Favorite Sonic Cartoon?

[Mega]

Well, to be fair, the games only had three characters at the time. Five if you count Amy and Metal Sonic. It'd be hard to make a plot-based show without making new characters, too... at least given the western manual material, which didn't include stuff like South Island, Westside Island, etc. Plus, they wanted to make it marketable. In the 90's, dark settings and serious villains were all the rage.

Why do you think AoStH had a billion side characters? Pretty much the same reason. I just find AoStH's characters of the week usually unbearable, personally.

Edited May 7, 2011 by Mega

[Dr. Mechano]

Well, to be fair, the games only had three characters at the time. Four if you count Amy. It'd be hard to make a plot-based show without making new characters, too... at least given the western manual material, which didn't include stuff like South Island, Westside Island, etc. Plus, they wanted to make it marketable. In the 90's, dark settings and serious villains were all the rage.

Let me make something clear- I'm not against new characters.

I'm against the new characters supplanting the game characters in focus. AoStH and OVA both had their share of new characters (Arguably Scratch, Grounder, and Coconuts are loosely based on game Badniks, but they're far removed enough to be "new" characters since the game Badniks weren't individuals). The difference is that in both AoStH's and OVA's case, the original game characters always got the most prominent focus.

AoStH and OVA both heavily interjected their universes with "new" content, but still kept the general feel and tone close to that of the games. SatAM went off in a totally different direction, so you can see that my problem is not merely with adaptational change in and of itself.

My beef is not with the presence of some new characters. It's that they totally changed the dynamic of the cast and were often as important as- and frequently more important than- Sonic himself. And let's not even start with Robotnik's and Tails's focus on the show.

[Mega]

Nah, I see what you mean. Sonic did get pretty overshadowed over time... Tails even moreso. When compared to the games, SatAM is very, very different.

It's why I wish they would have kept the same tone from Heads or Tails. That seemed like a good compromise. It even had badniks!

Edited May 7, 2011 by Mega

[Tobbii]

Let me make something clear- I'm not against new characters.

I'm against the new characters supplanting the game characters in focus. AoStH and OVA both had their share of new characters (Arguably Scratch, Grounder, and Coconuts are loosely based on game Badniks, but they're far removed enough to be "new" characters since the game Badniks weren't individuals). The difference is that in both AoStH's and OVA's case, the original game characters always got the most prominent focus.

AoStH and OVA both heavily interjected their universes with "new" content, but still kept the general feel and tone close to that of the games. SatAM went off in a totally different direction, so you can see that my problem is not merely with adaptational change in and of itself.

My beef is not with the presence of some new characters. It's that they totally changed the dynamic of the cast and were often as important as- and frequently more important than- Sonic himself. And let's not even start with Robotnik's and Tails's focus on the show.

Tails was pretty much thrown in there so that they could say "See, we have some characters from the game!!" really. He did like maybe two things in the entire series.

[Mega]

They tried to fix that by Season 2, at least. Drood Henge was a very good Tails episode.

Honestly, a lot of the SatAM fandom watches it for characters like Sally, not Sonic. I'm like... in the extreme minority that cares more about Sonic than, say, Lupe. He's my favorite character in the show.

[Tobbii]

They tried to fix that by Season 2, at least. Drood Henge was a very good Tails episode.

Honestly, a lot of the SatAM fandom watches it for characters like Sally, not Sonic. I'm like... in the extreme minority that cares more about Sonic than, say, Lupe. He's my favorite character in the show.

As I've said before, I don't dislike SatAM, it's fine. But I can't stand Sally, AT ALL.

[Kuzu]

PRetty much, I don't hate Sally to the extent to say the Sega Forums do, but when I read/watch something with Sonic in the title, I expect to see Sonic as the focus, and not a random new character out of nowhere.

[Tobbii]

PRetty much, I don't hate Sally to the extent to say the Sega Forums do, but when I read/watch something with Sonic in the title, I expect to see Sonic as the focus, and not a random new character out of nowhere.

Sally might not be the worst SatAM character. but she left the worse memories. >.<

[Mega]

I actually like Sally, I just find it funny how some of the fandom doesn't care about the titular character.

[Vertekins]

Sally might not be the worst SatAM character. but she left the worse memories. >.<

The thing is...in the comics and Satam, Sally is a Black Hole Sue. Regarding Satam, this is especially so in season 2, where characters such as Bunnie and Rotor are sidelined because Sally often exemplified what they specialized in. In the episode "Dulcy", what is Bunnie left back at Knothole to do? Look after an unhatched dragon egg rather than have a vital part in saving the egg's mother. There's other examples besides. And don't get me started on Tails' near-criminal under-utilisation.

In Satam, Sonic and Sally deserved each other. They're two characters who act as if they've been told that they're gods gift too many times, Sonic with his extreme arrogance and Sally with how she was playing Sonic, Antoine and Griff like toys, reinforcing emnity between all three characters over her.

Don't get me wrong, I adore Satam. But it still rubs me the wrong way in some areas. I mean, going by the massive deviation the series is, the way it took Sonic and Robotnik and turned them into one-bit parodies of their videogame selves as well as it's overwhelming focus on Sally and Sonsal with Tails getting very little gravity, the series might just as well have been titled "Princess Sally and the Freedom Fighters; Starring SEGA's Sonic the Hedgehog"

That said, maybe Satam is my fave followed closely by Sonic X. Sonic X had such potential. Alas, they had to have it revolve around a shameless Wesley in an utterly misguided attempt to pander to the intended audience, gave it to TMS who created absolutely terrible animation in 95% of the episodes and it had patchy, inconsistent characterisation and lame, formulaic plots. I understand that Chris Thorndike (The Wesley) was the character that young viewers could envision as a self-insert but the character of Chris went above and beyond in taking the piss, wrestling screen-time and character development from much more interesting characters.

The dub was the icing on the cake. The original version is FAR FAR more watchable than the dubbed drivel. I like Sonic X but I still view it with disappointment because of what it could have been if it was given to a competent studio who didn't have a fixation with a Wesley. Still, X had some bloody amazing moments, decent emotional build-up and some genuinely magical moments.

[Flyboy Fox]

Massive props to Verte for saying everything I would have said. And for loving the show despite all of its massive and glaring flaws! It's an odd paradox, but one that I've fallen into as well. You would think that - considering I am not a Sonally shipper at all and that Tails is one of my favourite characters - I would find no interest in the show at all and perhaps even scorn it. But I love it all the same. Somehow it just drew me in.

[Kuzu]

What gets me is that people act like SATAM(And to Sally by extension) is perfect in every way, and has no flaws at all, when its further from the truth.

I love AOSTH, and even I admit that it has flaws. Inconsistency with the writing, Animation issues, etc.

[Tobbii]

What gets me is that people act like SATAM(And to Sally by extension) is perfect in every way, and has no flaws at all, when its further from the truth.

I love AOSTH, and even I admit that it has flaws. Inconsistency with the writing, Animation issues, etc.

Yeah; AoSTH had quite a bit of flaws, but it was still very-very fun.

[Sean]

Count me in on admiration for SatAM; it's particularly kitschy in some ways, but I loved the core cast and certain episode-specific storylines. Archie, issues 20-50 in particular, just took it and made it even better, and I consider it to be a quality incarnation of Sonic.

[Flyboy Fox]

What gets me is that people act like SATAM(And to Sally by extension) is perfect in every way, and has no flaws at all, when its further from the truth.

I love AOSTH, and even I admit that it has flaws. Inconsistency with the writing, Animation issues, etc.

I think most people who like AoStH like it in part because of how ridiculous it is. SatAM fans, on the other hand, for the most part tend to like SatAM for reasons outside of its flaws rather than because of them. They tend to take their favourite show more seriously.

But I'd like to think that this thread has shown that there are a good number of SatAM fans who like the show (and Sally) but are fully accepting of its (and her) flaws, even if the flaws aren't part of its charm the way they are for AoStH.

[Kuzu]

I think most people who like AoStH like it in part because of how ridiculous it is. SatAM fans, on the other hand, for the most part tend to like SatAM for reasons outside of its flaws rather than because of them. They tend to take their favourite show more seriously.

But I'd like to think that this thread has shown that there are a good number of SatAM fans who like the show (and Sally) but are fully accepting of its (and her) flaws, even if the flaws aren't part of its charm the way they are for AoStH.

You're so far the only person I know who accepts SATAM for its flaws. Either no one aknowledged them, or act like it has no flaws at all.

[Mega]

Nah. I know it has flaws (I've mentioned before that I find SatAM Robotnik a bit boring at times), I just try to view it as its own thing for the most part.

[Flyboy Fox]

You're so far the only person I know who accepts SATAM for its flaws. Either no one aknowledged them, or act like it has no flaws at all.

Verte said much the same on the previous page, which I acknowledged her for at the top of this page, also.

[Ulver]

I'd have to say Sonic X because it's pretty much the only Sonic cartoon I actually grew up with (I guess I must have been about eight or nine when it aired), and to be honest, I haven't really watched any other. A few months ago, I did manage to watch Sonic Underground, though. I watched a few episodes here and there, but I really didn't like it. The ending theme, though, was pure epicness.

[SBR2]

I don't get all the love for the AOSTH Robotnik.

I think that the only reason why people like AOSTH is because Robotnik says words that almost sound naughty.

Yes cause we're all small children giggleing at dirty words.

I was aware of the Pingas meme but that's not the reason I like AoSTH Robotnik I like him because he's a huge ham and is fantastically over the top.

I tried watching AOSTH, but after watching Satam I felt like AOSTH was a downgrade compaireed to Satam.

Compairing the shows is like compairing Terminator to My Little Pony it just doesn't work don't watch it expecting it to be like SatAM watch expecting it to be a jokey adventure show.

I haven't watched Sonic Underground, and I'm not sure that I want to.

Well I'm not going to say it's the greatest Sonic Cartoon (Personally I don't think there is one) but I can say just watch the first three episodes and give it a shot man.

I hate Sonic X.

I hate how in Sonic X Sonic comes from a different world, and is sent to earth by Chaos Control. Did the idot writers never play the Sonic games?

Considering those "idiot" writers where SEGA writers probably, unless you mean the dub writers in which case I don't know but the dub director admit's he didn't.

Cause in the games Sonic always lived on earth.

Oh no it's like they were trying to make it it's own original continuity or something.

I hate how the characters are portrayed in Sonic X.

Sonic was laid back and lazy. In some episodes he would be seen sleeping on rooftops.

I gotta agree on this one that was a weird choice but it did lead to a good Sonic F joke.

Tails was a fixer-sue with no real personality.

Tails seemed exactly the same as in the games to me yeah they focused more on his mechanic skills but in The Chaos Saga they brought in his need to be his own man and seemed to stick with it unlike the games.

Knuckles became stupid, this made it's way into the games so he now acts stupid in the games as well.

Um no he isn't he was gulible and wasn't super best buddies with Sonic his main focus until the Eggmoon arc was Finding/Gaurding The Master Emerald I can't recall an instence of him being stupid.

Amy become an insane Sonic fangirl

BECAME!

who everyone is afraid of making angery.

That might be because of the big honking hammer.

The way that Amy acts in Sonic X made it's way into the games.

You want to give an example or just hope everyones to lazy to disprove you.

Robotnik became a manchild.

1. Eggman

2. Again BECAME!

And became a joke villain

Last time BECAME!

thats hard to take seriously as a villain. Sadly this verison of Robotnik has infected the games,

*Facepalm* He hasn't "Infected" the game's he's always been that way.

cause Sega somehow thinks that being a manchild makes Robotnik more interesting.

No he's a balence dude he can be threatning and silly at the same time they're no mutiualy exclusive to quote another poster in the Robotnik or Eggman thread.

Plus there's Chris who steals the spotlight.

So just spotlight stealing that's all you got for Chris no other reason's well if it makes you feel better in japanese Shadow beats the crap out of Chris and Eggman verbably owns him by calling him a spoiled brat.

[Tornado]

I understand that Chris Thorndike (The Wesley) was the character that young viewers could envision as a self-insert but the character of Chris went above and beyond in taking the piss, wrestling screen-time and character development from much more interesting characters.

Edited May 8, 2011 by Tornado

[Mangoaxe5]

And don't even try to tell me the freedom fighters were meant to be the small animals from the games. I've seen the "Ricky the Squirrel is Sally" postulating, and even if that was the original intent, that's far too much of a stretch.

Are you sure it's such a stretch?

You might want to read this. http://www.saturdaymorningsonic.com/features/freedom_fighters/

Edited May 8, 2011 by Darkfox

[Kintor]

Personally, I love SATAM; as a children’s cartoon made well over a decade ago I think that overall SATAM holds up very well. Some people today do tend to criticise SATAM for its slightly darker setting but I really don’t think that they should; at its heart SATAM is an adventure story – a fun little morality play that leaves people in a better mood after they have watched it. As an example, one of the darkest elements of SATAM was Robotnik’s Roboticizer. However, when you get right down to it, the Roboticizer was just a twist on what the video game version of Robotnik (Eggman) was already doing. The only difference being that smashing a roboticized person wouldn’t bring them back, you just have a broken robot and one less friend. In a way, the Roboticizer is similar to the sort of tactics used by Star Trek’s Borg and Doctor Who’s Cybermen; tapping into this latent fear of technology that some people seem to have; making SATAM’s Robotnik a legitimately threatening villain. Still, the point was never to fear the Roboticizer or what Robotnik could do with it, Sonic the Hedgehog -the hero of the story- was always there to save the day. As the story progress, the characters found ways to circumvent the Roboticizer; Uncle Chuck found a way to break through his programming, while the others worked on a way to physically reverse the process. So, in the end, even though things could get dark in places, it was the way that the heroes handled the situation that made the story fun and enjoyable – something that very young children could watch without fear and just enjoy themselves. This is in part why I think that SATAM is a great show; sure it took some risks and went to some dark places but in the end these ideas served to enhance the story, giving us what I see as one of the most interesting pieces of Sonic media we’ve ever seen.

[Old dead account]

...I guess Sonic X just because it's the only one that kept me mildly interested... But other than that I never cared for any of the sonic cartoons at all.

[Ryusuke]

Well I did like Man of the Year and Night of the Werehog.