Sonic the Hedgehog (anime)
From Sonic Retro
The original Sonic the Hedgehog animated video, referred to as Sonic the Movie or Sonic OVA by some, features Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower, Knuckles the Echidna, Dr. Eggman, Hyper Metal Sonic, and a few original characters, such as the human Sara.
Sonic the Hedgehog was released on May 31st, 1996 in Japan and was presented on two different VHS episodes ("Journey to Eggmanland" and "Sonic vs. Metal Sonic"). ADV Films dubbed it in English in 1999, and released it as Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie in Europe with a single box video. It was released in America on September 8, 1999.
World
The main setting of this Sonic cartoon it is Planet Freedom, and it has many different accessible "dimensions" (dimensions is probably a mis-translation for lands or regions). The area the series starts out on is Land of the Sky.
Story
Sonic is relaxing on the beach when Tails comes out to test a new bodyboard and asks Sonic to give it a try. Sonic declines, and Tails starts to surf. As he is surfing he encounters small airplane controlled by Old Man Owl, an old owl anthropomorph. Old Man Owl is having engine trouble and starts to come dangerously close to crashing. Tails boards the plane and tries to help but is unable to do much. Sonic runs after them after hearing Tails yell for help several times. Fortunately, Sonic manages to rescue them. Shortly after, Old Man Owl tells Sonic that the President has summoned Sonic to his residence. Sonic and Tails race to the Presidential Palace, where they encounter Eggman holding the President and his daughter Sara hostage. Sonic is told by Eggman that his city, dubbed Eggmanland (Robotropolis in the English dub), has been taken over by a metal version of himself called Black Eggman (Metal Robotnik in the English dub). Sonic reluctantly agrees to confront Black Eggman.
After Sonic and Tails leave Sara enters Eggman's ship and starts fiddling with the controls. Eggman chases her and the door shuts and the machine exits through the roof. Meanwhile, Sonic and Tails go into the Land of Darkness, encountering badniks, before reaching an abandoned city. Once there, a long confrontation between themselves and Black Eggman takes place. Sonic he gets trapped in a hole which is quickly filling with water but is saved by Knuckles in a nick of time. Shortly after, Sonic destroys Black Eggman (but not completely).
Sonic, Tails and Knuckles go into the core of the city. After reaching the control panel for the electricity generator Sonic is trapped inside a glass container and his DNA is electronically scanned. Sonic & his friends finally manage to shut off the switch. Black Eggman appears, giving the appearance he was intact but he is seen crumbling and Eggman and Sara can be seen among the rubble. After regaining his composure Eggman introduces Sonic to a robotic counterpart, Hyper Metal Sonic. Eggman explains to Sonic that Hyper Metal Sonic was programmed with Sonic's DNA and thus would know his every move. A battle ensues between Sonic and his robotic counterpart and goes skybound. Hyper Metal Sonic wins, and Tails and Knuckles return to the Land of the Sky. Tails finds out that Hyper Metal Sonic is out to destroy the world by destroying the Ice Caps and causing the continents to drift apart. Tails and Knuckles go to the Ice Cap and find Sonic & Hyper Metal Sonic fighting. Tails corrupts Metal's data with the navigational watch given to him by Eggman earlier, and Sonic attacks Hyper Metal Sonic, causing serious damage. Hyper Metal Sonic hears the President and Old Man Owl, who are trapped in their airplane which just had a crash landing. Hyper Metal Sonic saves them but is blown into a magma filled crevice and clutches onto the side. Sonic tries to rescue him, but Metal says "There is only one Sonic.." and falls to the bottom. While Sonic is smarting from his injuries, Eggman says that he still has Sonic's DNA and that he can create more Sonic clones. One of Eggman's robotic projectiles wanders by as he is saying this and explodes, destroying the CD.
Trivia & Censorship
- In the original translations Knuckles is presented as a mole and not as an echidna; this mistake even re-occurs in the character-bios featured in the DVD release.
- Sonic Anime was also censored somewhat as the anime was originally aimed at teenagers. Most of the censorship issues are mainly concerning not translating certain Japanese curse words, but in the scene where Sonic is supposed to show his middle-finger at Black Eggman, ADV changed the scene so that it seemed that Sonic was holding up his index-finger. However, in the DVD version Sonic still gives him "the finger." Other censored scenes include:
- In one of the early scenes, one of the robots is holding Sara in a perverted way.
- Sara calls Metal Sonic a "pervert" when she and Sonic crash into Eggman's ship and he crashes through the bottom and accidentally looks up her dress. Sonic, who basically sees, feels and thinks everything Metal Sonic does, has an adverse effect on this event. However, it could have possibly been the effect of him landing on his groin on Eggman's rocket.
- In one scene, Tails accidentally grabs Sara's breasts. Knuckles, in response says: "I never thought you would stoop that low".
Production Credits
Executive Producer: Haruki Nakayama
Production Manager: Kyoichi Mori
Producers: Koichiro Sugie, Akinori Ohno, Takayuki Sugizaki, Naoharu Hokutani
Production Directors: Sonic Team, Yuji Naka, Naoto Oshima
Music Production Director: Junji Fujita
Music: Mitsuhiro Tada
Ending Theme "Look-a-Like": Mitsuhiro Tada (Music & Arrangement), Riu Konaka (Lyrics & Performance)
Storyboards: Sadayori Sekijima
Original Story: Masashi Kubota
Production Design: Kazunori Ikegami
Character Designs & Director of Animation: Tsuneo Ninomiya
Assistant Animation Director: Fumie Muroi
Mechanica Coordinator: Haruo Miyakawa
Key Animation: Fumie Muroi, Minoru Kibata, Junichi Hayakawa, Toshiya Washida, Masaru Yoshioka, Koji Itou, Nobutaka Itou, Shiro Kudaka, Hideaki Sakamoto, Fumie Muroi, Fujio Oda, Junichi Hayakawa, Masaro Yoshioka, Masahiko Matsuyama, Koji Aso, Minoru Kibata, Hiroyuki Yoshimura, Junichi Takaoka, Hideaki Sakamoto
Art Director: Seiko Akashi
Backgrounds: Studio Uni, Masaru Amamizu, Takashi Nakamura, Akira Suzuki, Reiko Ikeda, Kaori Nishikawa
Animation Check: Reiko Yamada
Animation: Anime World Osaka, Tezuka Production, Yoshiyuki Naritaka, Studio Pierrot Fukuoka Annex, Studio Pierrot Art Division, Tezuka Production, Yoshiyuki Naritaka, Studio Pierrot Fukuoka Annex, Studio Pierrot Art Devision
Color Designation: Yoshiko Takiguchi
Finishing: Anime World Osaka, Tezuka Production, Studio OM Aomori Works, Yoshiyuki Naritaka, Studio Pierrot Fukuoka Annex, Tezuka Production, Studio OM Aomori Works, Hiroyuki Naritakara, Studio Pierrot Fukuoka Annex, Studio Run Run
Digital Animation: Junya Koshiba
Special Effects: Kenji Ikeda
Finishing Check: Toshio Kaido, Izumi Murasaki, Yoshiko Shimizu
Director of Photography: Motoaki Ikegami
Photography: Studio Cosmos, Katsunori Mahara, Noriko Suzuki, Tetsuo Ofuji, Yoichi Kuroda, Hiroshi Noguchi, Shinji Ikegami, Naohisa Kijima, Takashi Shimada
Recording Director: Fusanobu Fujiyama
Mixing: Akiyoshi Yoda
Sound Effects: Daisuke Jinbo, Swarer Production
Recording Studio: Studio Echo, Jinnan Studio
Sound Effects Production: Jinnan Studio, Hiromi Kikuta
Editing: Seiji Morita
Film Processing: IMAGICA
Titles: Maki Productions
Production Coordinators: Hiroyuki Fujiware, Daisuke Nishioka
Production: General Entertainment Co., Ltd.
Animation Production: Studio Pierrot Co., Ltd.
Original Production: Sega Enterprises, Ltd.
Director: Kazunori Ikegami
English Language Version: Presented by A.D.V. Films
Project Translator: Keisuke Okamoto
International Coordinator: Toru Iwakami
Executive Producer: John Ledford
Produced & Directed by: Gary Dehan
English ADR Script: Jennifer Presto, Gary Dehan
Production Manager: Lisa J. Miller
Sound Design: Paul Killam
Art Director: Laura Attwell
Logo Design: Kevin Hinnant
Production Coordinator: Janice Williams
English ADR Recorded at: Monster Island
English ADR Recording Engineer: Charles Campbell
Production Assistants: Kelly Beard, Maki Nagono, Akiko Yoshii
Production Secretary: Anna Bechtol
Voice actors
Box Art
"Journey to Eggmanland" JP cover (VHS)
"Sonic vs Metal Sonic" JP cover (VHS)
US/EU cover (VHS)
Early US/EU cover (DVD)
US cover (DVD)
