When Megan Riekki was a kid, waiting for the third season of her favorite Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon to air, she had no idea she'd be waiting for over 25 years.
"I remember waiting. And waiting. And waiting," Riekki says. "And it just never came back, and I didn't know why. And thankfully I had the comics to take my mind off that, but now going back and watching it as I've gotten older, I wanted to know what happened to the show."
The show Riekki is referring to is one of the earliest cartoons to star the Blue Blur. It aired on Saturday mornings on ABC from September 1993 to December 1994, before it was canceled after its second season. The show is officially titled Sonic the Hedgehog, but the Sonic community refers to it as Sonic SatAM to distinguish it from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, a separate cartoon series that aired on weekdays during the same time period.
On December 3, 1994, this version of Sonic's TV run came to a screeching halt. The final episode, titled The Doomsday Project, showed Sonic and his band of Freedom Fighters finally defeating Robotnik (Eggman). However, the final scene also teased a brand new villain for the series by way of a pair of red eyes staring out of the screen.
"I remember way back — it was like a million years ago, I'm so old now — I remember the show that I saw wasn't always played in order, so I didn't get the episodes in sequence," Longtime Sonic fan Keith Rowsell said. "But I do remember the finale appearing and seeing the eyes at the end, and hoping with all my might that it was Metal Sonic, and [that] I'd be so excited to see Metal Sonic come out. But I just remember it never coming back, and being disappointed that I never got to see that."
As fans discovered later, those eyes actually belonged to Naugus, a sorcerer that had appeared earlier in the series. But fans never got to see his arc due to the show being canceled. Who was he? What did he want? And how would the Freedom Fighters beat him? Fans have never gotten the answers to these questions.
Until now, that is.
Years removed from being disappointed kids wondering what happened to their cartoon, Riekki and Rowsell are now a part of Team Sea3on, a talented group of artists, animators, and storytellers working to fully produce Sonic SatAM's canceled third season. Riekki is the Production Coordinator and Social Media Manager, while Rowsell is the Animation Director. Team Sea3on is also affiliated with FUS, or Fans United for SatAM, a fan group that has been advocating for the show's return since the early 2000s.
For the new season’s story, Team Sea3on is actually pulling from some Sonic history. Ben Hurst, who worked as writer and story editor on SatAM, had plans for the third season of the show that was never made. Hurst unfortunately passed away in 2010, but the project will honor his plans by finally bringing that story to life, with a few original narrative ideas thrown in as well.
The plot will primarily stick to one laid out in a fanmade webcomic that has been available to read on the internet for the last few year. The first episode will pick up just hours after the end of the season 2 finale, and the full season will ultimately tell the long-awaited story of the battle between the Freedom Fighters and Naugus after the fall of Dr. Robotnik.
The late Ben Hurst had plans for the third season – the project will finally bring that story to life.
The webcomic started way back in 2009, and was spearheaded by Paul Scott, who is working on the animated project as a producer. To add some original authenticity, Ron Myrick, the executive producer of SatAM's second season, is also attached to Team Sea3on.
After years of planning and work, Team Sea3on publicly revealed the project for the first time last month, showing the return of classic characters that have been absent for years. Fans immediately took to the trailer, sharing their excitement at seeing classic characters return to the screen in a big way.
While it’s been more than 25 years since the original show first aired, it has remained a cult favorite among Sonic fans due to its more serious tone, and much-loved original characters not seen elsewhere in the franchise.
After the show went off the air, the show’s Freedom Fighters, led by Princess Sally Acorn, lived on in the Archie Sonic comics, which ran from July 1993 to February 2017. While many of the characters remained intact, the story took a slightly different direction than the Saturday morning cartoon, never fully telling the story following season 2's cliffhanger set up. Archie and Sega eventually ended their relationship, and the Freedom Fighters haven't appeared in any official Sonic media since.
Other Sonic shows eventually followed — including Sonic Underground, Sonic X, and Sonic Boom — but none of them ever quite resonated with the members of Team Sea3on like Sonic SatAM. All three of the Team Sea3on members we spoke to have deep, personal connections to the show. Gloria Fish is the Director for Team Sea3on, and while she didn't watch the show while it originally aired, the characters and story left a lasting impression when she did see it.
"For me it's the storytelling," Fish said. "Sonic has always had the most intriguing stories in a video game franchise… Like SatAM in particular, when you break it down to the core of it, it is the environment; mother nature versus mankind's undoing. And that is a whole big thing that we are struggling with right now, and that came out a long time ago, but it has this moral to it that people need to acknowledge. And then they give the characters personalities, and they build on it and they give them each their own individual stories."
Ron Myrick, the executive producer of SatAM's second season, is also attached to Team Sea3on.
Fish also loved watching Princess Sally Acorn, a strong female character who serves as the leader of the Freedom Fighters, similar to how Princess Leia leads the Rebel Alliance in Star Wars.
"One of my favorite things about SatAM is that you have a tomboy princess as your leader," Fish said. "That's something that every little girl wants to see, and it's just so exciting because she can be cool, and she can be a princess. She's not too proper, she's just really down to earth and honest and I love the fact that they portrayed her in a way where she had her moments of weakness, but she would overcome them."
Fish's involvement with the project has grown hugely over the years. Back in 2019, Fish started out working on storyboarding, but she now serves as the director for the entire show. She's even flexed her voice-acting chops by playing the role of Bunnie Rabbot, who was originally portrayed by Christine Cavanaugh. As for other voice actors, the team worked to find talent that could closely replicate the voices from the original show – so no, you can't expect to hear Jaleel White reprise his role as Sonic decades after the fact.
Rowsell and Riekki similarly have a lot of respect for the show. Rowsell ended up working in animation after watching the show as a child, while Riekki rediscovered her love for Sonic as an adult.
"When I was a child, I used to watch the series with my brother and play the games. He would be Tails, I would be Sonic," Rowsell says. "The creators really took [Sonic the Hedgehog] seriously and it showed, with the complexity of the characters and the stakes involved. Just a lot of care went into it."
"The storyline was so deep. It wasn't just slapstick comedy, there was emotion to this," Riekki says. "This is more than just your funny Sonic that we've got now. This is character development, this is drama. There were parts where you'd be scared, angry, laughing, and sad in one episode, and I don't think the other canons can compare in that respect. Don't get me wrong, I love all Sonic, but [SatAM] pulls off that emotional connection that maybe other ones don't."
This may be a fan project, but every member of Team Sea3on takes the work incredibly seriously. Not only that, there's some real animation pedigree on the staff. Rowsell has experience working on animation for The Amazing World of Gumball and Star Trek: Lower Decks, while the team also had help from an artist that worked on the first theatrical Sonic the Hedgehog movie that was released in 2020.
As the Animation Director, Rowsell has described Team Sea3on as a fan project treated like a professional production. The goal is to make it look like the original show from the 1990s, while bringing the production value of a 2022 project. The backgrounds are certainly more detailed than technology allowed for in the 1990s – which has also led to some headaches for the team.
"We wanted to composite it all in 4K definition because we're insane for some reason [laughs]," Rowsell says. “It sent a few computers crashing, but it's all worth it in the pursuit of excellence, I guess."
That pursuit of excellence requires a ton of hard work in far fewer hours than a fully-funded professional project would normally entail. While the team is treating the project like a professional project, Rowsell says the workload has to be managed much differently given its fan-made nature.
This may be a fan project, but there's some real animation pedigree on the staff.
"We've had around 50 or so people involved from voice work, audio, backgrounds to animation," Rowsell said. "It sounds like a lot, but because of the nature of a fan project most people can only manage a small amount of work for a shorter period."
Rowsell says between 50 and 90 full-time employees is the industry standard for an animated production. When you limit their hours to less than full time, you have to make every hour count.
Team Sea3on also had to get creative with the programs it used to produce the animation, given the lack of a budget to buy licenses for standard worker's programs. Instead, the animators used whatever software they already had access to, including Adobe Animate, Toon Boom Harmony, TV Paint pro, Cel Action Studio, and even paper and pencil. Rowsell says that the team specifically decided on a style that would be easy to replicate for any animator on the project, regardless of what software they were using.
The lack of budget and required workarounds makes what Team Sea3on is doing all the more impressive. It's very important to the team to maintain that professional level of quality, which has led to a slightly different approach compared to other fan-made projects.
"Having supervisors and coordinators go over everyone's scenes helps maintain quality throughout and ties each scene and action together consistently," Rowsell says. "The opposite of this approach is seen in those re-animated projects, where everyone does their own thing and quality and skill and techniques vary wildly, but that's the fun of those projects, to see people experimenting with their own scenes. I feel I must give a shout out to Sonic SatAM Re-Juiced that's doing such a project based on the same series."
Crush 40 performs some of the most iconic Sonic songs, and Team Sea3on got the band’s lead singer on board to perform the theme song.
The team knows what they are doing is incredibly ambitious, but believe they can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
"People wouldn't be wrong in thinking us completely out of our minds being this ambitious, but I believe all the hard work will be worth it and the objective is becoming more achievable each day thanks to everyone's support," Rowsell said.
Another element that gives this project a shot in the arm is the presence of Crush 40's Johnny Gioeli. Any Sonic fan worth their Chili Dogs knows Crush 40 performs some of the most iconic Sonic songs from the games, and Team Sea3on got the band’s lead singer on board to perform the theme song for SatAM, Fastest Thing Alive.
"It started when one of the team members said, 'wouldn't it be cool if we got the theme song by Crush 40?' And then further along in production we actually contacted Johnny Gioeli and… it was pretty cool," Rowsell said.
The trailer has gotten widespread praise from the Sonic community. Fans who don't know a thing about SatAM have been latching onto the project, while longtime followers have been basking in the warm feeling of nostalgia.
"Every time I push ‘post’ I'm a little bit nervous because the Sonic community doesn't hold back when they're unhappy," Riekki said. "So when we premiered the trailer, I can't tell you the anxiety I had, but as the comments rolled in, people with messages like, 'I've been waiting my whole life for this', 'this show changed my life', 'you guys have really done this', 'this is so special', my heart just filled with so much joy."
The trailer was certainly a huge step for the folks over at Team Sea3on, but the project is still at a very early stage. The team has made a trailer, and they have a lot of the 12 planned episodes written, but right now they are only focusing on fully animating the first episode. The goal is to partner with an established studio to make the rest of the season a reality, and hopefully put it on a streaming service.
Sega is typically very supportive of fan projects, and the team says they haven't run into any issues with the company so far – and they hope that will continue if and when the project grows further. While the exact path the project will take remains foggy, the final goal is clear: it's about completing a journey for so many people who have been waiting so long for closure.
"I don't care if my name is up in lights or not," Rowsell said. "I'm just very humbled by all the reactions we've got. It really shows how important this is to some people. People have been posting reaction videos to the trailer, and I'm like, we're not Nintendo! It really puts a lot of pressure on you to deliver something they will enjoy, and I think [we] will. I've seen the [first] episode [...] and it's so perfect. We just have to make it move now."
You can check out Team Sea3on on Twitter, Discord, Patreon, or the project's official website.
Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.
Continue reading...
"I remember waiting. And waiting. And waiting," Riekki says. "And it just never came back, and I didn't know why. And thankfully I had the comics to take my mind off that, but now going back and watching it as I've gotten older, I wanted to know what happened to the show."
The show Riekki is referring to is one of the earliest cartoons to star the Blue Blur. It aired on Saturday mornings on ABC from September 1993 to December 1994, before it was canceled after its second season. The show is officially titled Sonic the Hedgehog, but the Sonic community refers to it as Sonic SatAM to distinguish it from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, a separate cartoon series that aired on weekdays during the same time period.
On December 3, 1994, this version of Sonic's TV run came to a screeching halt. The final episode, titled The Doomsday Project, showed Sonic and his band of Freedom Fighters finally defeating Robotnik (Eggman). However, the final scene also teased a brand new villain for the series by way of a pair of red eyes staring out of the screen.
"I remember way back — it was like a million years ago, I'm so old now — I remember the show that I saw wasn't always played in order, so I didn't get the episodes in sequence," Longtime Sonic fan Keith Rowsell said. "But I do remember the finale appearing and seeing the eyes at the end, and hoping with all my might that it was Metal Sonic, and [that] I'd be so excited to see Metal Sonic come out. But I just remember it never coming back, and being disappointed that I never got to see that."
As fans discovered later, those eyes actually belonged to Naugus, a sorcerer that had appeared earlier in the series. But fans never got to see his arc due to the show being canceled. Who was he? What did he want? And how would the Freedom Fighters beat him? Fans have never gotten the answers to these questions.
Until now, that is.
The Story of Team Sea3on
Years removed from being disappointed kids wondering what happened to their cartoon, Riekki and Rowsell are now a part of Team Sea3on, a talented group of artists, animators, and storytellers working to fully produce Sonic SatAM's canceled third season. Riekki is the Production Coordinator and Social Media Manager, while Rowsell is the Animation Director. Team Sea3on is also affiliated with FUS, or Fans United for SatAM, a fan group that has been advocating for the show's return since the early 2000s.
For the new season’s story, Team Sea3on is actually pulling from some Sonic history. Ben Hurst, who worked as writer and story editor on SatAM, had plans for the third season of the show that was never made. Hurst unfortunately passed away in 2010, but the project will honor his plans by finally bringing that story to life, with a few original narrative ideas thrown in as well.
The plot will primarily stick to one laid out in a fanmade webcomic that has been available to read on the internet for the last few year. The first episode will pick up just hours after the end of the season 2 finale, and the full season will ultimately tell the long-awaited story of the battle between the Freedom Fighters and Naugus after the fall of Dr. Robotnik.
The late Ben Hurst had plans for the third season – the project will finally bring that story to life.
The webcomic started way back in 2009, and was spearheaded by Paul Scott, who is working on the animated project as a producer. To add some original authenticity, Ron Myrick, the executive producer of SatAM's second season, is also attached to Team Sea3on.
After years of planning and work, Team Sea3on publicly revealed the project for the first time last month, showing the return of classic characters that have been absent for years. Fans immediately took to the trailer, sharing their excitement at seeing classic characters return to the screen in a big way.
This is the coolest thing ever, that cliffhanger from years ago can finally be continued
— noctiz(@n0ctiz456) April 26, 2022
My god...Doomsday Project ended this series with a massive cliffhanger back in Dec 1994. This show/comics filled in something Forces tried and failed to give. A world with a name, lore, and characters with fears, hopes, and dreams for a world saved from Robotnik. https://****/F9gxH1vOPn
— Alex Belmont | #BlackLivesMatter (@JacobyKevin) May 21, 2022
Why Sonic Fans Still Love the SatAM Freedom Fighters
While it’s been more than 25 years since the original show first aired, it has remained a cult favorite among Sonic fans due to its more serious tone, and much-loved original characters not seen elsewhere in the franchise.
After the show went off the air, the show’s Freedom Fighters, led by Princess Sally Acorn, lived on in the Archie Sonic comics, which ran from July 1993 to February 2017. While many of the characters remained intact, the story took a slightly different direction than the Saturday morning cartoon, never fully telling the story following season 2's cliffhanger set up. Archie and Sega eventually ended their relationship, and the Freedom Fighters haven't appeared in any official Sonic media since.
Other Sonic shows eventually followed — including Sonic Underground, Sonic X, and Sonic Boom — but none of them ever quite resonated with the members of Team Sea3on like Sonic SatAM. All three of the Team Sea3on members we spoke to have deep, personal connections to the show. Gloria Fish is the Director for Team Sea3on, and while she didn't watch the show while it originally aired, the characters and story left a lasting impression when she did see it.
"For me it's the storytelling," Fish said. "Sonic has always had the most intriguing stories in a video game franchise… Like SatAM in particular, when you break it down to the core of it, it is the environment; mother nature versus mankind's undoing. And that is a whole big thing that we are struggling with right now, and that came out a long time ago, but it has this moral to it that people need to acknowledge. And then they give the characters personalities, and they build on it and they give them each their own individual stories."
Ron Myrick, the executive producer of SatAM's second season, is also attached to Team Sea3on.
Fish also loved watching Princess Sally Acorn, a strong female character who serves as the leader of the Freedom Fighters, similar to how Princess Leia leads the Rebel Alliance in Star Wars.
"One of my favorite things about SatAM is that you have a tomboy princess as your leader," Fish said. "That's something that every little girl wants to see, and it's just so exciting because she can be cool, and she can be a princess. She's not too proper, she's just really down to earth and honest and I love the fact that they portrayed her in a way where she had her moments of weakness, but she would overcome them."
Fish's involvement with the project has grown hugely over the years. Back in 2019, Fish started out working on storyboarding, but she now serves as the director for the entire show. She's even flexed her voice-acting chops by playing the role of Bunnie Rabbot, who was originally portrayed by Christine Cavanaugh. As for other voice actors, the team worked to find talent that could closely replicate the voices from the original show – so no, you can't expect to hear Jaleel White reprise his role as Sonic decades after the fact.
Rowsell and Riekki similarly have a lot of respect for the show. Rowsell ended up working in animation after watching the show as a child, while Riekki rediscovered her love for Sonic as an adult.
"When I was a child, I used to watch the series with my brother and play the games. He would be Tails, I would be Sonic," Rowsell says. "The creators really took [Sonic the Hedgehog] seriously and it showed, with the complexity of the characters and the stakes involved. Just a lot of care went into it."
"The storyline was so deep. It wasn't just slapstick comedy, there was emotion to this," Riekki says. "This is more than just your funny Sonic that we've got now. This is character development, this is drama. There were parts where you'd be scared, angry, laughing, and sad in one episode, and I don't think the other canons can compare in that respect. Don't get me wrong, I love all Sonic, but [SatAM] pulls off that emotional connection that maybe other ones don't."
By the Fans, For the Fans
This may be a fan project, but every member of Team Sea3on takes the work incredibly seriously. Not only that, there's some real animation pedigree on the staff. Rowsell has experience working on animation for The Amazing World of Gumball and Star Trek: Lower Decks, while the team also had help from an artist that worked on the first theatrical Sonic the Hedgehog movie that was released in 2020.
As the Animation Director, Rowsell has described Team Sea3on as a fan project treated like a professional production. The goal is to make it look like the original show from the 1990s, while bringing the production value of a 2022 project. The backgrounds are certainly more detailed than technology allowed for in the 1990s – which has also led to some headaches for the team.
"We wanted to composite it all in 4K definition because we're insane for some reason [laughs]," Rowsell says. “It sent a few computers crashing, but it's all worth it in the pursuit of excellence, I guess."
That pursuit of excellence requires a ton of hard work in far fewer hours than a fully-funded professional project would normally entail. While the team is treating the project like a professional project, Rowsell says the workload has to be managed much differently given its fan-made nature.
This may be a fan project, but there's some real animation pedigree on the staff.
"We've had around 50 or so people involved from voice work, audio, backgrounds to animation," Rowsell said. "It sounds like a lot, but because of the nature of a fan project most people can only manage a small amount of work for a shorter period."
Rowsell says between 50 and 90 full-time employees is the industry standard for an animated production. When you limit their hours to less than full time, you have to make every hour count.
Team Sea3on also had to get creative with the programs it used to produce the animation, given the lack of a budget to buy licenses for standard worker's programs. Instead, the animators used whatever software they already had access to, including Adobe Animate, Toon Boom Harmony, TV Paint pro, Cel Action Studio, and even paper and pencil. Rowsell says that the team specifically decided on a style that would be easy to replicate for any animator on the project, regardless of what software they were using.
The lack of budget and required workarounds makes what Team Sea3on is doing all the more impressive. It's very important to the team to maintain that professional level of quality, which has led to a slightly different approach compared to other fan-made projects.
"Having supervisors and coordinators go over everyone's scenes helps maintain quality throughout and ties each scene and action together consistently," Rowsell says. "The opposite of this approach is seen in those re-animated projects, where everyone does their own thing and quality and skill and techniques vary wildly, but that's the fun of those projects, to see people experimenting with their own scenes. I feel I must give a shout out to Sonic SatAM Re-Juiced that's doing such a project based on the same series."
Crush 40 performs some of the most iconic Sonic songs, and Team Sea3on got the band’s lead singer on board to perform the theme song.
The team knows what they are doing is incredibly ambitious, but believe they can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
"People wouldn't be wrong in thinking us completely out of our minds being this ambitious, but I believe all the hard work will be worth it and the objective is becoming more achievable each day thanks to everyone's support," Rowsell said.
Another element that gives this project a shot in the arm is the presence of Crush 40's Johnny Gioeli. Any Sonic fan worth their Chili Dogs knows Crush 40 performs some of the most iconic Sonic songs from the games, and Team Sea3on got the band’s lead singer on board to perform the theme song for SatAM, Fastest Thing Alive.
"It started when one of the team members said, 'wouldn't it be cool if we got the theme song by Crush 40?' And then further along in production we actually contacted Johnny Gioeli and… it was pretty cool," Rowsell said.
The trailer has gotten widespread praise from the Sonic community. Fans who don't know a thing about SatAM have been latching onto the project, while longtime followers have been basking in the warm feeling of nostalgia.
"Every time I push ‘post’ I'm a little bit nervous because the Sonic community doesn't hold back when they're unhappy," Riekki said. "So when we premiered the trailer, I can't tell you the anxiety I had, but as the comments rolled in, people with messages like, 'I've been waiting my whole life for this', 'this show changed my life', 'you guys have really done this', 'this is so special', my heart just filled with so much joy."
The Long Road Ahead
The trailer was certainly a huge step for the folks over at Team Sea3on, but the project is still at a very early stage. The team has made a trailer, and they have a lot of the 12 planned episodes written, but right now they are only focusing on fully animating the first episode. The goal is to partner with an established studio to make the rest of the season a reality, and hopefully put it on a streaming service.
Sega is typically very supportive of fan projects, and the team says they haven't run into any issues with the company so far – and they hope that will continue if and when the project grows further. While the exact path the project will take remains foggy, the final goal is clear: it's about completing a journey for so many people who have been waiting so long for closure.
"I don't care if my name is up in lights or not," Rowsell said. "I'm just very humbled by all the reactions we've got. It really shows how important this is to some people. People have been posting reaction videos to the trailer, and I'm like, we're not Nintendo! It really puts a lot of pressure on you to deliver something they will enjoy, and I think [we] will. I've seen the [first] episode [...] and it's so perfect. We just have to make it move now."
You can check out Team Sea3on on Twitter, Discord, Patreon, or the project's official website.
Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.
Continue reading...