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, Nickelodeon Animation Studios and Sunbow Productions. Airing during the autumn of 1993, 65 episodes were produced, which was syndicated by Paramount Television Distribution in the United States. A spin-off video game, Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine was developed, which features 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, Nickelodeon aired "Sonic Christmas Blast", a Christmas special which was produced to promote Sonic X-treme.

## 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 excluding "Sonic Christmas Blast"; these segments were written by Phil Harnage.

## Characters

### Heroes

* Sonic the Hedgehog is the main character of the series. Sonic travels the world and works to defend Mobius from the threat of Dr. Robotnik. Just like in the video games, Sonic can move at fast speeds. He has also shown to be quite cunning and deceitful, using various tricks and disguises to get one over his opponents, especially whenever his speed is nullified.
* Miles "Tails" Prower is a two-tailed fox who is Sonic's best friend and sidekick. Sonic found him as a toddler, apparently abandoned because of his multiple tails, which he can use to fly like in the video games. He usually displays child-like intelligence, but has shown to have exceptional skills as a mechanic and a pilot like his video game counterpart.

### Villains

* Dr. Ivo Robotnik is an evil mad scientist and the arch-enemy of Sonic the Hedgehog, who uses his 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.
* Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad (S.S.S.S.S. Squad for short) are a trio of Badniks that are Robotnik's primary minions who more than often help him in his schemes.
	+ Scratch is a dimwitted chicken-type Badnik. 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 usually the leader of the group.
	+ Grounder is Scratch's younger brother; an even more dimwitted mole-type Badnik who was created by Dr. Robotnik when he put one of Scratch's tail feathers into the Robo-Matic Machine. He has tank treads for legs and drills for a nose and hands (though he frequently swaps them for other tools, even actual hands on occasion).
	+ Coconuts is a cynical 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. He is shown to be somewhat smarter than Scratch and Grounder, and is shown to have his own styled gadgets in his attempts of defeating Sonic.

### Other

* Breezie is a beautiful hedgehog-type Badnik created by Dr. Robotnik in a plot to get rid of Sonic. She initially manipulated Sonic into falling in love with her and giving her various gifts, but when she realized that Sonic really did care for her and does not see her as a robot, she developed genuine romantic feelings for him and betrayed and left Dr. Robotnik's services. Breezie later met Robotnik Jr. who later developed a crush on her.
* Momma Robotnik is 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 her son.
* Wes Weasley is 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 is a Doberman Pinscherwho is a retired army sergeant and a known war hero.
* Professor Von Schlemmer is a brilliant but eccentric and kooky scientist who is an ally of Sonic and Tails.
* Professor Caninestein is 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 is a retired superhero raccoon who briefly came out of retirement to help Sonic and Tails defeat Robotnik.
* Robotnik Jr. is a diminutive Badnik resembling Robotnik, which the latter initially created to be his son and carry on his legacy when he passes away. Unfortunately, he defects from his creator and sides with Sonic and Tails. Jr. later fell in love with Breezie.

## Voice cast

### Main cast

* Jaleel White as Sonic the Hedgehog, Masonic, Mummified Hedgehog (in "Tails' Tale")
* Christopher Welch as Miles "Tails" Prower
* Long John Baldry as Doctor 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, Doctor Warpnik (in "Trail of the Missing Tails"), 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
* Kyle Fairlie
* Terry Klassen as Doctor Quark, additional voices
* Wally Marsh
* Scott McNeil as MacHopper (in "MacHopper")
* 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
* Lee Tockar as Wick
* Louise Vallance as Miss Possum, Catty Carlisle
* David Ward
* Cathy Weseluck as Suzie (in "The Robot's Robot"), Robot (in "The Robot's Robot"), Rebot (in "The Robot's Robot"), Becky (in "Baby-Sitter Jitters"), Penelope (in "Robotnik's Pyramid Scheme"), Cat, Parrot
* Alec Willows as the Music Destroyer
* Dale Wilson

### Unaired pilot

* Russi Taylor as Miles "Tails" Prower
* Jim Cummings as Dr. Robotnik, Scratch, Additional voices
* Gary Owens as Narrator

## Episodes

### Pilot

season
 This is the pilot used to sell the show.
Note: While Sonic is voiced by Jaleel White, the voices of Dr. Robotnik and Scratch are provided by Jim Cummings, the voice of Tails is provided by Russi Taylor, and Gary Owens plays the narrator. One of the scenes from the pilot was later reused for the ending credits of the show. Additionally, in the episode "Untouchable Sonic", Scratch and Grounder can be seen watching clips from the pilot on TV.

### Special

season
 Robotnik disguises himself as Santa Claus in order to force him into retirement and con the children out of presents during Christmas. During a visit to Robotropolis, Sonic and Tails rescue the real Santa Claus, who presents Sonic with a speed run test due to a ring Sally Acorn gave him as a gift serving as a key.
Oddly, this special includes aspects of the Saturday morning Sonic TV show, such as Robotropolis and SWATbots (neither of which appear as they did in that series) and Sally Acorn (who appears in her regular design but with her pilot episode color palette). Said series had aired concurrently with the original run of "Adventures", but in a different time slot, and had stopped producing new episodes by the time "Christmas Blast" premiered. Despite this, the special maintains the humorous tone of "Adventures" rather than the darker one of the Saturday morning series.
Note: 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 title was changed to also tie in with Sonic 3D Blast.
This is also the only episode not to feature a Sonic Says segment at the end.

## Production

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog was created by Sunbow Productions (in association with Sega of America whose CEO Tom Kalinske and newly appointed consumer products director Michealene Risley licensed the characters to Sunbow), which produced a total of 65 episodes for its one season and was aired on UPN, and Saban Entertainment. 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 worked on the animation for the 1996 Sonic The Hedgehog and would also work on *Sonic The Hedgehog: Animated*, *Sonic Boom* and *Sonic The Hedgehog (2022)*),
* the Taiwanese Hong Ying Animation (which would later work on the animation for *Sonic Underground*),
* the Korean Dong Yang Animation (which would also later work on the animation for *Sonic Underground*),
* the Japanese Tokyo Movie Shinsha (which would later produce its own Sonic cartoon, *Sonic X*).

Additionally, some of the storyboards were done by Spanish animation studio Milimetros Dibujos Animados, which also worked on the animation for the 1996 Sonic cartoon and main title animation for *Sonic Underground*.

## Broadcast and distribution

### First-run broadcast

The series was shown on UPN in the United States in fall of 1993 on Saturday mornings at 8:30am. In the United Kingdom, the series was screened on Channel 5 in 1993 on Sunday mornings at 9:00, but with the "Sonic Says" segments edited out. They were also edited out on Nickelodeon and the UK VHS releases of the series. The cartoon was broadcast in Australia on Network Ten as part of Cheez TV on Saturday mornings and it 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

Nickelodeon re-aired the original episodes of the show in the United States from 1994 to 2002 (with an additional Christmas special ordered by Sega, Saban and Sunbow to be produced for the Christmas season of 1996 to ride on the coattails with the release of *Sonic X-Treme* on the Saturn and *Sonic 3D Blast* on the Saturn). Nicktoons would start broadcasting the series in September 2003 and aired on the channel until 2009.

Later starting on September 3, 2019, the show aired its reruns on the streaming service Pluto TV for the first time.

In the UK, Nicktoons UK re-aired the show with the "Sonic Says" segments restored.

In Italy, the show aired on Rai 2.

The show was re-aired in Australia on Nickelodeon on Saturday mornings.

In Brazil, the show aired in January 1996, on Rede Manchete. 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 ZDF and Nickelodeon, in Japan on Nippon TV, and in 2000 in Arab countries on Spacetoon and Qatar Television.

In the Philippines, it aired on Yey! in 2020 every 2:00 pm.

### Home media

#### North America

In 1994, Paramount Pictures Home Video, released 6 VHS tapes of the series each containing 2 episodes.

Shout! Factory have 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 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.

From 2007–2010, Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment released a number of single disc releases of the series.

Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment released the complete series and *Sonic Christmas Blast* 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 Paramount+.

#### International

Throughout 1993–1994, Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment released 8 VHS volumes of the series each containing an assortment of episodes. Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment would also release a VHS tape of the series in 1997.

In Region 2, Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment released *Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog: The Complete Series* on DVD in the UK on June 11, 2007.

##### Broadcast UK history

* Channel 5 (1993–1997, 4 October 2004 – 31 December 2006)
* Nickelodeon (1995–1998)
* Nicktoons (2004–2010)

## Reception

*Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog* received 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." Michael Rubino of DVD Verdict criticized the series for being dated, contrived, and bloated with chili dog jokes. *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." 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." 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 Bardel Entertainment regularly used to pump out their nearly endless supply of televised content." 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)". Pierre DeCelles, who worked on the show as a Senior Animation Director at Dong Yang animation studio, has described the show as "fun and humorous".

Robotnik's catchphrase "Snooping as usual I see" gave rise to the internet meme PINGAS, which has been widely referenced on YouTube.