Project Shadow is a Fan Film written and directed by Brazilian Filmmaker João Filipe Santiago and made in collaboration with Fresh Filmes and Dubrasil, a Brazilian dubbing studio.
The film retells the origin story of the Ultimate Lifeform himself, Shadow The Hedgehog in live-action. It explores his life within the ARK, his relationships with Gerald and Maria Robotnik and the tragic incident with G.U.N. We also get to see Shadow slowly gaining his powers and his rollerskates... um, we mean, airshoes. The film stars Adriano Lima as Dr. Gerald Robotnik, Ayala Mariane as Maria, and Bruno Sangregório as Shadow himself.
The film got a lot of attention not only because of the premise itself, but also because many were amazed at how good the quality of the film was for a Fan Film, managing to become famous within the Sonic Fan community, which only increased when João Filipe announced that there would also be an English Dub, with a possibility for a Spanish one depending on the film's reception. After auditions took place, the role of Shadow was given to Giovanni Salazar, who's known on YouTube and Social Media as RandomGoonVO.
The Portuguese and English versions were released on December 16th, 2023 on João Filipe's official YouTube Channel
, and the Spanish version was released on April 13th, 2024. You can view the original Portuguese version here, the English Dub here, and the Spanish dub here.
This fan film contains examples of:
- Big Eater: Shadow can scarf down a plate loaded with slices of pizza in the time it takes Maria to even finish a bite of her sandwich.
- Bittersweet Ending: To be expected, given which character the film is about. Shadow successfully escapes the ARK via an escape pod, but watches his best friend Maria be shot by a G.U.N. Soldier right in front of him, and he is left distraught as the pod heads to Earth. We also see a video recording of Gerald in a prison cell commenting about the incident and how Shadow will eventually claim revenge on the world. By the time Shadow is on Earth, he is hardened, cynical, and ready to take his revenge.
- Bookends: The film both starts and ends with an In Medias Res many years in the future with Shadow looking below at a city.
- Casting Gag: In the English Dub, Mike Pollock plays the narrator of the Air Shoes commercial, as a nod to how he was the voice of Dr. Eggman, as well as Professor Gerald Robotnik, in both the games (with Pollock playing Gerald in Shadow the Hedgehog) and Sonic X.
- Character Tic: Professor Gerald often brushes his mustache with both hands.
- Despair Event Horizon: Shadow goes through this as his capsule flees to earth, as he just saw Maria, his best friend, get mortally shot.
- Iconic Attribute Adoption Moment: Two involving Shadow's iconic items — the Air Shoes and Inhibitor Rings.
- Shadow starts the film wearing a pair of black high-top shoes, before eventually receiving the Air Shoes as a gift from Gerald Robotnik.
- When Gerald realizes the issue with Shadow is his DNA, fluctuating between a hedgehog and a super powered hedgehog, he comes up with the idea to stabilize his DNA and lock his powers to a certain point. He then presents Shadow with the Inhibitor Rings, which Shadow wears in order to keep his DNA and powers locked down so he wouldn't overload himself.
- Large Ham: Like his grandson Dr. Robotnik, Gerald has a dramatic streak to him. When he created the Air Shoes for Shadow, he animated and voiced an entire mock commercial for the Air Shoes just because he insists that a gift has to be given "properly".
- Leitmotif: The piano opening of "Never Turn Back" from Shadow's titular game usually plays in quiet scenes when talking to Maria or Gerald.
- Mythology Gag:
- Shadow is seen scarfing down a plate of pizza in one scene. In an in-character interview, Shadow revealed that pizza is among his favorite foods.
- Gerald Robotnik reverse-engineered chaos energy from a shard of the Master Emerald to create artificial sources of chaos in the form of the Chaos Drives. The Chaos Drives are a consumable item dropped from G.U.N robots in Sonic Adventure 2 to be used for Chao growth.
- In a brief montage of Shadow and Maria living on the Space Colony, Shadow speedily sketches various pieces of art in his pad. One of the drawings is a comically angry looking sketch of Shadow, based on the similar memetic panel from Sonic Universe issue #1,where Shadow makes the same face at Marine while she backs away with a nervous look on her face.
- The fake commercial where Shadow is presented with the Air Shoes has quite a few of them:
- Shadow can be seen animated running with them, while looking at the viewer with a speech bubble that says "Air Shoes", which is similar to a joke in Sonic Prime where Shadow corrects Sonic about him calling his shoes rollerskates.
- The more cartoonish version of Professor Gerald is based on Dr. Eggman's classic design with a more circular body.
- With the commercial being voiced by Mike Pollock and the retro asthetic, it heavily resembles a propaganda film for the Eggman Empire released for Sonic Forces.
- The way Shadow attacks the G.U.N Soldiers when they raid the arc by warping around with Chaos Control is similar to the sequence from the animated opening movie of Shadow the Hedgehog.
- Shadow using his chaos abilities and his air shoes to Boost is animated similarly to how'd he use the Boost move in games like Sonic Generations and Sonic Forces.
- When Gerald reacts in shock to Shadow's Chaos powers being unleashed on the target he says "I wasn't expecting this... but I was expecting not to expect something so... it doesn't count," much like his grandson would in Sonic the Hedgehog (2020).
- Shadow is seen scarfing down a plate of pizza in one scene. In an in-character interview
- Power Incontinence: Much like his live-action rival, whenever Shadow gets stressed or is in distress, his chaotic powers run wild, with his bio-electric powers sparking and surrounding him in orange lightning. This version of Shadow's power stems from his DNA, which was synthesized from the Master Emerald and enhanced his abilities. So much so that it destabilized his DNA to the point that he has trouble controlling his power. Gerald's solution is to give him a set of Inhibitor Rings in order to stabilize his DNA.
- Power Limiter: Shadow's classic Inhibitor Rings, which are used to stabilize his out-of-control DNA and keep his chaos-based powers in check. Gerald's rings however were designed to lock down his powers that he can't use them too much, where he is overtaxed after fighting off the G.U.N. soldiers and his powers prevent him from moving very well.
- Recurring Riff:
- The riff of "3 Black Noises - Reflection" from Sonic Adventure 2 is interwoven throughout the music played in the short film.
- There is a riff that is used occasionally throughout the short, heard during moments like when Shadow uses the Air Shoes and boosts for the first time and when Shadow is testing his Chaos powers.
- Say My Name: Shadow screams Maria's name after she is shot by the G.U.N. soldier in despair.
- The Stinger: After the credits roll, the film ends with Shadow looking below at a city... but turns around as he hears a voice and a familiar symbol is reflected on his eyes, with a deep demonic voice speaking to him.Black Doom: Looks like he didn't tell you everything.
- Super-Soldier: The Ultimate Lifeform project was created to make an unstoppable defender of the United Nations. When Professor Gerald shifted focus to replicating Shadow's Healing Factor for Maria and started treating Shadow more like a family member than a weapon, G.U.N. decided he was compromised and raided the Ark to take Shadow and Gerald by force to get their promised soldier.
- Super-Speed: Even before getting his Air Shoes, Shadow is shown to be as fast as Sonic, such as when he fixes Maria's hair for her in the morning in seconds.
- Ultimate Lifeform: Deconstructed. While he is exactly as powerful as Professor Gerald intended, it results in Shadow having a tough time controlling his power.
