Chao in Space is a three-minute short film released in December 2019, based on the fictional movie posters seen in Sonic Adventure 2. It was made by Tyson Hesse, the same director behind Sonic Mania Adventures and Team Sonic Racing Overdrive, and features background designs by Gigi D.G.note .
You can watch the short here
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Chao In Space provides examples of:
- All Just a Dream: The movie segments are a dream sequence taking place inside a Chao's mind, having fallen asleep after watching the film's Blu-Ray as a Christmas gift.
- Aspect Ratio Switch: The film segments use letterboxing to give a widescreen presentation, complete with Deliberate VHS Quality to boot.
- Badly Battered Babysitter: Sonic goes through a bit of hassle keeping the sleepwalking Chao safe, including falling into the pond and getting his nose torn off. He finally manages to keep the Chao out of trouble by wrapping him to a tree with a Christmas bow.
- Bad Santa: Eggman appears in the Chao Garden dressed in Santa attire, planning to steal the Chao's presents.
- Big Damn Heroes: Just when it seems the Chao lost after his ship was destroyed, his friends from class graduation showed up to offer an assist.
- Big Ol' Eyebrows: Shortly after the Chao goes super, a penguin bumps him and gives him a pair. Amusingly, the Dark Chao wasn't afraid of the Golden Chao until he got the eyebrows.
- The Cameo: The end of the movie segment has Tikal the Echidna show up in spirit form.
- Christmas Episode: The short was released in time for the holiday season, and while the dream segments aren't particularly Christmas-themed, everything else surrounding it is.
- For the Evulz: Eggman doesn't have a reason for attempting to swipe the Chao's gifts, other than just messing with them and Sonic.
- Golden Super Mode: Parodied with the Chao using seven Chaos Drives to attain a Super Sonic-esque transformation.
- Gory Discretion Shot: The sleeping Chao ends up pulling on Sonic's nose, thinking he's opening a soda bottle. It cuts back to the film when he gets it open, but the soda gushing out, Sonic's reaction, and The Stinger showing him with bandaging on his nose make the implications clear.
- May the Farce Be with You: Chao in Space seems to borrow quite a bit from Star Wars:
- The Death Egg appears in the first shot, being a stand-in to the Death Star as always.
- The Neutral Chao's spaceships have the same wing design as an X-Wing.
- Tikal's appearance at the end resembles a Force Ghost.
- Megaton Punch: In the movie, the Chao punches the Dark Chao's ship and destroys it. In reality, the Chao punches Eggman and sends him flying off the cliff.
- Mythology Gag:
- The spaceships resemble the Chao Walker and the Dark Chao Walker.
- The Christmas gifts include copies of Sonic Mania, Sonic Forces, several Chaos Drives, RC toys of the Chao Pod and the Speed Star, and the Sonic doll seen in the Sonic Boom episode "Sticks and Amy's Excellent Staycation".
- The Chao turning into his Super form involved hatching out of an egg, which is what happens when a Chao reincarnates if cared for decently.
- The bottle of Chaos Soda references one of the various advertisements from City Escape.
- Never Wake Up a Sleepwalker: Despite Sonic doing his best to keep the Chao safe, he keeps ending up in situations where he could be hurt, so Sonic doesn't risk trying to wake him up.
- Old-School Dogfight: Most of the battle between the Chao and the Dark Chao plays out like this.
- Ramming Always Works: Subverted. The Chao tries to do this after his ship's wing gets damaged, but it ends up destroying his ship completely without harming the Dark Chao at all.
- Shout-Out: While the series' Super transformations were a reference to Dragon Ball Z already, this one takes it further by actually using the Super Saiyan sound effects.
- Voice Grunting: While not fully voiced like the later-released Sonic Colors: Rise of the Wisps, there's still some voice acting in the short from Sonic and Eggman. It stands out compared to the two previous cartoons where the characters were completely silent.
