Discotek Media has licensed the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog

This is unrelated to AoStH, but if Discotek ever does a SatAM release down the line, I hope they can find and include a high quality copy of the Season 1 intro, which features different vocals, and slightly different sound effects:



I'd also be curious if they can find out anything about this intro mentioned here. It seems like a finished version existed at some point, though I'm not sure if it still exists, at this point: https://lostmediawiki.com/Sonic_The...st_unused_TV_intro_for_animated_series;_1993)

 

What happened to the original film elements (not tape masters, but the film negatives that were transferred to tape)? I always wondered about this since a lot of cartoons were outsourced to Korea/Japan/Taiwan/China and I assume the film lab was in the same place as the animation studio, and AOSTH used quite a lot of studios from those countries. Did the video editors on the show (that worked at DiC?) work with the film and just discarded it after it was transferred to tape or was that archived? I suppose its all cast to the winds at this point. I'm curious if anyone saved any animation rushes/pencil tests they might have sent. Kent Butterworth would've been all over that aspect of the show being an animator himself.

Also, if the opportunity to bring the OVA over to Blu Ray ever happens. PLEASE do all you can to get the original film elements from IMAGICA or whoever might have them. That's one film that is in desperate need of a proper release as there isn't a single release that doesn't suffer from some video issue.

 

It would be amazing if someone found the unused opening.

 

That or some kind of AI upscale would be awesome. I dunno how likely it is for the negatives to still be around, but if Project A-Ko can be found anything's possible.

 

On that note, did your talks with SEGA to work on this ever uncover anything about the OVA's negatives? Does Sega still have the 16mm/35mm cans?

I did an experimental 4K HDR upscale in late 2020 with the 1999 DVD master that came out surprisingly sharp with a small handful of filters (though I no longer host the file on any streaming site) and had some excellent HDR pop and decent black levels too when tweaked. Would the possibility for an official remaster of that classic ever exist, and if so, would you guys ever consider doing it?

I tried my best, but I'd still love to see an official blu-ray HD scan (or better) of the original film masters (if they even still exist).

 

Something that makes me sad is that OVA had correction cels made that were unused. Scans of them oddly were shown in old Magazine articles and the 1996 VHS back boxart
Comparison of them here by me: https://imgur.com/a/FQ79wHw

I'm aware 4kids masters were scuffed, but what's the TV-Y bug? Google doesn't give me much...

 

I'm just going assume it means the TV rating is on their masters.

 

That would be correct. It's that black box in the Top-Left corner at the start of episodes, saying the rating of the show/episode. Curiously, according to a user named "Bluebaron" on Twitter, the copy of the show on Netflix apparently lacks the screenbug. Does that mean Screenbug-less masters exist, and Discotek weren't provided them, for some reason?

In all honesty, the screenbug doesn't bother me that much, but I can see why one may be distracted by it.

 

Honestly I'm pumped. The Chaos Emerald Saga is one of my personal favorite Sonic.. things!

 

What we used was what I was told is all they had; maybe I'm mistaken, or someone along the line was. It's also possible for Netflix they had to edit them out. I'm unsure.

 

Considering how a complete all in one Sonic Boom set has also been announced recently (found here: https://www.amazon.com/Sonic-Boom-The-Complete-Series-Blu-ray/dp/B09NJPSDNY ), perhaps there is some push to have most, if not all, of the Sonic cartoons re-released, perhaps as a way to generate interest in the eventual Sonic Prime cartoon show. I guess only time shall tell, but, having all of the Sonic cartoons (including the OVA, and Japanese dub of X) re-released, and in print, would be great.

 

Could be simple enough to source the rating-less footage from the Japanese version I suppose, if it really came to that.

I noticed that on a Sonic X VHS tape I had when I was a kid, actually. Weird that 4Kids seemingly hard-coded those into the episodes considering the TV networks usually just toggle those on and off themselves (then again, 4Kids produced content for their own network, so).

 

Why does that Boom set have such a charming 2D illustration for an entirely 3D series?

 

One thing I have always wondered is why the Christmas Special is so different in terms of look and feel compared to the original series? Was it because it was made by a different production team? While all the main characters are still present and act like they should (Baldry's Robotnik, Grounder, Scratch) we get an inexplicable cameo from Sally Acorn who has no lines whatsoever and wasn't even in the original show. The animation also is much different (and, dare I say, better?) which again makes it further stick out when compared to the original episodes.

 

You mean besides the fact that it came out three years after the last episode and is a special which usually get higher budgets?

 

Essentially, yes. Came out years later, so much of the production staff was different.

 

On that topic, read the other day that Sally did have lines in the original script, but they were cut due to Kath Soucie being unavailable. Really don't know why they didn't just recast her (she still makes an audible gasp which is Tabitha St. Germain), all the scenes with her are extremely awkward as a result.

Before I saw it I remember reading online on Sonic HQ and such that it was supposedly a blend of SatAM and AoSTH, I just watched it the other day for a quick nostalgia fix and it's funny to see how absolutely not the case that is. It's a regular-ass AoSTH episode (with much better animation, mind) with Sally in a teeny tiny guest role that could have easily been filled in by any of Sonic's girlfriends from the series (like Breezie) and a couple terms (Robotropolis, Swatbots) lifted from SatAM, lol. And even the Robotropolis and Swatbots we see in Christmas Blast don't look a thing like their SatAM counterparts.

Also got a very nerdy chuckle out of Sonic wishing the viewer an "extremely Merry Christmas" knowing it was supposed to be an X-Treme tie-in at first.

 

This is way past cool, my sincere thanks to everyone involved. Never thought I'd get to see the commercial break interstitial drawings at such a high resolution, they're all pretty great!

Lots of the staff were all Bakshi Studios + Spumco alums and are still active, so it might be worth reaching out to some of them as well - even if it's just to get a broader perspective of what it was like to work on the show. If they're actually interested, anyway.

While I'd absolutely love to see new film transfers for this series or the OVA, I totally understand the difficulty in sourcing those - if they even exist anymore. So yeah, thanks for an effort already way above the bar and best of luck finding more stray production materials along the way.

 

It’s awesome that AoStH is being released on BD, it was a great show and deserves some love. Reading this thread I’m impressed with the effort and care that’s been put into this release.

Now, get the rights in the UK please