Sonic Boom: The Complete Season 1 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Sonic Boom: The Complete Season 1 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 29, 2022

Sonic the Hedgehog was a big deal in the 1990s as the flagship character for Sega's Genesis console system. While Nintendo and its mascot, Mario (also earning a new CGI film coming soon), won the "console wars" the Sonic character has seen a recent upsurge in popularity with not only several good games (Sonic Mania being the highlight amongst them and a new open world adventure, Sonic Frontiers, on the horizon) but also a couple of well-received feature films. There have also been several animated TV shows, amongst them Sonic Boom, a two-season adventure that features all of the fan favorite characters from the video game series of the same name. Season one debuted on Cartoon Network on November 8, 2015, and was followed by a second season on Boomerang which debuted on November 18, 2017.

Official synopsis: It's a Sonic you haven't seen before -- an ensemble comedy that pokes fun at action-adventure storytelling, but still manages to deliver plenty of adrenaline! Wherever he goes and whatever he's up against, Sonic the Hedgehog is aided by his sidekick, Tails, and his friends Knuckles, Amy, and Sticks and, of course, attacked by his archnemesis, Dr. Eggman.

Sonic Boom is a lot of fun. The episodes are lightning quick, clocking in at around 11 minutes each, but that's just enough time to tell a quick story crammed with action and characterization. Things never get dull or boring, and the show is perfect for a quick fix before work or school with a single episode or as a bine-worthy effort where much of a disc can be consumed in just a few hours. The production team gets the pacing just right, realizing that because there's not much room for serious character development that short burst self-contained episodes that focus more on action and setting are the key to building a great little show.

The show dabbles in some extracurricular content that might drift from the simple entertainment value, but such are few and far between. Sonic Boom instead focuses on simple joys, of building a basic plot in rapid-fire speed and finding a solution to the problem through some level of action and teamwork as Sonic and friends foil whatever Eggman's next nefarious idea might be. The show remains impressively fresh, again thanks to the super quick runtimes but more than that a well-rounded character roster that might not find substantial dramatic gain throughout the show but that does find subtle little beats, even in the microscopic runtimes, that allow things to play with a more organically inclined flavor. Still, the show can be enjoyed in pretty much any order; one episode is as good as the next for a fun few minutes with Sonic and company.

Technically, the show is not much of a standout. Animation is effective but on the crude side of things, lacking fluidity and depth and detail, of course nowhere near feature film level but only barely scraping beyond the bare minimum for a modern day animation program. Fortunately the show's color -- the vivid visual expressions -- offers enough vitality to fool the brain into thinking that there is more eye candy going on than there actually is. The voice work is terrific, with each character full of verbal zest and personality; the blend of top voice work and good scriptwriting combine to elevate the show a good bit. Fans of the game franchise should enjoy it.

Sonic Boom: The Complete Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The 1080p presentation, framed at a screen-filling 1.78:1 aspect ratio, delights. While the animation is a little blocky and lacking seriously complex detail, this transfer brings out all of the inherent goodness within it. The picture is sharp and clear, revealing the limited, but effective, textures around the location, like Eggman's red leathery jacket or Sonic's blue fur, which is really not well defined to begin with, but viewers will see everything there is to see on it. Overall clarity is very good, with precious few softer elements on display. Color is where this one excels. While it lacks subtlety and nuanced gradations, the large and loud color spaces and splashes do at least offer exemplary depth, pop, and vividness. Sonic's blue color, of course, is the standout but all of his friends are different colors -- like red, yellow, and pink -- and each of these colors leap off the screen as well. The image appears free of any major source anomalies and there are precious few encode issues as well. A bit of aliasing can creep in here and there, but it never really distracts from what is, otherwise, a very good viewing experience.

Sonic Boom: The Complete Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The series speeds onto Blu-ray with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The presentation is very good indeed. While the original sound design elements lack the depth, detail, and overall precision of a larger Hollywood film, the elements here are surprisingly robust for an animated series and do take full advantage of the surround configuration, yielding a fun and satisfying jaunt through the show's animated world, fast action, and music. The action scenes are presented with a good balance of front-end dominance, finely presented surround detail, and low-end support. The latter is not prodigious -- the subwoofer is not challenged by this material at all times but rather some of the time, such as some deep, well, sonic booms heard in the second episode on disc two -- but there is at lease a modest sense for detail and presence at the bottom which does help to solidify various of the action scenes scattered across all three discs. Music is large and agreeably positioned with, again, dominant front side spacing but a healthy surround component as well. Clarity is very good, allowing the score's presence and positioning to satisfy with every episode, whether over the opening titles or closing credits atop the animation itself. There is not much in the way of prominent and elegant atmospheric elements, but the combination of music, action sounds, and dialogue, which is center positioned and clear enough, all play a part in making this a very pleasing listen.

Sonic Boom: The Complete Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Sonic Boom: The Complete Season 1 contains a couple of fleeting, token extras on disc three. No DVD or digital copies are included. This release does not ship with a slipcover.

• Trailers and More (1080p): Trailers for a hodgepodge of Sonic games, merchandise, and the feature film. Perhaps the most interesting extra here is Sonic 101 (1080p, 2:18) which offers a history of the character in games and on the screen.
• Concepts and Designs (1080p): A series of drawings revealing the early stages and progression of the show. Images are selected by skipping forward with the remote's chapter forward button.

Sonic Boom: The Complete Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Sonic Boom is no animation classic, but it's a relatively safe and effective little side gig that offers fun little bursts of visual diversion that will appeal to gamers predominantly but should find fans beyond those who have controlled the Blue Blur on their game consoles over the decades. This Blu-ray features solid video and audio presentations. Supplements are skimpy and not worth much. Recommended, and packaging collectors can find this season, along with season two, in a SteelBook.