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Sonic the Hedgehog
Opening title card for Sonic the Hedgehog
Genre	Action, adventure
Created by	DiC Entertainment ABC Productions Sega Corporation (characters) Disney-ABC Domestic Television (since 2002)
Written by	Ben Hurst, Len Janson
Directed by	John Grusd
Voices of	Jaleel White Charlie Adler Chris Cavanaugh Jim Cummings Bradley Pierce Rob Paulsen Mark Ballou Kath Soucie Frank Welker
Theme music composer	Noisy Neighbors
Opening theme	Sonic the Hedgehog
Composer	Michael Tavera
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	26 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Andy Heyward Robby London
Producer	John Grusd
Running time	20-22 minutes
Original release
Network	ABC
Release	September 18, 1993 – December 3, 1994
Related
Sonic Underground

Sonic the Hedgehog (commonly referred to fans as: Sonic SatAM, because it usually aired in a Saturday morning time slot) is an American animated series created by DIC Entertainment with the partnership of Sega of America and ABC Productions, and was based on the video game series. The series aired two seasons on ABC from September 18, 1993 until December 3, 1994, and reran until May 1995.

The series sharply contrasts with Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, a syndicated series that premiered in the same month. While Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog was lighthearted, comical and aimed for a significantly young age group, Sonic the Hedgehog featured a darker, more complex plot which constituted a departure from the tone of the Sonic games of the time.

Production

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After Sonic the Hedgehog ended its run, the series was aired on the USA Network's Action Extreme Team in reruns. The series was also telecast in Canada on the CTV Network. It initially had a complete run on the UK television channel Channel 4 from 1994 to 1996. It began on Saturday mornings for season 1 but for season 2 it was moved to Sunday mornings. Season 1 was broadcast in the Republic of Ireland on RTÉ Two in December 1994. The entire series was released on DVD by Shout! Factory on March 27, 2007 in the USA. In the UK it was released on DVD by Delta Music on September 10, 2007 as a DVD box set, before 4 individual volumes were released later.

Plot summary

The show takes place on a planet called Mobius sometime in the 33rd century. An infamous mad scientist named Dr. Julian Ivo Robotnik (Jim Cummings) who owned a pet robot chicken named Cluck, 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, warehouses and mining facilities. This invasion occurred on Friday the 13th, 3224, in an unknown month (Blast to the Past Pt. 1 and 2). It is possible though according to a calendar of the future year that the invasion could have occurred on Friday, September 13, 3224 or Friday, December 13, 3224.

Robotnik was about to be appointed Minister for Science by the city's king Maximillian, who was about to close the War Ministry which Robotnik was in charge of. However, 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 an intelligent old hedgehog named Sir Charles Hedgehog (William Windom), a.k.a. Dr. Hedgehog and Uncle Chuck, and his nephew's 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 and the main character of the series, 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 which rivals that of Sir Charles, Antoine D'Coolette (Rob Paulsen), a French coyote and former palace guard with many personality flaws, and Bunnie Rabbot (Christine Cavanaugh), a pretty Southern cyborg rabbit. Last is the group's leader (although she at times refers to Sonic as the leader), Princess Sally Acorn (Kath Soucie), the king's only daughter, a squirrel/ chipmunk hybrid and Sonic's love interest. Sally carries a sentient mini-computer named NICOLE.

For 10 years, the Freedom Fighters constantly foiled Robotnik's schemes, although failed to make much difference in the big picture, Robotnik still ruling the planet with a fist of steel, quite literally. 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 of her species. Another character was also introduced: an evil sorcerer named Ixis Naugus (Michael Bell), who was Robotnik's mentor. During the takeover, Naugus discovered a portal into the Void. Requesting Robotnik to bring him back to Mobius, Naugus went through the portal to explore it, but Robotnik betrayed him and sealed it, intent on trapping Naugus forever.

Two other key characters appeared in the second season: One was Ari the Ram (Dorian Harewood), the other was Lupe the Wolf (Shari Belafonte). In the episode Game Guy, Ari led Sonic into a trap set up by Robotnik. Ari was the leader of a group of Freedom Fighters which Robotnik captured. In exchange for their release, Ari reluctantly agreed to help Robotnik capture Sonic. Shortly thereafter, Robotnik broke his half of the deal when he roboticizes Ari's friends and planned to roboticize him. Later, as Robotnik was about to send Sonic into the void, Ari sacrificed himself by saving Sonic and ended up going through the portal himself. He didn't escape the void until the episode The Void.

Lupe is the leader of a group of Freedom Fighters called the Wolf Pack who appeared in Cry of the Wolf. They lived peacefully in a village until Robotnik's forces terrorized them. The Wolf Pack were sent hiding in a cavern until Sonic, Sally and Antoine discovered them. They joined up to attack Robotnik's forces. When Sonic destroyed the last of Robotnik's saucer pods, Lupe and Ari, along with Palo the Rhino and Dirk the Bear, joined all the Freedom Fighters in their ultimate goal to destroy the Doomsday Project and defeat Robotnik once and for all.

In the series finale (The Doomsday Project), the Freedom Fighters collectively organize a raid on Robotnik's Doomsday machine, but they are all captured. When their plans teeter on the verge of failure, Sonic and Sally resort to using the Deep Power Stones to destroy the machine. Robotnik tries to flee but his hovercraft is caught in the destruction and he is presumably killed. The Freedom Fighters celebrate their long-awaited victory together in Knothole. Later, Snively arises from the rubble, overjoyed that his oppressive uncle is now gone. Eager to have his turn at world conquest, Snively reveals he is in league with an unknown villain who has menacing red eyes (later revealed by chief writer Ben Hurst to be Ixis Naugus).

Characters

Protagonists

• Sonic the Hedgehog: The title character and hero in the series. He is a sassy, smooth-talking, courageous and cunning hedgehog able to run at super sonic speeds. He thwarts the evil schemes of Dr. "Ro-butt-nik" and is a famous member of the Freedom Fighters.
• Princess Sally Acorn: A squirrel/chipmunk hybrid who is the princess of Planet Mobius. She is the strategist and leader of the Knothole Freedom Fighters, as well as Sonic's romantic interest. She accompanies Sonic in almost every mission to thwart Robotnik and tries to find her missing father. Sonic defies her as "Sal" for her as a nickname.
• Bunnie Rabbot: A flirtatious rabbit with a southern drawl, Bunnie had half her body roboticized before Sonic saved her mid-transformation. Now her left arm and both her legs are mechanical. These robotic features make her the brawn of the Freedom Fighters, though she desires to be normal again.
• Miles "Tails" Prower: A young fox with two tails who is a younger-brother figure to Sonic and a son/nephew figure to Sally. Though he is the youngest and most inexperienced, he has proven himself to be an accomplished Freedom Fighter.
• Antoine D'Coolette: A clumsy, cowardly, pompous French-oriented coyote who often has trouble speaking English. He attempts to win the heart of Princess Sally and is teased at by Sonic. He often gets himself or other Freedom Fighters into trouble.
• Rotor the Walrus: A walrus who is the technical know-it-all of Freedom Fighters. He invents reliable gadgets for the Freedom Fighters in Knothole and on their missions. He prefers not to be a hero unlike Sonic.
• NICOLE: A highly-advanced portable personal computer that Sally uses to analyze and hack into Robotnik's machines. In season two, it is revealed NICOLE was invented by Rotor from the future to give to Sally for assistance in the past.
• Sir Charles Hedgehog: Known as "Uncle Chuck", he is Sonic's warm-hearted and elderly uncle. Chuck invented the roboticizer, which Robotnik later stole and used on him, turning him into one of many mindless drones. He regains control of his body and acts as a spy for the Freedom Fighters.
• Dulcy the Dragon: A clumsy, young dragon who joined the Freedom Fighters in the second season. She often flies the Freedom Fighters to their destinations or rescues them, though she is terrible at landing.
• Cat: Was one of the oldest members of the freedom fighters. In the first episode he distracts a group of SWAT Bots away from the other team members and is captured. Sonic finds him imprisoned but is unable to free him. He later returns to find Cat missing. It is never revealed what his fate was through out the entire series.

Villains

• Dr. Julian Robotnik: The main villain who conquered Planet Mobius ten years before the storyline. He is a brilliant yet heartless overlord seeking nothing less than to encompass the whole world in his machinery and robotic minions. His goals are constantly thwarted by Sonic the Hedgehog, his sworn nemesis. His hatred for the hedgehog has turned into a desperate obsession to capture and roboticize Sonic himself, which is often his own undoing.
• Snively: Snively is Dr. Robotnik's miserable underling and assistant, as well as his nephew, though there is nothing warm about their relation. Snively is constantly abused, teased and intimidated by his uncle, whom he despises and talks about behind his back.
• Ixis Naugus: A powerful sorcerer, formerly Dr.Robotnik's mentor. He hates Robotnik for betraying and imprisoning him within the void during The Great War. He wants nothing more than to see Robotnik suffer, but cannot leave the void.

Home video release history

DVD releases

VHS releases

Theme song

The most well-known version of the show's theme song ("Fastest Thing Alive") was sung by Noisy Neighbors.

Cast

• Jaleel White - Sonic the Hedgehog
• Kath Soucie - Princess Sally Acorn/NICOLE
• Rob Paulsen - Antoine Depardieu (known as Antoine D'Coolette in the comic series).
• Christine Cavanaugh - Bunnie Rabbot
• William Windom - Uncle Chuck
• Jim Cummings - Dr. Robotnik/Additional Voices/SWATbots
• Charlie Adler - Snively
• Cree Summer - Dulcy the Dragon
• Bradley Pierce - Tails
• Mark Ballou (Season 1)/Cam Brainard (Season 2) - Rotor
• Dana Hill - Young Princess Sally
• Tahj Mowry - Young Sonic
• Shari Belafonte - Lupe
• Michael Bell - Naugus
• April Winchell - Rosie the Nanny; also the voice of Ro-Becca in 'Ro-Becca'.
• Tim Curry - King Acorn
• Dorian Harewood - Ari Ram

Episode list

Season 1

• Heads or Tails
• Sonic Boom
• Sonic & Sally
• Ultra Sonic
• Sonic & The Secret Scrolls
• Super Sonic
• Sonic Racer
• Harmonic Sonic
• Hooked on Sonics
• Sonic's Nightmare
• Warp Sonic
• Sub-Sonic
• Sonic Past Cool

Season 2

• Game Guy
• Sonic Conversion
• No Brainer
• Blast to the Past (1 & 2)
• Fed Up with Antoine / Ghost Busted
• Dulcy
• The Void
• The Odd Couple / Ro-Becca
• Cry of The Wolf
• Drood Henge
• Spyhog
• The Doomsday Project
• Cancelled Cliffhanger episode

Unaired Season 3

In an interview with screen-writer Ben Hurst, he reveals the third season had already been plotted out before the show's cancellation. Upon the request of an eager fanbase, Hurst revealed the unknown villain would be the wizard Ixis Naugus. Robotnik was not killed on Doomsday, rather he has become trapped within the void as Naugus' prisoner.

Snively would briefly rise to power and assume his uncle's title as oppressive overlord, but quickly fails thanks to Sonic and the Freedom Fighters. Out of desperation, Snively frees Naugus from the void, and in the process also frees Robotnik and King Acorn, though the two have become the wizard's slaves. Naugus immediately usurps the title of main villain and uses King Acorn as bait to try and capture Sally. Snively, reduced to nothing, defects to the side of the Freedom Fighters (which briefly occurred in the Sonic Archie comic storyline).

More developments would happen between the relationship of Sonic and his friend Tails, who discovers an "incredible power" and saves the Freedom Fighters from a great disaster. It has also been mentioned that Sally would romance with someone other than Sonic. The origins of Robotnik and Snively would also be revealed. Ben Hurst has said no scripts were written for Season 3. Hurst has been reluctant to reveal too much of season three's plot, as he is keen on one day resuming the production of the series, despite the fact that the show has been cancelled for almost 16 years.

Other revelations from chief writer Ben Hurst at SAGExpo in 1997 were that the eyes at the end of the series were "Ixis Naugus. Not Metal Sonic, not Knuckles the Echidna, Ixis Naugus", though he did state that Knuckles would've been introduced towards the end of Season 3, and become a main character in Season 4, if the show had made it that far.

Pre–Sonic the Hedgehog

In 1993, an article in Sonic the Comic (the British comic officially licensed by Sega Of Europe), it 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. 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" by Sonic fans.

The supporting characters in the Pre-Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon are based on the small animals freed from enemies in the original Sonic the Hedgehog game - although wildly different in design, they all bear the same names as those attributed to the various video game animal characters listed in the UK book, Stay Sonic, which were also used in Sonic the Comic strips.

Most notably, the image went on to inspire redesigns of Sonic the Comic supporting characters Johnny Lightfoot and Porker Lewis - while originally they were single the basic rabbit and pig video-game character designs, they were abruptly redesigned to be given humanoid proportions and the leather jackets the image depicted. Most notable in the image is the lack of Tails; it could be that the concept was drawn up before Tails' arrival in the series.

Canceled video game

In a recent interview with Peter Morawiec, a former programmer for Sega Technical Institute and the famed creator of Comix Zone, it was revealed that he had developed a prototype game based on the cartoon continuity, using a completely different engine than that of the traditional Sonic games. It would have been the second time that characters from the cartoon series would have shown up (after Sonic Spinball), and possibly the first video game appearances of both the cartoon version of Robotnik and Snively.

In the interview Morawiec states that the sprites and background are actually 32-bit.

Footnotes

1. RTÉ Guide, 10 - 16 December 1994 edition
2. Time And Date.com
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVu-INDrhY4
4. "Before SatAM". SonicHQ. Retrieved 2007-12-17.
5. Interview: Peter Morawiec

External links

• Sonic the Hedgehog at Cookie Jar Entertainment
• Intro for Sonic the Hedgehog, from Retrojunk.com
• Sonic the Hedgehog at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Saturday Morning Sonic
• Fans United for SatAM
• SatAM Online
• Knothole Express
• Pre-Sonic the Hedgehog pictures
• Sonic SatAM Videogame prototype (STI)
• Sonic the Hedgehog at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com

Template:Sonic characters (other media)

• 1990s American animated television series
• 1993 television series debuts
• 1995 television series endings
• American Broadcasting Company network shows
• Television programs featuring anthropomorphic characters
• Television series by DIC Entertainment
• Sonic the Hedgehog animated series
• Saturday morning programming on the American Broadcasting Company
• Animated series based on video games