Sonic's Television Trip To The Past and Back (1993-????)

[Redemption]

We all are excited for the new Netflix premeire Sonic Prime but before we get too excited i would like for us to take a lil detour on this years road of mystery and uncertainy to relive these past moments. Feel free to laugh, imagine, and have fun.

So get ready cause it's juice and jam time for our first show!!!...... Sonic The Hedeghog (SAT-AM)

Why SAT-AM Sonic matters to me

I remember when Sonic would always tease Antione for being literally scared of everything i would crack up at the sight of it. Sonic and Sally moments were golden i will always remember their relationship because Sonic loves being his reckless self while Sally is left doing all the worrying back in Knothole. Bunnie was always there to comfort her and Tails was just adorable with his comments in some episodes. This series tied in with the Archie comics as soon as the show ended i thought the comics would and i was going to be furious if the comics ended but they didn't the actully were named the longest running video game comic in America. Jaleel White (better known for Family Matters) brought Sonic some additude and flair to the way he lived his life. For example :

Sally: Antoine will go with me.

Sonic: Antoine?! You're kidding, right?

Sally: I'm kidding, wrong!

Sonic: Right or wrong?

Sally: I'm right, you're wrong... as usual

 

This Sonic was the one who was cool and smooth and nothing in Knotville could top him. I'm proud to say this series had a good run along with The Adventures Of Sonic The Hedgehog which i'll just throw in for fun.....

Wow those were the good times right well were not done yet. That's right if you were like Shadow going "Hmph" "this is exceptional".

Then slow down we haven't gotten to Shadow's time just yet so before we get there i'm going to tell you a little tale.

Of three triplets who were birthed by a queen on the run and then a prophecy was fortold and Sonic Underground was soon underway...... 

Why Sonic Undergound matters to me

This series was every Deviant Art fan's wish. Sonic, Sonia and Manic are royalty who are searching for their mother the Queen of Mobius. Well this brought me the rock opera Sonic i never knew could actully be pretty cool having a song every episode that i could sing along too was great (cringy worthy but great!). I liked how they went around helping everyone and showing that they really are royalty. Barnaby is hillariosly naive and since Sonic doesn't want his sister around Barnaby. He'll do anything to pull his sister away from the proud and entitled Barnaby. It's a family story that warmed my heart it's a shame the series was never finished.

Well that was a nice addition wasn't it and if you still like Shadow going "Hmph" "this is exceptional" well then it's about time we reach new heights and dive into the anime show.... Sonic X!!!! 

Why Sonic X Matters to me

That song was awesome and everything was catchy and oh my goodness i'm getting to excited. Anyways Sonic X was the 2000's Sonic this series ties in with Adventure 1 and 2 so as you can probably guess i and a lot of people on this site enjoyed it. Chris was a great addition from the moment he saved Sonic from drowning their relationship grew episode by episode they grew a bond that no one could break. One of my favorite moments was when Eggman and Chris talked about the time apocalypse https://youtu.be/p1ty3f4ld-g

 

Chris actully shows us that he doesn't hide behind Sonic for protection and is ready to take action on his own if needed. When Sonic leaves it warms my heart and shows the friendship that the humans and Sonic's friends have established. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAo4Tiifwj

Knuckles Solo stories are great and really fun. I personally loved hot head Knuckles and him being a little guilible. Shadow's story is legendary and brought me to tears and really suprised me to see that the Sonic Adventure 2 battle with the the Biolizard was very well done and i enjoyed seeing Sonic and Shadow fight side by side.

Sonic X was great while it lasted and i'll always treasure Jason Griffth as one of Sonic's many Va's.

Well it's time for something a little more current. It's about get ready for tech genius,comedic badgers and angry pink hedgehogs. I guess you could say were going out with a Sonic Boom!!!.....

Why Sonic Boom matters to me

Sonic Boom was sarcastic genius. Tails was getting himself a girlfriend. Sonic and Knuckles had the stupidest challenges against each other. Amy was always getting mixed up in all the stupidity and Sticks was adding on to the chaos by saying the world would be taken from us by robotic toasters. This was a great show for kids and adults alike. My favorite guy comedy chimp was always featuring some garbage that the gang would listen to on tv. Like Soar the Eagle had to fly around with a jetpack but he writes motivation books on how to fly. When Tails can fly and he can't (isn't that ironic). Or when the girls start listening to Justin Beaver and the boys try to figure out why the girls are brain washed. I could go on and on but for now i'll leave the rest of the watching to you! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PTilV1gG5I.

Sonic has had great success in the Tv series that aired. So lets look forward to the future of Sonic tv with the New show Sonic Prime!!! To Be Continued????

 

 

 

 

 

 

[batson]

I'm honestly not super impressed with any of the Sonic shows, as much as I enjoyed some of them as a kid (AoStH was the reason I got into Sonic in the first place). I suppose Sonic Boom is objectively the best written of the bunch, but for me personally it's just not the show that I want from the Sonic franchise. I want a more serious show, something that does what SatAM and Sonic X were trying to do but, well, better. I'm cautiously optimistic about the upcoming Netflix show,

[prettyinplague]

^ I'm going to have to agree. I really wanted Sonic X to succeed at what it was attempting to do, but it really misses the mark (even the Japanese version isn't that great... so sue me.), and I'd genuinely dig a Sonic series that did that but better without an unnecessary viewer insert character. Another attempt at an anime would be rad but I doubt it'll happen. 

Sonic Boom was really fun but not what I'm looking for in a Sonic show. If we can mix drama and humor, with good character development and story, it'll be a knock out. 
 

[SBR2]

SatAM is a perfectly fine cartoon I just don't think it's a great Sonic cartoon.  One of my biggest problems is that they made Sonic really really dumb. Like he feels completely incapable of any kind of forward thinking and says dumb shit like thinking unscrambling a computer is like scrambling eggs.

AOSTH is fun. It's a wacky enjoyable goofy show. I got nothing else to say.

Underground...ok. I'm going to get shit for this but I honestly don't think it's that bad. It's not great but some of the episodes are pretty fun and honestly I think it did Eggman's take over of the planet better than SatAM did.

Sonic X was the first cartoon I watched. The Japanese version might be better but I think in general the low quality of the dub is exaggerated. It's definitely not a good dub but honestly it could be way worse. 

Boom was a blast. I really had fun watching it. Maybe it's sense of humor isn't everyone's cup of tea but personally I dug it's whole "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" for kids vibe.

[Guest]

Oh y'all starting off this thread with fightin' words now.

Maybe I'm just an oldie m'llenial and am salty that you all can't enjoy my favorite cartoons when I did with a childhood mindset.

I unashamedly loved both SatAM and AoStH for different reasons.

AoStH was like Looney Tunes (which I also loved), but with my favorite hedgehog and fox video game characters. It was a no-lose formula.

SatAM was an epic masterpiece and I won't hear otherwise.

Didn't get into Underground, didn't even know it existed until like... 2003? during reruns of it. But it was... an interesting take. Odd that it was released at a time when Sonic wasn't really popular at all, before Dreamcast had even launched internationally, as opposed to the first two that came out during the height of his fame.

I tried to love X. Partially hindered by my brother and friends making fun of me for being 11 and "still watching kiddie cartoons", partially because... idk it just made some missteps. Shoehorned in the video game storylines too much, but then randomly here's a human family and characters (which wasn't originally supposed to be there and I hate how they decided to add them in). And they do nothing.

Boom... so it kinda was a flop at first due to the awful games. Once the creators realized it had meme potential, they capitalized off of that. I can't blame them. They had nothing else to work with. It did its job. It had its moments. I'd rather watch Boom than X honestly. Maybe even rather than Underground.

But the first 2 will always be the best for me, with slight preference going to SatAM.

[PC the Hedgehog]

AoStH is every bit as funny as it was in the early 90s. I still laugh out loud every time I watch an episode. Obviously it was pretty goofy, but it still had some pretty decent stories, adventure, and heart to go along with it. And Scratch and Grounder will always be the best Robotnik henchmen.

They really took a lot of liberties with the Sonic license with SatAM, but it's still a high quality show. Serialized storytelling was really rare in the early 90s, and I think this show kind of kicked off my love for ongoing stories in TV shows.

It makes me happy to see that the hate for Sonic Underground has lessened in recent years. They took the fanficcy SatAM and made it even MORE fanficcy by giving Sonic siblings, something that would be unthinkable with present Sega mandates. It doesn't quite have the same heart that SatAM did, but it was still action-packed and had very, very snappy dialogue, probably the best of the DiC trilogy in that regard. And let's face it, cheesy as they are, the vocal songs were and still are insanely catchy.

Sonic X could have been amazing. The original trailer made it look amazing, but they had to go the whole "cartoon character appears in the real world route" that denied us the fun of exploring Sonic's colorful world. It was also arguably the first time the characters' personalities started to become flanderized, something that carried over into the games and made the cast almost insufferable for several years to follow. The mediocre 4Kids dub didn't do the show any favors either.

Sonic Boom was brilliant. Yeah, it was a comedy more than anything, but I'd go so far as to say it was one of the smartest-written cartoons of the 2010s. Most of the jokes gave me a classic Spongebob vibe, which is about the highest compliment one can pay a comedy cartoon. Anyone who says that the show was nothing but meta humor and fourth wall breaking jokes is objectively wrong; it DID have plenty of those, but balanced it well with humor of all sorts.

[jungle_penguins]

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog always bothered me in some weird way. It was one of those things I watched but wasn't sure why I kept watching. It wasn't bad but my experience with it makes me not want to ever rewatch it. I want to say it was due to it being boring but was it really that boring?

SatAM however I have more positive memories of. Maybe I was seriously invested in the universe, or maybe it was because me and others would spend time watching it together. Don't really care for it to come back but I like a lot of the ideas.

Underground never clicked, it was plain average with a confusing music gimmick and otherwise was uninteresting. This might be something I need to revisit fully. Not sure how it got 40 episodes in the first place.

Sonic X I really liked and somehow most of the issues I glossed over back when I saw it on air. Season 3 especially even though nowadays I realize it wasn't even planned to be 3 seasons.

Sonic Boom I've seen very little of but I like what I've seen so far. Now with the young childhood weirdness mostly out of the way I can be more fair to it if I ever get around to those 2 seasons. 

 

[Redemption]

8 hours ago, Angyu said:

SatAM was an epic masterpiece and I won't hear otherwise.

I agree here SatAM was a great show had the perfect cast and a great storyline and of course the Archie Comics to build off once it was all over. My favorite episodes are in the video below...

7 hours ago, PC the Hedgehog said:

Sonic Boom was brilliant. Yeah, it was a comedy more than anything, but I'd go so far as to say it was one of the smartest-written cartoons of the 2010s. Most of the jokes gave me a classic Spongebob vibe, which is about the highest compliment one can pay a comedy cartoon. Anyone who says that the show was nothing but meta humor and fourth wall breaking jokes is objectively wrong; it DID have plenty of those, but balanced it well with humor of all sorts.

Sonic Boom was amazing because it got people interested and we actully got to see a parodied Sonic and friends which was awesome. I know people have their different opinions on it but i looked forward to each episode and what stupidity i was going to see next (mosty Knuckles) but i would love a season 3 even though with Prime out i doubt it.  The episode Unlucky Knuckles is what really got me hooked on to the series and after that i never stopped watching on Cartoon Network.

Sonic Boom (2014 TV Series) Episode 13 Review - Unlucky ...

 

16 hours ago, SBR2 said:

Underground...ok. I'm going to get shit for this but I honestly don't think it's that bad. It's not great but some of the episodes are pretty fun and honestly I think it did Eggman's take over of the planet better than SatAM did.

To be honest your right it did get a bad rep because some how it just didn't fit. It came out in 99 and ended in the year 2000. Eggman taking over the planet made more sense to me this series was the prolouge to SatAM. Sonic was royalty for the first and last time ever. Extreme Gear Manic had the first board somehow before Sonic Riders Manic had the first Extreme Gear. Sonic and Manic going undercover was always hillarious. Most times Manic was dragged into being silly when he is picking a lock or causing some sort of trouble.

 

[Fuzzy Pickles!]

I remember watching a few episodes of Adventure of Sonic The Hedgehog on YouTube back in I think 2009. Since I've been getting back into Sonic, I decided to watch some of the episodes again just to see how well the show aged.

The art style is crude. Characters, backgrounds, and towns have a much more simplistic design compared to the game and even SatAM but that could probably be explained by low budget. Both Sonic and Tails are shorter than their Classic counterparts and there are a lot less lines used compared to SatAM and even Sonic Undergrounds, which highlights its comedic nature. It also takes inspiration from the earliest Sonic Archie Comics issues, a comparison I noted when I started to read the comic. In a way, I like it because it's a not a show that takes itself too seriously.

Sonic's attitude really comes through as he infuriates Eggman by whatever insults he can come up and this is a nice glimpse of who Tails was before Sonic Adventure really explored him as a mechanical genius, as Sonic's best friend and side kick. It's also exciting to see Eggman's temper when Scratch and Grounder - his two supposed greatest creations in the show - fail him on a routine basis. Especially when factoring in Long John Baldry's booming voice that seems to make Eggman the center of any scene in an episode.

It's also very formulaic and repetitive. Most, if not all of the episodes I've seen are just Eggman trying to capture Sonic once and for all, only to fail. The episode may have their spin, but the plot remains the same. When you've seen one episode, you've seen the whole series. Your mileage varies on whenever you enjoy seeing the same plot over and over again. I don't mind it, but I can see how this might turn off some people.

Eventually, I plan to get around to Sonic Boom as I've heard that's an even better comedic show and I've liked the clips I have seen. Japanese Sonic X is a maybe too. Speaking of Sonic Underground,

 

On 2/3/2021 at 8:20 AM, Redemption said:

We all are excited for the new Netflix premeire Sonic Prime but before we get too excited i would like for us to take a lil detour on this years road of mystery and uncertainy to relive these past moments. Feel free to laugh, imagine, and have fun.

So get ready cause it's juice and jam time for our first show!!!...... Sonic The Hedeghog (SAT-AM)

 

Why Sonic Undergound matters to me

This series was every Deviant Art fan's wish. Sonic, Sonia and Manic are royalty who are searching for their mother the Queen of Mobius. Well this brought me the rock opera Sonic i never knew could actully be pretty cool having a song every episode that i could sing along too was great (cringy worthy but great!). I liked how they went around helping everyone and showing that they really are royalty. Barnaby is hillariosly naive and since Sonic doesn't want his sister around Barnaby. He'll do anything to pull his sister away from the proud and entitled Barnaby. It's a family story that warmed my heart it's a shame the series was never finished.

Well that was a nice addition wasn't it and if you still like Shadow going "Hmph" "this is exceptional" well then it's about time we reach new heights and dive into the anime show.... Sonic X!!!!

Believe it or not, the show came before DeviantART was even formed. Sonic Underground was in 1999, DeviantART was formed in 2000. So it's technically not possible for a show like this to be a "DeviantART fan's wish". Having said that, I wonder what the fan art and fanfic scene must have been like in the 20th century. Must have been way different before sites like Fanfiction.net and DeviantART came to be.

[Natie]

6 hours ago, Fuzzy Pickles! said:

The art style is crude. Characters, backgrounds, and towns have a much more simplistic design compared to the game and even SatAM but that could probably be explained by low budget

Cartooniness and surreal UPA-inspired backgrounds are not indicative of a lack of skill or money  

Tons of drawings in the show only one with a sense of solid form and construction could draw (feel like I shouldn't have to explain that.)

It's a conscious choice based on a mix of 30's classic cartoon twistedness and 60's abstract stylization, and considering Sonic is a Felix-style cartoon character in a geometric stylized world, it's no wonder cartoonists of the time would come to that interpretation. I mean look at the show some of the same artists did for Felix himself, it's even more insane:

 

 

 

[Guest]

I'd much rather watch a cartoon with AoStH's art style than any of the ugly, CalArts, digitally animated shit we have today.

[Cuz]

Mobius, SatAM, and the freedom fighters are all dear to my heart, and SatAM, AoStH were formative cartoons for me. Also took in a lot of classic Looney Toons, which AoStH paired up well with. Though, out of all the Sonic shows, now you'd be hard pressed to get me to sit down to it again after all these years, but I still think of it fondly. 

I'd be the first to admit SatAM hasn't aged all that well. One of my biggest gripes is when it started trying to be more serialized it actually contradicts an earlier episode, but there's a lot of heart with that cast. For the longest time the show only existed for me in the form of the 6 episodes that made it to VHS over here. Those were common rentals, where as I could find reruns of AoStH I never had that luck with SatAM. That might be partly why I prefer Season 1.

Though a fair deal later Underground was still a childhood series for me. I was one of the, I'll say "lucky", ones that actually discovered it while it was still in it's initial airing and I was excited to find a new Sonic thing that was so unique and out of left field to me. I still remember the first episode I saw, I caught the tail end of it and had so many questions running through my mind for the rest of the day. Was that pink hedgehog Amy?! I didn't see Tails, is he in this show? That van is cool! I took Sonic as a royal and his siblings rather well, even this early on I was privy to how compartmentalized this franchise got.

It flows a little better in places then SatAM even, between the first few episodes connecting and training the sibs, and then the 4 Knuckles episodes. I like to think I have a relatively positive view of the show thanks to encountering it early and ahead of it's meme up reputation. Which it deserves lets not kid ourselves.

 

I've been borderline apathetic to Sonic Boom for a good while but, I do want to check some of it out. My sense of humor leans more towards AoStH's slapstick and surrealism then the sitcom setting of Boom and I'm not a fan of Boom's take on Knuckles, or even Sonic (deadpan just isn't a good look for him in my mind. He comes off too disinterested and just not really in love with life like I feel the character should be). 

Sonic X is on average my 2nd favorite Sonic Show. 3rd if I weigh in the OVA. Still the most game accurate show. I love having the Chaotix, Rouge, and Shadow around. It's also pretty sitcom-y, but Sonic is having none of it. "Right, good, you all go live in that big house. If I'm not back on the roof by 5, don't worry, I just got lost in the mountains two countries over probably having a good time."

 

[Fuzzy Pickles!]

On 2/7/2021 at 5:52 PM, Natie said:

Cartooniness and surreal UPA-inspired backgrounds are not indicative of a lack of skill or money  

Tons of drawings in the show only one with a sense of solid form and construction could draw (feel like I shouldn't have to explain that.)

It's a conscious choice based on a mix of 30's classic cartoon twistedness and 60's abstract stylization, and considering Sonic is a Felix-style cartoon character in a geometric stylized world, it's no wonder cartoonists of the time would come to that interpretation. I mean look at the show some of the same artists did for Felix himself, it's even more insane:

 

 

 

Didn't say lack of skill, but otherwise fair enough. I wasn't aware of what really made AoSTH's art style the way it is and have to admit, that Felix intro isn't half bad because of it.

On 2/8/2021 at 5:30 PM, Angyu said:

I'd much rather watch a cartoon with AoStH's art style than any of the ugly, CalArts, digitally animated shit we have today.

For the most part, sure (but definitely give The Amazing World of Gumball a chance), but I'm not sure if I would put AoSTH among the greats in cartoons. It is a show that relies on the same variety of slapstick and being able to enjoy the show depends on that. If you've watched one episode, you know what the rest will look like.

[Guest]

15 hours ago, Fuzzy Pickles! said:

For the most part, sure (but definitely give The Amazing World of Gumball a chance), but I'm not sure if I would put AoSTH among the greats in cartoons. It is a show that relies on the same variety of slapstick and being able to enjoy the show depends on that. If you've watched one episode, you know what the rest will look like.

True, there are a lot of good CalArts cartoons, Gumball among my favs. Just wish the art style wasn't so ugly- but having a good story makes it easier to look past. Whereas AoStH in that style... likely would be borderline unwatchable.

[KnuxDLX]

I won’t comment on the others because I haven’t watched every episode of them, but Sonic X is Sonic for me. That show made the games come to life for me and it is conceptually and aesthetically everything that I want Sonic to be. I wish we had gotten more characters in the show because everyone that appeared was done so right. That show only went wrong with the non-game characters. 
 

also has one of my favorite theme songs (with lyrics) out of all Sonic media.

[Mega]

On 2/3/2021 at 11:37 AM, SBR2 said:

SatAM is a perfectly fine cartoon I just don't think it's a great Sonic cartoon.  One of my biggest problems is that they made Sonic really really dumb. Like he feels completely incapable of any kind of forward thinking and says dumb shit like thinking unscrambling a computer is like scrambling eggs.

Thaaaaat's because of season 2's flanderization. I recommend rewatching season 1 and the better season 2 episodes. Sonic is actually quite clever, showing a lot of on his feet thinking. Many season 1 episodes show him using his environment to his advantage, coming up with great improvisational strategies, and working well with his team.

Season 2 downgraded Sonic's smarts in certain episodes (e.g. Game Guy), presumably for humor, but I'd argue that in episodes like Sonic Conversion and parts of Blast to the Past he still has some of that craftiness. Sonic's just... impulsive, but his SatAM self isn't nearly as stupid as folks remember him being, isn't nearly as rude as folks remember him being, and is generally a fun character, IMO. Like... folks make him out to be a jerk, but he's really supportive of his friends, is willing to admit when he screws up, and show humility when they save him. He's reckless, for sure, definitely a bit cocky and doesn't always think before acting, but I really think folks don't give him enough credit when he's written well and not just as a "haha, look how dumb he is" character.

This is the guy who was able to get by without using his speed on multiple occasions (e.g. Super Sonic and Hooked on Sonics), tricked Robotnik's AI by mimicking his voice, and is able to turn many a robot's own fire power against 'em. I actually appreciated how in Blast to the Past, he sometimes noticed little things before Sal picked up on 'em, and I think that even in No Brainer he showed some pretty solid observational skills (e.g. picking up on that password).

I AM RAMBLING because I am a huge fan of the SatAM version of the character and have thought way too much about the dude.

[Guergy]

I like the Western cartoons myself. I enjoy AoSTH the most of out of all them. It was my first exposure to Sonic media outside of the games.