Sonic Legends - Cancelled Project Showcase

[Shard the Gentleman 2,891]

            In light of this year being a pretty big year for Sonic the Hedgehog- with Project Sonic 2017 (now titled Sonic Forces) and Sonic Mania planned to release, I thought maybe its time to bring this to light. A cancelled fan-project inspired by Archie Comics' Sonic the Hedgehog series, entitled Sonic Legends (Originally Sonic Archieverse.)

            Sonic Legends was an attempt to tell the tale of the comics via animation, with new twists, characters, and story arcs as well.

            For those who don't know, Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog started in 1993, and was inspired and molded by the two TV series that had aired- The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, and Sonic the Hedgehog SAT AM. The comics grew to reflect their own writing style and began telling their own story with touching moments, unfortunate events, and unique twists. This inspired a young animator to start the project with a friend who he had shared his idea with.

            The Sonic Legends project got pretty far; The script for the first season, a collection of 23 episodes total, had been completed, a soundtrack was made, and even some voice actors where already on board! Sonic Legends was planned to have 5 to 13 minute episodes, and occasional specials that lasted up to 30 minutes! The second season had been planned out, with certain episodes having a basic lay out to play around with, but that data was lost.

            Two seasons were already being planned- with Season one being complete, and Season two in development. The plot was faithful to the comics- Our Heroes, the Freedom Fighters, take on Robotnik and his Badniks in hopes to take back Mobotropolis, and put an end to his tyranny. Many stories were expanded on, and a new character was introduced as a way to explain why certain obstacles where a challenge. Some story was also adjusted to explain how certain items had gotten into the hands of our heroes. Along with this, however, new stories where invented as well, including an half-hour special, entitled 'DejaBlue.'

            The art style began with a more unique design, but overtime, it was adjusted to look more familiar to the viewers. Not a lot of concept art remains, aside from these images.

 

 

             Tails himself had two working designs- the Tails we see the most often, and Tails with goggles and a tool-belt, which is the design that would be used when flying a plane or working with Rotor in his workshop. Knuckles was redesigned to have a sash along his waist. Sonic himself was to remain unchanged until after the events that dragged Sonic into Space.

            The Soundtrack had many tracks completed- a mixture of songs from the games, and a few originals as well. Some however never left the demo stage. You can probably tell which ones were finished and which were still demos; Not all the tracks have been recovered, however. You can listen to the remaining soundtrack here.

            A teaser was planned to release in 2015, with the actual series launching in 2016.

            Why was Sonic Legends cancelled?

            Well, for starters, the Crew, not including the Soundtrack Composer or the Voice Actors, consisted of only two people. Finding crew members for the job was becoming difficult. One of the two members was the Main Animator, who was unable to find animators to help the project along. The other member, Writer and Team Leader, was unable to find enough voice actors for the characters, and was finding it difficult to rewrite some factors in a faithful but new light.

            Along with the difficulty of finding Staff, scheduling issues caused constant delays on development of the series' animation and planning.

            In addition to this, and probably the final nail in the coffin, the two were in fear of lawsuits that would be brought on by Ken Penders, who was a writer and illustrator for the comics; he had previously taken away SEGA and Archie Comics' permission to use characters he created, with lawsuits ensuing soon after. This caused several important characters to be killed off or removed completely. With this in mind, the Crew decided it would be better to cancel the project all together, rather than finding ways to re-write the series with these vital characters removed.

            What we have left of the project are these images and the soundtrack, which you can listen to here.

            If anyone is interested enough I can expand on certain aspects of the series development or plot details, since I have most of Season Ones script in my hands. The version I have, however, is before the final edit, so this wasn't the final copy of the script that had been finished.

But, that's only if anyone takes interest in this and wants to know more.