Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Episode 1.07: Trail of the Missing Tails

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Episode 1.07: Trail of the Missing Tails

Original Air Date: October 1st, 1993

Strap in, cause here's another dose of "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog" with enough premises for two or three episodes. After Tails is almost caught in an especially slapstick-heavy trap set by the usual trio of Badniks, Sonic gives the young fox a stern lecture. When he awakes the next day, he finds that Tails is gone. At first, he assumes Robotnik is responsible but he's not. Turns out, Tails was captured by Doctor Warpnik, Robotnik's deranged cousin that was banished to a surreal pocket dimension called the Warp of Confusion. Sonic tracks the nutcase to this alternate realm. Robotnik and his robot goons follow, in hopes of settling the rivalry with his cousin.

Recent episodes I've reviewed revolve around Robotnik having relatives or rivals. "Trail of the Missing Tails" combines both of these ideas. I'd accuse the "AoStH" writers of ripping themselves off but this episode was produced before either of those other two. Anyway, yes, Warpnik is Robotnik's crazier cousin and also an evil scientist. Mobius is just crawling with those guys. This doesn't really make Warpnik that different from the other Annoying Guest Characters of the Day. His appearance is grotesque: Pink face, massive overbite, disembodied toupee, hulking shoulders, half-dangling latex gloves, vaguely racist slanted eyes. His voice is extremely grating. His personality, which takes the wackiness up to eleven, is overbearing. He's not as disgusting as Von Schlemmer but is definitely cut from the same mold. 

In addition to his wacky insanity, Warpnik's other gimmick is a creepy, Troy McClure-esque obsession with fish. He likes to slap people with fish, turn people into fish, and fills the Warp of Confusion with giant, floating fish. Apparently, the Warp was inspired by the special zones from the first game. Which suggests the writers played the Special Zone for all of two seconds – which is probably true – as fish are but one psychedelic image that appears in that stage. Truthfully, the Warp resembles the Special Stage in no way. Instead, it's another baffling, colorful, bizarre landscape for the show to pepper increasingly odd images.

Also, what is it with Robotnik and throwing other people into dimensions? He obviously did that to King Acorn in “SatAM.” The Archie comic followed that show's lead, revealing that Robotnik tossed even more folks into the Zone of Silence or the Void or the Twilight Cage or some other dimension I've forgotten about. Considering “SatAM” was in production slightly after “AoStH,” it's entirely possible this episode might've influenced that show. I guess the real reason Robotnik is so fond of exiling enemies, across all “Sonic” media,” is because this is a G-rated kids franchise and we can't have the bad guy just going around killing folks. Anyway, this was a digression. 

"Trail of the Missing Tails" is saved from being as aggressively annoying and mind-meltingly weird as "Boogey-Mania" by including an actual character arc for Sonic and Tails. In another recent review, I pointed out how I liked it when Sonic and Tails had a minor conflict. (Again, “So Long Suckers” was also produced after this one.) This episode sort of features that theme too. After almost getting himself crushed in the opening trap, Sonic chastises Tails for not being more careful. When his sidekick disappears, Sonic fears he went too far and scared the kids off. Once again, the show zeroes in on the hedgehog's mentor-like relationship to his buddy. Wondering if you've gone too far when disciplining a kid is a common fear for adults. Even if it all ends up being okay, Sonic and Tails talking it out with a few lines of dialogue, it's nice to see the show actually care about its characters' personalities for once.

Mostly, my main thoughts while watching this episode is how bad life must suck for Scratch, Grounder and Coconuts. This episode especially piles abuse on them. They have their own trap deployed on them, resulting in several heavy objects falling on their head in a sequence followed by a big explosion. This then happens a second time a few minutes later. Not long afterwards, they drop down onto the ground atop each other. Even later, Sonic rams them so hard they turn into bowling pins. These three are constantly belittled, punished, destroyed, and reassembled just so they can do it all over again the next day. 

No wonder when Warpnik accidentally zaps them with one of his ray guns, turning them into giant monsters, they immediately decide to take revenge on Robotnik. If this was a better, sturdier show, that could've become an on-going plot point. Or, at the very least, the show could've utilized the cool mutated designs of the three robots more. Coconuts turns into a tusked gorilla form, Scratch becomes a dragon-like huge bird, and Grounder gets a robust robot body. Since “AoStH” is the show it is, this lasts for a few minutes and things get back to normal. But Scratch, Grounder, and Coconuts eventually getting revenge on their abusive creator could've made for a cool episode.

I guess I would rank this as an episode that had a lot of potential but is, typically, not utilized. It's mostly just stupid, weird, and annoying. However, once again, I question why Ian Flynn didn't dig into this episode a little when he was raiding “Adventures” for reboot material. The Warp of Confusion could've been a replacement for the Zone of Silence. Even Warpnik could've been rehabilitated into something interesting. Alas. Also, the “Sonic Says” segment tells kids to memorize their phone numbers, a moral that has been rendered useless by cellphones. Because time is a ceaseless march towards oblivion. [5/10]