Sonic the Hedgehog (1993), Episode 2.10: Cry of the Wolf

Sonic the Hedgehog (1993), Episode 2.10: Cry of the Wolf
Original Air Date: November 12th, 1994

Archie’s “Sonic the Hedgehog” comic and “SatAM” were conceived at the same time, utilizing the same base cast and premise. Yet the comic took a long time to start picking up plot threads and ideas from the show. Even though “SatAM” was talking about Naugus and the Void and crystallization all the way back in 1994, the comic wouldn’t run with those ideas until issue 53, three years later. Similarly, Lupe and the Wolf Pack would first appear a few episodes after Naugus. The comic wouldn’t get around to adding her to the cast until 1997 as well. Sort of weird how that worked but I guess it wouldn’t be the “Sonic” franchise if everything wasn’t done in as ass-backwards, digression-filled a manner as possible.

Which brings us to “Cry of the Wolf.” In the desert-like region of Mobius known as the Great Unknown, Robotnik is testing the Doomsday Pods, the nearly indestructible war machines that will become part of his Doomsday Machine, his ultimate weapon. These tests are interrupted by the local Freedom Fighter chapter, the Wolf Pack. This is one of the same groups King Acorn’s list of Freedom Fighters point towards. Sally, Sonic, and Antoine head into the Great Unknown to find the mysterious Wolf Pack. Soon, after much sneaking around underground tunnels and rumors of a curse, an alliance will be formed. Which comes in handy, when Snively is ordered to personally pilot the Doomsday Pod and wipe out the Pack.

I've always liked the Wolf Pack. Though “SatAM” has its share of canines, with Tails and Antoine technically qualifying, it's hard to beat the primal cool factor of the wolf. While the comic would certainly expand on her personality over the years, we still get a good sense of who Lupe is in this first appearance. She is characterized by her loyalty to her pack and her inventiveness in fighting her enemy. Shari Belafonte's vocal performance is similarly strong, making an impression on the viewer just with the way she intones her dialogue.

There's something else to consider about the Wolf Pack. Even though Mobius is either an alien world or a post-apocalyptic Earth, they are patterned after Native Americans. Lupe repeatedly talks about how the Wolf Pack lived in harmony with nature. Lupe has a mohawk, they gather around a fire to have powwows, live in caves carved into the side of a canyon, and all wear sandals. (Their fashion – Lupe wears a blue one-piece and the others all wear shoulder-padded vests – doesn't seem inspired by anything in particular.) Of course, associating Native Americans with wolves is a common move too. This is somewhat dismissive, as Native American culture is more complex than “they think nature is awesome.” As in questionable taste as this choice is,  this portrayal is also pretty fair for its time, as at least there's no Indian mysticism or proud savage vibes.

In addition to introducing a likable new group of characters, “Cry of the Wolves” is also a pretty strong action episode. The neigh-indestructible Doomsday Pod leads to lots of high-stakes action, such as when our heroes blast it with a cannon the Wolf Pack stole from Robotnik. A really fun action beat involves Sonic and Sally intentionally getting caught by Snively, just so they can break out and whip his ass. Also, Nicole can shoot lasers now, which is kind of cool. There's some fun spookiness too, when the gang is exploring the Wolf Pack's cave and are being watched by yellow eyes in the shadow.

Granted, there's one or two little issues I have with this episode. When Lupe first presents that cannon, it doesn't work. Sally repairs it immediately. Even though Rotor has always been the mechanic, with Sally's intelligence being more tactical. That's kind of sloppy writing. For the first time in a while, this is an episode that concludes with a Power Ring saving the day. Sonic grabs one, boosts his speed, and leads the Doomsday Pod into a lightning storm. We haven't seen that particular deus ex machina in a while and I can't say I missed it either.

With only three episodes left to go, “SatAM” is pretty deep into its serialized elements. Snively's hatred of Robotnik is now a fore-fronted personality trait. And who can blame the guy, with the abuse his boss heaps on him and the humiliation he suffers at the hands of Sonic? (Charlie Adler's delivery of Snively's anguished wails of defeat are effectively pathetic.) The Doomsday Device, with its impending activation, is a big part of the story. As are Sally's attempt to unite the various Freedom Fighter teams. It's definitely neat how the show has slowly built up these elements, leading towards a bigger event soon enough.

The weakest element of  “Cry of the Wolf” is its comic relief. Once again, Antoine is reduced to being a blubbering coward. He spends the entire episode freaking out about the non-existent curse on the region, repeatedly mispronouncing words. It's probably the most annoying Antoine has ever been, to the point where I actively wonder why he was brought along on this mission at all. There's exactly one moment where we get a peek at the character's deeper depths. When Sonic and Sally descend into the cave, Antoine doesn't want to go, as he's terrified. However, he decides the safety of his princess, his honor as a royal guard, is more important than his fears, so he ventures forward. Why can't he be written that way all the time, instead of being an increasingly obnoxious wiener?

Occasionally flaws aside, this is still a strong one. It totally works as a stand-alone adventure while building atop all the story that has come before. If it wasn't for Antoine remaining stuck in “Ro-Becca” mode and a few inconsistent plot turns, this would easily be among “SatAM's” best moments. It makes me really wish Lupe had a bigger role on the cartoon, though at least she would become a semi-regular player in the comics. [7/10]

Sonic the Hedgehog (1993), Episode 2.09: The Odd Couple / Ro-Becca

Sonic the Hedgehog (1993), Episode 2.09: The Odd Couple / Ro-Becca
Original Air Date: November 5th, 1994

“Sonic SatAM” only ran for two short seasons, which you wouldn’t think would produce enough episodes for a consensus to emerge, as far as best and worst installments goes. Yet one episode is generally agreed upon as the worst of the installment. As is often the case, we have executive meddling to thank for this. Following “Fed Up with Antoine / Ghost Busted,” another two-in-one comedic episode would be produced in a continued effort to lighten up the show’s supposedly dark tone. While I can’t say I’ve ever heard much good about the first time “SatAM” tried this, fans are definitely united on hating “The Odd Couple / Ro-Becca.”

The comedic device of two people with opposing personalities being forced to co-habituate is a well worn one. So the “Odd Couple” premise is a common one and Len Jansen didn’t even feel the need to think of a new title for the segment detailing this scenario. So who are our odd couple? Why, Antoine and Sonic, of course. Yes, both segments in this “funny” episode also revolve around Antoine as, I guess, the “SatAM” writer’s room couldn’t think of any funny ideas that didn’t involve the cowardly coyote.

Long story short: During a blizzard, Dulcy makes a rough landing and smashes through Sonic’s hut. (This is partially Antoine’s fault, as he was watching Dulcy and directing Sonic on how to direct her.) Since Antoine has the biggest house in Knothole apparently, Sonic moves in with him. Neat freak Antoine doesn’t respond well to Sonic’s slovenly habits. Soon, the two are driving each other absolutely nuts.

Since this is suppose to be a funny episode, the question must be asked: Did I laugh? No but there are one or two mildly amusing gags here. Let’s consider Antoine’s interior decorating skills. While he does have a portrait of Sally on the wall — let’s not think about the things he’s done in front of that portrait — the painting above his bed is of... Himself! At one point, we also see he has a bed full of stuff animals, which was cute. We also learn in this episode that Sonic’s socks are the same red and white color as his sneakers. Rob Paulsen in general has a good time goofing it up as Antoine. The song he sings while polishing his boots is mildly amusing.

However, this episode is mostly devoted to some truly pedestrian slapstick. Antoine being a neat freak is new information, though hardly out-of-character for him considering his general prissiness. We also learn Sonic sleep-runs, which leads to predictably zany results. Considering how irritating Sonic has always found Antoine, it’s mildly clever that Sonic ends up being the annoying one. Yet it’s hard to get too much joy out of the eventual mental breakdown Antoine suffers or the massive mess Sonic somehow manages to create in his kitchen. The episode hits its nadir with the scene of Antoine being splattered with chili, after it bounces around the room. That was just too wacky for me.

And that raises another point. And this is truly the nerdiest of nitpicks. Antoine’s kitchen includes a fully functioning stove and a wide collection of pots and pans. While making himself chili dogs, which leaves a disproportionately large mess behind, Sonic opens a can of pre-packaged chili. So is Mobius a post-industrial country or what? Was that chili cooked up with ingredients that came from a farm somewhere? Which was then preserved, sealed, and packaged? And then sent somewhere where Sonic could purchase it? Are we to assume this is what happened? Because where does a Freedom Fighting waging a terrorist campaign against an insane dictator buy his groceries? I’m overthinking things again, aren’t I?

So “The Odd Couple” isn’t really good. Yet this two-fer is widely disliked more for its second segment, “Ro-Becca.” It seems adverse weather is the other theme that links these two segments. During a thunderstorm, Rotor assembles a vaguely feline robotic assistant. Antoine is trying to help him but, being a huge klutz, that’s when he drops some nuts, bolts, and screws into the robot. That’s when Ro-Becca springs to life and immediately falls in love with Antoine. It’s the obsessive, smothering, crazy type of love. Antoine is basically tortured for a while by Ro-Becca before Rotor intervenes... Which still doesn’t stop the machine’s uncontrollable passion.

It’s easy to see why “Ro-Becca” is so disliked. The titular robot has to be among the most unappealing characters across the entire “Sonic” franchise. Visually speaking, she’s hideous. She speaks through a radio grate, which is made further uncanny by the addition of lips around it. She has a plume or white-streaked “Bride of Frankenstein” hair atop her head. (That, along with Rotor’s castle-like lab and the thunderstorm, suggest a classic horror atmosphere that I would’ve loved if the rest of the segment wasn’t so bad.) Her body was seemingly made up of junk Rotor had around his workshop, so her left foot is a tricycle wheel and her torso resembles a purple trash can. Add the cat-like face and tail for an all-together unpleasant. And then she speaks in a nasally, obnoxious, Fran Drescher-like voice.

Not to mention her behavior, which is deeply comfortable. Antoine’s unwanted robot girlfriend is, essentially, abusive. She flattens a door atop him during a manic chase. Later, she force-feeds him a grey slop with more nuts and bolts inside it. This leads to Ro-Becca attempting to massage Antoine’s sore body, which feels like it’s seconds away from escalating to something much more assault-y. Heaping abuse on Antoine is the primary gag here. He’s also struck by lighting at one point. Yeah, sure, Antoine is a weenie and somewhat annoying... But this quickly starts to feel cruel. The combination of a relentlessly wacky tone, with the horribly obnoxious Ro-Becca, results in a painful ten minutes.

I want to give writer Pat Allee some credit. The conclusion is so bizarre, it borders full-blown absurdity. Antoine deduces that his suave French style is what makes him so irresistible to Ro-Becca. So he adopts a Schwarzneggerian accent, which succeeds in driving the robot away. When Sonic mockingly imitates Antoine’s natural voice, he becomes the new object of her obsession. This could’ve been spun into some sort of moral, if Sonic getting some of his own medicine after picking on Antoine so much, but the episode’s comedic sadism and questionable gender politics makes that hard to assume.

Thankfully, Ro-Becca did not become a regular cast member of “SatAM.” In fact, outside of Archie’s slapdash “Ghost Busted” adaptation years later, none of the jokey “SatAM” episodes had any lasting effect on the overall “Sonic” franchise. I’ll admit, when I use to daydream about stealing Ian Flynn’s job, I thought about trying to redeem Ro-Becca. Even then, I dropped the creepy Antoine obsession in favor of the idea of a newly created robot learning to experience the intricacies of the world for the first time. But that’s all besides the point. “The Odd Couple” gets maybe a [5/10], if I’m being nice, while I must shame “Ro-Becca” with a [4/10].

Sonic and the Secret Rings

Sonic and the Secret Rings
Publication Date: February 2017

As the song goes, Christmas time is here. I always like to do something off-beat for the holidays. Last year, I bought myself “Sonic 1/4” as a Christmas present for myself and reviewed it for you guys, which was really more of an excuse to talk about the history of Archie’s “Sonic” comic again. This year, I decided to do something similar. That’s right, once again I filled a gap in my “Sonic” comic collection and am using the most tenuous of connections to make it a Christmas update. Happy holidays, assholes.

So what was this year’s “Sonic”-themed Christmas present to myself? Let me explain. In 2007, Sega released “Sonic and the Secret Rings” for the Nintendo Wii. This game would launch a new spin-off series known as the Storybook series. In both Wii exclusive titles, Sonic is dropped into the world of a public domain fantasy book, where his friends and enemies assume the identities of the various iconic characters contained within. “Secret Rings” would plop Sonic and the gang into the world of “1001 Arabian Nights.” As someone who wasn’t really playing video games at the time, I’ve never had the chance to enjoy either “Secret Rings” or it’s sequel, “Sonic and the Black Knight.”

In fact, at the time, I regarded the Storybook with nothing but exhausted disgust. Seeing Sonic and friends cosplay their way through famous myths and stories did not peek my interest. It seemed to me like another desperate attempt by Sega to reinvent the series, instead of just doing what most fans wanted. Namely, revisiting the classic, Genesis-era style of game play. (Sega would eventually do this, amid another dozen mediocre spin-off titles.) Keep in mind, this was right in the wake of the disastrous “Sonic ‘06,” when the franchise truly looked like it was in its death throes. Nowadays, as with every entry into this franchise, the Storybook series has a small following.

But, no, I didn’t buy myself a twelve year old Wii game — still available on GameStop clearance wracks nation wide, I’m sure — for Christmas. That’s not nearly nerdy enough for a Hyper-Nerd like me. Instead, I bought myself a retail exclusive bonus for a twelve year old Wii game. For whatever reason, if you bought your copy of “Sonic and the Secret Rings” at Target, it came with a DVD containing a digital comic book. This comic was produced by Archie, with words by Ian Flynn and art by Tracy Yardley. Which means my Archie Sonic collection wasn’t technically complete without, weirdly, a DVD.

Flynn made no attempt to squeeze the aptly entitled “Sands, Spirits, and Sonic Speed” into the comic’s continuity. This is essentially the first “Another Time, Another Place” story, those out-of-continuity, strictly-for-promotional-purposes back-ups stories Flynn would do any time Sega demanded a comic tie-in with their new shitty “Sonic” game. Presumably because the comic was packaged with the game, Flynn’s script makes no attempt to explain why Sonic is in the world of “1001 Arabian Nights.” He just races straight ahead into the story, which has Sonic talking with a friendly genie named Shahra. They are on some quest to stop an asshole genie named Erazor. This douche shot a flaming arrow into Sonic’s chest that will eventually kill him. Many familiar friends and new enemies will be encountered on this journey.

As was the case with Flynn’s other promotional stories, there’s not a lot of substance to “Sands, Spirits, and Sonic Speed.” This is a comic strictly designed to set up the game’s premise. On that account, it’s a failure. How Sonic ended up in the pages of a centuries-old literary work, what Erazor’s master plan is, or even what the titular Secret Rings do are left unexplained. Aside from the time limit of the magical fire eating away at his chest, there’s little plot here. Instead, the comic explains which famous “1001 Nights” characters the “Sonic” cast is playing. Tails is Ali Baba, Knuckles is Sinbad the Sailor, and Robotnik is the murderous Sultan, with Shahra clearly being inspired by Scheherazade. (Weirdly, the book’s most famous character — Aladdin — is left out.) In other words, it’s not so much a story as a checklist.

As you’d imagine, that makes for a tedious read. But I don’t really blame Flynn for that. I imagine Sega probably demanded the comic function like this and that the author would’ve much rather explored the Arabesque world and interlocking narratives. Sure, he would’ve. As boringly professional as this comic is, Flynn does somehow manage to sneak in a crumb of emotion.

Since the whole story is nothing but a conversation between Sonic and Shahra, he zeroes in on their relationship. And it’s kind of cute. The genie has never had a real friend before, only people who treated her as a wish-granting slave. Sonic’s graciousness and kindness towards her is a new experience for her, which is awfully sweet to watch. It almost makes me want to see more of this totally disposable, lame Sega character, this generic pink-haired anime sprite.

If Flynn’s script is totally workman-like, Yardley’s artwork is similarly just-fine. It has the same pluck and energy as Yardley’s usual work. Sonic and the gang all look very familiar. The anime-esque humanoid characters look perfectly serviceable too. Shahra’s facial expressions are actually pretty cute. Where the artwork falters is in the backgrounds, which are often reduced to just flat squares of colors. The coloring is also slightly less vibrant than the usual Archie work, which might just be a side-effect of this being a digital comic instead of a physical book.

So it’s about as painless as these empty, lifeless promo comics can be. You can tell Flynn was trying to breath some life into this, when not fulfilling whatever obligations Sega gave him. Honestly, it’s better than the tie-ins he would write for “Sonic Chronicles,” “Sonic and the Black Knights,” “Sonic Generations,” and “Sega All-Stars Racing.”  Does my life feel more complete now that my Archie “Sonic” comic collection is now 115% complete? Eh, sure. That’s worth at least a [5/10], I think.

And isn’t that what the holidays are all about? Filling the void in your soul with empty spending on stupid bullshit you don’t need? In all seriousness, I want to sincerely thank everybody reading this for sticking with Hedgehogs Can’t Swim for another year. The blog is heading into its fifth year of continuous updates, something I never would’ve imagined when I brought it back to life in 2016. I’ve been happy to see new and old commenters around as I start my new journey through the “Sonic” cartoons. But enough of me patting myself in the back. Whatever you are celebrating as 2019 comes to a close, I hope you have a great one!

Sonic the Hedgehog (1993), Episode 2.08: The Void

Sonic the Hedgehog (1993), Episode 2.08: The Void
Original Air Date: October 29th, 1994

As I’ve already talked about, season two of “SatAM” had a structure that was rare in children’s television at the time but is more common now. The individual episodes were relatively stand-alone but several arcs ran throughout the season. (This is a structure “SatAM” shared with contemporary shows like “Batman: The Animated Series,” “X-Men,” and “Gargoyles” but, because it lacked the really nice animation and design work of those shows, no mainstream critics noticed.) Several of those plot points would come to the front in “The Void,” the eighth episode of the season. While I watched those other shows too, “SatAM” bringing back one-off characters and reoccurring concepts really impressed me as a young kid.

“The Void” begins with Sonic running through the Great Unknown, the blasted-out hellscape around Robotropolis. (The comic would take this same concept and call it the Forbidden Zone, which was something slightly different in the show.) That’s when a huge psychedelic portal to the Void opens under him, which he barely escapes. He retrieves an arcane ring from the area. He brings this back to Sally, who assumes it’s from an ancient culture she is studying. A strange trance is then cast over Sally and Bunnie who are drawn back to the Void. Within dwells Naugus, a sinister sorcerer Robotnik banished to the Void in the early days of the war. Though he’s all-powerful in the Void, he can not escape. Which is what he needs Sonic for, hence the kidnapping of Sally and Bunnie. Also, King Acorn is there too. When everyone escapes, complications ensue.

When it comes to Sonic’s rogue gallery, at this point in time, there wasn't much. Sure, “SatAM” had stand alone quasi-adversaries like Lazaar and Griff. And there were henchmen like Metal Sonic, Scratch and Grounder, and Snively around. But, mostly, Robotnik was the only “Sonic” baddie that mattered at the time. Which is why it was cool when “SatAM” introduced Naugus. While he’s probably Sonic’s second most important villain in the comics, Naugus is actually something of an ally in this first appearance. He’s only interested in escaping the Void and torturing Robotnik here.

Yet the dude is obviously a creep. Michael Bell’s voice performance is raspy and conceited. The pure glee he takes with humiliating Robotnik, morphing his head into various animals and making him debase himself, is a little unnerving. (Which pulls off the unusual feat of making the audience feel bad for the show’s primary villain.) And he clearly has no respect for other people’s boundaries, with the way he manipulates Sonic, Sally and Bunnie both through subterfuge and flat-out mind control. Not to mention his tendency to crystallize people at the drop of a hat. While “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” is a valid principal, it’s clear Naugus is nobody’s friends. He can't be trusted, is openly sadistic, and clearly has no problem hurting others to further his own plans. I honestly wish comic book Naugus had been as creepy as his SatAM counterpart more often.

While that stuff is really cool and fun, “The Void” is most valuable because of its emotional aspect. Halfway through the episode, Sally is reunited with her father within the Void. While the reunion during the “Blast to the Past” two-parter was disappointingly cut short, here it forms a crucial part of the episode. Sally is brought to tears when she sees her dad, the two hugging each other for a while. Kath Soucie continues to summon a great deal of heartbreaking sincerity in her line-readings. It continues to amaze me that this cartoon targeted towards six year old boys made room for such vulnerability.

This is further built upon during the by-now customary “there must be losses” epilogue. Sally is crestfallen that she came so close to rescuing her dad, only to have him wretched away from her again. Sonic tells her to look on the bright side, as the King provided them a list of all the existent Freedom Fighter teams and they rescued Ari. This is obviously plot important information but the scenes of Sonic making Sally feel better are far more important from an emotional perspective.

Another surprise delight of “The Void” is the relationship that forms between Sonic and Nicole. Sonic and his girlfriend's personal handheld computer haven't interacted much before this point, since Nicole is more prop than character most of the time. After Naugus steals Sally and Bunnie, Sonic tries to get answers out of the computer, leading to him threatening her into speaking more clearly. This is more charming than it sounds. Nicole ends up acting like the straight-woman to Sonic's totally rad 'tude. This adds a lot of deadpan humor to the proceedings – Nicole's robot voice is perfect for delivering dryly humorous comebacks – and pays off fantastically in the final scene.

If “The Void” has a serious flaw, it's the somewhat shaky magic at its center. The episode concludes rather abruptly. After a few hours, Naugus and the King both begin to turn to crystal. An explanation – that they've been in the Void too long and can't exist outside it now – is quickly tossed out there. This feels rather anticlimatic, seemingly a way to keep the story arc of Sally searching for her Dad going. Really, the episode just comes to a stop, without much of a proper conclusion. If it seems the Void's effects are inescapable, that somehow also isn't the case. Sonic's speed is enough to for him to zip in and out of the other dimension. I guess the lesson here is... Magic can do anything but Sonic's speed can do more of anything.

“The Void” is an important episode for another reason. As far as “SatAM’s” relationship with the Archie “Sonic” comic goes, this is a very pivotal half-hour. The idea of King Acorn being held hostage in another dimension, turning into crystal when brought back to Mobius, and Naugus seeking revenge on those that banished him would form long-running story arcs in the comic. While most of the crazy bullshit the comic was built on came solely from the Archie staff’s deranged minds, “The Void” would provide material that the book would draw from for literal years. Which attest to the deep ideas contained here.

Even if the plot comes to a sudden halt, instead of a natural end, “The Void” is still easily among season two's strongest episodes. (It's probably no coincidence then that the wacky comic relief of Antoine and Dulcy is nowhere to be seen here.) Unlike “Dulcy,” where the creative ideas were out-of-control, the episode has enough interesting ideas to be fascinating without getting sloppy. As a long-time “Sonic” nerd, the amount of stuff this episode contributes to the overall lore makes it a high point too. Most importantly, the emotional core is never overlooked. For all these reasons and more, “The Void” is probably my favorite of the second season so far. [8/10]

Sonic the Hedgehog (1993), Episode 2.07: Dulcy

Sonic the Hedgehog (1993), Episode 2.07: Dulcy
Original Air Date: October 22, 1994

If a serious flaw can be leveraged against “SatAM,” it would be the show’s bizarre lack of background information on most of its characters. The series thrusts us into its premise without a concrete set-up, outside the opening theme song. Sonic, Sally, and Robotnik didn’t get anything like proper origins until early into season two. Even then, lots of questions were left unanswered. We never actually learn where Tails, Bunnie, Antoine, and Rotor come from. (Perhaps this is why the comic was able to build up such an elaborate mythology, by filling in the blanks the cartoon left.) Some of this vagueness was a sign of the times. It wasn’t unheard of for kids cartoons to just throw in new characters, especially if they were toy-driven shows like “Transformers” or “Ninja Turtles.”

So, when Dulcy the Dragon was suddenly a member of the Freedom Fighters at the start of “SatAM’s” second season, with no explanation of who she was or where she came from... We just had to roll with it. Since Dulcy got an episode actually named after her, you’d expect this one to delve into her backstory a little right? Not really! Then again, it’s not like Sega has ever been especially forthcoming about its characters’ origins, so I guess the “SatAM” writers’ room was just following their lead.

So what is “Dulcy” — the episode, not the character — about? While in Robotropolis doing typical Freedom Fighter shit with Sonic and Sally, Dulcy notices her wings flapping out of control. Back in Knothole, the dragon’s wings start to flap again wildly on their own. She reveals that she has been dreaming about her mother and, while napping, begins to sleep-fly towards some destination. Robotnik, determined to capture the last of the dragons, goes after Dulcy. If not for Sonic and Sally’s intervention, he would have. Soon, the Freedom Fighters discover that Dulcy is undergoing a typical adolescent experience for dragons, where they are called back to their ancestral home of Dragon's Nest by instinct. Robotnik follows, grabs another dragon who has recently laid an egg. Sonic, Sally, and Dulcy head back into Robotropolis to rescue this other female dragon before her egg hatches.

Pat Allee and Ben Hurst were ambitious writers and “Dulcy” is absolutely bursting with ideas. In fact, there might be a few too many ideas in this one. This episode introduces a powerful new weapon against Sonic. Mega-Muck, which appeared in a lot of early “Sonic” media as everything from a generic pollutant to a fuel source, shows up here as a super-sticky substance that can stop Sonic in his tracks. But that’s not even the main conflict of this episode. Allee and Hurst’s script drops a lot of new information on dragon culture in us, including a few sequences where Nicole just flat-out explains stuff. Thrown in there out of the blue is a function of Nicole’s that allows her to project people’s memories and dreams. I know it would be uncharacteristic of a “Sonic” show to slow down but any one of these ideas could’ve supported an entire episode.

As a character, I’m fairly ambivalent towards Dulcy. Yes, the “SatAM” version has this more-than-slightly annoying habit of constantly crashing and referencing her “Ma,” a running gag that was drilled into the ground immediately. Yet my memory of Dulcy is more made up of the Archie version, who was a mildly pleasant occasional guest star. Maybe the writers were aware that Dulcy was a little irritating, so they make her super useful in this episode. She masters landing, rescues Sonic at least twice, and takes out quite a few baddies with her freeze breath and fire. Yet, by the end of her titular episode, Dulcy still feels underdeveloped. That dream Nicole projects hints at Dulcy’s relationship to her mom, which I think we’ll be learning more about soon. Otherwise, Dulcy is still this sweet, sincere, goofy character that lacks the psychological insight that make Sonic, Sally, or even Snively so compelling.

As underdeveloped as Dulcy is, at least she’s a character we know and are interested in learning more about. After focusing half the episode on her, “Dulcy: The Episode, Not the Dragon” takes a weird shift. After tracking her to Dragon’s Nest, Sonic and Sally see a dragon captured by Robotnik and assume it’s Dulcy. It’s not. Instead, it’s an unnamed Mother Dragon, whose egg the Freedom Fighters spend the rest of the episode defending. (Bunnie is given the job of sitting on it, presumably because she has the most matronly thighs.) I don’t really have an opinion about Mother Dragon, aside from thinking her red mohawk and weirdly humanoid lips are kind of ugly, and that’s precisely the problem. It should’ve been Dulcy in danger, to provide more tension for the narrative. It’s nice that everyone wants to save Dragon Mom but.. What exactly will be lost if she’s Robotized? It’s hard to care about someone we literally just met minutes ago.

In addition to everything else, “Dulcy” is also a pretty action heavy episode. There are several chase scenes here. Sonic and Dulcy have to outrun those red airborne SWATBots, Dulcy is chased through the canyon by Robotnik in a stealth ship, and our heroes are pursued while trying to rescue Dragon Mom. That opening chase, which features Sonic getting stuck in the Mega Muck, is pretty good. I like the idea of Sonic being put at a disadvantage and having to rely on someone else to save him. The canyon chase features some of the better animation in the episode. A shot of Dulcy swooping around towards the camera is very neat. The other scenes are more awkwardly composed. Sonic spinning a tornado to scatter some SWATBots is especially poorly done.

And has become totally expected by now, we also have some comic relief that sometimes feels slightly out of place. Probably the best gag occurs when we see Robotnik in his pajamas, which include an old-timey night cap on his head. That made me chuckle. (The episode later follows up on the implication of this moment, that all the characters wear similarly antiquated pajamas. Yep, if you were ever curious, Sally wears a purple nightgown to bed that covers more of her than her regular outfit.) The jokes involving the bouncing dragon egg are fairly lame though. And a gag in which Dulcy hides herself and her friends from Robotnik's drones by belching a cloud of gas was truly unnecessary. Also, Sonic's dialogue is especially rad-tacular this time around, leading to some unintentional laughs.

So it's an overstuffed and hurried episode. Hurst and Allee clearly considered the fate of Mobius' dragons one of the important through lines of season two. I wish I could be as interested in that as I am in the Void or the creation of the Doomsday Project. At the same time, it's also not an especially bad episode, lying somewhere in the middle. What could've been a chance to really build up Dulcy and turn audiences around on her is hassled with too many premises on its plate. [5/10]

Sonic the Hedgehog (1993), Episode 2.06: Fed Up with Antoine \ Ghost Busted

Sonic the Hedgehog (1993), Episode 2.06: Fed Up with Antoine \ Ghost Busted
Original Air Date: October 15th, 1994

As I’ve mentioned previously, the second season of “SatAM” — while perhaps stronger narratively than the first season — was hassled with some typically clueless executive meddling. At least speaking for myself, kid-me loved the show’s darker atmosphere. Watching this blue hedgehog cartoon made me feel all sophisticated and shit. However, I guess somebody in charge thought the first season was too dark. The second season introduced the frequently cutesy and comedic character of Dulcy. It also included two comedy-centric episodes, both containing two stories apiece. The first of which was “Fed Up with Antoine / Ghost Busted.”

Presumably because he already functioned as the show’s comic relief, both of these segments prominently feature Antoine. After reading the Archie “Sonic” comic for twenty years, where Antoine would grow into a very different character, it can be a bit of a culture shock to revisit “SatAM’s” Antoine. Archie’s Antoine started as a coward, who often covered up his insecurity around his own cowardice with a self-inflated ego. He got over that pretty quickly, growing into the actual brave soldier he always wanted to be. The original cartoon Antoine never got to that point. If anything, he lost ground in the second season. While season one Antoine was occasionally useful, when not being a buffoonish stuffed shirt for Sonic to riff at, season two Antoine is nothing but a grandstanding fool. (Or “fuel,” as he would say.) He’s pretty annoying, honestly.

Which means basing nearly an entire episode around him wasn’t a great idea! But here we are anyway. The first of episode 2.6’s segments, “Fed Up with Antoine,” begins with the coyote and Sonic on a mission into Robotropolis. After a stop by the anachronistic gothic cathedral where Uncle Chuck hangs out, Sonic gets so annoyed with Antoine’s bragging that’s he threatens to leave him there. Later, Antoine asks Bunnie to train him in self-defense. This ends so badly that the former royal guardsman leaves Knothole. He’s soon picked up by a motorcycle gang calling themselves the Nasty Hyenas, who start worshiping him as a king. Antoine, being a bit of an egomaniac, loves this. But the Freedom Fighters soon discover the Hyenas are actually cannibals that eat their kings. Meaning Antoine is soon to be on the menu.

There’s about one really good joke in “Fed Up with Antoine.” While the Hyenas are attempting to cook him, in one of those giant stew pots that seemingly only exist in cartoons like this, Antoine complains... Not about being eaten but about being cooked with a pedestrian spice like pepper, instead of something fancier like paprika. That made me chuckle. Otherwise, the humor is derived here from extremely frantic slapstick. We have a gag like Antoine flailing about ineffectively while attempting to do king-fu. Instead of leaving it at that, things quickly escalate to him tossing a dummy into Sonic’s hut, which gets tossed back out. This kind of manic physical comedy occurs again, when Dulcy ends up wrecking a bedroom at the end. Maybe it’s just because I’m old but I found this stuff a little too aggressively goofy.

And what’s further disappointing about Len Jansen’s script favoring this kind of humor is it would’ve been easy to make a funny episode of “SatAM.” The show has a wonderful cast of fleshed-out characters. Since trying to topple Robotnik can only take up so much of your day, the Freedom Fighters presumably have a lot of downtime. What’s life in Knothole like when there’s no freedom fighting to be done? There’s a lot of potential for slice-of-life comedy there. We even get a brief taste of that. When Bunnie is training Tails, and Antoine not-so-gingerly asks for the same treatment, it’s cute and amusing in a more low key manner than the rest of the episode. I guess asking a kids cartoon to do a funny episode based in character interaction and no-stakes hang-out humor would’ve been too much to ask.

So Antoine’s egomaniac bit grows tiresome pretty quickly and the slapstick is mediocre at best. “Fed Up with Antoine” leaves us with one thing of interest. And that would be the cannibalistic hyena motorcycle gang. Their designs are kind of ugly and uninspired. Their voices are indistinct. (One member seems to cycle from gruff to Australian and back again.) They also participate in the wacky slapstick, when one is knocked over by the odor of Antoine’s feet. Yet I feel like this group of characters had potential. A group of humanoid hyenas who wear leather, ride on hover-bikes, and eat people? Throw in some body modification/mutilation and you’ve got a Clive Barker creation there. While the comic book featured other animal hover bike gangs, they never featured the Nasty Hyenas. Which is a bummer because it would’ve easy to turn these mildly interesting enemies into something much creepier, weirder, and interesting.

The second segment is “Ghost Busted,” which I’ve already discussed a little in the context of its bad comic adaptation. The story concerns Sonic and Tails camping out in the Great Forest, as a teaching exercise for Tails and to facilitate some brotherly bonding. They discover Antoine, who has fallen into a pit of mud and is screaming his head off. They decide to let him tag along. That night, Sonic tells Tails some ghost stories. The first of which concerns an evil spirit that changes into a duck. The second is about a headless horseman/gopher with a glowing medallion. The stories clearly get to Tails, as he has nightmares that night. He wakes up and sees a strange glowing entity, convinced it’s a ghost. Turns out, it’s just Antoine covered in some glowing leaves, a thing that apparently exists on Mobius. But the story doesn’t quite end there either.

“Ghost Busted” features similar humor to “Fed Up with Antoine.” There’s a lot of pedestrian slapstick here, much of it centering on Antoine. There's a mildly funny gag, of Antoine dragging a canape bed on a camping trip and sleeping in footie pajamas. Otherwise, we are expected to laugh at sights like Antoine fumbling helplessly in mud, sucking his thumb, or his repeated mangling of the English language. Maybe this stuff would make a really young kid laugh but I'm betting, even back in 1994, “SatAM” was targeting slightly older kids than that.

The element of “Ghost Busted” that does work, sort of, is Tails being led on an adventure by Sonic. Even by this point in the series – there's all of seven episodes left – the two-tailed fox hasn't done much. So his little camping trip with Sonic allows Tails the chance to shine. The story of a kid getting a little overly excited by a campfire ghost tale, letting his imagination getting away from him and becoming scared by something that's not-so-frightening in the day light, is a classic one. Yet there's an important moment here. While flying around freaked-out, Tails pauses in a bush. He stops and considers the situation, gets his thinking straight. It shows the kid's growing bravery and forethought.

What's probably most memorable about “Ghost Busted” is its, well, ghosts. Or “ghosts,” as it were. Pat Allee cooks up some very goofy, odd ghost stories for Sonic to tell. (I like to think Sonic makes the stories up off the top of his head.) Tails imagines the sinister duck monster as a demonic figure forming in the moon. He next has a vivid imagining of the Headless Gopher, which easily ranks among the odder homages to Washington Irving's seminal ghost story. (And like Irving's story, this episode has an ambiguous ending that leaves the reality of the ghost up to the audience.) Yet neither are as odd or enduring as the image of Antoine, bathed totally in glittery leaves that look like both gold or like fire. Sonic describes these as from a Firefox Bush, presumably because this plant doubles as an adaptable internet browser.

As an experiment, I could sort of see the point of this farcical double feature. Taking a break after the fairly serious “Blast to the Past” two-parter with a breather like this wasn't a bad idea. Not that the show was ever so serious, even in its grimmest moments, that it needed a breather quite this... Breathy. I almost get enough out of 'Ghost Busted” to say I enjoy this episode – also, this episode aired a few weeks before Halloween, which is close enough for me to officially declare it a Halloween special, so therefore I have to at least partially love it  – but “Fed Up with Antoine” is pretty rough to get through at times, if only because it continually pushes that character's most irritating aspects.

And one last thing. The episode ends with a  dedication to Owen Fitzgerald. In the years before the internet came along, such a jovial episode concluding on a black notice of someone's death confused and baffled many a young viewer. Now that the entirety of human knowledge is at the tip of our fingers, we know that Owen Fitzgerald was an experienced layout and storyboard artist who had been working in the animation industry since the forties. He was most prolific at Hanna-Barbera in the seventies and early eighties. “SatAM” was his last credit before his death in 1994 – he also worked on “Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog” and tons of other stuff – and clearly the creative team felt him worthy of a dedication. But, after a light-hearted episode about ghosts, it certainly ends things on a weirdly morbid note. Anyway, I just had to mention that as I know someone would have brought it up if I hadn't. [6/10]

Sonic the Hedgehog (1993), Episode 2.05: Blast to the Past, Part 2

Sonic the Hedgehog (1993), Episode 2.05: Blast to the Past, Part 2
Original Air Date: October 8th, 1994

The second part of “Blast to the Past” didn’t waste much time getting into things. After a recap a minute long, we pick right up where we left off. Robotnik’s Destroyer warship has just crashed through the royal throne room. He captures the King, Uncle Chuck, Sonic and Sally. Our heroes quickly escape which is good, because they have a lot to do. They have to ensure the future — which they realize they’ve already changed — happens. They must reduce their younger selves, retrieve the plans for the original Roboticizer, and keep the Great Forest from being destroyed. Along the way, they both preserve and change events that will happen soon enough.

Yes, like all time travel stories, “Blast to the Past” has to acknowledge that you can’t go charging into the past willy-nilly. At the start of this second part, all Sonic and Sally have really done is hang out for an afternoon in Mobotropolis. Their mere presence in the past has been enough to change things. Robotnik’s plan has sped up and it includes polluting the Great Forest which didn’t happen before. The general accepted rule for this kind of stuff is that, even by changing the past a little, you’ve essentially created an alternate universe to go home too. (Though not too different. In one of the episode’s few sloppy moments, Sonic and Sally are able to escape their cell because Robotnik has apparently not update his prison block design in a decade.) Ben Hurst’s script at least seems sort of aware of this, though a twenty minute long kids cartoon doesn't really have time to get into the intricacies of time travel.

Then again, it’s hard to tell how much Hurst thought this through. Because “Blast to the Past, Part 2” features more time paradoxes than you can shake a fully-loaded chili dog at. By going into the past, Sonic and Sally indirectly cause the young Freedom Fighters to get captured. They then have to rescue themselves from the Roboticizer. Did their time travel cause these events to happen or where Sonic and Sally always meant to save their younger selves from slavery? If so, how did they ever escape and become Freedom Fighters in the original timeline?

If your heads aren’t spinning yet, think about this out. In this episode we see that Sonic and Sally are responsible for rescuing a young Bunnie from the Roboticizer. (Though she’s still fully organic at the episode’s end, so I guess she was half-Roboticized at some later point.) They also rescue a baby Dulcy by helping her Mom escape some SWATBots, cause Snively to loose his hair, and lead to Robotnik’s left arm becoming mechanical. Not to mention, it seems incredibly likely Sonic’s teenage persona was inspired by this mysterious stranger named Juice he met as a child. You’ll notice, all of these events came to pass in the original timeline. Did these incidents happen in different ways originally? Or is this some sort of stable time loop, Sonic and Sally always having traveled back in time? Again, there’s no way “SatAM” had time to explore all of these ideas. Whether haven really thought it through or was just being cute, I guess we’ll never know.

What we do know is that Hurst uses this episode to set up many of the season’s future plot points. We see Robotnik tosses King Acorn into the Void, while referencing Naugus. (Though, once again, we have to wonder why Robotnik didn’t just kill the king or at least Roboticze him.) We learn there was once an entire dragon race on Mobius but Robotnik wiped them out early in his reign, realizing they were too powerful to be kept around. Sabina, Dulcy’s mom, is still out there though, a plot point we’ll be getting to soon enough. It’s very clear that Hurst and Pat Allee has a master plan by this point and we’re going to put it into action, regardless of what the ABC execs had to say.

This is not the only example of how “Blast to the Past, Part 2” expands the lore. We learn that the opening sequence wasn’t exaggerating. Mobotropolis really did fall in the course of a montage. On one hand, it strikes me as pretty unlikely that Robotnik could remake such a grand, large city entirely in his image in the course of an afternoon. On the other hand, it’s such a striking image. As the Destroyer warship flies over the city, we see fountains run dry. Pristine, artful architecture becomes a cold, industrial cityscape. The blue skies are choked with fog. There’s something powerful about that, of evil coming into power and everything good around him immediately rotting into something corrupt and soulless.

“Evil,” of course, is subjective as Robotnik seems to be having a pretty good time. Once again, Jim Cummings’ performance is truly the stuff of Saturday morning legend. The way he gloats ecstatically as fog is belched into the air, or berates a terrified Snively, is truly impressive. After Sonic escapes and ruins his plans, Cummings once again gets to scream in absolute unhinged rage. This follows a wonderful exchange, where he hisses that he already hates Sonic. While the performances on “SatAM” were overall wonderful, it’s increasingly clear that Cummings was and is on a different level. Jaleel White is goofy fun, Kath Soucie is often a grieving raw nerve but Cummings elevates the material to high melodrama.

Having a good villain is certainly a requirement for a properly entertaining action/adventure story. And that’s exactly what “Blast to the Past, Part 2.” After a more laid back first part, the continuation gives us lots of what we associate with “SatAM:” Sonic and Sally sneaking around and wrecking Robotnik’s shit. One of my favorite action beats in the entire series has Power Ring-infused Sonic rocketing into the air through the Knothole slide and falling towards the Destroyer. Sonic and Sally only survive the landing thanks to Sonic’s quick-thinking. It’s nice to see the hedgehog using his head, since Sally has increasingly become the brains of the operation. And it all looks pretty good too. Maybe the animation in the first half was kind of janky because the show was saving its money for this one. The action scenes are smooth and full of zip, while the characters remain lively and expressive.

As much as I like “Blast to the Past, Part 2,” it’s still an episode primarily concerned for plot. I wish it left a little more room for emotional issues. After their tearful reunion last time, Sally never gets a chance to react to loosing her again. The King gets captured and Voided but we never see how this makes Sally feel. Meanwhile, little Sonic also gets his share of childhood trauma. He’s next in line when Uncle Chuck gets turned into an emotionless robot right before his eyes. He seems pretty upset about, the hedgehog hero crying again, but his mood quickly improves after a pep talk from “Juice.” I didn’t expect a kids cartoon to delve into how this childhood trauma drives Sonic’s later act. (I suppose it’s even possible these events didn’t happen this way in the un-fucked-with timeline.) But it’s a pretty big idea to throw in there and then just skate away from.

The “there must always be losses” ending is somewhat undermined by the sitcom Schlick
Hurst doesn’t break his mantra of “There must always be losses.” Upon returning to the present, Sonic outright wonders if this time travel excursion had any point at all. Robotnik still came to power, the King was still un-person’d, and Chuck was still turned into a robot. Sally informs him that it wasn’t a pointless trip, as they did retrieve the original Roboticizer plans, bringing them one step closer to their goal of returning all Robians to normal. It could’ve been a powerful moment, Sonic grappling with the question of whether smaller victories are worth it if the war is stilll unwon.

Instead, Tails flies in and informs the two that Rosie is looking for them. Yes, Sally casually changed the future — or created a branching timeline or however his is supposed to work — by informing her childhood nanny not to ever leave Knothole... Because Rosie would have eventually been captured and Roboticize while out in the Great Forest. Now, this means Rosie has always been in Knothole.... Meaning Sonic and Sally have returned to a future that isn’t technically their home. And that the chipmunk and hedgehog Freedom Fighters will look suspiciously familiar to the nanny. Instead of confronting these ideas head on, “SatAM” goes for the easy sitcom-style ending of Sonic being confused by the entire situation. Which was probably for the best, as the kids in the audience were probably baffled enough already, but isn’t very satisfying on an emotional level to this viewer.

Either way, “Blast to the Past” improves a lot in its second half, after some problems in the first. One really has to admire the vision Ben Hurst and the rest of the show’s team brought to a cartoon designed to sell video games. I don’t know how many other cartoons from 1994 would get me discussing the peculiarities of time travel like this. To serious fans of “SatAm,” this is a pretty pivotal two-parter so I am forced to give this a very high score. I didn’t make the rules, guys. [8/10]

Sonic the Hedgehog (1993), Episode 2.04: Blast to the Past: Part 1

Sonic the Hedgehog (1993), Episode 2.04: Blast to the Past: Part 1
Original Air Date: October 1st, 1994

If you need further proof of how serialized “SatAM” was becoming in its second season, one need only look at the “Blast to the Past” two-parter. This was the first time time the show had done a two-part story. The episode’s plot is built heavily upon the show’s up-to-then lore, showing Robotnik’s coup of Mobotropolis — the events that triggered the Freedom Fighter’s guerrilla war — that was previously only depicted in the opening title sequence. (Though this episode clarifies that this happened when Sonic was a child, while he’s his normal teenage self in the opening. But theme songs are typically not canon.) In fact, reasonably sure this two-parter might have introduced my own childhood self to the concept of TV show’s continuing their plot across multiple episodes. I definitely recall seeing this story line play and, in the period afterwards, insisting every show I watched after that actually ended on some sort of cliffhanger. Kids are weird.

As is typical, the episode begins with the Freedom Fighters heading into Robotropolis to sabotage some new facility of Robotnik’s. This time, the team is made up of Sonic, Sally, Bunnie, and two Freedom Fighters that we have never seen before this moment. The big difference this time is that the heroes fail. The unnamed horse dude and bear guy get captured and Roboticized. The named characters barely escape. Sally feels great guilt over this failure and Sonic wishes the war could be ended before it began... Which is when Dulcy mentions the Time Stones, mystical artifacts that allow time travel and reside on the Floating Island. (The names of two Sega plot devices being used is probably a coincidence.) Sally insists such things are legend but Dulcy claims to have discovered the Island. She takes Sonic and Sally there and, after some traps and tests, the two are successfully whisked back to Mobotropolis. They meet their childhood selves, a still organic Uncle Chuck, and King Acorn. Despite their warnings, Robotnik’s coup still seems to be occurring and earlier than expected.

“Blast to the Past” is a Ben Hurst episode and continues the new head writer’s commitment to inserting heady Big Ideas into a children’s cartoon. I’m not just talking about time travel, though “Blast to the Past” briefly grapples with ideas of pre-destination and causality. Only briefly, as Sonic and Sally do not graphically melt into a puddle of goo when interacting with their past selves. It’s certainly hinted that Sonic and Sally fucking around with the timeline may have sped up the pace of Robotnik’s takeover. However, Hurst seems more concerned with the idea that the peacefulness of childhood most inevitably give way to the upheaval of adolescence. Mobotropolis seems idyllic but the threat of Robotnik’s domination is always lingering in the background. The darkness is coming.

This idea is most evident in Sally’s reunion with her dad. All throughout the show, this is what she has been fighting for, a chance to be reunited with her lost father. When right outside the throne room, Sally is racked with anxiety, fighting back tears. Naturally, she softly coos and cries when finally seeing him again. This should be a joyous moment but it’s not. The trauma of that loss, of fighting through it all these years, still weighs on Sally. The idea of finally overcoming it brings with it more stress, not relief. And whatever joy can be found here is impermanent, about to be torn away. An idea made all the more literal when Robotnik smashes his war ship right through the castle wall.

More than just thematic concepts, this is also an episode full of wacky fantasy ideas. I certainly always remember “SatAM” being more of a sci-fi show but this rewatch is making it increasingly clear that the series was more rooted in wacky, eighties-style fantasy. A hidden temple, guarded by a pair of ill-tempered gargoyles, definitely seem like something out of a Conan the Barbarian comic. While traversing the temple, Sonic and Sally step through a surreal, M. C. Escher-style collection of interlacing, physics defying staircases. (An image that was also used in “Labyrinth” and “A Nightmare on Elm Street 5,” so that visual language was all over the place at the time.) The idea of a riddle-telling guardian is also as old as Greek mythology, though a floating owl head is a lot less intimidating than Oedipus’ Sphinx. One of the things worth loving about “SatAM” is how casually it introduces crazy shit like this.

As a young “Sonic” nerd, I think I most liked “Blast to the Past” for delving into the history of this fictional universe. In retrospect, it’s weird that the show didn’t do this sooner. We know Sonic and the gang are fighting to restore this great city, that was lost and destroyed when Robotnik took over. It’s odd that, two seasons in, we are only just now really seeing what was lost. And Mobotropolis does seem pretty nice, though law-enforcing robots still roam the skies and, ya know, it’s still a monarchy for some reason. Hearing Uncle Chuck invented the Roboticizer to help the elderly and infirm certainly fills a void in the backstory. Watching the soft-spoken and regal Julian reveal his true self, the megalomaniacal Robotnik, is worthwhile too. The sequence where he plans the coup and belittles Snively is a great display of how sinister and intimidating Jim Cummings’ voice work can be.

It’s also just fun seeing Sonic and Sally interact with the younger versions of themselves. We see the roots of Sonic and Sally’s belligerent bickering/flirting when little Sally calls little Sonic a stinky, dumb boy for gulping down countless chili dogs. (And his response that being a stinky dumb boy is awesome is also mildly amusing.) Sonic racing and bantering with himself - he introduces himself as Juice, presumably because he's playing with the Queen of Hearts - is also really cute. Later, we get introduced to the entire Freedom Fighter team as kids. While we don’t see much of young Bunnie or Rotor, we do learn that Antoine has always been a cowardly weenie and that the group has always had a propensity for adventure. This episode also introduces Rosie the nanny, a minor cartoon character who would become a slightly less minor comic book character.

Even in an episode handling some heavily ideas and emotions, you can still feel that network executive edict that “SatAM” be wackier and funnier. Though Dulcy proves herself useful by taking Sonic and Sally to the Floating Island, clearing out the fog, and saving them during the fight with the gargoyles, she still curls up like a bat and falls asleep mere seconds after the duo arrives. Apparently she didn't find the sight of a mysterious temple and a magical floating island very compelling. This is also an episode that leans way too hard on snarky banter. It seems every other line that comes out of Sally's mouth is negging Sonic, with the hedgehog having a sarcastic catchphrase on his lips just as often. All of this jives badly with what is otherwise a pretty serious episode.

The animation is also slightly off in this one. Sally and Sonic both look mildly off-model in many scenes, their heads being too big, smiles fixed oddly on their faces, bodies too chubby. The action scenes are often very flat in their movement. The gargoyles just disappear after being led off the island. The unnamed, unimportant Freedom Fighters just float weightless by the side of those weird flying SWATBots as they are escorted to the Roboticizer. The animation quality picks up a little after the story moves to the past, but everyone still seems slightly stretchier, slightly goopier than usual.

Still, it can't distract from what is obviously a pretty good episode. And, hey, Tim Curry also shows up to voice both King Acorn and the guardian of the Time Stones. (Who Flynn would later dub “Nicholas O'Tyme” in the Sonic Comic Encyclopedia, though he never got to use the actual character in any stories.) It's sort of funny how many kids cartoon shows an actor best known for playing a hyper-kinky space transvestite would show up in during the nineties. That is always a treat. [7/10] 

Sonic the Hedgehog (1993), Episode 2.03: No Brainer

Sonic the Hedgehog (1993), Episode 2.03: No Brainer
Original Air Date: September 24th, 1994

Here are some of the weird things that happen when you do some serious re-tooling to your cartoon show in its second season. Throughout this re-watch, I've been watching the show intro during each episode, because how the hell am I suppose to skip a force of pure awesomeness like that? Obviously, this intro was in no way reanimated during the second season, because it's perfect and also because animation is expensive and DiC is cheap. This does create a bit of a disconnect when you see Rotor and Antoine's original designs, plus Sally running around without a vest like a hussy, and are then faced with their season two re-designs just a few minutes later. Anyway, I thought that was interesting.

Okay, let's actually talk about “No Brainer.” Robotnik temporarily leaves the city and Snively is left in charge. Sonic, Sally, and Bunnie are in Robotropolis for a mission when a message from Uncle Chuck tells them to delay it. Sonic rushes back into the city to get a chili dog, stops in to rescue some other Freedom Fighters headed to the Roboticizer, and gets zapped by a SWATBot. This temporarily wipes the hedgehog's memory. Snively quickly convinces the hedgehog that he's his friend and sends Sonic off to find Knothole, leading the bad guys to their location. The Freedom Fighters quickly catch on to what's happening and plan accordingly.

“No Brainer” sees “SatAM” putting its spin on the classic premise of the hero loosing his memory and being tricked by the bad guys. This is such a common premise that it's not the last time a piece of “Sonic” media would use it. One of Ken Penders' early, better story arcs for the comic concerned this exact same idea. (Whether or not Ken was directly inspired by this episode, I don't know and I doubt Ken would admit it.) At least “No Brainer” does something a little more sound than just bumping Sonic on the head, which it what the comic did. Though why SWATBots have mind scrambling lasers on-board I don't know. The script also further looses creativity points since this is the second episode about a sleeper agent going into Knothole.

Since Sonic spends most of the episode brainwashed by the bad guys, “No Brainer” is largely devoted to the Freedom Fighters. Which, of course, I am fine with. Yes, Sonic is still on everyone's mind. When the hedgehog doesn't return immediately, Sally is very worried and forlorn. (Not that this stops her from teasing and bickering with him later, of course. Also, when he first returns to Knothole, Sonic instinctively heads to Sally's hut. Read into that what you will, shippers.) Yet watching these cartoon animals worry about stuff and figure out a plan, including hiding in a hollowed tree stump as they hide from the robotic forces, sure is entertaining.

Snively's resentment towards Robotnik is obviously going to be a thread throughout season two. And here's the irony of Snively momentary taking over control of Robotropolis: He nearly wins the war. He doesn't immediately try to Robotocize or kill Sonic when his memory is zapped, like Robotnik probably would've. Instead, he hopes to locate Knothole instead... And he does. He locates the rebel's base and has them pinned down, even exposing them to the same memory wiping ray. What ends up being Snively's undoing is, more than anything else, his egotistic sense of entitlement. This is why Snively is such a great character: He's actually relatively brilliant and conniving, a true threat... Yet he feels like he deserves to win so much, that he often fails to consider the possibility that victory could slip out of his grasp at the last minute. I want to segue into some point about male entitlement and modern nerd toxicity – if he was on the internet in 2019, you just know Snively would be an incel – but let's not go too far off-topic here.

Now, granted, “SatAM” still has to leap through some convoluted plot points to justify Snively coming so close to total victory. Unlike the last time they got a sleeper agent into Knothole, Snively actually outfits Sonic with a radio. After the memory-restored Sonic saves the day, the Freedom Fighters zap Snively with his own memory-wiping ray. Now the problem with this, is the original personality eventually returns after a few hours. So Uncle Chuck hacks the radio signal to send Snively and Robotnik to a bogus location, within the Great Swamps. This is after StealthBots, given the coordinates, nearly bomb the place to hell and back. Gee, I guess information broadcasts to Robotnik's robots isn't stored or backed up anywhere? I swear, the only thing that really saves Knothole time and again is the incompetence of Robotnik's empire.

On the special features included on Shout Factory's DVD set, Ben Hurst talks about how a story arc he was really invested in was Tails' realizing his inner potential. Up to this point, Tails hasn't been much more than Sonic's (mildly annoying) kid sidekick. However, this is the first episode where the little fox really starts to show his potential. The Freedom Fighters quickly deduce that a Power Ring will be the quickest way to restore Sonic's memory. The problem with this is the team is pinned down in their hiding place, quite a ways away from the magic pool with only a few minutes to go before it spits out another ring. That's when Tails – who, after all, can fly fast enough to keep up with Sonic – leaps into action, flies off, and gets there just in time to grab the ring. It's a good moment for Tails. Now if only the show didn't have Sally following right behind him, implying she's just as fast...

It's another strong episode weirdly sidelined by occasional moments of overbearing comic relief. Once again, Dulcy is a little too cute in her goofiness. In the middle of the episode, there's an out-of-place sequence of her attempting to fly and colliding with another tree. This cause her to groggily call out to her Mom. After she gets hit with the memory eraser, she also repeats this mantra. Man, that gag was exhausted the first time this show did it. Also, I'm continuously disappointed that season two can't find anything better for Antoine to do aside from him being a massive wiener. The other Freedom Fighters shouting “Shut up, Antoine!” is another lame gag the show is returning to too much.

But you know something that goes a long way towards making me forgive “SatAM's” flaws? How fucking weird it can be sometimes. The episode starts with Uncle Chuck hiding his note inside the head of a grotesque outside a gothic cathedral... Why does such a structure exist in Robotropolis? From what you've seen of Robotnik, he doesn't really favor that kind of architecture. Was it a leftover from the Mobotropolis days that is still standing for some reason? Maybe the same can be said of the chili dog dispenser Sonic uses twice, that is actually a plot point. I don't see much of a need for vending machines in a city mostly occupied by robots. (Also, getting hot dogs out of a vending machine is gross.)

Lastly, this episode introduces the weirdest Freedom Fighter. I'm talking about Dove, a messenger that flies between Knothole and Chuck's hang-out in Robotropolis. It appears to be a cross between a toucan, a dragonfly, and a lizard. While I would assume it was an unintelligent bird-like creature, it also wears a helmet and goggles, suggesting a certain degree of personality. As its name implies, Sally communicates with the creature via dove-like cooing. I sort of like that “SatAM” is just weird enough that it can randomly introduce oddball concepts like this and nobody bats an eye.

Also, as far as flaws go, there are some of those animation errors typical of DiC here. At one point, while attempting to stop suddenly, Sonic speaks without his lips moving. Later, Snively's shuttle lands outside the Great Forest by awkwardly floating down to the ground in a moment that's barely animated. Next, he floats off with some SWATBots on flying platforms in a similarly stiff moment. I can't even blame the show for this shit at this point. You just have to roll with screw-ups like that if you're going to watch a Saturday morning cartoon show from this period. Kids at the time probably didn't notice. I know I didn't. Honestly, I'm more bothered by shit like Bunnie's super-strength being depicted so inconsistently. The same rabbot that can haul up huge machinery struggles with a hollow tree stump here.

Over all, this one works for me pretty well. While it's got its share of flaws, the central conflict is strong and it's executed reasonably well. That's all I need some times! [7/10]