| Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog | |
|---|---|
Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog logo |
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| Also known as | AoStH |
| Genre | Animated series, Action, Adventure, Slapstick comedy |
| Developed by | Reed Shelly Bruce Shelly Phil Harnage Kent Butterworth |
| Directed by | Kent Butterworth |
| Voices of | Jaleel White Christopher Welch Long John Baldry Gary Chalk Ian James Corlett Phil Hayes |
| Theme music composer | Clark Gassman |
| Composer(s) | Reed Robbins Mark Simon |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 65 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Andy Heyward Robby London |
| Producer(s) | Kent Butterworth |
| Running time | 22 minutes |
| Production company(s) | TMS Entertainment Bohbot Entertainment DIC Entertainment Cookie Jar Entertainment Sega of America |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ABC |
| Picture format | 4:3 |
| Audio format | Dolby SR |
| Original airing | September 6, 1993 |
| Chronology | |
| Followed by | Sonic the Hedgehog (1993–1994) |
| External links | |
| Production website | |
The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (also known as: AoStH) is an American animated series that was first broadcast in September 1993, and only for one season. It follows the escapades of the video game character Sonic the Hedgehog, and his sidekick Miles "Tails" Prower, as they attempt to stop the evil Doctor Ivo Robotnik and his array of vicious robots from taking over the planet Mobius. However, Sonic always finds time to indulge in as many chili dogs as he can get his hands on. This series is very much a slapstick type comedy–especially with the incredibly melodramatic explosions and quirky storylines–but Sonic is always portrayed as being skilled and clever, whereas Scratch and Grounder are clumsy and often serve as Robotnik's foil.
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Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog was created by DIC Entertainment & SEGA Corporation, which produced a total of 66 episodes for its first season, and was syndicated by Bohbot Communications, now BKN International (in the original run, every episode began and ended with the "Bohbot Entertainment Presents" logo).
The plots often used elements loosely borrowed from the storyline of the Sonic video games series. When the cartoon began, the Sonic games were still quite new, and lacking much "canon", so the cartoon's writers had little in the way of guidelines to write by.
Later, DiC ceased production on this cartoon to spend more time on a darker, much more plot-intensive series which also used Sonic as a main character, Sonic the Hedgehog: The Animated Series (commonly known as SatAM). The other cartoon series was launched on ABC's Saturday morning line-up. DIC felt that Sonic the Hedgehog: The Animated Series was more in-line with the demands of their target audience.
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 (as in "robot-tropolis", instead of "robo-tropolis). In this episode, Robotnik replaces Santa with a robot duplicate and demands that everybody gives him Christmas presents instead of getting some from Santa. Sonic, Tails, and Santa team up to save the holiday. The letters page of issue #41 of the Sonic the Hedgehog comic book promotes the special as "An X-Tremely Sonic Christmas." as this episode was originally going to be a tie in for Sonic X-treme on Sega Saturn. However, the game was cancelled, and the title was changed to tie in with Sonic 3D Blast instead.
Pierre De Celles, an animator who worked on Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, described the show as "fun and humorous."[1]
The central protagonists are Sonic the Hedgehog and Tails while the main antagonists include Dr. 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, such as Dr. Robotnik's mom; Wes Weasley, a salesman and con-man, not dissimilar to Phil Silvers.[2] The city has more non-human creatures, like anthropomorphic animals and robots than other projects. Planet Mobius is a zany, colorful cartoon world in this show, much unlike the other "Planets Mobius".
In the United Kingdom, the series was screened on Channel 4 in 1993 on Sunday mornings at 9:00 which had the "Sonic Sez" segments edited out, possibly because of either time constraints or they were more aimed at American audiences and that many of the subjects were considered too controversial. They were also edited out on the UK VHS releases of the series. However, the segments were intact on the TCC and POP! airings, as well as the DVD boxset.
In Australia, the show was aired on Agro's Cartoon Connection on weekday mornings, on Cheez TV on Saturday mornings and on Nick Jr. Unlike in the UK, all "Sonic Sez" segments were left intact.
In France, the French dub of the show had a theme song on the intro. Lyrics were done by Alexis Tomassian. In Italy, an identical intro was used, but the theme song was completely sung in Italian and it was performed by Cristina D'Avena.
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"; he also described the staff as too busy to pay attention to the other series.[1]
Shout! Factory has released all 65 episodes of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog on DVD in Region 1 in 3 volume sets. Volume 3 was released as a Shout! Factory select title, available exclusively through their online store.[3]
The volume contains the final 21 episodes of the series, plus as announced on the Shout! forums on Jan. 6, 2010, Sonic Christmas Blast. Sonic was then released in 2 series on 2 DVD Boxsets.
In region 2, Delta Home Entertainment released Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog: The Complete series on DVD in the UK on June 11, 2007.[4]
| DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date | Additional Information |
|---|---|---|---|
| Volume 1 | 22 | July 17, 2007 | Contains episodes 1-22
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| Volume 2 | 22 | December 9, 2008 | Contains episodes 23-44
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| Volume 3♦ | 21 | March 16, 2010 | Contains episodes 45-65
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♦ - Shout! Factory select title, sold exclusively through Shout's online store
| VHS Title | Release Date | Episodes |
|---|---|---|
| Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog Volume 1 | 1993 | The Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad!, Subterranean Sonic, Lovesick Sonic |
| Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog Volume 2 | 1994 | Best Hedgehog, The Robotnik Express, The Birth of the Salesman |
| Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog Volume 3 | 1994 | Too Tall Tails, Big Daddy, Tails New Home |
| Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog Volume 4 | 1994 | Close Encounters of a Sonic Kind, Sno Problem, Tails In Charge, Grounder The Genius |
| Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog Volume 5 | 1994 | Blackbot the Pirate, Hedgehog of the Hound Table, Robotnik's Pyramid Scheme, Prehistoric Sonic, Trail of the Missing Tails |
| Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog Volume 6 | 1994 | Honey I Shrunk the Hedgehog, The Mobius 5,000, Spaceman Sonic |
| The Adventures Of Sonic The Hedgehog - The Biggest Ever Video | 1994 | Road Hog, Robolympics, The Little Merhog, Birth Of A Salesman, Robotnik's Rival, Tails' New Home, Love Sick Sonic, Sonically Ever After, Hero Of The Year |
| The Adventures Of Sonic The Hedgehog - Momma Robotnik's Birthday | 1994 | Momma Robotnik's Birthday |
| The Adventures Of Sonic The Hedgehog - High Stakes Sonic & Sonic Breakout | 1997 | High Stakes Sonic, Sonic Breakout |
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