Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog is an animated series that was based on the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series produced by Sega of America, 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.

On November 24, 1996, USA Network aired a Christmas special which was produced to promote Sonic 3D Blast (originally meant for the ultimately cancelled Sonic X-treme). The series inspired a video game, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, which features several original characters from the show. Furthermore, some elements of the series, such as Sonic's fondness for chili dogs, appeared in later video games and media of the franchise.

## Plot

*Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog* is a comical, light-hearted and gag-driven adventure series based on the titular character Sonic the Hedgehog, a sometimes arrogant yet kind-hearted and mischievous 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. The series features a short PSA segment titled "Sonic Says" at the end of each episode; these segments were written by Phil Harnage.

## Characters

### Main

* Sonic the Hedgehog (voiced by Jaleel White) - The main character of the series. Sonic works to defend Mobius from the threat of Dr. Robotnik.
* Tails (voiced by Christopher Stephen Welch, except for "Sonic Christmas Blast"; voiced by Chris Turner) - A two-tailed fox who is Sonic's friend.

### Villains

* Dr. Ivo Robotnik (voiced by Long John Baldry) – An evil mad scientist who uses robots and inventions in order to take over Mobius. His headquarters is a fortress atop Mobius' tallest mountain, where he uses his Robo-Matic Machine to create robots called Badniks to aid him in his plots.
* Scratch (voiced by Phil Hayes) – A dim-witted chicken-type Badnik who is one of Dr. Robotnik's henchmen. Originally, Dr. Robotnik wanted the Robo-Matic Machine to create a super robot, only for it to produce Scratch instead due to a malfunction. He is the older brother of Grounder, both of whom work to catch Sonic which with comical results.
* Grounder (voiced by Garry Chalk) – A Badnik with a drill-nose, drill-hands, and tank treads for legs who was created by Dr. Robotnik when he put one of Scratch's tail feathers into the Robo-Matic Machine. He is the younger brother of Scratch.
* Coconuts (voiced by Ian James Corlett) – A monkey-type Badnik who was created before Scratch and Grounder. At some point, he was demoted to working as Dr. Robotnik's janitor and is often trying to impress him by outdoing Scratch and Grounder in stopping Sonic to no avail.

### Other characters

* Breezie (voiced by Venus Terzo) - A hedgehog-type Badnik created by Dr. Robotnik in a plot to get rid of Sonic. She developed feelings for him and left Dr. Robotnik's services. Breezie later met Robotnik Jr. who later developed a crush on her.
* Momma Robotnik (voiced by Kathleen Barr) – The mother of Dr. Robotnik who is even worse than her son. While kept in an asylum called the Mobius Home for Really Bizarre Mothers, she tends to escape on occasion and her insanity even scares Dr. Robotnik.
* Wes Weasely (voiced by Michael Donovan) – A weasel who works as a salesman at H.D.S.V.A.D.L. (Handy Dandy Super Villain Appliance Distributors Limited) company. He would often sell devices to Dr. Robotnik that would either fail because of either Sonic's ingenuity or Scratch and Grounder's incompetence.
* Sergeant Doberman (voiced by Phil Hayes) - A Doberman Pinscher who is a retired army sergeant and a known war hero.
* Professor Von Schlemmer (voiced by French Tickner) - A brilliant but eccentric and kooky scientist who is an ally of Sonic and Tails.
* Professor Caninestine (voiced by Garry Chalk) - A highly-intelligent dog scientist that invents gadgets for Sonic to use. Dr. Robotnik once captured him and had him build a time machine in order to steal four Chaos Emeralds in different time periods.
* Captain Rescue (voiced by Garry Chalk) - A retired superhero raccoon who briefly came out of retirement to help Sonic defeat Robotnik.
* Robotnik Jr. (voiced by Ian James Corlett) - A short Dr. Robotnik-resembling Badnik created by Dr. Robotnik to be his son and carry on his legacy the day after Dr. Robotnik passes away. Unfortunately, he defects from his creator and sides with Sonic. Robotnik Jr. later fell in love with Breezie.

## Voice cast

* Jaleel White as Sonic the Hedgehog, Masonic, Mummified Hedgehog (in "Tails' Tale")
* Christopher Welch as Miles "Tails" Prower
* Long John Baldry as Dr. Robotnik, Robotnikhotep I
* Phil Hayes as Scratch, Sergeant Doberman
* Garry Chalk as Grounder, Professor Caninestein, Captain Rescue (in "Over the Hill Hero"), Dragon Breath, Computer (in "Grounder The Genius")
* Ian James Corlett as Coconuts, Robotnik Jr. (in "Robotnik Jr.," "Sonic the Matchmaker"), Rocket the Sloth (in "Slowwww Going"), Gambling Sheep, Dr. Warpnik (in "Trail of the Missing Tales"), Wallace A. Ditso, Sketch Lampoon (in "Sonic Breakout"), Goobster (in "So Long Sucker")

### Additional cast

* Kathleen Barr as Katella, Momma Robotnik (in "Momma Robotnik's Birthday," "Momma Robotnik Returns," "The Last Resort", "Zoobotnik", "Sonic is Running"), Miss Sniffed, Lucinda (in "Best Hedgehog"), additional voices
* Michael Benyaer as Lawrence (in "Pseudo Sonic")
* Jay Brazeau as Robot Santa (in "Sonic Christmas Blast"), Santa Claus (in "Sonic Christmas Blast"), Spelunk (in "Subterranean Sonic"), additional voices
* Jim Byrnes as Thrust, Coachnik (in "Coachnik")
* Babz Chula
* Jennifer Copping as Henrietta
* Michael Donovan as Wes Weasley (in "Birth of a Salesman," "The Magic Hassle," "Hero of the Year"), Mad Mike (in "The Robotnik Express," "Mad Mike, Da Bear Warrior", "Hero of the Year")
* Kyle Fairlie
* Terry Klassen as Doctor Quark, additional voices
* Wally Marsh
* Scott McNeil as MacHopper (in "MacHopper"), Rattrap
* Shane Meier
* Jane Mortifee
* Pauline Newstone
* John Stocker
* Jayleen Stonehouse as the Waitress (in "Too Tall Tails")
* John Tench
* Venus Terzo as Breezie
* French Tickner as Professor von Schlemmer (in "Too Tall Tails," "Boogey-Mania," "Tails to Prevail," "Tails' Tale")
* Lee Tockar as Wick
* Louise Vallance as Miss Possum, Catty Carlisle
* David Ward
* Cathy Weseluck as Suzie, Robot, Rebot, Becky, Penelope, Cat, Parrot
* Alec Willows as the Music Destroyer
* Dale Wilson

## Production

*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:

* the Chinese subdivision of Rainbow Animation Group (later renamed Galaxy World, Inc., not to be confused with the Italian studio Rainbow S.p.A.),
* the Korean Sae Rom Production (which also at the same time worked on the animation for the Saturday morning Sonic cartoon for ABC),
* the Taiwanese Hong Ying Animation (which would later work on the animation for *Sonic Underground*),
* the Japanese Tokyo Movie Shinsha (which would later produce its own Sonic cartoon, *Sonic X*).

Pierre DeCelles, who worked at Hong Ying as a Senior Animation Director, has described the show as "fun and humorous".

According to Robby London, DIC originally made a deal to produce only the Saturday morning *Sonic* series for the ABC network. The cartoon was originally planned to be more light-hearted compared to the final product, as reflected by its pilot episode 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*. As a result, the Saturday morning Sonic cartoon was made darker and more serious in order to differentiate itself from the syndicated Sonic cartoon.

## Broadcast and distribution

### First-run broadcast

The series was shown through syndication in the United States in 1993 on weekday afternoons. 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 mornings 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.

### Rebroadcast and international airings

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 coincide with the release of *Sonic 3D Blast*), and later returned to Broadcast Syndication on the BKN block from 1997-1998, 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.
Then Reuturned In 2020 On Their Nightime Block Jetix.
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, containing the 20 episodes. In December 2018, reruns of the series began airing on Starz. Later starting on September 3, 2019, the show aired its reruns on the streaming channel called Pluto TV for the first time since another Sonic cartoon Sonic SatAM aired back on sometime 2017.

In the UK, Channel 4 and Pop re-aired the show with the "Sonic Says" segments restored.

In Italy, the show aired on Italia 1.

The show was re-aired on in Australia Saturday mornings on Network Ten as part of Cheez TV from 1993 to 1999, and also aired on Nick Jr. 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 The Netherlands on RTL4, in Germany on RTL II and in 2005 in Arab countries on Spacetoon.

The series also aired on KidsCo, like with many other DIC-produced cartoons.

### Home media

#### North America

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 have 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 23–44 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. These sets were discontinued in 2012 along with *Sonic the Hedgehog* and *Sonic Underground* after Shout!'s deal with Cookie Jar Entertainment expired.

From 2007-2010, NCircle Entertainment released a number of single disc releases of the series.

Invincible Pictures re-released the complete series set on August 13, 2019 (originally scheduled for April 9, 2019 and July 16, 2019).

The series along with its successors Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Underground is available on the streaming services CBS All Access and Tubi

#### International

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.

##### Broadcast UK history

* *Channel 4* (1993–1997)
* *The Children's Channel* (1995–1998)
* *POP* (2004–2010)
* *ITV2* (4 October 2004 – 31 December 2004) (as part of GMTV2 kids)

1. ↑ *Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog*. DHX Media. Archived from the original on March 17, 2015. Retrieved on March 24, 2019. “Sonic the Hedgehog, the most fearless hero on Planet Mobius, uses his supersonic speed and teenage irreverence to thwart the comedically despicable Dr. Robotnik. Sonic's idolizing little buddy, Tails, tags along on every fast-action, gag-driven adventure.”
2. ↑ Emad Ahmed (September 5, 2018). When Sonic and Mario dominated children's television. Retrieved on March 24, 2019.
3. ↑ [1]
4. ↑ Template:Cite news
5. ↑ Inoa, Christopher (February 18, 2020). How *Sonic* scored two different animated series at the same time. Polygon. Retrieved on March 14, 2020.
6. ↑ From *Captain N* to *Sonic Underground*: Behind videogames' earliest cartoons. GamesTM. Retrieved on March 14, 2020.
7. ↑ Template:List journal
8. ↑ https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B07KLNHNHF/metacritic\_newsletter-20
9. ↑ The Adventures Of Sonic The Hedgehog [2007] [DVD]. *Amazon.com*. Retrieved on July 7, 2012.