Happy Birthday Sonic! An update on 'Sonic in Scared Stupid: The Final Chapter'
Happy Birthday Sonic!35 years ago, Sonic the Hedgehog changed the world. He changed my world forever when I first popped ‘Sonic 2’ into my Sega Genesis, and saw that title screen for the first time. It was an instant obsession that has lasted my entire life. Thank you Sonic, for changing my life. Without Sonic, I wouldn’t have my significant other, best friends whom I love dearly, and the incredible opportunity to be here entertaining all of you. No matter how old I get, I will always love Sonic.Today to celebrate his 35th anniversary, I have a small update on ‘Sonic in Scared Stupid: The Final Chapter’.So far, 2026 has been an incredibly progressive year for the movie. I have made more progress in 2026 than the entirety of 2024 and 2025 as the project was frozen as I tried to balance working on the project and keeping myself afloat. Thanks to our amazing Patrons, YouTube Members, and those who commission us on our streams, I have been able to work full time on the project since the start of the year, and things are going well. We’ve still got a long road ahead, but I can see the end of the road if I squint hard enough. I cannot make any promises, but if things continue to go well, and we don’t have any major issues with YouTube, the movie should finally release around Halloween 2027. I must emphasize this is just an estimate, anything can happen between now and then.The movie will be roughly 30-40 minutes long of fully animated Halloween goodness. It will be bigger than any project I’ve done before. Myself, and the very small team of volunteers have been making amazing strides in making the movie better than it ever could have if we hit our original release.In September, I will be doing an on camera video that is an in depth look at the history of the project, the trials and tribulations I’ve had to deal with, and more previews of what we’ve done so far. I apologize for the delays, and you all deserve so much better than I can give you, but I have had a hell of a time battling the powers that be just to survive. YouTube is not interested in what I do anymore, and I’m sure many of you have seen how bad the platform has been overrun with AI slop. I will go into more detail in the update video this September.If you’re eager to see more, my Patreon has an entire backlog of many updates on the project showing images and videos of things that have been worked on and some insight to the process. Without our Patrons, I would not be able to work on the project almost at all, so please consider joining and supporting the channel! Starting this Sunday, I will be making monthly production diary videos talking about what we’ve accomplished in that month, showing what we’ve worked on and talking about the process of it all. You can join here: https://www.patreon.com/c/BalenaProductions/membershipDon’t forget as well that this Saturday we’ll be streaming at 2PM Pacific as we have been every two weeks since last year. This will be our 25th stream! We appreciate everyone who joins them, and we especially appreciate everyone who commissions a drawing. We love doing these streams, and we hope you’ll continue to join us! Stay tuned for a link on Friday where you can watch.Finally, I will be a guest at ‘Sonic Boost’ in San Diego on August 15th-16th. Come say hi! You can get tickets at https://www.sonicboost.org/
That is all for now, I appreciate your continued patience, and I promise it will be worth the wait. Be sure to stay tuned to my socials, join my discord (https://discord.com/invite/balenaproductions) so you never miss any news or updates.Happy Birthday Sonic! Here’s to many more!