Sonic the Hedgehog (TV series)

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Sonic the Hedgehog

Opening title card for Sonic the Hedgehog.
Genre Animated series
Creator(s) DiC Entertainment
Starring Jaleel White, Kath Soucie, Jim Cummings
Country of origin Flag of United States United States
Language(s) English
No. of episodes 26 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time 30min
Broadcast
Original channel ABC
Original run September 18, 1993 – June 3, 1995
Chronology
Related shows Sonic Underground, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic Christmas Blast, Sonic X
Links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Sonic the Hedgehog is an American animated television series created by DiC, based on the video game series of the same name. The series aired from September 18, 1993 to June 3, 1995 on ABC. The series sharply contrasts with Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, a syndicated series that premiered in the same month.

The show ran for two seasons. A third season was in the early planning stages until ABC canceled the show because of low ratings (thought to result from competition with FOX Kids' Power Rangers). After Sonic the Hedgehog was canceled, reruns of the show appeared on USA Network's USA Action Extreme Team.

The series was also telecast in Canada on the CTV Network, although it was aired between September 18, 1993, and September 2, 1995. The possible reason for CTV airing the series during the summer of 1995, which ABC never did, was to simply run the rest of the 1994-1995 broadcast year out. The show has not been aired in Canada since its cancellation.

The program was partly recently broadcast on the UK television channels Pop and ITV2. It initially had a complete run on Channel 4 on Sunday mornings.

Despite its cancellation and limited recent airings, the show enjoys a small but loyal Internet fanbase. The show was also the partial basis for a comic book series called Sonic the Hedgehog, which continues even a decade after the cartoon's cancellation and still features many of the cartoon's own characters.

In response to popular demand, the entire series was released onto DVD by Shout! Factory on March 27, 2007. More information about this release can be read below.

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Kiss conceived between Sonic and Sally seen in the Sonic the Hedgehog series finale.
Kiss conceived between Sonic and Sally seen in the Sonic the Hedgehog series finale.
Ixis Naugus's eyes in the background at the end of the final episode, "The Doomsday Project".
Ixis Naugus's eyes in the background at the end of the final episode, "The Doomsday Project".

The show takes place on a planet called Mobius sometime in the 33rd century. An evil scientist named Dr. Julian Ivo Robotnik (Jim Cummings) invaded and conquered a huge city named Mobotropolis, with the help of his assistant and nephew Snively (Charlie Adler) and his army of robot soldiers called SWATbots. He then used a giant airship called the Destroyer to turn Mobotropolis into a new city, renaming it Robotropolis, a polluted city of factories and warehouses. This invasion occurred on Friday the 13th, 3224, in an unknown month (potentially either September 13, 3224 or December 13, 3224) (Blast from the Past Pt. 1 and 2).

Robotnik soon abducted the city's king, Maximillian Acorn (Tim Curry), exiling him to a dimensional warp known as "The Void" and made the palace his own personal headquarters. From there, he captured the rest of the citizens, including a brainy old hedgehog named Sir Charles Hedgehog (William Windom) and his dog Muttski, and used a machine called the roboticizer to turn them into robot slaves.

Those who managed to escape retreated into the Great Forest and built a village named Knothole to hide from Robotnik, including a group called the Freedom Fighters, among them the protagonist, Sonic the Hedgehog (Jaleel White), Charles' speedy nephew, as well as his best friend Tails (Bradley Pierce), a young two-tailed fox who can twirl his tails to fly.

Other Freedom Fighters include Rotor (Mark Ballou/Cam Brainard), a walrus with a knack for machines, Antoine (Rob Paulsen), a French coyote and former palace guard with many personality flaws, and Bunnie Rabbot (Christine Cavanaugh), a pretty southern cyborg rabbit who was partially roboticized before being saved by Sonic. Last is the group's leader, Princess Sally Acorn (Kath Soucie), the king's only daughter. Sally carries a sentient mini-computer named NICOLE.

For ten years, the Freedom Fighters constantly foiled Robotnik's schemes. In the show's second season, a winged female dragon named Dulcy (Cree Summer) was a new star. Dulcy's mother Sabina was captured and roboticized along with most her species.

The show ran for two seasons before it was canceled. The final episode, "The Doomsday Project", ended with a cliffhanger suggesting a new villain for season three; it was later revealed that the villain would have been a sorcerer from a previous episode named Ixis Naugus. There were rumors of a third season, but it was never produced.

Many fans and newcomers have debated over whose eyes were in the background at the end of "The Doomsday Project". Some thought it was Knuckles the Echidna, while others thought Metal Sonic. On the popular semi-official Sonic the Hedgehog website, Ben Hurst revealed that the eyes belonged to "Ixis Naugus. Not Knuckles. Not Metal Sonic. Ixis Naugus." He also mentioned at Sagexpo that Knuckles would have appeared at the end of Season 3, and would have been more of a main character in the fourth season, had the series been allowed to continue. No mention of Metal Sonic appearing in the series was made.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] DVD releases

[edit] Super Sonic DVD (2002)

A DVD of five first-season episodes was available from DiC and Lions Gate Home Entertainment under the title Sonic the Hedgehog: Super Sonic, which was released on Feb. 26, 2002. However, this was pulled when Buena Vista claimed to have distribution rights to the series.

The five episodes that were on this disc, all from Season 1, were:

  1. Super Sonic
  2. Sonic Racer
  3. Sonic Boom
  4. Sonic and Sally
  5. Sonic and The Secret Scrolls

[edit] The Complete Series (2007)

The Complete Series DVD cover for Sonic the Hedgehog.
The Complete Series DVD cover for Sonic the Hedgehog.

It was thought that the Super Sonic DVD would be the show's lone DVD release. However, a Boxset entitled Sonic The Hedgehog: The Complete Series was released on March 27, 2007. More details to the above information can be found here: [1], [2].

There are bonus features spread out on all four discs: storyboards, concept art, storyboard-to-screen comparisons, deleted/extended scenes, a printable script of the series pilot (Heads or Tails), and interviews with Jaleel White and head writer Ben Hurst. The individual cases and the DVDs themselves also feature fan art submitted to Shout! Factory during the box set's development phase [3].

[edit] Other releases

A box set of the first 12 episodes has been released in Korea and a box set is currently planned for the UK [4]

[edit] Differences with Adventures

While Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog is known for its bright colors and whimsical humor, Sonic the Hedgehog featured darker stories which constituted a departure from the tone of the Sonic games of the time. To distinguish between the two series, fans typically refer to this series as SatAM, because it was a Saturday morning cartoon, while Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog aired on weekdays in syndication in the United States.

[edit] Theme song

The theme song ("Fastest Thing Alive") was produced by: Noisy Neighbors Productions. video

[edit] Vocal talents

[edit] Character cast

Freedom Fighters:

Other characters:

Villains:

[edit] Home video release history

[edit] Episode list (in production order/foreign aired order)

Main Article: List of Sonic the Hedgehog (TV series) episodes

[edit] Season 1

  1. Sonic Boom
  2. Sonic & Sally
  3. Ultra Sonic
  4. Sonic & the Secret Scrolls
  5. Super Sonic
  6. Sonic Racer
  7. Hooked On Sonics
  8. Harmonic Sonic
  9. Sonic's Nightmare
  10. Warp Sonic
  11. Sub-Sonic
  12. Sonic Past Cool
  13. Heads or Tails

[edit] Season 2

  1. Sonic Conversion
  2. Game Guy
  3. No Brainer
  4. Blast to the Past (pt.1)
  5. Blast to the Past (pt.2)
  6. Fed Up With Antoine/Ghost Busted
  7. Dulcy
  8. The Void
  9. The Odd Couple/Ro-Becca
  10. Cry of the Wolf
  11. Drood Henge
  12. Spyhog
  13. The Doomsday Project [5]

[edit] Season 3 (aborted)

  1. Beware of Aftermaths, Part 1 (unaired)
  2. Beware of Aftermaths, Part 2 (unaired)
  3. The Journal (unaired)

Though the series ended with Season 2, there were more episodes planned. According to writer Ben Hurst, the third season would have featured Snively briefly attempting to take over, but he quickly fails.

He would then accidentally release Naugus from the Void, who would take over as the main villain with Robotnik as his lackey( Naugus is also the person whose eyes were seen behind Snively at the end of Season 2). The King would also be freed from the Void and Snively, reduced to nothing, would later defect to the Freedom Fighters (which briefly occurred in the Sonic Archie comic).

Furthermore, more developments would have come along between the relationship of Sonic and Tails, coming a little closer to the game relationship it strayed so far away from. [6] It has also been said that Sally is romanced by someone other than Sonic and that Dulcy comes into her full powers.

[edit] Pre–Sonic the Hedgehog

In 1993 an article in Sonic the Comic the British Sonic/Sega comic, officially licensed by Sega Of Europe, announced two new television series starring Sonic the Hedgehog, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog. Within the four pages of plot synopsis and concept art, a group of screen shots that greatly differ from the rest appear without explanation.[1] These screen shots have circulated through the internet contributing to the theory of a cartoon series aborted before production which has been dubbed "The Mystery cartoon" also "Pre-SatAM".

One of these images, showing 'The Freedom Team' was later reused to promote the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog series, along with another, using similar art, presumably from the same timeframe.

While there has not been any confirmation from DiC on the matter, it is widely considered that these images were a prototype for Sonic the Hedgehog, due to similarities (Sally Acorn, The Robotocizer, Freedom Fighters) with the series and their appearance within an article announcing Sonic the Hedgehog.

The supporting characters in the Pre-Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon are most likely based on the small animals freed from enemies in the original Sonic the Hedgehog game. Most notable is the lack of Tails; it could be that the concept was drawn up before Tails' arrival in the franchise.[2]


[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Burton, Richard (1993), "It's Sonic the Hedgehog on TV!", Sonic the Poster Mag (no. 1)
  2. ^ Before SatAM. SonicHQ. Retrieved on January 9, 2007.

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Sonic the Hedgehog video game features
Emerald/Ring Chaos Control · Chaos Emeralds · Master Emerald · Rings · Minor power objects · Special Stage (Blue Sphere) · Star Posts · Super transformation (other media)
Locations Angel Island (Hidden Palace) · Prison Island · Space Colony ARK · Tiny Chao Garden · Central City · Soleanna  · Arabian Nights
Vehicles The Tornado · Death Egg · Dr. Eggman's vehicles (flying fortresses)
Other Badniks (E-Series) · Mobians (Echidnas) · Eggman Empire · Roboticizer (Roboticization) · Minor technology · Sonic Team · Voice Actors · Evolution of the Sonic Universe
Spin offs Manga · Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (episodes) (Sonic Christmas Blast) · Sonic the Comic · Sonic the Hedgehog (TV series) (episodes) · Sonic the Hedgehog (comic series) (Knuckles) · Movie · Sonic Underground (episodes) · Sonic X (episodes) (comic) (card game) · List of printed media
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