Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Episode 1.65: Sonically Ever After

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Episode 1.65: Sonically Ever After

Original Air Date: November 3rd, 1993

Fairy tale parodies were experiencing a Moment in the nineties. Chalk this up to either Disney's renewed popularity at the time or Generation X sarcasm but doing ironic spins on classic stories was very common during my childhood. I think "The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs" was the most popular library book when I was in elementary school. I can recall more than one childhood creative writing assignment where we students were tasked with creating our own "fractured fairy tales." This trend would eventually climax at the end of the decade with "Shrek" and its strings of sequels and rip-offs. Unsurprisingly, "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog" would try out this idea in its final produced episode. (Probably because the writers had exhausted all other ideas by that point.)

Sonic and Tails are doing their usual routine with Robotnik, Scratch and Grounder's – chasing them around and mocking them – when they cross through a park. There, Miss Saccharine from "Musta Been a Beautiful Baby" is reading fairy tales to a group of kids, including Rocket from "Slowwww Going." This is where Robotnik activates his latest weapon, the Portable Portal Transporter, which ends up opening a portal into the fictional world of the fairy tales. After speeding through warped versions of "Hansel and Gretel," "Snow White," and "Cinderella," the trio escapes back into their own world... But end up bringing the fairy tale characters with them, including several villains. Armed with a magic wand, Robotnik proceeds to wreck more havoc. 

Even by 1993, fairy tale parodies were well-trotted ground. (The term "fractured fairy tales" is taken from a segment on "The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show," undoubtedly an influence on this show.) So it's unsurprising that "AoStH's" riffs on known tales here are lazy and nonsensical. Sonic and Tails step into the role of Hansel and Gretel, who is renamed Nettle for no particular reason. Robotnik becomes the witch, whose house is now made of chili dogs. "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" becomes "Snow Height and the Seven Squatty Guys." Cause, ya see, Snow White is really tall and ugly. They even sing a bizarre parody of "Whistle While You Work." Cinderella's Fairy Godmother becomes a Marlon Brando-aping Fairy Godfather. Few of these "jokes" make any sense, a trend that is epitomized by the "Jack and the Beanstock" giant being a beatnik. Did kids in the nineties know what beatniks were? No, we didn't. 

Really, it feels like a kid wrote this. Taking a familiar character and swapping out their name with a rhyming phrase, and then building the whole gag around that, is something a five-year-old would do. The closest thing to an actual joke here is that Sonic is familiar with how these classic stories go but Tails is not. Our hedgehog hero has to constantly keep his naïve sidekick from making easily-avoided mistakes. Which feels like it could've been an ironic riff on these familiar stories, if this show had a molecule of brains or effort. Mostly, the biggest joke here is that Snow Height is ugly – the character design is impressively grotesque – and wants Robotnik to kiss him, which grosses the villain out. Despite his disgust, she continues to pursue him. You may recognize this as a direct steal from "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?," which was itself referencing an old Tex Avery. 

If you want to read into Robotnik being repulsed by the idea of kissing a woman, feel free to. "Sonically After Ever" is brimming with queer subtext. Sonic dresses in drag, as Rapunzel, and attempts to seduce Robotnik. The two even come very close to kissing. This is followed by a bit where Scratch and Grounder's talk about kissing a toad, who they explicitly identify as male. When transported into "Hansel and Nettle," Tails takes on the traditional female role... Which includes a costume that gives him cleavage. (Let's just ignore the implications of giving the eight-year-old a "sexy" makeover.) He even shouts that he's a girl, for you folks out there with "Tails is Trans" headcanons. Robotnik also assumes the role of the Wicked Witch, a classic drag queen option. This show had assumed a pseudo-queer camp aesthetic from time-to-time but this episode really goes fully into it. 

Once again, Robotnik emerges as the episode's most interesting character. Other incarnations of the doctor despise magic, seeing it as antithetical to his love of technology. (Never mind that all versions of Robotnik utilize the magical Chaos Emeralds.) The "AoStH" version of Robotnik, however, relishes the opportunity to grab a magic wand. He even declares magic superior to robotics at one point. Carrying on his actions from the "Quest for the Chaos Emeralds" arc, he uses it to recreate the world in his twisted image. Once again, a tyrannical desire to establish his rule, his version of control, over a chaotic world emerges as Robotnik's greatest desire.

"Sonically Ever After" was the last episode of "Adventures" produced but aired as the forty-third. So there's no real sense of finality. Robotnik is not defeated and Sonic doesn't save Mobius forever. However, the show creator did include something like a real ending. In the final moments, Sonic is depicted leaping off the cover of a book with the show's name on it. He then says all stories must end but more adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog will arrive. Which was something like a nice way for the show runners to acknowledge that this was the end and also wasn't. (The show then segues into a droll "Sonic Sez" segment about visiting your local library, which ruins what might've been a nice moment.) 

Still, "Sonically Ever After" makes for a fairly lackluster finale. The jokes are lame to the point of almost not existing. The animation and character designs are largely ugly and awkward, including one of the laziest dragon designs I've ever seen. There are moments were this doesn't even feel like a "Sonic" cartoon. Did any kid expect to see lame fairy tale spoofs when tuning in to this show? It's another doofy episode and, despite claims of endings, I still have twenty-two of these left to review. [5/10]