Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (also known as: AoStH) is an American animated series that was first broadcast in September 1993. It follows the escapades of the video game character Sonic the Hedgehog, and his sidekick Tails, as they attempt to stop the evil Doctor Robotnik and his array of robots from taking over the planet Mobius. Another series featuring Sonic, simply titled Sonic the Hedgehog was aired concurrently. Unlike the other series, Adventures had a lighthearted tone and quirky storylines that portrayed Sonic as being skilled and clever, whereas Robotnik and his robot allies Scratch and Grounder were clumsy.

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog was created by DIC Entertainment and 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).

Another cartoon series based on Sonic, simply titled Sonic the Hedgehog was produced and launched on ABC's Saturday morning line-up. 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 other series, which he describes as "serious and heavy"; he also described the staff as too busy to pay attention to the other series.^[1]

In addition to the original 65 episodes, DiC also produced an additional episode that originally aired in winter 1996, "Sonic Christmas Blast", which included aspects of the other Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon such as the city Robotropolis and non-speaking cameo by Princess Sally Acorn.

Format[]

[1][2]Dr. Robotnik as he appears in the first episode of the series, 'The Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad'.Animator Pierre De Celles described the show as "fun and humorous."^[1] 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 and his own incompetence.

The plots often used elements loosely borrowed from the storyline of the Sonic video games series, but also integrated original characters not seen in the games, such as Robotnik's two hench-bots Scratch and Grounder (with a third robot, Coconuts, appearing on occasion), who provided comic relief. There are many recurring characters, such as Dr. Robotnik's mom 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.

The end of the show is bookended by an additional segment called "Sonic Says" (or "Sonic Sez", as Tails spelled 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.

Cast[]

Jaleel White as Sonic the Hedgehog, the titular character and the protagonist 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 of a ladies' man, making out with girls including Breezie, Merna, Ms Possum and others. Unlike most other Sonic continuities, Sonic does not fear water and can swim quite well.
Christopher Evan Welch as Miles "Tails" Prower, Sonic's best friend and sidekick. He is a little fox who was born with two-tails, which enables him to fly, thus giving him his nickname "Tails". 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. He is voiced by Chris Turner in the Sonic Christmas Blast special.
Long John Baldry as Doctor Ivo Robotnik, the main antagonist of the show. He is 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, 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, 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.
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.
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.
Additional voices are provided by Kathleen Barr, Michael Benyaer, Jay Brazeau, Jim Byrnes, Babs Chula, Jennifer Copping, Michael Donovan, Terry Klassen, Wally Marsh, Scott McNeil, Shane Meier, Jane Mortifee, Pauline Newstone, John Stocker, Jayleen Stonehouse, Venus Terzo, French Tickner, Lee Tockar, Louise Vallance, Dave Ward, Cathy Weseluck, Alec Willows, Dale Wilson, Kyle Fairlie and John Tench.

Broadcast and distribution[]

First-run broadcast[]

The series was shown through syndication in the United States from 1993 to 1995. 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 Agro's Cartoon Connection retained the segments. The show was broadcast in the Republic of Ireland on RTE Two in 1994 on weekday afternoons.

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. SIC aired the show in Portugal from 1994 to 1999. The show was also broadcast on Filmnet in Sweden and the Netherlands.

Rebroadcast[]

USA Network re-aired the original episodes of the show in the United States from 1995 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.

In the UK, TCC and POP! (2004-2011) re-aired the show with the "Sonic Says" segments restored. The show was re-aired on in Australia Saturday mornings as part of Cheez TV from 1994 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. 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
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, 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
The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog - High Stakes Sonic & Sonic Breakout	1997	High Stakes Sonic, Sonic Breakout

DVD releases[]

Shout! Factory has released all 65 episodes of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog on DVD in region 1 in three volume sets.

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 through 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. This volume was released as a Shout! Factory select title, available exclusively through their online store.^[2]

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[]

Randy Miller III of DVDTalk said "While it's obvious that The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog 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]

References[]

External links[]

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[3]	Sonic portal
[4]	United States portal
[5]	Television portal
[6]	Animation portal
[7]	1990s portal