Sonic Underground, Episode 1.17: Head Games

Sonic Underground, Episode 1.17: Head Games

Original Air Date: September 21st, 1999

"Head Games" begins with Sonic indulging a sudden craving for chili dogs, despite his sister's insistence that they get on the road. The chili dog vendor, under the instructions of Queen Alena, slips Sonic a coconut. Written on the dry and fibrous drupe is a message to head to Speedster Island. There, the native tribe is starving because there's no fish to capture anymore. Sleet, Dingo, and Bartleby arrive with the proposition to buy the island and turn it into a resort. (An obvious trick.) Mantu, the chief's son, prayers to the island's hedgehog-shaped idols to save them... Which is when Sonic and his siblings arrive. 

"Head Games" deserves some points for almost being a compelling depiction of colonialism. Robotnik is responsible for the native's food source drying up. (He's described as "scaring off" the fish, instead of just killing them via pollution.) He sends in envoys to buy up the land for cheap, building resorts there that will be worth far more than the initial bid. The native tribes will be displaced but are promised jobs... When the plan is to actually roboticize them as soon as possible. It's a familiar story – not dissimilar to the one of the Americas – but one that we must always be reminded of. 

Yet any subversive, anticolonial quality that might've been gleamed from "Head Games" is tarnished by its not exactly flattering portrayal of indigenous people. Mantu and his tribe wear colorful mumus and loin clothes, not dissimilar to Hawaiian culture. (A clear inspiration for the episode.) Yet they also have feathered headdresses, not unlike the stereotypical Wild West Indian. The idea of an island culture with big-headed stone idols is obviously meant to bring Easter Island and its world famous Moai monoliths to mind. Mantu, meanwhile, has a vaguely Jamaican sounding accent, obviously provided by a white actor. His dad is voiced by Garry Chalk's "Beast Wars" co-star, Blu Mankuna, who doesn't apply any specific accent to the character. 

It's an unspecific mishmash of different "primitive" cultures, which is definitely some shade of culturally insensitive. Yet even this isn't the most offensive part. We never learn much about Mantu's tribe or their culture, beyond the statues they pray to. All we really know about them is that they are destined to be saved by foreigners. Their entire religion, or at least all we know about it, is based around waiting to be saved by people from outside their own culture. While Sonic and his siblings are all voiced by a black guy, kind of dispelling any white savior undertones, they are also royalty born in distinctly European-style castles. This would be like the Prince of England showing up to save Native Americans from the white settlers, as prophesized by the Americans' own beliefs. It's, at best, extremely dumb and, at worst, racist in a way I'm too tired to really dig into right now. 

Not that I suspect writer Michael Edens was intentionally sneaking some weird message into this otherwise anticolonial story. As always, I'm reading way too much into a stupid children's cartoon that was quickly and cheaply produced without too much thought being put into it. So let's instead talk about how generally weird this episode is. It's low-key hilarious to me that even a common hot dog vendor is part of Queen Alena's secret network. So many people know what the Queen is doing, that I really don't know why Robotnik has had so much trouble finding her. Or her own kids, for that matter. She's literally right over Sonic's shoulder in this scene, directing instruction being sent to him just out of sight. If only he had turned around in that moment!

Something else that's weird: Considering Sonic, Sonia, and Manic were depicted as iconography by an obviously ancient culture, I'm just curious about how wide-spread and deep this prophecy goes. It seems literally the entire planet, including remote cultures, were waiting for these guys to come along. They even named their home Speedster Island. I know this is just because of dumb, shallow writing but, when examined for a minute, it gives the impression that Sonic is this universal legend on Mobius, with magical, mystical links to every culture on the planet. Their pendants are linked to the islanders' massive statues, buried in the ground after thousands of years... So can we assume that the Oracle and his cronies have been planning this shit for eons? This dumb plot point raises so many questions that this dumb cartoon is not prepared to answer.

The fact that I'm thinking so much about this suggests "Head Games" might be a little better than your average "Underground" episode. Maybe... But it still has lots of the typical terrible/uncomfortable shit you associate with this show. The episode opens with a shot of Sonic's grumbling tummy, leading to an extend sequence of him drooling over chili dogs, scarfing them down in graphic detail, and then burping in Sonia's face. I'm not saying this is a sex thing but I definitely didn't want to see that. There's also the typical shit of Dingo's flesh being twisted into horrible new forms, including a vine/boa constrictor monstrosity at the end. There's also a pretty funny scene where Sonia starts randomly doing somersaults while fighting SWATBots. That made me laugh. 

Of course, no discussion about "Sonic Underground" being weird and dumb can be complete without mentioning the music. Today's song is called "Take a Chance," which is not an ABBA cover but an embarrassing attempt at reggae music. (This includes the guy who provides Sonic's singing voice doing a bad accent.) It's a song about taking a chance on new experiences, which doesn't really relate to the episode's themes in any way. Yet this is not the most annoying thing about the song. It's placed early in the episode, after Sonic and the gang first meet Mantu. This is despite the episode's climax involving the royal triplets bringing the statues to life with the power of their rocking. Wouldn't that have been the more appropriate place for a big musical number? 

One baffling decision after another was made with this episode, which I guess is also true of the entire series. At least "Head Games" has some good ideas contained within it, which is more than I can say for a lot of these episodes. Also, I guess the title is a pun about the great big stone heads the statues have? Boy, they really didn't put any thought into this, did they? [5/10]