Sonic Boom, Episode 2.37: Return of the Buddy Buddy Temple of Doom

Sonic Boom, Episode 2.37: Return of the Buddy Buddy Temple of Doom

Original Air Date: July 22nd, 2017

Despite the prominent billing it gets in the title, "Return of the Buddy Buddy Temple of Doom" isn't really about the Buddy Buddy Temple. The episode begins with Sonic easily out-matching Charlie and his mech suit, which prompts Eggman into a jealous rage. He builds his own bitchin' mech suit but finds himself without a power source potent enough to fuel it. A chance encounter with Charlie sees Eggman learning about the Tummel Crystal, a legendary magical rock said to be buried under the titular location. Eggman begins digging for it and stumbles upon some Froglodytes, who immediately begin to worship him as their new god. They kidnap nearly all the residents of Gogoba Village to act as slave labor in the mines. Sonic, Tails, and Amy decide they better put a stop to all this. 

I know I've been going on about this a lot recently but the fact of the matter remains: I'm still impressed with how the "Sonic Boom" writers have managed to take a bunch of basically one-off jokes and build an actual universe around them. "Return of the Buddy Buddy Temple" might actually be the most continuity dense episode of the program yet. There are at least five previous episodes you'd have to watch before this one to understand where all these elements came from. Charlie and the Gogobas are well established by this point. The Froglodytes definitely seemed like nothing more than gag characters to build a single episode around but here they are, making their third appearance. The Buddy Buddy Temple, however, only appeared in one previous installment. When Sonic leaps into his own battle robot at the end, a reappearance of the primary plot device from "Mech Suits Me," without any further information, I realized that this one truly is an episode for the hardcore fans. This is like if "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog" made an episode weaving together Wes Weasley, Breezie, that town full of hot dog people, the "Mean Bean Machine" robots, and Easy Eddie's Chaos Emerald ring. I didn't expect this much care actually being taken with a gag show's universe. I guess that's to be expected when you're talking about the differences between a licensed kids cartoon from the early nineties, when nobody was paying attention to this shit, and the mid-2010s, when we were already living in the age of meticulously detailed fan wikis. 

The result is one of the more plot-centric episodes of "Sonic Boom." Instead of primarily being a joke delivery machine, there's an actual clear narrative here. The villain has an absolute goal. He enslaves some locals to do it, definitely among the most evil things this version of Eggman has done. The heroes see this clear injustice and set about resolving it, briefly getting captured themselves before breaking loose to save the day. Now, I realize that this plot structure is partially a homage to "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." Aside from directly referencing that movie in the title, Eggman also wears a head dress not unlike Mola Ram's in the latter half. (Disappointingly, he does not yank a guy's still beating heart from his chest.) Considering the last two episodes where about Eggman being afraid of ghosts and going back to school, it's surprising to see "Boom" utilizing a fairly standard action/adventure plot. Even if it's largely taken from the most underrated entry – yeah, I said it – in a huge successful and popular franchise. 

Sam Friedberger's script manages to do all of this without sacrificing the essential "Sonic Boom"-ness of these characters. While Eggman is ostensibly motivated by a thirst for power and wanting to subjugate people here, his latest quest is largely built on petty jealousy. He sees Sonic defeat Charlie and wonders why the hedgehog gets praised for something he could do. Instead of then setting off on a career of heroics, Eggman gets distracted by building and powering a giant doom-mech. Fair enough but it still shows how this Eggman is motivated more by childish neuroses than your typical supervillain antics. Sonic, meanwhile, has to be repeatedly talked into doing good guy shit in this episode. Not because he doesn't enjoy smashing Eggman's hopes and dreams but more so because he hates spending time with the Gogobas. Again, a totally understandable feeling that nevertheless shows how this program repeatedly subverts the classical action cartoon personalities. 

All this high-minded talk aside, this episode is also about another universal truth: Everyone thinks giant robots are bitchin'. The Japanese have built multiple whole genres around this fact, all of which are variations on the idea that all of us wish we had an enormous robotic suit we could ride around in. Considering how ever-present robots are in all branches of the "Sonic" franchise, I'm surprised we haven't seen more instances of Sonic leaping into a highly marketable mech suit and wailing on Eggman in his own set of toyetic armor. (The comics have done it a few times, though usually as a homage and not as a means to its own thing.) A robot fighter "Sonic" game would probably be kind of neat, right? Get to work on that, Sega. Anyway, the machine Eggman builds in this episode is cool. I like how it invokes his classic look, with a mustache-like design on the face, while still being its own thing. And having some cool, beetle-like wings for no particular reason. I, personally, wouldn't enslave a whole village of indigenous people in order to dig up a power source for my awesome mech suit but, I gotta say, I understand the temptation to do so. 

By bringing back the Froglodytes, this episode does raise some questions though. First off, the previous appearance of Buddy Buddy Temple had no connection to the frog monsters living under the island. We never actually see them – or anyone, for that matter – step foot into the temple, so presumably no link is meant to be implied. I guess we have to go with the idea that digging underground anywhere on this island brings with it a high probability of running into some of those frog guys. Despite the idol of their frog god being displayed, this episode also suggests that the Froglodytes will worship anyone who comes along. After Eggman breaks into their chamber, they mistake him for a half-robot centaur thing and, after he promises not to destroy them, immediately dedicate themselves to serving him. Obviously, this is so the bad guy can have a horde of henchmen in this episode. This plot turn also suggests that any display of superior technology is enough to convince the Froglodytes. I guess, if the John Frum cult is anything to go by, this is not a terribly unrealistic depiction. But it seems these primitive amphibian critters have a rather inconsistent dogma, that slingshots from human sacrifices to conquering the surface world to bowing before the first person with a hovercraft they see. There should be an episode where someone writes an anthropological study of the Froglodytes. The kids would love that! Anyway, the running gag of the Froglodytes screaming and flailing their hands, seemingly as a gesture of worship, got old fast though. 

 

This being "Sonic Boom" and all, there's some good zingers in the script and quite a few meta moments too. Amy observed that "Eggman is despondent," which is a funny enough line on its own, but Sonic and Tails top it off with a brief conversation about the oddness of their relationship with their archenemy. Later, Eggman and Charlie discuss their ability to defeat their enemies being ensnared by an unforeseen formula. Amy gets another stand-out moment, when she uses reverse psychology to get a Gogoba to hand over her hammer. In fact, the Gogobas – usually more annoying than amusing – get a decent amount of chuckles here, when bickering with their Froglodyte overseer. I guess the secret to making the Gogobas' guilt tripping habits amusing is to give them some enraged cave frogs to bounce off of. By far, the funniest moment here is a real blink-and-miss-it gag. Before Eggman's robot minions are shut down by a plot contrivance, one of the machines deadpans by asking "Eggman, will I dream?" That was absolutely a throw-it-in line and the one that made me laugh the hardest in this entire ten minutes stretch. 

With this being a piece of "Sonic" media from the late 2010s, when the franchise was in its most self-aware era, there's a random shout-out to the PINGAS meme. I'm so used to hearing Long John Baldry say that line that hearing it in Mike Pullock's Eggman voice caused a moment of psychic dissonance for me. Eggman also says "Hail to the king, baby!" Which is obviously an "Army of Darkness" reference but the editors over at the "Sonic" wiki seem to think it's taken from something called "Beetle Adventure Racing." This might be an example of one form of autism getting in the way of another. (The same editor seems to think this episode is full of references to a different Sam Raimi movie, which also strikes me as a stretch.) Also, Knuckles and Sticks aren't in this episode, presumably because they didn't fit into the hero/heroine/kid sidekick roles dictated by this being a "Temple of Doom" callback. If only Sallah had been in the second "Indiana Jones" movie. I can totally see Knuckles intoning gravely about "bad dates." Anyway, this is a good episode. [7/10]