essence of money. He tends to worry more about his riches than about the needs of his employees. Having served in the navy, he loves sailing, whales, sea shanties, and talking like a pirate.
 * Sheldon Plankton and Karen Plankton are the owners of the Chum Bucket, an unsuccessful restaurant located across the street from the Krusty Krab. Their business is a commercial failure because they sell mostly inedible foods made from chum. Plankton is a small planktonic copepod and the self-proclaimed archenemy of Mr. Krabs. His ultimate goal is to steal Krabs' secret formula for Krabby Patties, run the Krusty Krab out of business and take over the oceanic world but never permanently succeeds due to either SpongeBob and/or Krabs' efforts, his own incompetence and childish nature, or his own small size (except, temporarily, in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie). He is a skilled inventor and possesses a Napoleon complex due to his short stature. Karen is Plankton's own invention, a waterproof supercomputer who is more competent that Plankton, being the brains behind most of his evil plans to steal Krabs' secret recipe. She is easily annoyed at Plankton's immaturity and usually gets angry at him for his uncaring, selfish and unappreciative nature. She is married to Plankton and usually takes residence in the Chum Bucket laboratory.
 * Sandy Cheeks: a squirrel from Texas who lives in an air-filled glass dome and wears a diving suit to breathe underwater. Whenever any aquatic creatures enter her home, they must wear helmets of water. Sandy works as a scientist, explorer, and inventor. She is a rodeo champion with a number of athletic interests, such as "sand-boarding" and karate. She speaks with a Southern drawl and uses typical Southern slang words and phrases.
 * Gary the Snail: SpongeBob's pet sea snail who lives with him in their pineapple home and vocalizes like a cat. Other snails and SpongeBob can understand and talk to him. Depicted as a level-headed character, Gary often serves as a voice of reason and a foil to SpongeBob and solves problems that his owner cannot. He has a pink shell that is impossibly spacious on the inside.

Supporting

 * Adam Pally as Wade Whipple: a deputy sheriff in Green Hills and Tom's closest friend.
 * Neal McDonough as Major Bennington: a soldier tasked with assisting Robotnik (who he dislikes) in his efforts to capture Sonic.
 * Lee Majdoub as Agent Stone, a government agent who works for Robotnik.
 * Melody Nosipho Niemann as Jojo, Rachel's daughter and the niece of Maddie and Tom.
 * Tom Butler as Commander Walters, the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who orders Robotnik to investigate the disturbances caused by Sonic.
 * Frank C. Turner as Crazy Carl, a conspiracy theorist who seeks to prove Sonic's existence and refers to him as the "Blue Devil".
 * Garry Chalk as the U.S. Navy Chief of Staff. Chalk previously voiced Grounder and Robotnik in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Underground respectively.
 * Michael Hogan as the Air Force Chief of Staff.

Trivia

 * According to Vincent Waller, the design aspects of the Characters were not only streamlined but were influenced from Tokyo Movie Shinsha Co., Ltd.'s depiction of the characters in Sonic X and Rough Draft Korea's Depiction of the Characters from the current seasons of SpongeBob SquarePants.
 * It might possibly sure that this show's version of Sonic will be feature in the game Dream Mix TV Legendary Fighters.

Production
The aim of the adaptation based on Angry Birds was for the cartoon to match the tone of Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Toonsylvania, Pinky and the Brain, Tex Avery shorts, Adventure Time, the Looney Tunes shorts in their earlier days and the golden age while staying faithful to the source material. This led to the slapstick-comedy roots and heart-warming moments in each episode. The characters themselves saw some alterations to their personality traits, while some having personality traits that inspire the characters' traits from Sonic Boom - for example, Tails being a friendly young fox with a plucky "can do" attitude and an inherent optimism and Amy being smart, independent, strong, and confident.

The series features returning voice actors from the video game series and the movies. In an interview with Polygon, Ben Schwartz stated the series came about as a desire to appeal more to Western territories, with Schwartz also stating that the series would be a mixture of action and comedy, featuring an episodic structure.

Animation
The show's animation was outsourced to nine animation studios:


 * Jam Filled Entertainment (which worked on the animation for Thomas and Friends (Seasons 17-24), The Loud House and DC Super Hero Girls (2019)),
 * Mercury Filmworks (which worked on Wander Over Yonder),
 * Rough Draft Korea (which worked on a majority of productions from the Nickelodeon Animation Studio like The Ren & Stimpy Show, Rocko's Modern Life, SpongeBob SquarePants, My Life as a Teenage Robot and The Patrick Star Show and the animation of The Simpsons and Ben 10: Omniverse),
 * Saerom Animation (which also worked on a majority of productions from the Nickelodeon Animation Studio like The Adventures of Kid Danger, Dora the Explorer, Go, Diego, Go!, Ni Hao, Kai-Lan, and Sanjay and Craig and worked on the animation of Sonic the Hedgehog (1993)),
 * Yowza Animation (which worked on the animation for Osmosis Jones),
 * Snipple Animation (which worked on DuckTales (2017), Looney Tunes Cartoons, the Animaniacs revival, and Green Eggs and Ham (2019))
 * TMS Entertainment (which worked on Sonic X and the animation for Batman: The Animated Series, Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Pinky and The Brain),
 * Tonic DNA (which worked on Looney Tunes Cartoons and the Animaniacs revival),
 * Moi Animation (which worked on Chip N Dale: Rescue Rangers (2021) and is a regular with Japanese studio Madhouse (who also owns them) and American studio Warner Bros.),

Also, all episodes are made by two hand-drawn animated softwares, Pencil2D and Toon Boom Animation.

Bill Freiberger serves as the series' animation director and lead animator.

Reception
It has received worldwide critical acclaim since its premiere.