Sonic Superstars: Trio of Trouble

Sonic Superstars: Trio of Trouble 

Original Release Date: September 20th, 2023

One thing few "Sonic the Hedgehog" fans can actually agree on is which, if any, of the games are good. This constant storm of what titles are currently favored by the fandom – dependent largely on what game was the newest during the majority of the fandom's childhood – is always changing. "Sonic Superstars" seems to be, as a relatively recent release, regarded mostly as a disappointment. Nobody seems to think the game is an atrocity or anything. The general consensus is that it's merely okay and, most damningly, not as good as "Sonic Mania." But I've seen "Sonic" nerds try and reclaim titles that were, when new, considered franchise ending flops. "Sonic '06" revisionism is common place now. The Werehog has gone from being a widely loathed premise to a fan favorite among some. I've seen people go to bat for "Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric." The point I'm making is: "Sonic Superstars," your time will come. Give it a decade and the kids who played it now will look back on it fondly as a landmark entry in the series.

Regardless of what you think of the new "Sonic" games that come out, Sega and everyone else at least knows one thing will be a hit: The animated short posted to YouTube to promote the game, usually directed in some capacity by Tyson Hesse. I think I've praised almost everyone of these that have come out and I'm clearly not the only one. They wouldn't keep making them if people didn't like them! Naturally, "Sonic Superstars" was accompanied by such an animated short as well. "Sonic Superstars: Trio of Trouble" would arrive on YouTube about a month before the game actually came out. Hesse, I guess being busy as an executive producer on the live action movies, would only co-direct "Trio of Trouble." Another graduate of the comic books assumed primary leadership, with Evan Stanley getting the top credit. Ian Flynn provided the script, once again proving that this group of fan creators used the comic book as a launching pad to infect as many corners of the "Sonic" brand as they could.

Acting as a prequel to "Superstars," "Trio of Trouble" begins with Fang the Hunter coming into conflict with Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy. They trash his ass and the jerboa awakens, revealing the entire incident as a nightmare he was having. In actually, he is accompanying Eggman as he is led through some ruins on the Northstar Islands by Trip the Sungazer. While the doctor is enamored of some ominous hieroglyphics, Fang and Trip run afoul of a bunch of ancient booby traps and a large, ill-tempered snake. Fang proves surprisingly useful when confronting the snake, having seemingly learned from past failures.  

I think of Nack the Weasel/Fang the Hunter/Fang the Sniper/the Amazing Purple Whatsit as a classic "Sonic" character. Obviously because I'm old enough to remember when he debuted and because he's been a regular presence in the comic books for years. I realized this is not true for a lot of people who probably consider Fang a footnote at most or were basically introduced to him by "Superstars." Nevertheless, I am surprised that "Trio of Trouble" represents his first appearance in animation. It truly goes to show that most of the early animated media ignored the games while Sega truly treated "Sonic Adventure" as a reboot and a license to ignore everything that came out before 1999. I think, on some level, I was obviously aware of the fact that Fang had never popped up in a cartoon before. Of course I knew that. It's still surprising to consider though. You would've thought that this minor antagonist, that's been a part of the series since 1994, would've shown up in a cartoon at some point before 2023. Goes to show that a lot of "Sonic" media has gone unmined. 

Despite "Superstars" acting as many younger fans' first brush with Fang, his arc in the game oddly depends on being familiar with his history. Namely, the fact that he's kind of a joke, who always gets thrashed by Sonic and friends and never poses much of a serious threat. This was addressed a lot in the comic mini-series devoted to him, released around this time. It also comes up in this short. The opening dream sequence shows that Fang is used to suffering humiliating defeats at the hands of Sonic and friends. In the course of the five minute cartoon, he proves that he actually does know what he's doing sometimes. One of the embarrassing mishaps in his dream – which I guess is also a memory – has the Marvelous Queen deploying a big drill and spinning around. Fang used this same tactic to help defeat the big snake here. Once again, it shows that a major part of "Sonic Superstars'" agenda was rehabilitating Fang's reputation, both in and out of universe. I guess this is a more interesting gimmick to give the character, rather than him being an all-purpose goon for hire. 

Trip doesn't have nearly as much to do in this animation. Most of her character development was destined to happen in the actual video game. This cartoon exists to prompt you to go out and buy the game, obviously. Considering she spends all of this short – and most of the media that came out ahead of the game – in her identity obscuring armor, I think the idea is to intentionally make us wonder what this newbie's deal is. Are they genuinely malevolent or are they only being tricked into working with Eggman, like so many characters before them? "Trio of Trouble" does hint at Trip's true nature. As Eggman moves through the ruins, he carelessly stomps on a pretty flower Trip had been admiring for a minute. After the big purple snake is lassoed, she walks over and tenderly rubs its head. Both of these moments exists to hint at Trip's true nature, as a gentle soul who loves and respects nature, that has merely been misled into aligning with the bad guys.

Part of why these shorts are always so anticipated is because they typically look gorgeous. "Trio of Trouble" is no different in that regard. The opening dream sequence – an excuse to get Sonic and the gang into this cartoon that otherwise doesn't feature them – is full of dynamic shots. Such as Sonic running along the interior of a dome while Tails hovers behind him. That scene ends with close-ups of Sonic and the other heroes with demonic features, similar to a trick Hesse threw in when drawing those Werehog Archie issues. That dynamism returns during the second half, when Fang and Trip are running from the giant snake. The shots of the Marvelous Queen deploying it's various weapons and gadgets are so lovingly animated. Who ever did the mechanical design on this cartoon clearly had a great time with it. 

It's also notable how well lit this cartoon is. The first shot of Sonic spin-dashing around a pillar and into a halo of sunlight is so cool. This proceeds Fang standing before a glorious sunset, while an Ennio Morricone style sting plays on the soundtrack. That points towards the spaghetti western inspired feel for this segment, with its sun-bathed, delicately shadowed visuals. Once the story proper starts, set entirely within those spooky ruins, the use of shadows and stray beams of light continues, establishing a mysterious, slightly ominous feeling to this setting. All of that is before the softly glowing, bioluminescent mushroom, which is always a cool addition to any set of old ruins. In other words, "Trio of Trouble" looks fantastic. The sheer amount of love the animators had these characters and their world is evident in every frame of its brief runtime. 

With Evan Stanley having top-billing on the directorial credit, and Tyson Hesse only getting a co-director nod, I don't know who did the majority of the work on this. If Stanley did most of the story boards and Hesse helped her out on a few shots. Or if Hesse did all of the storyboards while Evan headed off animation. The majority of "Trio of Trouble" certainly looks like Hesse's work on his prior "Sonic" animations. It's not as loose and silly as "Sonic Mania Adventures" but some of those trademark goofy faces – like Fang's eyes turning into little spirals whenever he's dizzy – do crop up. Small details, such as Trip getting stuck between spikes emerging from the temple walls and dangling there for a second, remind me of the tiny, character-establishing touches Hesse is fond of including. The characterization of Eggman here, as a goofy little guy who draws a childish scribble of "Superstars" double secret final boss, also recalls Tyson's work on the Archie "Mega-Drive" one-shots. Having said all of that, "Trio of Trouble" is slightly moodier looking and more focused on maintaining the trademark, Sega-approved designs of these characters than Hesse typically is. This suggests to me that Stanley probably had more to do with the look of this cartoon than I'm giving her credit for. There I go, being a typically sexist member of the patriarchy and downplaying a woman's contribution in favor of propping up another man. 

Anyway, "Sonic Superstars: Trio of Trouble" is a lot of fun. It's not the sheer mega-blast of goofy, nostalgic glee that "Sonic Mania Adventures" was. Nor does it give the impression "Sonic Frontiers Prologue: Divergence" did, of attempting to elevate a silly little promotional short into a serious work of art. Despite that, this is still a very well done, absolutely cute, quite lovely to look at little short. I don't think we are ever going to get a "Sonic" animated series or feature that looks this consistently gorgeous. I'm thankful Sega lends the time and money necessary to a group of very talented artists to create these beautiful, little cartoons. [8/10] 

Sonic & Friends

Sonic & Friends

Original Release Date: August 7th, 2023

My quest to watch and review as many pieces of animated "Sonic the Hedgehog" media has led me to some unexpected places: Blurry rips from the Sega Saturn, the forgettable corners of YouTube, and into hardcore weebery. Today, this ridiculous journey has me crossing over into another area I never expected to go. My friends, what is your opinion on TikTok? It was recently a matter of congressional debate here in America, because we live in the stupidest century. What started as an app for teenagers to upload them doing dumb dances has turned into another inescapable aspect of our society. I feel like me, as a 36 year old man, shouldn't have an opinion on TikTok. I should barely know what it is. However, breaking information up into quickly edited, tiny chunks of video has made a definite impact on the world. I wager it's probably been a negative impact, wrecking people's attention spans, spreading falsehoods far and wide, and surely becoming a cesspool of machine-generated slop. This is probably my status as a cranky old man, naturally suspicious and fearful of new technology, talking here. However, the impression remains that TikTok has probably made us all stupider.

Not me, of course, because I don't use it. Except to look at stuff my girlfriend sends me, I do my best not to interact with the app. Nevertheless, my logical brain must conclude that TikTok, like any platform, is neutral in and of itself. The super-short video is a medium that can used for artistic expression. I've watched those Vine compilations. Some of those are pretty funny or even clever. I'm sure there are people somewhere in the depths of TikTok who use it for artistic expression, who aren't merely trying to gather social media clout or make money by promoting stuff. Living in the time we do, any new platform is immediately going to be invaded by corporations. All of this is to say that TikTok has become yet another avenue for businesses to promote themselves, sell their product, or even upload content made exclusively for the platform. There are now "TikTok series," programs written, directed, and created with the intent of being shown on the app. What a time to be alive, I guess. 

Now I finally arrive at my point. Part of why I think "Sonic the Hedgehog," as a franchise, has been able to survive – perhaps even flourish – in the new decade is because its characters and themes are universal. I don't like it when Sonic and the gang are reduced to stereotypical concepts. Sonic should be more than only the fast and mischievous hero, Knuckles should be more than merely the dumb friend. However, such simplicity is mutable and allows these characters to work in any number of settings. This has made it easy to adapt "Sonic" to new medias and platforms. Twitter and YouTube have both been good to the blue hedgehog, so why not TikTok? And so, in August of 2023, Sega would put their heads together and conceive of a new series of super-short cartoons for the format called "Sonic & Friends." As of this writing, 53 of these computer-generated animations have been uploaded, on a semi-weekly schedule. Each short is only a few seconds long and features super-cute chibi versions of Sonic and the gang – that could easily be made into huggable plushies! – simply doing adorable little antics. From glancing at the sentence long synopses on the wiki, it seems like almost all of the episodes are devoted simply to these cutified versions of Sonic and his pals dancing. 

In other words, "Sonic & Friends" is not this franchise's several decades late answer to "Muppet Babies." It is not the equivalent to those weird videos where Pink Girl Godzilla teaches kids how to count and be friends. Those programs, juvenile as they may be, have dialogue, plots, and consistent character traits. They tell a story or, at least, teach its audience something. It is an expression of something within the hearts of the people behind them. "Sonic & Friends" can, more directly, be called the "Sonic" version of "Cocomelon." It is pre-verbal entertainment, bright colors and repetitive noises flashing on-screen to hypnotize hyper toddlers into a stunned stupor, so that their parents can get a moment of peace. It is, to be kind, "content" more than it is art. It is, more accurately, bullshit for iPad babies, the definition of the churned out and meritless product that the internet has increasingly taken to calling, not incorrectly, "slop."

Truthfully, animation such as this presents a real challenge to the reviewer. When I said most of the episodes are devoted to Sonic and friends dancing, I'm not exaggerating. Lots of “Sonic & Friends” are devoted to these super-adorable takes on these familiar characters moving their hands, heads, and legs in rhythm to obnoxious peppy Japanese pop songs. Most of the songs strike me as nothing but high-pitched and annoying, sometimes seeming to lack lyrics and instead be composed more of... Sounds. Like kissy noises or chicken clucks. To make these clips more likely to fry the brain pans of a six-month old, brightly color shapes and symbols often scatter around the characters as they shimmy and shake. Several of the “Sonic & Friends” clips have the heroes dancing in detailess voids of bright colors, existing literally only as motion and sound to distract the most easily amused of audiences. The only songs I recognized out of those featured is “All I Want for Christmas is You” – but not the Mariah version – and “Baby Shark,” which is also exactly the kind of beige YouTube glop for infants I've been describing. 

While most of “Sonic & Friends” can be described as nothing much at all, occasionally a narrative of some sort does emerge. In-between all the dancing and bopping, there have been at least three identifiable plots. The first had Sonic, Tails, and Amy heading to an island and camping overnight in a tent, before attempting to use a giant blender to make a fruit smoothie. The second involved Amy enjoying a swing before Eggman showed up and shrank everyone with a shrink ray, leading to the heroes avoiding getting eaten by a lizard. They eventually track Eggman down and reverse their condition. The most recent plot seems to involve Shadow zipping around and eating everyone's fruit. Sonic gets blamed for it by Amy but declares his innocence before going in search of the real culprit. Then Knuckles punches a tree until a giant purple snake falls out and chases him. I am quivering in suspense to see how that will be resolved, let me tell you. 

Clearly, the point I'm making here is, the few times “Sonic & Friends” does bother to have some sort of story, it's still an extremely simplistic endeavor. You could slot any cast of cartoon characters into these roles and things wouldn't change much at all. I want to say that this is Sonic and the gang reduced down to their most basic components. I'm not sure if that's technically true either. I guess Sonic is fast, Tails builds stuff, Eggman is a bad guy, Amy is girly and swings a hammer. I suppose we see Knuckles being strong and dumb a few times? I suppose some admiration can be expressed for the modeling and animation, which is perfectly acceptable. I'll admit, these character designs are cute, I guess. They aren't as demonic as your average Funko Pop. I do think it represents the “Sonic” style, already very cute and marketable, being pressed down into its most baby-ified and generic form. But I've seen worst, I guess is my point.

By the way, “Sonic & Friends” seems to be produced almost entirely by Sega of Japan. That means this is what the corporation that directly owns Sonic wants the franchise to be. I've argued before that Sega sees Sonic and friends as nothing but empty mascots that can be used to advertise whatever product they seek to sell. That the designs here are directly based on toys that already exists really tells you everything you need to know about “Sonic & Friends.” It's targeted at the youngest possible audience. Perhaps out of the belief that, if Sega can hook 'em early, they'll have fans for life. Or maybe, considering Sonic's general lack of popularity in Japan, maybe pitching the franchise at the most undiscerning of audiences – literal babies – is the only way they know to sell it. Will I watch more of “Sonic & Friends?” Maybe. I'm pretty bored, I'll watch all sorts of shit. Will I write about more of “Sonic & Friends?” Not unless that storyline with the big purple snake gets really exciting... [4/10]

TailsTube No. 4 (feat. Amy Rose)

TailsTube No. 4 (feat. Amy Rose)

Original Release Date: March 16th, 2023

The end of the previous "TailsTube" referenced Amy Rose, which was all but a confirmation that she would be the featured guest in the fourth episode. That certainly tracks with the character's standing in the franchise these days. Throughout the nineties, Amy Rose could easily be considered a second tier "Sonic" character. She only appeared in a few games, most of them stuck on other consoles than Sega's most popular invention, the Genesis/Mega Drive. She wasn't in any of the cartoons and only had a small role in the comics. Despite a pink girl version of Sonic being an enormously commercial idea, even Sega seemed to consider Princess Sally the female lead of the franchise. That all changed with "Sonic Adventure," which positioned Amy Rose as Sonic's primary love interest and the female face of the franchise. Since then, the she-hog has easily eclipsed every other missuses and madam in the "Sonic"-verse in terms of popularity. I have a lot of complex feelings about this but the way Sega has largely moved Amy past being solely defined by her obsessive crush on Sonic and into a more nuanced character has made me like her a lot more. (Though teasing a romantic tension between the spiny mammals remains an impossible to remove element of their dynamic.)

Not that "TailsTube No. 4" does much to disprove the idea that Amy is obsessively fixated on Sonic. Tails introduces her as a "Sonic expert." All the questions she answers are more about Sonic than about her. If Amy has a personality outside of being the blue hedgehog's number one fan girl, we certainly don't see much of it in this episode. About the only interest she shows, aside from an encyclopedic knowledge of Sonic, is using fortune telling cards at some point in the past... And even that was something she was doing mostly to give her clues about how to meet Sonic. It really seems to me, at least in this four minute cartoon, that Amy is as fixated and hyper-focused on Sonic as, well, real life "Sonic" fans are. Does this mean Amy writes fanfic and creates OCs in-universe? She pretty much did in "Boom," didn't she? Dang, no wonder fans love her so much. She's one of us. 

I've previously described "TailsTube" – or The Sonic Scoop, as it seems to call itself in-universe – as a channel for Sega to educate new fans about the basic backstory of its characters. Tails actually refers to the show as more-or-less this here, also amending that it's here to remind hardcore fans of tidbits they might have forgotten. However, the actual purpose of "TailsTube" is apparent the more of it I watch. With "Sonic Frontiers," Ian Flynn would officially begin adapting the scripts for the mainline games into English, after years of him toiling away in the comic tie-in trenches. Flynn is a nitpicking fan boy all about straightening out continuity and putting inconsistencies to rest, the main thing he did when he started writing for the Archie series. While Sega hasn't let Flynn run amok and totally re-shape the "Sonic" universe into his own vision, the writer has devoted himself to creating a more consistent version of Sonic's world, retconning away things that didn't make much sense and establishing more concrete details. Such as Amy's aforementioned interest in divination, a minor detail from the "Sonic CD" manual that was basically overlooked for years but now has returned as a primary aspect of Ms. Rose's personality.

In other words, "TailsTube" is a forum to distribute these new decrees about the franchise's world to the wider fandom, something that can be whipped up and put out that is less labor intensive than a new video game and not as concerned with telling a narrative as a comic book. While the first three installments were not that concerned with rewriting official "Sonic" lore, episode four does some much heavier lifting. After tossing away the much loathed Two Worlds premise – the idea that Sonic regularly travels between his world and an Earth populated by humans – this episode gets rid of the almost equally hated idea that "Classic" Sonic and "Modern" Sonic are residents in alternate universes. This convoluted explanation emerged sometime between "Sonic Generations" and "Sonic Forces," Sega going with the premise that the shorter, squatter Sonic that didn't talk was an entirely different entity from the taller, spindlier, more talkative Sonic present in most of the games these days. 

When asked why a "second" Sonic is sometimes running around, Amy and Tails explain that Classic Sonic and Modern Sonic are actually the same guy, the "Superboy is Superman as a little kid" explanation. That's a lot less confusing than bringing in the idea of multiple universes, even if time travel is no less a far out sci-fi premise. This decree also removes what was probably the most disliked element of the Classic/Modern divide, that it essentially cast the older games as non-canon with the newer ones and prevented any of the older characters and concepts that only appeared in those games from showing up in newer ones. Sega still operates as if Classic Sonic and Modern Sonic are two separate branches of the same franchise. I don't think Mighty, Ray, or Fang will be showing up alongside Shadow, Rouge, or Blaze any time soon... But the possibility that it could happen is at least there. Those guys aren't necessarily locked behind an impenetrable barrier nor have they been cast aside as no longer relevant to the series as it exists now. Not only is simply saying all of those adventures happened to Sonic sometimes in the past a lot less complicated than sticking them in a separate universe, it's also a decision that's far less alienating to old fans like me that rather like those elements and don't want them to be totally discarded. 

Funnily enough, using this idea to explain the Classic/Modern schism doesn't mean "TailsTube No. 4" throws the idea of parallel realities out the window. After the first question about two Sonics – asked by Knuckles, who predictably does not seem to grasp the concept of internet usernames – Amy receives follow-up question about the possibility of many more Sonics running around. That's when she acknowledges that various time line shenanigans means there could be an infinite number of Sonics running This leads to a short montage of images, showing Sonics wearing speed tape or with blue arms, among other possible scenarios. This seems to be a laidback acknowledgement that a “Sonic” multiverse does exist, at least implicitly. That little moment seems to be Sega nodding softly at other iterations of the character across cartoons, comics, and god knows what else. Considering this “TailsTube” broadcast was released a few months after “Sonic Prime,” this certainly wouldn't be a foreign concept to fans by this point.

These are obviously the biggest details this episode expands on. Amy seems to know everything about Sonic, not the nature of time travel and the multiverse. This episode also puts another, more minor detail to rest: Is Sonic the Hedgehog homeless? Most of the animated series or comics have shown him as having a regular place to sleep, sometimes shaped like a race car. Sega's official word on the matter, it would seem, is that Sonic is a vagabond who travels from place to place. His home is where his spirit roams. In other words: No, the hedgehog has never paid homeowner's insurance. In fact, “TailsTube” seems to confirm that he crashes at Tails' place quite a bit and is more than happy to eat any chili and wieners the fox has laying around. Which means Sonic is a bum in the “does not have a home” sense as well as the “leeches off other people” sense. What other context would it be okay for a sixteen year old celebrity to be spending the night at his ten year old friend's house? 

Other than being informative, this episode of “TailsTube” did make me chuckle once or twice. The bit about Knuckles not entirely understanding Twitter would've been funnier if he typed entirely in caps too. Also, there's a brief line about the data speeds up on Angel Island, seeming to confirm the thoughts I've had about internet providers on Sonic's world. Also also, one of the folders on Tails' desktop includes a reference to Lego Ideas, which suggest that Legos also exist in-universe. Tails definitely seems like the Lego kind of guy. Anyway, I guess these things are still worth watching. [7/10]