Sonic Concept Art by DiC: SatAM Concepts Look NOTHING Like The Final Outcome

[Indigo Rush]

Alright, so on eBay, there are some old animation cels and concept sketches from AoStH, SatAM and Underground. Search "Sonic Animation" on eBay and you'll be able to bid on them for around $10-20 a pop. What's interesting though is the early SatAM concepts...

 

 

...in fact, what you're about to see looks absolutely NOTHING like it comes from the Sonic franchise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seriously, brace yourselves.

 

 

 

 

Sally was going to be a human.

 

 

Here's a more "animal" design:

 

 

That's a little more fitting. But just a little. Seriously, looks like something from Tale Spin.

 

 

 

 

Why hello there, Bugs Bunny's long-lost sister.

 

 

 

 

 

Concept art for Cluck. If that's what Cluck originally looked like, then what does....

 

 

Oh...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You're not ready.

 

 

 

 

 

You're about to see Robotnik. Proceed at your own risk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here goes...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What does this prove?

 

Well, I don't know yet. But what I theorize is that DiC was working on an original cartoon that eventually was turned into SatAM when they were approached by SEGA. That's seriously all I can theorize here. 

 

There's a ton more, and I'll post them later on when I collect a good chunk of them, but what I just shared were the biggest shockers.

 

Have fun, kiddies.

[-Mark-]

....well. 

 

That would certainly explain why SatAM is easily one of the most 'in-name-only' adaptations of the franchise, that's for sure.

[SenEDDtor Missile]

Am I the only one here who finds this incredibly hilarious for some reason XD?

[DarkLight]

-Okay wow, I get the feeling that none of people on SatAM knew anything about the game's early concepts, especially Madonna, but I'll be damned that those concepts of Sally do remind me of her.

-Bunnie looks more like something either Disney or at very least Don Bluth would draw.

-Honestly if it wasn't for the red around the eyes, I could've sworn that thing looked more like a crow or raven than a chicken (which even then still seems like a weird choice of pet for SatAM Robotnik).

-And speaking of, good dear almighty that design is laughably bad. If you were to tell me that this was Robotnik, I wouldn't believe you. This thing looks more like Ganon cosplaying as one of the bad trolls from A Troll in Central Park.

[sonfan1984]

I've laughed so hard when I saw the "Robotnik" artwork. Holy crap.

[Wittymations]

Series developments are like kids.

 

They start off innocently enough, as an idea.

 

Then they grow up a bit more, hitting puberty, where it goes through "fads" of sorts. That's where all the crazy ideas come in. All of them.

 

Finally, when they're ready to be published, they matured to adulthood, which is what we know.

 

Even game Sonic had some silly, silly concepts.

[Spin Attaxx]

Wat.

 

I do not have enough wat.

 

I can never have enough wat to wrap my head around these.

 

Never.

 

Not even my kids.

 

Wat.

[azoo]

The fact that this "Robotnic" has the massive glutton's body, cone head and the 'black eyes, red pupils' thing going on, it pretty much settles it that the designers knew what they were doing, it's just that they decided they'd take the piss and change the way he looks anyways to fit what they had before.

 

Sonic SatAM, going by this, was obviously an entirely different show beforehand. There was no "creative expansion to what they knew of the series" about it, it was simply not Sonic before some corporate meddling from Sega happened. In fact, just knowing that there were two Sonic shows on at the same time should've already made it obvious (AoSTH aired in tandem).

 

At least we know they refined the designs since that state and made it fit Sonic a tiny bit more, but this is still practically proof that Sega pulled a Star Fox Adventures about a decade before Star Fox Adventures existed. And if it's not, then I'm not quite sure what they were thinking when they associated this with Sonic.

[Chili Dawg]

Dat Robotnik...

 

Had they even seen SEGA's design or did they just hear "fat bad guy" at this point? Holy shit.

 

But yeah this is cool stuff. It's always interesting to see how anything develops.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Okay, I laughed...hard. Like fell off of my seat.

 

No way this was planned to be a Sonic cartoon from the start. Then again, I wouldn't be too surprised if that were the case.

 

Just imagine if these concepts had gotten through how our perception would change.

[Tatters]

I don't know why but I love how these concept ideas start as. Seeing how these ideas evolve and change into something so iconic to viewers. Brilliant I do say.

[Splash the Otter]

is it just me, or does "Robotnic" look kind of like a cross between these guys?

 

[iDEATH]

Gotta wonder how the rest of the actual game characters would have fitted into this universe.....especially if they were so liberal in adapting Robotnik Robotnic

[Wittymations]

I remember seeing some early images of Satam before.

 

http://archive.sonichq.net/newsite/cartoon/before/

 

This is more than likely old news, however. Not sure how accurate this site is, but yeah.

 

It's closer to what they currently are, but not by much. lol

 

Evolution, my dear. Evolution.

[Eitarou]

Nothing says evil megalomaniac who tries to take over the world with a robot army like a green, horned troll king.

[Mauro Fonseca]

Certainly explains why they went for the Milton Knight design for Robotnik :V

[Tani Coyote]

This is just too beautiful. That Robotnik especially, just... wow. They really went nuts there. He looks more like Ganon than Eggman.

I can only hope we get to see the wacky concept art for Sonic Boom in the same vein. I want Lizardman Sonic!

[Tara]

Robotnik sort of reminds me of Baron Pete from The Great Circus Mystery Starring Mickey and Minnie.

 

 

But yeah, while I love these designs in concept, it's clear they weren't made with Sonic in mind.  But can we at least appreciate that proto-Cluck looks kind of like an angry, chicken version of Shadow the Hedgehog... like with his 2005 design any everything?  I'm making an official request that someone must photoshop various scenes of Shadow the Hedgehog with that chicken.  Seriously, I'm laughing so hard.

[Vertekins]

I'm making an official request that someone must photoshop various scenes of Shadow the Hedgehog with that chicken. Seriously, I'm laughing so hard.

Give me a bit and I'll come up with something

[Tori Himemiya]

Like Tara here I am reminded of Disney property. However I'm reminded of a lesser known Disney flick.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5roWlRne7lc

inb4what'sVHS? inb4what'stheblackclaudron?

I'm reminded so much of The Black Cauldron with all this concept art for some reason. Sally looks a bit like Eilonwy and "Robotnic" looks like a cross between the Horned King and his stupid minion nobody likes.

Just something I felt like bringing up.

[Johnny Boy]

I will pay $100 dollars to the person who makes a fan comic of this. Please do it I'm begging you people!

[Kuzu]

So SATAM was Sonic Boom before Boom existed.

[RobotOmega]

Oh God, I wasn't ready for this....

 

However scarred I am, though, these were still very interesting. Thanks for posting them!

[Vertekins]

 

 

 

[biznizz]

Huh... oh... wow. Yeah, I'm in the "SatAM started off as another show, but got retooled when SEGA agreed to let them use Sonic characters" camp. If nothing else, I can imagine this guy:

 

 

 

 

 

...having his original name of Trantor the Cruel getting White-Out'd and hastily renamed by someone who only had heard how Robotnik was pronounced phonetically.

 

I mean, wow. First you get the Japanese Teddy Roosevelt-esque Eggman, then the fatter pin-headed American Robotnik, then this freaking guy. Yeah, retool in every sense of the word.

And you know what, SatAM still turned out pretty good!