Sonic Boom, Episode 2.33: Amy and Stick's Excellent Staycation

Sonic Boom, Episode 2.33: Amy and Stick's Excellent Staycation 

Original Air Date: June 24th, 2017

Since the "Sonic Boom" episodes are so short, one can't help but assume the installments were designed to be shown back-to-back, in order to fill the half-hour time slot typical to children's cartoons. I suspect this is how the show aired in some international markets and it's currently how the episodes are structured on Tubi. Up until now, that had no effect on the actual episodes themselves. However, with the post-"Robots from the Sky" focus on continuity, the writers clearly started to experiment with this set-up. "Planes, Trains, and Dude-Mobiles" left Any and Sticks alone in Hedgehog Village while the guys were on tour. We got glimpses of what the girls were up to in the previous episodes, suggesting there might be more to that story than what we saw. "Amy and Sticks' Excellent Staycation" now shows us their side of the story. If the episodes are watched back-to-back, this plays like a rather clever little double feature. When watched with a week between them, as the program did here in the U.S., it's not as much fun. Another example of how badly this show got screwed by network execs. 

Also, both episodes take their titles from beloved eighties comedies, though "Amy and Sticks' Excellent Staycation" disappointingly does not involve hair metal, time travel, or George Carlin. Instead, while the boys are in their road trip, Amy hopes to have a relaxing girl's weekend with Sticks. This is delayed slightly by Sticks' paranoia and the two females' wildly different ideas of fun. However, Amy eventually convinces Sticks to participate in a spa trip. The rest and relaxation is interrupted when Belinda – the wife of nerd-turned-bad-guy Charlie – decides to pursue supervillainy on her own. Now, the ladies have to save the day without the support of their macho teammates. 

This episode brings to light something I've probably wondered about before. As different as Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles are, they have enough similar traits that you can see why they are friends. Sonic and Knuckles are united by their various dude-bro qualities. While Tails is a lot nerdier, his personalities compliments Sonic in other ways. And all three of them can enjoy some video games or hot wings together. What about Amy Rose and Sticks though? Why are they friends? Amy is neat and orderly. Even if "Boom" has toned down her usual girly-girl elements, she's still a very pink, very traditionally feminine young lady. Sticks, meanwhile, is a rather literal wild child who disregards most indicators of polite society, in service of her conspiracy-inclined, survivalist worldview. She has no use for fashion or accessorizing and seems content to live in an actual hole in the ground. I guess they are united by their mutual love of smashing robots. Aside from that? Would these two actually be buddies outside of an "Odd Couple" situation? They feel more like co-workers than friends to me. 

"Excellent Staycation" seems ready to play with this vast difference at first. Sticks is hyper-focused on bayonets, much to Amy's annoyance. The badger's idea of a good time is tossing clumps of mud around, which neat freak Amy can't handle at all. The spa seems to represent a happy middle ground for these two, a place where Amy can chill and Sticks can wallow in mud. After that though, the episode more-or-less abandons trying to find elements the two have in common. Next we see Amy teaching Sticks to knit, which makes it feel like the badger is some experiment Amy has taken on. Like she wants to civilize the savage or something. Perhaps Alan Denton and Greg Hahn realized, halfway through writing the script, that Amy and Sticks don't actually have that many similar qualities and decided to pivot from there. Or maybe they simply had to shove in an action sequence and whatever other goals playing these two off each other had got lost. 

One of the limits of Amy as a character is that she corresponds to a very stereotypical conception of femininity. She wears pink and ribbons and bows, is friend to the animals, and has a girlish crush. The "Boom" version of her character pairs this with even more girlish hobbies, like tea parties, knitting, and romance novels. Having a mud-encrusted tomboy like Sticks standing right next to her would be a good way to counteract any unfortunate implications. "See, not all women have to be soft, pink homemakers! Let your freak flag fly, girls!" Instead, the last act of this episode has both females weaponizing press-on nails, hair extensions, and shampoo. This is probably only because this scene happens to be set in a spa... Yet the result still feels a bit like the male writers couldn't think of anything for these female characters to do that didn't revolve around make-up, fashion, and beauty tips. 

This extends to the villainous subplot. Belinda overhears that Sonic is out of town while seated next to Amy at the spa. She wants her supervillain husband to strike in that moment but he's too absorbed in his manly hobby of digging up rocks. This results in Belinda occupying another unfortunate feminine stereotype: The shrewish wife who hen pecks her husband and resorts to violence whenever she doesn't immediately get her way, playing into the idea that women are emotionally volatile and inherently irrational. This impression is furthered by her eventual rampage through the town being largely devoted to petty grievances. Which I guess doesn't make her any different from most of the other "Boom" villains but... I don't know. I doubt think the writers did all of this intentionally but it doesn't strikes me as not the best choice. 

None of these issues mean I didn't find this episode amusing. In fact, it's got some good gags. The best of which revolves around, simply, Eggman being a lunatic. Amy decides to distract the doctor by putting a life-sized doll of Sonic up on a post. In another example of the characters' cognitive awareness varying depending totally on whether them being an idiot is funny in that moment, Eggman immediately falls for this. He spends the rest of the episode trying to fool and murder a stuff toy. The doctor having a completely one-sided argument with the Sonic decoy might make him look schizophrenic but it's also amusingly bizarre. The ploys to confuse the plush hedgehog gets weirder, as Orbot and Cubot do little dances, until Eggman's fixation on the fake Sonic gets nearly as weird as Amy having such a prop in the first place. (Which the script immediately lampshades, of course.) Whether it "makes sense," Eggman dedicating so much time and energy to trying to kill a mannequin, only for it to inexplicably bests him, is a good joke. 

These are paired alongside some typical examples of "Boom" humor. Such as fourth wall leaning self-awareness, evident in a line of dialogue from Amy that occurs after a cut immediately being picked up by Sticks, which escalates to both characters showing varying levels of awareness of being on a TV show. Or when Belinda rages at the Lady Goat, a minor background character that she looks nearly identical to. These are sharper jokes than rather limply delivered lines about mud baths or everyone hating Fastidious Beaver's constantly correcting everyone's grammar. Also, there's a “Matrix” joke – in 2017! – which is easily the surest sign that the writers were phoning it in on this one. 

Even if some of the jokes are weak, this episode is still better as a comedy than it is as an action/adventure show. Any hope that "Boom's" overall standard for action sequences might have been raised by the "Robots from the Sky" four parter is dashed here. These action scenes are exactly as weightless, slow, and awkward as I've come to expect from "Boom." Sticks landing atop a MantisBot, staying suspended in the air for several seconds as she karate kicks it head off, or being slowly launched across the room into an immobile wall look lifeless. In a weird touch, the lasers from Belinda's mech suit simply freezes everyone they strike, which seems like a deeply unsatisfying compromise for not being able to afford some explosion. Also, any time the episode focuses on those piles of mud, it seems to feature an utterly still pattern upon it that looks incredibly weird whenever it interacts with other people. I know I've beaten this drum over and over again but this show really should have just been traditionally animated if they didn't have the resource to make something as simple as mud not look so fucking off. 

I think this review came off more negative than I intended. I still reasonably enjoyed this episode, even if the script makes some iffy choices and the animation isn't the best. I guess I wanted a little more from an episode based around exploring Amy and Sticks' odd friendship. They can't all be winners and even a half-baked installment contains some decent gags, so I guess it's not too big of a missed opportunity. [6/10]