PICTURE+TEXT: The Robotnik Clause

Here is a written update on what's been going on with my work with Mashed! When's my next cartoon with them? HUH??

Well, there's one pretty big update that I should brief folks on. Way back in June, I shared a few synopses that I planned to show to the producers at Mashed. I just now realized, I'm not sure if I shared if any of these got approved?

Anyway, say hello to THE AMAZING DIGITAL HEDGEHOG!!

THE AMAZING DIGITAL HEDGEHOG

• Tails gets a new game, FACSIMILAND. Creates an avatar of himself, populates the town.

• 2 weeks go by, Sonic and friends wonder where he’s been. They sneak into his room and see the game running by itself. A note from Tails reveals he’s uploaded himself into the game.

• Sonic, Amy, and Knuckles decide to upload themselves in order to coax Tails back to reality. They each already have custom avatars made by Tails.

• In Facsimiland, Tails is known as Professor Prower. He’s hosting a “TAIL talk” at a convention center. Sonic and friends crash the seminar.

• Tails is elated to realize that his friends have decided to join him in the digital world, since it means he gets to give them a tour of his beautiful simulation.

• Sonic, seeing how happy Tails is, convinces Amy and Knuckles to go along with it, and that they aren’t in any rush to get out. Amy just hopes no one needs them in the real world in the meantime.

This is a mere excerpt from the outline Mashed approved. Basically, Sonic and friends digitally insert themselves into a Sims-type game. Now, there's good news and bad news here. Which you want first, eh? Lol...

The good news is that, I've finished writing the script for it, and it's come out really fun and I really like it. I love it! I think it's gonna be great. I'm a big fan of the Sims so I know how to handle Sims-type humor.

The bad news is that... We can't make it! Not yet, at least. Yes, after not hearing from Mashed for a couple weeks, I was informed that they aren't able to fund something of this scale until next year. That was a shame to hear, but optimistically speaking, it does leave me open to work on other things for a little while.

So what happens next? Well, I didn't just post sketches of a Robotniklaus design for no reason! It was proposed to me that I could work on a Sonic Christmas special, as a shorter scale project.

At first, Ben told me he had an idea following the plot of The Santa Clause. You know, where Santa is accidentally taken out of commission, leaving Sonic and friends to team up with Eggman to make toys at his factory and relying on Sonic's super speed to deliver the presents.

Pretty cute. A little too cute, I thought. It's actually really similar to the plot of Sonic Christmas Blast, a holiday special from the 90s, as well as countless other cartoon holiday specials. I don't really like to retread old ground and take the most obvious direction with the cartoons I write, so I sat on it for a bit. I came up with something, though!

SONIC: THE ROBOTNIK CLAUSE

• Holiday party at Tails’ house.

• Tails is watching a Five Little Hedgehogs Christmas special on the TV. Knuckles is like “What is this crap”

• Amy is happy to have everyone together for the holiday

• Everyone suddenly hears rummaging on the roof; They go out and see a fat intruder on the roof

• Tails shoots him down with some kinda gadget; He assures it’s nonlethal, but the interloper crashes headfirst into the snow.

• The man, fat and dressed in red, tells them he’s Santa. Sonic deducts that it has to be Eggman in disguise.

• They tie him up and bring him to a dark room for interrogation.

• They grill him on his suspicious activity, his egglike physique, his fake beard.

  • They find his bag of toys, assuming it to be full of Badniks, and destroy it.

This version of it takes a bit of a darker turn than the initial idea presented to me. A lot of it is spent torturing this presumed incognito Eggman in comedic ways. I haven't gotten the outline approved yet, as it needs to be read over more thoroughly, but Ben has told me he likes the idea of it.

I really hope we get to make this one close to what I've envisioned for it. It would probably be a lot more stripped back and dialogue-driven in its humor and story than previous Mashed videos, largely for budget reasons, though that prospect actually really excites me. I love writing dialogue, and I especially like writing the Sonic cast as a somewhat grounded group of friends with their own dynamics among one another. Ideally, we'll have a lot of good and funny character moments for all four of them equally, Sonic and Tails and Amy and Knuckles.

I have a joke for Cubot in mind too. In case you were worried.