What are the sources for Sonic being inspired by Felix the Cat and Mickey Mouse?

Eh, I'm more familiar with American politicians than my own country's.
I imagine to an outsider, American politics have always been an spectacle to be invested in.

 

TBF Sonic has had plenty of references to American pop culture since his creation, so a reference to Roosevelt isn't that farfetched.

But yeah, I feel the fact Eggman resembles that Laputa character, with his face being a nigh identical copy in that concept art, coupled with Sonic Team's multiple Ghibli inspirations, and that Ohshima tweet mentioned above, leaves little doubt that his inspiration came from that movie instead.

 

So I was thinking of where I had seen any concrete proof and I remembered the Classic Game Postmortem: Sonic the Hedgehog panel from GDC 2018.




So you have Mickey, Felix and Doraemon. When Oshima and Yasuhara are talking about the history behind Sonic's design I don't think they mentioned the characters by name though.

But at least there's a reference to them acknowledging those characters. You can look for this section around 7:55.

And here's the 2018 thread where we discussed the panel.

I know this was in the OP, but I was wondering, can anyone see if they can do another translation of what they're actually saying in that section?

Not that the translator was bad, but she did have to do it on the fly which might mean that maybe certain things don't get mentioned.

 

This image sums up why I never really vibed with the Boom designs or a lot of fan re-designs in general; Sonic's design is intentionally simplistic and that's why he works so well. His face is soft circles juxtaposed with sharp triangles.

I always liked how Sonic X made an effort to always show his 3 spike silhouette like Mickey's ears

 

I've always thought that the whole Bill Clinton connection seemed absurd, too, but given how almost every common variant of the claim seems to acknowledge and explicitly draw attention to the fact that Clinton was not yet super-famous during the character's conception makes me think that there's more truth to it than we might think.

Either that, or the people perpetrating this claim are simply trying to rationalize it in their heads, as there's simply no way that Naoto "The cut Sonic CD outro scene is not R2" Ohshima could ever misremember anything.

 

There are two possibilities that I think could explain this. One: Bill Clinton did not influence Sonic’s creation but did influence his ongoing portrayals from 1992 onward.

Because, yeah, Bill Clinton was not really well-known except for his first two major appearances on the national stage. One was during the 1988 Democratic National Convention, where he was the keynote speaker.

The issue? He completely bombed. It was so bad that not only was it said to have destroyed his aspiring presidential ambitions (he had considered running that year), but it also hurt his current political career.

I’m not saying it’s impossible that someone in Japan could have seen that moment, but did that moment really capture Sonic’s attitude?

That said, he did make an appearance immediately after on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson—the first politician to do so. His attitude, the joking, and playing the saxophone helped salvage his reputation.

Now, Carson had a huge influence not only in the U.S. but also internationally, even if sometimes it was indirect or just through people borrowing his format. Was this the moment Oshima saw?

Or did he see something about Clinton during his summer 1990 trip to New York that caught his eye?

The second possibility—and perhaps this will sound harsh—is that it was just marketing.

You know how, when you’re reading about the lives of, say, Walt Disney or Stan Lee, they’ll mention something in an interview about their history, but then it turns out their version of events isn’t true?

This isn’t uncommon. It’s a way to add mystique or make the story a little more cinematic.

I'm not saying they are bad people, but remember how many of the Sega of America staff from that era have said things about Sonic’s creation that we now know simply aren’t true.

The same thing could be happening here. I’ve heard that Bill Clinton tidbit, along with the Roosevelt one, since 2001.

Maybe they just went with it and said, “Sure, let’s add it to the tale to give the franchise a more ‘90s vibe,” without realizing it doesn’t really make sense.

It wouldn’t be the first time fan misconceptions have found their way into the franchise.

Though I still think the first option is more likely.

 

Maybe the connections with American presidents was something SoA made up so it would appeal to their target audience, or just something that they saw in those designs, particularly with Eggman and Roosevelt.
They could've used the "edgy"/cool Mickey Mouse angle too, but he wasn't the enemy I guess.