UPDATED: Previously Unseen Concept Art for Canceled Sonic the Hedgehog TV Show Found

A curious fan by the Twitter handle @Alex_Hedgefox2 has unearthed an interesting piece of Sonic the Hedgehog history! Alex “Nintrendodude” Hedgefox took matters into his own hands after reading a story originally reported by our friends at The Sonic Stadium about a canceled Sonic the Hedgehog TV show. Simply titled Sonic the Hedgehog, the show was being developed from May to October 2007 (three years after the original airing of Sonic X had ended), according to the LinkedIn page of Grant Moran. Moran is known for his work on Animaniacs, Tiny Toon Adventures, and Batman: The Animated Series, and he was working at a company called phuuz entertainment at the time.

Nintrendodude dug deeper and found another staff member involved in the show’s production, Gary Montalbano. According to his LinkedIn profile, Montalbano worked as a Project Visual Developer and Environment Designer for phuuz entertainment. After reaching out to Montalbano, he responded:

Hi Alex,
Thank you for sending the email. Please excuse the delay in me writing back. I was exhibiting at the San Diego Comic-Con when you wrote. The San Diego Comic-Con is an all encompassing job to prepare and work.

I was able to find one of the art pieces I did for Sonic around 2014?…. It was done at the very early stage before any major writing. The idea was to help visualize the various main settings and to build story from there. This image was of an underground lair/habitat for some of the key antagonists.

I’ll be looking for more work but in the meantime, I hope you enjoy it and please do make sure to always give me credit.

Best, Gary

Gary Montalbano via E-mail

Hi Alex,
Sorry for the date mix up. Yes, 2007 must be the correct date. Frankly, that’s why I am continuing to list my career on Linkedin to keep the 150+ projects I’ve worked on as accurate as possible.

Thank you for the good wishes, very appreciated.
Best, Gary

Gary Montalbano via e-mail

Montalbano mentioned that he will share more of his work with Nintrendodude if he finds anything. However, not much is known about the show beyond the involvement of these two staff members and this newly uncovered piece of concept art. It seems the project didn’t get too far in development, as it was only worked on for seven months before SEGA decided not to move forward with the idea.

We’ve reached out to Grant and Gary and are awaiting a response. We’ll be sure to share any new information with you as it comes to light.

A big thanks to Nintrendodude for bringing this discovery to our attention!

UPDATE: Gary Montalbano has sent Nintrendodude another piece of concept art—this one featuring a more nature-based environment for the protagonists (presumably Sonic and his friends), in contrast to the previous piece, which depicted a mechanical setting for the antagonists.

Hi Alex,
Please excuse the delay. I had multiple conventions and commissions to take care of. Thank you for your patience.

Attached below is another image from the Sonic development from years back, hope you enjoy it. In brief, this was more of the nature based protagonist environment, contrasting the previous design I sent of more mechanical antagonist environment.

Let me know if you have any questions.
Best, Gary

Gary Montalbano via e-mail

What do you think about this piece of Sonic media history? What do you think the show would have been about or even looked like? Let us know in the comments, and make sure to stay tuned to Sonic City for more Sonic News and Updates!