Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog
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| Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog | |
|---|---|
 Opening title card for AoStH. |
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| Format | Animated series |
| Created by | DiC |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of episodes | 65 + 1 special (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 20-22 Minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | : First-run syndication (1993 - 1995) USA Network (1995 - 1997) First-run syndication (1997 - 2000) Toon Disney (2000 - 2002) Boomerang (Coming Soon)[citation needed].  : YTV(1995 - 1996)  : Channel 4(1993) The Children's Channel (1995 - 1998) POP! (2004 - present)
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| Original run | September 6, 1993 – December 3, 1993 |
| External links | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog is an American animated series that was first broadcast in September 1993, and has been running in cartoon syndication ever since. It follows the escapades of Sonic the Hedgehog, and his comrade Miles "Tails" Prower, as they attempt to stop the evil Dr. Ivo Robotnik and his array of vicious robots from taking over the planet Mobius — though the emphasis is on humour and slapstick with Robotnik and his henchrobots being bunglers and incompetents.
Contents |
[edit] Premise
Pierre De Celles, an animator who worked on Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, described the show as "fun and humorous."[1] The show's main protagonists are Sonic and Tails, while the main antagonists include Robotnik and his two hench-bots Scratch and Grounder (with a third robot, Coconuts, appearing on occasion). There are many occasional minor characters and robots too, including Robotnik's dominating mother and salesman Wes Weasely who sells defective goods to whoever has the money, is a fast-talking smoothie who addresses everyone as "pal-sy" and is similar to Phil Silvers, who also specialised in the parts of lovable con-men.
The plots often loosely follow the storyline of the video games series, although when the cartoon began, the Sonic games were still quite new, and lacking much plot or character development, which was filled in by the show's writers.
Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog was created by DiC Entertainment, which produced a total of 65 episodes for its first season, and was syndicated by Bohbot Entertainment, now BKN International (in the original run, every episode began and ended with the "Bohbot Entertainment Presents" logo). DiC ceased production on this comical version to spend more time on its darker interpretation, dubbed just Sonic the Hedgehog (commonly known as SatAM by fans), a series launched on ABC's Saturday morning line-up.
Each episode featured the famous "Sonic Sez" segments where Sonic gave viewers advice on different topics, ranging from staying in school, not running away from home and not using guns to smoking, alcohol abuse and false advertising. Probably the most famous of this segments is the one featured in "Lovesick Sonic", which dealt with sexual harassment (yet in an understandable way) With the advent of video sites like YouTube these segments (particularly that from "Lovesick Sonic") have become viral hits. Similarly, clips from the series are frequently used in a form of video remixing known as "YouTube Poop."
In the United Kingdom, the series was screened on Channel 4 on Sunday mornings, with the "Sonic Sez" segments edited out even though the end credits still gave them a mention. TCC on analogue satellite TV also showed the series but with the "Sonic Sez" segments existent, and was screened in the afternoons.
After the original airing, DiC created one more episode in the winter of 1996, "Sonic Christmas Blast", which has features from the other Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon such as Princess Sally Acorn in a non-speaking cameo. It also has Sonic and Tails visiting Robotropolis, which has a human population and a name pronounced with two "T"s. The letters page of issue #41 of the Sonic the Hedgehog comic book promotes the special as "An X-Tremely Sonic Christmas."
It is said that the AOSTH may return to Toon Disney, but we do not know much for sure.
[edit] Sonic the Hedgehog series
De Celles said in an interview that the staff of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog did not possess an awareness of nor a sense of competition against the Saturday series, which he describes as "serious and heavy." De Celles said that the approaches to the cartoons differed and he described the staff as too busy to pay attention to the other series.[1]
[edit] Trivia
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- Tails' voice was provided by Christopher Evan Welch, who was 11 years old when the program began. When "Sonic Christmas Blast" was released, he was 14 years old and was replaced because his voice changed[citation needed].
- Two classical music pieces, In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg, and Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov are used in the theme songs and throughout the series. The series and the theme song also regularly features the title screen theme from the first two Sonic games. This show is thus far the only Sonic the Hedgehog show to use a song from the games in its theme.
- "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog" was originally offered to ABC for Saturday morning broadcasting. But because ABC executives found the series to be lacking in plot and animation, ABC told DiC to scrap it and work on another Sonic cartoon. Its replacement was the second series, Sonic SatAM.[citation needed]
- In the episode "Untouchable Sonic", Scratch and Grounder were seen watching Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog on TV. The footage they were watching was from the original pilot episode featuring animation by Milton Knight and some by Dan Povenmire.
- In Germany this show is named "Sonic der irre Igel" (Sonic the Insane Hedgehog).
- In the episode "Tails Prevails", there is a Star Trek reference when Tails says "I'm giving her all she's got captain." In an attempt at a stereotypical Scottish accent.
- There have been 3 references to Arnold Schwarzenegger in the episodes Too Tall Tails, The Coachnik, and Robolympics.
[edit] Voice talents
- Jaleel White as Sonic the Hedgehog
- Christopher Evan Welch as Miles "Tails" Prower (except Sonic Christmas Blast, where Tails was voiced by Chris Turner)
- Long John Baldry as Doctor Ivo Robotnik
- Gary Chalk as Grounder, Additional Voices
- Phil Hayes as Scratch, Sergeant Doberman
- Ian James Corlett as Coconuts, Additional Voices
- Michael Donovan as Wes Weasley
[edit] DVD releases
On June 11, 2007, the entire series was released as a box set in the United Kingdom with the DVDs being region-free.
On July 17, 2007, Shout! Factory released the first 22 episodes in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog - Volume One in America, including special features such as an interview with animator, Milton Knight.
| DVD Name | Cover Art | Ep # | Release dates | Additional Features | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 | ||||
| Volume One |  |
22 | July 17, 2007 | TBA | TBA | This four disc boxset includes the first 22 episodes from Season 1. Bonus features include: How to draw Sonic The Hedgehog and Storyboard to Screen.[1] |
Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog: Fastest Thing in Time is scheduled for release on July 22, 2008, consisting of all four episodes of the Quest for the Chaos Emeralds saga: "Time for Trouble", "Hedgehog of the Hound Table", "Robotnik's Pyramid Scheme" and "Prehistoric Sonic".[2][3]
It has been confirmed that Shout Factory will be releasing a Volume 2 box, although it is not likely it will be seen until the holidays 2008. Volume 3 will round out the series, and while there has been no official word on the release date, rumors suggest it will be during 3Q 2009.
Note 1: There has never been a set/dvd of this series released in region 4 format
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog at the Big Cartoon DataBase
- A DVD description of Adventures Of Sonic The Hedgehog: Volume One
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