Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Episode 4.41: Attack on Pinball Fortress

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Episode 4.41: Attack on Pinball Fortress

Original Air Date: October 14th, 1993

An odd quirk of Sonic's early years, in North America anyway, was that the spin-off games were sometimes just as promoted, if not more so, than the mainline "Sonic" video games produced by Sonic Team. "Sonic 1" and 2 wouldn't receive adaptations in the American comic until two full decades later. "Sonic 3" was adapted but it wasn't treated as a special issue. It would take Archie a while to capitalize on Knuckles' fandom popularity, while the echidna wouldn't appear in an American cartoon for several more years. Meanwhile, Archie would give side titles like "Triple Trouble" or "3-D Blast" stand alone adaptations. "3-D Blast" would be referenced by the American Christmas special and even the ultimately unfinished "Sonic X-Treme" would receive a number of tie-ins.

"Sonic Spinball" was especially heavily-promoted in the states. Archie heavily trumpeted the connection in the comic. An episode of "SatAM" would prominently feature pinball and was itself adapted from a short "Sonic" novel with the same premise. "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog" would also adapt "Spinball," with the episode "Attack on Pinball Fortess," which aired the October before the game's stateside release. It's easy to figure out why this is so: "Spinball" was designed by Sega's American branch and was, like the whole franchise at the time, specifically made to appeal to American sensibilities. But it does look odd in retrospect, now that Sega keeps a much tighter leash on "Sonic" tie-in media.

"Spinball" was also one of the more heavily plotted "Sonic" games at the time, with cut scenes and explicit references to both "SatAM" and "AoStH." And the cartoon pretty much threw all of that out. Robotnik has built a new device, the Stupidity Ray, which renders anyone zapped with it a drooling moron. Sgt. Doberman and Wes Weasly both foresee this device as valuable to their own goals. They plot to steal it but Sonic destroys the original. Robotnik goes about building a giant Stupidity Ray from within his Pinball Fortress. Doberman and Wes tag along with Sonic as he breaks in to destroy the device before Robotnik zaps the whole globe with it. 

As you might've realized from that plot synopsis, "Attack on Pinball Fortress" is the vaguest of adaptations of the video game. No mention is made of the Veg-O-Fortress or Rexxon. A robotic scorpion named Boss Scorpion -- presumably inspired by Scorpius, the game's level one boss -- shows up briefly. There's some lava in one scene, sort of like the second stage, and an easily missed mention of the Toxic Caves. There's only one scene featuring pinball-like traps and it's nothing like the pinball elements in the actual game. No explanation is provided for why Robotnik has a pinball-themed fortress either. It seems likely to me that writer Bob Forward was told the general gist of the game, shown some production artwork, and riffed from there. 

The Stupidity Ray is, in fact, the focus for far more of the episode. And if you think "AoStH's" regular humor is pretty stupid and shrill, a stupidity-causing ray gun allows things to go into high gear. A potential customer of Wes' – who has a very disturbing face – is turned into a blabbering loony by the ray. Robotnik, when he is inevitably blasted with it at the end of the episode, is reduced to a blubbering doofus. In-between this one and the baby episode, poor Long John Baldry had to simper like a nincompoop a lot for this show. About the only actual humor derived from the Stupidity Ray is when Scratch gets zapped by it... And is completely unaffected, as he can't get any dumber. That's a solid gag. (The weapon also leads to a hilarious "Sonic Sez" segment where the hedgehog actually tells kids to stay in school, but that's a laugh of the decidedly unintentional variety.)

What's most interesting about the Stupidity Ray is the very unusual subtext it cooks into the episode. Sgt. Doberman previously only appeared as a one-off gag character in "Tails' New Home" but the show brought him back seemingly to mock the military. The Stupidity Ray doesn't turn Doberman's recruits into Pauly Shore-ian dumbasses. Instead, it turns them into ideal soldiers. Doberman is willing to resort to theft and treachery in order to retrieve the Ray. Did... did this show just call all soldiers idiots? And made its sole prominent military man an oft-mocked villain? A kids show inserting a message like that today would be controversial. I'm assuming "AoStH" only got away with it because nobody was watching that closely. 

In fact, I'm going to assume some things about Bob Forward's political beliefs, as this episode also has a roundabout anti-capitalism message. Wes Weasly is, of course, not much more than a con artist. His default mode is already sneaky and underhanded. He sees the Stupidity Ray as a way to fleece people even more easily. Both Wes and Doberman betray each other at a moment's notice and are repeatedly mocked. So Mr. Forward is saying that the military makes you stupid and businessmen just want to steal from you. And, if you want to be cool like Sonic, you need to act outside both systems and take direct action against evil. Fuck yeah.

I wish the episode itself was less painfully unfunny, because I really want to give this one a full endorsement. It's a shame the comedy is so inane, the animation so ugly, and the story so dumb. Oh well. At least I can cherry-pick this episode next time I want to make the argument that Sonic is a radical, left-wing hero. [5/10]