#mrharu

I want to stress that my views on this version of the Sonic verse do not reflect on the country from whence it came, but seriously Europe, you guys have some serious lack of quality control when it comes to your own unique Sonic creations.

Okay, so well over a month ago I told my Facebook buddies I'd be covering the Sonic animations. I apologize for the VERY long wait but my join-up with The Father Gamer group made my beginning of June very busy. As of such this review will also be posted on the Tumblr and shared on the Facebook Fan Forum, so if you're reading due to being a member of either: thanks for sticking around dudes!

 Back to topic: Sonic Underground is something I was not looking forward to reviewing. Why? Well...

~ That's one catchy ass theme song ~

In the Sonic cartoon verse, there are a few constants. Sonic is on the planet "Mobius", Robotnik has at least one henchman, and may or may not have his own city named Robotropolis. 2 out of the 3 cartoons have this "Robotropolis" and only 1 of them has 1 henchman. We'll get to deciphering the difference of these cartoons as we go on each time. Sonic Underground was a European-produced cartoon that borrows elements from one of the already-produced western cartoons but a bit questionably implemented.

The story is that Sonic is born into royalty with himself and 2 siblings: a brother named Manic, and a sister named Sonia. (Pictured above) But it goes (as told in the intro and the supposed abridge opening episode) that a man named Dr.Robotnik takes over the planet....maybe. (The 'maybe' comes from the fact he's acknowledged to be a threat but almost nobody bothers to fight him sans our heroes) Because it happens at the same time Sonic and co. are born, their mother Queen Aleena is somehow thrown out of her reign and is forced into hiding. This also forces her to give up her 3 children to adoption and they all grow up never knowing each other until THEIR families are killed.

What happens from there is the 3 miraculously (I say this because it's under some contrived circumstances) meet up and decide they have a connection by tapping the necklaces they've worn all their lives, never realizing they had 'powers' and yet somehow break out in song.

...and that's where Sonic Underground starts failing.

Sonic Underground has this identity problem: never knowing what the hell it wants to be at any point and coming off not only uninspired but really god damn annoying. It extends from the terrible music videos that break the pacing of the episode at any random point, to the story, to the 'slow motion' action, to all of the really bad plot points. At one second Sonic is like he should be: a main hero who excels at speed, is a bit of an ego-tripping jerk but gets the job done. At the next (and this constantly occurs) he's some glutton who literally CANNOT go a few minutes without talking or wanting chili dogs. Sonic's love for chili dogs was something that was coined in the first cartoon  Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog and extends into the others (except the OVA) and even the most latest of Sonic video games (Sonic Unleashed, Sonic & the Black Knight, Sonic Colors, and Sonic Generations). It was something like a "Oh you...! :)" moment to expect but here in Sonic Underground it just makes Sonic look like a moron who's incapable of rational thought.

So let's break own some key points that set this cartoon up for failure:

- I didn't want to hate this cartoon from the start, but it's given me no choice as I constantly facepalm when Sonic's only partners for 'the Freedom Fighters' here in this cartoon;  his sister and brother (ALL VOICED BY JALEEL WHITE) make this show hard to watch. Yeah. Did you enjoy his voice in the other cartoons? Well you're going to hate it here because the studio was somehow able to afford a female singing voice for Sonia but not an actual one. Jaleel White does the voices of every hedgehog sibling and it's god-awful. Sonia is like Rarity from My Little Pony only with NONE of the development or 3rd dimensional feel for being realistic: she's a snob who's obsessed with being neat and in having a fashion sense, often putting herself on a pedestal above the rest like she's better than 'the norm' just so she shouldn't have to get dirty DESPITE being a Freedom Fighter. Often she'll chastise or try to get after Sonic over the silliest of things (like being silly. No, I'm not joking), she has this relationship with a character named Bardleby yet flirts openly with other characters (and Knuckles, too) even though he's clearly seen dealing with Robotnik. Basically, she somehow has this "I don't support what you're doing, and I'm almost never seen liking you, but we're engaged" awkward connection to him and it's only rubbed off on me as being terrible writing. To make things weirder is that since she is the token 'only desirable female character' in THIS Sonic cartoon, that also seems the writers deem it reasonable she be the one that hands out kisses as a reward. Even if it's to Sonic.

So yeah.

Manic is a surfer-dude-thief-dude-man-you-want-some-weed? character that just really loves drumming. There are attempts at trying to add more to him but in all honesty, in my time watching the series I hardly noticed him or saw him being worth to the plot.

Why aren't any of THESE characters in this show? Even if not universally loved, they added a LOT to their universe. Hell, I'd even argue the side cast in Adventures of Sonic The Hedgehog were great for that animation too even if it was mostly for a sillier show. What happened here???

Sonic is...well...Sonic...but much more stupid, and without the chemistry of Tails (Adventures of) or the family-of-friends (Sonic SatAM). This makes him dull and only stand out as the guy that's GOTTA GO FAST and occasionally think up of a strategy. Sometimes veterans having watched the other cartoons will get flashes of brilliance in his character where he appears like the same old, same old. But then again you realize that this cartoon only plays up on what he was made as, instead of challenging his very being like (at least) Sonic The Hedgehog did.

- As mentioned before, the cartoon likes to throw in music videos. You ever watch the cheesy/bad/mediocre/oh thank God this isn't on MTV -quality music videos from the likes of Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, or Cartoon Network. The music videos in Sonic Underground are like the collection of the "Rejected" filter for said videos on all of those channels. It's not that they aren't welcome if you seriously have a hankering for some D-grade musical quality but when everybody's voices shift to Washed-Up-Rock-Guy (Sonic's singing voice), Country-Gal-Who-Sometimes-May-Have-Accents(Sonia's singing voice), and Nickelback(Manic's singing back) with some forced song about morals that have ABSOLUTELY NO BEARING ON THE SITUATION OF WHICH IT'S BEING PERFORMED, you can't help but slam your head on the pavement on the sidewalk. Maybe even twice.

Look, I grew up in the 80s an 90s an some of those cartoons had musical numbers. Some of them were bad and some were REALLY bad (anyone remember the tunes from Adventures of Super Mario Bros 3? I do.) but they at least always were in relation to the scene onscreen or the episode. In this cartoon? It's just...."oh hey guys, guess we went too long without singing. Shit, the script says we gotta. Let's just wing it." and there you go. There's at LEAST 3 songs that all have practically the exact same motif or lyrical similarity and when it's thrown in, you really aren't expecting it.

PEOPLE WENT TO SCHOOL IN THE MORNING AFTER WATCHING THESE CARTOONS AND PUTTING UP WITH ITS MUSIC.

*ahem*

- Robotnik isn't even the main focus of this cartoon despite being mentioned a lot and having henchmen to work for him. However it's his HENCHMEN and robot army that steal the spotlight entirely. Hell, even as this is the ONLY cartoon to feature Knuckles they even manage to underplay him because they simply can't have a Sonic Underground episode without Sleet and Dingo trying to get 'ze Hegehogs. I'm not making a pun, that's exactly how the English voice actor says "the Hedgehogs".

Wordplay.

ANYWAYS.  In this cartoon, Sleet and Dingo do all the work. They do all of the traps, all of the planning, all of the attacks, all of the fighting, and still find time to screw up and come back sobbing to Robotnik when they mess up even though the fat man can't be bothered to do the deed himself. What happens when he does get involved? He's busy coming up with an ingenious plan like luring Sonic into a secluded, non-secure room, with no guards, where only ONE laser turret with his face on a screen shows up an tries to fire at him, and absolutely nothing else can help make sure Sonic dies. All it would take is a single misfire to break a hole in said room and Sonic's free.

Wow. What a fucking genius. I think he was smarter when he was creating a treadmill that secluded himself and occasionally dropped obstacles for Sonic to run into.

Yes, I just went there.

Robotnik is so stupid in this cartoon and uninspired, he makes the PINGAS Robotnik look like a villain worthy of the "Doctor" in his name.

- Fight scenes are over-dramatic, try-too-hard, and seem to be running in slow-motion the entire time. I can't quite put a finger on it but there were many a times when I just had to throw my arms up and go "OH PLEASE, seriously?" due to the nature of the fights.

- The worst case scenario: the story never resolves itself or comes any closer to having an ending than episode 1. Why, may I ask, is this? Several times throughout the story the characters (Sonic, Sonia, and Manic) are told they can't meet up with their mother JUST yet because 'the time isn't right' or 'they're not strong enough' yet when Queen Aleena shows up she's VERY CLEARLY SEEN overpowering absolutely everything in sight and plans at least 5 steps ahead with almost no failure whatsoever. The only reason they are considered 'fails' is because they had 40 episodes and neither Robotnik, Sleet, nor Dingo are closer to death/defeat. Aleena is clearly capable of not only crushing Dr.Robotnik's efforts, but being a VERY handy tool in helping the so-called prophecy come true because if her children use their instruments of power at the same time as her it's VERY capable of doing serious damage to the bad guys.

But it never happens. AT ALL. The main characters just flounder about always wondering and learning about their full potential, being told constantly they need to 'learn' when they're quite capable if they're allowed to just merely be themselves in the middle of a fight. Get them to their mother already: why the hell is there such a long wait? On top of this (if I may go on a side note rant here), the children are glorified to ridiculous proportions that further the point of lost opportunities. Their births were foretold by stone Gods made in their image in an Indian-like village for God's sake, but don't talk to any citizens about being a Freedom Fighter! Oh no. Sonic and Co. aren't cheered on when saving everyone: they're mostly mocked and ridiculed for standing up against Dr.Robotnik because all the rich nobles and normal people mostly have the response "What's the point?".

Now ask yourself this question: why in the HELL should you give a shit about any side characters or development, or even have faith in an animation if even the background characters like Sir Who Gets Roboticized #1 are giving up before you do?

~...so the theme song is good, right guys?....guys?~

I have a bias against it firstly for trying to copy the elements of the other cartoons and doing it badly. Back then I enjoyed at least having some extra "Sonic" in my day to watch before/after school even though it came so late after the original cartoons...but now? I'll be honest guys: half of the time the episodes bored me that I just let them run and act as noise as I worked on my computer or did something else to occupy my time due to how painfully bad the show just failed to captivate me.

 This show does not deserve a single buy. If you must watch it, do so via Netflix or Youtube. Only hardcore, completionist assholes like myself that absolutely MUST try to get everything Sonic-related into their collection will find any joy in owning it.