Early Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon

A 1993 issue of Sonic the Poster Mag contains images of what people have called an Early Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon. These images are part of an article which contains info about the two upcoming Sonic cartoons, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog. The images could represent either cartoon but the serious tone of the action in the images and the inclusion of a Freedom Team, which sounds like a early name for the Freedom Fighters, imply it was an early version of SatAM. It is also possible that the images represent a totally different cartoon altogether.

A Resistance is born/A Heroes Reward

These images feature the Princess Acorn character.

• Resistance.jpg
• Mystery3.jpg

Freedom Team

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In this image several characters are shown Johnny Lightfoot (rabbit), Tux (penguin), Princess Acorn (probably a squirrel), Sonic, Joe Sushi (walrus), Chirps (chicken), Porker Lewis (pig), and Flicky (bird). Tails isn't shown, so the concept art may have been created before Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was even released.

The characters seem to be based on the animals rescued by Sonic in the first game.

The characters Sally, Bunnie, and Rotor have similarities to Princess Acorn, Johnny Lightfoot, and Joe Sushi as in they are based on the same animals. The Porker Lewis in the image has a different design than he does in Fleetway's Sonic the Comic.

Dr Robotnik's Robotic Transformation Machine

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Robotniks design is different from any of the cartoons. He has black fingernails, a white mustache, and a green tongue.

This conveyor belt roboticizer is totally different from the cartoon version, which was a glass capsule.

One character is shown which doesn't have a corresponding animal in the games, a wolf. It's not clear if it was to be a supporting character or just a random character thrown in the picture. The wolf concept was used for the character Antoine in the SatAM.

Sales Card

This sales card shows the differently designed Robotnik and Princess Acorn. It also has a mention of Sonic the Hedgehog and Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog on the back of the card, meaning this card represented at least one of them. This means one of the cartoons was meant to have this robotnik design.

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  Front of card

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  Back of card

Early opening sequence

A prototype opening sequence was apparently created for the show. A few cels have been found, matching the storyboard found in the bonus section of the DVD boxset released by Shout!Factory in 2007.

Related Books

These characters and world actually made it to a Sonic book series, written by Martin Adams. In these books Robotnik was once Kintobor, a good and nice doctor living in Mobius. He´s stated to be the only human in the planet. Sonic found him long time ago and Kintobor helped him to gain even more speed, becoming blue. Kintobor was also investigating the Chaos Emeralds, but he failed to do it right, so they blew up his laboratory and transformed him into Robotnik. From then, both Sonic and Robotnik are searching the grey emerald, the one who have amazing powers and can control all the other Chaos Emeralds.

This world is actually quite classic, being in the first book locations like Labyrinth, Green Hill or Scrap Brain, rings, monitors, and even badniks like Buzz Bombers, Burrobots... Although the stories are somehow a mix between Aosth ans SatAM, having some funny moments like in Aosth and some serious adventure moments like in SatAM, although with a lot lighter story. There are four books around this universe:

• Sonic the Hedgehog in Robotnik's Laboratory
• Sonic the Hedgehog in the Fourth Dimension
• Sonic the Hedgehog and the Silicon Warriors
• Sonic the Hedgehog in Castle Robotnik

Model sheets

• Antoinemodel.jpg

  Antoine model sheet

• Mbunnie.png

  Bunnie Rabbot model sheet

• Mrobotnik.png

  Robotnik model sheet

• Mrotor.png

  Rotor model sheet

• MSally.jpg

  Sally model sheet

• Msnively.png

  Snively model sheet

• Mswatbot.png

  Swatbot model sheet

• Mtails.png

  Tails model sheet

• Ring1.png

  Sketch of Sonic with a Power Ring

• Ring2.png

  Sketch of Sonic with a Power Ring

• Ring3.png

  Sketch of Sonic with a Power Ring

• Ring4.png

  Sketch of Sonic with a Power Ring

• Ring5.png

  Sketch of Sonic with a Power Ring

• Ring6.png

  Sketch of Sonic with a Power Ring

• Sallyconcept.png

  Concept art of Sally, powered by the Deep Power Stones from The Doomsday Project

• SonicDconcept.png

  Concept art of Sonic, powered by the Deep Power Stones from The Doomsday Project

• Antoine.png

  Final model of Antoine

• Bunnie.png

  Final model of Bunnie

• Lupe.png

  Final model of Lupe

• Naugus.png

  Final model of Naugus

• Rotor.png

  Final model of Rotor

• Snively.png

  Final model of Snively

• Sonicsatam.png

  Final model of Sonic

• Tailssatam.png

  Final model of Tails

External links

• Article about the early promotional images for the cartoon.