Biography
Sonic Underground (Sonic le rebelle in French) is an animated series that follows the adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and his siblings, pink hedgehog Sonia and green-hued Manic.
While it was believed for a while that 65 episodes were made of which only 40 aired, Ben Hurst, a main writer from the animated series Sonic the Hedgehog (dubbed SatAM by fans), who was also involved in Sonic Underground's production, stated in a chat at the Sonic Amateur Gaming Expo that only 40 were produced.
Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Underground are the two Sonic cartoons that most closely resemble each other. Both share a large number of things in common that were never in any of the games, including Sonic's catchphrases ("let's do it to it", "juice and jam time", etc.), Uncle Chuck, the Roboticizer, and King Acorn (or rather, a statue thereof). Though Underground had a lighter tone both were darker and more mature in tone than AoSTH.
''Sonic Underground'' takes place on Mobius, similar to ''Sonic the Hedgehog'', but with notable differences. ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' included Snively, power rings, Knothole Village and the Freedom Fighters. Another difference is that Sonic is drawn slightly different from his Sonic the Hedgehog counterpart. When viewed from behind, Sonic's signature mohawk is now three rows, his teeth show more and he now has visible eyelids.
Though the Freedom Fighters were included in ''Underground'', many of the characters in the Freedom Fighter group that were in ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' are completely left out (including Tails). Unlike ''Sonic the Hedgehog'', ''Underground'' also includes Knuckles. Another difference with the Freedom Fighter group is that Freedom Fighters do not remain in one Knothole-like refuge but instead travel around Mobius to battle Robotnik's forces on a global scale; and that Robotnik has left most of the Mobian people unroboticised, leaving multiple cities, a poor underclass, and an aristocracy for the heroes to interact with. Also, unlike SatAM and AoStH, many of the minor characters were not easily recognisable as being based on Earth animals, instead appearing far more alien.
Jaleel White, who had previously voiced Sonic in AoSTH and SatAM, provided the voices for Sonic, Manic and Sonia. The main theme was composed by Robbie London and Mike Piccirillo. The musical underscore was composed by Jean-Michel Guirao and Mike Piccirillo. The series featured 40 songs spread over the series as featured music videos. Each of these songs were composed by Mike Piccirillo.
Sonic, Sonia, and Manic are the children of Queen Aleena the Hedgehog. Queen Aleena was at once the kind and fair ruler of Mobius, but Dr. Robotnik and his forces of robots came in and ruled her out. She had to go into hiding and separated Sonic, Manic and Sonia. Dr. Robotnik began ruling Mobius under an unfair law, robotizing anyone he didn't like and forcing everyone to pay lots of money to him.
When Sonic, Manic and Sonia became teenagers, they heard of a prophecy that they would reunite with their mother, overthrow Robotnik, and become the rightful rulers of Mobius again. So Sonic, Manic and Sonia go on a quest searching throughout Mobius for Queen Aleena. Dr. Robotnik, with the assist of his bounty hunters Sleet and Dingo, is determined to capture the three siblings and roboticize them before they find Queen Aleena.
The three siblings have powerful medallions that not only change into musical instruments but also into weapons when the triplets are in perfect harmony with each other. Sonic's medallion is an electric guitar/gun, Sonia's medallion is a keyboard/smoke machine/gun, Manic's medallion is a drumset/Earth controller/gun. The three use the amulets not only to fight Robotnik's forces but to also have instruments for their underground rock band, ''Sonic Underground''. Sonic, Sonia, and Manic also call Robotnik "'Robuttnik" and "Robarfnik", as opposed to just Sonic referring to him by that name.
During the run up to the launch of the Sega Dreamcast, Sega began to heavily advertise all its big products. For Sonic, it contacted DiC (which at the time was owned by The Walt Disney Company), who previously made both TV shows Sonic the Hedgehog and Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, to make a new Sonic cartoon. ''Sonic Underground'' ran for one season in 1999 on UPN.
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