Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Episode 1.01: Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Episode 1.01: Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad

Original Air Date: October 6th, 1993

After reviewing twenty-two of these fucking things, I'm finally getting around to reviewing the first episode of "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog." Hey, this wildly out-of-order viewing cycle is not totally my fault. As previously discussed, local affiliates could choose to show the series in whatever order they wanted. (Presumably front-lining the episodes they thought were most eye-catching.) Even though "Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad" is obviously set up to be the first episode, I guess someone figured it was better served being towards the middle. Since I seek to replicate my childhood watching experience as closely as possible, this is the order I'm going with. I know, it doesn't really make any sense but I have to be me, you guys. 

Anyway! Even though "Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad" is the first episode of "Adventures," it begins like any other. Only after Scratch and Grounder have Sonic lassoed in a tree does the hedgehog begin to explain how the group first met. Some time ago, Robotnik designated Sonic as Mobius' number one fugitive. After a number of other robotic bounty hunters failed to capture him, Robotnik attempted to build Scratch and Grounder as the ultimate Sonic-catching machines. And the hedgehog has been humiliating them ever since. 

"AoStH" was not a series especially concerned with serial storytelling but "Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad" – I'm not typing out that full title again – does function as something of an origin story for the show. How much power Robotnik has over Mobius, whether he's a full-blown global tyrant or just a petty dictator trying to take over the world, is still vaguely defined. But we do learn that Sonic is technically a criminal, standing up to someone in power, and there's a price on his head for that reason. (That price is one billion Mobians, suggesting Mobius' exchange rate is really poor.) So that's why Sonic and Tails are always on the run. Where Sonic and Robotnik come from, and why the hedgehog has such a grudge against the fat man, remained unanswered and likely always will. But at least the show has something like an actual set-up now.

As the first episode produced, "SSSSASS" also sets up the pattern nearly every other episode would follow. Scratch and Grounder argue over who Robotnik values more. Their boss/creator demeans them. They put up some stupid trap to catch Sonic, that he easily outwits. In the course of that, the hedgehog dresses up in a disguise, fooling and humiliating his enemies. The repetition begins here and that extends to the series' running gags. Robotnik says he hates that hedgehog, Sonic says he's waiting, chili dogs are established as his favorite food. Even Coconuts and his desperate desire to earn Robotnik's favor is established here. Yes, the writers of this show really did come up with six jokes and then decided they would just repeat them for sixty-five episodes. 

If "SSSSASS" sets up all the jokes the show would run into the ground, it also provides us with an insight into the writers' comedic sensibilities. "Looney Tunes" is obviously the main influence here. One of Scratch and Grounder's main traps involves painting a cityscape on a wall, with the intention of fooling Sonic into running into it. Another gag has Sonic re-routing all of Coconuts' gun barrels to point back at him. Both are these are stolen from classic Coyote/Roadrunner or Bugs Bunny/Elmer Fudd shorts. Moreover, in the early scenes, you can see a sort of classical cartoon humor being utilized. Robotnik's emotions are exaggerated to humorous effect. When he says he hates Sonic, his teeth are clenched so hard, they shatter. A sign pops out of his head, further emphasizing the intensity of his feelings. These moments didn't make me laugh but they are actual jokes.

So the writers were trying to make something funny with this first episode... At least for the first couple sequences. Yes, in "SSSSASS," we see the show exhaust attempts at humor in real time and begin to rely more on just stupid, random bullshit. Recognizable gags soon degrade into Sonic just humiliating his incredibly stupid enemies in obvious, un-funny ways. Real absurdity gives way to lazy gross-out gags, such as a disturbing scene where Scratch and Grounder's giant, bulbous tongues remain on-screen for a full minute. Visibly noticing the showrunners trying to make something funny and then giving up within a few minutes ends up being more interesting than anything else in this program.

Another question "SSSSASS" answers is why Robotnik puts up with Scratch and Grounder's bullshit. These are the only characters that get definitive origins in this episode. After Sonic made scrap metal out of his horde of bounty hunters, Robotnik built Scratch as a super-intelligent and hyper-capable Sonic-hunting machine. He then created Grounder as a clone of Scratch. Obviously, something went wrong with every single one of those goals. Why Scratch is a big stupid dumb-dumb, and why Grounder looks nothing like him, is not explained. I guess the idea is that Robotnik isn't very good at making robots. But now at least we know why he hasn't scrapped them yet: These guys represent his best try. He doesn't want to junk what was suppose to be his masterpieces, even if they are clearly failures. 

"SSSSASS" – see, that's something I enjoy typing – is also notable in "Sonic" history in another minor way. Aside from being the first episode of the first ever "Sonic" cartoon, it would also directly contribute to one of the earlier video games. The gang of robot bounty hunters Sonic fights contains all of the various opponents from "Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine," the localization of Sega's "Puyo Puyo" puzzle game. And it's sort of funny that this video game, a certified cult classic of the "Sonic" franchise now, would elevate a handful of characters that barely have any dialogue. The only one of the future "Mean Bean" bosses who actually talks is a duck-looking robot in a skirt and Cable-esque shoulder pads that speaks with a vaguely effeminate voice. (The video game would eventually identify him as "Dragon Breath.") Even the two robots that look like a ballsack on wheels and a bicycle pump would end up in the game! It's just funny that characters who couldn't be more minor would be assigned names and personalities by another ancillary arm of this multi-media franchise. 

If it wasn't obvious, this super sassy episode is more interesting for its historical value than its actual content. We see "AoStH" try to be one show before accepting its fate to be another show and that's sort of fun. (If mildly depressing.) The more of this program I begrudgingly write about, the more convinced I am that a behind-the-scenes documentary about its production would probably be more interesting than the actual series. [5/10]