Sonic the Hedgehog (1993), Episode 1.13: Heads or Tails

Sonic the Hedgehog (1993), Episode 1.13: Heads or Tails
Original Air Date: December 11th, 1993

Before we can talk about “SatAM,” we really have to talk about “SatAM's” opening sequence and theme song. The background events that set up the series' plot was never truly depicted in the show, leaving it to the intro at the start of every episode to establish the premise. So we see the golden city of Mobotropolis, in all its gilded age glory, fall in the span of a single dissolve to Robotnik and be transformed into a bleak, dystopian nightmare. We see Sonic and the Freedom Fighters sneaking around the city, sabotaging it with their limited resources. There's even a pick at the Robians, the normal animal friends of Sonic that have been turned into heartless robots. (Though the intro sort of makes the Robians look like giants too, a misconception that confused my childhood brain.) Sonic is shown to be fast and totally tubular, Sally is capable and tough. And they have a teasingly quasi-romantic relationship. While I've never been entirely sure what the duo was doing in this opening – I guess busting open a nuclear reactor and flooding Robotropolis with the radiated water, destroying his power source? Or something – the intro has always fascinated me.

And, of course, that theme song is fuckin' boss. The heavy metal wail of “He's the fastest thing allllivvvveeee!!!” will forever echo in my memory, even if the kitchsy synth riffs of the music doesn't exactly rock as hard as the vocals.

Before we go any further, let's talk about what “Heads or Tails” is about. The plot starts out simple enough. Sonic and Tails are sent into Robotnik's base to retrieve the cotter pins needed so the Freedom Fighters can complete their new catapults, the defense against Robotnik's swarm of airborne Buzz-Bombers. (An element taken from the games and heavily featured in the comics that would never appear in “SatAM” again.) Along the way, Sonic and Tails uncover a plot by Robotnik to destroy the Great Forest so he can locate Knothole, capture the Freedom Fighters, and take the Power Rings for himself. It can get surprisingly plotty at times for the first episode of a kids' cartoon.

I'll be starting my “SatAM” retrospective off with “Heads or Tails,” the series pilot. In the first of several ass backwards moves ABC would make during “SatAM's” short life, the network decided to air the pilot at the end of the first season, instead of the beginning. (That's why it says 1.13 at the top there.) In retrospect, however, this actually wasn't such a bad idea. The pilot is different in several important ways from the series that would spawn from it. The animation style is stretchier, bouncier, and overall goofier than what would follow. Some of the character and mechanical designs are obviously different. Robotnik's spy drone has a much cooler floating eyeball design than what they ended up going with. The various hovercrafts are all a bit different. Instead of Nicole, Sally operates a large, yellow computer on wheels. Most prominently, this is where the infamous “Pink Sally” design that was featured in the early comics came from, before the more traditional redhead-and-vest design that would come into use. But you guys already knew that.

“Heads or Tails” color palette is a little brighter, matching a tone that is a bit more cartoony and comedic than what would follow. There are a lot of slapstick moments here. Such as Snively being mocked by laughing SWATBots or beaten up by his frustrated uncle, a sequence unlikely to be played for laughs today. The Buzz Bombers, the main robotic antagonists throughout the pilot, are treated as largely comedic foils, frequently abused and beleaguered peons to a bad boss. Sonic plays with a bendy electric guitar, Bunnie wears a face-mask and curlers to bed (a possible reference to the character's initial desire to become a hairdresser, perhaps?), Rotor is always scarfing fish. While the series that followed was in no way free of stuff like this, the pilot is a bit heavier on it.

Yet in many important ways, “Heads or Tails” sets up and establishes what would make “SatAM” so beloved. The pilot episode begins with a number of establishing character moments, giving the viewer a general idea of who these characters are as quickly as possible. Robotnik is introduced flying into his smog-choked city and loving it. He dodders on his robotic bird pet but abuses the only actual person around him. He's also obsessed with Sonic, who mocks his carefully built empire. Snively is introduced trying to slick his few hairs back, obviously someone who wants to be seen as powerful and cool but is totally unable to do so. He clearly is both terrified and resentful of Robotnik.

Sonic's establishing scene, meanwhile, has him shredding on an electric guitar because he is, you see, an aggressively cool dude with attitude. (He also casually references Axl Rose, so try and figure out how that makes any sense.) Notably, he's doing this in hopes of impressing Princess Sally. The princess, meanwhile, does not like to be referred as a princess, showing she's a leader more devoted to her people's freedom than her own opulence. She bickers comically with Sonic throughout, the belligerent sexual tension already being obvious. Rotor is a soft-spoken and slightly goofy engineer. Bunnie is a super-strong Southern sweetheart with a slight sarcastic edge. Antoine is full of himself, cluelessly pinning for Sally, and often mocked by Sonic. The point is, the characters wouldn't change too much beyond this point. The pilot does exactly what it's suppose to: Introduce kids to a cast of characters and their world.

What's most compelling about “Heads or Tails” is, in fact, that world. The characters aren't much more than archetypes at this point, albeit lovable ones. Sonic and Sally's banter is pretty funny and cute, as is the hedgehog's general over-the-top 'tude. Yet it's easy to see why this world pulled me in as a kid. The blasted-out junkyard look of Robotnik's city – not yet named Robotropolis – wasn't like much else on Saturday morning in 1993. More importantly, even in the pilot, “SatAM” was already committed to the premise that the heroes would always suffer losses. While in the city, Sonic and Tails stumble upon Muttski, Sonic's dog that has been roboticized by Robotnik. While he briefly makes it through to his old friend, Sonic ultimately has to give up for the day. There's even a rather touching scene where Sonic and Tails look at a photo of the hedgehog with Uncle Chuck – referenced but unseen in this episode – and think back bitter-sweetly to happier times.

In other words, even in an episode that is goofier than most, “SatAM” had characters with deeper emotional lives and longer histories than you'd probably expect from a cartoon show made to advertise a video game.

As the title suggest, a large part of “Heads or Tails” is devoted to Sonic and Tails' relationship. And that, in actuality, might be the weakest thing about about the pilot. Tails is introduced picking flowers for Princess Sally, establishing him as a total innocent. While most subsequent “Sonic” media have depicted the hedgehog and the fox as best friends, true bros, the earlier adaptations of “Sonic” took a slightly different approach. Sonic is rather explicitly a big brother figure to the childish Tails. He teases him playfully before they go on a ride down the the secret slide into Knothole. (An element similar to the early Archie comics.)

However, it's all undermined a bit by Tails being kind of annoying. While sneaking into Robotnik's base, Tails whines about needing to go to the bathroom. The fox then gives away their position by sneezing. At the very end of the episode, Tails screams for Sonic to come rescue him when being chased by a Buzz Bomber. No wonder I was so ambivalent to this character for so long. It's like writer Len Janson – who had been writing kids television since the sixties and was probably best known for extensive work on “The Smurfs” and “The Real Ghostbusters” – wanted Tails to be some sort of audience surrogate character... Which is weird, since Sonic is the character we all wanted to be and are ostensibly here to see anyway.

And while there's much to admire in “Heads or Tails,” this is still a network cartoon show from the early nineties. Certain limitations are unavoidable. While the character designs are likable and the painted backgrounds are nice to look at, the animation budget was clearly not above and beyond DiC's usual standards. When Robotnik is watching Sonic race after a Buzz Bomber, the show goes weirdly silent for a minute. During the post-victory celebration, the background citizens of Knothole – which includes likely inspiration for Archie's Hamlin, by the way – the animation cycles cheaply for a second. Befitting the writing quality of the time and place, it also seems “Heads or Tails” was trying to partially educate its audience.  I don't think I have ever heard the term “cotter pin” this much before or since.

Going along with this possible desire to educate kids and the ideas that were floating around in the world at the time, “SatAM's” environmental message is established right from the first episode. During Sally's personality-defining moment, she makes sure to point out Mother Nature is the number one monarch around here. Robotnik's love of pollution and industrial overgrowth is exactly the kind of thing you'd expect a “Captain Planet” villain to say or do. Robotnik's plan, after all, involves completely stripping away a forest by killing all its trees. It was 1993. The Soviet Union was gone and America didn't have any other endless wars to fight at the time. Suddenly, for a few years, we were obsessed with giving a hoot and saving the rain forest. “SatAM” followed that lead, picking up on the subtext already apparent in the original Sega games and running with it.

Stepping back from all of that, a big reason “SatAM” would grab such a loving fanbase is because it was, over all, a well produced show. The soundtrack, which purposely invokes Alan Silvestri's “Back to the Future” and John Williams' “Star Wars” scores,” is still pretty good for a Saturday morning cartoon show. The voice cast is solid all around. Jaleel White's nasal whine was an odd pick for Sonic but he attacks the goofy dialogue with gusto. Christine Cavanaugh's Bunnie is soft and sisterly but funny. Kath Soucie already inhabits Sally with a fantastic liveliness and complexity. Charlie Adler and Bardley Pierce, as Snively and Tails, both sound exactly like what you'd expect a villainous toadie and an annoying little brother to sound like. Rob Paulsen's goofy French accent as Antoine isn't great but fits what is a silly comic relief character. Best of all is Jim Cummings as Robotnik, whose pure malevolent glee and unhinged screaming is so intense at times, I can picture it easily frightening younger children.

So despite some flaws and quite a few variations from what the show would become, “Heads or Tails” is still a pretty decent pilot. It sets up the characters, their world, and their conflict in compelling ways. I'm sure “SatAM” would have gotten the exact same reception if this episode had aired first, though it's probably for the best that something a little more representative of the rest of the season was sent out in front instead. [7/10]