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Dreadknux Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 This post was recognized by Dreadknux! Dreadknux was awarded the badge 'Sonic News Tipster' and 75 points. Don't hold your breath for a re-release of 1999's 'Sonic the Movie' anytime soon - according to distribution company Discotek Media, SEGA is missing key licensing paperwork that could prevent the anime from ever seeing the light of day again outside of Japan. In a Q&A streamed a few hours ago, the Discotek team spoke about the Sonic OVA anecdotally when answering a question regarding a different anime license (Dominion Tank Police, from Toshiba). The show's host explained that the reason they could not license Sonic, despite their best efforts (and SEGA's apparent willingness to make it happen), was because of missing paperwork relating to music and voice actor royalties. "SEGA owns it, they know they own it, we were gonna license it, but they don't [know where] the paperwork for the music and the voices [are]," said one of the show's hosts. "They don't know who they have to pay residuals to on it and... [that's] kind of where the logjam is, they don't know where that is, so it can't be licensed out beyond Japan... in Japan I think it's still available on streaming, but it can't be licensed outside there because they don't know who to pay and what to pay them." This only appears to impact the international/English language version of the movie - in Japan, 'Sonic the Hedgehog' (as it's simply known there) originally released in 1996 as a two-part feature, and was a close collaboration between SEGA Japan and production company Pierrot. In 1999, SEGA partnered with ADV Films on the English-language dub and released the product as a full-length movie. However, ADV Films has long since been defunct; the parent company, AD Vision, shuttered in 2009, and the any paperwork relating to their subsidiary's projects have likely been scattered to the four winds, along with a number of its own licenses (many of which ended up with Funimation). So for now, SEGA is forced to make the Sonic OVA unavailable outside of Japan. Let's hope that paperwork turns up under someone's couch or something. You can catch the anecdote in full via the video below (at 1:49:54): Sonic News Tips Credit: GentlemanX Original Post Content: On tonight's Discotek Day Livestream, the Discotek team confirmed the reason the Sonic OVA remains unavailable outside of Japan. When answering a question regarding another license (Dominion Tank Police from Toshiba in case you were wondering), the Sonic OVA was used as an example of incomplete paperwork preventing a title from being licensed. Specifically, Sega was planning on making the Sonic OVA available for licensing again but encountered a problem when they could not find the paperwork detailing royalty rights. In particular, Sega was unable to know what royalties the voice actors and composer would be owed for a new licensing deal. Due to this, Sega is forced to make the OVA unavailable for licensing outside of Japan (in Japan, the OVA remains available for streaming). Discotek acknowledged that Sega is aware they own the rights to the OVA, but due to this snafu they cannot license it to third parties such as overseas licensors. So for anyone hoping the Sonic OVA will one day be made available on blu-ray or streaming in English speaking territories, it sounds like you may have a long time to wait and can only hope Sega of Japan finds the right paperwork. View full story Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phoenix Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 Ok, but seriously, how did Sega misplace contracts twice? 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 This is the worst running joke ever 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zaysho Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 This is somehow the most unsurprising development I can expect out of this company. It's a comedy. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tornado Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 How does the same shit happen 5 times? Did a monkey with a typewriter run their legal department in the 1990s? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dejimon11 Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 54 minutes ago, Tornado said: How does the same shit happen 5 times? Did a monkey with a typewriter run their legal department in the 1990s? What were the other 4? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IHaveACaseOfSonicMania Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 (edited) 11 hours ago, Dejimon11 said: What were the other 4? I don't know, but one I know of, though it wasn't Sega it was more Archie, was the Ken Penders lawsuit. Archie lost the paperwork, and the Ken Penders got the rights to the characters he owned, from what I remember. That is the only one I know of. Edited January 9 by IHaveACaseOfSonicMania 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaBigJ Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 On 1/9/2024 at 7:30 AM, Tornado said: How does the same shit happen 5 times? Did a monkey with a typewriter run their legal department in the 1990s? It'd be on brand for SEGA and Sonic to be honest. That or just shitty luck. Which is also on brand. Sucks on both ends tbh 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
castell-neath Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 That dvd copy on ebay hs just suddenly jumped up in price by quite a bit lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jm1991 Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 RIP The OVA is weird, luckily people can just watch it online, and it had a VHS release (which I own) and I think a DVD release. Anyway, it is kinda sad the OVA can't have an official release in the US now, Lost Paperwork, strange isn't it 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knight Terror Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 Huh, okay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Indigo Rush Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 Just wait for the current cast to all catch a severe cold and have them record new lines, easy 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash Hikari Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 Man, Sega messed up again. Luckily, I can easily watch the OVA dub online whenever I want! It may be weird, but I really enjoy it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Hot Jack Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 (edited) No but really what were the other times... Archie lost their paper, but the rest? I want to know what else is unavailable Edited January 9 by Red Hot Jack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GX -The Spindash- Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 This happens all the time. Not just at SEGA, but unless you have a really, REALLY solid record preservation at your company, something not being relevant for a decade can just get it lost. Square Enix is an especially good example of this, having lost the source code to multiple games, most notably parts of the Mana series and Kingdom Hearts. If we're real here, if it's the early-to-mid 2000s, and your company has gone through such catastrophic failure that you have to completely reshape your business around being a third party developer, the last thing on your mind is going to be "Okay, but do we still have all the paperwork for some outsourced English dub of an OVA we made 7-8 years ago?" 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Ryannumber1gamer Posted January 9 Moderator Share Posted January 9 Honestly, what this makes me wonder is if a redub could be possible. A redub for Sonic X and the like was always a impossibility due to scale and size for very little return cost. But for the OVA, I’d argue that the OVA exists in that golden time era where it’s a fairly beloved community oddity, has a kinda shit dub (that has its charms), would only be the one movie they’d need to work on, etc. On top of that, since it’s a low number of game characters who appear (Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Eggman, and Metal), they probably could get away with getting the game VAs to redub it and then just getting some anime actors to do the other cast members. I don’t know, it’d be lame to not be able to have a official release of the OVA in its original form, and losing the banger soundtrack would also suck, but I’d still rather a redub than nothing at all. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GentlemanX Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 They're missing the paperwork for residuals due the Japanese cast and the Japanese composer. A redub of the English version wouldn't be enough. They'd need to redub the movie AND produce a new soundtrack. And that's just the English dub, if you wanted a Japanese language track on there you'd need to produce a new one for that too. It'd be a nearly completely different experience. The only reason the original Japanese version is streaming in Japan is because their contracts allow for that in a way international distribution doesn't. If the English dub was the sole issue they would be no reason Discotek couldn't just release it sub only like their recent Sonic X set. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SupahBerry Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 (edited) Whose bright idea was it to put Mike Wazowski in charge of keeping track of paperwork? Edited January 9 by Berry Xmas 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osmium Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 (edited) 2 hours ago, GX -The Spindash- said: This happens all the time. Not just at SEGA, but unless you have a really, REALLY solid record preservation at your company, something not being relevant for a decade can just get it lost. Square Enix is an especially good example of this, having lost the source code to multiple games, most notably parts of the Mana series and Kingdom Hearts. If we're real here, if it's the early-to-mid 2000s, and your company has gone through such catastrophic failure that you have to completely reshape your business around being a third party developer, the last thing on your mind is going to be "Okay, but do we still have all the paperwork for some outsourced English dub of an OVA we made 7-8 years ago?" Probably the most reasonable take on here. SEGA's general incompetence is legendary at this point, but this is the sort of stuff that is to be expected with the company's history. Also, please no redub, possible or not. The current cast wouldn't fit the OVA incarnations of the characters at all. Edited January 9 by Osmium 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LegoFedora Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 Damn, this sucks. I guess I can't say it's too surprising considering the OVA has never really been used since its release as far as I know, so it probably should've been apparent that something was up with it. They could redub it if they wanted to, but I can't blame them for not wanting to go through all the trouble of doing so. Plus, it simply wouldn't be the same without the original voices. This will always be the classic sonic voice for me, and it'd be super weird to hear Roger's voice coming out instead. It is what it is, at least we have pretty high quality rips of it on youtube that Sega/Sonic Team doesn't seem to mind being up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonicstitch Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 OK, remember that someone found the Look-a-Like Lost Original https://youtu.be/nUENLoRGvvs?si=Lr0v4LZJzh7C3Pa4 that sounds like a good first step in finding out who owns the OVA OST. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 It's not a question of who owns it, we know Sega does. The problem is figuring out how much they'd have to pay the Japanese cast and composers in residuals. The only feasible way I can see them figuring that stuff out is if they tried reaching out to them for their individual contracts, but I don't know if theirs would even cover royalties from overseas. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sega DogTagz Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 If the re-released it for free... like making it available to stream or something, would that put them in the clear of paying residuals because they would not be turning a profit? anyway, I'm safe. I still have my white VHS tape of the OVA in a vault and a Digital copy burned to my hard-drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aroon Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 It’s such a mess plus a bit shame I suppose mature for kids not to watch I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salamander Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 Region-based distribution rights continue to be an outdated nuisance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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