Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Episode 1.11: Sonic's Song

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Episode 1.11: Sonic's Song

Original Air Date: November 19th, 1993

As you've probably noticed, I have few specific memories of "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog." Even though I was a regular viewer as a kid, few of the episodes proved memorable to young me. However, "Sonic's Song" is an episode I vividly recall. I owned all of the "SatAM" VHS releases and watched them repeatedly, to satisfy a Sonic-addicted brain that was deprived of content. However, of the six "AoStH" tapes, the only one I owned was "Sonic's Song." Even though I didn't like the show as much, I still watched that tape as much as the other. I've been waiting to get to this episode – produced early on but shown much later – the entire retrospective. 

"Sonic's Song" is both the name of the episode and the breakaway radio hit that drives its plot. Country singer Catty Carlisle has recorded an ode to Mobius' super-fast hedgehog hero. The song becomes an immediate success and is soon inescapable... Much to the annoyance of Dr. Robotnik. Enraged, he builds a robot designed specifically to hunt down and destroy all music. Sonic decides to protect Catty but, while out looking for her special guitar, the Music Destroyer robot captures her. Robotnik attempts to force the singer to compose a song about him, though she resists. Sonic and Tails risks capture to save Catty and all of Mobius' music.

The second episode on that VHS tape was "Best Hedgehog," which I had no memory of, neither now nor when I watched it at the start of this retrospective. Multiple elements from "Sonic's Song," however, have been burned into my brain for twenty-six years. Specific images from this episode have remained with me all that time. Like Tails getting blown into a wind-sock. Or Robotnik's ass growing to giant size as he plays a pipe organ. (This is another ass-fixated episode, as there's also a scene transition centered around the Music Destroyer's gluts.) I must've watched that tape a hundred times because I remember this episode better than most "SatAM" installments, what's supposed to be my favorite "Sonic" cartoon. 

Most of all, the titular song proves truly unforgettable. It takes the melody of the show's theme song – which was already pretty catchy, considering it was based on the first game's opening track – and adds a bluegrass twang to it. This works surprisingly well. The lyrics are pretty inane but obviously they are effective, because I can remember every single fucking one two decades later. It's totally believable that this song would take over the Mobius pop charts. It helps that Catty's voice artist, who seems to be uncredited but was probably Kathleen Barr or Jennifer Copping, actually has a decent singing voice. That character proves more likable and competent than she needed to be. I sort of wish she was brought back for an encore. (Also surprising, considering this show's tendency to ship Sonic with any female character, she has no romantic chemistry with Sonic.)

Now is the episode good? Well... The first half isn't too bad. There's the expected boomer gag of a Wolfman Jack-inspired radio deejay. A bird shits in Robotnik's face, though they try and play it off like an egg. However, the Music Destroyer robot is genuinely pretty amusing. Discounting the phonograph style horn atop his head, he has a fairly intimidating design. His voice, on the other hand, is nasally and whining, a funny contrast to his appearance. Maybe it's just because I'll never be able to forget it but his nerdy whines of "I hate music!" make me chuckle for some reason. 

The episode, sadly, peaks with Robotnik's organ jam. Which features Scratch and Grounder in colorful suits and wigs, another decent gag. After that, the episode's music gimmick fades and the focus turns to Sonic trying to trick Scratch and Grounder into letting him escape. Pretty typical, tired shenanigans for this show. Maybe these scenes drag just because the oddly endearing Music Destroyer isn't in them. There's an attempt to bring things back around at the end, when Sonic defeats Robotnik with the Power of Rock, but by then it's too late. The episode has deflated. Considering how vividly I recall the first half of this episode, and how little I remember about the second half, my ADHD-addled childhood brain must've wandered off by that point any time I watched the tape. 

However, I think this episode is the reason why I held a big misconception about this version of Robotnik. Catty's song refers to Sonic as a "teenage fugitive on the run" who is going to "make Mobius free." The radio station that plays her music has the call sign of REBL, suggesting it's an underground operation fighting the man via pirate radio. Is this the entire reason I thought Robotnik already had control of Mobius, "SatAM"-style,  in this show? Something supported by almost no other episode? I guess this just further supports my theory that the writers of this show simply couldn't decide what kind of baddy Robotnik was supposed to be. 

Oh, another thing I definitely recalled about this episode was the "Sonic Sez" segment. Don't listen to your music so loud you wandered into traffic, kids. This is definitely how I learned that prolonged exposure to loud noises can destroy your hearing. (Which didn't stop me from being a teenage punk rocker and developing tinnitus as an adult. Oh well.) Even though I kind of want this to be my favorite episode of the show, by repetition and default, only parts of it hold up especially well. But that song is still catchy as shit. Ain't nothing gonna take that away from us. [6/10]