Looking back at the Baby Sonic shorts

Alright, let’s talk about these last few Baby Sonic videos. I enjoyed making these cartoons about the cute baby version of Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog character interacting with these other original characters as if it was a sitcom of sorts. What if someone had to babysit a baby version of Sonic the Hedgehog, basically, was the premise for these webtoons. 

I was very happy that these short little cartoons found an audience, but I think it was time to end the series. So how would these cartoons end? I wanted to create a short little story arc that brought it all back together and have the characters interact in some way. I think the core of the series was about the Cat and her hatred of the baby. In various shorts, the Cat was always the foil to the baby. In one short she threatened him with a lightsaber, and in another she basically hid him from the babysitter.

But if these shorts were to end, I think the Cat and the baby had to makeup and get along. So first things first, I had to get rid of the baby. In this last trilogy of shorts, Baby Sonic was picked up by his rightful owner, Sonic the Hedgehog. The babysitters were obviously sad, because they will miss the baby. However, at the last second, it is revealed that this is not Sonic the Hedgehog. 

By giving him black eyes, I made him look like Sonic.exe, which is some weird Youtube Sonic fandom thing that I honestly don’t understand. I think it’s some creepy pasta or something, popular with those who watch these sorts of cartoons. I thought this would be a cool twist to end the short on. People told me they cried when watching this cartoon, because it was so sad to see the babysitters say goodbye to the baby. It wasn’t my intention but I’m glad they connected with it. 

In the next short, the baby realized he was being kidnapped, so he was crying as Sonic.exe was laughing with his stereotypical evil villain laugh. However, the Cat arrives to save the day with the same lightsaber she used to threaten him. 

To finish off the series, I wanted to show that the baby and the Cat are finally best friends. Originally it was going to be a remake of the Sonic Meets the Cat video, except this time the Cat doesn’t threaten the baby. However, I wanted something a bit different from before, so I ended up showing the baby sleeping during a thunderstorm, and the Cat being very protective of the baby, because she wants to protect him now, even from something that scares her, like the thunder. The baby then grabs her and hugs her to sleep with him as well. 

I took inspiration from this Tumblr post on how to frame it, and then storyboarded it, animated it, and then shaded it. I think the Baby Sonic webseries was a nice success and I am proud of how they ended up. My goal was to increase my animation skills and to challenge myself to do something that looked nicer than my usual cartoons, and I learned a lot making them.

I hope you enjoyed them!