Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog

Not to be confused with Sonic the Hedgehog (TV series).

For other uses, see Sonic the Hedgehog (disambiguation).

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog
Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog logo
Also known as	AoStH
Genre	Animated series, Action, Adventure, Slapstick comedy
Created by	DIC Entertainment BKN Sonic Team/Sega (characters)
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)	DIC Entertainment Sega Corporation Bohbot Communications Cookie Jar Entertainment
Broadcast
Original channel	First-run syndication ABC
Picture format	4:3
Audio format	Dolby SR
Original run	September 6, 1993 – December 24, 1996
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.

Production

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.

Post-production

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.

Premise

Dr. Robotnik as he appears in the first episode of the series, 'The Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad'.

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.

Relation to Sonic the Hedgehog: the Animated 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"; he also described the staff as too busy to pay attention to the other series.^[1]

Characters

Main characters

• Jaleel White as Sonic the Hedgehog- The main protagonist of the series and hero of the show, he is speedy, quick thinking, cheeky, carefree, but overall he is friendly deep down inside. As in the games, he runs faster than the speed of sound. A catchphrase often said by Sonic was "I'm waitiiiiing" when annoyed, getting impatient or when something is not happening when it should. Sonic's also somewhat a ladies' man, including Breezie, Ms Possum and others.

• Christopher Evan Welch (excluding Sonic Christmas Blast, where he is voiced by Chris Turner) as Miles "Tails" Prower- Sonic's best friend and sometimes hero. To Sonic, Tails is like a little brother to him, sometimes he's a little too overprotected, Tails loves chili dogs, as much as Sonic does, Tails' appetite is even bigger. According to one episode, Tails is "four in a half" years old. Tails is just a kid, but loves his adventures with Sonic. He is kidnapped by Robotnik to use as bait for Sonic on a regular basis.

• Long John Baldry as Doctor Ivo Robotnik: The main antagonist of the show, a bumbling despot who seeks to rule Mobius and control the world, but his plans are always foiled by Sonic, in no small part due to Scratch and Grounder's stupidity. His catchphrase, which is uttered at least once per episode (usually when Sonic thwarts him), is: "I hate that Hedgehog!"

• Phil Hayes and Garry Chalk as Scratch and Grounder: They are a pair of robots created by Robotnik to capture Sonic. The two are extremely incompetent to the point where they struggle with even simple tasks, and are highly gullible, easily being tricked by Sonic no matter how bizarre, obvious, or pathetic his disguises are. Their constant failures result in the two regularly being abused, both verbally and physically, by Robotnik. They also constantly fight about which of the two are Robotnik's "favorite" but mostly just fight in general. This is one of the main reasons that they always fail at catching the speedy blue hedgehog. Scratch was originally created by Robotnik to be a super-robot that could easily catch Sonic for him, but a malfunction created Scratch, a product almost the exact opposite of what Robotnik wanted. He attempts to clone Scratch sometime later, but Scratch pulls a lever that Robotnik did not, resulting in the creation of Grounder. Scratch resembles a tall, humanoid chicken, and Grounder is a small green Swiss Army knife-like robot with tank tracks and drills replacing his hands and nose.

• Ian James Corlett as Coconuts: He is a small robot monkey, who is demoted to Robotnik's janitor. Unhappy with his position, he attempts to capture Sonic with the hope of obtaining a promotion. Despite appearing in the show's opening sequence, Coconuts appears less often than Scratch and Grounder. Whenever he does appear, he usually attempts to go after Sonic on his own and make sure that Scratch and Grounder do not beat him to the punch, though he will occasionally join forces with them. Despite his low status and general disrespect by his peers, Coconuts has proven that he is much smarter than Scratch and Grounder, often being the only one to see through Sonic's disguises. His plans also come close to succeeding, until Scratch and Grounder come along and ruin them.

Other characters

• French Tickner as Professor Dinglehopper Von Schlemer: A brilliant but goofy scientist who is an ally of Sonic and Tails. Despite having the intelligence to invent many contraptions, he often forgets his name and keeps being remind by Sonic and Tails. He keeps himself entertained with his Dream-A-Ma-Jig contraption which brings the user's dreams to the real world. He often helps Sonic and Tails with dangerous missions.

• Michael Donovan as Wes Weasely: A weasel salesman who has no interest into the person he is selling his items to as long as they have money for him to earn. He often makes deals with Doctor Robotnik, who hates him due to many of his products backfiring his schemes to capture Sonic and take over Mobius. Robotnik's minions often were stupid enough to purchase his items despite the trouble he caused to them. Weasely often tricks both Robotnik and Sonic, which means he has a neutral alignment.

DVD releases

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 "A Conversation With Artist Milton Knight" "How To Draw Sonic The Hedgehog"
Volume 2	22	December 9, 2008	Contains episodes 23-44 "How To Draw Dr. Robotnik"
Volume 3♦	21	March 16, 2010	Contains episodes 45-65 "How To Draw Tails"

♦ - Shout! Factory select title, sold exclusively through Shout's online store

UK VHS releases

• Abbey Home Media (1993–1994)
• 4 Front Video (1997)
• Delta Home Entertainment (2007–present)

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

Broadcast History

• USA
  • ABC (1993–1995)
  • USA Network (1995–1996)
  • Toon Disney (1998–2002)
  • This TV (2010–2011, first 13 episodes only)

• UK
  • Channel 4 (1993-4)
  • The Children's Channel
  • POP (2004-?)
  • KidsCo (2011–present)

• Australia
  • Seven Network (1994-1996)
  • Network Ten (1997-2000)

• Sweden
  • Filmnet
  • TV3

• Arab World
  • Spacetoon (under Adventure Planet, as of 2005)

• Netherlands
  • Filmnet
  • RTL4

• Argentina
  • PakaPaka

• Portugal
  • SIC (1 October 1993 - 30 December 1996) {Buéréré}
  • KidsCo (2010–present)

See also

	Sonic portal
	United States portal
	Television portal
	Animation portal

• List of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog episodes
• Sonic Christmas Blast
• Sonic the Hedgehog: The Animated Series

Notes

• Jaleel White was the voice of Sonic the Hedgehog in both animated series that aired at the same time (giving him 91 total Sonic episodes between the two series, in addition to Sonic Underground 4 years later in 1998).
• Milton Knight's Design for Doctor Robotnik has been used in a wide range of Sonic media. The most notable use was in the UK based Sonic the Comic, in which the Doctor takes this form after hatching out of a giant Egg. The design is still used by the Fanon continuation of the comic to this day, with the only changes being the inclusion of the Srgt. Pepper jacket.
• In the episode "Boogey Mania", Robotnik says the infamous line "Snooping as usual, I see?", in which the "ping as" part of the phrase has been interpreted to sound like the word "penis". This "Pingas" has become a long-standing internet meme.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Pierre De Celles on Animating Sonic the Hedgehog and Other Tales," Toonzone
2. ^ Adventures Of Sonic The Hedgehog - Television Tropes & Idioms
3. ^ http://www.shoutfactorystore.com/prod.aspx?pfid=5257128
4. ^ http://www.amazon.co.uk/Adventures-Sonic-Hedgehog-DVD/dp/B000PI3VC6/

External links

• Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog at Cookie Jar Entertainment
• Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog at the Internet Movie Database
• Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog at TV.com
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