Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog

***Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog*** (often abbreviated as *AoStH*) is an American animated comedy television series that was first broadcast on syndication in September 1993, and later on Toon Disney in 1998. It marks as the very first animated series of the *Sonic the Hedgehog* franchise.

## Summary

The show follows the adventures of the titular Sonic the Hedgehog and his friend Miles "Tails" Prower, two globe-trotting adventurers that are doing their best to right the wrongs of the world as they help anyone they can. It would more often than not bring them into conflict and usually stop the evil Dr. Ivo Robotnik, a self-styled genius who is constantly trying to destroy Sonic and Tails in order to conquer the world for himself, his array of vicious robots from the S.S.S.S Squad, and other villains from taking over the planet Mobius.

## Why It's Way Past Cool

1. The animation is decent. Despite it being made on a low budget, it is extremely expressive to an amusingly over-the-top and exaggerated degree that certainly reminds you of *Looney Tunes* animation.
	* Especially where TMS Entertainment (that would later work on *Sonic X*) gave an upgrade to the usual style of its animation. With episodes that include *Black Bot the Pirate* and *Hedgehog of the "Hound" Table* for example.
2. The animation style has somewhat of a throwback to classic cartoons of the 1930s and '40s from the Golden Age of Animation such as Bob Clampett, Tex Avery, Max and Dave Fleischer, Chuck Jones, Walter Lantz, Ward Kimball, as well as a few others like the evidently wild if simplistic backgrounds like in *Ren & Stimpy*.
	* Because of this, there are many iconic and memorable bits with its animation style because of how much heart and talent was put into the animation frames from a budget as limited as this.
3. Speaking of which, this show is like if Sonic basically met *Looney Tunes* with some added sprinkles, logic & structured elements to the even more crazy, cartoonish and farcical side of *Ren & Stimpy* as a form of inspiration and a heapin' helping of Max Fleischer surrealism.
4. Very hilariously clever Tex Avery/Chuck Jones/Bob Clampett-esque gags and slapstick humor from the Golden Age of American Animation.
5. Awesome voice acting from many voices such as Jaleel White (yes, the one behind Family Matters' very own Steve Urkel), Christopher Welch, and **ESPECIALLY** the late Long John Baldry (who has provided TONS of internet memes to this very day).
6. Great and memorable characters that include Sonic and Dr. Robotnik, along with his henchmen Scratch and Grounder and even Coconuts, along with some sympathetic or just interesting, likable side/one-note/recurring characters here & there as well.
	* Speaking of Sonic's nemesis Dr. Ivo Robotnik. He single-handedly brought the show alive with his manic, exaggerated, and purely comedic personality that made almost every scene featuring him both *insanely* amusing as a mostly ineffectual villain that shows signs of egotism by being the comic foil for Sonic to poke fun at. Yet is still intriguing as a character who was given a lot of focus as a secondary main character (especially with glorious moments of nearly succeeding at *actually* imposing a threat). Where all of his ridiculous and wonderfully hammy moments made the show much more fun to watch than usual.
	* Speaking of recurring characters, Professor Caninestein and Dr. Von Schlemmer are prime examples of additional side characters that aren't meant to be necessarily comedic yet they still help clarify what happens during the random unrelated adventures Sonic and Tails get into.
7. Since the series focuses on the villains like the aforementioned Robotnik and his recurring henchmen that are given 50% of screen-time, they sometimes steal the show with their antics with failing to defeat and win over Sonic because of Robotnik's continual setbacks and his henchmen's ineptitude, usually comes off as entertaining.
8. Enjoyable, engaging, or fun (if mostly cheesy, campy, weird, and/or wildly dumb) episodes.
	* Especially episodes that include the whole *Quest for the Chaos Emeralds* saga for example. Which has more references to the previous 2 games as well! (i.e details of Marble Zone from *Sonic the Hedgehog 1* like the traps, the chaos emeralds, and the rings are seen in a pyramid).
9. Almost about every episode generally has a 'so-bad-that-its-good' vibe.
	* Mainly due to how absurd, unpredictable, nonsensical, and overly insane each episode can get, which comes off as enjoyably bizarre in itself. As it more likely provides amusement and fun by farce aside from just providing interest within its insanity, the random adventures, and the hyperactive hijinks that also ensue.
10. There are plenty of comical, hilarious, spontaneously goofy, and amusingly silly moments, mostly because of the sheer absurdities that ensue.
11. The "Sonic Says" segments at the end of an episode are usually hilarious by some of their weirdness and yet, they still teach good lessons at the same time (which can vary from typically simplistic Aesops to flat-out weird/unexpected messages that can be considered very important to hear of all ages and are even laughable at times).
12. In spite of the ridiculously zany and campily hokey nature of the show where it can be often so off-the-wall and insane, episodes like *Robo Ninjas*, *Robotnik's Rival*, *Spaceman Sonic*, and *Sonic's Breakout* present the best examples with containing qualities of being the most coherent, witty, structured and well-written episodes in the entire series out of the many.
13. It has some nice heartwarming moments here and there, particularly with Sonic and Tails' brotherly relationship.
	* Speaking of the many absurdities that *do* happen in the whole series, there are instances where it can come off as endearing because of how charmingly corny it usually is and all because of how it's often presented.
14. It contains some very nice, wacky, bouncy, lively, catchy, and memorable soundtrack, especially the opening theme of the show and *all* of Dr. Robotnik's themes.
	* It's also worth noting that Sonic's leitmotif(s) is based on the first two *Sonic the Hedgehog* games theme song and invincibility themes. The show's intro is basically this with a mixture of the *Hall of the Mountain King* or even the *Flight of the Bumblebee*.
15. Mostly great designs on the characters, including Sonic, Tails, and the well-remembered Robotnik, in which the three of them stay mostly true to their designs from the original source material.
16. A major collection of awesome, hilarious, or simply entertaining episodes such as the following listed:
	* The 1992 pilot (which started the series on a high note)
	* Super Special Sonic Search & Smash Squad
	* Subterranean Sonic
	* Magnificent Sonic
	* Best Hedgehog
	* Slowwww Going
	* High-Stakes Sonic
	* Sonic Christmas Blast (which was a great finale for the series)
	* Sonic Breakout
	* Robo Ninjas
	* Robotnik's Rival
	* So Long Sucker
	* Close Encounter of the Sonic Kind
	* Too Tall Tails
	* Big Daddy
	* Tails' New Home (The episode that created the universally remembered line "I'll have to give myself a promotion!")
	* Grounder The Genius
	* Robotnik, Jr
	* Coachnik
	* King Coconuts
	* Sonic's Song
	* Over The Hill Hero
	* Blank-Headed Eagle
	* Pseudo Sonic (The episode that was inspired by Silver Sonic from Sonic 2 and inspired Metal Sonic)
	* Tails in Charge
	* Sno Problem
	* MacHOPPER
	* Black Bot the Pirate
	* Boogey-Mania (The episode that created the universally remembered line *"Snoo**ping as** usual I see".*)
	* The Last Resort
	* The Magic Hassle
	* Baby Sitter Jitters
	* Sonic The Matchmaker
	* Tails Prevails
	* The Little Merhog
	* The Robotnik Express
	* Mass Transit Trouble (despite the terrorism that is seen)
	* Attack on Pinball Fortress
	* Untouchable Sonic (the episode that features the 1992 pilot in a scene)
	* Super Robotnik (despite how laughably bad this episode can be)
	* Robolympics
	* Robotnik's Pyramid Scheme
	* Prehistoric Sonic
	* Mobius 5000
	* Spaceman Sonic (which is hilarious)
	* Fast and Easy
	* Road Hog
	* Honey, I Shrunk the Hedgehog
	* The Robots' Robot
	* Lifestyles of the Sick and Twisted
	* Sonic is Running
	* Tails' Tale
17. ***“I HATE THAT HEDGEHOG!!!”***

## Bad Qualities

1. **Quantity Over Quality:** There are 65 episodes, yet there isn't that much substance in the show's logic or continuity that can be contradicting with its own boundaries or heck, having the lack of boundaries for the sake of ridiculous surreal comedy as well. Mainly because of how the show isn't made out to make sense a lot of the time and the many occurrences of lazy and forced writing.
	* The animation quality varies depending on the studio, and occasionally errors from it are rushed, like in *SatAM*. Especially when some elements of animation seem like they have no structure to them. Also, the background designs can sometimes look choppy, lazy, or rushed, even for DiC animation standards.
		+ Some of the minor characters also have incredibly weird-looking, sometimes creepy looking, or just bland designs.
	* The intro, while catchy and fun to watch, doesn't seem to present what the show is actually like aside from many scenes that include a lot of hijinks and showing Sonic's name in almost about every scene. Thankfully the Castillian Spanish, French, and Italian intros don't have the Sonic's name appearing and have a different intro (Despite the French version's intro the bases are from the Italian intro & the Castillian Spanish versions are from the Italian intro of *Widget: The World Watcher*).
	* Like most of DiC's animated shows, aside from the aforementioned animation quality, the soundtrack tends to be reused a lot (whether it fits the consistent tone of the show or not). While the soundtrack itself is memorable, it can be repetitive at times to hear the same music over and over again with scenes that can be unfitting sometimes (e.g Robotnik's themes being played when he isn't on-screen, the episodes "Submerged Sonic", "Tails Prevails" and "Mad Mike, Da Bear Warrior" for example).
	* There are instances where the same yells and voice clips can be heard over and over again in a noticeable way (Sonic, Robotnik, Scratch sometimes, and Grounder being prime examples of this). Some voices can be mismatched on occasion like Scratch's out-of-place grunts in the episode "Mystery of the Missing Hi-Tops".
	* The chaos emeralds are poorly represented and hardly look like their video game counterparts.
2. Once again, the writing can be very lazy, bizarre, and forced with most of its stories and how their characters communicate in an extremely absurd way.
	* Scratch and Grounder's insane levels of incompetence and being unbelievably idiotic/gullible to the point of being outright *illogical* can be either way too stupid to be believable most of the time (despite the entertaining aspect about their stupidity), or it's just boring to watch.
	* How Sonic is even able to deceive just about anyone (or even having any disguise on a whim like he's Bugs Bunny) seems very unlikely and it makes him out to be this smug Gary-Stu that can be hard to like/root for him most of the time, not to mention how he makes countless practical jokes that are so transparent, lamebrained & ridiculously unconvincing that anyone would be way too stupid to fall for (Scratch and Grounder being the general victims of this).
3. The characters can be annoying at times.
	* Whether it's their polarizing voices that can irritate some viewers like Scratch and Grounder themselves (Scratch having a braying voice and laugh for a chicken character), Coconuts having a harsh sounding voice for a monkey character, and this can also come from their incredibly questionable actions, behavior, etc.
		+ Some characters can also be forgettable (e.g Tails' childlike persona at times) or are extremely hard to like towards viewers (e.g Sonnette from "Mystery of the Missing Hi-Tops", Dr. Warpnik from "Trail of the Missing Tails", and Sonic himself *to some extent*). Momma Robotnik is a character that is written to be intentionally unlikable for the story, even when she seems to be very annoying for her idiotic decisions.
	* A ton of the characters can show pure stupidity because of the aforementioned lazy/forced writing discussed above, which can also showcase the show's nonsensical qualities.
		+ This is better shown when the viewer can pinpoint what certain characters could've done more rationally (i.e Sonic and Tails when they can seemingly lack common sense during situations such as the duo being locked in a cage with bars they could easily get out of).
		+ Another example is Robotnik having his moments of being very moronic or pathetic. Especially when he easily falls for the transparent and childish tricks Sonic fools him with somehow despite having the *IQ of 300,* much to the point that it seems like Robotnik got dumber over time with his goofy plans to conquer Mobius/etc.
4. Despite this show being rather campy, joke-driven & lighthearted; There have been many overly weird and insane moments that can get irritating, too extreme, or slightly lowbrow, especially in the show's final episode, “Sonically Ever After”. Where some scenes can be a little too dramatic, over-the-top, or overly hammy as well.
	* With that said, there are some very corny moments when it comes to occasions with very cheesy jokes/one-liners, and the voice actors overacting the yells or sounds of their characters for example (The polarizing voices at BQ#3 is one of them).
5. Bad episodes can appear at times (whether they have redeeming qualities like having a good start before it got bad, being slightly entertaining or not, etc). These include “Submerged Sonic”, “Trail of the Missing Tails”, “Lovesick Sonic”, “Zoobotnik”, “Momma Robotnik's Birthday”, and “Musta Been a Beautiful Baby”. The stupidest and lousiest episode being “Hero Of The Year”, an episode that was lazily put together and was more half-done than usual when it comes to animation, quality, and writing. There can also be some *really* cheesy or flat-out nonsensical episodes as well, “Trail of the Missing Tails” is a prime example. The episode “Super Robotnik” is one of the more laughable episodes because of how hilariously bad and insane if somewhat creative and entertaining it is, despite the writing being mostly ridiculous, making *some* sense and Robotnik blatantly ripping off *Superman*.
	* Likewise, a few of the "Sonic Says" segments can be sloppily written and have misleading life lessons. Like how it's better to be in an abusive family than to have no family at all, which is completely false, as abusive families are one of the causes of depression and criminality.
6. Overanalyzing and reading too much into the flaws the show does have (e.g BQ#1 and so on) can be the very reason why *most* viewers find this genuinely campy, silly, colorful, fun, mostly nostalgic, jokey, and ludicrously entertaining (if nonsensical or hokey) series in itself out to be obnoxious, pointless, tiresome and/or insubstantial because of the consistent theme of having stupid surreal comedy/writing as the focus without enough substance for the logic/consistency/etc.
	* Especially when the show itself is meant to be a "turn-your-brain-off" type of entertainment. Aside from personal preference, this is one of the many cases on why viewers may not be a fan of this type of show and the very reason why the show is often very maligned.
7. A lot like Sonic SATAM (1993), the Latin American dub was not well received.
8. The Brazilian Portuguese redub of the first 13 episodes released in Brazil by the end of 2021 was been criticized for the translated script being intentionally bad with dubious stuff. Even Sonic's Brazilian VA, Manolo Rey, did not like it at all.

## Trivia

* The show could have 3 seasons and 67 episodes when the 1996 *Sonic Christmas Blast* Christmas special and the 1992 eight-minute pilot episode are factored in, and the fact that Wikipedia lists said episodes as single seasons.
* *Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog* was a significant part of early meme culture, with phrases such as "PINGAS" (derived from Robotnik's "Snoo**ping as** usual, I see?"), the facial expressions of various characters, a trend based on the line "Hot sticky fluids", and Sonic saluting someone and saying "Hamburger" all playing a part in the development of meme culture.
* The aforementioned PINGAS, (from "Boogey-Mania"), "I'll have to give myself a PRRROMOTION!" (from "Tails' New Home"), Robotnik shouting "NO!"/"SILENCE!!" and Sonic's "That's no good!" sexual harassment PSA (both from "Lovesick Sonic") are staples of early and modern YouTube Poop, a style of video involving heavy editing (typically audio and visual splicing/adjustments) to a source for comedic effect.
* Sonic the Hedgehog's design is based on the American box art of the Sonic the Hedgehog games, as illustrated by Greg Martin.
* The "Sonic Says" segments were never shown in the UK.
* Character designs from the show were utilized in *Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine*, the Western localization of Puyo Puyo for the Sega Genesis, Game Gear and Master System.
* This show's animation (along with SatAM) was so nostalgic, there were many videos of actual cel animation frames from the show that are saved as collectibles (along with many other shows) to this very day.
* This show and *Sonic SatAM* were often described as Batman's two shows in the past since one show is very lighthearted & campy and the other is more serious & grim (Especially when the *Sonic Says* segments make Sonic out to be like Adam West's Batman with teaching morals).

## References

1. ↑ https://twitter.com/MANOLO\_REY/status/1475987578532679681

## Reception

It gained a mixed reception overall, where most reviewers tend to hate how the way this show was written and for how campy it was ever since the show first aired, while viewers have preferences that have shown that they all either love or hate the series respectively; some might even call it a guilty pleasure because of this.

It was very popular for its time, spawning at least one video game as a direct spin-off to this show while there are references like the robotic chicken, Scratch, that are seen in *Sonic Spinball* (which has characters that make cameos from both this show and SatAM).

## Episodes With Their Own Pages

* Robo-Ninjas
* Sonic Breakout

## Videos

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