[SonicGenesis89]

I'm not sure if this is known to anyone here yet, but last night while browsing on my DA there was a post about Satam in one of the groups I'm in. When I went to check it out it was about this unused and very early conceptual intro. I was elated to see this, the animation is very fluid and nice and I notice Sally and some of the freedom fighters look only slightly different than their final looks. Just ever so slightly.

I also notice the absence of Antoine which is kind of jarring. Perhaps he wasn't designed / created yet? Anyway, I really liked this a lot and figured you guys may like it too. I haven't seen this anywhere before so I'm not sure if this is old news to everyone here or not. My friend said he saw the storyboard screens but had no idea this was actually animated. It's nice to see it was. It makes me wonder if there are even earlier animations for the show we don't know about. Back when all the freedom fighters looked different and Sonic was horrifyingly ugly. XD

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This post has been edited by SonicGenesis89: 15 April 2012 - 12:22 PM

[Mecha Sally]

Whoa, nice find! The character designs look like the ones used in the pilot episode "Heads or Tails", with Sally being pink and Rotor/Boomer being purple like he is in the comics. I definitely wouldn't mind seeing more, provided someone else recorded the whole thing and/or has the actual footage stowed away somewhere.

[Adamis]

An unfinished version of that was included in Shout! Factory's dvd boxset from 2007 :

[JaxTH]

Hmm...I'll have to check my Proto SatAM Music to see if this music is in there.

[Friend of Sonic]

Aww. Whenever there's a tiny bit of new SatAM stuff discovered, it always makes me so sad it only lasted a couple of seasons.

[Ch1pper]

Hm, severe lack of Snively as well.

Also, a second of SegaSonic footage?

Youtube comments say this is from CES 1993... I'm wondering where the rest of the show footage is, just for curiosity's sake.

[Mike Arcade]

It makes me wonder why they couldn't put this on the DVD Shout released, maybe they couldn't find the Unused animation? Also the intro just made me realise something, the WHOLE SHOW and comic could have been done without Antoine. I'm not hating on the character (though there was a time I didn't care for the character), but when you really think about it if Rotor was more in the field instead of the background he would have been the one to do anything useful Antoine could have done, unlikely saving the day, ending up with Bunnie instead, I mean that may just be me but whatever, besides the character improved ALOT in the comics eventually, you gotta root for him nowadays, he's kinda like an underdog.

[Metal Man88]

There were too many characters and too little time to really develop them all in the paltry 26 22-minute episodes worth of time given. As such you could probably remove 2 or 3 of them and have a better show in almost any case. Barring removing Sonic, of course.

These protos seem to indicate it was once more like AOSTH, which is sort of interesting.

[Krigo]

Honestly, while it's great that this stuff has been discovered. I've never really been too much a fan of SatAM, I've always preferred the far more lighthearted Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog, SatAM was too dark for me and lacked the greatest characters in the entire series: Scratch and Grounder.

Owner of the UK AoSTH Boxset and proud.

[Mike Arcade]

Metal Man88, on 15 April 2012 - 09:52 PM, said:

There were too many characters and too little time to really develop them all in the paltry 26 22-minute episodes worth of time given. As such you could probably remove 2 or 3 of them and have a better show in almost any case. Barring removing Sonic, of course.

These protos seem to indicate it was once more like AOSTH, which is sort of interesting.

True, then again the show was ment for more then 2 seasons

But all the characters had their own charms to them, even Antoine had his charms. My favorites outside of Sonic, Tails, and Robotnik has to be Bunnie, Sally, and Rotor in that order, with Dulcy, Antoine, and Snivilly (can't spell his name on the fly to save my life) being characters that bring in some great comedic moments in the show that balance out the show's dark tone.

[Metal Man88]

Yes. Had there been more seasons, some of the less developed characters would have finally gotten a chance to shine. Too bad, really.

[S1impikenz]

Mike Arcade, on 15 April 2012 - 09:27 PM, said:

It makes me wonder why they couldn't put this on the DVD Shout released, maybe they couldn't find the Unused animation? Also the intro just made me realise something, the WHOLE SHOW and comic could have been done without Antoine. I'm not hating on the character (though there was a time I didn't care for the character), but when you really think about it if Rotor was more in the field instead of the background he would have been the one to do anything useful Antoine could have done, unlikely saving the day, ending up with Bunnie instead, I mean that may just be me but whatever, besides the character improved ALOT in the comics eventually, you gotta root for him nowadays, he's kinda like an underdog.

Actually, I think they did put this unused animation in one of the DVD's! I bought and watched "The Complete Series" DVD set a couple years ago, and on one of the DVD's menus, I unintentionally hit the left (or right) arrow key on the remote (instead of up or down) and found out that many of the DVDs in the set include secret hidden menus containing various extras. I think I remember seeing this animation in one of them.

[David The Lurker]

Mike Arcade, on 15 April 2012 - 10:32 PM, said:

Metal Man88, on 15 April 2012 - 09:52 PM, said:

There were too many characters and too little time to really develop them all in the paltry 26 22-minute episodes worth of time given. As such you could probably remove 2 or 3 of them and have a better show in almost any case. Barring removing Sonic, of course.

These protos seem to indicate it was once more like AOSTH, which is sort of interesting.

True, then again the show was ment for more then 2 seasons

But all the characters had their own charms to them, even Antoine had his charms. My favorites outside of Sonic, Tails, and Robotnik has to be Bunnie, Sally, and Rotor in that order, with Dulcy, Antoine, and Snivilly (can't spell his name on the fly to save my life) being characters that bring in some great comedic moments in the show that balance out the show's dark tone.

The reason the series was almost like Adventures of Sonic is because Adventures was the first series that was developed by DiC. That was the series originally pitched to ABC, who turned it down because they wanted something a bit more substantial for their Saturday morning block. That is when they began developing the Saturday morning series as we know it. However, it did take a few twists and turns. Originally, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog was meant to be in the same universe, with it serving as the prequel series and the Saturday morning one taking place immediately after. It's pretty easy to tell that isn't the case in the final product, but this animation is right in that weird middle ground, more than likely done before the pilot was even finalized. It is also interesting to point out that this unused opening is the only time Bunnie Rabbot's half-roboticization was ever animated, since they teased it in Blast to the Past but never showed it happening.

Even though I only really enjoy the series from a nostalgic mindset at this point, I still wish that they had finished it up. They could have wrapped up in season 3, or maybe even continued it into a fourth. But I wouldn't want to see the Saturday morning series go on forever. The storyline wasn't set up to go on indefinitely, which is something that became abundantly clear in the Archie comic book. They've found their footing now, but there was a point where they just...had no idea where to take it. But that's something for another topic entirely.

Either way, it would be nice to see more of this animation. It would also be nice to figure out where those other early concepts fit into all of this - the ones with the vastly different Freedom Fighters and the lack of Tails. I'm curious as to if those ideas were thrown about before they thought of Adventures and simply shelved them away until they were forced to revisit them, or if they were drawn up after it was decided that they were going to make two separate animated series. it's something that's never really been discussed.