Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog Reviews: Introduction

The “Sonic the Hedgehog” fandom is bad. I feel like this is self-evident. “Sonic” fans are weird. They are too passionate, too open about their grosser qualities, and too willing to bicker endlessly with you about what the “true” version of “Sonic” is. This is because the “Sonic the Hedgehog” fandom is divided. Is “Sonic” a nineties platforming game? Is it a mid-2000s 3D adventure game with an open-world hub and fishing side-quests? Is it a lore-filled comic book series, full of serious themes? A loosely plotted series of light-hearted adventures? Is Sonic himself a nineties smart-ass with a bad attitude? Or someone who loves his friends and will do anything to protect them?

The truth is, this division is baked into the very soul of the franchise. There has never actually been a consistent version of “Sonic.” In Japan, he was conceived as a wacky but cuddly cartoon character in the tradition of Mickey Mouse or Felix the Cat. Sega of America, however, was allowed to sell “Sonic” over here however they saw fit. So Sonic was an in-your-face, Bart Simpsons-like rebel in the U.S., which was the hip thing all the American kids were into at the time. (In retrospect, trying to sell a blue mascot that runs fast and bops robots on the head as something serious was... Kind of weird.)

Even in the U.S., there wasn't much across-media coherence concerning this particular blue hedgehog. I already covered this a little in my “SatAM” introduction. Hot off the success of the first two Genesis games, Sega ran to DiC Entertainment to develop a cartoon based on the newly popular property. As DiC had done with “Mario,” they developed an aggressively wacky comedy series wherein Sonic was a merry prankster and Robotnik was an incompetent, goofball villain. “Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog” even reeled in Jaleel White – otherwise known as the obnoxiously-voiced, and briefly extremely popular, sitcom character Steve Urkel – to voice the titular hedgehog.

You already know what happened next. ABC passed on “Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog,” asking for a more plot-driven series, which led to the development of “SatAM.” Instead of abandoning the zany show they had worked so much on, DiC continued working on “Adventures.” These programs would hit the airwaves around the same time, with “SatAM” premiering on ABC on September 25th 1993 and “Adventures” beginning its run in syndication a few weeks earlier on September 9th. 

So two “Sonic” cartoons with wildly different tones and styles were on television at the exact same time. So you can see why “Sonic” fans have been so intrinsically divided from the very beginning. Is Sonic a Freedom Fighter waging a guerrilla war against an authoritarian tyrant, in a grim post-industrial wasteland, with his group of friends? Or was he a screwball goof punking an idiotic adversary, in a colorful cartoon world, with Tails as his only consistent companion? The answer to both questions is, somehow, yes. And simultaneously! No matter fans can't decide on what the hell this character is and what this series is about.

Weirdly, this never confused me as a kid. On weekend mornings, I would watch Sonic mourn Uncle Chuck and fight the destruction of the environment. On weekday evenings, I could see Sonic dress in drag and hear Robotnik brag about how fat he was. Despite how different the shows were, I loved them both because kid-me loved Sonic, regardless of what he was doing or who he was hanging out with. Children are able to accept strange shit like this at face-value, I guess. Mostly, my memories of “Adventures” are confined to watching the show at my friend's house in the evenings after his dad finished watching – sigh – “The Rush Limbaugh Show.”  Somehow, both Sonic and Rush are newly relevant again here in 2020! The new century is weird.

Anyway: Much like “SatAM,” “Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog” would develop a long-lived fandom. While “SatAM's” spirit lived on through a ridiculously long-running comic book and a passionate cult following,  the awkwardly abbreviated “AoStH'” lived on via internet memes and Youtube Poops. Some of this quasi-popularity might be owed to “AoStH's” surprisingly enduring afterlife. While “SatAM” would largely only be rerun in obscure cable showtimes, “AoStH” aired in syndication for years afterwards and even had a shockingly well-promoted re-airing on Toon Disney. (That was Disney's sort-of defunct attempt to compete with Cartoon Network, to you goddamn zoomers.) Shout Factory would release both shows on DVD around the same time, cementing the link between them.

So what do I think about “Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog?” Even as a kid, I was not especially passionate about this iteration of my favorite blue hedgehog. Yes, even as a youngster, I turned my nose up a bit at the sophomoric slapstick of this series and only regularly watched it because it starred a pop culture obsession I've never let go of for some reason. In my few attempts to return to “Adventures” as an adult, I've found the show to be a sub-”Ren and Stimpy” program that was cheaply animated and leaned way too hard on the aggressive wackiness. This retrospective will be the first time I've actually sat down and re-watched the show, maybe for the first time in my entire life. I'm sure there's episodes I missed as a kid.

Also, this is going to take a little while longer than “SatAM” did. “Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog's” syndicated run includes sixty-five episodes. So I'm fully expected this journey to annoy and tire me out very quickly but, well, I'm committed to this bullshit. (By the way, I'll be following the air date order for the show, as opposed to the radically different production order.) Prepare your pingas, rev up your Mean Bean Machine, but don't click away because that's no good. We are going to go on some “Adventures,” here at Hedgehogs Can't Swim.