Sonic Mega Mix DVD Provides an Uneven Animation Sampling

While SEGA Memories hasn't written about a Sonic cartoon DVD in quite a while, mainly because everything has already been released to DVD, an interesting single disc release of Sonic cartoons caught my attention. Single disc releases of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) and Sonic Underground are nothing new. The studio which owns the English language Sonic cartoons have been making an number of these budget releases, either giving a random selection of SatAM episodes or collecting story arcs into a single disc set, such as AoStH's time travel story arc (well worth the $6 in my opinion) and Sonic Underground Secrets of the Chaos Emerald (collecting all the Knuckles episodes).

Unlike those releases however, which stick to a single series, the Sonic Mega Mix DVD collects episodes from all three DIC Entertainment shows. Since the set arrives on Sonic's 20th anniversary and features all three series, I thought I'd look into it and see just what exactly makes up a "Mega Mix" of Sonic cartoons. The disc kicks off with Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, featuring three episodes from the series: Spaceman Sonic, The Little Merhog and Fast and Easy. While these may appear to be a random sampling of episodes, after a little thinking I realized that all three episodes have a connection. Spaceman Sonic features Sonic and Tails chasing Scratch and Grounder through the Starlight Zone, The Little Merhog features Sonic saving an underground city located within the Labyrinth Zone and Fast and Easy features Robotnik going after the Chaos Emerald Ring in the Secret Zone of Mobius (think Special Stage). A collection of episodes featuring connections to the games, nice!

Edit: I realized that I confused The Little Merhog with the episode Submerged Sonic. Submerged Sonic has Sonic and a merman saving an underground city located within the Labyrinth Zone, while The Little Merhog has Sonic helping a merhog named Merna save her underwater city. It's almost the same plot! So you can see why I'd get confused.

Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) is represented by two episodes: Ultra Sonic and Super Sonic. While both are good episodes, I can't help but think that those charged with selecting the episodes simply chose them due to their similar sounding names. Unlike the selected AoStH episodes, Ultra Sonic and Super Sonic do not dip into the game universe for inspiration. Instead, Ultra Sonic features Sonic discovering that his Uncle Chuck is alive and is a robot while the episode Super Sonic has Sonic stripped of his speed ability while having to race Robotnik to a magic crystal.

As I said, these are good episodes but I found them to be poor choices for the collection. Why not have the SatAM episodes Heads or Tails (the series pilot which Sonic and Tails ward off an invasion of Buzzbombers) and Game Guy (Sonic is lured into a deadly game of pinball by Robotnik).

Believe it or not, this is a Sonic cartoon!

Two episodes of Sonic Underground round out the set with Underground Masquerade and Sonic Tonic. Underground Masquerade is an odd choice, as it focuses on Sonic's brother Manic joining a gang of theives. Meanwhile Scratch and Grounder Sleet and Dingo attempt to steal taxes from Robotnik. Sonic plays a part in the episode, but this is hardly a good representation of the series. Sonic Tonic is a better choice as the focus is on Sonic's speed ability. Robotnik develops a potion which allows his henchmen to run at speeds rivaling Sonic. Once Sonic and his siblings get a hold of the potion, Sonia and Manic resist the temptation of taking the potion themselves. Why resist? Just drink the stuff!

Like the SatAM selections, the Underground episodes could have been better. Friend or Foe would have been an excellent choice, as it introduced Knuckles and the floating island. Another good choice would have been Virtual Danger, the final episode of the series. Despite not being a finale, the episode has Sonic, Sonia and Manic getting sucked into a video game of Robotnik's invention.

So is the Sonic Mega Mix DVD really the Mega Mix that the 90's Sonic cartoons deserved? No. If you're looking to relive the best that the three series has to offer, I suggest picking up the season sets of your favorites or getting the single disc story arc releases. The Mega Mix disc would have been much better had the creators decided on a theme, such as Sonic Team game inspired episodes. As it is, Sonic the Hedgehog Mega Mix is best left for the casuals and the future Sonic fans who spot this in the bargain section and decide to give it a look.

Until next time, I'm up over and gone!

AoStH 3 - Cover Art and Release Date!

Exciting news for Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog fans in the United States, the Volume 3 DVD has been given a release date as well as cover art. TVshowsonDVD.com broke the details:

This past December we broke the news that Shout! Factory's new "direct to consumer" online sales program would exclusively be offering The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog - Volume 3 on DVD. This 4-disc set finishes off the run of the popular animated series, which was spun off from Sega's classic videogame character.

Now Shout! Factory has revealed that this title will be available to begin shipping on March 16th. And the timing couldn't be better, either, since Sega is working on a Sonic the Hedgehog 4, Episode 1 videogame, available via digital purchase this summer for WiiWare, XBox Live and the Playstation Network.

Pricing for the DVD release of The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog - Volume 3 isn't available yet, but the studio kindly sent over the high-res cover art found below. Pre-orders aren't being accepted at this time, but when they begin taking them shortly you'll be able to pre-purchase your copy exclusively via Shout!'s website.

Finally US fans can complete their collection and fill that empty space between Volume 2 and the saturday morning series. While a region free complete set has been available for a while, Volume 3 outdoes that set by including a bonus "How to Draw Tails" with Milton Knight as well as the holiday special "Sonic's Christmas Blast"! Don't forget, volume 3 also includes the epic time travel arc. The episode "Blackbot the Pirate" has some of the best animation seen in the series, even outdoing the SatAM series in my opinion.

AoStH Volume 3 DVD Spindashes into Early 2010

TVShowsonDVD.com has recently reported that the long awaited third and final volume of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog will be released sometime in early 2010. Unlike the previous volumes, volume 3 will be exclusive to the Shout Factory online store. The reason for this exclusivity is that previous volumes did not sell well in retail, so to save some pennies the set will only be available in one place.

DVD producer Brian Ward assures fans that this will still be a factory produced DVD and not a DVD-R like the on-demand shows coming from Amazon.com. As for the packaging and extras, nothing has been revealed just yet. There is a chance that in cutting costs, the set might be reduced to being in a simpler DVD case, but the menus and video quality will remain the same. I've e-mailed Milton Knight to see if another drawing lesson or the recently released pilot footage will appear. If he writes back, I'll post it here.

Edit: Milton wrote back! There is a possibility that volume 3 will contain an additional bonus feature! I won't spoil it here as I don't want to overstep anything between Shout Factory and Milton. ;)

Volume 3 will be the final batch of 90's era non-Japanese Sonic cartoons on DVD

European AoStH fans who have the region free complete series are probably wondering why us Yanks won't just import that. Well, the Americans who already own two-thirds of the series probably would prefer to just get those final 21 episodes online within the country rather than rely on international ebay auctions.

The Adventures of Sonic Cartoon Pilot in full!

Speaking of Milton Knight, who I obtained that brilliant painting of Robotnik from recently, just this week he has provided a youtuber with the pilot episode, which we previously saw chunks of, and of which some scenes were inserted into an episode of the actual series. Being a pilot that was made to sell the cartoon idea to the execs, there is no music and a lot of dialog missing, but what you will see is some truly stunning animation unlike the final product, due to this being produced in-house in America rather than outsourced to Asia. That and the animators are none other than Milton Knight and Ed Love, who's animation carer goes all the way back to the 1930's at Disney. A (almost) complete credits list is featured in the video's description.

Other things you may notice are that one scene was used as the credits sequence in the series, Robotnik is voiced by Jim Cummings instead of Long John Baldry, and there are a lot more nods to the games, such as a scene set in Green/Emerald Hill zone complete with the iconic loop and Robotnik's ball and chain weapon. Oh, and the shot at 0:27 was recreated on the continue screen of Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine. There's even a Sonic Says scene at the end, which shows that that idea was there from the beginning. It's a real joy to watch, and it's just a shame the whole series couldn't look this good.

Robotnik Painting by Milton Knight

(Copy and paste from my personal blog, because it's relevant here too)

Well lookie here what showed up in the post today! A painting of Dr.Robotnik by Milton Knight that I purchased from him just last week! I bought a frame for it and it's currently sitting proud above my computer. He had three different pieces of art for sale on his website although I'm not sure if the other two are still available. Either way it's my first piece of original artwork by a professional animator (one who I've talked about on here many times before, mainly for his work on the 90's Sonic cartoon) so I'm happy. Oh yeah, and i contributed a little bit to his Robotnik Toy Chest page. :)

Here's a clip of the man sketching out a quick Robotnik for an extra on the American Sonic DVD. Look how expressive his drawing is in such a quick sketch!

The Nostalgia Critic digs his teeth into the Sonic Cartoons

Oh boy, after the Nostalgia Critic did a video about the mario cartoon, I was hoping he may do one for the Sonic cartoons (The original two, Sonic X and Underground are null and void) and here it is! He rips the shit out of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, particularly about how it doesn't make any sense, but loves SATAM to pieces. As much as I disagree on his AOSTH opinion (it was awesome because of how screwball it was!), it's a bloody entertaining video (as his vids always are, give his website a good hard look if you haven't already) so give it a watch already!

S.T.C Scans: Videos, Yoyo's and Milky Way Bars

I've made a start at scanning anything that people may find interesting (or not) from my collection of Sonic the Comics, starting with the many Sega and Sonic tie ins advertised. These first 4 are all the adverts I could find for the VHS releases of the cartoon Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. Much better box art than the lazy work on the recent DVDs.

More after the jump.

Next up is a scan of a Frosties promotion for Sonic Yoyos. The Yoyo's wen't packed in the cereal box: you had to send off for them with coupons. There's also a competition on here that includes a Multi-Mega. Oooh. I wouldn't really want to see Tony Tiger in a video game, though.

Here's one for another Sonic promotion/competition, this time involving Milky Way chocolate bars, and promoting Sonic & Knuckles. I do remember buying a good few Milky Ways to attempt to win the game.

Finally here's one from a much earlier issue of S.T.C (one of the first, I think) of a Sega Game Gear carry case/ Lunch box type thing that also comes with a neat set of pins. I think the promotion was long over when I finally got my hands on this issue, as I started collecting them around issue 20.

The Sonic cartoon that never was.

...and ain't you glad it wasn't? Just look at those awful supporting characters! 'Princess Acorn', presumbibly a early design for who later became Princess sally in the 'SATAM' cartoon, looks far too much like a slutty Princess Toadstool from the Mario Bros cartoons (also developed by DIC), Poker Lewis has been turned into some kind of punk, and Johnny Lightfoot also has shades, for some reason, and I don't even know what they were thinking with the others. A walrus called Joe Sushi? Tex the Penguin? A Flicky in some kind of white suit? Even Sonic himself doesn't look quite right, and where's Tails? More after the jump..



I Scanned this from the news section of an early issue of S.T.C, which was reporting on the release of 'Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog' on TV that following week on Channel 4, yet this image isn't from that cartoon at all: it's an original pitch image by DIC for Sega, who obviously made them change the cast entirely into the lot we found in SATAM.

What's quite interesting is that while none of the cartoons featured Poker Lewis and Johnny Lightfoot, Sonic the Comic adapted them characters into part of the Freedom Fighters from their original game designs seen in the first 10 or so issues (small cuddly animals) to anthropomorphic characters in denim jackets without anyone even noticing.

Here's some more images of this early pitch art on some sales cards I found on a rather useful website about SATAM, again with the rubbish Princess Acorn character and a very mis-coloured Dr.Robotnik. If anyone has any insight into this early Sonic cartoon concept, I would love to hear it!

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog on DVD

The time around 1993 to 1995 was huge for Sonic fans, including myself as a wee lad. Not only did they release a truck load of games for the many Sega systems out at the time, but you could buy Sonic as almost anything, even spaghetti! One of the biggest things to push Sonic into stardom in these early years was the release of not one, but two completely different TV cartoons, which appeared on the scene no more than a week between each other. Named 'Sonic the Hedgehog' and 'The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog', the two cartoons have are affectionately known as 'SATAM' (Saturday morning) and 'AOSTH' so as not to confuse their similar titles.

This was an in-genius idea on Sega's half; instead of going for one particular style of cartoon, risking the chance of losing half an audience, they had two series' produced that would appeal to different audiences, so Sonic could potentially appeal to any kid. SATAM went for a deep continuing story with a dark edge to it much like other favorites of the time like Gargoyles and Batman, whereas AOSTH was a more slapstick Looney Tunes like cartoon with lots of daft animation and gags.Both were developed by the same studio - DIC, known best for Inspector Gadget, and they made yet another Sonic cartoon in 1999 (just before the Dreamcast released in the west) called Sonic Underground, although to be honest I didn't like that much.

While I have a soft spot for SATAM, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog is the cartoon I remember best from my childhood. This is mainly because in the UK most of the episodes were released on video, and I owned the lot of them. They also showed the two cartoons regulary on a channel called TCC (The Childrens Channel) where they would often get the intros and credits of teh cartoons muddled up sometimes, so you'd think they were about to air an episode of SATAM, but after the intro a AOSTH episode would pop up. Weird. This is the one Sonic cartoon that seems to keep springing up on TV as well. It was most recently screened on ITV2 and a kids channel called POP.

I have wrote about this cartoon a few times before at my personal blog, mainly because a guy who worked on the series, and designed this cartoon's cone headed version of Dr.Robotnik, Milton Knight, has posted some wonderful concept art he did for it as well as some early footage on YouTube.

Just this year both of these cartoons have been released on DVD, and this week I got my hands on the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog box set, which contains every single episode on 8 discs, a run time of 24 hours! The box set takes up the same space on a shelf of just one of the ten or more videos I had as a kid! Ain't technology wonderful?

The discs are packed in 4 extra thing DVD cases, 2 in each. One thing I can't congratulate them on is the lazy presentation. The box and discs use the same artwork of Sonic over and over again, and they haven't even drawn him well! For starters, his arms are blue rather than the skin tone they should be, and his shoes are all wonky looking at the bottom. Even the logo is squashed to buggery, and the back of the cases has artwork of the WRONG Robotink, it's the more menacing Robotink from SATAM rather than Milton Knight's crazy lard-arse. Compared to the wonderful presentation of the original videos this is just plain amateurish. There is a set of stickers in the box as well, again using artwork from the wrong cartoon. Doh!

The interactive menus on the discs themselves also leave a lot to be desired, with no extras and dull layouts. They also haven't really gone into any effort to re-master any of these cartoons, but these be honest it's hardly considered to be an important cartoon so it was obvious they were not going to bother. The company that has put this out have done the bare minimum but it's the content that counts in the end and there's a LOT of it. Some episodes are clearly better than others, but the cartoon is just as daft as I remember it, with it's surreal backdrops, occasionally great animation (again mainly thanks to Milton Knight's input) and plenty of laugh out load moments, wrapped up with a forced moral at the end of the episode. I'm sure you've all heard of the 'Sonic Sez' clip in which Sonic teaches kids about sexual harassment. In case you've never seen it, here is is!



The RRP of the set is about £35, and Play.com sells it for £28, but HMV.co.uk has this week been flogging the set off for just £13, so I naturally jumped at that bargain! It's still that price right now, so if you're interested now would be the time to go get it! They also do a DVD set in America that is only 4 discs of the 22 episodes, but has a few short extras that you can find on Youtube anyway. Oh, and it has nicer box art but that's about it.