Animation Director Ron Doucet participated in a Q&A earlier this year and shared some info about a 2D animated series featuring Classic Sonic that was pitched to Netflix. According to him, the original plan was to make 26 episodes. He then shared some WIP boards that were used in the pitch. After the project was rejected by the Netflix producer, it was picked up by another studio and became what we know today as... https://twitter.com/Comontwiter/status/1548112386296463363?s=20&t=LsJLsghekezNzbA6-eZ6XQ .....Sonic Mania Adventures https://twitter.com/Comontwiter/status/1548114965172629504?t=7oyDgyfZt5552l7TVELWlQ&s=19 As you can see from these tweets made by user Comontwiter, the information was shared in July, but it only gained traction now after Nicktendo made a mention to it during a video review on Sonic Prime. Another user by the name of Acruxicon then made note of this in a tweet, which was retweeted by the original source, Comontwiter. https://twitter.com/Acruxicon/status/1604617025451606024?t=LDRpVha8odqAyHq8B-_pUg&s=19 Edit: We now have word from Tyson himself saying that the information shared on Twitter is not accurate. This failed pitch, if it really happened and wasn't fabricated by someone, was a totally unrelated project. The shot that was shared showing a scene from Mania Adventures is not part of this.
I wonder how a full length serialised Classic Sonic series would handle its story telling to be honest. It seems to pretty much be a mandate that Classic Sonic is mute, but I’d love to hear Martin Burke come back and reprise the role (though RCS giving us a younger take on his Sonic voice would also be interesting).
That's really cool. I'm disappointed it didn't become a reality but I'm glad we at least got the Youtube mini-series out of it rather than nothing at all. Honestly, is it bad I kinda wish we had gotten this instead of Prime?
Maybe I’m not following the thread here, but that’s not how any of this happened at all. Mania Adventures happened purely on the success on the Mania intro. It was not built off of any other pitch, the whole thing was written by me. And the test shot from Mania Adventures ep 1, much like most of the episode was boarded by me and was animated by Liron Topaz, one of the owners of Neko Productions. Again, maybe I’m misunderstanding something but Mania Adventures predates any Netflix talks, and none of it was founded off of any pre-existing material or pitches. Edit: Are we sure this is not someone impersonating Ron Doucet? Literally nothing in any of these screen grabs is the truth.
Thank you for shedding some light on this, the more perspectives the better. The information we had beforehand seemed to point to it being a project that steemed from this failed pitch, but it's good to have confirmation that they were unrelated projects. I had no intent to spread misinformation. Once again, thanks for contributing to the discussion!
More than anything I’m confused on why he would say that he “boarded” my shot. That’s not a separate or unrelated project.
Yeah I was very confused about this. Posts seem to suggest he made your shots. If you say they are your shots (very clearly your style anyway) then we can discount this out of hand.
Best I can figure is that Ron worked for one of the studios that we received animation samples from, of which we had several. Most of them turned out almost identical because they were handed a BG that I had already painted and my storyboards which were already pretty tight. That’s where his involvement would have began and ended. But SMA itself was never pitched as a proper series to Netflix or anywhere else. From its small cast, limited locations, lack of voice acting, and small scale all of it is the way it is because of the specific requirements of its production. SMA was at no point a pitch for anything else, because if I were pitching a proper series it wouldn’t resemble SMA at all. There were also no alternate pitches being produced at the time. We were not ready to pitch anything larger, as the internal animation department was just forming after the success of the Mania intro. I think this whole misunderstanding can be chalked up to someone’s hazy memories of a very brief moment.
That explains a lot, thanks again Tyson. I didn't noticed it at first but Nicktendo shared the link to the Discord server where this Q&A happened, they still have all archives from previous interviews: discord.gg/d9USa5pv On a sidenote, it looks like Ken Pontac will be next?
Good god I wish this would have happened. It would have been an instant hit too. You don't know how many times I had to watch those damn Sonic Mania Adventures with my 4 year old. He ate them up.
I came into this post thinking we might finally be seeing some light shed on the old 2007 series that was never greenlit. Makes me wonder now just how many projects might have been at various points of pre-development.
This is the first I've heard of a 2007 series. So not to derail the thread, is there another thread or link you could share @LMaster562 ?
Mania adventures felt so good it was like they understood the marketing around their classic sonic stuff at that point, the style was perfect too. I was hoping it was sega opening their eyes...
Thanks Linkabel. While I'd love to see a full series Mania Adventures style. The fact we get scattered tie ins to the various games coming out like Colors and the Frontiers Prologue do work. I wouldn't want a full series like that until Sega gets it's Lore department in order. Then we could probably get something that could branch off more.
