The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (AoSTH) was first broadcast in September of 1993, and produced 65 episodes before the series came to an end after it’s first season. AoSTH follows the life of Sonic the Hedgehog and his best bud Miles “Tails” Prowler as they stop the evil Dr. Ivo Robotnik and his meddling robots from taking over Mobius. Ending each episode was a “Sonic Says” segment, which was used to help educate the viewers in compliance with the Children’s Television Act of 1990.
This fast-paced cartoon is filled with slapstick comedy and a loosely followed storyline from the game, Sonic the Hedgehog; which gave the writers plenty of room for developing the characters. Such as Sonic’s love for chili dogs. The writers even changed the original storyline to fit their own needs. Instead of having the usual seven chaos emeralds of various colors, there were only four. The chaos emeralds were green, white, and were in the form of different shapes which were scattered throughout different points in history. Each chaos emerald even gave the possessor a different type of ability. These abilities were: invisibility, invincibility, immortality, and the power to give life.
Production
Originally, AoSTH was to air on ABC Saturday Mornings, but was rejected by ABC due to the show’s horrible animation, lame plots, and cheesy catch phrases. ABC gave DiC Entertainment another chance to air the show on the condition that DiC come up with a new cartoon. Facing this dilemma, DiC Entertainment created Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM), which aired on Saturday mornings while AoSTH was transferred it’s syndication on the weekdays. DiC Entertainment had originally planned on having a second season for AoSTH, but due to the fact that DiC was too busy working on the second season of SatAM, the show’s contract was never renewed.
Post-Production
Initially created an being part of the AoSTH series, the Sonic Christmas Blast special first aired a year after the last original episode of the series was shown. In this special, Santa Claus announces that he is retiring and has chosen Robotnik as his successor. Robotniklaus, then demands everyone to hand over their Christmas presents. After seeing Robotniklaus’ robots looting a store in Robot-tropolis, our heroes run into a child who tells them that Robotnik has taken Santa Claus’s place. Not soon after, Scratch and Grounder tell Sonic and Tails that Robotnik kidnapped Santa Claus and put a robot in his place.
After freeing Santa Claus, Sonic and Tails discover that the only way to save Christmas is to use the power of the ring that Princess Sally gave Sonic last Christmas. However, Sonic will have to accomplish two tasks to prove his worth. As night falls on Christmas Eve, Sonic completes the tasks but time is almost up and Santa has given up hope. With supersonic speed, Sonic ransacks Robotnik’s lair, and delivers the presents to everyone on Mobius. Santa is so impressed with Sonic’s breakneck speed, that he takes Robot Santa’s advice and retires, making Sonic, Sonic Claus.