Sonic Prime Sends Its Hero Through the Multiverse and Runs Out of Ideas

Sonic Prime ran for three seasons and 23 episodes on Netflix, and it never quite escaped the shadow of the thing it was adapting. The show comes from Man of Action Entertainment — Duncan Rouleau, Joe Casey, Joe Kelly and Steven T. Seagle — with WildBrain Studios and Sega Sammy Group co-producing. It is the sixth animated television series based on the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise since Sonic X, which ran from 2003 to 2006, following the spin-off series Sonic Boom.

That is a long gap to fill. Sonic Prime fills it with a multiverse.

Trailer, via Netflix Family.

The Paradox Prism and the Shatterverse

The premise arrives fast. During a battle with Doctor Eggman, Sonic shatters the Paradox Prism, a crystalline artifact with reality-bending powers. The result is the Shatterverse: five alternate dimensions called Shatterspaces, each built from one Prism shard and each missing its own Sonic.

Sonic lands first in New Yoke City, a dystopian future version of Green Hill run by five Eggman variants who call themselves the Chaos Council. They used their shard to conquer the place. When they learn the Prism exists, they want the rest of the shards too. Sonic and a local resistance stand against them.

The other Shatterspaces go by The Boscage Maze, a jungle world with primitive versions of Sonic’s friends; The No Place, a flooded pirate world; and The Grim, a barren wasteland. Sonic’s home reality, meanwhile, has become Ghost Hill — dull and lifeless after the Prism broke.

The structure is clean and the show commits to it. Sonic hops between worlds, collects shards, and meets a new version of a friend in each one.

Nine, Rusty Rose and Dread

Those alternate friends are where Sonic Prime does its real work. Nine is the New Yoke City version of Tails, bitter and untrusting because he grew up without a Sonic to protect him from bullies. Rusty Rose is New Yoke’s Amy, converted into a cyborg by the Chaos Council, and she struggles to figure out her loyalties. Dread is the No Place take on Knuckles.

The voice cast carries this. Deven Mack plays Sonic. Ashleigh Ball handles Tails, Tails Nine, Mangey Tails and Sails Tails. Brian Drummond voices Mr. Dr. Eggman and Dr. Done It. Shannon Chan-Kent plays Amy Rose, Rusty Rose, Thorn Rose and Black Rose. Kazumi Evans takes Rouge the Bat, Rebel Rouge, Prim Rouge and Batten Rouge. Ian Hanlin covers Shadow, Big the Cat and Hangry Cat. Vincent Tong rounds it out as Renegade Knucks, Dr. Babble, Dr. Don’t and Dr. Deep.

That is a lot of doubling up, and it is the load-bearing wall of the whole project. A multiverse show lives or dies on whether the variants feel like distinct people. Sonic Prime mostly gets there.

Release schedule

Netflix split the run across three releases, with the final season closing things out on January 11, 2024.

When an explosive battle with Dr. Eggman shatters the universe, Sonic races through parallel dimensions to reconnect with his friends and save the world.

What the show gets right

The Shatterspaces are genuinely distinct. A jungle, a flood, a wasteland and a dystopian city give the animation team four different palettes to work with, and the show uses them. New Yoke City is the strongest of the bunch — a controlled, corporate-feeling Green Hill is a sharper idea than it first looks, and the Chaos Council as a five-headed Eggman is a better villain conceit than a single Doctor.

Rusty Rose is the best character in the show. A cyborg Amy wrestling with whether she belongs to the Council that built her is the one thread Sonic Prime gives real weight, and Shannon Chan-Kent has to play both the converted soldier and the original Amy. It works.

Nine is the second-best idea and the more complicated one. A Tails who never had a Sonic is a legitimate question to ask of this franchise, and the show asks it without softening the answer.

Where it stalls

The bigger issue is Sonic himself. He is the only character who does not get a variant, which is the point — the Shatterverse is defined by his absence. But it leaves him as the least interesting person on screen for most of the run. Everyone around him is wrestling with a version of themselves. He is mostly just running.

Ghost Hill is an evocative image and an underused one. Sonic’s home, drained of color and life, should be the emotional anchor pulling him through every world. The show mentions it, then moves on.

The final season has seven episodes instead of eight, and it shows. The wrap-up is efficient rather than satisfying.

What Sonic Prime amounts to

Sonic Prime is a real swing. The multiverse premise is more ambitious than most video game adaptations attempt, the variant casting is deep and well-executed, and Rusty Rose and Nine justify the whole exercise. It is also a show that keeps its lead character static and asks a young audience to track a serialized plot across a staggered release window.

The published critical score sits at 6.0 out of 10, with a 60% Rotten Tomatoes rating. That reads about right. Sonic Prime is not the Sonic X successor fans waited for, and it is not a misfire either. It is a competent, occasionally sharp show that had one great idea and spread it thin.

animation · Netflix · Shatterverse · Sonic Prime · Sonic the Hedgehog · TV Review