Spoilers for all Sonic media prior to Sonic Forces, games or otherwise will be unmarked! You Have Been Warned!
"Whether you be an ancient wizard from days long past, vengeful, sinful, or mentally-broken hedgehogs, world-renowned bounty hunters, or an, um... teenage anime cat-girl thing... your mission is to rid the multiverse of that heinous Sonic and his pitiful friends in one fell swoop, by annihilating the only Sonic that matters: mine. Destroy Sonic Prime, and all puny blue pests in his likeness shall fall in a multiversal chain reaction! Every world, every dimension will crumble at our might as we remake the universe in our own true image! You now know your task, and time is of the essence! When I give the signal, we... charge!"
Sonic Villains is an upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog fan film created by animator Arion "MiiToons" Rashad in association with Adrenaline Dubs
, with its proposed runtime intended to rival that of a feature-length movie.
Following his most crushing defeat at the hands of Sonic so far back in Sonic Forces, the mad genius Dr. Eggman has still managed to hold onto enough remnants of the enigmatic Phantom Ruby to potentially make something useful out of them. Through the gemstone's dimension-warping properties, he finds himself an entire multiverse existing beyond the fabric of his reality, teeming with more versions of the blue rat he so despises… but fortunately for him, each and every one of these Sonics has made unique mortal enemies of their own.
Using the Phantom Ruby's powers of null space to gather these unsavory characters in one place, Dr. Eggman initiates his latest and greatest evil scheme yet — together, the villains shall destroy the Sonic Prime of Eggman's dimension, which shall cause the needlemouse's likeness to be erased from time and space, forevermore!
Bound to be filled with high-speed action, comedy, and heart, Sonic Villains aims to be a celebration of all corners of the Sonic franchise, warts and all.
The stated alliance of adversaries consists of the following characters:
- The Sonic the Hedgehog games, or "Prime" dimension: Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik, Metal Sonic, Orbot and Cubot, Infinite, Chaos 0, and two guests.
- Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog: Scratch, Grounder and Coconuts.
- Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics): Scourge the Hedgehog, Rosy the Rascal and Walter Naugus.
- Sonic Underground: Sleet and Dingo.
- Sonic X: Dark Oak.
- Sonic Boom: Shadow the Hedgehog.
- Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie: Sara the Catgirl.
- Sonic the Comic: Super Sonic.
You can find out more about the project here or on its YouTube channel.
The associated tropes:
- Accent Adaptation: It's made explicit that the version of Sonic from the "Fleetway" universe has a British accent here, given how Sonic the Comic was a UK-made product.
- Actually Pretty Funny: Everyone finds Sonic's "Baldy McNosehair" nickname for Eggman hilarious (it even almost makes Boom!Shadow smile). Sara, however, is only laughing because everyone else is and can't grasp what the joke was.
- Adaptational Comic Relief:
- Even if he's still a Jerkass, Scourge is now played less for menace and intimidation, and is frequently left to being picked on by Rosy, Naugus, or occasionally other villains as the squad's other big stress ball besides Dingo. Not even Cubot finds him intimidating.
- As for an even bigger example, Dark Oak in Sonic X was portrayed as a Knight of Cerebus with a tragic backstory and manipulative tendencies, most notably when it came to using his possible daughter Cosmo as a means to an end. Here, he's a Bumbling Dad-type character obsessed with plants and everything about them, desperately craving to spend quality time with Cosmo, and feels legitimately hurt that she rejected him for Sonic and his friends, to the point of crying when the Sonic.EXE-possessed Grounder delivers a "The Reason You Suck" Speech towards his parenting skills (and his singing).
- Adaptational Villainy: Averted with Sara, who's only working alongside the villains as a result of being Brainwashed and Crazy to worship Eggman.
- All Women Are Lustful: The only two female members of the group, Rosy and Sara, are quite madly in love with Scourge and Dr. Eggman, respectively. Though in Sara's case, she's only like that because she's Brainwashed and Crazy.
- Alliance of Alternates: Kind of; Eggman instead recruits distinct villains from different continuities rather than his alternate selves from those universes. The closest thing to play this trope straight is that Scourge and Fleetway!Super Sonic are on the same team, and even that's to an extent.
- In fact, this is touched upon in the Q & A, where Eggman is asked why he has foregone his variants in favor of other villains. He cites teaming up with his past self in Sonic Generations and Eggman Nega in Sonic Rush Adventure, neither of which went well.
- Berserk Button:
- Sonic is this for most of the villains (except for Orbot and Cubot), Rosy and Eggman especially.
- After Shadow falls for a Your Mom joke, he instantly starts charging up a rage fueled Chaos Blast, much to everyone else's panic.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Rosy may seem goofy, but she'll happily use her hammer to break anyone she pleases with a smile on her face.
- Big Bad: Some of them were already this in their respective dimensionsnote , but it seems that Eggman himself will take the role for this film, being the boss and all.
- Bullying a Dragon: Done twice by Scourge:
- He mocks Naugus over his issues with his sister, snarking that Naugus should conjure up a bed so Scourge can sleep through his story... and gets temporarily turned into a frog as punishment.
- He also makes the mistake of ticking off the Sonic from the Fleetway dimension by insulting him when he wakes up, much to the horror of everyone who knows very well why you should not do that.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Apparently, Dark Oak got this from Cosmo after she joined forces with their dimension's Sonic. He's still broken up about it.
- Cloudcuckoolander:
- As expected, Rosy is a nutcase with no comprehension and no restraint, and even seems to like worshipping Dr. Eggman.
- (Brainwashed) Sara isn't exactly all there herself, and clearly has no idea what's going on if it doesn't relate to worshipping Eggman or being a Pollyanna.
- Owing to his Adaptational Comic Relief status, Dark Oak's obsession with plants is… commendable, to say the least. As are his pitiful hopes to reconnect with Cosmo (despite his genocidal plans) and the activities he wants to do with her:Dark Oak: (excitedly) I've got a list! We'd, uh, we'll frolic through the flowery meadows of human assimilation, or-or maybe braid each other's hair leaves! Oh! Ooh-ooh-ooh! We can even watch scary movies together! I'm particularly a fan of (…) The Small Store of Terrors!
- Crisis Crossover: A unique example, in that it's a film centered around antagonists from different Sonic continuities.
- Curse Cut Short:
- When giving his reasons for hating Sonic, Eggman takes a deep breath, then lets out a nuclear Atomic F-Bomb which gets cut off by a Chao rocking back and forth.
- Silver's last line in this video.
- Demonic Possession: Happens to both Grounder and Cubot, courtesy of the Sonic.EXE program.
- Didn't Think This Through: Eggman lampshades this after retrieving Rosy and Sara from the missle they hijacked, stating he probably should have realized that hiring a bunch of teenagers was likely going to end poorly.
- The Earth-Prime Theory: In a similar albeit not exact vein to Turtles Forever, Eggman's theory is that destroying the Sonic of his home dimension (the main game continuity here, not the Archie series' "Mobius Prime") will result in all other Sonics across the multiverse being erased as a result, hence why all the other villains have joined his cause.
- Even Evil Has Standards: When Dingo openly expresses his crush on Sonia and how Sonic is in the way of it, Eggman points out that she's sixteen years old and asks Dingo how old he is. When he responds with "I'm not sure", all the villains (sans Boom!Shadow, who isn't even paying enough attention to care) express discomfort and quickly move on to why Sleet hates Sonic. Even Scourge, who has his own history of being a womanizer in his original work, can only give a "yikes" in response.
- Evil Is Petty: Predictably, none of the villains miss a chance to make jabs at each other, even if they aren't trying to backstab each other just yet.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Rosy isn't happy about Fiona dating Scourge. At all.
- Hijacked By Cthulhu: The Q&A begins the way you’d expect; complete with many humorous moments. Then you realize that Eggman has both Sonic from the Fleetway dimension locked up, as well as the Sonic.EXE program sealed away. After .EXE hijacks some of the robots, on top of releasing the entrapped Fleetway Super Sonic, the Q&A ends with a long shot of all the other villains' heads on stakes and the place engulfed in flames, which the two have done under the claim that they weren’t invited to the Q&A. Super Sonic states offhandedly that they’re "only temporarily dead", however, since there wouldn't be a movie otherwise.
- Humongous Mecha: The Deviled Egg, the villains' home base and main form of transportation.
- Immediate Sequel:
- In a storytelling sense, this film takes place immediately after Sonic Forces.
- Prime!Eggman enters the OVA universe barely a minute after the events of the movie.
- Intra-Franchise Crossover: Combining the games with three cartoon series, two comic series, and two anime.
- Ironic Echo: After Rosy finds Scourge after he attempted to hide from her whilst answering a question regarding himself and Fiona Fox, she thinks he was trying to play Hide-and-Seek alone, claiming it was a "naughty thing" to do, and asking if he knows what they do to naughty people, with Grounder answering that they get punished. When Sonic.exe and Fleetway Super Sonic show up at the end of the Q&A, .exe says that trying to end the Q&A without them was a "naughty thing" to do and asking if the other villains know what they do to naughty people, with Super Sonic answering that they get punished.
- Midquel: Dark Oak is taken from the middle of Sonic X's Metarex Saga, following the events of "A Metarex Melee" but before "Mission Match-Up".
- Mythology Gag: As a multiversal romp through Sonic's history, there's plenty to choose from.
- Universe strings are typically numbered after the year that entry of the franchise was released (or at least, intended to be), such as the movie Sonic the Hedgehog being designated Universe 2019.
- Grounder tries to introduce himself as a "Walking Arsenal", a term frequently used to describe the Archie comics version of E-123 Omega.
- Official Couple: Princess Sally and Nicole in the Rebooted Archieverse are shown to be a couple.
- Previously on…: Enter the X 'Verse does this as a homage to the recaps that were in the English dub of Sonic X, recounting the events of the third season up to the episode "A Metarex Melee". Humorously enough, the visiting Eggman Prime and Orbot can hear the narration.Eggman: Hmph. Well, that was exceedingly annoying.
Orbot: Where in the world could that voice have come from, anyway? - Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Scourge has a couple of these moments in the Q&A. In his second question, he runs off into hiding to answer the question related to him and Fiona in peace without Rosy overhearing or screwing it up. In the very next question, he says this trope word-for-word as he bolts it away from Rosy and Naugus, both planning on attacking him For the Evulz.
- Sequel Episode: The sound mix preview indicates that the story takes place after Sonic Underground.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech:
- Sonic indirectly gets a speech from every villain when asked why they hate him so much.
- Dark Oak gets a rather deep (albeit petty) one from a Sonic.EXE-possessed Grounder on both his singing and his role as a father.Grounder (possessed): "Silence, you overgrown toaster! Your lyrics bore me! Your attempts to ignore the brewing storm that is I are as incompetent as your parenting skills!"
- Shout-Out:
- Every question has a title card that is almost identical to the style of the eyecatches from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
- There’s even a title card where Sara just creepily gazes at the viewer while sitting at a table.
- Cubot shouts "I art thou. Thou art I." at one point while possessed by Sonic.EXE.
- Orbot and Cubot's "Shapes and Japes" covers include "If I Didn't Have You" and Rosy sings a snippet of "Other Friends" during the Q&A.
- Of all things, the song Dark Oak sings to Grounder is a darker version of this nursery rhyme from the kids' YouTube channel Periwinkle, with the main difference being "The lily on the pond doesn't sink" being replaced with "The human in that pond drowns and sinks".
- Scourge’s self-introduction is very similar to the intro of another movie based on a long running comic book.
- Show Within a Show: In the "Prime" universe, the live-action movies are believed to just be films in Sonic's honor. Eggman, however, is aware of them actually being their own universe.
- Take That, Audience!: Rosy teases the viewers for being perverts on the grounds that she's seen what they do to the cast in their spare time. Inverted by Eggman, who tells them to keep it up.
- Villain Team-Up: The main premise of the film in that the group Dr. Eggman assembled is unified through their hatred of Sonic.
- We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties: The Eggman Empire's Q&A cuts to a clip of a Chao rocking back and forth whenever something happens to cut the transmission. More specifically, technical difficulties occur when Boom!Shadow unleashes a rage-fueled Chaos Blast, as Eggman gives everyone else embarrassing and hurtful nicknames, and as Eggman begins going over his expectedly Long List of reasons for hating Sonic.
