Sonic Christmas Blast

**Sonic Christmas Blast** was a Christmas television special for *Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog* cartoon series produced by DiC Entertainment, who also produced the Saturday morning cartoon series that had run alongside it. It aired on the USA Network on November 24, 1996, nearly three years after the original series had been canceled. When Toon Disney aired the Adventures series, Sonic Christmas Blast was regularly shown in their annual Christmas marathons.

The special was advertised in issue #41 of the *Sonic the Hedgehog* comic book (from the Archie Comics which this era for Sonic is now defunct since 2017) as *An X-Tremely Sonic Christmas*. This suggests the special was intended to promote the Sega Saturn game *Sonic X-treme*, which was delayed (and later canceled). As a result, the special was changed to be named after the Sonic game that did come out in time for Christmas, *Sonic 3D Blast*.

## Plot

Christmas Eve has come to Robotropolis (erroneously pronounced robot-tropolis due to concept issues), and everyone in town is gathered around the Jumbotron in the middle of the square so they can see Santa Claus make a very important announcement - he's retiring, and for some reason, he has picked Dr. Robotnik, alias Robotniklaus, as his replacement! Of course, being the greedy porker he is, Robotnik demands that the children give him presents for Christmas instead of the other way around.

Meanwhile, Sonic recruits Tails to help him find some Christmas presents for Princess Sally. This confuses Tails, because Sonic just agreed with Sally that they wouldn't get each other anything this year. It turns out that every year they make this agreement, Sally ends up getting Sonic a bunch of cool stuff (such as a ring on his finger she gave him last year that becomes important later on), while Sonic usually takes the agreement seriously and doesn't get her anything. This year, however, Sonic's decided to actually get Sally a bunch of presents.

The duo arrives at Robotropolis only to find that all the stores in the local mall are empty. A nearby kid shows and alerts Sonic (and Tails) about Santa's retirement and Robotnik taking over the chore. Just then, Scratch and Grounder show up with an animatronic Santa robot who was actually giving the retirement announcement earlier and try to kill them, but of course, they fail miserably. Sonic, disguised as a garbageman, then tricks the henchbots into telling him where the real Santa is.

In spite of attacks by some SWATbots, Sonic manages to free Santa, but it doesn't change the fact that Robotnik still has all the presents. Just then, Santa recognizes the squiggle on the ring that Sally gave Sonic last year as being the same as a squiggle on an ancient cave painting that reveals the secret of achieving ultimate velocity. Apparently, the one who wears the ring (Sonic) must pass three tests of skills.

Sonic passes the tests easily, in spite of Scratch and Grounder's attempts to stop him, and then he uses his new super speed to steal back the presents Robotnik has taken (as well as the doctor's clothes) and redistribute the presents all over Mobius. After the hedgehog delivers Sally's presents, Santa, impressed with the job, decides to retire after all and turns his job over to Sonic.

## Home Media

On October 23, 2007 a DVD release was issued by NCircle Entertainment. It includes 3 episodes from Sonic Underground, including Mummy Dearest, and also has previews for other DVD releases such as *The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!* and *The Legend of Zelda*. It was then released on *Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog* complete series DVD set in 2007, 2013, and 2019, as it is part of *Adventures of Sonic*, despite some of the *SatAM* characters, Sally and the SWATBots, are present in this special.

## Trivia

* This is the last episode for *Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog*, three years after it ended.
* Sally is colored in her pink-fur color scheme from the Saturday morning cartoon's pilot, but still retaining her womanly features. Also, she does not have a single line in the special, except for some gasping and moaning noises. This is arguably because her voice actress, Kath Soucie, was under a contract with Cartoon Network doing voices for characters on *Dexter's Laboratory* and with Warner Bros. doing the voice for Lola Bunny on *Space Jam*, having another voice actress to do the visual effects. This is also because of her ongoing intimacy with Sonic would not be the appropriate kind of messaging the staff wanted to hand out for the special. These reasons explain for her role being limited for this special.
* The SWATBots appear on this special, but their concepts are slightly different with their dark, scary subplots omitted.
* Despite including the SWATBots and Sally with an extremely limited role, none of the Freedom Fighters participate in this special, even Snively and Naugus are both absent, thus considered replaced by Scratch and Grounder.