Sonic Boom, Episode 1.52: It Takes A Village to Defeat a Hedgehog

Sonic Boom, Episode 1.52: It Takes A Village to Defeat a Hedgehog

Original Air Date: November 14th, 2015

After what seems like far too much time – the number of random hiatuses I took along the way surely didn’t help – I have finally reached the end of “Sonic Boom: Season 1.” Being a comedic series that was light on continuity and reoccurring plot points, it’s not like the show had a grand finale to build up to. We were never going to see this version of Sonic struggle against some grand unified scheme by this version of Eggman. This might be the case but the “Boom” writers managed to cook up something kind of cool for the season finale. The episode pays homage to earlier events in the season while bringing in a real fan favorite. 

Presumably fed up from a whole season worth of defeats, Eggman has the idea of gathering together as many of Sonic’s enemies and forming an alliance. He invites the Thunderbolt Society, T.W. Baker, his two bear clown sidekicks, and Charlie into a room. He also invites Shadow the Hedgehog, who is quickly unimpressed by Eggman’s leadership skills. Meanwhile, Sonic and his friends struggle with putting together a book shelf from “that foreign build-your-own-furniture store.” When the villains finally strike, the team-up is enough to challenge Sonic and the gang. Shadow especially proves to be a worthy adversary. 

“It Takes a Village to Defeat a Hedgehog” sees Alan Denton and Greg Hahn putting their typically irreverent riff on another well-trod superhero/action-adventure trope. The villainous team-up is almost as old as the concept of villains itself. The idea probably dates back to ancient mother-of-monsters deities like Tiamat and Ekidna linking together hordes of mythical beasts. However, Captain Marvel’s Monster Society of Evil is likely the popular progenitor of the concept. (If not quite the first.) From there, it became a commonly occurring premise in superhero comics and kids cartoons. The Legion of Doom, the Sinister Six, the Superman Revenge Squad, the Masters of Evil and many, many more have followed. It’s a logical enough idea: If one supervillain is enough to give the hero grief, a whole alliance of them (united against their common foe) is a reasonable way to raise the stakes even higher. 

Of course, “Sonic Boom” being the show it is, the goal here is to totally take the piss out of this well-worn concept. Almost all the villains Eggman gathers together are pretty bad at their jobs, with the Thunderbolt Society being especially pathetic. United supervillains scheming amongst themselves and backstabbing each other is regular features of these stories. Instead, Eggman’s Legion of Doom spends nearly the entire time pettily arguing semantics and eating fine cheeses. When Eggman has an emotional breakdown, the others fall into line and join him in some goofy trust-building exercises. This includes falling into each other’s arms and playing improve groups. 

It makes for some good jokes. We expect grand, evil machinations and instead get petulant whining and office-style routines. This is what “Sonic Boom” excels at, contrasting the superheroic trappings of its cast with the most commonplace problems and disagreements the writers can think of. It goes both ways too. Instead of having some far-flung adventure or saving the day, Sonic and the others spend most of this episode wrestling with an unruly piece of furniture. Definitely not the most heroic behavior, especially when it results in Sonic nearly loosing his temper with his friends or everyone failing to assemble the shelf correctly. 

Yet a decent subversion of expected action cartoon plot points is probably not why this is one of the more fondly recalled episodes of "Sonic Boom." No, that's easy enough to figure out. This episode marks the first “Sonic Boom” appearance of the so-called Ultimate Lifeform, Shadow the Hedgehog himself. Considering few game characters had appeared in “Boom” outside the main four before, this was a major deal. Since this show is all about reducing these characters down to their most basic attributes, this version of Shadow is a gruff asshole with ridiculous superpowers and a serious need to make Sonic humble. (He also looks more-or-less the same as his main universe counterpart, though with chunkier gloves and boots.) That makes him an ideal straight man to Eggman's tomfoolery, giving the mad scientist more than a few terse glares throughout the episode. Kirk Thornton does a passable Vegeta while voicing him. 

Of course, there's something kind of weird about Shadow showing up like this. This character has never been on the show before! Eggman, Sonic, and all the other heroes clearly know who he is. Since they want to beat the stuffing out of each other, there's obviously some sort of history between these hedgehogs. What that is is never elaborated on. One of the members of the Lightning Bolt Society even asks the question of who this dude is, an amusing joke meant to tell the audience not to worry about the inconsistencies much. If you're watching this cartoon, you definitely know who Shadow the Hedgehog is. How exactly his standard backstory fits into the show's continuity, I can only speculate upon. (Shadow showed up in “Rise of Lyric,” which I guess is canon to the show, though its events have never come up before.)

The above comment about Shadow's identity is one of many meta moments in this episode. Eggamn answers by saying he's the “second most popular character in canon,” which is an astute observation. This proceeds a lengthy moment at the end, where Cubot and Orbot discuss whether the very show they appear on has a future. Those meta moments stand alongside some sharp, amusing one-liners. Various members of the villainous alliance arguing about parliamentary procedure and Eggman’s crisis in confidence are probably the funniest moments. I also like Knuckles' reaction to the wordless IKEA instructions, the subplot leading to some pretty amusing moments in general.

You'd expect Shadow's appearance to proceed some seriously bitchin' action sequence. And it does, for about five seconds. There's a really great moment where Shadow uppercuts Sonic into the air before teleporting right above him and kicking him back towards the ground. That's a novel use of his superpowers and a neat bit of asskickery. It's also the sole bit of smooth creative action in the episode. The rest of the action sequences are up to the “Boom” standard. By which I mean they are incredibly stiff and unconvincing. For most of their fight, Sonic and Shadow just spin-dash at each other, two blurry balls flying through the air and colliding. Amy and Sticks' fight with the clown bears is seriously underwhelming. It's all sort of like that. I'm used to it by now.

Now that the first season of “Sonic Boom” is finished, I can say this about the show: Its quality depends greatly on who is writing a given episode. Even then, some writers are wildly inconsistent. Reid Harrison wrote some of the season's funniest episodes and some of its most inert. If nothing else, “Sonic Boom” is versatile within the boundaries of its sitcom-like set-up. “It Takes a Village to Defeat a Hedgehog” is a pretty fun episode, with a decent amount of laughs and a speedy pacing. I'll take it! [7/10]