Sonic Underground, Episode 1.02: To Catch a Queen

Sonic Underground, Episode 1.02: To Catch a Queen

Original Air Date: August 31st, 1999

While I have comparatively few memories of watching "Sonic Underground" when it was new, I do vividly recall the first episode I saw. All I really remember about it is a scene of Sonic conquering his fear of water by doing a supersonic leap over an underground stream. This is, I think, the first time I really recall Sonic's inability to swim being characterized as hydrophobia. In other words, this one episode of this dumbass cartoon is partially responsible for this blog being entitled "Hedgehogs Can't Swim." So that's something, I guess.

"To Catch a Queen" was also the second episode to air, so I guess I jumped onto "Sonic Underground" way earlier than I realized. It involves Argus, a former guard to Queen Alena. He's captured by Sleet and Dingo and quickly roboticized. Sonic and his siblings rescue him but their magical medallions only affect him long enough to reveal the partial location of his rendezvous point with the Queen. After a little more digging – and a musical number – they learn that this meeting place is in the sewers. Sleet and Dingo are also aware of this and ambush the triplets underground. 

Roboticization has already come up a lot across these first four episodes. In fact, "To Catch a Queen" reveals the strange fact that Robotnik holds gala unveiling ceremonies for especially prominent Robians. Which really makes no sense, considering one robot slave isn't really worth anymore than another. This is just one way that "Sonic Underground" doesn't really grapple with the existential horrors of roboticization. "SatAM" and the early comics made a point of emphasizing how dehumanizing this process was. It was a major threat always hanging over the heroes. Here, it's just a plot device, a reason for the story relevant Argue to dip in and out of the episode. 

And what about this Argus guy? It's weird that the episode is built around a character we've never seen before and will never see again. Then again, that also describes Sonic, Sonia, and Manic's relationship with their own mother. After seeing a picture of them as babies with Argus, Manic even notes that he doesn't really remember their childhood much. The entire series is built around our heroes trying to reunite with someone they barely remember, that they have no especially deep emotional attachment to. That's weird, right? Just as the last episode did, "To Catch a Queen" teases the triplets with a near-encounter with their mom. Is the whole series going to be like this? Constant, fleeting almost-meetings with a parental unit our protagonists don't even know that well?

There's a reason why the triplets are so fixated on finding this mom they don't actually know. As the theme song says, they made a vow their mother would be found. It's the driving plot point of the whole show. Four episodes deep and I can already tell how static these characters are. Sonic is always annoying his sister with his speed. (His catchphrase of "I'm waiting" is repeated here more often than in "AoStH.") Sonia is always the snooty princess, pining for her boyfriend Bartleby. Manic is always the pickpocket with sticky fingers. Even though the opening three-parter was about the triplets getting over these differences, it doesn't matter. The show designates its cast a couple of personality quirks and that's the extent of their depth. Sonic's fear of water is just another attribute assigned to him, along with his speed and endless desire to find his mom. It's not real growth. 

You can see this static quality in the supporting cast too. Dingo's childish crush on Sonia is referenced again. Yet the real one-note quirk that defines that character is focused on here. Sleet has a device that he zaps Dingo with, which changed his body into whatever shape is required. In this episode, Dingo is morphed into a football-shaped baby, a house fly, a random tipster that kind of looks like a chimpanzee, and Argus. I would imagine such drastic transmutations would be incredibly painful for the guy – not to mention the clear glee Sleet takes in humiliating his partner – but the show plays it for broad comedy. It's certainly horrifying for the viewer to watch, as Dingo's features being stretched over such varying shapes is some primo body horror. 

Sleet and Dingo are the primary antagonists of this episode, with Robotnik taking a back seat. Honestly, I recall that being true of most of "Underground." Sonic and his supposed arch-enemy interact very little in this iteration of the series, as I remember. Which might be why the moment in "To Catch a Queen" that feels the most Sonic-y is when the hedgehog humiliates Robotnik one-on-one. At that ridiculous robot unveiling, Sonic tosses a microphone at Robotnik's head and saws at the stage until it flips over. It's very silly. Despite Garry Chalk's grim bluster, it's a moment more befitting Long John Baldry's Robotnik than Jim Cummings'. Yet at least Sonic and Robotnik are actually in the same room together. 

I guess my "Sonic Underground" reviews will be continuously characterized by me ripping into the song-of-the-day. "Have You Got the 411?," which is performed when the triplets are trying to suss out their mom's location, is typically inane. It still bugs me that a band featuring a guitar and drum set only seems to produce synth pop numbers. "Underground's" song writers continue to rely on repetitive lyrics and simplistic melodies. (A repeated couplet is "I'm looking for someone/Have you got the 411?" Yes, they rhyme "one" with "one.") However, this number is kind of catchy, owing perhaps to its "na-na-nanana-na" backing track. That's more than I can say for the last three musical segments.

Also, the characters go noticeably off-model several times. Sonic and Manic have freakishly long limbs in their first scene, for one example. And I continue to find the mechanical design of this show pretty underwhelming. Argus' aircraft resembles the flying winnebago from "Spaceballs" a bit too much to take it seriously. It's a dumb, lame episode. Not that I'm surprised or anything. I can already feel myself growing numb to "Underground's" mediocrity-bordering-on-badness. By the end of this retrospective, I will presumably feel nothing at all. [5/10]