Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog "What you see is what you get: just a guy that loves adventure! I'm Sonic the Hedgehog!" Gender: Male Type: Cocky yet Witty and Good-Hearted Speedster Age: 15 Species: Hedgehog Portrayed by: (English) Jaleel White (1993-1999; 2013) Meg Inglima (Sonic's Schoolhouse) Martin Burke (OVA) Ryan Drummond (1998-2004; 2020) Jason Griffith (2003-2010) Roger Craig Smith (2010-present) Ben Schwartz (movie franchise, adult) Benjamin L. Valic (movie franchise, young) Tim Robinson (Ugly Sonic, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers) Deven Mack (Sonic Prime) (Japanese) Takeshi Kusao (SegaSonic the Hedgehog) Masato Nishimura (Sonic CD) Masami Kikuchi (OVA) Jun'ichi Kanemaru (1998–present) Taishi Nakagawa (movie franchise, adult) Masahide Terashima (movie franchise, young) Status: Alive Media of origin: Sonic the Hedgehog

"I'm Sonic, A little ball of super energy, in an extremely handsome package!"

— Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog (2020 movie)

Sonic the Hedgehog (ソニック・ザ・ヘッジホッグ Sonikku za Hejjihoggu) is the video game company Sega's mascot (and also their current and longest-reigning mascot, succeeding Sega's previous mascot, Alex Kidd) and the titular main protagonist of the video game series he is named after.

He is a blue, anthropomorphic hedgehog with plenty of attitude and personality who lives up to his name by being able to run at supersonic speeds.

Why He's Way Past Cool

1. Just like Super Mario and Crash Bandicoot, he is one of the most famous mascots in video game history.
   • Not only that, but he is also one of the most iconic characters ever created apart from characters such as Mickey Mouse, SpongeBob, Hello Kitty and like the rush of the wind, the list goes on and on and on and on and on.
   • He could very well be considered the Bugs Bunny of gaming, while Mario is Mickey and Pac-Man is Felix the Cat.
2. As a blue anthropomorphic hedgehog, he has a very creative, cool and appealing character design (although it really doesn't look like a hedgehog).
3. Unlike most other video game mascots, Sonic actually has an interesting personality that can actually be integrated into stories. Thanks to this, he has interesting stories both in his games and in other media, like comic books and cartoons.
4. His famous rivalry/friendship with Mario, which was famous enough to put them both in a crossover game together since 2007: Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games.
5. When there is a crisis, he intensely focuses on the task at hand.
6. He is an unpredictable thrill-seeker and sees his heroics as an opportunity to have fun.
7. He always manages to remain cool under pressure.
8. He often jokes around to lighten the mood and has the tendency to hilariously taunt his opponents.
9. He never forgets about his friends and believes in working as a team or, as he put it, the power of teamwork.
10. He follows his free-spirited nature and does not dwell on the past or allow painful experiences to weigh him down. Instead, he lives in the present and always looks forward to new adventures, which is a good moral for anyone.
11. He is always ready to risk his life for his friends, with little regard for his own safety.
12. He has shown to have a habit of forgiving, with one example being how he forgave Silver for trying to kill him. Twice.
13. He is also shown to be good at swordsmanship, like in Sonic and the Black Knight.
14. Most of his various voice actors have done a good job voice him and capturing his personality, especially Jaleel White, Ryan Drummond and Jason Griffith (as well as Roger Craig Smith, Ben Schwartz and Tim Robinson, who voices Ugly Sonic in the Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers movie).
15. He has a buttload of quotable lines, such as:
    • "STRANGE, ISN'T IT??"
    • "That's NO GOOD."
    • "Ah, yeah! This is happening!"
    • "No copyright law in the universe is going to stop me!"
    • "Uuuhh.. meow??"
    • And the fan-favorite "You're too slo-ow!".
16. After suffering from flanderization in the 2010s games, he reverted to his original personality in Sonic Frontiers.

Too Slow Qualities

1. Sometimes, he can be a little too rude, rebellious, narcissistic, arrogant, impatient, impulsive, prideful, and even a bit predictable to be likable.
   • The biggest example is in the Sonic Prime pilot "Shattered", where he ignores his friends' warnings shattering the paradox prism, inadvertantly creating the Shatterverse and affecting the world.
2. He's somewhat petty at times, more specifically when his species is mislabeled, like in Sonic and the Secret Rings, when Erazor Djinn called him a "blue rat".
3. He had an annoying side in Sonic Underground, though he redeemed himself once the series ended.
4. He had a handful of bad voice actors in the past, like:
   • Meg Inglima in Sonic's Schoolhouse (due to sounding more like an emotionless female robot).
   • Jaleel White in Sonic Underground (depending on your view).
   • Martin Burke in Sonic OVA (due to him sounding irritating, immature and unpleasant to listen to or like some sort of southern-accented youngster or a kid trying but failing to sound like a teen. That said, he did give us the "Strange, isn't it?" line).
   • And Taishi Nakagawa in the Japanese dub of the live action movies (due to not sounding like his original Japanese voice).
5. He suffered character derailment during the decade of 2010, most notably in Sonic Free Riders and Lost World. Thankfully, he was reverted back in Sonic Frontiers.

Trivia

• Sonic has a total of 4 cartoons (AoSTH, Sonic SatAM, Sonic Underground, Sonic Boom ), 3 web cartoons (Sonic Mania Adventures, Team Sonic Racing Overdrive, Sonic Colors: Rise of the Wisps, Sonic Prime), 1 anime (Sonic X), a short CGI movie (Night of the Werehog) an animated movie (Sonic the Hedgehog OVA), and also an exceptionally successful live-action/computer-animated duology of movies in 2020 and 2022.
• After having been around only three years, he had already surpassed Nintendo's Mario in popularity according to a June 1993 Q-Survey in Gameplayers magazine.
• One of Sonic's original names was "Mr. Hedgehog". However, due to a fan mistranslation of the name from Japanese (such of which is strange on its own as the name had been written in English in one image containing drawings of Sonic's early design), many have come to falsely believe his original name was "Mr. Needlemouse".
• In keeping with the spirit of the above, Sonic 1's soundtrack was scored entirely by the Japanese pop group Dreams Come True, formed as a trio in 1988.
• For his cameos, Sonic has proven to be an extremely popular character and he is also a fighter in the Super Smash Bros. games since Brawl in 2008.
• Sonic's personality is loosely based on Michael Jackson and in Bill Clinton's "get it done" attitude, and his design was inspired by a combination of Mickey's head and Felix the Cat's body.

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