TEXT: Three New Cartoon Ideas, Have A Sample

Hello! No pictures this time. Just words!

One thing I get to do while working with Mashed is pitch my own ideas. I'm always trying to think of things to do, because obviously I want to stay hired and busy and making fun stories, so I decided to put all the ideas on one google doc.

Here I'm gonna share three of those ideas with YOU, the humble Paintron! This is exclusive stuff.

Bear in mind that, as of me writing this, no one at Mashed has formally read the document. So I have zero idea how likely any of these are to be approved.

Anyway, first up:

SONIC VS. LEGMAN

After observing an epic showdown between Sonic and Metal Sonic, Cubot laments that he never gets to join in on the fighting. Later that day, Eggman merrily rejoices with Metal and Sage, creations he treats with far more respect and affection than Orbot and Cubot. Cubot somehow arrives at the conclusion that they’re more respected than he is because they all have legs.

Cubot asks the doctor to build him a pair, but Eggman shuts him down. Cubot is forced to resort to venturing into town and asking Tails for help. Tails ends up relating to Cubot’s insecurities, and figures he’s never been much of a threat anyway, so he decides to build Cubot his new legs.

Cubot quickly devolves into a mad power trip, torturing various Sonic characters around town via leg-based shenanigans. He even adopts a new persona: Doctor Legman.

Ah, what do you think so far? I won't spoil the ending. This one I thought of last week. I'm not sure how likely it is to see the light of day, as Cubot isn't normally a top-billing character. I will admit, giving him such a major role is partially self-indulgent, because I like him so much, BUT that isn't the only reason I came up with the idea. I just thought it made sense for the characters, y'know? That's usually how I like to stab at these concepts.

I hope I get to do this one, because I have plenty of really great gags in mind for it. It would be a pretty "cartoony" cartoon. Usually if I think of a story starring Orbot and/or Cubot, it's gonna be wacky.

AMY NEEDS GLASSES

Amy finds out she needs glasses, playing on the trope in Sonic games where she mistakes other hedgehogs for him.

Once she gets a prescription, she sees more clearly, but finds Sonic less physically attractive. It turns out she thinks Knuckles is hot now, so she tries to tag along with him while he guards the Master Emerald.

After he acts really dry and distant towards her, she realizes it wasn't just looks she was after all along.

This one isn't much of a story yet, I mostly have a skeleton here. I'm waiting on if anyone at Mashed has thoughts on this, any ideas for how to beef it up. As it is now, it'd be a pretty laid back, if a little dry story. I think Mashed usually likes to have a little more conflict in their videos.

I DID devise that there could be some sort of subplot, where Orbot and Cubot have sabotaged the glasses with spyware, but that's basically all I've got for that so far.

Though it is bare, I think there's something to this one. The imagery of Amy wearing giant dumb looking glasses is pretty cute, and I'd like having a more Knuckles-heavy story too! He hasn't gotten much feature in any of my Sonic toons.

Last but not least:

THE AMAZING DIGITAL HEDGEHOG

Tails gets addicted to a Sims-esque video game (call it Faximiland). He’s locked himself in his room, to the point where Sonic and Amy haven’t seen him for weeks.

Amy pressures Sonic into breaking in and forcing Tais out of his trance; however, the two are shocked to find an empty desk where the game is still running on its own. Tails has left a note saying that he’s uploaded his physical form into the game because he got sick of having to take food and bathroom breaks.

Sonic calls up an old inventor friend of Tails (they met at a science camp) to help rescue him. Inventor says that the only way to save Tails is to leap into the digital world after him.

The digital world mimics many aspects of their real world, except Tails is a world-renowned scientist hailed as the greatest mind of the generation. Sonic and Amy, now in Sim form, confront Tails.

The most recent of my ideas, having only truly come into form across this past weekend. I really, really like this idea at the moment. The Sims 3 is one of my most played video games of ALL TIME, so I think it would be fun creating an excuse to do a bunch of Sims-related gags based on my extremely intimate knowledge of the game and all of its mods and expansions.

This inventor friend that I've mentioned would be a wholly original character! Not something I've truthfully done in any of these Sonic videos. They don't have a name, but they'd be a squirrel character. Ha, actually, I couldn't help trying to sketch out a design:

They're definitely meant to parrot Tails, if you couldn't tell. Big bushy tail, furry chest, silly tuft of hair on the head. Quite the goofy character. The idea is that this is someone Tails befriended while at a science camp, so they're in a similar "kid genius" category. Hopefully they see the light of day! Oh, and, do you have any ideas for a name? I couldn't land on one. Maybe something like "Screws the Squirrel"? Cause squirrels like nuts, nuts and bolts, bolts, bolts and screws? Yeah, maybe needs work.

So, what do you think? Which of these ideas is your favorite? I know they're all Sonic ideas, that's kind of just the easiest thing to think of at the moment since they've got kind of an established presence on Mashed now. I still want to do that Kirby Exorcist idea I mentioned way back, that's still on the doc.

Of these three ideas, though, the Sims digital world concept is definitely the one I'm crossing my fingers for the most. I've got a lot of great gags for it in mind, it has a pretty heartfelt throughline, and it's a pretty easy-to-sell concept. Characters getting sucked into video game land!! OOoooohH!!! 😱🎮👾