Hello and welcome to How Did This Not Get Made?
This is the podcast all about the movies that were never made, the scripts that were never
written and the ideas that never even made it to the page.
My name is Daniel Kawka and I'm Lexcee Riley.
[Applause]
[Music]
And that is the smoothest I've ever done the intro.
A smooth like butter intro.
Never again.
Happy Honda Days.
Happy Toyota.
[Laughs]
We are still in the season.
Of giving.
So buy a new car today.
[Laughs]
Man, we're starting to realize that we were going to throw an ads of our own and I didn't realize
that we would take that literally.
So it's my turn again.
I took on a franchise that was a little bigger than I expected it to be.
There's only three movies.
Well, two soon to be three.
And if you haven't read the title of the episode, we are talking about Sonic the Hedgehog.
Yeah, this is I think one of the episodes where I am going to be outside of quickly watching
things last night flying completely blind.
No, you'll be fine.
Which is kind of fun.
I love learning.
The research is going to have all the info.
But getting your hot takes on stuff is really the joy of the podcast.
Yeah, I've got a lot of hot takes just from watching one last night.
But we'll get into that.
Now, I do want to put a bit of a disclaimer on here.
Oh, hold on.
No, it's not for anything bad or like any like for a warning or anything like that.
It's sorry in a family show.
Have you seen our demographic?
Yeah, I really have.
Yeah, we are.
I'm trying.
I'm trying to keep it open.
Okay.
I just want to say right off the bat, we are solely going to be talking about the first Sonic movie
that was attempted to be made in the mid 90s.
And specifically the unmade game Sonic Extreme.
Oh.
Now, this is not going to go into all of the other unmade Sonic games because there are multiples.
There's so many that got made though.
There are a lot of games that got made.
There were a lot of games that did not get made.
But I want to say that we are solely going to be focusing on Sonic Extreme.
And the other thing that I will not be talking about but might be a episode in the future is the cursed Sonic
that was supposed to be part of the first Sonic movie.
The first one that actually came out with Jim Carrey?
Yes.
Oh.
You remember that trailer, right?
Uh, meow.
Oh!
Yeah.
Yes.
Yeah.
That was my very first ever introduction to Sonic.
That shouldn't be.
Because I also watched one of the cartoons last night.
I was like, this was on, I think my boy cousins were watching it.
I just had one of those visceral memories that come screaming back where I was like, I've heard this theme song.
I've like seen it over here but I don't ever remember sitting down to watch it.
So yeah.
Yeah.
You've seen that as your first Sonic is like being introduced to fairy tales in the latter seasons of Once Upon a Time.
Hey!
I mean, it's not wrong.
Yeah.
I do remember people being up real.
I was like, hey, it's a weird look and creature and people were really upset.
And I think you're the person that showed me what it was supposed to look like.
Because I think we saw that trailer in theaters.
I don't know if I saw in theaters.
I remember seeing it and I was just a poll.
We were together when that happened.
Like we were sitting in the same room.
And I just remember you being like, no, no, no.
Here's what it is.
And I was like, oh, that, that was scary.
Yeah.
He was weird and-
Out of context totally fine.
I mean, good on Paramount to revamp and say like we're going to delay the movie.
We're going to redo Sonic in the CGI that we did.
I think that's one of the best fixes in film history.
Because that could have-
It could have tanked it.
It would have tanked it.
It was going to tank it immediately.
Yeah.
But wait a listen to your audience.
But that will not be a subject of this Sonic episode just because it's so far into the future
and really has nothing to do with like the over-working story.
I'm really forward to that part.
This is why I said the like the movie, yes, you can watch it, but it's not really like the necessary one to watch.
Yeah.
And I think the animated show had more to do with like what is going on in here.
I just wanted to like not stare blankly at you for two hours.
And if anyone knows me, knows that I can't fly blind.
It's just not how I roll in life.
Yeah.
Was this your jam as a child?
Yes.
So growing up we had a Sega Genesis.
We were one of the, I realize one of the first adopters of I guess Sega when it came out because we got the combo.
So oftentimes with councils whenever they were sold oftentimes they're sold with a game.
And Sega Genesis was sold with Sonic and we had that as a kid.
We are in very opposites.
I was in this fence and I know that like we've talked about this in real life before in real life.
And I wasn't allowed to play video games as a kid.
So all of this is going to be very foreign on top of it.
Yeah, this was my jam.
This was like the game that I played as a kid.
We had Sonic, we had Sonic 2 and we had Sonic Spinball, which is the pinball version of Sonic the Hedgehog.
There were pinball versions of things.
I do remember going to friends houses and being, do you have a console?
May I play?
Yeah.
So that was my history with it.
That was my introduction to video games was like, are we talking like Fave Game?
I would not say it's my favorite game, but it's up there.
And there's definitely an nostalgia that comes with this game that excuse me to enjoy it more.
Thanks for you had me play a little bit of it just so like thank God.
Playing the game has more to do with this episode.
Watching the animated show had more to do with what we're in.
I just watched Jim Carey's performance for fun like always.
And that's the thing.
I have lots of questions about the Dr. Eggman, Dr. Robotnik.
I don't understand.
It's the same person, but it's Robotnik in the cartoon and in the video game.
Where did Eggman come from?
Is it just his like human?
Like let's be clear, I was not, I was trying to full screen watch it as much as possible.
And I know for a fact I picked up my phone and was like, oh no, I'm confused.
I will explain that because Jim Carey's adaptation, although it's great that he took it on as his own care.
And he took it on as his own character is not representative of the Eggman, Dr. Robotnik character that we get in the game.
I'm looking forward to that being explained because the movie didn't just left me with a lot of questions.
He more so leans into it into the second movie where he has like the crazy mustache.
Yes, so on Paramount Plus it just plays like when the credits roll the second one immediately plays.
And I again have a dog who is very invested in the movie probably got up to get a snack or something.
I was like, oh credits are playing and then sat back down assuming it was the end credits scene watched a good chunk of it.
And then it was like Sonic 2 and I went, oh my god, when did that happen?
So I saw the crazy mustache and he was like shaving his head, which was really visceral.
And I was like, I've seen enough.
That's the closest to the video game.
Oh, yeah.
Well, that's a bummer.
Okay, we got a good understanding of our history.
I guess your misunderstandings.
Yeah.
This is going to be very educated for me.
Before we get into the notes, let's get into the misunderstandings of our advertisements.
And welcome back.
Hopefully you have all of the parts to turn yourself into a car.
What?
Happy Toyota Thon.
Oh my god.
It's a happy Honda Days miracle.
You just said Toyota Thon.
So Sonic the Hedgehog was the outcome of the Japanese video game company Sega attempting
to create a character that would represent their company.
Disney, head Mickey Mouse, horn and brother's head, bugs bunny.
And within the same decade, Sega was brainstorming this new character Mario emerged in 1985 to
be the face of Nintendo.
It's me Mario.
The creation of Sonic cannot be credited to just one person because it was created by a whole
team at Sega.
It was headed by Ujiinaka.
That's the name that you definitely should keep in mind.
He plays a big role in all of this.
Got it.
There is Neo-toe Oshima.
And Hirokatu Yusuhara.
Okay.
So you just listed three different men?
Yes.
Okay.
And the iconic look of Sonic that design can be credited to Neo-toe Oshima.
In 1988, Sega had released their new game console, the 16-bit Mega Drive.
Although we, in North America, we know it as the Sega Genesis.
Ah.
Sega Genesis.
It's a whole lot more for a whole lot less.
Even though the console was more powerful and had better graphics than the NES, it was not
enough to convince gamers to go and buy it.
Sega needed a character to represent their console.
And secretly for three years, they worked on developing a character that would represent
the company.
It seemed to be the norm for a lot of other video game companies.
We already mentioned Mario, but there was also Pac-Man representing Namco, Mega Man for
Capcom.
Sega initially had a character for their master system, which was the system they had
before.
And that was Alex Kid.
What?
Yeah.
He's not memorable because Doen knows who Alex Kid is.
So Mario is for Nintendo.
Yes.
Okay.
I'm just getting my gaming bearings because they all blur real deep in me.
Like I mentioned before, oftentimes new consoles are when they hit the market, they are paired
off with a game.
And Alex Kid, not going to cut it for the Genesis.
So when the Genesis first released, it was bundled with the forgotten game, Altered Beast.
Excuse me?
Mm-hmm.
It was a game that takes place in ancient Rome where you play as a werewolf, then a weredragon.
What is with the werewolf?
You know, where tiger.
And then finally, you are a golden werewolf.
Okay.
So it's the plot of Grim.
You're a watch Grim.
I have not.
It came out around the same time as one spawn of time and there was like were bees.
Why?
I didn't watch it.
I just remember being like, Oh, because you chose your fandom.
Oh.
Grim Kid or one spawn time good.
And you chose wisely.
Both the teams chose wisely.
Now on June 23rd, 1991, Sega made the switch to bundles Sonic the Hedgehog with Genesis
and sales took off.
In 1991, it became the best selling game in the US and one multiple works that year.
Although Sonic was a much more family friendly character, the games appeal was the gameplay.
So back in the 80s and the 90s, most games operated without saving your progress.
Oh, my God.
Yeah.
Yeah, I definitely remember this because whenever I boot up Sonic, you basically start
from the beginning.
That's going to blow the children of today's mind.
They auto save now.
Yeah.
And now it's just kind of become the standard.
Now this forced gamers to play the same initial levels over and over and over again, leading
players to complete the level as fast as possible.
And this is where we get the term speed run.
Oh, cool.
Yeah.
So whenever you see someone speed running, a super Mario level, like that's the reason why.
I bet there's competitions for that.
Now, this primed a players for when they played Sonic, a character that was built with speed
in mind.
Now programmer, Yuji Nakka, he built it into the program that Sonic would gain speed by
simply moving forward.
You wouldn't have to rely on pushing the run button or gaining like boost tokens.
He just got faster and faster.
Oh, that's why I was so slow.
You have to hold down.
I did.
I did that.
Oh, that's why.
Now, the levels would reward players that could maintain Sonic near the top of the map,
moving them fewer obstacles, but if you felt the lower levels, you'd encounter more blocks,
spikes, enemies, rising water, and so on.
Well, now I'd like to play this with all of that information in mind.
Maybe we'll do a live stream.
We do have a Twitch channel.
We do.
After the original Sonic game was released, a new studio for developing games was established
in Palo Alto, California called the Sega Institute of Technology, or SIT, or SIT.
It was headed by former Atari employee Mark Cerney.
Cerney immediately saw concerns and naming a studio sit because many of his Japanese co-workers
had trouble pronouncing the S sound and end up calling a studio shit.
That's not where I saw that going at all.
So he renamed the studio to an even worse name, the Sega technological institute, or STI.
Hmm.
Back then it was known as STDs and STDIs, definitely.
It's a sign of the times, but I'm just like, how does that fix the problem that's still
going to miss pronounced?
If the S is the problem, and the company is called Sega, can't really do much.
No, you can't.
Now, when Cerney was first hired at by Sega in 1985, he initially worked in Tokyo and worked
on the master system, but Sega wanted to create games that cater to the American taste.
And so they set up the Sega technological institute in the US with Cerney being the head of operations
in 1990.
STI was unique that it did not answer to Sega's American division and would seek approval
directly from Sega's Japanese division.
Ah.
Hmm.
Okay, and this guy was the head of Atari.
He worked for Atari.
I have a dumb question.
Hmm.
Are Atari and Sega the same company?
No.
Okay.
Very different.
Is Atari its own company or is it okay?
There we go.
There's a little more history.
Their first assignment was to develop a Dick Tracy game based on the movie.
The plan was to release the game a year before the film's release date, but with delays, it
did not release until February in 1991.
Now, I know that you are a Dick Tracy diehard.
When did Dick Tracy come out?
I am not a Dick Tracy diehard, but I do have someone in my life that is a Dick Tracy diehard,
like dressed up for Halloween as Dick Tracy.
And I know that because I was like, "Oh, who is he dressed up as?"
Well, you don't really need to know the release date.
All you need to really know is that this game was released eight months after the theatrical
release and two months after the home video release.
Oh my God, the marketing team.
They missed it a little bit.
Just a wee bit.
I don't know that there was like marketing was the same as it is now, but nowadays that
oof.
Yeah, the game essentially flopped because it was just irrelevant by that time.
That's nuts.
It seemed like STI was not doing great right off the start, but the team was able to redeem
themselves when their next game, Kid Chameleon, sold incredibly well.
What a fascination with children.
The game broke new grounds by including over 100 levels while managing to fit it on a one
megabyte cartridge.
Oh my God.
And megabyte, yeah.
Oh my God.
Although this game also did not have a safe feature on it.
Oh my God.
Okay, so there's 100 levels and you're at 98 and the power goes out.
No wonder kids used to get so angry and violent over video games.
Oh yeah.
After the success of the first Sonic the Hedgehog game, Cerny made the pitch to make the
sequel game Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
What gave Cerny the advantage was his recent hiring of Yuji Nakka, the programmer behind
Sonic.
Behind the scenes, Nakka was not pleased with the salary when he worked for the Japanese
Sega company and left.
When Cerny heard about this, he brought it up with the Sega of America executive Shinobu
Toyota and was able to negotiate a deal to double Nakka salary and then hire him for
SDI.
That would make me also switch companies for divisions or whatever.
Double my salary?
Yes, please.
I'd move across the country for that.
I've done it.
And my salary did not double.
So you do it for less.
I did do it for less.
So on top of that, Cerny also hired Hirozaku Yasuhara, the designer behind most of Sonic
stages in gameplay.
Cerny made the pitch in September 1991 and promised to have it ready by Christmas season
in 1992.
This is the only way that Sonic can ever relate to Christmas is the deadline is always for
Christmas season.
Okay, because I asked you that before we started recording, I was like, does it ever really
have to do with Christmas because it's come out around Christmas every year?
Yeah.
Interesting now if that was always the deadline, but it has nothing to actually do with it.
This has been a business strategy for like nearly every video game.
You'll see just like an influx of video games hit the market like October, November and
even December.
Right.
Because then they can get it for Christmas.
Exactly.
Or for Hanaka?
Sega was hesitant at first thinking that it was too soon for a sequel, but by November,
they gave them the green light.
They were losing two months of development time.
All hands were on deck to create a Sonic sequel with a team of over 100 people.
There was a lot of struggles to get the game off the ground and there was a lot of conflict
due to language and cultural barriers.
Regardless, the game was released in November 1992.
Hey, they did it.
Sonic 2 fits easily into any tackle box made from a space age polymer plastic for years
of family fun and pets love it too.
Find the Sega Genesis that comes with Sonic 1 and get Sonic 2 free.
Heck now, we're your dog sweaters sold separately.
And in November, 1993, it was reported that Sonic the Hedgehog 2 had broken video game
sales records and became the best selling 16-bit game of all time.
They didn't dig trace yet.
Nope.
The game introduced a new character, Tails, and a new move for Sonic, which is known as
the Spin Dash.
Do you know what the Spin Dash is?
I don't know.
I don't know who Tails is either.
In the sequel, the orange yellowish?
I did that far.
Oh, okay.
Maybe I should have had you watch the sequel instead?
I do know who Knuckles is though.
Okay, so yeah, we had Tails and then there was a Spin Dash.
That came in the second game.
That is where you can hold down Sonic.
So it turns into the little ball?
Yeah, it takes off.
I do know what that is.
I've never gotten the opportunity, but I do know what it is.
I use that a lot.
The Sonic sequel had its successes, but now without its consequences.
Sonic and its production in 1992, Mark Cerney resigned from SDI.
Knock refused to develop another Sonic game if he had to work with an American team again.
After Cerney, Roger Hector, who previously worked for Atari and Electronic Arts, or EA,
he took over SDI.
Oh, I only know them because they did the Sims.
During this time, during this time, SDI fell into an odd place in Sega's corporation.
He was answering and getting approvals from both the Japanese and American branch.
But he never considered himself as part of either.
It was more like an independent game company whose only client was Sega.
Hector figured it might be best to relocate the team from Palo Alto to Redwood City, California
to be closer to the Sega of America headquarters.
In 1993, SDI was tasked with developing Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
The new character added to the roster, Knuckles.
Hey!
I know Knuckles!
How do you know Knuckles?
Because when the second one started, I was like, "Oh, this is exciting.
Idris Elba is in the movie."
And I went, "Okay."
And then Knuckles started talking at one point.
And I went, "Oh my God.
Is that where Idris Elba?"
I was waiting for him to be a character, not a video game character.
I was like, "Yes, as a human."
And it took me way too long to recognize his voice.
And I was like, "Oh, yeah, Idris Elba is Knuckles."
That's the only reason I'm like, "I know exactly which character Knuckles is."
Yes.
I am aware of the effect I have on women.
While in development, Sega made a promo deal with McDonald's that would include
Sonic toys in their happy meals.
God, they don't make them like they used to.
Okay, I'm going to show you these toys.
Because the toys of the 90s in Happy Meals were really the jam.
I can sound really old and say that they don't make them like they used to, but it's really
true.
And I guarantee you you have either owned one of these or seen them before or played with
them before.
In the $1.99 Sonic 3 hamburger happy meal.
Sonic a lunches with a push of a button.
Tails flies, who knows how high.
And Robotic Barely dodges disaster.
I feel like that spinner thing, the blue one with the thing, it reminds me of the girls
had the little fairy that you pulled before it.
They all went into my room.
And then Tails would fly into the air.
I definitely had the Nockles toy.
I definitely had the Dr. Robotnik toy.
I remember having these.
I don't remember having them.
I think the spinner thing was like the equivalent to the very, I don't remember what those
were called, but I remember my cousins had something similar to that.
I remember the little mermaid toys from McDonald's.
That's what I remember.
Not the same, but yes.
Just as good.
The team worked as hard as they can to get the game out by February 1994.
Oh, going off schedule.
That was when McDonald's was able to like, because McDonald's had a tight Christmas schedule.
Yeah, but they fell short of accomplishing their goals.
Originally, Nockles was going to be a playable character, much like Tails and Sonic the
Hedgehog 2.
But with the immovable release date, Sega made an executive decision on what to do with
the unfinished game.
So they split the game into two.
The first game was Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
Sonic 3 is coming.
Look for the shadows.
A ground hook there.
Make that Hedgehog day.
Did you see the shadow?
Sonic 3, take a little more seconds.
It didn't include Nockles as a playable character.
Instead he was a protagonist guarding Angel Island and the master of Emerald.
Basically, he was there to like, foil and like, disrupt your gameplay while you were playing
through these levels.
So like, if you were going to go across a bridge, he would destroy that bridge.
Oh good.
How fun.
Now, part two of this game would be released six months later as Sonic and Knuckles.
This is a great idea for a new game called Sonic and Knuckles.
It's Knuckles in his own game.
Plus it has new technology.
Lock on technology.
So you can play Knuckles in Sonic 2 and 3.
It's revolutionary.
This cartridge could be inserted into the Sega Genesis like any other game, but there
was a slot at the top of this game that you could put the Sonic 3 cartridge into.
So then you would get Knuckles as a playable character when you combine the two together.
That's really cool.
Yeah.
That's so smart and like, it's such a brilliant move.
As like a kid, you're going to want both games to be able to play them together.
So like, way to drive up sales.
What a good business move.
Yeah.
And then on top of that, oh boy, there's more.
They expanded this to Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
So if you put in the Sonic the Hedgehog 2 cartridge, well, Tails is already a playable character,
but you could play as Knuckles in Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
That's so brilliant.
Yeah.
Whoever came up with that, Kudos.
Great stuff.
And if it wasn't for the Deadline, it would have never happened.
See?
Sometimes bad things happen to make way for this.
It is okay to miss your Deadlines.
That is the moral of the story.
So say the Tracy.
After Sonic 3, SDI was in charge of creating a spin-off game that Sonic could sell for the holiday
season.
They wanted to go in the direction of expanding the casino levels that they saw in Sonic
1 and 2.
And out of that, they created Sonic Spinball, a pinball game, both Sonic the Hedgehog.
What year was this?
Around 1994.
Wow, we're ahead of the curve.
Because I feel like the late 90s had the pinball computer games.
Yeah.
Finally, Yusuhara and Yujinaka, they had left the team, seeing that the two of them could
knock it along at all.
They both left.
Well, it seems like Yujinaka doesn't really seem to get along with a lot of people.
It comes up a lot.
Ah, what a fun victory.
SDI remained in a weird limbo between the American and Japanese branch of Sega.
After the release of the Sony PlayStation in 1994.
Wow.
PlayStation was 1994.
Yeah, and the tension within Sega began to rise.
I'm just blown away because to me, a PlayStation feels so, and I guess we're on like what, five
now.
Yeah.
Now, this research is going to take a little bit of a left turn because we're going to
kind of stop talking about the video game when SDI and developing the games and we're
going to go into Sonic in other media forums.
Sonic goes to Hollywood.
Yes.
Yeah, actually, Sonic does go to Hollywood and we will discuss that after these advertisements.
And welcome back brought to you by Apple, not the computer.
Apple snack, Apple snack, coffee snack.
Slice up some apples, dip it in some caramel, have fun with the kids.
I said that we're going to kind of drift away from the video game.
We're going to Hollywood, baby.
We are going to go in a very different direction on September 6, 1993, premiered the animated
series Adventures of Sunk the Hedgehog.
The show is developed by a number of people, but one of them stands out and that's Phil
Harnage, whose career has been turning already established IP into Saturday morning cartoons
before Sonic.
Some of the notable productions that he created were Vat Elbert and the Cosby Kids, He-Man
and the Masters of the Universe, Shira, Princess of Power, Hello Kitty's Furry Tale Theater,
Elf Tales, The Legend of Zelda, The Super Mario Bros. Super Show.
Wow.
The Adventures of Super Mario 3, Super Mario World, New Kids on the Block.
It was a show, there was an animated show based on the band, and Bill and Ted's excellent
adventures.
Wait, what?
That also got a show?
There's a theme, right?
There's like Super Mario and Legend of Zelda and then just hard left with new kids on the
block.
Yeah, it was basically, they just went to him to be like, can we turn this into a Saturday
morning cartoon?
He's like, I'll do it.
I'll do it.
Magic, now the voice of Sonic was provided by Jell-L White.
Oh, wow.
Ercle.
Hey, if we share why we could turn those plain old hot dogs into three mouthwater, taste
but tantalizing chili dogs.
That's incredible.
Yeah, he was the first voice of Sonic the Hedgehog.
Oh, they should have brought him back.
I wish they did.
Not that I don't love Ben Schwartz, but...
Ben Schwartz is good at Sonic, but...
Don't be...
If you brought back Ercle, I would not be bad.
No, not at all.
The show established a few things about the character that were outside of the games and
this Sonic is a mischievous teenager hedgehog with a kind heart.
He teams up with his sidekick Tails, a two-tailed fox Sonic found when he was a toddler.
Tails was a toddler.
They try to stop Dr. Robotnik from conquering their home planet, Mobius.
Is Tails a lady?
No.
Little boy.
The show took some liberties, making up some characters for the show.
They made sure that Sonic taught a lesson in its Sonic says PSAs.
This is back when if cartoons are being targeted to kids, you also need to teach something
to them.
This is part of it.
And it established Sonic's favorite food.
Do you know what his favorite food is?
Onion rings?
Chili dogs.
Oh, come on.
It was right there.
You saw the movie.
I know that element is in the movie.
I mean, I felt like he just ate a lot.
I mean, there's part of that as well, but-
Because they calls James Marsden "donut lord."
So I was very focused on the donut of it.
I thought they were going to make like a ringing-shaped food theme joke.
No, chili dogs was, I don't know what it was about.
And 90s food.
Yeah.
It really is just-
But I remember eating chili dogs when I was a kid simply because Sonic ate chili dogs.
Oh, wow.
Like so many Saturday morning cartoons, the purpose was to primarily sell toys to kids.
I was going to say sell chili dogs to kids.
I mean, it might have happened that spikes in chili dog sales went up just like it spikes
in spinach went up when Papa-
Oh, I'm sure.
Kids don't eat anything.
They're like chicken, tandys, and mac and cheese until some character eats it or someone
they look up to eat something and they're like, oh, now I'll try it.
Yeah.
So if Captain America were to eat oatmeal, you'd have so many kids eating oatmeal.
I was like, "Mam, good."
I don't mean to gross everyone, the black licorice of breakfast foods.
So when Sonic 3D Blast was about to be released in November of 1996, the show was there
to help promote it in their Christmas special.
Now you're so in it, Claus!
Sonic Claus.
The name of the special was Sonic Christmas Blast.
There is a Sonic Christmas story somewhere in the lore.
Yes.
Yay!
Now, Sonic 3D Blast was released for the Sega Genesis, the Sega Saturn, and the PC.
Not the PlayStation.
No, not the PlayStation.
Even though the PlayStation is around at this point.
Yes.
Interesting.
With Sonic, it stayed primarily with Sega.
Is multiplayer platforming a thing that happens later in video game lore, I guess?
Multi-platforming, I think, began happening around this time, but usually was because you
had video game development companies, and in order for them to sell more games, you had
to make it available on different consoles.
Whereas Sega, in this case, is solely responsible for...
Right.
They have their own console.
Yeah.
And this is kind of like their own monopoly, to be like, "We don't want to put it on other
platforms because we want people to buy the Sega Genesis or the Sega Saturn."
You're losing business as soon as you hand it to another platform.
Yeah.
It was presented in a 2D isometric perspective that gave the illusion that it was 3D.
Illusion.
And solutions.
Illusion.
Having the game and the TV show synergize was just the beginning and Sega had a much
big ambition in mind.
What if Sonic had its own theatrically released movie?
And what if Sonic created Sonic's very first 3D game?
And what if they were connected together?
And what if it starred Jim Carey?
Aha, finally.
The development for the Sonic the Hedgehog movie came from Michaeline Reasley, the director
of Entertainment and consumer products for Sega of America.
In 1993, Reasley was given the approval from Sonic of Japan to pursue pitching a Sonic
movie.
There was one concern coming from the Sega of America president Tom Kalinsky and that
was the failure of the Super Mario Brothers movie in the stain left on the reputation of Nintendo.
There was a Super Mario Brothers movie?
Yeah.
Oh, is this the one?
Bob Hoskins.
Like, "Wizama?"
Yeah.
I know of it.
Okay.
It's terrible.
We should watch it.
Great.
Now Reasley, he heard Kalinsky's concerns and proceeded to ignore it and signed a deal with
GM Studios and Trilogy Entertainment Group in August of 1994.
We're going to do this anyway.
During the story development meetings, Sega insisted that this needs to be an origin story.
Not just an origin story made up for the movie, but an origin story that was already established
during the production of the first Sonic the Hedgehog game and was put in the Sonic Bible
in 1991.
That was going to be the heck?
The Sonic Bible was part of the secret development of Sonic.
We're going to go into a little bit of that.
And we have it right here.
We kind of actually do.
Oh, damn.
Yeah.
There was also origin stories in the 1992 manga.
There was the Sega official Sonic Jam official guide.
The official comic book that was released just before the Sonic the Hedgehog game.
We're going to go through many origin stories.
In this one, I've never heard of before.
I played a lot of the games as a kid and never have I heard this out.
I'm guessing that a lot of Sonic fans that are out there have probably never heard the
story either.
So this is the OG?
One of the original origin stories.
Yes.
Keep in mind, this is a fake story, but it's meant to sound real.
Okay.
Fake story.
Okay.
Okey dokey.
In the US around the 1940s, there were two Air Force pilots, Chuck Yeager and Henry
Gordon.
They took part in a secret project named Blue Gale in which they would be the first pilots
to break the sound barrier.
Henry's wife, Mary, gave him the nickname Hedgehog because when he took off his flight helmet,
his hair would stick straight up like a Hedgehog.
Mary even illustrated a blue Cartoon mascot named Sonic on the back of his flight jacket.
Mary was a well-established children's book author and because her husband was gone most
of the time, she was most responsible for raising their daughter Shelley.
Mary would entertain Shelley and her friends by telling them stories about Sonic the Blue
Hedgehog that would protect innocent people and animals from evil men.
And they recurred evil Dr. Eggman.
In 1947, Blue Gale was ready to hit the milestone for flying faster than the speed of sound.
Before Chuck and Henry strapped into their fighter jets, both of them exchanged jackets with
each other out of respect.
Henry proceeded to accelerate his jet past the speed of sound and suddenly the jet exploded.
Chuck proceeds to do the same and he survives making him the first man to break the sound barrier.
Henry's sacrifice is lost in history and Chuck is praised for his accomplishments.
For Henry, he feels survivors guilt and for the rest of his life to honor Henry.
He continues to wear his flight jacket.
Other pilots see Chuck wearing Henry's jacket and begin sporting the same blue mascot, not
knowing the full story behind it.
What was apparent was that whoever wore the blue Hedgehog seemed to be protected in the
sky.
The story isn't over.
40 years later, Meg, a freelance photographer hired to cover an air show, find herself
in an antique store during her lunch break.
Thrifting through many racks, she finds an old, dirty flight jacket with a blue creature
and the name Sonic on the back.
The name seems familiar.
She's flooded with memories of an old neighbor lady that used to tell her stories of Sonic
when she was a little girl.
He was a Hedgehog that could run faster than the speed of sound.
Delighted by her find, she bought the jacket and wore it exiting the store.
In another version, Meg was actually gifted this jacket by her grandfather Chuck.
So wait, this sounds not fake at all.
I know, this is why I put a disclaimer in the beginning.
This is a fake story.
Also, this is the movie I want to see.
Like, Sonic 4, Sonic Origins.
That's such a good movie.
During the air show, one of the old World War II planes crashed to the ground around
for Meg was.
She surrounded by fire.
She's about to lose consciousness in a hand from a blue figure reaches out to her.
She feels the sensation of extreme acceleration before passing out and she wakes up in a hospital.
The nurse explains to her that she was found unconscious on a grassy hill miles away from
the airport.
Her jacket was burned and when she looked for Sonic on the back, the illustration was gone.
Days later, she developed her film from the air show and the last picture she took was
a blurry image of a pair of red shoes with white stripes.
Yes, there's your movie!
That's the movie.
It is Top Gun Meet Sonic.
I never heard this origin story before and I was like, "Someone make that movie!"
And it hit heavier than it should have.
Like this is just a fun, blue hedgehog just popping around, moving fast.
I was like, "What is this?
Why am I crying?"
That's so good.
Again, fake story, not real, but it sounds...
You're gonna find me going down a rabbit hole on the internet later!
Yeah, none of these characters exist.
That's insane.
Right.
Now I'm like, there's no one's call sign was ever Sonic.
Had to be.
And I'm sure there was.
It seems like the origin story of Sonic.
Say you wanted Sonic to be a symbol.
Yeah, of survival, of protection.
As far as the Sonic's actual origins, that's a little more complicated.
And before releasing the first Sonic the Hedgehog game, Sega put out a comic book explaining
his origins to get people hyped for the game.
In the comic, we are on the planet Molbius.
It is under attack from the evil Dr. Robotnik.
Sonic is the only one that stands up to Robotnik.
And when Sonic destroys his killer robots and one is badniks, it frees.
It frees innocent creatures inside used to power the machines.
The creatures suggest to Sonic to get Dr. Contobur to help fight against Robotnik.
Sonic knows that this is impossible because Contobur is Robotnik spelled backwards.
Oh my god.
I love when they do something like that.
We flash back to when Sonic was just a normal brown anthropomorphic Hedgehog.
Skated?
Like he still talks, but he's just not really.
And this is him meeting Contobur for the first time.
Dr. Contobur is a scientist for good.
At the time Contobur was experimenting with the Chaos Emeralds to power his device, a
Retro Orbital Chaos Compressor or R-O-C-C.
His goal was to trap all the worlds evil into the Chaos Emeralds.
Sonic in the meantime trained himself on the Super Sonic treadmill and broke the sound
barrier, causing the machine to explode.
No one died in this one.
But this gave Sonic a blue sheen.
Oh.
Contobur made new shoes for Sonic.
This one's built for speed.
One day during lunch, Contobur spilled his drink on the R-O-C-C.
The machine malfunctions in Zaps, Contobur with over 10,000 volts of pure evil energy.
While holding onto a hard-boiled egg.
What?
Eggman.
Yep.
I know.
Well, I mean, the name mostly comes from like his shape in the video games, which is kind
of weird that they chose.
Yeah, Jim Carrey to be Dr. Eggman where it's like, he's, I mean, he's a pretty skinny
guy, but like in the games like Robotnik is like this kind of a ball-shaped person.
And the cartoon is 100% of all.
I mean, that's where it comes from.
So Robotnik, Eggman, seeing.
Wild.
Yeah.
I don't know that we could have just called him Robotnik.
I don't know why we needed the hard-boiled egg of it all.
I feel like the nickname just kind of got out of control.
Yeah, I can't believe the lore is that it's a hard-boiled egg.
The machine then scatters thousands of containment rings all over the world.
Dr. Ovi Contobur is now the evil Dr. Ivo, Robotnik.
And he's hell-bent on creating a rain of terror all around Mobius.
We flash forward to the present, and Sonic continues to capture the containment rings,
while escaping the gang of badniks, Sonic slips through a giant ring and enters the warp
of confusion.
And inside he finds a chaos emerald and exit.
Sonic challenges Sonic and they end up at Robotnik's lab.
There they find Sonic's best friend that we all know and love.
Knuckles.
Porker Lewis.
He's tied up to a conveyor belt and he's headed towards a circular saw.
Sonic saves Porker and destroys a batnik creating machine.
But in the process, Robotnik steals the chaos emerald.
At the end of the comic, Sonic states that you can continue the adventure in his video
game.
Brilliant.
And I want to do research into when marketing teams became such a thing because obviously
they've been around for a while.
Mad men made a whole show about a marketing team.
But I'm like, did some marketing team come up with this pairing?
Because that's genius.
Yeah, it's pretty great.
That's the movie that should have been.
But that was the comic.
What about the Sonic Bible?
Oh right, because we were in the comic.
We weren't even, so they all really do tether together.
All 75 origin stories.
And the idea of the origin story was that this is one of the many stories that was being
told about.
Right.
Like Sonic the Hedgehog from the old lady neighbor.
Meg.
Yeah.
For the longest time, the lore of the Sonic Bible was kept secret until it was leaked in 2009.
Former sake of America employee Dean Sitten who worked on the Sonic Bible joined the online
forum SonicRetro.org.
This is the central hub for Sonic News and lore.
Think of it kind of like a wiki fandom site.
That's what it was.
Sitten would be there to answer questions from fans while he was there.
He was convinced to put the Sonic Bible documents up for sale.
It was swiftly bought by one of the users and PDF scans were uploaded to the site.
The documents shown the many versions and revisions made of the origin story of Sonic.
So we are going into the origin stories that were in the Sonic Bible.
So we've had two origin stories so far.
Yes.
We've had the nice story of the jet pilots.
The jet pilots who broke the sound barrier and then we had the comic book that came out
before.
Yeah.
So now we're in the Bible.
The Sonic Bible.
The leaked Bible.
That's nuts.
And an age before the internet that like never would have happened.
No.
In the first draft, this takes place on Earth in the lively town of Hardly Nebraska.
Oh, isn't that the movie?
I don't think so.
It's said in some small town.
Yeah.
Because they want to go to the big city of San Francisco.
Ooh.
The city lights San Francisco.
Is that what San Francisco is?
The windy city.
San Francisco.
I know that's what San Francisco is.
Land of the Lakes.
The Emerald City.
San Francisco.
So in Hardly Nebraska, we are introduced to a brown sunny, the hedgehog who lives with
his mother in five sisters next door.
Berger joint.
I am five sisters.
Sonny's father died shortly after he was born.
Sonny's mother would tell her children's stories of their father and how he was the fastest
hedge runner in the town.
For Sonny, he was smart and became friends with humans.
He even learned how to read and write from the children.
He would play pranks on them at the bowling alley by curling up into a ball and tricking
humans into picking them up instead of using a bowling ball.
I love this.
This, for the story.
A night sunny would run along the hedges training to become faster like his dad.
One night, the Hardly's track team coach was leaving the Berger joint and spotted Sonny,
invited Sonny to join the track team in one of multiple races.
Winter was approaching and unfortunately Sonny had to quit the team to hibernate.
While hibernating, Sonny was awoken by the ground shaking beneath him and a giant pipe
emerges from out of the ground.
A curious Sonny climbs through the pipe and on the other end he finds a doctor Ovi Kintobr.
Oh my god.
He was working on a device to find chaos emerald that would help him power his machine to rid
the earth of pollution.
So far, he was able to find six out of the seven emeralds.
Funny for the experiment would run out and he was working independently underground.
He also sheltered other woodland creatures who needed an escape from the winter.
Sonny stayed with Kintobr and became his assistant, learning physics and computer science along
the way.
Sonny continued with his training and used Kintobr's supersonic treadmill to help him train
and would eventually break the sound barrier.
When Sonny went faster than the speed of light, his appearance changed to a cobalt blue
and his quills slipped back into a mohawk.
Awesome.
Kintobr gave him the nickname "Sonic."
In the lab, Sonny discovers the machine, the reverse quantum bioformulator.
Overlaunch Kintobr describes the machine and shows Sonny the six emeralds contained
in a lead-lined safe.
Kintobr states that these emeralds are the accumulation of all of man's inner energy
of every gross indiscussing impulsive deed.
The seventh emerald would help stabilize the six evil emeralds.
If successful, the scientists would launch all seven emeralds into space and rid the world
of evil.
If not, the amount of evil in the world would double.
Suddenly, a wave of radiation was headed towards the lab.
Sonny opens the safe, but accidentally turned on the reverse quantum bioformulator.
The scientists tripped and spilled the emeralds on the floor, a big beam bursts out of the bioformulator
and latched onto Kintobr the emeralds and a half eaten boiled egg.
Why?
Because you gotta explain in shape somehow.
Sonny was fast enough to escape the beam, but not Kintobr.
No, he's got too many eggs in his system.
The scientists emerge from the accident as an egg-shaped man.
And now goes by the name Dr. Aivo Robotik.
Eggman?
Yes.
There is a second draft that seems to have notes from executives that didn't change too
much of the story, but the third draft seems to be where a lot of the changes seem to
happen.
In this version, they get rid of the family back story and anything that has to do with
Nebraska, sorry Nebraska.
Sad?
That was my favorite part.
In this Sonic the Hedgehog is an orphan living in the Green Hill Zone on the planet Mobius.
He makes friends with the creatures on the planet and learns to run quickly from his friend
Johnny Lightfoot the Rabbit.
Sally Acorn, the squirrel, teaches him how to jump.
Flicky, the blue bird teaches him to be happy and fearless.
Not to fly.
Trifts the chicken teaches Sonic the spin attack.
And Parker Lewis the pig teaches him the most important skill and that is to fear fire.
Fire, fire, fire!
Get out.
One.
Yeah.
Sonic stumbles upon Contobers Lab in the story of their time together as nearly the same.
Although they did change the name of the machine from Reverse Quantum Bioformulator to the
amazing transformation machine.
Clever.
I'm his rock.
Instead of launching the Emeralds in the Space Contobre wants to store them into Mobius'
icy core and when the machine malfunctions it releases all the containment rings all
around Mobius.
Do we have more origin stories?
I mean we have the movies and we'll get into those.
Well that's why I'm like where did the movies none of those fit what they wound up doing?
Yeah.
That's why the movies weren't really necessary.
I mean I'm glad I watched that one because like I would have been like oh which one did
they pick and been so disappointed to find out that the fighter pilots didn't make it,
the family didn't make it.
All this didn't make it.
I'm pretty sure his mom is just like here's this bag of rings.
We didn't even get Contobur.
No.
So yeah.
He was so confused is because they had he introduces himself to James Marsden as Eggman.
There's no Contobur at all and then I guess he's Robotnik by the end.
If you know the video game you just know that he goes by Eggman and Robotnik.
It's gonna confuse most audiences but for those who played the game just like oh yeah he
goes by both.
So glad I'm not flying blind.
Now I do want to mention that this is the lore for the American Sonic and the Japanese
lore goes into more details and amidst some of the details from the original story that
we just discovered.
I didn't want to bog down the episode with too many origin stories and there's more origin
stories.
And there's enough detail in this to give us an idea of where Sonic began.
All the origin stories are already confusing.
I just need more woodland creatures to tell me what to fear.
We're already starting off all over the place.
Yeah.
And you can already understand the frustration for Sega to be like you need to follow our
origin story and you're just like which one.
Yeah.
What am I gonna talk.
What to do.
I also kinda wish he was brown and then turned blue.
I really like that element that he wasn't always that way.
If they went with the idea that Sonic in Contobre were like buddies that would be the way
to go about this.
Yeah you would definitely care about it I think a little more.
That will unfortunately conclude part one of our episode on Sonic the Hedgehog and his
woodland friends.
Join us for part two when we dive into the films that could have been and the game that
destroyed STI.
While you anticipate part two you can connect with us on the socials.
We are on Instagram and TikTok at how did this not get made and blue sky at HDT and GM.
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I'll go enjoy it chili dog and break the sound barrier.
[MUSIC]