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This article is about the scrapped movie treatment from 1994. For the 2020 film, see Sonic the Hedgehog (film). For the 1996 OVA, see Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie.

Sonic: The Movie^[1] is an unreleased live-action^[1] film adaptation of the Sonic the Hedgehog video game franchise, intended to be produced by Trilogy Entertainment Group and MGM. A rough story treatment of the film was written by Pen Densham and Richard B. Lewis, and submitted to Sega in late 1994. Negative reactions to the plot presented in the treatment resulted in the movie being cancelled, and an entirely different movie Sonic the Hedgehog: Wonders of the World being pitched in response.^[2][1]

Like Wonders of the World, this movie is thought to have never reached a scripting phase. All that exists of it is the treatment, dated November 11, 1994. This makes it the first known attempt to adapt the franchise into a feature film.

Overview[]

The treatment goes for a darker tone and features some adult content (such as Jimmy, a teenager, consuming alcohol and many instances of characters dying). In particular, the treatment has great amounts of body horror regarding the mutants.

The treatment is divided into a three act structure typical of Hollywood movies. The story follows a rebellious young boy named Jimmy Hedgeman whose father was working on genetic experiments in a lab with limited funding. When Dr. Hedgeman is kidnapped by some thugs, Jimmy takes off to an island in the middle of a lake in South America to find him. Along the way, Jimmy mutates back and forth between his normal human form and the form of Sonic the Hedgehog, and he must join forces with a band of mutants on the island in order to defeat the evil Dr. Elleson.

The script has a series of notes scribbled on it by someone unknown (presumably a producer or executive). Among these notes are complaints that the antagonist should be Dr. Robotnik and that the movie version of Knuckles should be more like the canon Knuckles.

The treatment suggests that the film would have been a live action CGI hybrid (referencing the 1993 film Jurassic Park for its use of CGI puppets, and live action footage), but it is unclear how high the budget would have been.

Connections to the established games[]

It should be noted that the treatment scarcely follows the plot of the games (a common practice for Hollywood movies based on video games in the 1990s). It would perhaps be easier to list what did make it from the games into the treatment rather than attempting to list every single change.

Jimmy Hedgeman, after being accidentally mutated, transforms into Sonic the Hedgehog with excitement throughout the movie. He is a rebellious teenager like Sonic, but he starts out as a young human boy who is simply getting in trouble with law enforcement for driving too fast and underage drinking. Unlike the Sonic from the main franchise, Jimmy is incredibly nervous throughout the movie when things go wrong.

The most jarring change is perhaps the antagonist Dr. Paul Elleson who the script calls "Robotnik" only twice, once when he is introduced and again when Jimmy nicknames him Robotnik after his "cold mechanical methodology." Elleson, notably, has little to do with research into robotics and instead wishes to turn all of humanity and nature into his perceived perfect biological creatures. He is angry at the world because he was considered a freak for his lack of biological fingers (using mechanical fingers throughout the story).

The only character from the games besides Sonic and Robotnik to make it into the treatment was Knuckles the Echidna. Despite this, Knuckles is a mutant named Kentar who is described as "A giant with huge paws, walking upright with long curly dreadlocks for a mane", and he is only nicknamed Knuckles by Jimmy for "long ape-like arms that tends to drag along the ground."

Plot[]

On an uninhabited tropical island, an terrified man dashes through the dense jungle. The man is pursued by several strange snake creatures with wolf-like heads, seemingly being guided by music played by a mysterious stranger nearby. The running man inevitably trips, and is grabbed by the snakes and dragged into a pit lined with mushrooms and human skeletal remains. The man remains defiant towards the malicious stranger, who in response commands a grate in the pit to open. An ape-like creature with a second head implanted into its forehead then lunges out, seemingly devouring its defiant victim.

In an entirely different urban area, 17-year old Jimmy Hedgeman, his friend, and two teenage girl passengers speed down the street in their car. Jimmy's friend occasionally sips from his can of illicit beer. The car then hits a dip, and is momentarily tossed airborne, prompting a police officer to pull the group over for their reckless driving. Jimmy's friend attempts to hide his beer can, while Jimmy tries to think up an excuse so as not to receive a third traffic violation. The cop is sympathetic to Jimmy's pleading, and offers to let him go after checking his registration. In his haste to leave the officer, Jimmy opens the glove compartment without thinking, revealing the hidden beer. The officer takes notice, and drags Jimmy to the police station, claiming he will keep him there until his father arrives.

In his research laboratory, Jimmy's father, Dr. Hedgeman performs his government-funded experiments on the DNA of plant and animal life, hoping to unlock the mysteries of the DNA puzzle, specifically, a section of the strand that can repair and replicate itself. He deduces that plants and some hibernating animals go through a special phase where their DNA internally repairs itself. His research is interrupted by a call from Jimmy at the police station.

Jimmy and his father exit the station, and drive away in silence. Jimmy turns on the radio, but is unable to settle on a channel to listen to. Dr. Hedgeman turns it off again, frustrated with his son's recent actions. After arriving back at his lab, Dr. Hedgeman orders Jimmy to stay outside the main testing room while he continues a promising experiment. Jimmy protests, but ultimately gives in and heads to the lab's office instead. Dr. Hedgeman checks on a plant he injected with a serum earlier, and noticed that the formerly-dead plant is now alive again. Excited by the success, he begins recording the results on a tape recorder. Meanwhile, Jimmy gives a small hedgehog test subject named "squeakers" a tour of the lab to keep himself occupied. Jimmy's father then returns, and angrily tells Jimmy to stop, berating him for his immaturity, stubbornness, and overall lack of accomplishment. Jimmy retorts that his grandfather tried to make his mark on the world by breaking the sound barrier, and was killed as a result.

The fight is interrupted when Dr. Hedgeman receives a call from his boss. Jimmy leaves the lab in anger. With the fight over, three disguised individuals outside enter the lab, and make their way to Dr. Hedgeman's testing room under the claim that they are maintenance workers. Once inside, they block the room's door and unplug its phone, ignoring Dr. Hedgeman's protests. Having forgot his backpack when he left, Jimmy returns to the lab and notices the commotion, hiding in a lab cabinet to observe it. One of the thugs named "Face" reveals he is aware of Dr. Hedgeman's research, and presents a high-paying job opportunity from his boss to continue his DNA research under him. Dr. Hedgeman refuses, however, and Face pushes over the cabinet that Jimmy is in in anger. Face then sprays Dr. Hedgeman with a chemical gas, causing him to pass out. While Jimmy is trapped in the cabinet, now filled with spilled liquid and glass shards from broken bottles, he notices a shard of glass, dripping with a blue liquid and sticking into his hand. He painfully pulls it out, and experiences blurry vision and strange odors for a short period, before they mysteriously fade. All the while, Face and his two cohorts talk in a foreign language while loading Dr. Hedgeman's unconscious body into a crate, which they take out of the lab with them.

Jimmy manages to escape the cabinet, and pursues the three men, but loses them when they load the crate onto a boat. Jimmy then rushes to the police station in an attempt to report the crime, but is unable to form an understandable sentence as a result of his speech pattern mysteriously accelerating to 150mph. The police officer who pulled him over earlier recognizes him and attempts to arrest him, but Jimmy runs outside and gets into a car chase with the officers. While driving he notices streaks of blue in his hair, but they quickly vanish. A cop pulls in front of him to try and cut him off, but Jimmy crashes into the cop car and escapes by leaping over its hood with a burst of speed. He sneaks back to his father's lab, finding that it looks like it did before the kidnapping. He frantically begins searching for evidence, finding both a broken bottle of "hedgehog dormant DNA" and a tape recorder that his father set up before being kidnapped that captured the men's conversation. He sits on the floor wondering what he should do as he stares at a picture of his grandfather.

He goes to the house of his Spanish teacher, Mrs. Deedhammer, and shows her the tape recorder and tells her his father was kidnapped. She's frustrated with him for not only waking her up at 3 A.M., but because he hasn't shown up to her class in the past 3 months. She assumes Jimmy is trying to prank her, but after realizing he's not going to go away she tells him that it sounds like the men are speaking a Peruvian dialect of Spanish and they're mentioning the name of a town, along with showing him a map of South America. She heads into the kitchen and Jimmy looks over the map, realizing the men are talking about a small lake. He goes to tell her what he's learned, but overhears her talking to the police and runs away.

In another part of the world, Dr. Paul Elleson, the man who hired Face to kidnap Dr. Hedgeman, is just informed they've been successful. He goes to see Hedgeman, who's unconscious and strapped to a gurney, and wakes him up by injecting him with a serum. Upon waking up Hedgeman recognizes Elleson- a genius who created synthetic blood and made a fortune off of it, but supposedly died 10 years ago. While talking to Hedgeman, Elleson removes the fingers from his right hand and sets them on the table- revealing him to have been born without fingers and using robotic prosthetics. He tells Hedgeman about how he was given primitive metal fingers as a boy and he was mocked by others with the nickname "Claws", and that even though he was a talented violin player dubbed "The Fingerless Virtuoso", people would still come to his shows to thank God they weren't like him. While he talks, the robotic fingers crawl towards Hedgeman and try to suffocate him, only for Elleson to call them back. He tells Hedgeman that he'll be free to go as soon as he helps complete Elleson's research.

Meanwhile, Jimmy, having stolen his father's jacket and credit card, books a flight to Peru. His injured hand is now in a sling, which he uses as an excuse for the signatures not matching. He's led to his first class seat, where he smuggles some mini liquor bottles off of the drink cart and asks for a Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. The attendant, while disgusted, brings him the magazine. As he looks through it, blue fur begins to sprout on his hands- adrenaline, whether from nervousness or excitement, causes the serum to accelerate. Panicking, he rushes to the airplane bathroom, but when he tries to shave off the hair, it just grows back. He splashes himself with cold water and knocks out the bathroom light while trying to grab a towel, leading to him transforming in the dark. After a struggle to calm down and change back, Jimmy walks out of the bathroom and sits on his hands for the rest of the flight.

Arriving at the airport, Jimmy is met by a duo of con artists who offer to take him to a river that’ll lead him to the lake. A beggar warns him not to go with them, but he ignores them and is driven down to the river, the men joking the whole time in an attempt to make Jimmy lower his guard. When they arrive at the river, they steal Jimmy’s backpack and shove him into the water, knocking him unconscious as he’s washed downstream.

Jimmy is barely able to swim to the shore of a mangrove swamp. Frightened by the bizarre sounds he hears, he picks up a rock to defend himself only to be distracted by a collection of worms underneath it. A compulsion overcomes him and he eats the worms, then spots his reflection in some water and jumps back in shock when he sees himself as a strange creature. All of a sudden he’s charged by an unknown beast and begins running, the adrenaline causing blue hair to grow on his palms and face. After a close call he manages to climb up a tree, where the reality of the situation hits him and he vomits. Changing back, he attempts to calm himself down, but is all of a sudden grabbed from behind and knocked out.

Back in Elleson’s lab, he’s giving Dr. Hedgeman a tour of his facilities, which are built into the side of a volcano and powered by tubes of lava running throughout the building. He brings Hedgeman to a room and, using a fingerprint scanner and a verbal code, activates a holographic model that he uses to explain his goals to Hedgeman. Elleson says he wants to remove the sins and imperfections of humanity, using his ability to manipulate DNA to change humans and animals into the perfect organisms. He states Hedgeman’s work is only steps away from what he’s done, and that’s why he needs his help.

Jimmy wakes up on the island to find himself in a makeshift stretcher being carried by a mutant creature. He tries to move, but realizes he’s tied up and has a knife held to his throat by Amanda Morgan, a 16-year-old girl. They arrive at the edge of a cliff and throw Jimmy off into a pit of sharp rocks, only for him to be caught by a net a few feet off the ground. The net belongs to Kentar, a large and incredibly strong mutant that was one of Elleson’s early experiments. Jimmy nicknames him Knuckles because of the fact his arms drag on the ground. Kentar and Amanda take the captive Jimmy to a village populated by mutant creatures, bringing him to the village elder Taticus, who after looking Jimmy over, says “A good fisherman only keeps what they can use”, which causes the mutants to erupt in joy as they interpret it as being allowed to kill Jimmy.

Elleson continues to give Dr. Hedgeman a tour of his facility, eventually entering a highly-guarded section called the “Zoo of New Creatures”. This area contains heavily monitored cages full of mutants, with their every movement and thought being tracked. Elleson explains that the problem with the mutants is their inability to obey, demonstrating this by placing food in a cage and telling the creatures to let only one of them have it, only for them to immediately begin fighting over it. He pleads with Hedgeman that he's simply attempting to create a better world, leaving Hedgeman conflicted. Elleson dismisses him and, as soon as he leaves the room, laughs about how easy the doctor was to fool before pressing a button to destroy all the mutants used in the demonstration.

Back in the mutant village, Amanda interrupts Tacticus’ meditation to beg for Jimmy’s life, arguing that she’s seen him transform and that he should at least be allowed to take “The Test”. Tacticus thinks on the idea before agreeing to let him take “The Test” at dawn, but warns her of what might happen if he fails it. She goes to bring food to Jimmy, lying beaten on the floor of a hut, calling him “Sonic”. As he picks at his food, Amanda explains that if he’s able to pass “The Test”, the mutants will let him live- but if he fails, it’ll be the end for him. Throughout this she continues to call him Sonic, Jimmy being confused until realizing she’s seen the word on the back of his jacket and thinks it’s his name. He tries to tell her his real name, only for Amanda to ignore him and explains what he’s been through to her in an attempt to get her to help him, to no avail.

He stares out a window and watches the mutants challenge each other with various feats of bravery- a young mutant named Bolar challenging Knuckles and immediately losing, slinking away in shame. Jimmy realizes that not only are the creatures far stronger than he is, but they’re also not too different from him. However as the sun sets, the villagers become more and more distressed, the sound of violin music spreading across the island causing them to run inside and lock up their homes.

Elleson overviews his newest creations, a collection of snake-like mutants, unhappy with how they’re developing. One of his technicians tells them that they’re refusing any food that isn’t alive, to which Elleson releases them onto the village- telling them to bring back ten living specimens and that he doesn’t care what happens to the others.

As dawn rises on the island, Kentar waits for Jimmy in the middle of a large platform of rocks and tree stumps surrounded by water. Jimmy is pushed onto the platform as he tries to argue against this, but Amanda reminds him it’s his only chance. Kentar and Jimmy begin fighting, with Kentar easily overpowering him. He holds Jimmy underwater as Amanda begins to panic, however Jimmy transforms into Sonic and is able to turn the fight around. Right as it seems like he’s about to win, however, Elleson’s snake mutants emerge from the forest along with two helicopters. The snakes herd the villagers as the helicopters drop nets on them, tearing Bolar from his mother and almost capturing Amanda.

Kentar tries to free Amanda, but is knocked to the ground by two of the snakes. Jimmy runs over and saves both of them, running away with Amanda into the forest. Amanda leads him down the stream to her private garden, a secluded spot on the island filled with rare and exotic flowers. She explains to Jimmy that Elleson releases his creations onto the island to feed on the mutants. Jimmy asks her more about Elleson, and she confesses that her father used to work for him, but after quitting he hid her on the island before later vanishing. She says she wants the mutants to leave the island so they can be safe as they’re her only family, but they refuse to leave so she reluctantly stays. Jimmy realizes just how brave she is and that he loves her, however looking down at his still-blue hands, he wonders if anyone could ever love him now that he’s part mutant.

Face leads the captured mutants, including Kentar, into Elleson’s bio lab. A helicopter pilot from the raid gives Elleson an image disk which has a photo of Jimmy on it, Dr. Hedgeman noticing it and trying to focus more on his work so he doesn’t react outwardly. Elleson picks up on his shift in demeanor and, furious that an outsider is on the island, kills the helicopter pilot in front of Hedgeman before explaining that he couldn't let him live due to his “imperfections”.

He then orders Face to bring him Jimmy, to which Kentar speaks up and reveals that Jimmy can change between human and mutant. Elleson becomes excited as he believes this could be the genetic information he needs, and Knuckles offers to bring Jimmy to him if he lets the rest of the village go, to which Elleson agrees under the condition of a 24 hour deadline.

Still held captive in his room, Hedgeman paces back and forth as he tries to figure out a way to escape. Food is brought into the room and he throws it onto the floor, the fork landing under the bed and causing him to notice a leather belt wrapped around the bedframe. Unlatching it, he realizes there’s symbols forming some kind of code on the belt. He sneaks into the room containing the holographic chamber, using a glass Elleson left behind to bypass the fingerprint scanner before saying the code he found on the belt. Saying it causes a hologram revealing Elleson’s true plans to display- he intends to replace humanity with genetically engineered half-human half-animal creatures, doing so via harnessing the energy found in the dormant volcano his base is in and using it to shoot the mutating and replicating DNA into the atmosphere- where it will then contaminate the water supply, wiping out imperfections and allowing everything that survives to be altered by him. The only issue is that he doesn’t have control over human DNA.

Back on the island, Jimmy decides to go and rescue the other mutants and his father, along with trying to find a cure for himself. He convinces Amanda to join him, and the two gather some of the remaining mutants hiding in the forest- all of which are convinced Jimmy is bad luck and that he caused the raid. Amanda pleads with them to stand up for themselves against Elleson the way Jimmy is, and a small group of mutants eventually sides with her. Kentar watches from the shadows, intending to tell Elleson about their plans.

Jimmy and his team make it to Elleson’s compound, which has a dozen different entrances and paths, leading them to guess where they need to go. However Face and some security guards manage to find them, causing everyone to run away after Jimmy fails to change into Sonic- albeit with a few of the mutants being shot and left unable to escape. Jimmy is distraught and blames himself for everything, causing Amanda to bring Tacticus to him for advice. Jimmy says that he’s afraid he’s infected with something and dying, to which Tacticus says he’s “dying into something new” and that he needs to accept the changes that’ve happened to him. He tells Jimmy he has to come to terms with the animal inside him, and that he believes that Jimmy will lead them all to freedom.

Tacticus heads back up to the cliff top to meditate, where Face interrogates him about where Jimmy is- hitting him and threatening worse if he doesn't tell him. Tacticus continues to stay quiet, leading to Face becoming fed up and shooting him, Tacticus’ body falling off the cliff. Kentar finds his body and becomes furious, realizing Elleson had broken his promise to not harm any of the villagers before the 24 hour deadline. He scoops up his body and brings him back to the village.

Amanda realizes that they’re running out of time and that she has to keep training Jimmy, to which he refuses- only for Kentar to say he refuses to let Jimmy give up and that Elleson’s plans go farther than the village, potentially affecting the whole world. At that Jimmy agrees, going through a training montage as Sonic where he learns to control his powers and concluding with Amanda giving him Tacticus’ final test to prove that he’s ready.

Jimmy, Amanda, and Kentar come up with a plan to break into Elleson’s compound and free the mutants and Jimmy’s father. Thanks to the help of a crude map Knuckles drew of the compound’s interior, Jimmy has a few close calls but manages to escape detection from the guards- albeit at one point he realizes the map is wrong and manages to course correct. He finds where the mutants are being held, a dark pit covered in the snake creatures from before. Jimmy takes out the snakes and frees the mutants, bringing them to the drop-off point that Amanda and Kentar set up before going back inside for his dad. He destroys one of the lava tubes running through the interior, distracting the guards and allowing Amanda and Kentar to escape with the others. The guards run after Sonic before he runs down a tunnel, assuming he’d lost them- only for Face to appear and knock Jimmy out, dragging him to Elleson.

Jimmy wakes up strapped to a table and hooked up to a machine that samples his blood every two minutes in order to detect change. Jimmy demands to know where his father is, to which Elleson reacts with delight at learning that he’s Hedgeman’s son. Elleson explains that now that he has Sonic’s blood, he can complete his plan and transmute all of humanity into more disciplined creatures, causing Jimmy to call him “Robotnik” in reference to his cold and mechanical methodology. Elleson plans to vivisect Sonic in order to figure out what allows him to change back and forth, keeping Hedgeman captive nearby to make sure Jimmy obeys him as he says he will suffer if Jimmy doesn’t cooperate.

Elleson begins a series of tests with Sonic’s blood sample, managing to create his mutated DNA and preparing to shoot it into the atmosphere. Seeing as they’ve outlived their use to him, Elleson orders Face to get rid of both Jimmy and Dr. Hedgeman, leading to them being thrown into a pit. The two-headed mutant from the cold opening appears and begins to approach, with Jimmy and Dr. Hedgeman desperately trying to find a way through the maze-like caves. The two are cornered and have a moment, before the ceiling breaks open to reveal Amanda and Kentar, who pull the two up to safety with a rope. Jimmy goes to stop Elleson from contaminating the planet, with the others following behind him.

Elleson’s men appear one-by-one and attempt to take out Sonic and fail, including Face. Amanda gets cornered, Hedgeman attempts to send out an S.O.S., and Kentar fights the snake creatures as Jimmy goes for Elleson. Sonic manages to knock him to the ground, but Elleson takes one of the DNA capsules and transforms into a gigantic mutant. Sonic manages to dodge for a while, but eventually Elleson knocks him out, then goes to put the two remaining DNA capsules into the launch tubes and presses a button releasing the built-up steam from the volcano in order to launch the capsules into the atmosphere.

Sonic manages to get back up and goes for Elleson again, only to be thrown off. Out of options, he converts all of his energy into a spin breaking through the launch pad- sending all the energy into the core of the volcano and re-awakening it. Elleson begins to panic, as the heat from a proper eruption would destroy the DNA in the capsules before they even leave the cone. The volcano violently rumbles as Elleson desperately tries to find a way to save his experiment, his lab disintegrating around him.

Jimmy, Dr. Hedgeman, Amanda and Kentar manage to escape from the compound at the last minute and see it fall into the volcano, which erupts a moment later. The mutants come out of hiding, overjoyed at the news of Elleson’s defeat. The help that Dr. Hedgeman called for earlier arrives to help evacuate the island, and Dr. Hedgeman tells Jimmy that he’s proud of him and he’s sorry he didn’t believe in him earlier. Jimmy apologizes as well as they’ve still got a problem on their hands- "You thought it was tough raising an ordinary teenager, you ain't seen nothing yet!".

Characters[]

• Jimmy Hedgeman: A 17-year old teenage human with a rebellious attitude, quick in both thoughts and actions. After an accident involving the DNA experiments of his father, Jimmy gradually transforms into a blue hedgehog-like creature with incredible speed. He later adopts the name "Sonic" after Amanda misinterprets the phrase "Sonic or bust!" on the back of his jacket as a statement of his real name. He eventually discovers how to shift between his mutant form and his human form.
• Dr. Hedgeman: A DNA researcher funded by the government, and Jimmy's single father. He is captured by Dr. Elleson’s men and taken to his secret compound.
• Dr. Paul Elleson: A famous scientist thought to have died 10 years ago, secretly living in a lab in Peru. He was born without fingers, which caused him to be ostracized as a child. Believing that mankind has lost their right to rule the planet for their cruelty, he yearns to create a perfect world populated by his mutant creatures. He has Dr. Hedgeman kidnapped, as he believes the latter’s research on hibernating animal regeneration may be the key to his achieving his goals. Jimmy nicknames him ‘Robotnik’, for his “cold methodology”.
• Amanda Morgan: A 16-year-old “wild woman” living in the mutant village. Her father used to work for Elleson, but defected and hid her with the mutants before being killed. She wants the mutants to leave the island, as she knows Elleson will kill them if he finds them. She sticks up for Jimmy when the rest of the group wants to kill him. When Taticus is killed, she takes over training Jimmy. Jimmy is attracted to her.
• Kentar: One of the mutants. He is a large, humanoid animal creature with “long curly dreadlocks for a mane”, and huge paws that he drags on the ground, courtesy of his long arms. Jimmy nicknames him ‘Knuckles’. He is an incredibly strong mutant, able to best any challengers- including Jimmy- in melee combat. Betrays Jimmy to Elleson, but returns to the group after Face kills Taticus.
• Face: A thug working for Dr. Paul Elleson. He has a skin condition that makes his face appear like it is melting off of his body. He has dark skin and a slight accent.
• Taticus: “The Elder” of the mutant shanty town. He is a wise, respected older mutant with orange fur and a single long braid who dispenses wisdom. He is killed by Face when he refuses to reveal Jimmy’s location.
• Bolar: A younger mutant. He challenges Kentar to a fight, but loses. Is captured by Elleson’s group.
• Mrs. Deedhammer: Jimmy’s Spanish teacher. She helps him track down where Elleson’s goons have taken his father. Is unhappy with Jimmy, who hasn’t been to her class in 3 months.
• Jimmy's grandfather: A pilot who attempted to break the sound barrier, but died in the process. His jacket is worn by Jimmy.
• Jimmy’s buddy: Jimmy’s friend. Goes on a joyride with him, and ends up getting Jimmy taken to the police station because of his underage drinking.

Development[]

Early stages[]

Sega first conceptualized the idea of a feature-length Sonic the Hedgehog film during production of the Sonic the Hedgehog television series in 1993. Newly-appointed consumer products director Michealene Risley, who was instrumental in green-lighting the series, was assigned to negotiate with several Hollywood producers to find support for the project. "I was basically driving the Sonic movie," Risley recalled to Kotaku in 2018, "I don’t know who came up with the idea – whether it was Tom [Kalinske, Sega of America CEO] or Shinobu [Toyoda, Sega executive vice-president and COO] or me, or we talked about it as a group – but having come from the movie world, I was always pushing those things." Tom Kalinske, however, was hesitant on the idea of a movie, recalling how 1987's Masters of the Universe damaged the namesake toy-line and how the critical and commercial failures of Super Mario Bros. and Street Fighter stained the reputation of their namesake video game franchises. Kalinske noted to Kotaku that "There is really is that fear that a bad movie could potentially hurt your brand. The Sonic brand was strong enough to probably withstand it, but there is that fear."^[3] Despite Kalinske's concerns, Sega was highly enthusiastic about the project, according to Risley, "It all depends on the timing of the movie, the look of the movie, whether you go live action or animation. [The film failing] was never an issue for us."^[3] After about a year of negotiations, Sega struck a development deal in August 1994 with MGM and Trilogy Entertainment Group.^[3]

Story treatment[]

As a result of this deal, Trilogy Entertainment co-founders Pen Densham and Richard B. Lewis wrote a rough story treatment for a Sonic the Hedgehog film, which they titled "Sonic: The Movie". Accordingly, the plot as presented in the draft was intended to "introduce a new mythology to the movie-going audience" and serve as a origin story for Sonic that viewers who hadn't played any Sonic games could enjoy, while also providing a "real sense of jeopardy" similar to that of Batman and Jurassic Park. As described in the document, Sonic's appearance in the movie was planned to be a combination of animatronics, motion-capture, and CGI. The first draft of the treatment was submitted on November 11, 1994.^[1][2]

Cancellation and legacy[]

The story treatment seemingly received negative reception from MGM and Sega for its tone and incredibly loose connection to the games. As a result, the film was cancelled, and a more-accurate film adaption of the Sonic franchise was pitched as a follow-up.

The story treatment for the film remained unknown to the public for years until 2023, when the only existing physical draft known to exist was purchased from Ebay by Will from the Twitch channel "The Game Show Game". In celebration of the 4th anniversary of the Paramount Sonic the Hedgehog film, the document was presented live on February 12, 2024, and was read aloud by three guests, all of them internet personalities associated with Sonic the Hedgehog.

Trivia[]

• Hedgeman is presumably a spin on names ending in the suffix -man or -mann such as Hoffmann or Zimmermann.
• Jimmy has a fighter pilot jacket as part of a mandate from Sega at the time the treatment was written.
• Of note is that both Dr. Robotnik from the finished film by Paramount and Dr. Paul Elleson were given traumatic origin stories whereas Dr. Eggman (as he exists in the games) does not currently have a canonical explanation for wanting to conquer the world.

References[]

External Links[]

• An article about the treatment from Sonic Retro
• The VOD from Game Show Game starts about 23 minutes into the stream