Sonic Boom, Episode 1.12: Circus of Plunders

Sonic Boom, Episode 1.12: Circus of Plunders

Original Air Date: February 7th, 2015

This episode of "Sonic Boom" begins with our heroes fighting off Eggman's newest robot of doom. Though the good guys still drive the villain off, Tails using his latest invention – a zapper called a De-Bolterizer, that immediately strips the bolts and bearings off a device – misfires. The resulting rock slide nearly gets our heroes squished, which understandably annoys Amy. Tails flies off right before another plot intercedes on this one. A circus rolls in, run by T.W. Barker. He feeds the heroes a sob story about how his team of performers deserted him and he has no show to put on. Sonic and the gang volunteer for one night... But, of course, Barker is a scoundrel and intends to keep them there forever. Which means it's up to Tails to save the day. 

"Circus of Plunders" begins with what I can only describe as a boss battle. We don't see the events leading up to this scuffle between the Sonic Team and Eggman's latest death machine. One assumes they were running through colorful loops and fighting off a collection of minions. Cause Eggman appearing in a gimmicky vehicle and attempting to crush the heroes, and then flying off after he's been defeated, feels like what happens at the end of a level of any given "Sonic" game. His machine here, an octopus inspired contraption called Octopus Bot, even feels like it would fit right in with any of the classic game's various boss battles. This is "Sonic Boom" so, naturally, the sequence is full of jokes and one-liners. Such as everyone's inability to decide which cephalopod Eggman's vehicle is based on. Yet I still enjoyed how classically "Sonic"-y this scene is. 

This episode of "Boom" is also a little more character centric than I've come to expect from this show, in the sense that it contains a clearly defined arc. At the beginning of our story, Tails has a crisis of confidence. His willingness to test out his new invention almost got his friends hurt. He let them down and feels bad about it. Before this eleven minutes is up, he will prove himself again to his makeshift family by saving the day. It's predictable but I like it anyway. A plot like this is a good way to combine Tails' tradition characterization – a kid desperate to prove himself – with the defining feature of his "Boom" version, that of an overeager genius inventor who frequently gets in over his head. 

If "Boom" was a half-hour show, instead of an eleven minute one, it would've had more time to balance Tails' arc with its A-plot. Instead, "Circus of Plunders" feels like it's going to be about one thing before a traditional action/adventure plot almost literally rolls in. There's such a disconnect between Tails' subplot and the main story of T.W. Barker abducting his friends that it actually creates a plot hole. Tails takes off his headset while perfecting the De-Bolterizer. After putting it back on, he immediately contacts Sonic who reveals they've been taken by Barker... Except Tails wasn't there when Barker appeared. He has no idea any of this happened! How does he know where the tent is set up or even what's going on? I guess you just have to roll with sloppy narrative shortcuts like this, when there's only half the usual time here to tell the kind of story usually told in twenty minutes. 

That's why "Boom" usually focuses on comedy, because goofy gags are easier to pull off in less time. Yet its focus on a classic "heroes vs. villains" plot does distinguish "Circus of Plunders" from your typical "Boom" episode. Either because contrasting the expected circus atmosphere of fun and joviality with villainy is easy to do, or because there's just something naturally seedy about circuses, there's a lot of evil circuses in fiction. Sonic and the gang being captured by such an enterprise, and trapped in archetypal circus performer roles, is the kind of plot you'd expect to see in a superhero show, not a comedy one. There's definitely some novelty to it though. Watching Sonic and the gang fight a villain-of-the-week, caught up in a stand alone scheme before defeating him in a suitably ironic fashion, is sort of fun. It's satisfying, you know?

And what of that supervillain of the week? T.W. Barker previously appeared in "Dude, Where's My Eggman?" Considering the extra amount of work that was put into his design, I'm not surprised they brought him back. Again, an evil circus ringmaster is a classical villain type. (There's a long-running Marvel villain literally named Ringmaster.) It's a logical idea, as the role of ringmaster brings with it dramatic flare and the premise of control. Barker is a pretty amusing figure. Kirk Thornton's vocal performance – which gives me Timothy Dalton as Mr. Pricklepants vibes – works well. The dude knows how to roll his Rs. It's pretty ridiculous that the good guys so easily fall into Barker's scheme but, ya know, that's just one of those contrivances you have to accept. Otherwise, we wouldn't have an episode. 

No matter how much "Circus of Plunders" feels like a superhero story, this is still an episode of "Sonic Boom." The yuk-yuks and chortles must be represented. They mostly appear here as pithy one-liners, most of which are not very inspired. Right before Knuckles gets rolled over by a boulder, he quips that "he can do this all day" before immediately changing his mind. (Barker also sticks him in the role of the human cannonball, but skips the helmet, leading Knuckles to being repeatedly concussed. See, cause he's stupid!) Sticks mentioning how she should've taken "a log-rolling class" is such a nonsensical moment. So is Barker admitting, while hyping up the audience, that his circus is no different than any other circus. He's trying to get people excited! Why would he do that? But there's still a couple of funny bits. Knuckles asking about Sonic's middle name, Sticks going on a paranoid freak-out about mole foxes, or Amy's distress at being cast as a sad clown are only mildly amusing. Still, I found myself once again wishing "Boom" had just put the giggles aside and focused on the story here. 

The action scenes are also very underwhelming. That's such a typical state of affairs for "Sonic Boom" that it's hardly worth mentioning. Only the specific way Barker is defeated struck me as especially clever. Otherwise, it's the same stiff, weirdly weightless robot smashing we've come to expect from this series. I really wish this show was traditionally animated. While "Circus of Plunders" flubs it in some important ways, I still kind of liked it. It hits the dramatic beats in a satisfying way, even if it feels constrained by the show's runtime and the expectations of being a comedy. [6/10]