The Black Mage and Aggretsuko comic writer Daniel Barnes has put together a Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon pitch – and it looks way past cool!
Barnes created a thread on twitter with a complete pitch deck, including character profiles, enemy designs, and environments, with new takes on the roster of characters, and plenty of nods back to older Sonic cartoon series – in particular SatAM!
Check out the animatic and the full pitch in the link below!
https://twitter.com/Danny8bit/status/1275517122735566848?s=20
The Heroes!
– I wanted to give Sonic some ‘90s edge and attitude again. This version is very cocky and arrogant.
– Implemented some design elements from Sonic Boom, for Tails and Knuckles.
– Amy’s crush on Sonic is a secret. She’s much more independent and headstrong(4/17) pic.twitter.com/axqY5tYOnS
— ✪ daniel barnes ✪ (@Danny8bit) June 23, 2020
Source: @Danny8bit on Twitter
I think the Classic Sonic the Hedgehog Adventures cartoon series with Sonic and the gang in their classic designs would be a better choice IMO.
I pretty much stand with this statement as well and just rather have just animated series with the style of Sonic Mania Adventures, but I do say there are some neat redesigns of certain characters like Knuckles and Metal Sonic, while some characters are just so out of place in terms of presentation like those Egg Paw- I mean Swatbots and oddly miscolored Caterkillers (Sandworms). Also having Fang the Sniper as secondary villain could be quite nice inclusion.
I can’t. The AoSTH lacked heart. It was just a bunch of dumb jokes. SatAM had a great story. While it’s different than the games, it matches the darker serious-tone even S3&K had, as well as the Adventure series. Part of what made Sonic cool was his stories felt more serious and had depth, unlike, say Mario Bros.
Also sonic look the same modern I like it 👍🏽😍
All this Sonic media keeps trying to call back to the freedom fighters and classic era now but doesn’t wanna use the bunch he got the name with. What’s the point of excluding them? Legal reasons? They’re owned by Sega afaik. It just feels more like a petty jab at arguably the best sonic show we’ve gotten that doesn’t treat him like a joke to keep dismissing that cast.. the modern tone is completely antithetical to the feeling of the freedom fighters. You’ll never have the freedom fighters if you ditch those personalities and what they even we’re about to begin with. Stop trying to treat different eras of Sonic as interchangeable.. no amount of redesigns and fanservice covers up that they’re just not. At this point it’s just sad at best and irritating at worst, watching people working with Sega grasping at something that was without actually committing to what any of those things were. Stop trying to play with our feelings already.
Hey dont be rude! You didn’t make any of that, that guy made something beautiful and you can tell he put his passion in it. Stop being a crybaby and calm down. If you think you can do better then try.
Yellow star is the reason…
Since I’m open to the idea that there should be a new Sonic show, here are some critiques and personal opinions I have of this pitch (and future Sonic shows.)
– I always thought it was an evil, money-related reason as to why Boom needed redesigned characters, but now I see fans will do it as well.
– Personality changes are harmless afaict, but Sonic being cocky, like: rescue-mission-gone-wrong-and-gets-everyone-sent-to-another-planet-with-Knuckles-saying-“overkill, just like always.”-in-the-far-distance– levels of cocky? If so, then I can get by.
– Amy’s secret crush is pointless, here’s why: throughout Sonic’s history they’re never portrayed as a couple. Making it a secret crush is purely inconsequential and is only there to “keep Amy in check” or some nonsense, which brings me to the next point.
– Don’t work your OCs into existing characters.
The Sonic character palette/roster is rich in content, if you want “relaxed, well-mannered female” use Cream, want “serious, cool, action based female” use Blaze.
Amy openly likes Sonic and every Sonic character accepts that fact, so why can’t the fans?
Amy’s crush on Sonic generally made her an unlikeable character. As was fan reaction when Dreamcast first launched.
She is just an obsessive female character that is one-dimensional, and has so-little character that being rejected by Sonic causes her to loop and beg for Sonic’s love again because Amy has nothing else going for her.
“Why can’t fans accept it.” Fans refuse to accept alot of trash Sega put out after the Classic era. But Amy as a character is more unlikeable than Sakura from Naruto. Since Sonic characters began speaking in 3D games, Amy Rose represented “bad female character writing” at every angle.
The biggest problem with Amy’s bad character writing, is that she is PROMINENT IN ALMOST EVERY NEW SONIC GAME. A badly written recurring character gives the impression that the games themselves are badly written.
If Amy Rose needed to remain that over obsessed Sonic lover, then she should of been a one-off in Sonic CD, or SONIC ADVENTURE should of concluded Amy’s character arc. “One day I will get Sonic to respect me, and by then it would be too late.” The End. Instead, they brought Amy back.
Amy Rose as she currently is-is a badly written, one-dimensional character. Amy’s crush on being a secret may mean Amy may actually have a decent character.
As for Cream the Rabbit, that character is utterly useless, but not recurring enough to be annoying. What this writer suggests may give Amy the POTENTIAL of being likeable, instead of unlikeable and unwanted
I’ve already shared my thoughts on this but for fun I’ll try to write you some counterarguments, why only mention Adventure? It’s basically her debut game, the same game that’s full of random story quirks like Knuckles fighting Sonic just because. (He had legit reasons in Sonic X, it’s still Sonic’s fault they ended up there.)
Granted SA2 hardly used Amy, but they still give her an important role, she tells Shadow to piss off.
In 06 she’s what causes Silver to doubt killing is the only way to save the future.
In Sonic X you see her care for even Knuckles when he decides to go solo in the early episodes.
Making it a secret crush would do nothing, because there is no big reveal, if there was– Sonic would just reject her like always, which makes the whole secret thing… pointless. In fact making it a secret would make Amy nervous around Sonic which is so unlike her that I would probably hate it. Amy is not shy.
Hating on Cream is a different topic and I am not sure I can defend her, she’s just a cute character that helps fill out the cast better, she complements Amy by being close friends.
It’s interesting you mention Sakura, she is similar to Amy sure, but there’s an entire episode dedicated to her growth as a character, (it’s the episode where she cuts her hair while fighting) this kind of drastic change would not happen on a Sonic game, or at least I can’t see it happening. And Sasuke’s rejection of her cannot be compared to Sonic who obviously still cares about her anyway.
That is my extent of Naruto knowledge, though I do know she eventually fights an akatsuki member and wins, and I do know her love for Sasuke had nothing to do with it.
Of course when talking about Amy’s character/personality I mean the Amy from 1998-2006 anything after diverges too much for me to care about Sonic characters.
Why call it “bad female writing” ? Male characters can be obsessed over females too, see: Brock from Pokemon, his infatuation with most female characters is played as a joke. It’s not even funny but they still did it for almost all seasons. THAT’S an annoying character gimmick, they couldn’t do anything better for Brock.
At least it’s not as bad as asking every female character to bear his children, Miroku style.
Typical SonAmy alterior motives here especially using Satam as a shallow husk…
Amy is the 5th most popular character in the entire series behind Knuckles, Tails, Shadow and Sonic which makes her the most popular and well known female Sonic character…
Amy unlikeable? That’s not what the polls say…
The crush has to be secret now because a female character who openly fawns over a male character all the time is “anti-feminist” now lol
It already looks better than Sonic X; I tell you that much.
It’s a combo of elements ranging from Sonic CD all the way to Boom
That’s a lot of different companies you’d have to go through to get this series fully approved
But I can see CN potentially being interested it up after a drastic overhaul
Anyway, love the Knuckles design and those tribal stripes 😀
Happy 29th Sonic
Love for SatAM and AoSTH forever! I care about the SatAM and AoSTH characters. Moreover, bringing them to the project is fully better.
As long as yellow stars exist Sonic will always be held back as a dumb video game franchise and nothing else…
My kids would love it if this came to fruition! At ages 5 and 7 it shows that sonic still has relevance today! They loved the movie and have watched most of the 90s and even 2000s cartoons (sonic x). I’d personally love to see this come to life myself! It would be cool if Ben Schwartz did the voice.
theres a lot of parts that i like but theres parts i dont like, namely the calling back to SatAM (just let it die) and the redesign of Metal Sonic – his design is already perfect, thats why the only redesign he’s ever received was a waist and more detail.
All the same old stuff again, bad fan-redesign (do not steal), nothing fantastic here to me…
I like the concept and most of the ideas but if we get a new Sonic show I’m hoping it retains the canon from the games and expands from it like the IDW comics 🙂
Ok zoomer…
“Amy has a secret crush on Sonic” like how every other show on tv does it they should stop beating around the bush and just remove her crush.
It oughta be traditionally-animated.
And no offense, but I think there should also be humans, but used mostly as background or recurring characters, living side-by-side with the animal characters. Eggman shouldn’t be the only human!
For a moment there while Sonic was running towards Metal Sonic, It feels like i can see his blue arms again.
Ya know, this might be overlooked, but if you watch the sonic satAM intro for all of the episodes, you can clearly see where this guy copied exact pieces just animated it differently. And quite frankly, this pisses me off.
Lost my interest as soon as he said none of the original freedom fighters.
I have to say I’m on the fence….
So SegaSonic meets SatAM? A Sonic with a personality based on his insufferable 90’s western characterization? An Amy who’s actually a re-skinned Sally? Ugh, no thanks.
Kudos for not shoehorning the SatAM characters in, though, even if they reduced Amy to a Sally clone.
What’s all the hate for Amy?!
I bet Amy also treats Sonic like dogshit half the time (specifically to hide that), much like Misty from Pokemon or Asuka from Evangelion.
While Sonic’s ego is flanderized through the roof, where everyone groans and gets annoyed with him.
Not cool.
Wonder if they need voice overs? I’d be interesting in applying for the role of Dr. Eggman.
This has potential. Ever since I’ve watched Transformers: Animated, I’ve always wanted a Sonic cartoon adaptation that uses many elements from the other continuities. It’s what I’ve dreamed for years. The fact that this pitch is mentions Fleetway’s Sonic the Comic makes me want to see Tekno the Canary & Shortfuse the Cybernik in animated form so badly.
What also interests me are some of the episodes, one of which having Ristar making a guest appearance. I would love to see that happen and any other SEGA IPs that get an episode dedicated to them. If Daniel Barnes can…
Have the Gizoids on Angel Island coloured black and orange with red eyes
Get the rights to use some of the STC characters
Make at least one reference to Scratch & Ground (and maybe Cocoanuts)
Have Mina Mongoose (my favourite Pre-SGW Archie character) make an appearance
Make an episode on Puyo Puyo
Reference the live action film, like having a Mobian looking Longclaw appear
I would be on board with this in a heartbeat.
I just hope that Nickelodeon will be the ones to air this cartoon. After how Sonic Boom was treated, I do NOT want Cartoon Network to pick it up. Cartoon Network has lost my respect for that, especially how they treated all their third party shows.
this and the sonic adventure 1 DC model are what I think modern sonic SHOULD look like, in fact the former looks like a MODERN Junio Sonic, I still get a kick on the latter though, but to keep things consistent, the former is the best option. Nice going dude, TrippleJaz would be smiling at this one day!