Sonic the Hedgehog (TV series)
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| Sonic the Hedgehog |
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| Studio: DiC Entertainment |
| Number of seasons: 2 |
| Number of episodes: 26 |
| Original airdate: 1993-09-18 — 1994-12-03 |
Sonic the Hedgehog (also referred to as SatAM within the fanbase) is an American animated television series created by DiC Entertainment. First airing on Saturday, 18 September 1993, the series (along with its lighter, syndicated sister show Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog) was the face of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise on television through the mid-90s.
The series was produced by companies in the United States, Italy, Spain and Korea. It was a co-production between DIC Entertainment and Sega of America, Inc. in the United States and Reteitalia S.p.A. in Italy in association with Telecinco; the animation work was outsourced to foreign studios such as Saerom Animation in Korea.
Though canceled after only two seasons, the show maintains a cult following, with a rabid fanbase that continues to dig into the history of the show and dream of the day when the second season's cliffhanger can be resolved on screen.
Contents
Series premise
The show Sonic the Hedgehog revolves around the exploits of the title character and the rest of the Freedom Fighters as they go up against the evil tyranny of Dr. Robotnik and his nephew, Snively. As detailed in "Blast to the Past," Robotnik was once known as Warlord Julian, who had served under King Acorn (the ruler of Mobotropolis) during a conflict known only as "The Great War." With the war won, King Acorn orders the dismantling of the army, and prepares to change Julian's title to Ministry of Science. Unbeknown to him, Julian and his nephew have already plotted a takeover of the kingdom, and overnight transform the peaceful Mobotropolis into the mechanical wasteland known as Robotropolis, named after Julian's new moniker.
While most of the population is roboticized, a small group of people are able to escape, made up of mostly children, including Sonic and Princess Sally Acorn, the king's daughter. Living in the hidden village of Knothole within the Great Forest, Sonic and Sally head up the group of Freedom Fighters, which include Rotor Walrus (the go-to tech guy), Bunnie Rabbot (the half-roboticized southern lass), Antoine D'Coolette (the comic relief) and Miles "Tails" Prower, though he is forbidden to go on most missions due to his age. Through the series, Sally plans various raids into the Robotropolis fortress, in order to impede the operation of the city, stop Robotnik's latest schemes, or to disarm his SWATbot forces. All the while, they search for their loved ones, Sally hoping to discover the fate of her father and restore him to the throne.
The Freedom Fighters, though not technology prepared, do have a few secret weapons up their sleeves. The first of these are NICOLE, a sentient hand-held computer operated by Sally. The computer, which is able to bypass most of Robotnik's security measures, becomes an aid in infiltration and information. Knothole is also the home of the Power Ring Grotto, a lake which holds a device that produces a power ring every 12 hours. Created by Uncle Chuck, it gives Sonic a dose of super speed and power that can help him escape even the stickiest of situations.
Though the Freedom Fighters are aware of other groups fighting against Robotnik, it is not until Princess Sally reunites with her father briefly (Robotnik having trapped him in an alternate dimension known as The Void along with its discoverer, Naugus) that she learns of the other groups, given a list by her father. Among them are the Wolf Pack, who aid the Freedom Fighters in a plan to defeat Robotnik once and for all. While in the finale of the series Sonic and Sally believe they have won out in the end, the emergence of Snively and a pair of glowing eyes prove otherwise, creating a cliffhanger that would ultimately never be followed up on.
Airing History
The series premiered on September 18th, 1993 on ABC's Saturday morning lineup. The first episode that aired was Sonic Boom, the actual pilot not airing until December 11th, becoming the final episode aired that season. The reason for this shift in order is most likely attributed with the tone of "Heads or Tails" being drastically different from the rest of the series, and airing only to fill the needed 13 episodes ordered. The second season premiered on September 10th, 1994 with "Sonic Conversion", even though the next episode aired, "Game Guy", was the first produced. Aside from this switch, the rest of the storyline building in the second season aired as created, with the finale being shown on December 3rd, 1994. Though reruns for both seasons continued to air through May 1995, the show would not be picked up for a third season and was dropped from rotation.
Reruns continued to be aired in the United States on the USA Network during their USA Cartoon Express and USA Action Extreme Team morning blocks in the 90's, often being paired with its sister show, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. Currently, reruns are aired by the Starz Kids and Family premium network, and episodes can also be streamed through the Starz website and apps (and through cable/satellite/telco providers' own streaming apps).
The show was also aired in Canada on the CTV network, premiering on the same day as in America (mainly for "simsub" purposes, SimSub being a practice by Canadian TV providers where an American network is substituted over by the Canadian station airing that program for people to see Canadian advertising). However, while the show ended its rotation on ABC in May, the Canadian network continued to air the series through the summer, showing the finale once more on September 2, 1995. In Europe, the show initially aired in the UK on Channel 4, between 1994 and 1996. Years later, UK stations The Children's Channel, Pop and ITV2 replayed the series in syndication. In Ireland the first season was aired on RTE Two. The series was eventually dubbed into Japanese.
Development
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Main article: Sonic the Hedgehog (TV series)/Development |
Voice actors
| Role | Voice actor |
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| Sonic the Hedgehog | Jaleel White |
| Princess Sally Acorn | Kath Soucie |
| NICOLE | Kath Soucie |
| Antoine Depardieu | Rob Paulsen |
| Bunnie Rabbot | Christine Cavanaugh |
| Uncle Chuck | William Windom |
| Dr. Robotnik/SWATbots/Additional Voices | Jim Cummings |
| Snively | Charlie Adler |
| Cluck | Frank Welker |
| Dulcy the Dragon | Cree Summer |
| Tails | Bradley Pierce |
| Rotor | Mark Ballou (Season 1)/ Cam Brainard (Season 2) |
| Young Princess Sally | Dana Hill |
| Young Sonic | Tahj Mowry |
| Lupe | Shari Belafonte |
| Naugus | Michael Bell |
| Rosie the Nanny/Ro-Becca | April Winchell |
| King Acorn | Tim Curry |
| Ari Ram | Dorian Harewood |
Episode guide
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Main article: List of Sonic the Hedgehog (TV series) episodes |
Syndication
| Country | Television channels |
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 United States
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 United Kingdom
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 France
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 Canada
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 Ireland
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 Portugal
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 Brazil
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 Spain
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 Italy
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 Netherlands
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 Chile
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 Colombia
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 India
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 Syria
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 Australia
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 South Korea
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 Indonesia
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Home releases
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Main article: Sonic the Hedgehog (TV series)/Home releases |
Miscellaneous
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Trivia sections are bad Try and incorporate this information into the main article. See the manual of style to find out why. |
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- Though never featured in a game, Princess Sally, Rotor, Bunnie, and Sonic's dog Muttski all made cameo appearances in the game Sonic Spinball during the bonus rounds. In addition, the Sega Technical Institute once had plans on creating a game based on the series, being one of the many concepts thrown around during the "Sonic X-Treme" era.
- The original bible for the series, which served as a partial inspiration for the Archie series, was also used for the background in a series of children's novels written by Michael Teitelbaum. In the novel, the meeting between Sonic and Sally as teenagers when the coup occurs is maintained, though it adds its own concepts, depicting Sonic and Robotnik growing up together, something that is not mentioned in the series bible.
Magazine articles
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Main article: Sonic the Hedgehog (TV series)/Magazine articles |
External links
- All full episodes of the show officially uploaded on YouTube, courtesy of WildBrain Spark.
- Sonic the Hedgehog on Amazon: US (Season 1), US (Season 2), US (Season 1; CONtv), US (Season 2; CONtv), UK (Season 1), UK (Season 2)
- Sonic the Hedgehog on CBS All Access (archive)
- Sonic the Hedgehog on Paramount+
- Sonic the Hedgehog on Apple TV+
References
| Sonic the Hedgehog television shows |
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| Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (1993) | Sonic the Hedgehog (1993-1994) | Sonic Underground (1999) | Sonic X (2003-2004) | Sonic Boom (2014-2017) | Sonic Prime (2022-2024) | Knuckles (2024) |
| Sonic the Hedgehog (TV series) | |
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