A look into the reports of Sonic movies over the years and the possibilities for the future.
Hey folks! This is SonikuUK bring you his first editorial for the SHQ. And, as you can tell by my name, I'm from the UK aka Great Britain.
I'm sure many of you fans out there are wondering why an official sonic feature film has yet to be created. I know I wonder. Sonic has been going for over 10 years now, so it's strange that a film has never been released despite the popularity of the little blue one.
According to sources here and there, many talks have taken place regarding a sonic feature film, yet nothing ever comes out of it.
The closest we have is the English version of the awesome OVA [Original Video Animation] that was released back in 1999, which took the 2 part series and made it into a one 55 minute show.
More recently there was news of a supposed Knuckles animated film which Dreamworks were interested in:
“I was approached by one of the producers who have been involved with a Dreamworks animated project about the possibility of an animated Knuckles film based on the comics series. Some initial discussions took place, but because there were was some questions as to the availability of the rights, the project went nowhere.”
[Taken from a report on the SHQ news board, which comes from Mr. Ken Penders]
Also, there was a movie project in the works with Mr. Penders involvement, a movie based around the old SATAM [“sonic the hedgehog” made by DIC back in 1993, with season 2 in 1995] continuity and the US Archie Sonic comic. Unfortunately despite raising many fans hopes last year, recently it came to light that the film will not be made yet. Instead another non-Sonic-but-Sega involved project will be announced in the future.
Also, sonic creator Yuji Naka has said that he would like to do a Sonic X based movie, if the series does well enough.
So, why was the movie project shelved for the time being, and why hasn't a Sonic film been done yet? I have some thoughts as to why this is, if anyone has any other ideas I'd like to hear them.
The main reason I can think of is that no US animation studio is willing to make a Sonic feature film. Possibly because they think it will not do well enough to cover the production costs.
Another reason could be to do with who has the rights, as quoted earlier the Knuckles film went no-where because of this very reason. Also, SATAM fans have been trying to bring their favorite show back for ages with not much success.
DIC have had problems releasing it on DVD also because of the same problem. Despite its sudden appearance on UK satellite TV! With all this in mind, it's certainly possible that the reason the Sonic Movie has yet to be made could be due to who will have the rights to it.
It's possible that a sonic film will one day be made. I mean it took SOJ [Sega Of Japan] over 10 years to get a Japanese Sonic TV show created so hopefully one day we will get to see a proper Sonic Feature film either from Japan or America.