Sonic Underground, Episode 1.27: No Hedgehog is an Island

Sonic Underground, Episode 1.27: No Hedgehog is an Island

Original Air Date: October 5th, 1999

Once again, I have to talked about the weird way "Sonic Underground" was syndicated. As you've probably noticed, there was a loose continuity across the series, with the occasional element or character reoccurring or being referenced again. All of this stuff was shown in the correct order. Which makes it all the more baffling that "Underground's" two actual three-parters were mixed up throughout the run. The second and third parts of the "Origins" arc was interspersed with the second and third parts of the "Chaos Emerald Crisis" arc. I don't know why the series would do something so confusing – other than to make "Sonic Underground" an even more baffling experience – but, obviously, I'm watching shit in the order that actually makes sense. 

Picking up where we left off last time, Sleet and Dingo flee the sinking Flying Fortress with the Chaos Emerald. Proving there's no honor among thieves, Dingo then steals the emerald from Sleet. All he really achieves is dropping the emerald, shattering it. Breaking the emerald in two unleashes a wave of Chaos Energy around the entire planet, which begins to tear Mobius apart. Knuckles leads Sonic, Sonia, and Manic to his great-grandfather Athair, in hopes he'll have some answers. (Sleet, who promises to never betray Robotnik again if he retrieves the emeralds, is on their tails.) And Athair's answer is to team-up with Robotnik. 

The first part of the Chaos Emerald Crisis story worked because it was focused. There was a clear, defined threat – a giant floating war machine – and an easily understood way to stop it: Grab the Emerald. It was a logical way to bring Knuckles into the story and the last minute twist, of Sleet and Dingo's betrayal, added a compelling wrinkle. "No Hedgehog is an Island," unfortunately, did not take that lesson to heart. This is an episode with too much stuff happening. Sonic is separated from Knuckles and his siblings, for no meaningful reason, for most of the story. Sleet and Dingo's story splinters as well. Mostly, this episode's threat has no clear definition. When the emerald – one single, small emerald – is shattered, it causes all sorts of crazy shit to happen. Huge cracks open in the earth and then close. A tornado of green energy appears. Green light shoots out of the ground all over the world, sometimes causing trees to comically shoot into the air. The effects are truly random and that leaves us with a story without much focus. And what's better than a random solution to a random problem, such as when Manic transforms the aforementioned tornado into fireworks via the power of a bitchin' drum solo? Let's see Neil Peart do that. 

I also applauded the last episode for making Robotnik a creditable villain and for allowing Sleet and Dingo to show some competence. That goes right out the window in this episode. As the Flying Fortress falls, Robotnik throws a childish temper tantrum. Later, he pouts petulantly in his base, his master plan ruined. Further on, he allows Sleet to work for him again. Robotnik is supposedly ruthless but the fact that he keeps hiring this guy, despite his repeated failures and now a genuine insurrection, doesn't reflect well on Mobius' tyrant. Dingo betraying Sleet is a surprising moment but long overdue, considering the constant abuse the big orange guy puts up with. Yet that intrigue is immediately dropped by Dingo's incompetence causing an apocalyptic crisis, which is at least in-character. In short, after a decent half-hour of being effective villains, the bad guys go right back to being jokes. 

This episode gives Athair more of a role and, as I expected, he's another evasive mentor character. Knuckles goes to him for answers. He gives him a special urn that can safely hold the Chaos Emeralds, tells him to team up with Robotnik to save the world, and then refuses to elaborate further. There's potentially good reasons to form an alliance with Robotnik, as he has a whole planet's worth of resources at his disposal. But telling someone to work with the mad dictator who just tried to carpet bomb the entire planet earlier in the day, probably requires a little more information. Not on this show, where old wise dudes in robes are never to be doubted and can never be expected to give a straight fucking answer. 

Even though the plot has our heroes facing down a global apocalypse, we still have to make room for a song. And, boy, is it out-of-place this time. Wild Chaos Energy is literally tearing the planet apart, which has got Knuckles feeling understandably overwhelmed. Sonic, Sonia, and Manic launch into a punk song called "Learn to Overcome," which really does not feel like the best use of their time in this situation. As for the song itself, the built-in roughness allows me to forgive the questionable lyrics. At least there are loud guitars and drums, even if the "na na na nas" they throw in feel more like a pop thing than a punk thing. The music video sequence features Sonic, Sonia, and Manic with mohawks and facial piercings as well as scenes of them posing in a boxing ring. Which is pretty funny. 

Another thing holding this episode back is some not-too-grand animation. The scene where Sonia is trapped into a huge crack in the ground, nearly crushed by the fluctuating walls, is undermined by some serious off-model moments. Sonia's size shifts throughout the scene while her boobs swell to balloon proportions during one close-up. Later, when Dingo picks up the emerald shards and tries to force them back together, his skeleton starts to flash through his skin. This is lingered on, in repetitive fashion, for several seconds. Since we never see Dingo in this episode after that scene, it really makes it look like he died. Also, Knuckles is not consistently portrayed here. The shape of his face and size of his dreads and hands change several times. The tougher-than-leather echidna sure looks like an adorable puppy dog numerous times throughout this episode. 

Also, the title makes no goddamn sense. Knuckles is the conflicted character in this episode, not the triplets. They all have each other's backs. If the title is just a shitty pun, it also makes no sense, as the Floating Island does not appear in this twenty-one minutes. In other words, after a pretty decent start, the Chaos Emerald Crisis returns to the level of quality we expect from this cartoon. Fishes gotta swim, birds gotta fly, and "Underground's" gotta suck. Oh well. Maybe it'll end strong? [4/10]