![Long Before the Boom Blitz, Other Plans A new audio interview published Monday by the Press the Buttons Podcast reveals the idea of a Sonic movie, now firmly entrenched in […]](http://www.tssznews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/generic_sonic_tssz_tssznews_header.jpg "Interview Reveals Sonic Movie Considered in 1994")
Long Before the Boom Blitz, Other Plans
A new audio interview published Monday by the Press the Buttons Podcast reveals the idea of a Sonic movie, now firmly entrenched in the minds of fans around the world, is not a new idea.
Console Wars author Blake Harris revealed in the Podcast that in the midst of his research for the book detailing the great battle between Sega and Nintendo for supremacy during the 1990s, he came across plans for MGM to release a Sonic film–in 1994.
I’ve continued to conduct interviews with people, just to try and get more context, and I’ve also continued to try to get my hands on as much archival material as I can. Some of it can obviously be helpful to the documentary, but I recently found — I came across a contract that Sega had with MGM in 1994 to produce a Sonic the Hedgehog movie, which I didn’t know about, and I’m sure it couldn’t weave its way into the book…
Harris adds it was intended was an animated movie.
It’s not the only Sonic or Sega related story you’ll hear in the interview that may not be in Console Wars. You can hear more with Harris at this link. Thanks to Matthew Green of Press the Buttons for tipping us. If you have news to share, be sure to share it with us. Click Send Tips at the top of every page, or tip us on Twitter.
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I recall that the Mary Garnet story was written with the intent of turning it into a movie. Is this just referring to that?
Interesting. I wonder how it would’ve turned out. I’m guessing awful, since this wasn’t revealed to the public.
Well considering they probably can’t predict the future, I’m going to say that they didn’t reveal it to the public simply because it ended up never happening.
Well, I’m glad that it’s Sony doing this one, at least these days it makes sense for a movie and video game company to be making a movie of another company’s video game. There’s no telling how an MGM animated Sonic movie would have turned out.
Yeah, but just remember a company’s film subsidiary most often has totally different people than the video game branch, and, with that said, different mind sets on what would be ideal for the video game movie at hand.
Exactly. It’s always so easy to forget that corporations the size of Sony have so many different subdivisions, and those subdivisions are almost companies in their own right. Hence the doomsayers saying the PS4 is doomed because Sony is bleeding cash, even though SCE, the part responsible for the PS4, is profitable.
Last I heard, even with the PS4’s recordbreaking (North American) sales, SCE still wasn’t profitable, mostly due to Vita and lackluster Japanese PS4 sales.
From the figures I’ve found before, SCE was profitable in 2013. They’re making losses now, but that always happens after a big console launch. That’ll turn around naturally given enough time.
Hmmmmm….. 😐
hmm well he did get that one movie with Sarah in it and Knux XD and he did get an “Adventurous Christmas Special” =D but well who knows…look what happened with that Super Mario Bros. Movie…that’s probably what scared them off on that one.
i remember hearing a wile agao some one was going to do 3 sonic movise based on satama and the games
i beleive it went liek this
mmovie 1 was to reintroduce people to the satam universe
movie 2 was going to introduce knuckles
movie 3 was going to be sonic adventure 2 but with satam chricters as well
You’re spalling is atroshusious.
I remember hearing that Ken Pender approached SEGA about making a Knuckles movie based oh his comics, but SEGA said if they were to make a movie it would be about Sonic, not Knuckles. But that was a few year after ’94 so it’s probably un-related to this.
Dear God thank you Sega for turning him down.
Yeah, thank God they shot down Knuckles only attempt at character development since S&K.
I’m sorry, aren’t we still talking about the same guy who turned Sonic into a chili dog at one point?
I’m not defending everything the guy’s ever done. There’s been some weird shit, and he clearly lost every last one of his marbles a long time ago. But in its day, the Knuckles series was beyond fantastic.
And honestly, I’d RATHER see Knuckles turn into a chili dog than have him continue to be the same bland “dumb muscle”/one-note character he’s been playing since literally forever. Turning into food is stronger character development than “I blush when the only character with tits in the series comes onscreen”
@ ChaotixFox
Turning into food? Yeeeaaah…that sounds like great character development. >__>
Just because it’s character development doesn’t mean it’s good, and I don’t see how turning them into food is better than “dumb muscle” that you claim he is. He’s gullible, but not plain and simple an idiot.
I must have missed something here – when was Sonic a chili dog?
@ChaoticFox: Actually, being the “dumb muscle” for the game is more character development than turning into a hot dog. One involves a change in one’s character (a de-evolution mind you, but still a change), while the other changes nothing but their appearance (unless Knuckles went insane due to the fact that he was a hot dog, that would be actual character development).
I’m not saying that I prefer Knuckles being portrayed as the Marshal of the How Sonic Met Your Mother cast (Tails=Ted, Sonic=Barney, Amy=Lilly, Knuckles=Marshal, Eggman=Newman, Burnbot=Jerry- Hey wait a minute…), but at the very least, I feel more dignity being given to him in Boom than with Lost World. He’s actually doing something, the tension and rivalry between Sonic and Knuckles is still alive and well, and there’s a bit of a dominance factor (sort of). He’s derpy, but at least he’s actually being given something to do. I’ll leave later games to more properly develop his nature and character later, for right now I’d like to see what he can do make up for his “simple wisdom”.
And yeah, I agree, the Knuckles series did get pretty outstanding during it’s time (save for a few distractions, unsurprisingly written by Penders and his growing fetish for romantic teenaged drama). Penders has had a lot of……….(nice word, nice word….)……WEIRD moments in the comics, even during the early days of the comics (but to be fair, they were always pretty weird during those days), but a lot of the deeper character and world mythos that we’ve come to love and rely on was a result of his writing. I guess he was the equivalent of a mad genius. Not everything he made was gold, but he sure made a lot of great contributions to the comic series. It’s such a shame that his ego managed to outgrow his talent.
@All
I would be fine with Knuckles being dumb muscle if he kept the knowledge he showcased in Adventure 1 & 2, Battle, and the Riders series. Make him Indiana Jones when it comes to ancient ruins and civilizations (even going so far as making him read/speak different languages fluently would be hilarious), then when it comes to social interactions and high-tech machinery make him the idiot they’ve been playing him up to be. It would make for a pretty hilarious contrast.
@Skai Cyan: I’d be down for that idea. If they’ve kept pushing the idea that he’s a treasure hunter all these years, then at the very least they should try to make him savvy at that. I’d be up for an Indiana Jones style Knuckles (the hat must return, lol), with a bit of a idiot complex when it comes to social and technical stuff. I totally think that wisdom is still there, I get snippits of it from the dialogue, I just want to make sure for certain that he’s still got that integral part to his character.
Speaking of which, I’m still on the side of the fence that hopes that Amy has still kept a little of her romantic interest in Sonic. I’d prefer her being strong, capable, and independent like they’ve been building her up to be lately, but I’m just hoping that they don’t take away such a significant trait or her character away just to make that happen.
Taking Amy’s romantic interest in Sonic away is like taking the walnut out of a Walnut Whip; it’s not a Walnut Whip if there’s no walnut
@Hero
I actually like a lot of what I’ve seen of Knuckles’ characterization in Boom, despite the fact that I do not approve of making him a big derp. I like Skai’s input.
My point was simply that Knuckles was an incredible character in the comic series (way better than Sonic was, at least at the time), and those books were great, and I’d take a talking chili-dog gag over the literal NOTHING Sega has done with him since Sonic Adventure 1 any day XD
ChaoticFox: Eh, I think they still used him decently in terms of character with the Adventure games. He still felt like Knuckles, and I felt like I got a little bit of a deeper insight into his character. However, it was by Sonic Heroes where he became as generic as about half of the rest of the cast in that game. By Shadow and 06, he was basically in what I like to call his 4-Kids persona, where he was a little generic and by the book, but still had enough personality to make you think “Oh hey, sweet! Knuckles is in this.” Doesn’t mean he was used that much though, and that was kind of an issue with me. When he showed up again in Generations, it was nice to see him, but not any more than it was to see the rest of the cast, since they were all given the exact same personality trait: Being Sonic’s Friends. Probably the most 2-Dimensional portrayal of the characters as a whole cast in a good long time. Lost World tried to fix that, but only kept them slightly less bland than before, and his and Amy’s limited screen time didn’t do much to help. At the very least, with Boom on the horizon you can tell that they have actually tried to put a personality into each of these characters. Whether what we see will seem consistent with how they’ve been in the past has yet to be determined, but at the very least I can say that the capacity for each one of their personalities in this branch has always been there.
And yeah I also agree that Knuckles was a little more fleshed out than Sonic, at the time. While Sonic was the main series and was always going to be popular, in order to make Knuckles strong enough to hold on his own spinoff series, a lot of effort had to go in to make both his character and his story interesting. You can really feel the effort in those comics because there was an actual need to make Knuckles that appealing. As a result, I’d like to think that it has helped Knuckles become that much more of an interesting character to the fan base at large, otherwise nobody would care if he lost his girlfriend and the writer who once blessed him is now spitting on his legacy by taking all of that away to suit his own vision. However, I would like to think that it was due to how intricate the plots of the Knuckles series were that helped influence the Sonic series’ transition from light-hearted comedy adventure into the darker and action-packed series that we’ve come to know it as today. It was thanks to Knuckles that Sonic got to grow, and now both of them get to develop side by side in the continuing success and legacy of the current comics.
I remember Paramount approaching Sega about making a Sonic the Hedgehog movie back in 1996 too – apparently it was going to integrate characters from the Sonic universe with Popeye the sailor and Dr Eggman and Bruno would team up to take over Wales in the UK.
Glad that never got made
Are you kidding me? That sounds AWESOME!
It sounds like a movie that would have been really dumb, but still would’ve had its share of good jokes (or such a bad quality that you laugh at it, either way). Kind of like Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue.
A 90’s animated movie from MGM, that would been awesome… because they’d use something like a Sonic CD model probably.. instead of what we have today.
MGM doesn’t make anime. Sonic would have been given an original design by one of their artists, which would have more or less looked like he did back then, but it would not in any way look like the Sonic CD animation.
MGM was releasing stuff like American Tale and The Great Mouse Detective back then right? GOD it would have been awesome to get a Sonic movie as good looking as those!
The Great Mouse Detective was a DISNEY movie, while American Tale was UNIVERSAL STUDIOS.
That’s what I get for posting before googling. :p
Derp. 😛