The 90s Sonic cartoons

[ZariusTwo]

Originally Posted by Powder

They're all trash

Says the Rise fan...

[triplexxx]

Of course I grew up loving Sonic, so I loved the cartoons. Wasn't sure when I was young exactly how many iterations there were on TV until later down the road. Didn't get acquainted with the OVA until later, found it very interesting though. Suppose AOSTH appealed to me more than SATAM did at first, loved the theme and didn't at first find the SATAM characters as interesting; as for Underground, liked the idea of Sonic with siblings.

[Leo656]

I got the Archie comics before either show existed - although the early comics hyped that there would be a cartoon "Coming soon!" - so I was looking forward to the show. Nobody knew at the time there would be two; the comics just said there would be a cartoon starring Sonic, Tails, and the Freedom Fighters, and people were generally pretty excited about it.

Then "Adventures" came out, and the response was... mixed. Partly because we were explicitly told that the characters from the comic would be in the show, and people were very confused. Also, the tone of the comic had already started to shift into being a bit more serious and serialized - not as much as it would soon become, but more than the first dozen issues were, which was straight-up Loony Tunes - so there was a big disconnect there, as well, since the Adventures cartoon was much more in-line with the tone of the first few comic issues.

So people in the comics' letters pages were like, "What gives? This isn't the show we were promised" and the Editors were essentially like "Oh... that's not the show we were talking about, that one is still being worked on. It'll be out soon, but in the meantime... yeah, here's this OTHER Sonic show, have fun!"

So right off the bat, it kind of gave Adventures a vibe that the powers-that-be were "ashamed" of it. Since there was no pre-release hype for it and it was so tonally disconnected from how the Sonic brand was being presented in other media. It certainly found its own audience, but that audience definitely skewed younger. It makes perfect sense why the fans of the comic always gravitated more to SatAM, since the characters and tone were more in sync.

As I said, Adventures is "just fine" as a kids' show, it pretty much does exactly what it sets out to do and it was aimed at a specific audience. It meets what can be expected of such a show. I was just a little too old for it by the time it came out and I felt bait-and-switched since I - and everyone - was expecting the show that was ultimately SatAM, because that's what we were told to expect. Nobody had said anything about Adventures until after it had already come out, so it immediately had a "lesser-than" feeling to it. Also, Sonic is kind of not a very interesting character on his own and I've always found him more tolerable as part of an ensemble. On his own, he feels very much like the focus-grouped corporate mascot he absolutely is, and becomes very annoying very quickly. But it's fun when he plays off of others. Without the Freedom Fighters, he's just Poochy.

Here's what Wikipedia says about both shows being in development:

According to Robby London, DIC originally made a deal to produce only the Saturday morning Sonic series for the ABC network, which was originally planned to air in the Fall of 1992. The cartoon was to be more light-hearted compared to the final product, as reflected by its pilot episode, early promotional material found in Fleetway's Sonic the Comic and the early issues of Sonic the Hedgehog comics by Archie, which were based on the Saturday morning Sonic cartoon. However, DIC also wanted to go further and produce additional episodes for weekday syndication as well, similar to what DIC has previously done with The Real Ghostbusters, but Mark Pedowitz, ABC's senior vice president of business affairs and contracts, expected Sonic to air exclusively on ABC and rejected the idea, telling London "If you guys want to do syndication, be our guest, go with God, but you won’t be on our network." ABC would not agree to the deal until London came with a proposition that DIC would produce a separate, vastly different Sonic show for syndication instead, the end result of which became Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. Afterwards, ABC was at first willing to air only the pilot episode as a special during Summer of 1993 before reverting back to the original plan for a full season series, which would this time air on ABC in the Fall of 1993, alongside Adventures airing in syndication at the same time. During that time, the Saturday morning Sonic cartoon received a makeover and was made darker and more serious in order to differentiate itself from the syndicated Sonic cartoon.

Pretty interesting stuff!

One thing I did like is how Adventures, SatAM, and Underground all had Jaleel White as Sonic. I remember there was a bit of a backlash when Sonic Adventure came out and the games didn't use the Sonic and Tails voices from the cartoons.

[NeonTurtledude]

Yeah, that's understandable with the tone differences between adventures and the comic, I can see why the comic readers at the time would've been underwhelmed by that before satam was released.

I haven't read the comics, but I have heard about the freedom fighters, some of the storylines, the dark tone and the writer who argued about Knuckles.

I've heard a lot of good things about satam.

I like Sonic but I can see why some find him annoying, I prefer Sonic's characterization in the games/X where he balances his arrogance with loyalty and kindness.

Jaleel White does a good memorable sonic, one of my favourite sonic actors.

another interesting fact is that a lot of the Fred wolf tmnt animators worked on satam and adventures.

[Coola Yagami]

I remember the cartoons feeling odd to me, especially the more serious one since it had all the extra characters in it. Thank god I read some of the Archie comics cause otherwise I'd have zero idea who any of them were, though it was odd they renamed Boomer to Rotor. My main nitpick was the series barely used Tails, the character from the actual game, and focused mostly on the 'made up nobodies' as I saw them as a kid.

The Adventures one kinda went the Roadrunner route, but at least Grounder and Coconuts were actually from the games, and you'd still see loop-de-loops, those robot fish, Robotnik flying around in what the cartoon called egg-o-matic and whatnot. Hell the cartoon predated Sonic 3 in terms of Tails carrying Sonic around. But the cartoon was wild, crazy, very childish and very loud, it is kinda hard to re-watch nowadays.

[LeotheLateBloomer]

I do enjoy watching Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog though it has aged quite a bit and it's not something I recommend binge watching. The slapstick antics can get a bit old compared to going back and watching say, a Looney Tunes short. But the show has some loose elements to the games like Grounder, Coconuts and a few others. Plus Tails is used more in the show compared to the next series. Probably my favorite of the DiC Cartoons.

Sonic the Hedgehog Satam was also a show I enjoyed as it was nice to get two Sonic shows that are a stark contrast tonally. I do like the characters such as Sally, Rotor, Bunnie, Antoine but Tails wasn't seen all that much which is a shame plus not a lot of elements from the games aside from the ring that gives him a powerful spin dash (which Sonic X borrowed). I don't hold the show to a high regard like others do but I still enjoy it for what it is. Plus I like the Archie comics that includes these characters...well the earlier ones. Less said on Ken Penders.

Sonic Underground I didn't watch til the early 2000s sometime after the show ended. From what I watched, I didn't care for it much. Manic and Sonia were cool and nice to know about Sonic's mother but the constant insert songs were a pain to listen to and there just wasn't much to the plot of each episode. Definitely my least favorite of the three. Not terrible, just not for me.

[NeonTurtledude]

Originally Posted by LeotheLateBloomer

I do enjoy watching Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog though it has aged quite a bit and it's not something I recommend binge watching. The slapstick antics can get a bit old compared to going back and watching say, a Looney Tunes short. But the show has some loose elements to the games like Grounder, Coconuts and a few others. Plus Tails is used more in the show compared to the next series. Probably my favorite of the DiC Cartoons.

Sonic the Hedgehog Satam was also a show I enjoyed as it was nice to get two Sonic shows that are a stark contrast tonally. I do like the characters such as Sally, Rotor, Bunnie, Antoine but Tails wasn't seen all that much which is a shame plus not a lot of elements from the games aside from the ring that gives him a powerful spin dash (which Sonic X borrowed). I don't hold the show to a high regard like others do but I still enjoy it for what it is. Plus I like the Archie comics that includes these characters...well the earlier ones. Less said on Ken Penders.

Sonic Underground I didn't watch til the early 2000s sometime after the show ended. From what I watched, I didn't care for it much. Manic and Sonia were cool and nice to know about Sonic's mother but the constant insert songs were a pain to listen to and there just wasn't much to the plot of each episode. Definitely my least favorite of the three. Not terrible, just not for me.

and what do you think of Sonic X and Boom?

[DarkFell]

I softened my stance on Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog as I got older. In my younger years, I thought that show was dumb as f*ck.

SatAM fan for life.

Sonic Underground was hit-or-miss for me. Some of the ideas for the show were okay, but most of it was rather bland.

Sonic X was just 'meh' to me. But, it made Sonic Underground look somewhat better by comparison!

Sonic Boom is a series that I haven't gotten into all that much.

The Sonic OVA Movie is okay. The Abridged version of it is hilarious.

[LeotheLateBloomer]

Originally Posted by NeonTurtledude

and what do you think of Sonic X and Boom?

Sonic X I'm kinda on and off about it. I like the art style and that it's loosely based on the Adventure games. It's definitely closer to the games than any of the American made shows but then again it's made from Japan which is Sonic's homeland. But I'm not too find of Chris, I don't hate him, I just don't find him interesting. I don't like some of the characterizations of Knuckles whose treated like the buttmonkey and is too angry all the time and I dislike how Amy is a whiny brat, in fact it's her worst characterization of the franchise. Cream was also pretty useless and couldn't do anything. But the show can be fun at times and I enjoy some of the human characters like the girl on the wheelchair, Helen (real talk, she should have been the main human protagonist as she's more interesting than Chris). Season 3, the Metarex saga, is where I just tune out because it's so boring and I think Cosmo is extremely annoying. But Sonic X I'm mostly mixed on.

Now Sonic Boom, I enjoy more than X. It's hilarious and almost always entertaining. I'm usually not for how they did Knuckles but he's entertaining. Amy is great in this show and I enjoy how awkward Sticks is. Her voice actress voices Mike from Cartoon Network's Mike, Lu, and Og, an underrated CN show. Like AoStH, you have to be in the mood to binge watch it but I think this show is definitely one of the more watchable Sonic cartoons in my opinion. This might be my favorite Sonic cartoon.

Can't wait for Prime, we still don't have a release date yet, do we?

[NeonTurtledude]

Originally Posted by LeotheLateBloomer

Sonic X I'm kinda on and off about it. I like the art style and that it's loosely based on the Adventure games. It's definitely closer to the games than any of the American made shows but then again it's made from Japan which is Sonic's homeland. But I'm not too find of Chris, I don't hate him, I just don't find him interesting. I don't like some of the characterizations of Knuckles whose treated like the buttmonkey and is too angry all the time and I dislike how Amy is a whiny brat, in fact it's her worst characterization of the franchise. Cream was also pretty useless and couldn't do anything. But the show can be fun at times and I enjoy some of the human characters like the girl on the wheelchair, Helen (real talk, she should have been the main human protagonist as she's more interesting than Chris). Season 3, the Metarex saga, is where I just tune out because it's so boring and I think Cosmo is extremely annoying. But Sonic X I'm mostly mixed on.

Now Sonic Boom, I enjoy more than X. It's hilarious and almost always entertaining. I'm usually not for how they did Knuckles but he's entertaining. Amy is great in this show and I enjoy how awkward Sticks is. Her voice actress voices Mike from Cartoon Network's Mike, Lu, and Og, an underrated CN show. Like AoStH, you have to be in the mood to binge watch it but I think this show is definitely one of the more watchable Sonic cartoons in my opinion. This might be my favorite Sonic cartoon.

Can't wait for Prime, we still don't have a release date yet, do we?

what you said about Knuckles sounds a lot like Raphael, I see a lot of Knuckles and Shadow in Raphael, I've been watching a lot of Sonic Boom it is really funny and I love the Eggman interactions too, Stick's voice kinda reminds me of Cree Summer's Susie voice in Rugrats, I'm surprised she wasn't Sticks tbh.

[LeotheLateBloomer]

Originally Posted by NeonTurtledude

what you said about Knuckles sounds a lot like Raphael, I see a lot of Knuckles and Shadow in Raphael, I've been watching a lot of Sonic Boom it is really funny and I love the Eggman interactions too, Stick's voice kinda reminds me of Cree Summer's Susie voice in Rugrats, I'm surprised she wasn't Sticks tbh.

Objectively Sonic X is the best Sonic cartoon because it's the closest to the games. While not perfect (and believe me when I say it's not), it tried to adapt storylines from games of the Dreamcast/Gamecube era. I just feel there were some elements of the show that weren't necessary and could've been better handled.

I have not gotten back to Boom since it ended but I'm sure I'll find it just as enjoyable as I did back then. There were many episodes where it not only pokes fun at itself but the games as well, including the Infinite Knuckles Jump Glitch.

[Leo656]

Originally Posted by LeotheLateBloomer

Objectively Sonic X is the best Sonic cartoon because it's the closest to the games.

Normally, I agree with such sentiments, but I feel that speaking so broadly ignores the fact that when SatAM and AoStH were in development, there really was no "story" in the games to speak of, or at least only the barest of bare-bones of one. The only skeleton of a plot that had ever been presented for the entire lore by then was in the game manuals, the British Fleetway comics, and the Archie comics, all of which was heavily contradictory, and that's because the games themselves really had no plot. "Mad scientist turns animals into robots, for SOME reason. Go run left-to-right and jump on things to be a hero." That was the entire "plot" until Sonic 3, by which point the first two cartoons had already been out for a while.

So while I'm as purist as they come in most things, the first couple Sonic cartoons were really kind of in a tough spot because whatever "story" they were gonna have needed to be made up on the fly by the writers. They couldn't lean on the games for inspiration, there simply wasn't anything there to "adapt" yet. Sonic X and all cartoons since have a much easier time, in a sense, because story has become more important to the Sonic games than it was in the early/mid-90s.

Just saying. I have no beef with Sonic X, I've only seen like 2 or 3 episodes of it because I wasn't home much when it aired and I've never seen any of it past that. I remember the original DVDs were rare and exorbitantly expensive so I never got to see it.

[LeotheLateBloomer]

Originally Posted by Leo656

Normally, I agree with such sentiments, but I feel that speaking so broadly ignores the fact that when SatAM and AoStH were in development, there really was no "story" in the games to speak of, or at least only the barest of bare-bones of one. The only skeleton of a plot that had ever been presented for the entire lore by then was in the game manuals, the British Fleetway comics, and the Archie comics, all of which was heavily contradictory, and that's because the games themselves really had no plot. "Mad scientist turns animals into robots, for SOME reason. Go run left-to-right and jump on things to be a hero." That was the entire "plot" until Sonic 3, by which point the first two cartoons had already been out for a while.

So while I'm as purist as they come in most things, the first couple Sonic cartoons were really kind of in a tough spot because whatever "story" they were gonna have needed to be made up on the fly by the writers. They couldn't lean on the games for inspiration, there simply wasn't anything there to "adapt" yet. Sonic X and all cartoons since have a much easier time, in a sense, because story has become more important to the Sonic games than it was in the early/mid-90s.

Just saying. I have no beef with Sonic X, I've only seen like 2 or 3 episodes of it because I wasn't home much when it aired and I've never seen any of it past that. I remember the original DVDs were rare and exorbitantly expensive so I never got to see it.

Yes, while there was barely any story to the games at the time of those two cartoons, it would've been nice to feature more elements from the games. When I look at the DiC Mario cartoons, they definitely had as much content from the games as they could. Hokey as those shows are, it was fun to see stuff from the games be brought to the show. That's sorta what I felt was lacking with the Sonic cartoons. Sorry, I should've been a little more clear in talking more about comparisons between the games and the shows than just stories.

X isn't exactly my favorite Sonic cartoon but I just feel that it's closest to the games than any Sonic toon before it.

[Leo656]

See, I wasn't as wedded to that as some people because I didn't think "watch Sonic run through endless loop-de-loops grabbing rings" would have necessarily made for compelling television (during the mid-90s when the original cartoons aired). However, I DID find the whole "scrappy rebels taking on the Evil Empire with little more than whatever resources they could salvage" take on the material to be highly compelling, and thus that became my preferred take across the board.

I guess it comes down to what a person is really looking for. I too admired the old Mario cartoons for how "faithful" they were, but when you really break it down, they're not "good" cartoons, they're incredibly lame. Because the games had no plot, therefore the cartoons had no plot, and when you don't have any plot, you make puns. For some people that just plain works, for some people it works when they're young but then they get annoyed by it when they get older, like me.

Basically, any type of story where there's no pathos or drama, I'm not gonna be able to stick with for long. I can handle it in a game, because they're games, and any story should generally be secondary to the gameplay. Without any interactive component, however, I'd prefer a cartoon (or movie, or whatever) have some kind of actual storytelling to keep things floating along. Puns and slapstick wear very thin very quickly, to me, which is why AoStH was a show I 'watched" but left no impression while SatAM actually stuck with me despite its relatively short run.

"Diff'rent Strokes to move the world" and all that, I guess.

I'm sure I'll see Sonic X one day but the urgency is low. I've heard both good and awful things, so I'unno.

[NeonTurtledude]

Originally Posted by Leo656

Normally, I agree with such sentiments, but I feel that speaking so broadly ignores the fact that when SatAM and AoStH were in development, there really was no "story" in the games to speak of, or at least only the barest of bare-bones of one. The only skeleton of a plot that had ever been presented for the entire lore by then was in the game manuals, the British Fleetway comics, and the Archie comics, all of which was heavily contradictory, and that's because the games themselves really had no plot. "Mad scientist turns animals into robots, for SOME reason. Go run left-to-right and jump on things to be a hero." That was the entire "plot" until Sonic 3, by which point the first two cartoons had already been out for a while.

So while I'm as purist as they come in most things, the first couple Sonic cartoons were really kind of in a tough spot because whatever "story" they were gonna have needed to be made up on the fly by the writers. They couldn't lean on the games for inspiration, there simply wasn't anything there to "adapt" yet. Sonic X and all cartoons since have a much easier time, in a sense, because story has become more important to the Sonic games than it was in the early/mid-90s.

Just saying. I have no beef with Sonic X, I've only seen like 2 or 3 episodes of it because I wasn't home much when it aired and I've never seen any of it past that. I remember the original DVDs were rare and exorbitantly expensive so I never got to see it.

Discotek released a complete DVD set of the English dub of Sonic X a few years ago and I think the Japanese and English dub are on Netflix, I have a few DVDs myself but the UK releases only had like 2 english dub episodes on each of the 4 volumes,

[Leo656]

Thank you. See above. I'm sure I'll get to it One Day but today won't be that day and tomorrow is also looking pretty packed.