| Theme Music Composer: | Clark Gassman |
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| Language: | English |
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| Producer: | Kent Butterworth |
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| Num Seasons: | 1 |
| Runtime: | 22 minutes |
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Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog is an animated series based on the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series, produced by Sega of America,[1] DIC Animation City, Bohbot Entertainment and the Italian studio Reteitalia S.p.A. in association with Spanish network Telecinco. Airing during the fall of 1993, 65 episodes were produced, which was syndicated by Bohbot Entertainment in the United States.
A spin-off video game, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, was developed, featuring several original characters from the series. Furthermore, other elements, such as Sonic's fondness for chili dogs, would be featured in later video games and media of the franchise. Additionally, on November 24, 1996, USA Network aired Sonic Christmas Blast, a Christmas special which was produced to promote Sonic 3D Blast (originally meant for the ultimately cancelled Sonic X-treme).
Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog is a comical, light-hearted and gag-driven adventure series based on the titular character Sonic the Hedgehog, an arrogant and mischievous yet kind-hearted teenage hedgehog with the power to move at supersonic speeds. Sonic, along with his idolizing young friend Tails, regularly oppose the main antagonist Dr. Robotnik, his robot henchmen Scratch, Grounder, and Coconuts, and thwart their plans to conquer their home planet of Mobius.[2]
The series features a short PSA segment titled "Sonic Says" at the end of each episode excluding "Sonic Christmas Blast"; these segments were written by Phil Harnage.[3]
Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog was created by DIC Animation City (in association with Sega of America whose CEO Tom Kalinske and newly appointed consumer products director Michealene Risley licensed the characters to DIC), which produced a total of 65 episodes for its one season, and was syndicated by Bohbot Entertainment, later known as 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:
Additionally, some of the storyboards were done by the Spanish animation studio Milimetros Dibujos Animados, which also worked on the animation for the Saturday morning Sonic cartoon and the main title animation for Sonic Underground. Pre-production stages of the show (as well as the first season of the Saturday morning cartoon) were handled by Canadian Studio B (later known as DHX Media Vancouver).
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.[8] The cartoon was to be more light-hearted compared to the final product, as reflected by the episode "Heads or Tails", early promotional material found in Fleetway's Sonic the Comic[9] [10] 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 expand the show 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 up 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. Afterward, ABC was at first willing to air only a single half-hour episode as a prime-time special scheduled for March 1993 (which would become the episode "Heads or Tails") before ultimately delaying it and including it as part of the show which ABC picked up again for a full season, this time airing 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.[11] [12] [13] The two shows would be connected through Family Matters star Jaleel White portraying Sonic in both series; ABC itself was airing Family Matters during both shows' run, keeping White busy playing Sonic on two different series alongside his Family Matters role as Steve Urkel.
The theme song is composed by Clark Gassman and it is a combination of the main theme from the 1991 video game as well as In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg and Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.[14]
The series was shown through syndication in the United States in the fall of 1993 on either weekday afternoons or mornings, depending on the TV station. 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 Children's Channel and the UK VHS releases of the series. The weekday morning 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 RTÉ Two from 12 September to December 1994 on weekday afternoons with the segments retained also.
USA Network re-aired the original episodes of the show in the United States from 1994 to 1996 (with an additional Christmas special ordered by Sega to be produced for the Christmas season of 1996 to ride on the coattails with the release of Sonic 3D Blast). The series later returned to syndication as part of the BKN block from 1997 to 1998, and later BKN Kids II from 1999 until 2000. Toon Disney would start broadcasting the series in September 1998, and aired on the channel until 2002.
This TV subsequently aired the first 13 episodes of the show from 2010 to 2011 on their Cookie Jar Toons block. The series was also available on Netflix, and contains 20 episodes. From December 2018-November 2020, reruns of the series began airing on Starz. Later starting on September 3, 2019, the show aired its reruns on the streaming service Pluto TV for the first time.
In the UK, Pop re-aired the show with the "Sonic Says" segments restored.
In Italy, the show aired on Italia 1.
In Spain, the show aired on Telecinco.
The show was re-aired on in Australia on Saturday mornings on Network Ten as part of Cheez TV from 1993 to 1999, and also aired on Nickelodeon and Disney Channel.
In Brazil, the show aired in January 1996, on Rede Globo on the block TV Colosso. Only the first 22 of 65 episodes aired in Brazilian Portuguese, as well as the Christmas special. The show also aired in Sweden on TV3, in Portugal on SIC, in The Netherlands on RTL4, in Germany on Kabel 1 and RTL II and in 2000 in Arab countries on Spacetoon and Qatar Television.
In September 2003, DIC revealed a new international package consisting of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog and the Sonic Christmas Blast special, titled "Totally Sonic!". The package would also feature digitally re-mastered, color-enhanced versions of the shows with new contemporary music, as well as bonus director's cut "Secret Sonic" episodes.[15] [16]
The series also aired on KidsCo, as with many other DIC-produced cartoons.
In the Philippines, it aired on Yey! in 2020 everyday at 2:00 pm.
In 1994, Buena Vista Home Video through their DIC Toon-Time Video label, released 6 VHS tapes of the series each containing 2 episodes.
Shout! Factory has released all 65 episodes of the series 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 23–44 with the featurette "How to Draw Dr. Robotnik". The third volume was available on March 16, 2010 exclusively via Shout! Factory's website as a Shout! Select title and contains the final 21 episodes of the series, plus the "Sonic Christmas Blast" special and the featurette "How to Draw Tails". These episodes were compiled in production order instead of airdate order. All three sets were discontinued in 2012 along with Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Underground after Shout!'s deal with Cookie Jar Entertainment expired.
Between 2008 and 2010, NCircle Entertainment released a number of single disc releases of the series, each containing 4 episodes (in random order), as well as two volumes of 4-disc collections in 2012, with each volume containing 16 episodes.
Invincible Pictures re-released the complete series set on August 13, 2019 (originally scheduled for April 9, 2019 and July 16, 2019).[17]
The series along with its successors Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Underground is available on the streaming services Paramount+ and Tubi, as well as the official WildBrain YouTube Channel.
Under license from 41 Entertainment and Invincible Entertainment Partners, Discotek Media released the complete series on standard definition Blu-ray on February 22, 2022. The unaired pilot and the Christmas special Sonic Christmas Blast were included as bonus features, as well as commercial bumpers and commentary by storyboard artist Milton Knight.[18] [19]
| DVD name | Episodes | Release date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Volume 1 | 1–22 | ||
| Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Volume 2 | 23–44 | ||
| Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Volume 3 | 45–65, Sonic Christmas Blast | ||
| Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Volume 1 | 1–16 | ||
| Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Volume 2 | 17–32 | ||
| Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog: The Complete Animated Series | 1–65 |
Throughout 1993–1994, Abbey Home Entertainment through their Tempo Video label released 8 VHS volumes of the series each containing an assortment of episodes. PolyGram Video through their 4Front Video label would also release a VHS tape of the series in 1997.
In Region 2, Delta Home Entertainment released Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog: The Complete Series on DVD in the UK on June 11, 2007,[20] as well as a number of single disc releases of the series, each containing 4 episodes (in production order).
| DVD name | Episodes | Release date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog: The Complete Series | 1–65 | ||
| Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog: Sonic Search & Smash Squad | 1–4 | ||
| Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog: High Stakes Sonic | 5–8 | ||
| Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog: Momma Robotnik's Birthday | 9–12 | ||
| Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog: Best Hedgehog | 13–16 | ||
| Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog: Over the Hill Hero | 17–20 |
Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog received a mixed reception. 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."[21] Michael Rubino of DVD Verdict criticized the series for being dated, contrived, and bloated with chili dog jokes.[22] GamesRadar listed the series as one of "the worst things to happen to Sonic." It commented that it "made Ren & Stimpy look like a rigid, strictly story-driven opus of animation", and criticized the supporting cast as "wholly uninteresting, unfunny and just all around annoying."[23]
Emily Ashby of Common Sense Media gave the series an overall rating of 3/5 and noted that while the show's pace is "frantic", "the series emphasizes positive themes for kids about personal safety and interpersonal relationships."[24] Bob Mackey of USgamer wrote that the show's attempts to emulate Looney Tunes and The Ren & Stimpy Show "were done in by the lack of quality control that typically plagued 65-episode syndicated series", and that "the zippy, timing-reliant slapstick Adventures relied on never stood a chance against the animation sweatshops DIC regularly used to pump out their nearly endless supply of televised content."[25]
Ian Flynn, writer for the Sonic the Hedgehog comic book series by Archie Comics, remarked that Adventures was the closest to "[getting] Sonic right" despite "fail[ing] on the details", although he observed that the show's gags were "polarizing" and that the guest characters "ranged from tired tropes (Breezie) to Saturday Night Live knockoffs (Da Bears)".[26] Pierre DeCelles, who worked on the show as a Senior Animation Director at Hong Ying animation studio, has described the show as "fun and humorous".[27]
Robotnik's remark "Snooping as usual, I see" from the episode "Boogey-Mania" gave rise to the internet meme "Pingas," first featured in a 2008 YouTube poop. The quote has been widely referenced on YouTube since the late 2000s, both in videos and in music remixes.[28]