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Madonna is a character who was set to appear in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. She was supposed to be a love interest for Sonic during the early development of the original Sonic the Hedgehog. Like most other early ideas, she was scrapped before the final release.
Quick Answers
Who was the creator of the character Madonna in the Sonic the Hedgehog series?
What was the original role of Madonna in the Sonic the Hedgehog series?
Why was Madonna's character scrapped from the Sonic the Hedgehog series?
What traits was Madonna's character initially designed to have in the Sonic the Hedgehog series?
Was Madonna intended to be Sonic's love interest in the original Sonic the Hedgehog game?
Concept and creation[]
Madonna and Sonic, from technical demo presented in Tokyo Toy Show 1990.[1]
Madonna's character was originally conceived by Naoto Ohshima, Sonic and Dr. Eggman's creator. Ohshima has since noted his initial design for her was intended to have traits closely in line with a "male fantasy" and she would have been actively chasing her proactive, get-things-done Sonic the Hedgehog around as his love interest.[2]
Madonna's role in Sonic the Hedgehog (16-bit) was likely going to be contextualized as a motivator for Sonic and the player by needing to be rescued. In a 1993 interview, Yuji Naka, the game's programmer, was asked a question about there being no female characters in Sonic games. In response, Naka confirmed Sonic Team did have a heroine in the concept stage, the character of Madonna, and she would have had a role in the series but his reason for why she was ultimately cut was for Sonic to take a different, less-silly direction than the Super Mario Bros. series.[3]
Overview[]
Appearance[]
Madonna's appearance is that of a blonde, short haired, human woman in a form-fitting, red dress. The art design of her hair mirrors the design curves of Sonic's own quills. In comparison to Sonic and Dr. Eggman, her overall height makes the hedgehog appear smaller than how he would later be presented, while her skinny frame opposes the doctor's round body, giving her design a lanky perception.
Naoto Ohshima gave her the same color design as Sonic and Dr. Eggman. She has yellow hair like Sonic's shoe buckles and Dr. Eggman's buttons, a red dress like Sonic's shoes and Dr. Eggman's shirt, blue eyes like Sonic's fur and Dr. Eggman's glasses, and prominent, black eye lashes like Sonic's eyes and nose and Dr. Eggman's black pants. Dr. Eggman did not have these color similarities when he was in the concept stage with Madonna but would immediately use them starting with Sonic the Hedgehog (16-bit), and in the game's promotional materials.
Madonna's main difference from Sonic and Eggman, design-wise, is that she lacks white gloves.
Getting scrapped[]
At some point in the early development, Madonna was dropped from the final game along with other ideas by Ohshima. Since then, there have been two different claims for Madonna being benched during the earlier periods of the franchise.
Nearly two decades later, Madeline Schroeder from Sega of America would claim to be one who removed her, along with Sonic's band, from the final release with her reasoning being to "soften" Sonic for children and foreign countries, because she thought it was too Japanese-esque.[4]
Prior however, two months after the release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Yuji Naka responded in a January 1993 interview about Madonna and Sonic Team's reason for her removal. He claims that her role in the story Naoto Ohshima designed for her did not fit the rest of Sonic Team's vision for the hero and were against using her, as they thought the hero rescuing kidnapped heroines to be a silly direction for Sonic. On top of, her role was already a featuring narrative in the rivaling Super Mario Bros. series and wanting something different, Sonic Team left Madonna behind.[3] Thus, Naka wasn't going to consider introducing a heroine until after a few games expanded Sonic's world later down the line.
As Yuji Naka was expressing his and the majority of the team's stand-off view on the trope in that interview, Naoto Ohshima was also left behind at Sega of Japan while Sonic Team left to America to partner with Sega Technical Institute. During that time period, Sega wanted to market their latest device, the Sega Mega-CD, and requested Ohshima to be in charge of a Sonic title's development direction for the system, creating Sonic the Hedgehog CD. Ohshima's independence without the original team's involvement is likely how Metal Sonic's kidnapped heroine Amy Rose managed to add herself into the games.[5]
After Madonna was scrapped, the Sonic 1 staff team decided to change the story direction to center around the conflict between Sonic and Eggman.
Game appearances[]
Sonic Gems Collection[]
In Sonic Gems Collection, Madonna appears on two pieces of unlockable concept artwork from Sonic the Hedgehog (16-bit).
Sonic Origins[]
In Sonic Origins, a piece of concept artwork featuring Madonna from Sonic Gems Collection (in higher quality) is unlockable in the gallery using Coins.
In other media[]
Books and comics[]
Archie Comics[]
Madonna[6] appears in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-offs published by Archie Comics, and is redesigned for the post-Super Genesis Wave timeline as a G.U.N. agent interrogating a suspicious man, Dr. Julian Snively.[7]
Her design in this continuity resembles another G.U.N. agent in Sonic Media, Topaz from the Sonic X anime series. Madonna, full name Madonna Garnet, is an agent of G.U.N. and a member of the organization's C.L.I.P. Division. She was reviewing Dr. Snively's history with G.U.N. and his suspicious past involvements with the global, human aggressor, Dr. Eggman, but ultimately found nothing concrete.
Her confrontation with Snively took place two years before Archie Comics cancelled the comic series, and thus this design would make her only appearance.
Archie's Editor causes chaos on 4th Wall Cast, from Sonic the Hedgehog issue #272.
Madonna herself, not Madonna Garnet, was mentioned by Amy and Sally to exist for the characters in Off Panel. Rouge the Bat was planning to do a gag joke dressed as Madonna but the Editor denied it, causing Rouge to walk out. The cast panicked due to the surprise cancellation and summoned Momma Robotnik to make up for the comedy.[8]
Relationships[]
Friends/allies[]
- Sonic the Hedgehog (love interest)
Neutral[]
- Unnamed Dr. Eggman (unknown)
Enemies[]
Trivia[]
- The character Breezie, from the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog television series, is another character from the early years of the Sonic series with a romantic connection to Sonic. She shares design similarities with Madonna, such as their outfits, body structure, and height over Sonic. Breezie is a Badnik designed by Doctor Robotnik to attract Sonic the Hedgehog and it worked.
- Tom Kalinske once said in an interview that Madonna was not the appropriate girlfriend for Sonic.
- Yuji Naka's first game he programmed, Girls' Garden, when thinking about a game for girls likely influenced his decision to deviate from the 'saving the princess' trope when creating Sonic the Hedgehog (1991) to rival the Super Mario Bros. series.
- Naoto Ohshima said in an interview for Famitsu that some elements of Madonna were passed on to Amy Rose.[9]
- Interestingly in the Archie Comics, Madonna would make her only appearance in the book during the post-Super Genesis Wave timeline, while her fellow scrapped Sonic the Hedgehog (16-bit) concept, Sonic the Hedgehog Band, would only make their appearance in the pre-Super Genesis Wave timeline.
Gallery[]
Concept artwork[]
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See also[]
References[]
- ↑ SGGG MANIAX - 幻のソニック. Retrieved on 3 May 2015.
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog GameTap Retrospective Part 2. GameTap (17 February 2009). Retrieved on 3 May 2015. "Naoto Ohshima: Sonic is smaller than a human but he had a human girlfriend who was very attractive and would chase Sonic, so its like a 'male fantasy'."
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "The People Making Sega's Future". Beep! Mega Drive: 46–48. January 1993. Archived from the original on 29 December 2021.. "Questionnaire: To go back to the discussion of Tails, there aren’t any women in Sonic games. What about including a heroine? / Yuji Naka: There's a woman in the original source material. We created a woman named Madonna, and the original plan was to have Sonic rescue her. However, that kind of silly direction didn't really fit Sonic. We wanted to go with something more orthodox. Of course, there certainly are a lot of games like that in the world, where the hero has to rescue the princess. We wanted to do something different from Mario, though, and aim for a new direction."
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog GameTap Retrospective Pt. 2/4. GameTap (17 February 2009). Retrieved on 26 March 2023. "Madeline Schroeder: Originally, Sonic had fangs, and so we had to remove the fangs. We also had to remove his girlfriend Madonna and we also had to remove him out a rock band. I didn't doubt Sonic as a matter of fact I'm known as the mother of Sonic. Mothers love their children. I protected that character. I helped define that character. We had soften him a lot and um.. that was a... yeah there was war."
- ↑ "The People Making Sega's Future". Beep! Mega Drive: 46–48. January 1993. Archived from the original on 29 December 2021.. "Questionnaire: Do you have any plans to introduce a heroine in later Sonic titles? / Yuji Naka: Not right now. If we do, I’d like to expand the world of Sonic a bit more. / Questionnaire: What are your impressions of the upcoming Sonic CD on the Sega CD and Sega Falcom’s Sister Sonic? / Naka: I don’t really have any (laughs). / Questionnaire: You’re not involved with Sonic CD at all? / Naka: That’s right. Not at all. However, the staff include the main designer from Sonic 1 and some other great developers, so I’m sure it will be good. Actually, nearly all of the staff from Sonic 1 worked on Sonic 2."
- ↑ Madonna in Archie?. @IanFlynnBKC. Twitter (25 March 2014). Retrieved on 19 March 2015. "Questionnaire: Will we ever see the girlfriend of Sonic, Madonna from the concepts of Sonic 1? / Ian Flynn: Yes - but not in any way you'd expect."
- ↑ Sonic Super Digest #12, "Sonic Comic Origins: The Traitor"
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog issue #272
- ↑ レイ, 馬波 (24 June 2016). 『ソニック・ザ・ヘッジホッグ』誕生・ヒット・新生の真実をソニックチームのレジェンドクリエイターが、25周年のいま明かす 秘蔵資料満載の永久保存版！(2/5) (Japanese). Famitsu. Archived from the original on 1 October 2020. Retrieved on 1 October 2020.