A Review of Sonic Mania Adventures 2 & 3

As much as I wanted to review episode 2 by itself I found that the content in the episode wasn't as substantial as I thought it would be so I decided to wait for episode 3 to come out that way I could review the two together to make up for the lack of substantial content.

It should be noted that episodes 2 and 3 are also animated shorts that move very fast.

It's their speed that surprised me as while Sonic is in episode 2, episode 3 lacks Sonic entirely but it's shorter than episodes 1 and 2 and has no reason to move as fast as it does.

But anyway, let's review!

Episode 2: "Sonic and Tails"

We open up with our adorable helicopter butt working on repairing a biplane when Sonic shows up. Of course Tails is overjoyed but Sonic gives Tails the little computer/Chaos Emerald detector thingy that he took from Eggman in episode 1. That little computer thing detects an emerald nearby and then we cut to Eggman digging up the ground for the red emerald - Sonic ran off to deal with him and left tails behind.

Dealing with Eggman gets Sonic whacked back to the plane by the ocean (resulting in my favorite expression in this show so far) and seeing this, Tails offers to help which Sonic gladly accepts and they end up defeating Eggman and his drill unit/robot thing by working together. Pretty simple episode with not a lot of substantial content worth reviewing.

The main highlight that's likely going to keep people coming back to this series is the fact that a new character is introduced each episode. In the case of episode 2 we got to see Tails. We got to see him working alongside Sonic and beating Eggman together, we get some very brotherly vibes from the way he and Sonic interact which I definitely like seeing from the two of them.

The episode ends with them each with an emerald in hand.

Conclusion: This episode was not worth reviewing on it's own.

This episode doesn't even really highlight Tails that much in my opinion. While we do see him in action and being an active agent in the story compared to more recent games where his badassness has been replaced with an over reliance on Soniku-niichan to help him when he's afraid even though it's been established that he's able to move past his fears and accomplish great things alone (just look at his Sonic Adventure 1 story mode).

Honestly for an episode with Tails proudly displayed in the thumbnail, most of the episode had me paying attention to SONIC and the way he behaved with or without Tails.

That was another reason I found myself unable to review this episode on it's own: my attention kept diverting to Sonic because Mania Adventures does give him a very interesting personality that I wasn't expecting to see!

By far my favorite Sonic personality is the one in Sonic X as he's a very well rounded, balanced character with multiple sides to his personality. He's a bit arrogant but not an asshole, he's a hero but he also has days where he wants to be lazy and not go anywhere or do anything, he even has a sweet side to him that SEGA isn't allowing in Sonic games or comics anymore - like how he goes through the trouble of picking flowers for Cream the Rabbit, wearing a seashell bracelet Amy was trying to give him for good luck and even the heavily implied love confession in episode 52 that likely made every SonAmy fan piss their pants while squeeing! He even has some decent character interactions with human characters in the show even though the humans are really shoehorned at times.

Of course Sonic X was just dealing with Modern Sonic and Sonic Mania Adventures is dealing with Classic Sonic who is his own character at this point.

Classic Sonic has been animated before back in the 90s in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog as well as Sonic SatAM - the latter being the show that established the fact that Sonic could tell a serious and darker story if he wanted to (keyword: wanted - as in: if SEGA wants Sonic to tell a serious story).

The Classic Sonic of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and SatAM is definitely his own weird character as well and a product of a time where just about every game or toy line was getting a cheap cartoon adaptation. To me it feels like they were still trying to give him a somewhat defined character in terms of personality so they threw stuff at the wall, saw what stuck and those traits got carried over into the Sonic in later games, other animations and comics. The 90s was definitely a weird period of experimentation in our culture...

Another big difference between the Classic Sonic in the 90s cartoons and the Classic Sonic in Mania Adventures is that Mania Adventures is trying to tie into an upcoming game, while the cartoons the 90s are not considered canon by Sonic Team. To those who want to use the comics to try to convince me that those characters are considered canon - keep in mind that those are it's own continuities. SEGA just gives a lucky comic company the license to use their characters for a series of comics that can last however long SEGA permits. Those comic companies can also make their own characters for this universe and because they own those specific characters, they can do as they please with them and if SEGA wanted to borrow them, they'd need the rights for it. These sorts of things are a big circle of rights that often gets bent out of shape and can be muddled by lawyers and rights holders.

You can see a few photos of Sally Acorn in this panel.
(Sonic Forces: Looming Shadow)

Of course there will always Easter eggs like character cameos, hinting at a character in a line of dialogue, even describing a character with words - those sorts of mentions are acceptable ways of bringing other characters into your canon without having to worry about the rights holders getting on your case. But does this make those characters from a non-canon work actually CANON? I'd say no.

Currently the Sonic franchise is obsessed with relying on nostalgia, giving into some fan demand, relying a lot on fourth wall breaking and very flawed story telling that could use some heavy edits and could take a few more changes if they weren't relying entirely on Sonic to keep people coming back for the good, bad and ugly. Even Sonic Mania Plus is doubling down on this nostalgia-reliant trend by not just being an updated re-release of Sonic Mania (which came out in 2017) but also with two additional characters that the fan base loves but hasn't seen in years due to the copyright holder of Mighty and Ray not budging until now.

Due to these issues with copyrights and license agreements - the version of Sonic from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and SatAM are likely versions of Sonic we'll never see again because while SEGA licensed the product (Sonic) to DIC Entertainment to co-produce the animations that doesn't mean they're going to accept that material into their canon for Sonic and even if they did want to - they may have to go through a series of lawyers and through several rights holders to do that (and the same would apply to Sonic X - but almost nobody likes the human characters from X anyway). SatAM did almost have a shot at having it's own game but the proposal was turned down by SEGA who felt the demo for this proposed SatAM-based game was more like Metal Gear Solid than Sonic... If that game had been greenlit by SEGA, that could've resulted in a future where the characters from that canon are in the Modern series of games and not stuck in comics but that's not the reality we're currently in.

The reason why I mention these topics: the Sonic in Sonic X, 90s animated version of Classic Sonic, right holders, characters that aren't really accepted by SEGA as canon and so forth ties back into Sonic Mania Adventures as a whole...

Mania Adventures is giving us it's own version of Classic Sonic that is pretty much the opposite of the animated Sonic from the 90s. The Classic Sonic of the 90s was highly experimental in his characterization in every aspect (giving him a voice, interests aside from going fast, how he treats other characters and so forth). This Classic Sonic is mute but still has an attitude - one that's not entirely in your face but an attitude none the less. He can be a little reckless but is a quick learner. He's capable of empathy. He's capable hero but can also get hurt...

To me it feels like Sonic Team is trying to get back a little of that Sonic from Sonic X and mixing that personality in with the cute and mute Classic Sonic from Sonic Generations to get Mania Sonic. I'd say it's a pretty good fit for the character and whether Mania Sonic grows up to be Modern Sonic or Boom Sonic or some other Sonickier Sonic this dimension will never get to meet is beyond my knowledge and out of my hands - but as he is Mania Adventures Sonic is a pretty solid personality type for the character and a big reason I couldn't review episode 2 on it's own: I couldn't focus on Tails for the episode because I didn't get much Tails material out of it. It all came back to Sonic and his surprisingly solid characterization in this series.

To me it's a sign that SEGA wants to try to get it's blue hedgewhore's image back together and his fans' good graces again. Of course not every single fan will be satisfied but as long as the character can maintain his popularity that's what'll matter most (for better or worse). As someone who's still somewhat outside of the fandom I can appreciate this movement while also being critical of it - which I think puts me in a somewhat unique position when it comes to reviewing Sonic-related stuff... I didn't grow up liking the character or hating the character so my strength here lies in indifference and being overly critical over what makes a good character and story.

Author, get on with it...

It's been getting me more involved in the community and the fandom that actually makes me feel bad for this hedgewhore sometimes for reasons better explained another day...

Onto Episode 3: & Knuckles

Where I couldn't talk about in episode 2 regarding Tails, this episode pretty much forces you to focus on Knuckles. And it's a really nice little episode. My only complaint is that it moves way too fast for a character like Knuckles.

The episode is completely without Sonic save for a tiny Sonic in Knuckles' imagination when he's thinking about who might want to steal the Master Emerald (which THANK THE ALL MIGHTY CHAOS - HE'S ACTUALLY WATCHING IT FOR ONCE!). While we don't get to see Sonic in the episode it appears that one of my worries for the series that I talked about in my review of episode 1 has tried to fly his floofy butt into my heart and failed... Of course I'm talking about Ray...

Ray the Flying Squirrel makes his first animated appearence in Sonic Mania Adventures episode 3 "& Knuckles" and honestly I don't see the appeal of this character... I know it's something t do with the comics and an arcade game he was in as a substitute for Tails but he doesn't appeal to me. He feels like an inferior version of Tails just based on character design and even Knuckles looks offput by him in the episode.

I feel like this may be a reference to the poster Easter Egg
in Sonic Generations in which Mighty is on a missing persons/
wanted poster - but maybe I'm just digging for trivia...

Of course the time slot he was given was already small combined with the fact that this episode was under 3 minutes long already and they may do something else with him within the last 3 episodes of what's supposed to be a 6 episode miniseries that might make me change my opinion on him. Currently all I think of when I see Ray is "why?".

Based on his actions in this episode alone, he's looking for Mighty the Armadillo. That tells me that they're still friendly in this new canon they're being brought into and that they're used to working together. Not necessarily a bad thing - he could be more reliant on his Sonic-equivalent than Tails is which is a nice contrast. After all, Tails has been proven to have some level of independence when Sonic isn't around - more recent Sonic titles where Tails seems to be fearful bordering on over-reliant on Sonic for his social needs be damned. Ray does also try to touch the Master Emerald which makes me think he's a curious person and even his expression is somewhat childlike (making me question his age).

Overall, not much to say about Ray as I have no personal attachment to the character nor have I heard anything about him that was interesting. This episode did make me look forward to Mighty though - as I HAVE heard of other fans (and older fans) of the Sonic franchise say that he actually has done things that were cool, mainly in the Archie comics. I sort of feel like Ray being here was just to hype up Mighty and if that's the case it certainly works for old-time Mighty fans and people like myself who are still new to the fandom and are still wondering who certain characters are outside of the multitude of characters introduced in the mainstream games.

So what's my conclusion for episodes 2 and 3?

Meh... They're ok.

It's in reviewing these two episodes that the show started feeling slightly like a commercial for Sonic Mania Plus which was a concern of mine back in my review of Sonic Mania Adventures episode 1.

Episode 1 was sort of a perfect debut episode. It was short, simple, to the point and highlighted it's main character.

Episode 2 made me assume it was going to focus on Tails, but instead drew most of my attention to Sonic and how he treated Tails - making me hope that SEGA takes their relationship to the sort of brotherly direction that is used to be in.

Episode 3 was also nice but nothing too impressive in my opinion. For Ray's debut they didn't do too much with him that would make me instantly care about him as a character - but it did make Knuckles look cool and put him back at a level of intelligence where he knows to watch the Master Emerald but he IS capable of getting outwitted. If his snark towards Sonic returns that would also be a nice thing to see in this current interpretation of Classic Knuckles.

And while I know that my reviewing episodes 2 and 3 so late in the series is somewhat futile as the day I'm publishing this post, episode 5 is going to come out BUT this post did sit around needing to be finished for a while. I did mean to post it sometime in June, but the talk of Sonic's character portrayal evolved into my essay on Sonic's Character Portrayal Based on Voice Actor that same night (which ended up being a hit on Amino and was perfect timing as the flippin' hedgehog turned 27 the day I published it on Blogger).

The Morale: sometimes you need to pursue a certain idea when you get it.

In addition: the fact that I personally felt that episodes 2 and 3 didn't have enough content to warrant reviewing each episode independently - I thought I'd repeat the same for episodes 4 and 5. The last episode in the 6 episode series I'll review on it's own.

Regardless, I hope you enjoy this review and I hope to see you again soon!

Sonic's Character Portrayal based on Voice Actor

While I do hope to finish up my review of Sonic Mania Adventures episodes 2 and 3, I thought I'd change things up and write a blog post for Sonic the Hedgehog's birthday. As of 2018 the character is 27 years old and though corny, I thought I should do something unique when it comes to me writing Sonic-related content on this here blog.

And so to add more content to my blog while I toil away on other projects on and offline, here's my special little analytical essay with the theme of Sonic's character portrayal over the years based solely on the voice actors playing him. I hope you enjoy.

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Character Portrayal based on Voice Actor

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Sonic's had a lot of adventures over the years not just in games, but also in the form of comics, manga, cartoons, anime and even a live-action movie that's been in development hell over the past few years that's probably going to be a Sonic version of Rodger Rabbit that'll have him making out with yet another human woman. Today however, I'd like to focus on the more animated side of Sonic's career because I find that as a character, Sonic's personality seems to change based on the voice actor voicing him. So I'll be discussing each of his voice actors over the years and analyzing how each one adds or detracts from Sonic's personality. Just keep in mind that I'll only be focusing on ENGLISH voice actors for Sonic.

Why just the English voice actors?

Well the English cast is the one I grew up with here in North America. On top of that: Sonic was a character designed to appeal to Americans and so trying to review his voice actors in other languages is not only unfamiliar territory for me (and difficult for me to get access to) BUT the English voices are the most iconic because of this design choice that existed from the first game onward. Sonic was designed to appeal to Americans and so that's why I'm only focusing on the English voice actors for the character.

These hedgehoes be runnin' out of poses.

With that in mind, enjoy the content ahead!

The first voice actor for Sonic who played the character in both Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog as well as Sonic Sat AM is Jaleel White.

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Sat AM came out at a time where just about every video game was getting a cheap animated cartoon that aired on Saturday mornings. Sonic was no exception to that trend but Sonic differed from the other shows at the time. It had not one, but TWO vastly different continuities going on at the same time – Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog being much more comedy based with attempts at teaching kids moral values and lessons at the end of each episode and Sat AM being the much better show and one of the first animated shows to prove that the Sonic franchise could handle telling stories, especially ones with dark or serious tones.

Jaleel White definitely gave the character a very high pitched and somewhat naive sounding voice. The Sonic in these shows comes off as a newbie though that's not entirely a bad thing. I get the impression that he's meant to sound like a kid in AoStH and SatAM because that's probably the target audience they were aiming for with these shows. This was also the first time Sonic was animated and being given a voice in a cartoon so for the first actor to give Sonic a voice it's not terrible, a little cheesy and a product of it's time but not awful. Not to mention all of the memes we now have because of Jaleel White's performance...

On an interesting note: this version of Sonic was confirmed to be Classic Sonic.

When developing Sonic Generations, there were rumors floating around of hiring Jaleel White to reprise his role as Classic Sonic because he was the first voice actor to give Sonic a voice – Aaron Weber even confirmed this in an interview with Kotaku. However Jaleel White has stated that he was never asked about reprising the role by SEGA so this likely means that the idea of getting White back to voice Sonic was just an idea floating around during development that ended up falling through. Classic Sonic was ultimately left mute in Generations and is still mute in his other 3D appearances.

Sonic Mania Adventures is another example of Classic Sonic being animated, though he has no voice – none of the characters have voices in Mania Adventures but it actually works in their favor for the tone the series is going for. Instead the Classic Sonic in Mania Adventures relies on his expressiveness and the occasional sound effect to help him emote – proving that Classic Sonic doesn't necessarily need a voice to entertain. In theory White's voice could still work for Classic Sonic now, but giving Classic a voice wouldn't work for the direction SEGA wants to take that version of Sonic in – leaving White's performance a product of the past that provides us with many a good meme.

Ryan Drummond was the second major voice actor to give Sonic a voice and an iconic one at that. He made his debut voicing Sonic in Sonic Adventure 1 and onward up until the premiere of Sonic X and every game that followed.

Ryan Drummond's Sonic voice is a little on the 90s-tastic side as well, but he also gives Sonic a slightly mature voice to indicate that the Modern and/or Dreamcast Era Sonic was a teenager who was growing alongside his audience (which I can respect from a brand awareness and character development standpoint). I don't have much to say about Drummond's Sonic in general aside from the fact he does show that Sonic is growing as a character. Through his voice performance we can hear that Sonic has grown up into a teenager who wants to be the cool hero type.

The Dreamcast Era voice actors are certainly iconic in their own way though this is also the cast that some fans will accuse of being “cringey”. I however don't fault the actors – it's the voice directors directing them. If a line is said awkwardly by an actor it's the director's job to give them directions on how to improve their performance. And as I said before, the voice Drummond gives his version of Sonic is a little 90s but that doesn't make it bad. It's a very serviceable voice that a lot of fans certainly have an attachment to as he voiced the first major 3D Sonic games and as such he's a very iconic voice for the blue hedgehog.

The next voice actor who premiered in Sonic X and every game after that was Jason Griffith.

Jason Griffith was certainly a like it or hate it kind of performance. The first few episodes of Sonic X in the English dub he did sound a little odd – almost as though he was trying to imitate Jaleel White's Sonic voice from back in the day but after a few episodes Griffith's awkwardness fades and he finds a Sonic voice of his own with a lot of personality and his voice is easy to get used to without sounding too dated.

The Sonic in Sonic X was a very well rounded kind of guy. He was still a guy who liked going on adventures and going fast but he also had sweet sides to him when it involved Amy or Cream. He's shown to be sort of a brother as well as a role model to Tails. He had Chris to play off of when it came to explaining how his world worked, there were really good slapstick moments in the show. But that's just Sonic X's story... How does Jason Griffith's performance change Sonic's character on it's own?

It did take him a while to find a Sonic voice of his own, but when he found it: Griffith definitely gave Sonic many layers of personality with his voice. He gave Sonic a nicer tone of voice when he needed to be nice or understanding, he made Sonic sound really angry when he needed to be angry and overall he just made Sonic seem friendlier compared to Drummond's voice which definitely put more emphasis on how “cool” Sonic was supposed to be.

Another thing to note was Griffith's Darkspine and Werehog voice which are essentially the same voice (Darkspine Sonic predating the Werehog). His voice for Darkspine definitely sounded scratchy. I get what he was going for in trying to make Sonic sound angry in this super form but it just sounds off. The voice works much better for the Werehog as you expect a wolf, werewolf or were-HEDGEHOG in this case to growl, sound growly or rougher in terms of voice. But that's just a matter of giving the right character the right voice – not really how Sonic's personality changes depending on the voice he's given.

I personally would've given Darkspine Sonic a darker or more mysterious sounding voice similar to Mephiles (Sonic 06) or Infinite (Sonic Forces) if I were the voice director or casting director for the game. At most, all Griffith's growly voice does for Darkspine is make him sounds like he's suffering from heartburn (which is essentially the plot of Secret Rings...?)

As for the Werehog he sounds fine as he is and the scratchy voice works for several reasons – not only because this is basically a werewolf Sonic but also due to the fact that this form is new for Sonic himself. All his life he's been a hedgehog and suddenly he's a wolf/hedgehog hybrid with stretchy arms and extendo fingers? That actually adds some character to the Werehog! It shows that he's getting used to this side of himself and adjusting to this transformation. He's also allowing himself to fight in a much more aggressive and confrontational style than he's used to which can also be reflected by the voice.

Sonic's transformation into the werehog also seemed painful for him which you can also get from the voice in those cut scenes as well as the transformation scene in the Night of the Werehog movie. It's pretty standard fair for werewolf stories to involve painful transformations but that's not a side of Sonic we see often. He's not a character we see in pain. So far Griffith is the only Sonic actor to do this (at least to my knowledge). This and in addition to the character arc Sonic goes through in Unleashed in regards to getting used to his werehog self, fearing that others may fear him and realizing that he's still himself at the end of the day, it's no wonder that there are fans that think Unleashed was Jason Griffith's BEST when he was Sonic's voice actor. Such a character arc is also standard fair for werewolf stories (that is to say the battle of humanity vs. being a monster/animal) - but you don't exactly expect something that deep coming from Sonic the Hedgehog. And yes while somewhat corny considering it's a wereHOG, Griffith's performance and delivery of his lines definitely sells this odd choice of character arc to me. I think it works - it actually made a long time Sonic-avoider like me go 'awww' and feel bad for this character in Unleashed's story.

(And that's a big thing for me to say as I was completely averse to this franchise for years and even now I'm still pretty closeted about being a fan of it.)

...

While I can certainly understand why fans came to love Jason Griffith as Sonic and saying that Unleashed was his peak performance as the character, Griffith ended up being replaced by the CURRENT Sonic voice actor: Roger Craig Smith.

Like Griffith, Roger Craig Smith's Sonic voice is a voice you'll either love or hate – his first game being Sonic Colors. He also voices Sonic in the Sonic Boom games and the cartoon, but we'll talk about his performance in the Boom cartoon later on. Let's focus on the games:

In the games, Roger Craig Smith's Sonic voice sounds like he's trying to make Sonic cool again. He sounds a bit like he's trying to be Ryan Drummond 2.0 but where as Drummond tried to make Sonic sound cool and a true teen of the 90s, Roger's performance gives Sonic a lot more snark and sarcasm compared to previous iterations of the character as well as making Sonic sound more like an adult compared to the previous actors. He gives Sonic this air of being too cool for certain people at times, throwing snark at everyone – even his close friends as well as Eggman. I also have no way of knowing what is the script and what's improvisation on the part of the voice actors but Roger's Sonic's style of humor also relies heavily on meta jokes relating to previous games and the Sonic fandom in general. I can't say I've been a Sonic fan long enough to notice when this effect really took place but it's definitely there – especially in the Boom cartoon.

Now Sonic Boom (the games and the cartoon but ESPECIALLY the cartoon) is trying to go for a different tone compared to the other Sonic games and continuities. The humor is very reliant on fandom and franchise meta humor, parody, satire and slice of life comedy with a group of characters who are essentially super heroes in their universe(?). I think if I had to describe it to a non-fan in one sentence I would describe it as: "It's sort of like if Sonic and friends were college kids on an island just living life and occasionally butting heads with the villain of the week - usually Eggman."

The cartoon is one of those shows I consider a guilty pleasure. It's cheesy, at times cringey but it does have it's funny moments and the humor also hits me in a very special way as someone who's experiences in the Sonic fandom are still mostly second-hand experiences. You don't NEED to be a fan to enjoy the who but if you do - or even if you only have second or third hand experiences dealing with the franchise and the fandom you can still get a kick out of it. Just prepare to cringe and be prepared to deal with that cringe when it hits because the cringe can hit hard whether you're a die hard fan of the franchise and it's characters or someone still trying to figure out whether or not they like Sonic period.

In Sonic Boom, the characters feel like they're around college age just based on how they interact with each other and the things they say and do. Where as the Modern interpretations of these characters are all teenage with Sonic being 15 or 16, Amy being 12 or 13, Tails being 10 or 12 and the oldest of the 'teens' being Rouge at 18 – the Boom versions of these characters feel around 20 based on how they're written. I can easily peg Boom Sonic as being 21, Amy as 18 and even Tails feels like he's written to be 13 at the youngest and 16 at the oldest.

Honestly this is where Roger's Sonic is the best utilized. The Boom universe is different from the Modern one so you expect the voice to sound different and he's the oldest-sounding Sonic so far. He makes Sonic sound like he's graduated into adulthood and his voice works for Boom is that version of Sonic is meant to be anywhere from 18-21 because he does have a very frat bro sounding voice which compliments the very parody, satire and meta-based humor of Sonic Boom.

In my opinion his voice doesn't work as well for Modern Sonic.

Ryan Drummond and Jason Griffith expanded upon Sonic's personality with their performances. They helped Sonic grow into what most fans would consider the ideal version of Sonic: someone who is cool, likes adventure and while he can be cocky about it and show off a little, he's not a straight up jerk about it. He has friendlier qualities to him and is capable of empathy and would be willing to help you if you ever got in trouble even if it inconveniences him. He's capable of feeling a wide range of emotions and that's what a lot of Sonic fans want back if SEGA didn't restrict his ability to feel emotions aside from being happy or cocky.

Roger Craig Smith's take on Modern Sonic doesn't live up to that. He could be saying something nice or expressive concern but his default tone is being cocky – almost like he has a false sense of self confidence and a reputation to live up to. While that is certainly the case for Roger as he was Jason Griffith's replacement, the Sonic in-universe has always been a hero and is always going to be seen as one. He doesn't need to prove he's a hero – he's done that plenty of times in-universe! He doesn't need to sound like he's above everybody or rely too heavily on sarcasm either – that tone of humor works much better for Boom Sonic which is meant to be his own thing anyway!

Granted, this can also be an issue of voice director not directing the voice actors and this blog isn't meant to harass these wonderful and talented actors - it's merely an opinion piece and an analysis on how a voice can contribute to a single character in terms of personality.

To conclude the blog:

In my opinion Ryan Drummond and Jason Griffith really gave the role of Sonic everything they had each in their own way. Out of the two, I'd have to say Jason's voice is the easiest to listen to/get used to over time and in this blogger's own personal opinion: he has a great voice in general (I say that as someone who first heard him in a NON-SONIC role - that being Keita from the anime Kurokami)

But I've stroked Griffith's ego enough. What is my final word on Drummond?

Ryan Drummond's performance is also good and he had the important task of cementing Modern Sonic's character as we know him today. This kind of transition isn't always easy as the only other time Sonic had a voice he was childlike newcomer based on Jaleel White's performance. Giving Sonic his first voice in the game was a large task and he did his job well.

I don't have much to say on Jaleel White's Sonic in general because I wasn't born when Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Sat AM were airing. I didn't even watch them as a kid or as an adult and have no attachment to that particular voice and I think I'd be too embarrassed to watch those shows now. Overall: I'm glad that SEGA currently keeps Classic Sonic mute as he has much more to say when he doesn't have a voice (and can give us just as many memes).

Roger Craig Smith definitely takes the cake as the 'like it or hate it Sonic voice'. He does alright and seems to have fun with the role even outside of games and the Boom cartoon which is certainly nice (and actually enjoying your work is rare) but his tone of voice works better for a spin-off version of Sonic like Boom Sonic rather than Modern Sonic though like with Jason Griffith's voice, Roger Craig Smith's voice is one of those voices where if you hear it enough you can definitely adjust to it.

That's all I have for now but I hope to do more analyses like this in the future!

A Review of Sonic Mania Adventures Episode 1

A Foreword:

This is a review of the animated series Sonic Mania Adventures which is available for viewing for FREE on the official Sonic the Hedgehog Twitter and on the official Sonic the Hedgehog YouTube channel. Most of this review is an adaptation of a review I had originally posted on Amino on March 30th with additional details that I couldn't get into by typing on a tiny smart phone keyboard. Overall, the review I did on Amino is rather inferior to this one just due to me writing it so quickly and not being able to put much research into it. Regardless: this review is just my opinion and analysis of Sonic Mania Adventures so as long as you can accept that, please enjoy the review!

So here we go~.

Episode one of Sonic Mania Adventures premiered on the Sonic the Hedgehog YouTube and Twitter account on March 30th 2018. It's a 3 minute animated short with bright, beautiful and extremely smooth animation and no voice acting - keeping the (more recent) tradition of Classic Sonic mute. The short (titled "Sonic Returns") moves very fast and is episode one of a planned five episodes, surely capitalizing on the popularity and success of Sonic Mania and the upcoming Sonic Mania Plus - a planned reboot/updated re-release of Sonic Mania with the addition of two more classic characters in the Sonic canon that every long-time fan seems to love: Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel.

This first episode just focuses on Sonic and according to the video's description on the StH YouTube channel: this little animated show is supposed to take place at the end of both Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces.

Screenshot of the video description as it is on 4/5/2018

Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces being connected is another bag of worms I'd like to talk about another time (as it is an interesting bag of worms, but the content of which would be too long for this post). But needless to say: this is yet another piece of Sonic media trying to connect tie itself into other Sonic media either to cash in on nostalgia and the success of the games (in the case of Sonic Mania) or ride off of the notoriety or nudge the audience to check out the less popular/well-loved games (in the case of Sonic Forces).

Rant aside: back to reviewing Sonic Mania Adventures

Overall, I must say that as someone who grew up watching older animations like Betty Boop, Popeye and Tom and Jerry, I actually really love the short and I appreciate the fact they kept Classic Sonic mute. Giving him a voice would've ruined the tone it's trying to go for (and both longtime fans, new fans and memelords all know the horrors of giving Classic Sonic a voice). While the short is only 3 minutes long - even shorter than an episode of Hetalia (5-6 minutes long on average) I can tell a lot of effort was put into this little piece of animation from how fluid the animation is, the beautiful colors that are used in each frame and even the backgrounds (while simple) are very nice to look at.

But of course that's just my simple opinion. Let's introduce a little bit of structure to this review:

The Good and Praise Worthy

Clearly, Sonic is the best Disney Princess...
But more importantly how are 3 flicky birds strong
enough to lift him up?

The good and praiseworthy parts of Sonic Mania Adventures are in it's animation and it's simplicity. A bonus point of praise would be the fact that it's a completely silent short that only relies on sound effects from the games which is certainly a nice touch not just for Sonic fans but also those who appreciate the old days of animation where there was little to no voice acting and the animation flowed based on music and sound effects.

I haven't played Sonic Mania myself (and I'm debating on whether or not to hold out for Sonic Mania Plus) but I assume the music used in the short is from that game and the sound effects would be from various Sonic games of the past and present? The music during the end credit sequence is definitely the song used for the opening animation of Sonic Mania, I know that much. Honestly the episode was a bit too short to really appreciate the music and use of sound effects on the first viewing so you may have to go back and watch it two or three more times to notice it.

The fact that they also kept Classic Sonic mute in these shorts is also nice. It fits the cartoony and simple tone these shorts are going for and while the Sonic Twitter does acknowledge and poke fun at memes it, this show doesn't feel like it purposely wants to provide meme material or make constant jokes unlike the cringey Sonic animations of the 90s or the Sonic Boom cartoon we have today (I'll have to talk more about Boom another time). That's another point of praise for this show: it's not trying to deliberately make jokes and memes to try to get our attention unlike a lot of other high energy, fast-talking shows we have on today's cartoons channels today (the main culprits of which are Teen Titans Go! and Spongebob).

To put it simply: cartoony vibe, speeds by while keeping it simple with Classic Sonic (and friends?) along for the ride.

I'm still a relatively new Sonic fan, but from what I've seen I think this is a side of Sonic that a lot of older fans want to see again. So just based on that I know this miniseries is going to do very well and it's got a lot of quality control keeping it focused and grounded unlike the Sonic animations of the past (and video game based cartoons from that era in general - boy are those cringey!)

The Bad/Concerning

When I say "bad", I don't mean the things in this section are strictly awful - hence while I'm calling this section "The Bad/Concerning". This is just episode 1, we don't know what direction the show is going to go in but we do know it's going to be very short. That for example is concerning and has potential to be bad. As I'm going to review this series as it's airing/being released, I can't say anything is inherently "bad" in the normal sense of the word until we have all of the episodes. So for the most part, this section is points of concern to raise flags as to where the show could go wrong/go bad in the normal sense of the word as the series progresses.

First concern: it's short and moves too fast

Clocking it at 3 minutes, the episode feels a bit too short. To some it may feel like a shiny and complete-looking animation test or a preview of something bigger. It's shorter than an episode of Hetalia and while shows with 3-7 minute episodes can definitely work, Sonic Mania Adventures may suffer from the same thing other cartoons that focus on moving fast, talking fast and making jokes really fast may suffer from: it may wear off too quickly or not really stick with the view that much - especially since there's no dialog to give the viewer more material to remember.

In terms of moving fast - it's friggin Sonic, of course it's bound to move fast - but there's a difference between characters moving fast and a show forcing a character to move fast. This short is only 3 minutes long so the story has to be condensed to fit within that allotted time. Other Sonic animations like Sonic X, Sonic SatAM or Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog - while they all varied in tone and the stories they were trying to tell - had much larger slots of time to fill so while there were times where characters were forced to move fast, the shows didn't feel as rushed because we had more material to bide the time and we also had slow moments to accompany the fast moments.

Needless to say animation is very expensive and time consuming to produce. It's a team effort. It's costly. Whether you're a solo indie animator or a cartoon studio, animation is going to take time and while you may want to put out a feature-length saga of animated glory and splendor sometimes you can only put out a short because that's all your budget can afford you. Asking for longer episodes of Sonic Mania Adventures may be impossible. We can hope for a longer episode, but it seems like the series is already done in terms of production - now the episodes are just being released and put online. So it may be too late to ask for something like that, but whose to say fan demand won't drive Sega to invest and plan for more animations?

It would be nice to have a Sonic X-like series again, which is another thing I think a lot of fans want that could be delivered with enough demand and should Sega stay focused and keep the work grounded.

Second concern: will this start feeling like a commercial?

Obviously the show is trying to cash in on Sonic Mania, Sonic Mania Plus and the nostalgia of everyone who grew up on Classic Sonic. With this, the fear of this beautiful little short feeling like an advertisement looms overhead. It's already showing some signs of this by connecting itself to both Sonic Mania and Sonic Forces. Overall the first episode doesn't feel like it's trying to be a commercial but we won't know if it'll have that problem until more episodes are released.

Third Concern: the show is too cartoony

The tone the show is taking is obviously going to turn some people off to the series entirely. The very Tom and Jerry vibes between Classic Sonic and Eggman (and even Boom Sonic and Eggman) have turned people off before. At one point Eggman was a legitimate threat - a mad scientist and engineer who wants to either take over the world by building an empire (whether it's like a country or a Disneyland rip off depends on the canon being used and relied upon). These days Sonic and Eggman/Robotnik are either enemies, allies or these frienemies that don't get up to much. The cast has become something similar to the Mario cast where every character can play a certain role at certain times and are treated more like actors than established characters with established personalities. With the Sonic franchise however we started out with characters with established personalities so now that Sega has begun to treat the cast as multipurpose actors, that does give them more to play around with and experiment with but it does leaves fans confused and turned off to all of these different interpretations of these characters.

Granted, there is always a place for simpler, more cartoony and light-hearted media but there are going to be the Sonic fans who crave a more serious show like Sonic SatAM, Sonic X or the game Forces could've been if they put more time and effort into it.

Fourth concern: Ray the Flying Squirrel and Mighty the Armadillo

While I know nothing about these characters since I'm still a relatively new fan, I know there are those totally hyped that they're going to be in Sonic Mania Plus and that they're well loved in the Archie Sonic Comics. The thing that was holding these characters back from being used in other Sonic media for a very long time was copyright - from my understanding the creator of Mighty left Sega and took the copyright to Might the Armadillo with him. The same may apply to Ray.

This miniseries will definitely garner a lot of love and hate whether or not they appear (because if there's one thing I've learned about the Sonic fandom it's that: you don't mess with characters that are well loved... and just about all of them are well loved...)

If they appear: fans will rejoice because not only are they being acknowledged again and have a chance at becoming more mainstream Sonic characters, but this will also be their first animated debut! That's got to be exciting for a lot of fans. On the flip side there are those that are going to accuse the show of starting to feel like an advertisement or contributing to hype about Sonic Mania Plus, of bringing characters they didn't like or ask for back into the main canon.

If they don't appear: fans will be disappointed because they didn't make an appearance and there will always be the question of which characters Sega considers apart of the Sonic canon. There are those who are going to be confused as to who these characters are. There are those who will feel robbed of new Sonic media with Ray and Mighty as actual characters and not just easter eggs in a game or characters of comics past.

It's one of those situations where it's a lose-lose for Mania Adventures no matter how you slice it.

Since the show is pretty much done production wise and it's going to continue being released, we can't beg them to animate an episode with Ray or Mighty in it but there may be hope in episodes to come for those eager to see these characters again. We just have to wait and watch.

Overall, I look forward to watching more of this miniseries and the future of Sonic getting anime and cartoons. A thing that certainly keeps me in this fandom is just how fascinating the franchise as a whole is for trying to experiment so much and tell so many different stories so I'm eager to see what Sonic Mania Adventures will do differently.

Thank you for reading this blog and stay tuned for more reviews!

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