Post by Earth King Sunny on Apr 30, 2007 18:54:50 GMT -5
Before Shadow, before Silver, before Sonic X, before Sonic adventure and before Knuckles there was once a great but now mostly hated or forgotten Sonic cartoon series from the genesis era of Sonic called by its fans SatAM.
Desicrated by the comics, ignored by purests, the show has suffered an unfortunate fate of being totally bocthed over by the modern Sonic era.
First lets erase the confusion, back in 1993 and 94 Sonic the hedgehog came to the shores of the US and became an instant hit.
During this time the current storyline had not even been thought about, the basic premise of Sonic was that Sonic was the way past cool hedgehog who fought to save his friends from the evil of Doctor Robotnik, now known as Eggman of course but for those early days he was known as Robotnik...
During that time there was no real storyline for sonic, sure there was a basic premise yes but nothing really worth making a TV show about.
But back in 1993 there was a trend of making cartoon series based off a video game, by that time there were two series made about Mario, one about Zelda and a few others.
The problem of course back then a lot of the franchises did not promote a state of standardization, all you needed to do was ask and a video game company to make a show and there you go.
And so the animation company DIC created two seperate Sonic cartoons, both with some of the same voice actors but entirely different premises.
The first ever Sonic cartoon series was a cartoon known today as the adventures of sonic the hedgehog.
The adventures of sonic the hedgehog (known to us as AOSTH) was the basis of what both the Archie comic book and SatAM was to become.
The series was moderate, not the best but not the worst but it was pretty close to the games in its looks and general feel.
DIC had a mild hit with it, though they decided to make another Sonic series to compliment the week long running AOSTH and what they came up with was SatAM and trust me SatAM was an entirely different matter.
Now today it is very mistakingly thought that the Archie comic book came before SatAM, no SatAM came WAAAAAAAAAY before the comic, it is only because of SatAM's reruns on USA back in 1995 that throws everyone off.
Anyhow SatAM had a very basic cast but an increibly dark for that time period storyline.
The basic premise of SatAM was very bleak, it depicted a world already controlled by Robotnik that was enslaved and horribly polluted.
Now unlike todays "Eggman" who could not rule over a tree stump, SatAM's Robotnik took control of the planet and most of its population.
He uses a machine that is known from both the comics and the TV series as the roboticizer, a machine that turns flesh to metal but makes its subject loose thier freedom of will.
As a contrast to the comic book that totally botched it up, this robotcizer made its subjects into robots that deep inside were still normal but the original personality and will was surpressed by programming and orders.
The comic book cheated by just making the roboticizer victims just mere robots that when returned to normal would forget they became a robot... but in SatAM it was more like the subject being trapped in a room without a door or a window but did a big ugly TV screen that only played one channel that had nothing but infomercials.
Imagine being trapped in your own body but having no control what you do.
It is this matter that made SatAM so grim, but it did have a cast of good characters.
First there is Sonic himself, unlike his Sonic X or videogame counterpart he is a character of emotion, where the Sonic X or segasonic version of him lazes around being cocky and just plain rude... well Sonic is still cocky yes, and still rude but he also has other emotions that he pushes back, like sadness... yes sadness, where the segasonic or sonic X version of sonic doesnt shed one tear this sonic does, but it does not make him a wimp, no it makes him more human.
and this sonic unlike his other selves does have a reason to fight, while the other sonics can just sit around all day sleeping about because Eggman could not control an ant hill this Sonic had to fight every day to stop the reign of tyrany that Robotnik has caused.
And he is not as big of a loner as he is in other media, he relies on his friends and himself to fight his foe.
then there is princess Sally, today villified by archie and Segasonic as "that stupid nude chipmonk" she was MUCH different then she is today in that accursed comic book.
yes she ordered sonic around, but she only did it because she was meant to be his anchor, if she didnt stop him Sonic could be a robot somewhere digging endlessly for energy crystals and such.
You see this Sally unlike her archie counterpart is Sonic's moral anchor, something the Sonic X or segasonic version doesnt have, she guides him as a friend, a leader and a lover.
I like her much more then Amy Rose, while Amy is a little brat who wines and goes to the mall and stupid crap like that Sally is a symbol of girl power much like Toph or Katara from Avatar.
Next up is the super bunny cyborg Bunnie Rabbot another character unfairly treated by the utterly pathetic comic book, she is the series most tragic character as she is part robot. i guess in avatar terms she is most closest to Teo and Toph.
Sure she looks and acts strong but at her core Bunnie hates what she is, she rejects her robot parts and would do anything to return to her original state.
Next is Antoine, the cowardly coyote, the Sokka of his time... the comedy relief but ant did his role.
perhaps the worst done was Tails, in other media Tails is older and is right there in the heat of battle, in SatAM he is nothing more then a tag along kid. This is the only character I think is done somewhat better in Segasonic.
Then lets move on to the big guy himself, Robotnik... the guy was fat, yes, evil... you bet.
He is cold, heartless, mean, nasty and far more brainier then Eggman in the terms that unlike Eggman.... he is actually a threat!!! (gasp shock horror)
There are other charaters too like Uncle Chuck, who is Sonic's guardian figure and driving force, like in archie Chuck was made into a robot and later acts as a spy for Sonics group.
The cast was great, the atmosphere was wonderful, sadly it died before its time.
Thanks to a foolish network, the popularity of the Power rangers this series faded into oblivion.
But now after years of waiting we older sonic fans are vindicated.
For you young bloods I suggest you check it out, just remember one thing:
it is NOT nor ever will be like the games, but you know what?
with an open mind and heart I think some of you could like it, its a great proto avatar type series, sure its lingo's a bit out of date but if you can ignore all its faults you can see how great the series really was...
Desicrated by the comics, ignored by purests, the show has suffered an unfortunate fate of being totally bocthed over by the modern Sonic era.
First lets erase the confusion, back in 1993 and 94 Sonic the hedgehog came to the shores of the US and became an instant hit.
During this time the current storyline had not even been thought about, the basic premise of Sonic was that Sonic was the way past cool hedgehog who fought to save his friends from the evil of Doctor Robotnik, now known as Eggman of course but for those early days he was known as Robotnik...
During that time there was no real storyline for sonic, sure there was a basic premise yes but nothing really worth making a TV show about.
But back in 1993 there was a trend of making cartoon series based off a video game, by that time there were two series made about Mario, one about Zelda and a few others.
The problem of course back then a lot of the franchises did not promote a state of standardization, all you needed to do was ask and a video game company to make a show and there you go.
And so the animation company DIC created two seperate Sonic cartoons, both with some of the same voice actors but entirely different premises.
The first ever Sonic cartoon series was a cartoon known today as the adventures of sonic the hedgehog.
The adventures of sonic the hedgehog (known to us as AOSTH) was the basis of what both the Archie comic book and SatAM was to become.
The series was moderate, not the best but not the worst but it was pretty close to the games in its looks and general feel.
DIC had a mild hit with it, though they decided to make another Sonic series to compliment the week long running AOSTH and what they came up with was SatAM and trust me SatAM was an entirely different matter.
Now today it is very mistakingly thought that the Archie comic book came before SatAM, no SatAM came WAAAAAAAAAY before the comic, it is only because of SatAM's reruns on USA back in 1995 that throws everyone off.
Anyhow SatAM had a very basic cast but an increibly dark for that time period storyline.
The basic premise of SatAM was very bleak, it depicted a world already controlled by Robotnik that was enslaved and horribly polluted.
Now unlike todays "Eggman" who could not rule over a tree stump, SatAM's Robotnik took control of the planet and most of its population.
He uses a machine that is known from both the comics and the TV series as the roboticizer, a machine that turns flesh to metal but makes its subject loose thier freedom of will.
As a contrast to the comic book that totally botched it up, this robotcizer made its subjects into robots that deep inside were still normal but the original personality and will was surpressed by programming and orders.
The comic book cheated by just making the roboticizer victims just mere robots that when returned to normal would forget they became a robot... but in SatAM it was more like the subject being trapped in a room without a door or a window but did a big ugly TV screen that only played one channel that had nothing but infomercials.
Imagine being trapped in your own body but having no control what you do.
It is this matter that made SatAM so grim, but it did have a cast of good characters.
First there is Sonic himself, unlike his Sonic X or videogame counterpart he is a character of emotion, where the Sonic X or segasonic version of him lazes around being cocky and just plain rude... well Sonic is still cocky yes, and still rude but he also has other emotions that he pushes back, like sadness... yes sadness, where the segasonic or sonic X version of sonic doesnt shed one tear this sonic does, but it does not make him a wimp, no it makes him more human.
and this sonic unlike his other selves does have a reason to fight, while the other sonics can just sit around all day sleeping about because Eggman could not control an ant hill this Sonic had to fight every day to stop the reign of tyrany that Robotnik has caused.
And he is not as big of a loner as he is in other media, he relies on his friends and himself to fight his foe.
then there is princess Sally, today villified by archie and Segasonic as "that stupid nude chipmonk" she was MUCH different then she is today in that accursed comic book.
yes she ordered sonic around, but she only did it because she was meant to be his anchor, if she didnt stop him Sonic could be a robot somewhere digging endlessly for energy crystals and such.
You see this Sally unlike her archie counterpart is Sonic's moral anchor, something the Sonic X or segasonic version doesnt have, she guides him as a friend, a leader and a lover.
I like her much more then Amy Rose, while Amy is a little brat who wines and goes to the mall and stupid crap like that Sally is a symbol of girl power much like Toph or Katara from Avatar.
Next up is the super bunny cyborg Bunnie Rabbot another character unfairly treated by the utterly pathetic comic book, she is the series most tragic character as she is part robot. i guess in avatar terms she is most closest to Teo and Toph.
Sure she looks and acts strong but at her core Bunnie hates what she is, she rejects her robot parts and would do anything to return to her original state.
Next is Antoine, the cowardly coyote, the Sokka of his time... the comedy relief but ant did his role.
perhaps the worst done was Tails, in other media Tails is older and is right there in the heat of battle, in SatAM he is nothing more then a tag along kid. This is the only character I think is done somewhat better in Segasonic.
Then lets move on to the big guy himself, Robotnik... the guy was fat, yes, evil... you bet.
He is cold, heartless, mean, nasty and far more brainier then Eggman in the terms that unlike Eggman.... he is actually a threat!!! (gasp shock horror)
There are other charaters too like Uncle Chuck, who is Sonic's guardian figure and driving force, like in archie Chuck was made into a robot and later acts as a spy for Sonics group.
The cast was great, the atmosphere was wonderful, sadly it died before its time.
Thanks to a foolish network, the popularity of the Power rangers this series faded into oblivion.
But now after years of waiting we older sonic fans are vindicated.
For you young bloods I suggest you check it out, just remember one thing:
it is NOT nor ever will be like the games, but you know what?
with an open mind and heart I think some of you could like it, its a great proto avatar type series, sure its lingo's a bit out of date but if you can ignore all its faults you can see how great the series really was...
