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Why the redesign of characters in AoStH?

Discussion in 'General Sonic Discussion' started by Blastfrog, Apr 9, 2012.

  1. Blastfrog

    Blastfrog

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    One thing that's always really bugged me about that show is their redesign of Robotnik. They changed his glasses into black Sonic style eyes with red pupils, gave him a really retarded looking suit, and changed his pants to light grey. That, and they made Tails 4 years old even though he's supposed to be 8. I'm just curious why they decided not to use the original designs.
     
  2. Nova

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    Wrong forum, but that look was used in a lot of western media to depict Dr. Robotnik following AoStH. I think originally, they changed the design to make him more appopriate for an American kids' cartoon - it was soon adopted by Sonic The Comic over here, too. :v:
     
  3. Lapper

    Lapper

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    And why does Sonic have his mouth in the middle?! Why is it so big?! Oh god why?!

    Anyway, I always wondered about Robotnik myself. I thought he looked really stupid ...but once I saw the OVA, I was like 'there he is!', it's the only model-correct cartoon to my knowledge.
     
  4. Blastfrog

    Blastfrog

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    Ah, sorry about that. I'm pretty sleep deprived at the moment, and I thought that because it had to do with the show and not the games that I should post it here. :v:

    I find it kind of weird that they tried really hard to westernize the Sonic universe, when it was already designed with westerners in mind when Sega made it.
     
  5. Black Squirrel

    Black Squirrel

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    Aside from the necessary localisations (e.g. translating things into English) I have never seen a point in "westernising" things like Sonic. But it was all the rage in the 80s - I think America were happy to live in their little bubble and do everything their own way at the time, maybe because communicating with Japan was awkward without things like the internet.

    It's not a case of "here's Sonic, and a set of rules of how to use him", it's more like "here's Sonic, do whatever you think will make him sell in your region". These days you'd get your teams on skype and create something that's universal.
     
  6. Mike Arcade

    Mike Arcade

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    I never mind the design change they did for the cartoons, personally I liked them myself. Though I like the original design of the Sonic series there is always a charm for different takes of certain media like video games, like how different Megaman in the mangas can be (Megamix and Gigamix, but all the other ones too), or how up until SA and Sonic Heroes came out how Archie did their own thing with certain characters when it comes to design. Though it doesn't work all the time (Most of Captain N) there is always a certain charm to it.
     
  7. jasonchrist

    jasonchrist

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    AOSTH/SATAM was where Sonic's whole identity crisis began (which would in time infect the official series itself). The designs were shocking, and so were the characters - to the point where I'd take the modern designs over buzzsaw Sonic and conehead Robotnik any day. Also Antoine?! Princess Fucking Sally?! Get the hell out of here you bunch of cunts!
     
  8. Falk

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    The only positive contribution to franchise identity from AoSTH is Robotnik's theme song.
     
  9. ICEknight

    ICEknight

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    I admit that I didn't like the redesigned Robotnik when I was little, nor AoSTH sharing very few similarities with the games... But now I find it kind of cool having all these different versions of the same characters, since it's clear that they're not just retconning the originals, which will always be regarded as "the classic designs" (Sonic Generations' concept was a true blessing).

    In retrospect, I think Milton Knight's redesign works really good as a comical cartoon villiain, but it just wasn't what I was expecting as a kid after playing the games (when I was first told about the series I thought it was going to be like that old Sonic manga I have at my site, go figure...).


    No need to say that I would have loved a complete series featuring on-model "Segasonic" classic characters, but at least there's the anime movie and the "Man of the Year" cartoon short...
     
  10. jasonchrist

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    I actually remember having arguments in school around 93/94 about what was Robotniks real design. He was conehead Robotnik in the cartoons and (unfortunately) came to be conehead Robotnik in Sonic The Comic... and it was so fucking lovely to say "I told you so" when Sonic 3 came out with his proper, official design.
     
  11. Aesculapius Piranha

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    Well at least it wasn't the Sonic Adventure redesign where he looks like a J-Pop boyband reject, or alternatively as I put it in 1999 when I was describing the redesigns to a friend over phone. "Robotnik looks like he just walked out of a gay bar."
     
  12. Blastfrog

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    I dunno, man, even the modern design is preferable to AoStH's design, in my opinion. At least he looks less fruity. Though the SatAM redesign was similar to AoStH's, it wasn't totally fruity like the latter's, and actually had a much more sinister overtone.
     
  13. Metal Man88

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    At the time, they had no clue what to make of Dr. Robotnik, so they just made up whatever looked good to them. Otherwise he's more like some bizarre robotic beatnik. I mean, they almost never used his classic official design in anything where he actually spoke. It's like they knew it didn't look right for that. It sure looked bizarre when he spoke in Generations.

    So I'm guessing they changed him up to better suit the tone of the American cartoons. Said cartoons also took extensive liberties with other characters so it isn't so surprising.
     
  14. Blue Blood

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    I think the other big reason for changing Robotnik's design was animation. His Classic Japanese design is not easy to animate at all, yet alone make expressive. Especially when you factor in how much he looked like he was Japanese designed, it just wasn't going to work.
     
  15. Sparks

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    This is just like the "Classic Sonic design doesn't work in 3D" discussion. Sonic and co had design changes just for the usual "westernization" bull going on in the 80s and 90s. It only gets funnier when Classic Eggman was designed intentionally to be easy for kids to draw. What's easy for a kid to draw is apparently too hard for professional adult artists to animate. Thank God for the OVA.
     
  16. Mr. Mash

    Mr. Mash

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    the show was animated pretty cheaply in Spain, and those designs were easier to draw. The Japanese sonic designs are simple, but it's that Mickey mouse sort of thing that they're easy to draw wrong, but hard to draw correctly.
    In Robotnik's case it was for the sake of having elasticity to do funny extreme stuff with his head, and my guess with his suit is that it was easier to define the volume of his belly.
    AoSTH, SatAM, and Sonic Underground all contain some pretty fucking terrible drawings though.
    I liked AoSTH as a kid, and still find it funny today
     
  17. Dark Sonic

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    One day I'd love to see a japanified version of an episode of AoSTH. Replace Sonic, Tails, and Robotnik with more on-model versions, and fix those fucking backgrounds. It'd be interesting at the very least.
     
  18. Mike Arcade

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    That does sound really good, but considering how trippy that show was it would be like watching a Road Runner cartoon on acid with a Sonic cart (or disk) jammed into you're skull while watching the OVA at the same time, take away the OVA part and you'd basically get AoSTH.

    Also this might get a little off topic but while the redesign of the characters were interesting, how would the AoSTH and Sonic Underground characters handle a redesign to match the Classic and Modern Sonic games? I didn't say SatAM or Archie because they pretty much almost follows the Modern design anyway nowadays, I'm just curious on how Scratch, Grounder, and Breezie would look like if they were ever redesigned by Sega.

    On a side note I really like the OVA movie, to me that was the perfect day for me when I first saw the movie as a kid, when I picked it up at an old video place next to a game store that doesn't exist anymore, I was shocked how good it looked and how it looked just like the cutscenes from Sonic CD. It was great...
     
  19. Mr. Mash

    Mr. Mash

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    I'd actually like to see a level in a game that looks like those Seussian backgrounds you see in AoSTH
     
  20. dsrb

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    Why is this still in the Members’ Lounge?