Sonic Underground, Episode 1.09: Who Do You Think You Are

Sonic Underground, Episode 1.08: Who Do You Think You Are

Original Air Date: September 8th, 1999

Just the other day, I reviewed an episode of "Sonic Underground" written by Ben Hurst and Pat Allee. While I don't know if I'd go so far as to call the episode good, it was definitely good by the standards of this show. If nothing else, I could see shades of "SatAM" in that one. This gave me hope that Hurst and Allee's other "Underground" installments would be, at the very least, tolerable. That hope has now been dashed as "Who Do You Think You Are" is the same trash I've come to expect from this program. 

Sonic and his siblings hear a rumor that Queen Alena's journals are underneath the desert nation of Tashistan. They arrive in the city at the same time as Sleet and Dingo. Sonia meets a kindly thief named Raffi during a foot chase. During the same chase, she is conked on the head by Dingo while he's transformed into a surveillance drone. This causes her to lose her memory, though luckily Raffi's family takes her in. Unaware of its significance, she trades her medallion for some bread and it quickly falls into Sleet's hands. Even after Sonic and Manic locate their lost sister and she regains her memories, they still have to retrieve the medallion. (Typing these plots out really make you realize how convoluted they are.)

Knowing what the production of this show was like, I guess I can't blame Hurst and Allee for falling back on an old cliché like easy amnesia. It's just that this is the seventh time a plot point like this has come up on this blog. "Underground" doesn't really bring anything new to the premise either. It amounts to a handful of scenes with Raffi and Sonia out on the street. If it wasn't for a minor moment, where Sonia's memory loss causes her to cry a little, I would say the plot point happens strictly for contrivance's sake. It's so Sonia's medallion can get snatched, motivating the back half of the episode. The bumps on the noggin that steal and return Sonia's memory don't seem especially severe either. If a slight bump on the head is all it takes, people on Mobius must be running around without their memories all the time.

One must also address the setting of Tashistan. It is a stereotypical Middle Eastern desert location. Raffi dresses like Aladdin. There are domed, temple-like buildings in the background. Much of the episode is set around an open marketplace. Turbans and fezzes are commonplace and all the women are veiled... Which raises the sort of questions this show really isn't prepared to answer. Does Islam exist on this version of Mobius? It's not offensive – as long as you don't mind obviously white actors doing vague accents – but it does seem a little off in a way I can't quite verbalize. Especially since the exotic location really affects the story in no real way. 

The decision to adopt a Middle Eastern setting for this episode becomes really questionable when Sonic starts singing about the "wind across the desert sand" over sitar music. I thought sitars were an Indian thing? The song is called "We Need to Be Free" and the lyricists were really not trying that day. Sample lyrics: "Freedom is a golden bird that lets us fly." Moments like that remind you that these songs were written by Frenchmen who probably didn't speak English as a first language. At least the musical number is barely justified by the plot, as Sonic and Manic use the song to lure out Sonia. 

Then again, maybe the questionable depiction of Middle Eastern culture isn't what really makes me uncomfortable about this episode. The body-horror of Dingo's form being twisted is present and accounted for. Here, he's turned into a floating robotic drone – figure out the physics of that on your own – and a slug-like mermaid. The episode ends with Raffi getting half-Roboticized, left with robot legs. He doesn't seem to mind this at all, even though one assumes it means half his digestive system is now metal. (I guess it never bothered Bunnie.) I'd like to get though one of these without thinking about the fragile mutability of the flesh. 

This episode also seems distressingly obsessed with muck and slime. Sonia cakes her face in mud twice, the second time with very little prompting or reason. Later, she's covered head-to-toe in an unidentifiable creamy substance. Sonic and Manic also get shoved face-first into sewage, fish bones and trash caught in their hair. The same fate befalls Sonia shortly afterwards. She doesn't mind getting all grimy and squishy either, which is actually a plot point. I really don't want to assume this is a sex thing. Regardless of motive, it's gross and unnecessary. 

Then again, why wouldn't I assume it's a sex thing considering this episode also features Sonic and Manic cross dressing as belly dancers and successfully seducing Sleet? Once again, I want to point out that "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog" could sort of get away with Sonic donning paper thin disguises and easily fooling his enemies, on account of being a goofy comedy show. "Underground" obviously wants to be taken more seriously than that. Yet it still goes for the broad comedy of Sonic and his brother putting on a dress and bra and Sleet being pretty into it. I'm not passing judgement on Sleet's sexuality but he probably should've noticed that two of his greatest enemies were shaking their asses right in front of him. Really kind of changes the context of him constantly chasing them, doesn't it?

Anyway... Sorry, "Sonic" cartoons always distract me when they include disturbingly vivid fetishes barely disguised as wacky comedy. Oh yeah, the whole business about Alena's journal also ends up being an obnoxiously vague red herring. This show is really just going to keep doing that for forty episodes, isn't it? Only thirty more left to go! [4/10]