Sonic the Hedgehog SAT AM Episodes 11-13 Review

Welcome to the 74th episode of Pixels. In the

animation I am of course TfU and Mike. Joining

me is TV's Mr. Neil. I hate that hedgehog. Yes,

yes we do. I don't understand people's fascination

with this show. Oh, I'm starting to hate this.

I just don't like - moments in this cartoon that

are really really well done and really cool and

really great but the problem with the quote -unquote

dark sonic is the fact that um they don't stick

to and we said this before in the first you know

episode 71 to 73 is that they either do one -off

episodes homaging you know old You know reading

things like you know hooked on sonics works for

us, but it's one of those things where they either

do that or they do something like harmonic sonic

from from last time or And it's just a one -off

and yet they try to well We'll find out in the

next couple of episodes that they try to tie

a story together with her father with sally's

dad with the king and with sonic's uncle chuck

and Look, I know certain television shows take

time to find their legs Like most people and

you'll have an opinion on this obviously I don't

know if it'll be the same as some of the other

people that I've talked to most people say that

The next generation Star Trek the next generation

did not find its legs until like the third or

fourth season That's pretty accurate. Okay You

know and these are cartoons this this series

is two seasons 26 total episodes and we're already

into or we're gonna be yeah no we're already

into well we'll be getting into season two because

and it's just like I said it just doesn't know

what it wants to do and that's not good Also,

this is commonly called the dark sonic. Yeah,

that's what I said earlier. Yeah, not that dark.

No, I mean, it's It's not even as dark as transformers

and I wouldn't call that a dark cartoon Yeah,

the the the darkest part of transformers in the

80s was you know? Zombie okay that but I was

gonna say zombie optimist prime Peeps were dying.

Yeah You know, Prowl. Prowl had orange smoke

coming out of his mouth. And still, that was

a pretty light -hearted movie. I mean, this is

nothing. Yeah. I mean, nobody... Okay, like,

you see a couple kind of gross things with, you

know, characters being turned into robots, but

even that's not that bad. Even the transformations

we see between robot Uncle Chuck and regular

Uncle Chuck are not like... I mean, the Matrix

babies are more disgusting than this cartoon.

And by this, I mean the 1999 classic film, not

anything that came out of the Decepticon Matrix

of leadership, which doesn't exist. You know,

Webworld has more gross things in it than this

does. Yeah, I don't understand people's fascination

with this cartoon series and again This is coming

from somebody who has not seen it in 20 years

Like I have not seen this since it originally

aired and I'm trying my best I do have positive

things to say about each I try my best to have

positive things to say about each episode because

I know The flip side of the coin over there folks.

He's gonna have a lot of negative things to say

I mean you know another aspect of this is that

we have the female characters which you know

they kind of I'm trying to find the word here

because I think this cartoon is what contributed

to furry culture and why Sonic kind of gets a

bad rap for that because I'm looking at bunny

rabot and I'm looking at Sally Acorn I'm like

you know they're kind of built Yeah, they, um...

See, here's my thing with them, and this will

actually be coming up in the next couple of weeks

here, folks. When this series first started,

everybody was naked. Except for Bunny. But, like,

Sally was... I don't remember her wearing clothes

before one point in the next few episodes. Like,

she has... a blue vest on or something. And again,

there's nothing to say, you know, anything about

the voice cast or anything like that because

it is all great. And, you know, I mean, you've

got three amazing female leads in this series.

Now, I know everyone hates, you know, one, two,

three, tongue, two, three from Elmira, but you

still that that still doesn't take away from

how awesome Cree Summer is. Yeah. You know, you

got her, you got Kath to see as Nicole and and

Sally as well. And then you've got Christine

Cavanaugh, who has done a number of other voice

roles. But I'm just talking about the character

design. Yeah. Something weirdly. somewhat sexual

about them and you know that's this is coming

from me I'm the kind of guy that does not complain

about that at all and looking at this cartoon

I'm like what the hell is going on because we've

had female animal cartoons in the past I mean

we grew up with the shirt tails these pantless

cartoon characters yeah there were female shirt

tails and there was never anything weird about

them watch this cartoon there's something weird

going on here yeah there is It's like I feel

uncomfortable looking at Sally Acorn. Yeah. I

mean, you know, even, you know. Even Cindy Bear

from from Yogi Bear, I mean, there's she she

wears nothing and there's nothing weird about

her. Yeah. Yeah, she wears like a bow in her

hair. That's about it. But yeah, I mean, and

of course, we're, you know, at this point. Of

the three episodes that we're talking about today,

Warp Sonic, Sub Sonic, and Sonic Pass Cool, these

aired between November and December of 93. So

we were already about three years into, well,

it was probably over by then, but I'm sure it

was in syndication, we're already three years

into having already seen Tiny Toon Adventures.

And I don't care what anyone says about Tiny

Toon Adventures, a lonely beginning will still

be the best thing that show ever did. Come on

I think season 2 and season 3 blew away anything

that's in that pilot I Did they were actually

making cartoons in the later seasons that that

that first episode is just The first episode

was all set up and it was comical set up and

you know they basically made fun of the fact

that Most of the actual animal characters in

the classic Looney Tunes did not wear clothes.

Granted Buster Bunny does not have pants, but

you know, I mean, and then later in Looney Tunes

cartoons, they'll, they put the pants thing on

Porky and they're like, oh my God, my pants,

where'd my pants go? God. So yes starting off

today we have warp sonic which has Surprisingly

nothing to do with any kind of warp drive or

anything like that or him going faster than normal

or beyond like um Hello, but essentially the

freedom fighters find themselves defending an

underground Mobian city of refugees all While

coming to terms with their own personal relationships

This is a video game cartoon. There should not

be Relationships in video games. I mean, you

know, it's not our fault that princess can't

stay in the right fucking castle I Mean we're

getting into He -Man territory here that They're

not even like telling a story. They're skipping

right to the to the moral message at the end.

Mm -hmm pretty much You know, you said earlier

that this is really not dark at all and they

call this the Dark Sonic. The underground city

was lighter and brighter than anything that may

have been dark in Robotnik's town. I can't even

talk tonight. Robotropolis or whatever it's called.

Because really, again, My god, I can't believe

you mentioned him. Oh, you shouldn't have done

that cuz now you're really gonna hate this Sonic

the Hedgehog is essentially She -Ra Princess

of Power What? Not fucking kidding, dude You

got Robotnik who rules the place in a very dark

fright zone looking thing. You've got Sonic Sonic

and his band of merry men in A place called Knothole

Forest, aka the Whispering Woods. I mean, the

only thing Sonic is missing is a white horse

that turns into a unicorn with his magic ring.

And a little elf kid, raccoon looking thing,

hiding in the background. That's what Tails...

Oh my god, Tails is Lukey! Oh fuck! Oh no! Yeah,

he's barely in it anyway, so... Oh fuck! I just

gave myself a heart attack. Holy shit. Oh, good

night, everybody. That's right. Oh, crap. Sonic

is She -Ra Princess. Oh, my God. With Warp Sonic,

I did think it was cool that we saw other quote

unquote freedom fighters. But again, it's cliche

and it's whatever because The freedom fighter

that introduces them to the underground city

is actually Biff Tannen's great -great -great

-great -great -grandson, Griff, who's got a mental

plate in his head. Of course, Griff is going

to be evil. But he's not really evil. Guess what,

guys? We're going to show you all this sneaking

around stuff. He's not really evil because...

In the end, he was doing it for a good cause.

Look, I don't mind desperate times call for desperate

measures and you're doing it for the right reasons,

but damn it, man, why didn't you just tell them

what you wanted instead of sneaking around? I

mean, I do think it was cool that we actually

got to see the power source that creates the

rings and all that, but this was just bad. and

at the end we learn that sharing is caring as

they broke the power source in half and he and

Sonic gave that guy which you know begged a couple

of questions one it's like is so is this like

a radioactive isotope that they have shouldn't

they be dying by holding this pretty much yeah

and two it's like doesn't that half the power

of it or is this just something you could just

break indefinitely into like little pieces and

pass it around uh two of my other negatives my

my big one which i i know i'm nitpicking here

but when sonic first gets to the underground

city a pig serving chili dogs okay then what

um hello You know, I started questioning where

are they getting these chili dogs? Where are

they getting the hot dogs hot dogs? Hot dogs

don't don't grow on trees. You don't you don't

like kill a hot dog. You have to actually manufacture

one. Where are they making these? This is a world

where dr. Robot I know I'm I'm I'm Over analyzing

the stupid cartoon, but this is a this is a world

where dr. Robotnik has taken over everything.

Mm -hmm So it's like who's making the hot dogs?

you know and who's making the chili because seriously

really everything with that it's like what is

the chili is a little easier to explain i mean

it's just you know beans and shit but yeah they

went into the forbidden forest got some beans

and added some meat and yeah i don't know um

so we get swat bots rat bots and all this other

stuff with the underground uh but Robotnik or

snively or sneedly or whatever his name is neither

one of them are in this episode at all Like this

episode has not that's again That's what I'm

saying about earlier in the in the beginning

of the podcast was this show either Wants to

do one -off stories like this one or they want

to try to write a continuous arc with Robotnik

and all that and everything else and Sally's

dad and Sonic's uncle and They can't fucking

pick what they want to do anything on warp sonic

for you good or bad just just that it was a filler

episode that had a moral message and therefore

I hated it you know what would have been worse

if it had a single fucking tear like every single

episode of he -man usually did yeah it did he

-man and shira both had those Alright, so next

up we have Subsonic. I don't think I want to

go to Subway for a Subsonic. Anyway. The Freedom

Fighters' home, the Great Forest, is dying in

search of magical water that causes plants to

grow at an accelerated speed. The Freedom Fighters

journey underground where they begin disappearing

one by one. We just came out of an underground

city. How come those characters are not back

in this episode? Because no one is talking to

each other when they're writing these apparently

not yeah, that does that does seem to Beg another

question. It's like how does this affect that

underground city exactly? Exactly like thanks.

Thanks for saving us Sonic. Oh god. We're dying

And of course the whole time because most of

this most of this episode is focused on pollution

All I can think of is, you know, loot and plunder

and Captain Pollution and, you know, may the,

you know, by your powers combined, you know,

the power is yours and blah, blah, blah. You

know, I was definitely getting some Captain Planet

flashbacks in here. Dodd and I tried doing, we

tried to launch a Captain Planet review show

years and years and years ago. It was going to

be called Planet Punks. It never got off the

ground past one episode, but... I vaguely remember

that. That might come back in the next little

bit. I don't know when, but that might resurface

itself. Oh, God. Yeah, but the whole, my only

you know I think anything for you on subsonic

anything that you liked or didn't like for this

one You know, I had a thought but it it kind

of got lost it I just I guess it's the idea like

they found some magic water that cleaned up pollution

and How kind of lame that was? I don't know.

It's kind of an incomplete thought right now.

It's I think everything around this episode,

everything else I had to watch today is just

making me very angry. This episode kind of got

lost in the shuffle. I know there was like a

giant underground creature that thought that

Sonic's friends were in on it, but they made

up toward the end and worked together. I don't

know, something happened and the walrus did something

heroic and I don't know. See, I kind of got confused

at one point because while they're underground,

they encountered man -eating plants. And I thought

that's what the weird water was doing. So I'm

like, oh no, especially later when you see the

trees above ground kind of absorb some of the

magic water and they start to grow even bigger

than before. And I'm like, oh, their forest is

going to turn into a bunch of evil trees. But

that didn't happen. That was kind of a non sequitur

that completely confused me. Yeah. And all I

can think of is Audrey had babies. Oh, no. Feed

me, Seymour, feed me! Okay. Suddenly sonic. Yeah.

And yeah. God now I was like I think it was that

song suddenly last summer for some odd reason

anyway Sonic past cool is our final episode for

today Robotnik has set his greedy eyes on the

last living herd of dinosaur like species the

freedom fighters help the creatures navigate

through the great jungle while fighting off the

advances of Robotnik's machines now this episode

is strange because First of all, it's a Tales

-centric story. Second of all, it's essentially

Tales is Jerry and the little dinosaur dude is

Jumbo. Oh, jeez. See, I looked away for a moment

and I turned back and I thought I had accidentally

turned on The Land Before Time. Or even worse,

one of The Land Before Time's sequels. Yeah,

they're all pretty bad. First movie was alright

for its time. It's not the best movie, but the

rest of them. Oh my god They're like what ten

of those nine of those they don't I don't even

know they keep making them Yeah, and they have

they have bad songs in them just like Donkey

Kong Country I don't know, dude. I don't think

there's any kind of singing in any cartoon at

this point that could outdo the horribleness

of the singing in Donkey Kong Country. I mean,

William Hung can sing better than the people

that sung in Donkey Kong Country. I don't know.

I would challenge you to try to sit through one

of the songs from the Land Before Time sequels.

Maybe. One of these days. The only thing I wrote

down for Sonic Pass Cools... Oh, hell no, the

annoying kid character feels left out. Cliche,

anybody! And really, honestly, what does Tails

even add to the... Okay, Sonic is the super speedster

who's got the attitude, and I know, you know,

we here at Pixels of the Animation don't really

like the fact that he has attitude in this cartoon,

but, you know, that's what it is. And you know

he does all this stuff and he doesn't really

come up with the plans he just didn't ask the

plan Sally is the planner in the plotter rotor

is the tinker mechanic essentially. He's the

oh god what's what's blues buddies name and tailspin

not kid. Wildcat. Wiley cat or whatever no well

Wiley cats from thundercats but. You know who

I'm talking about the mechanic from tailspin.

Yes, I you know, so that's the rotor character

bunny Rabot is You know a character amongst herself,

you know But tails he's just kind of there and

he's just kind of there in the two in the video

Sonic 2 is the only video game that I've played

that has tails really I have not played anything

else past that so in that game Tails is just

kind of there you can use him as a you know a

separate character like in the in the bonus rounds

and things like that but he doesn't really as

an assistant to Sonic in that second game he

really doesn't assist him at all Well, if you

have someone else playing his tails, he's basically

immortal So yeah, so Sonic can just sit off at

the side of the screen and tails can attack the

bosses. There you go. That's that's true. Oh

boy Any other any thoughts from you on Sonic

past cool? It was trying to be sappy and it totally

failed there's one scene in there where where

the the little I forget the name of the character,

but the little dinosaur cub goes back with its

herd and Sonic says something about, oh, he misses

his mother. And like, Tail goes, I miss my mother

too, single tear. I'm like, oh, come on, barf.

There was a single tear, oh my God. Yeah. I got

the vibe of Land Before Time. I got the vibe

of, like I said, Jerry and Jumbo, the old Tom

and Jerry cartoon. And now as you're talking

about it as the cub going back with the mother,

I'm like, if the mother was a father and really

stuck up and tight, it would essentially be Colonel

Hathi and his son from Jungle Book. Yeah. Alright

folks, we are going to take a quick break, come

back with final ratings and all that good stuff,

and close the show out after this! Alright folks,

we are back here on Pixels in the Animation,

episode 74. To rate these episodes, Warp Sonic,

I'm gonna give it a 2. There was no warp zone,

there was no nothing there at all. What about

you? I'll give it a 1. I just didn't like it.

The only reason why it doesn't get to 0 is because

I'm sure I've given it 0s to Warp. Yeah. Every

episode of dark stalkers What about subsonic

for you I Gotta give it a one didn't like it.

I'm gonna give it a two and a half. It was okay

Sonic pass cool. I will give a three. I it's

a generous three really because Saw so much in

the episode from other things like I almost went

and watched the Tom and Jerry Jerry and jumbo

episode I really almost watched that cartoon

right after I watched Sonic past cool. So What

about you for Sonic past cool? See to me that's

a negative if you if a cartoon inspires you to

watch a much better cartoon that means that cartoon

is awful So I gotta give it a one All of these,

all of these are filler episodes. They were goddamn

awful. Mm -hmm. Trying to catch that 90s kids

market. Ugh. All right, folks. Coming up next

is episode 75. That means there's only 25 podcasts

left in pixels in the animation unless we decide

to go 101 and start talking about Pokemon, which

I highly doubt will happen. Where can the people

find your webcomic sir? Decian .com and on that

website, you'll also see the link to my Twitter

account as Parker Lynn Bailey. So I don't even

need to give The URL for that it's already there

built into the site That's funny uh... i'm of

course at tfgmike on twitter you can follow at

geekcastradio and also this week in geek as i'm

publishing the sonic stuff both on gcrn and twig

as well uh... go to geekcastradio .com this week

in geek .net all that other good stuff uh...

and uh... join us next time and help us find

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