Reviews for Sonic the Hedgehog

Sweet! Sweet! Sweet! I absolutely love this Sonic show way better then the other Sonic shows and it's got such characters to love; I like Tails (Sonic's little fox-buddy),Bunnie Rabbot (she's both cute and awesome),Dulcy the funny dragon and Princess Sally (she and Sonic are a great match *sigh loveingly*).

This show has top-notch voice acting from world reknown talents like Jaleel White (Sonic), Kath Soucie (Princess Sally Acorn), Jim Cummings (Dr. Robotnik), Rob Paulsen (Antoine), Christine Cavanaugh (Bunnie Rabbot),and Tim Curry (King Acorn); Michael Tavera is a gifted composer for the series' musical score; and last excellent story writers like Ben Hurst, Pat Allee and Len Janson.

This is in my opinion, and many other people as well, the best Sonic series up to the date. It is far superior to "The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog", much better than "Sonic Underground", and unless you have a thing for animé it's is also more enjoyable than "Sonic X".
The series has many positive aspects to point out, such as: The storyline, the characters, the animation, the voices, all of that is good. The only really big dissapointment is: see below if you don't mind spoilers).

SPOILERS:
The series was cancelled after only 2 seasons (many people blame the "Mighty Morphing Power Rangers" for this), and ended in a Cliffhanger.
END SPOILERS.

This was a great cartoon growing up. The story was a nice blend of humor and action, with a focus on actually developing characters. I mean, this made me care about a character whose games I had never played before. The animation may look a little dated compared to new stuff, but for me, a person who cares more about story, this show is a must-own.

Let me start with this, I never thought any of the three DIC Sonics were amazing. Part of this may just be the western makeover DIC gave them, I can’t really say I like it. I preferred the simplified manga meets Disney (Sonic’s basic design was based of ink-blot era characters) style of the games.

Without the Archie comics to support it this series could of had something of an uphill struggle outside of the states, if it wasn’t as well developed as it was. The UK had its own collection of sonic comics at this time, but with different characters, if a similar overall, though inferior whole. To be honest seeing characters who neither appeared in the videogames or our UK comics was a slightly unwelcome shock to the system.

To be blunt, the only sense of connection with this show and the videogames I could ever perceive were: a) The fact that Sonic, Tails and Dr. Robotnik were in it. b) The Power Rings (though for some reason the Chaos Emeralds are AWOL). c) The overall sense of doom (if this sounds strange to you then maybe you should have paid more attention to the plot of a game series that had zones named Doomsdays and Death Egg in it).

Of course Knuckles hadn’t appeared just as it started yet (more on this later), though Amy had (in Sonic CD), but her role was minor; so we left with a group of characters that are admittedly well designed to fit in the world of Mobius, but left me with a degree of culture shock.

What about the characters, Sally Acorn, Bunnie Rabot, Tails, Rotor, Robotnik, the dragon Dulcy (forget her name) fine, no problems with them: some of the others I have more problems with…

First Sonic, I’ll make no bones about it, I hate his voice, some of this has a lot to do with his silence in the videogames, you could put your own thoughts in his head (I had much the same problem with Link from the Legend of Zelda TV series). The other thing is his inane mode of speech. “Way Pass Cool” is not a phrase which I ever considered going through his lips, sure I saw him as having a attitude (maybe also a bit arrogant as well); but it was one of determination, not a superiority complex. Sonic was a loner, or rather he was the last survivor in the war against Robotnik.

Next Antoine is just a moaner, who although he has a personality, one that has zero going for him. I suppose this is the point, but he never showed any signs of improvement. Even in the last episode he was pretty much the same character all the way through, in a series with a feeling of chronologically. In the comics at least (from what I can tell) he progresses and grows up, in this cartoon he doesn’t. Great from a syndication point of view, but I think that that was what Adventure was for.

Snively, Robotnik lackey and relative was also something of a irritant, with his shrilly, whining voice, although he did progress as the series went, or rather as the series ended; where his true colours emerged. Yet as soon as it seemed that he could be just as dangerous as Robotnik, the series ended.

In the second series, elements from Sonic3 begin to be put into the mix, in one episode Sonic, Sally travel to the floating island to find a powerful stone. I was thinking of Knuckles and the Master Emerald to arrive, he didn’t; I was very disappointed (although this may have been a case of the series being made before Sonic3, but being released here after).

What saves it is the fact that many of the storylines plots are quite well developed and told in a straightforward manner, Dr. Robotnik actually works as a villain and a the generally dark, oppressive atmosphere does to; the fact that the animals are mostly losing the war, with scattered victories here and there, it, works.

I'll give it a hard-won three, I do so with many reservations, but it is ultimately an enjoyable series. Maybe if it had another season and put a little more effort into the development of the characters like the comics seem to have done in its absence, then this might have seen a better score from me (although reading what they were planning to do would have possibly have isolated me even further). Yet a seeming dependence of the Archie comics ultimately robs it of much of the points in favour of it had it been solo. In all, it’s a strong enough adaptation of the games, but like so many adaptations, it just seems to miss that something that kept me hooked to my Mega Drive (Genesis).

Fans of this brilliant show remembered this cartoon as the "Blade Runner" of tv animation. This show also managed to spark the attention of Congress at the time, which blacklisted the show as the second most violent cartoon on air, which was weird because it never showed a drop of blood. How this masterpiece fell to junk like The Power Rangers is beyond me, but good cartoons being shoved out the door to make way for garbage has been going on for years before and is still going on today.

Unlike its cousin(more like ugly stepsister), The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog(often called Sonic SatAM to avoid confusion) wasn't goofy or funny. It was dark, often disturbing, and possessed a certain tangible atmosphere that was equal parts oppressive and patriotic. It all stemmed from the fact that our heroes are but mere animals struggling against a completely cold and mechanical metropolis of robots. Watching their exploits is akin to watching the small band of rebels fight the Empire in the Star Wars movies. In this cartoon, Dr. Robotnik was actually pretty scary.

While there were filler episodes, for the most part, Sonic the Hedgehog had a strong sense of plot and cohesive narration. There were many emotional scenes, like the famous episode where Sonic tries to save his uncle Sir Charles from his robotic body and succeeds, but only for a few minutes. At the end, Sonic is forced to leave his uncle as he converts back to his robot self, and Sonic vows to return some day as a tear rolls down his face. After that episode, Sega decided that Sonic was too macho to show emotion, but it remained an important episode for the fans. It's the same episode where Bunnie finds a way to return her robot arm back to normal and gets upset when it changes back later on. There is also an episode where Sonic has a recurring nightmare about failing Princess Sally, causing her to get roboticized. And it's pretty much like this throughout the series, with only a few dippy episodes here and there. It should also be worth noting that there were a few episodes that were inconsistent with the rest of the series, such as giving the characters a different color scheme or making Tails fly while throughout most of the show, he wasn't a flying character, unlike in the video game. But all in all, this was a brilliant show and one of the most important cartoons of the 90s. Not to mention that the theme song kick butt.