Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog

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Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog is an American animated series produced by DiC Animation City and Bohbot Entertainment that was based on the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series produced by Sega. Premiering in September 1993, sixty-five episodes were produced for first-run syndication.

Series overview

The series follows the adventures of the titular character Sonic the Hedgehog and his sidekick Tails as they attempt to stop Dr. Robotnik and his array of robots from taking over the planet Mobius.

File:Diplomarobotnik.png
Dr. Robotnik as he appears in the very first episode, 'Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad'.

The plots often used elements loosely borrowed from the storyline of the Sonic video games series. Three of Robotnik's henchbots, Scratch, Grounder and Coconuts, are directly based on badniks that appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. The series also incorporated several recurring original characters not seen in the games, such as Robotnik's mother, Stinky the Badger, and Wes Weasley, a salesman and con-man, not dissimilar to Phil Silvers. The show's other characters largely consist of non-human creatures, such as anthropomorphic animals and robots.

Episodes of the show normally revolved around Sonic and Tails foiling Robotnik's latest villainous scheme to dominate the zany, colorful world of Planet Mobius. At the end of each episode, Dr. Robotnik's plan would ultimately fail due to Sonic's efforts, his own incompetence and the stupidity of his henchbots.

The end of the show is bookended by an additional segment called "Sonic Says" (or "Sonic Sez", as Tails misspelled it on screen). This segment teaches viewers life lessons about subjects such as alcohol abuse and general safety. The segment was edited out during the original UK broadcasts.[citation needed]

Voice cast

Additional voices

Production

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog was created by DiC Animation City and Sega of America, Inc., which produced a total of 65 episodes each for its one 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), and the Italian Reteitalia S.p.A., part of Fininvest. The show's animation was outsourced to four animation studios: the Chinese Rainbow Animation, the Taiwanese Hong Ying Animation, the Korean Sae Rom Production, and the Japanese Tokyo Movie Shinsha. Animator Pierre De Celles described the show as "fun and humorous".[1]

Sonic's other cartoon

Adventures was not the only Sonic-centered cartoon series to make the airwaves in 1993. ABC launched its own series, Sonic the Hedgehog, around the same time that the syndicated series premiered. This particular cartoon, which like the syndicated series was produced by DiC and featured Jaleel White as the voice of Sonic, was different in animation style and subject matter. The Saturday morning series portrayed Dr. Robotnik as the tyrannical ruler of Mobius as opposed to the evil scientist he was in the syndicated series, did not feature the comic relief characters that the syndicated series did, and portrayed Sonic as less of a superhero figure. Animator Pierre De Celles said in an interview that neither he nor the rest of the staff working on Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog knew about or competed with the ABC series, claiming they were too busy to pay attention to the other series.[1]

Broadcast and distribution

First-run broadcast

The series was shown through syndication in the United States in 1993 on weekday afternoon. In the United Kingdom, the series was screened on Channel 4 in 1993 on Sunday mornings at 9:00, but with the "Sonic Says" segments edited out. They were also edited out on the UK VHS releases of the series. The weekday mornings airings in Australia on Seven Network as part of Agro's Cartoon Connection retained the segments. The cartoon was broadcast in the Republic of Ireland on RTE Two in 1993 on weekday afternoons.[2]

Rebroadcast

USA Network re-aired the original episodes of the show in the United States from 1994 to 1996, before Toon Disney picked the show up in 1998 for a four-year run. This TV subsequently aired the first 13 episodes of the show from 2010 to 2011. Netflix, however, put the first 20 episodes on there.

In the UK, TCC, POP! (2004–2011) and KidsCo (TBA) re-aired the show with the "Sonic Says" segments restored. The show was re-aired on in Australia Saturday mornings on Network Ten as part of Cheez TV from 1993 to 1996, Nick Jr. from 1995 to 1999 and Disney Channel from 1996 to 2000. Sweden rebroadcast the show on TV3, while RTL4 did the same in The Netherlands. Germany also rebroadcast the show on RTL II. KidsCo subsequently acquired the rebroadcast rights for several regions, including the UK, Australia and Portugal. Spacetoon started rebroadcasting the show for the Arab world in 2005.

UK VHS releases

  • Abbey Home Media (1993–1994)
  • 4 Front Video (1997)
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, Slow Going
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 - Sonic Breakout 1994 Sonic Breakout
The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog - The Biggest Ever Video 1994 Road Hog, Robolympics, The Little Merhog, The 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, Grounder the Genius
The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog - High Stakes Sonic & Sonic Breakout 1997 High Stakes Sonic, Sonic Breakout

DVD releases

Shout! Factory and Vivendi Entertainment have released all 65 episodes of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog on DVD in Region 1 in three volume sets. Numerous single disc releases were released containing a handful of episodes based on a specific theme. They were produced by NCircle Entertainment and were sold at stores such as Sears, Target, and Toys "R" Us.[citation needed]

The first volume, released on July 17, 2007, features the first 22 episodes along with two featurettes: "A Conversation With Artist Milton Knight" and "How to Draw Sonic the Hedgehog".

The second volume was released on December 9, 2008, and features episodes 23–44 with the featurette "How to Draw Dr. Robotnik". The third volume contains the final 21 episodes of the series, plus the "Sonic Christmas Blast" special and the featurette "How to Draw Tails". These episodes were not compiled in the correct airdate order in the final volume.

These sets were discontinued in 2012 along with Sonic the Hedgehog after Shout!'s deal with Cookie Jar Entertainment expired.

In Region 2, Delta Home Entertainment released Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog: The Complete Series on DVD in the UK on June 11, 2007.[3]

Reception

The show met with mixed reviews. Randy Miller III of DVDTalk said, "While it's obvious that The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog [sic] won't ever be mentioned in the same sentence with Disney, Pixar or Studio Ghibli (except for this one), there's enough goofy fun here to entertain any resident of the 16-bit gaming era."[4] Michael Rubino of DVD Verdict criticized the show for being dated, contrived, and bloated with chili dog jokes.[5]

The show's popularity resurfaced in the mid-2000s. On video sharing site YouTube, fans created mashups and remixes of the series that spawned Internet memes, most of which place an emphasis on the series' campy dialogue.

See also

References

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External links

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