There's nothing quite like waking up early on a Saturday morning and watching cartoons as a child, and back in the early '90s, our favourite speedy blue hedgehog was among the stars on-screen in the UK, US and Canada. One dedicated group of fans has revealed that they're actually working to bring him back for a whole new season.
From 1993 to 1995, a show called Sonic the Hedgehog (dubbed Sonic SatAM by fans due to its Saturday morning time slot), was aired. It was darker in tone than the famous Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon and only lasted for two seasons before being cancelled; here's a quick look at the theme tune to jog your memory.
This new revival movement is being handled by a group called 'Fans United for SatAM'. They've been secretly working on a third season with the intent of making it official with SEGA down the line should the company want to get involved. Don't forget, Sonic Mania was developed by a team of staff who had previously worked on fangames, so anything's possible.
Paul Scott, creative director on the project, has shared the following with Nintendo Life:
"The series was cancelled 25 years ago but we have been working diligently to revive this epic show, staying faithful to the original 3rd season notes from the original staff, and give it the closure that fans have been long waiting for. Our group (Team Sea3on) has been involved in this project for several years."
They've set up a Patreon to help crowdfund this series, and have also released a trailer to show how the whole thing's coming along.
Do you remember the original show? Are you up for seeing a fanmade revival? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
Interested in reading more? > Feature: A Supersonic History of Sonic Cartoons
Comments 45
This venture seems unlikely given the legal troubles surrounding the Archie cast of Sonic characters such as Sally Acorn, Rotor Walrus, Bunnie Rabbot, etc.
If this series were being being produced as a fan project then there's a chance it would be allowed to continue. However, I am rather unsure how well the legal department at SEGA will take the idea of their IP being used for profits which is how Patreon will be looked at.
Way past cool!
Wait, didn't the comics continue the show? On top of thay, didn't the comics have some legal stuff to where they own a lot of SatAm stuff?
@RupeeClock
Ken Penders is completely to blame for the Archie run to be cancelled. He may have been the creator of some of the characters but he does not own the characters, that's what started most of the legal troubles is that he wanted to take his characters and create a seperate universe from Sonic and he wanted to be paid for reprints of his work Archie published (ex trade paperbacks).
This show was fantastic. I can’t believe it’s 25 years old! I watched on second hand VHS taped that my mum had recorded for my older brother. It’s tragic how we never got to see Snivelly’s revenge!
The animation doesn't look right. Looks kinda stiff at parts and stuff. There's also lack of shading on the characters. Only thing they got right was some of the expressions. Sally certainly seemed off to me.
Also, it won't be the same without the original voice cast.
I don't care how bad this might be. Bring it on!
The comics were great (I got issues 0 - 158 before I stopped in 2006) but I always wanted an animated continuation.
One of my favorite 90's cartoons. I wouldn't mind seeing the cyberpunk Sonic cartoon return to the air waves. As an official thing. Not as some fan project.
The other Sonic cartoon was more or less a Tex Avrey clone. Very Looney Toons-esque. Didn't keep my interest as a kid. But THIS show was my jam. Still definitely a light hearted kids cartoon but with some much darker subtext, and complex plot structures. These 2 seasons did more for Sonic's brand recognition than most actual game releases did.
I hope for their sake that the VERY FIRST thing they did, was ask permission...
I love this cartoon. I still have the pilot episode (along with Tales from the Cryptkeeper) recorded on a tape from that first Saturday morning. The tone was perfect in my opinion. With some tweaking it could have been amazing. I always thought the ADVENTURES series was too Looney Tunes and did not fit the universe. And that THEME SONG!!!! I still randomly break into it when grocery shopping and my kids look at me like I'm nuts.
@Desrever
ROFL. Guess I should have read all the comments before putting in my two cents!
Patreon?! The entitlement is strong with this one.
If they are going to do a continuation of The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and need a new voice for Dr. Robotnik I can do it.
How does a 3 replace an S? (Looking at the word Season in the video).
In terms of the show, I loved it when I was a kid and parts of it still hold up today. Whoever was Robotnik did an outstanding job! Still, there were elements of the show that I hated going back to. The biggest one was Antoine and Sonic himself, both of whom I couldn't stand, what with Antoine being a total baby 100% of the time and Sonic being a total egomaniac (true to the character at least, but I ended up not liking him at all on my repeat watch), but both of them had more variety in personality in the comics. I also didn't like Tails that much, but he had his moments.
I think that this one is gonna land in legal trouble. Using Patreon to help fund a Sonic fan project? Also, if they were to pitch this to SEGA, why would they wanna continue Sonic SatAM of all things? The show isn’t very representative of how SEGA wants to portray Sonic now a days, let alone now that the Classic characters are portrayed as mute in Mania Adventures and don’t talk like in SatAM. Also, the designs of Sonic, Tails, and Eggman (or Robotnik) were ditched years ago for their Japanese counterparts. Just food for thought.
That animation looks, to put it frankly, awful. Best of luck to them, but unless they step up their game, I don’t see them succeeding.
Man, I wish I watched the first Sonic cartoon from my childhood. Instead I watched The Adventures Of Sonic The Hedgehog instead.
Reminds me of Richard Kuta and his "Sonic Fan Film"... oh boy...
@Peace-Boy The animation is my biggest complaint, too. It looked to me like cheap Flash animation. I feel for them needing money to make this thing what it should be, but at the same time, there's no guarantee that the animation would improve to where it needs to be once they get my money. It seems to me that you would make every effort to make something like this little show piece as perfect as you can. If that's what they can do, then no thank you.
Oh no not this trash
The shows and characters are awful but best of luck.
Sonic SatAM: A.K.A. the Sonic show people like for not having anything to do with Sonic.
Lots of hate here, sad to see. Not everyone likes it, clearly, and they don't have to. Even if you're not interested, I recommend watching Nostalgia Critic's review of SATAM. In a nutshell, it didn't insult kids' intelligence, and seeing as how I was in elementary school and loved the hell out of it over Adventures, it must have done a few things right. I watched it again recently and a few episodes my wife watched, and she doesn't get it. Again it's not going to win over everyone, but the producers showed effort, and a story with character progression even if on the subtle side. Kids based cartoons with a story is a bit of a novelty but something I really wish were more popular. The fact that Sonic and crew are involved was icing on the cake! Or maybe they're the main reason you stick around. At any case, I loved the series and it has its faults, but would love to see it continued. Good luck!
This cartoon may have been the first "dramatic" cartoon I ever watched and loved. The vibe of this show was that Sonic and Princess Sally were leading the forest creatures in a desperate fight for survival against Robotnik and his SwatBots, who wanted to turn the entire forest and it's inhabitants into machines. I was watching this series alongside reading the Sonic comic book, which was essentially following the same overall story as the cartoon. This cartoon was appointment television for me and I was up every Saturday morning pumped and ready to watch it. This series and the comic book defined the world of sonic for me as a child, and the later Sonic cartoon that came after was just too light hearted and wacky in comparison.
I was not a fan of any of the western Sonic cartoons growing up. To me the best Sonic animations were the shorts that came out in conjunction with Sonic Mania. Now those I would watch!
I remember the show. It doesn't need to be brought back 25 years late like Picard.
@RupeeClock Pretty sure SEGA owns the rights for Sally, Rotor, Bunnie & Antoine.
@TempOr I felt Boom had the same vibe as Adventures.
@TurboTEF They need to choose the good stuff from the comics and animate those. Before the reboot and cancellation Sally was a killer robot, Antoine's face blew up, and Eggman was on a rampage. I know that Archie Sonic online continued the storyline. Chech it out.
I'd be down with it as long as they use the updated classic freedom fighter designs from the comics. Seems unlikely, tho.
One job: GET JALEEL WHITE on board!
The animation seems jerky and stiff.
I hate to sound harsh but I feel they should put more effort into this teaser if they are pitching this for an official release, especially since SEGA was partially responsible for the Archie series getting axed.
Edit: Maybe I spoke too soon. They did acknowledge on their Patreon page that the teaser was rather poor in quality and promised much more. I'm still fairly skeptical but I guess we shouldn't just collectively dismiss it without thinking about how things on going on their end.
As someone who used to use Deviantart back in high school, I have bad memories of the Sonic fanbase. lol
@RupeeClock None of those characters are owned by Archie, actually, but by Sega of America.
They were originally created for the show, not the comic.
Archie or Ken Penders owns the characters they created for the comic.
Ah I remember watching this lol
Sonic Sez
Again... Being reminded of Sonic Hates Smoking yt poop and all the other offensive stuff people made of the comic strips... Oh dear. Lol
Well, coukd we get a little more serious vibe like Underground? Would be down for watching that!
WowNO. THIS LOOKS HORRIBLE.
I love YouTube animations, but this looks horrible for a project this ambitious. And Sally's voice p***es me off.
What are you serious! I mean i never liked the show anyhow even when i was a kid no offense to the show but. If thats the case they need to bring back sonic underground that show had so much potential then any of the 90s sonic cartoons and would have been very successful if wasnt cancelled.
What the hell is this? Sonic the Hedgehog: Wand of Gamelon?
I'm actually pretty tempted to back this, because although I still haven't gotten around to watching the series, I do know it was cancelled on a cliffhanger, and no show deserves that. Also, worse Sonic shows existed longer than this one, which sounds amazing...
Saw it in the past a couple of times. It was fun.
These guys put an official trailer not too long ago and they have honestly stepped their game up. They even got the vocalist from Crush 40 to sing the theme. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzJBq-fPrF4
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