Sonic Boom, Episode 2.39: Victory

Sonic Boom, Episode 2.39: Victory

Original Air Date: August 5th, 2017

1981 saw the release of the John Huston sports drama, "Victory." (Known in the glorious United States as "Escape to Victory.") Extremely loosely based on the true story of the Ukrainian soccer "football" team that out-kicked some Nazis, the film basically assembled "The Expendables" of soccer players. Including Pelé, one of three pro-footballers I can name off the top of my head. Because it was 1981, it then threw in Sylvester Stallone of the actual "Expendables" and Michael Caine too, for good measure. The film only saw modest box office success in the US but has become a beloved classic in many other countries. This is presumably because Americans notoriously do not care about soccer – we want more concussions in our football, thank you very much – while it's the most popular sport across the majority of the globe. 

Why am I bringing this up? Because "Sonic Boom's" ninety-first episode is also called "Victory" and is also about soccer. Moments such as these remind you that "Boom" was a French co-production. Yet this episode was written by an American, Sam Freiberger, which is presumably why it's not really a homage to "Escape to Victory." Instead, the plot is actually based on "Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo." That's a 1984 fad movie produced by the schlock masters at Cannon Films to capitalize on the emergence of breakdancing into popular culture, a sequel to a previous flick that Cannon put out only seven months earlier. Despite being linked to this very specific moment in time, "Electric Boogaloo" has become a campy cult classic. Its amazing subtitle and plot, of a bunch of proactive street kids poppin' and lockin' in order to save their beloved community center from greedy land developers, has been the source of repeated parodies and homages. (This episode also includes a shout-out to "You Got Served," the similarly hilariously entitled descendant of the "Breakin'" franchise.) This continues "Sonic Boom: Season Two's" streak of referencing movies that its audience of 2017 grade-schoolers were unlikely to be familiar with. I guess this is the Gen-X equivalent of boomers sticking "Leave It to Beaver" jokes in everything. 

Anywhoooo, "Victory" begins with Sonic and friends enjoying their newly acquired pastime of footballing it up association style. That's when Mayor Fink announces he's closing the recreation center so he can afford a new house boat. After a petition fails to persuade City Hall's ice cold heart, Eggman offers to buy the building instead. Turns out that the transferal of ownership of the rec center can only be decided by a sporting event. Sonic challenges Eggman to a soccer game before pointing out the doctor doesn't have any friends to build a team with. Eggman counters that he has something better than friends: Slaves! I mean, robots. He flies to the city formally known as Morristown and quickly brainwashes Team Sonic's cyborg doppelgangers into being his team. When the mechanical heroes are reprogrammed to act like high school jock bullies, the battle for the rec center really heats up. 

The "Breakin'" movies essentially have two cultural legacies. For many, the films were a rare chance to see people of their own color displayed as heroes against a white majority system, while also showing off the incredible talent of the dancers involved. To a bunch of snarky white people, the "Breakin'" movies are pop culture punchlines full of instantly dated fashion, silly slang, and improbable plots. I'm not saying "Breakin'" and its sequel aren't camp artifacts of a bygone era. Any motion picture that has a cameo from Jean-Claude Van Damme, struttin' it up in a leotard, can't escape that status. Yet perhaps we pasty-skinned folk should not be so fast to dismiss them. Step outside of your white privilege for a brief second and consider the societal impact of "Boogaloo Shrimp" Chambers for one minute, ya jive turkey. 

This is a conversation "Sonic Boom" is obviously not interested in having. Instead, it uses the antiquated atmosphere of these eighties movies as an easy punchline. The sight of the characters breakdancing, the overall ridiculous plot, and the many cultural signifiers of the past are meant to induce chuckles merely by their presence. However, I don't think Freiberger and the rest of the "Boom" crew were operating strictly in a mode of cooler-than-thou "look how stupid this objectively awesome thing is" irony. "Sonic Boom" is sarcastic about everything, including itself, so I certainly don't expect it to have reverence for Cannon Films. By the end of the episode, when the gang successfully beat their robot doubles with the power of dance, the show has seemingly come around to thinking this thing is kind of cool after all.

That "Victory" reflects a certain juvenile smarminess is not surprising in light of its other content. Being good at sports will always make young people popular and popularity has a tendency to turn young people into monsters. This is true of the entire universe. Thus, it is not surprising that "high school jock" remains shorthand for a totally douche-tastic type of teenager who relentlessly bullies everyone lower down on the social hierarchy from them while remaining utterly convinced of their own superiority, simply because they are good at ball. "Victory" certainly has fun with this stereotype. The Cyborg Team acting like entitled little shit-heads, peppering their speech with "bros" and climbing onto the counter at Meh Burger, is clearly ridiculous behavior. Sonic and everyone else's reaction is less righteous outrage than grumpy annoyance. This episode is not a bitter nerd screed against the Chads and Stacies of the world. Characterizing the bad guys as "high school jocks" is another joke contrasting the apparent action/adventure seriousness of the "Boom" setting with the petty, childish behavior of its characters. (Not to mention another throwback to eighties movies, which did unironically utilize these stereotypes.) Still, maybe a fresher cliché could have been used. "Gym bros" or something. Let's leave the teenagers out of this, okay? 

Instead, let us direct our ire at a more deserving place: Corrupt politicians and the system they create that robs the everyday voter of any meaningful ability to change things. Mayor Fink, from the name on down, is obviously a parody of the ineffectual, incompetent, greedy, vapid local town leader. He follows a long line of such characters, that also includes Mayor Quimby and the Mayor of Townsville. When Amy gathers up signatures to show Fink, he immediately throws the petition into the paper shredder. But maybe Hedgehog Village deserves a leader like this, someone so blatant in his corruption that he admits to closing a beloved public institution strictly so he can afford another boat. When Amy asks a random citizen to sign the petition, they only agree to do so if she'll leave him alone. Amy says this is how democracy is supposed to work. Perhaps Fink stays in power not just because of the sitcom rule of maintaining a status quo. Perhaps the apathetic residents of the village simply can't be bothered to care that the only politician in town is a greedy buffoon. Surely this does not reflect our own reality in any significant manner! 

Anyway, wasn't this episode supposed to be about soccer? "Victory" really could have been about any test of physical prowess between two teams. One suspects that the European overlords figured an episode of Sonic and friends playing soccer would be profitable, since cartoon mascots doing sports is a weirdly common marketing trend. Maybe Freiberger combined that demand with a pre-existing "Electric Boogaloo" parody he had laying around, simply slotting soccer in for breakdancing. Either way, "Victory" is both totally indifferent and weirdly honorable about this sport. The specific rules and strategies of soccer have no impact on the plot. Stylized dance moves and cartoon shenanigans matter much more. At the same time, there are also no jokes about soccer. Nobody screams "Goooooal!" Nobody obviously fakes an injury. Nobody performs a headbutt. Did the French "Boom" overlords insist that their sacred past time of le football remained unmocked? Or was Freiberger, like all Americans, simply not bored enough to look up any actual rules or facts about soccer? The first one is funnier but I'm kind of leaning towards the second. 

Regardless of whether the script actually cared about what athletic competition it was discussing, the result is a decently amusing episode. There's a lot of the fast-paced, absurdist dialogue that "Boom" excels at here. Knuckles' inability to understand that Amy doesn't mean fighting city hall literally is a joke that keeps going nicely. Knuckles in general gets a couple of good zingers. Eggman's reasoning for buying the rec center and his underwhelming presentation to the Cyborg heroes are both jokes that progress in silly ways. There's some lame bits. The Cyborg teams bro-y language seems recycled from "Bro Down Showdown." (Amusingly, Cyborg Sticks doesn't get any dialogue like that and I can't imagine her saying "bro" anyway.) Old Monkey has a belabored moment at the end. Still, there's more than enough quality jokes here. Such as the Mayor's response to the heroic win and Amy's reaction to that announcement, a good moment of physical comedy that isn't lingered on too much. 

An unexpected source of humor in this installment is the soundtrack. "Boom's" musical team has made a habit of incorporating barely disguised soundalikes of famous songs and film/TV soundtracks in the past. They must've gotten a raise half-way through season two because there's been a lot more musical gags lately. The episode begins with an upbeat inspirational song about kicking balls, with intentionally awkward lyrics. Yet the words are delivered earnestly – by Amy's voice actor, Cindy Robinson – making the joke much funnier. Befitting the "Electric Boogaloo" mood-aloo, there are some shockingly convincing eighties synth back beats throughout. I unironically love this kind of music and was happily surprised at how decent the approximations are here. When Sonic and the gang start using dance moves to save the day, Sonic even bust out a Michael Jacksonian "Wooo!" I laughed. 

Since I've already digressed a lot in this review, allow me one more. In order to get the normally heroic Morristown Cyborgs on his side, Eggman slaps some bracelets on their wrists that act as mind control devices. As long as they wear those bracelets, the super-powerful protectors obey all his orders. Now, remember: These guys are cyborgs, as opposed to totally mechanical robots. They explicitly have biological brain patterns. Does this mean that Eggman cracked the secret to perfect mind control? Even if it only works on people with robot parts, he could still have turned all the residents of Roboken into his slaves and then totally rewired their personalities with just a firmware update. HypnoBot couldn't do that. This is super serious villain technology, with world-conquering applications. Instead, he uses it to try and win a soccer game. The writers must have been aware of this, as they include a brief line about how "mind control is really expensive." Still, this feels like a definite "But I don't want to cure cancer! I want to turn people into dinosaurs!" moment. 

Sorry, this review ran a little long. You know how I get when this show gives me pop culture references to deconstruct. Either way, I guess the fact that I rambled on for over two thousand words about this ten minute cartoon proves that "Victory" is deeper than its goofball premise suggests. Or, alternatively, I need to hire an editor. Still, I think this is a funny episode! How often do we get to see Sonic the Hedgehog do an MJ while freezing and toprocking? Truly, we should treasure these moments. Boogaloo on, my friends. [7/10]