Sonic Underground: Conclusion

In the United States, “Sonic Underground’s” original run was from August 30th to October 22nd of 1999. The series would continue to air in syndication for a little while afterwards. Occasionally, it still pops up randomly on various cable stations with little warning or promotion. (Not too long ago, I randomly caught half of the infamous baby episode on one of the Starz channels.) But for the most part, this two-month run represents the entirety of "Sonic Underground's" impact on the wider "Sonic" history. 

Compare that to "SatAM," which ran for two beloved seasons and cross-pollinated with a comic book that lasted for two decades. Or "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog," which garnered a well-publicized re-run on cable and spawned three or four infamous memes. Sandwiched between DiC's well regarded early "Sonic" animations and "Sonic X" – arguably the most popular and successful "Sonic" cartoon, at least from a commercial stand point – “Underground" has sunk into obscurity.

Some would argue that is exactly where "Underground" belongs. Various times throughout this retrospective, I found myself wondering "What the fuck am I even watching?" When we got to episodes where Sonic was giving dating advice to a Minocentaur or tangoing with bickering hillbilly clans, I really had to ask myself why I was putting up with this nonsense. "Underground" represents the truest example of someone using the popular "Sonic" license as an excuse to inflict their demented personal visions on the world. Even the comics and "AoStH," with their wild divergences from video game lore, at least felt related in some way to the source material. Even Ken Penders' rambling epics at least linked back to the games, no matter how vaguely.

Without Tails, without Power Rings, with a version of Robotnik indistinguishable from any generic cartoon villain, and a cast full of canon foreigners, what were Sonic fans left with? Four episodes with Knuckles and the occasional reference to the Chaos Emeralds, basically. It's no surprise that those episodes are the only "Sonic Underground" installments anyone recalls with much fondness.

Of course, I generalize. Some do recall "Sonic Underground" with fondness. Dig deep enough into the Internet and you can find petitions calling for the show's revival, fan-sites, disturbing fan art, and bizarre fan fiction. If this blog has had no other point, it's been to determine why the "Sonic" franchise enjoys such a cult-like devotion. I have my theories – his simplistic design and generic "cool" attitude makes his appeal wide and his variations immeasurable – but here's the facts: If Sonic is in a thing, somebody is going to be obsessed with it. The law of averages dictates that "Underground" would be somebody's introduction to the series. Coming ahead of the much-hyped Dreamcast and "Adventure" series probably did help lure some eyeballs to "Underground." And a small percentage of those viewers came away fans for life.

And then there's the matter of "Underground's" ending. Or rather, its lack of one. Nothing frustrates fans into fanatical devotion like a missing ending. This is what led (considerably more prominent) cult phenomena like "Firefly" and "Twin Peaks" to eventual revivals. If, for some god forsaken reason, you were drawn into "Underground's" mythology, I can see the lack of a resolution leaving you curious for years. An episode rarely passed that didn't mention the prophecy or the missing Queen Alena. Seemingly the whole show was building up to some sort of conclusion, so I can understand the lack of one keeping the fandom – meager as it is – burning for a while. This is presumably why Ian Flynn wanted to produce a comic book conclusion to the cartoon before Sega told him absolutely not.

Sega's unwillingness to ever mention the show again perhaps speaks to its overall reputation. I, for one, cannot share the fondness for "Sonic Underground" that some people demonstrate. If my increasingly incensed reviews didn't make it clear, I did not enjoy watching "Sonic Underground." It took me almost three months to work my way through the entire show, which is longer than it took for it to air in its entirety originally. It wasn't just the nearly complete divorce from everything we associate with "Sonic" that made me hate "Underground." So much of this show was aesthetically repulsive to me. The character designs were atrocious. The animation was cheap and often charmless. The scripts were frequently sloppy, if not wholly nonsensical. The music was usually godawful. I know it's most likely because the writers were forced to crank out two episodes a week but it frequently seemed like little care was taken at all to ensure "Underground" had any internal consistency, drive, or purpose behind it.

I went into this retrospective with extremely low expectations, mostly remembering the show as a cringey mediocrity. I think I came out of this actually disliking the show more. If suffering through those juvenile musical numbers was embarrassing as an eleven-year-old boy, they were physically painful when watching as a thirty-two-year-old man. As a kid, I guess I never thought much about Queen Alena's whole deal. As an adult, I found myself despising the vague and obnoxious machinations of her and the Oracle, yanking her kids around in service of some bullshit destiny that sounded increasingly made-up as the show went on. The show's prophecies were so obviously empty noise signifying nothing and it made me low-key angry that the show expected children to fall for that shit. Lastly, the show's disturbing fetishic undertones–  noticeable in its obsession with covering characters in slime or giant throbbing feet – went unnoticed by kid-me but stick out like an enormous sore toe to adult-me. 

If nothing else, rewatching "Sonic Underground" really made me appreciate "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog" more. That show was also cheaply animated, frequently nonsensical, and often disconnected from the source material. Despite that, I came away from "AoStH" kind of liking it. It was colorful, if nothing else. There was an in-your-face bizarreness and grotesque quality to that show which is, in retrospect, admirable. It was shrill and obnoxious but it was also one-of-a-kind, even when compared to other shrill-obnoxious-grotesque kids show of its time. You can tell that the people who made "AoStH" were usually having fun. That even made that show's barely-disguised kinky underbelly charming. Those moments felt more like sick in-jokes between animators than a strange uncle exposing his ten-year-old nephew to his curated collection of Polaroids of strange women's feet. 

Compare that to "Sonic Underground." Nobody had fun making this show. Everything about it stinks of desperation. The scripts were obviously rushed, usually taking a generic idea and executing it in a sloppy manner that hinted at the absurd deadlines the staff dealt with. The garish character designs also suggest a rushed production timeline that left no room for fine tuning. The animation was bland and lifeless. The show had little of the demented originality of "AoStH," as it mostly built upon "SatAM's" corpse. Touches like the meandering prophecy and rock band gimmick speak to corporate executives making unreasonable demands, forcing elements they deemed trendy into a universe that didn't need them. 

The worst part is that it didn't have to be this way. The only episodes that rose to being halfway decent – namely "Flying Fortress" and "Sleepers" – suggested that good stories could be told within "Underground's" unwanted and obnoxious structure. I don't hate Sonia and Manic the way some do. Having Jaleel White voice a female character was, ya know, a bad idea. But they weren't without potential. Giving Sonic a brother and a sister could've resulted in okay episodes. I believe good stories could've been told within this frame work, if DiC or whoever wasn't determined to churn this thing out as quickly and cheaply as possible.

Ultimately, in my personal estimation, "Sonic Underground" can be called nothing but a creative failure. Three or four not-terrible episodes over the course of forty largely terrible ones is not a positive score. Its contribution to the overall weird-ass "Sonic" lore is negligible. When the show hit Netflix a while back, it spawned one or two quality shitposts. That is "Underground's" legacy and it's about what it deserves. I'm sure devotees of Sonia and Manic or even Sleet and Dingo are out there – god help them if they are – but the show is ultimately doomed to be a baffling, rightfully overlooked footnote. 

And that's my final thought on "Sonic Underground." Because this blog is devoted to a super-fast blue hedgehog, I won't be slowing down any. Come back next time as I begin a look at another "Sonic" cartoon. Will that journey be less painful? Only time will tell but I'm X-cited to start it.