'Sonic the Movie' Unavailable for Licensing Due to Missing Paperwork

Ok, but seriously, how did Sega misplace contracts twice?

This is the worst running joke ever

This is somehow the most unsurprising development I can expect out of this company. It's a comedy.

How does the same shit happen 5 times? Did a monkey with a typewriter run their legal department in the 1990s?

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?

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.

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

That dvd copy on ebay hs just suddenly jumped up in price by quite a bit lol

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

Huh, okay.

Just wait for the current cast to all catch a severe cold and have them record new lines, easy 

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.

No but really what were the other times... Archie lost their paper, but the rest? I want to know what else is unavailable

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?"

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.

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.

Whose bright idea was it to put Mike Wazowski in charge of keeping track of paperwork?

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

It’s such a mess plus a bit shame I suppose mature for kids not to watch I guess.

Region-based distribution rights continue to be an outdated nuisance.

Aw man...I was hoping we would eventually get a Blu Ray release of this movie sometime in the future...