Sonic Underground, Episode 1.20: Three Hedgehogs and a Baby

Sonic Underground, Episode 1.20: Three Hedgehogs and a Baby

Original Air Date: September 24th, 1999

There aren't very many episodes of "Sonic Underground" that made much of an impression on viewers, even within the "Sonic" fandom. However, one episode has proven especially infamous. At some point, an out-of-context clip from "Three Hedgehogs and a Baby," the topic of today's review, went viral. The incredibly bizarre and badly animated sequence stood as yet another example of how cursed the entire "Sonic" franchise is. Now the time has come for me to consider this particular installment in all its glory. 

While on the trail of a new invention called a "micro-roboticizer," Sonic and his siblings hear a baby crying in an alleyway. They take the infant hedgehog back to their lair where Manic quickly forms a bond with the child, that he nicknames "Hip." However, the child holds a dark secret: He's actually an android built by Robotnik. The goal of this spy-baby is to record the path to Sanctuary. (Dingo is disguised as Hip's bassinet, for extra insurance.) Inevitably, Manic is going to discover the truth. 

"Three Hedgehogs and a Baby" is another Len Janssen scripted episode. It's another example where the "SatAM" influence is especially obvious. Robotnik is determined to seek out Sanctuary, not dissimilar to the previous iteration of the character tirelessly searching for Knothole Village. There's even a scene where Sonic and Sonia sneak into Robotnik's base, ending up surrounded by SWATBots and with electric shackles around their ankles. This is one of the few moments in the series so far where Sonic has actually come face-to-face with Robotnik, ostensibly his archenemy and the main adversary of the series. 

Yet, if this is an episode of "Underground" that can function as a SatAM" substitute, it's not a very good one. Gary Chalk's limitations as Robotnik are especially evident here. He mostly just laughs megalomaniacally, in a very exaggerated cartoon supervillain fashion. He absolutely lacks the sinister glee and malevolent intent Jim Cummings brought to the character. Sonic and Sonia never really feel like they are in danger. They escape when Sonic activates his magical guitar and creates a power outage, easy enough. Mostly, the premise doesn't really work because we've barely spent any time in Sanctuary. We aren't invested in it, the way we were in Knothole and all its residents. There's just not much tension to this episode. 

Even this is not the biggest problem facing this episode. In order for the script to be really effective, the audience has to be invested in Manic and Hip's relationship. Sadly, the baby hedgehog robot is incredibly unappealing. This is largely thanks to another hideous "Sonic Underground" character design. His eyes are squinty. His face extends upward in a weird way but also appears way too small for his head. His feet and arms seem oversized and overly detailed. It's just painful to look at him. Being a baby, he spends a lot of time crying, shitting, and burping. Which is normal but the script rarely presents the upsides of having a baby around, namely them being cute or watching them grow. Mostly, Manic goes from resenting Hip to loving him within a few scenes. I know this is a half-hour cartoon but I've seen similarly short shows endear an audience to a new character, and mine tension from their presence, way more effectively. (The "Beast Wars" episode "Transmutate" is similar to this one and about 100% better.)

Ya know, that's just the base-level incompetence that I've come to expect from this show. You can see that same lack of shits given in other elements of the episode. Namely the animation, which verges from the mediocre to the hilariously half-asses. Yes, the infamous climax of the episode is hysterically nonsensical. The scene of Hip falling through the air, Manic chasing after on his boogie board to grab him, is animated without any sense of depth or speed. The baby seems to float downward as a languid pace. The image of an infant exploding, its eyeball flying through the air and wires dangling out of its smashed head, is too bizarre. When combined with the typically terrible character designs, I can see why this moment became a minor meme. 

Aside from Hip's ghastly appearance, the worst thing about the episode is how the plot discredits its own premise. Disguising Dingo as the baby basket seems to largely void the need for the robo-baby in the first place. Why go to the trouble of building a realistic robot when you could just disguise Dingo as a mundane object and slip him in somewhere? Throughout the episode, Dingo-in-bassinet-form also sprouts limbs and moves around. This violates the previous rules we've seen regarding Dingo's transformations, where he's needed another blast from Sleet's transmogrifier to change shape... But mostly it just looks hilarious and horrible. This show presented so many moments of hideous body horror in such a casual way. (There's also a moment here were a fleet of Robotnik vehicles is perfectly cloaked, technology that probably could've been applied in a much smarter way.) 

Oh yeah, there's a song too. Of course there is. Instead of focusing on Manic and Hip's relationship, with some adorable "Kooks"-style number, the song instead generically celebrates the freedom of childhood. "Being a Kid is Cool" is, as that title indicates, totally insipid in both its lyrics and tinny music. The references to "bubbly bubble baths," ice cream, and boo-boos is sickeningly saccharine. The show seems aware of how obnoxious this song is, as we get a split-second shot of Robotnik holding his ears and grimacing. I've got to agree with that one. This is the music they play in Hell's waiting room. 

I guess I should be thankful that there aren't any poop jokes in this episode. Only one sequence is concerned with dirty diapers and it is, as far as children media's treatment of this topic goes, fairly tasteful. Truthfully, I've seen more embarrassing, more cringe-inducing episodes of this show already. (And this isn't even the worst "Sonic" cartoon about babies, as both of "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog's" baby-centric episodes are considerably more grating.) Yet "Three Hedgehogs and a Baby" does deserve its infamy for the aesthetic missteps it makes. It may not be the ugliest or most bizarre episode of "Sonic Underground" but it certainly combines those attributes in a suitably baffling way. [4/10]