A Tale of Two Tails

Phew, almost coming to the end of all these pics think that's all the characters, minus a few of the Robotnik ones.

Again, for those who aren't familiar with the premise, I'm basically doing a series of pics where I reinterpret Sonic the Hedgehog and various characters as if they were created in the early days of animation as cartoon characters.

Whilst the Miles "Tails" Prower we know to day first debuted in the 40's, his origin can be traced as far back as the 20's.

Back then, the writers and animaters of Sonic (Then called Hasty Hedgehog) were trying to come up with ideas for various villains, seeing as Doctor Ivo wasn't an out and out villain. And so every now and then, a new bad guy would be introduced into the cartoon, seeking to steal Sonic's super speed. When it came time for a new villain, the writers decided to go for something truly terrifying for the hedgehog and figured what better than a natural predator of the hedgehog, the sly Fox!

And so, minds set to work and the end result was the character Prowler the Fox. He debuted in the episode "The Sly and the Speedy" where Hasty and Amy were constantly pursued by the Fox, who saught to eat them. He'd set up all manner of traps and build various inventions to catch the hedgehog. Prowler wasn't a huge success but was popular enough to warrant two further appearences. Several of his characteristics would soon go on to define another character in the 40's.

So, come the 40's and minds are abuzz about creating a new character. A partner in crime, somewhat, for Sonic. Many ideas were suggested and a whole different character almost saw light until the directors saw it and said a black version of Sonic just wasn't original enough. And so the writers went for the unexpected. They took the natural predator of the hedgehog, the fox, and decided to make him friendly. When designing the creature, the animators went back to the designs of the character Prowler. Realising he looked a little too big and evil to be a friend of Sonic's, they tweaked the design to make him look cuter.

The writers theorized that this Friendly Fox could run as fast, if not faster, than Sonic. They said he could run a few miles faster. When deciding on the name, someone joked "Name him Miles, cos he can run a few miles faster than Sonic". The name stuck in the end and the fox become Miles the Friendly Fox. Miles made his debut in the episode "Emerald Race" in which the fox challenges Sonic to a race across the mysterious Emerald Island. The winner would claim the magical Emerald of Chaos. Miles wins the race and everyone is astounded that he's a bit faster than Sonic. Sonic goes into training to get faster and challenges the fox again. Once again he loses. He tries one last time to beat the fox. Sonic decides to play a little dirty and knocks over a tree to try and stop the fox. The tree lands on his tail and it looks like it's split it in two but Miles doesn't even notice. After the race, Sonic confronts the fox and discovers that he actually has two tails and that he was disguising them as one. During the races, he'd spun them like propellors to make him go faster.

Miles was an overnight success, and many thought he may end up becoming more popular than Sonic. He even had a short lived spin off series between 1943 and 1945. Miles featured in many episodes after this and very much became Sonic's closest friend and partner. Together they battled against the tyranny of Dr. Robotnich. Due to his twin tails, people began to calling the character by the nickname, Tails. Whilst the creators weren't too amused at first, preferring the name they gave him, it eventually stuck to the character like glue.

When the series was revamped in 1960, Mile's name was changed to Miles "Tails" Prower. He'd originally been unofficially named Miles Prowler in the 40's but the creators didn't want people confusing him with the bad fox. The name Miles Prower was also a play on "Miles per hour" as the fox was a faster runner too. Although by the 60's, he no longer used his tails so much to run faster but to fly. Tail's real peak of popularity was the 40's as in the 60's he became much more Sonic's side kick. Whilst the two had been equals in the 40's, Sonic was now clearly taking the spot light, and Tails became more and more a background sub character. And so, despite being well loved, he didn't reappear in the 80's revamp of the cartoon but would later return in 1992 sporting a brand new look.