Sonic: Wonders of the World

Sonic the Hedgehog: Wonders of the World is an unfinished film adaption based off the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.The film was intended to be a co-production of MGM, Trilogy Entertainment Group and SEGA. The film began production in 1994 and treatment for it was written by Richard Jefferies but it was cancelled the following year before production could begin.

Plot
A 12-year old boy named Josh, who's recently recovering from a parental divorce, presents an incomplete historic event school paper. His teacher warns him to complete his paper the next day or face the consequences. The next day, Josh goes home to his father's apartment, a currently unemployed computer scientist named Hal is doing research for a new invention, a supercomputer called the XRI, which is short for eXtremely Radical Intelligence. It's a computer that possesses artificial intelligence and is able to project virtual reality. After Hal finishes dinner, he leaves to do research on some hardware and leaves Josh with the XRI. Josh uses the XRI to finish his schoolwork, but is unable to use do so and decides to hook it up to his Sega Saturn to play Sonic X-treme.[1]

Later, the title character Sonic finds out that Josh has a will of his own and quits responding to the controls Josh is using. Josh is able to hack into the computer and bring Sonic out of the video game, resulting Sonic in becoming a 3D character that can interact with reality. Josh and Sonic bond together, but after Sonic's departs from Sonic X-treme, the departure causes him to lose his power as the time goes on and this results in him causing trouble in the real world. First, he destroys Josh's apartment and causes citywide car wrecks. Dr. Eggman (identified in the treatment through his real name, Dr. Robotnik), the main antagonist and his minions accidentally escape from the game and decide to take over the real world, unfortunately Sonic isn't able to stop him as a result of losing his superpowers.[1]

When Hal and Lisa, Josh's mother both come home to see the apartment in ruins, Josh and Lisa get into a heated argument and Josh tries to explain what had happened. But, neither Hal nor Lisa neither believe Josh and blame him for making the mess. Josh is then sent to Lisa's home and Sonic tracks him down. Josh leaves the house without Lisa noticing. Meanwhile, Josh and Sonic try to find out about Eggman and searches for Chaos Emeralds, which are scattered around the real world encased in ordinary rocks. When Josh and Sonic find a Chaos Emerald, Sonic uses its power to temporarily regain his strength, and Sonic gives Josh a taste of the power of the emerald to help finish his school work. Sonic warns Josh not to further exploit the emerald's power until he can control it. Meanwhile, at the same time, Dr. Eggman sets up a shell corporation called Shady Corporation and uses it to purchase the abandoned Ramshackle Amusement Park, Dr. Eggman renaming the park Botnikland Amusement Park and trains a group of school bullies and roboticizes them into Bullibots. He also orders them to search for the remaining Chaos Emeralds.[1]

Eggman then runs into Hal. Hal reluctantly accepts Eggman's offer to be the park's main research and development designer. Eggman uses Hal's XRI technology and develops a virtual reality ride to draw kids to the recently revived theme park. The park opens and many kids all across town come to the park. However, when Josh and Sonic manage to inspect the ride, he and Sonic find out that Eggman is using the ride to turn the kids into his Badniks and calls them Kinder-Bots and he forcing the kids to search for the Chaos Emeralds. Sonic and Josh later find out that Eggman will program the XRI to turn the world's natural landmarks, such as Mount Everest and the Amazon rainforest by the use of the Chaos Emeralds, will makes digital replicas out of them so that he can make virtual reality experiences and profit off of people wanting to see them, so that they wouldn't have to visit the landmarks themselves. The BulliBots catch Josh and Sonic resulting in a chase Sonic becomes weak after being captured and Josh is barely able to escape.[1]

After the chase, the Kinder-Bots go back home and are obedient to their parents. Josh decides to set things right and send Dr. Eggman back into the fantasy world. Josh rescues Sonic and the two battle Dr. Eggman before Josh activates the XRI and causes himself, Sonic, Dr. Eggman and the Badniks to enter Sonic X-treme. After that, there's another battle, Sonic defeats Dr. Eggman with the help of Josh. After Eggman's plan backfires, Josh vows to return and escapes. Sonic decides to stay in his own world knowing that it needs him to stop Eggman's schemes, and bids Josh farewell before the two returns home and reunites with Hal and Lisa. The film closes with Josh promising Hal to remove the XRI, until he sees Sonic's eye wink at him at the screen and he plays Sonic X-treme again

Why It Was Cancelled
Before production began MGM suddenly backed out of the development deal and after an attempt to revive the film at DreamWorks went nowhere, the film was scrapped. Its unknown why MGM chose to drop the film, though Pen Densham claimed the deal broke down due to creative differences between Sega and Trilogy, causing the latter to pull out and leave MGM with the bill. Jeffries, however, blamed "Hollywood politics" for the film's demise, believing that the studios each wanted a higher share of the film's profits.

Results

 * The film was permanently canceled.
 * Sonic X-Treme, a game which was gonna be in the film was also canceled for development reasons.
 * Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie, a two episode OVA was released for Japan in 1996 and North America in 1999.
 * An CGI/live action movie currently titled "Sonic" is being co-produced by Paramount Pictures and SEGA. The film is currently set for a 15th November 2019 release.