Why is SatAM often considered the best Sonic cartoon?

I liked every Sonic cartoon, but I wouldn't call SatAM the best for the same reasons many others have stated.

It wasn't very much like Sonic in plot, had a huge cast of characters that weren't from the games, Tails was barely there (the gravest offence of both SatAM and SU) , and I'm not a big fan of dark colourless dystopias.

I did like Robotnik's voice in SatAM though. It was both hilarious and reasonably intimidating.

 

I have no idea why SatAM is considered a good Sonic cartoon- or, for that matter, a good cartoon.

It's not. It's cheesy and tries to pull off drama with characters ill-suited to it.

Of course, your other options aren't much better...

 

QFT. I think I said everything I needed to in the Roboticization thread.

 

SATAM is enjoyable, and even if it has nothing to do with Sonic, you can get way past that and take it for what it is.

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog is way better in most respects. Sonic and Tails are better portrayed than anywhere else outside the games, but most importantly, AOSTH Robotnik has an actual CHARACTER, unlike anywhere else.

That said, I believe the pilot episode is the best episode of the bunch, because it has Ed Love's lovely animation, together with Milton Knight's amazing Dr.Robotnik design (edit: Milton also animated parts, apparently).

 

SatAM was terrible. Underground was terrible. AoStH was the only good one. Sonic X isn't even good enough to be terrible.

 

I always thought sonic OVA was the best sonic cartoon. It had all the elements of sonic's world. Plus metal sonic, and a cool adventure <3

 

SatAM

I did enjoy that, more for it's storyline and the attempts to include a sense of dramatic sadness, fear, hope, and romance. The background designs are very nicely done too, carefully looking at the forest's designs, such care and attention to detail, with the addition to smoothish animations and decently drawn characters (The shapping is very good), also the music fits the dramatical aspect to it as well. I cannot say much about its continuance on the comic side of things, I have only managed to read the first (promo?) script that was included as part of the Sonic Mega Collection Plus extras.

AOSTH

This one I enjoyed for the fact that it was actually a "Cartoon", meaning the idea of hilarity watching one of the characters get hurt but not die, etc. not really dramatic like SatAM, but it's had its one or two moments, the character's acting/Cast I would say is similar to that of SatAM in that it's brilliant, and you believed the characters were who they were (If that makes sense). The design for the scenery however I wasn't too proud of, I won't take into account the budget they were allowed to spend being probably one of the reasons why, but mentioning it here, they looked like they were done with a quick splat of spray paint. The character's animations/designed themselves I would say varies depending on the episode &/or season watching, Sometimes they would look as though they were drawn in 10 minutes flat, yet at other times they would impress me with perfect shaping and smooth animating. Music sounds OK to me, no problems here, I love the idea of using the Sonic main theme sound as part of the show, complete with that 80's sort of feel.

Sonic OVA

Very strange, I recall seeing bits to this, but not quite all of it, I won't give my thoughts until I watch it (might edit this post if it's not out of date by then =P)

Sonic Underground

An interesting one mainly because of it's rehashing of SatAM, but I wasn't too impressed to be honest, the cast were OK, nothing wrong there, Jaleel White did a good job at acting three characters out simultaneously, though I think the idea of Sonic being in a band with magical instruments kind of topped it a bit. Having each episode with a music video scene was a nice idea, but the music didn't do it for me, it sounded... dare I say wrong? Wrong place, wrong show? Design wise I find is simply a stripped down version of SatAM, though does seem better than AOSTH most of the time, at least the characters stay more or less the same shape/size, and animation is at standard, not brilliant, but not aweful neither.

Sonic X

I couldn't get into this, now to be fair, parts were OK, I though the story worked well, but 4-Kids and Sonic just don't match, I mean let's face it, Sonic has a personality in there that's sarcastic and cocky and it pushes that very far making sonic seem... not what he's suppose to be I guess. Design I really cannot say anything on, it's your general Anime style really, how better could you explain it?

 

I like it whenever somebody takes a character and does a completely different spin on them, like DC's Elseworlds. This is one reason I particularly enjoy Satam, though I also enjoy the character development and storyline. The comic based on it was also pretty good, up until around 75, anyways. (Though to be fair I haven't read any through the 76-125 area)

Adventures is my personal favorite though. I like it's warped and twisted style, plus it harbours one of the greatest Robotniks seen to mankind. Scratch and Grounder also.

On a side note, the OVA is also awesome, Underground sucks, and Sonic X sucks even worse.

EDIT: Also, Man of the Year would have been the best cartoon EVER.

 

QFT

Can't honestly say I've seen many Sonic Cartoons, but honestly, the SatAM one seems to be the most inviting of the bunch. You can sense there's some sort of style going on and isn't JUST a commercial for Sonic games.

AoSth looks like someone tried to copy the Looney Tunes feel and failed very badly. It seems like a cheap sugar-filled colour palette to lure little children into buying Sonic games.

 

It's been so long, why still no 2nd part for "Man of the Year"?

Perhaps we should make a fan-conclusion or something.

(Also, my vote's for that other cheap 3D Sonic cartoon thing that was in Sonic Jam. :E)

 

An interesting thing I just noticed: During the Super Peel Out, Sonic's feet are portrayed as a ribbon. This ribbon appears to form a mobius strip.

 

I think SatAM is by far one of the greatest cartoon shows I've ever seen. I own the whole series on DVD, and I even went as far as attempting to make a fan game based on it, which unfortunately never saw the light of day. I remember the first time I actually stumbled across this show when I was like 7. At the time I had been watching AoSTH. I was just surfing through the channels when I saw the more sinister-looking Robotnik appear on my TV. I was like "Holy shit!", immediately recognizing it was a different Sonic cartoon I had never seen, and immediately pulled out a random tape to record it. XD

I think what made the series so great was its storyline, and just the overall movie-like quality of the show. Whenever I watched an episode of SatAM, it gave me the same sensation as if I were watching a full-fledged movie. It's funny... Sometimes with great shows like this, you forget they're just 23 minute-long episodes. :D

 

I did the same thing. For some reason, I felt compelled to record SatAM when it first aired, as if it would mean something in the future.

 

While the Sonic OVA is way better, I enjoy AoStH. It's aged well and is still funny, even today. The humor makes it fun to watch still, yet the others are generic action titles.

 

I agree. My mom used to love the way they portrayed Robotnik in AoSTH.
His fat ass always buldging out at the screen when he bends over. xDD

 

SatAM was ok... I didn't care for it in the manner that it pertained to the Archie comic story line, which was never much my cup of tea.

I did however, adore the "JAPANESE VERSION" of Sonic X. I thought it stayed really close to what Sega wanted out of Sonic, and for that reason alone makes it a darn near perfect Sonic cartoon, (or anime in this case)