My teenage twins are hooked on Sonic the Hedgehog. Oddly, not through their video games but through their comics, Sonic The Hedgehog and Sonic Universe, published by Archie Comics.
I asked my daughter why she liked Sonic so much. She said, “Because he’s carefree and he gets to do a lot of fun stuff.”
As a result, she and her twin brother greeted the news of a new Sonic televisions series with celebration.
The television series, Sonic Boom, will debut on Cartoon Network for the 2014-2015 television season. It features a redesign of the popular characters and will be in its own special storytelling branch of the Sonic universe. The twins looked over the preview videos and pronounced it “very good” though they had some definite reservations about the new, larger and more solid look for Knuckles. (“I hate it,” pronounced my son.)
The Sonic Boom show is just part of the plans for this new branch of the Sonic Universe. Sega will be rolling out a new series of video games starring the Hedgehog, who’s already been featured in over 70 video game titles and four previous animated series. The games will be for Nintendo’s Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS and are expected to be released sometimes this year, though a specific date has not been announced yet. The games will serve as a prequel to the stories in the show, sharing a number of location and stylistic similarities, according to a press release from Sonic’s parent company, Sega. They are being developed in the U.S by California-based Big Red Button Entertainment (Wii U) and Sanzaru Games (Nintendo 3DS).
And then there are the toys and other goodies that will go with Sonic Boom. Sega says the new version of Sonic will be backed by a “robust global licensing and merchandising program.” Which, as a parent, says to me: be prepared to buy the toys, mugs, and t-shirts and other stuff if the game and show are a hit.
For those concerned, like my son, about getting the proper voices for the show and games, here’s the cast for the voices: Sonic–Roger Craig Smith; Dr Eggman–Mike Pollock; Tails–Colleen Villard; Knuckles–Travis Willingham; Amy–Cindy Robinson; Orbot–Kirk Thornton; and Cubot–Wally Wingert.
