Sonic the Hedgehog SAT AM Episodes 1-4 Review

Welcome to the latest episode of Pixels in the

Animation. I am one of your hosts, TFJ. And my

journey, as always in this epic journey, is TV's

Mr. Neil! I think you're mistaking me for someone

completely different! No, no I'm not. Not at

all. Today we got a juice because it's time we

went Super Sonic. That's right, here in episode

71 we start our Sonic the Hedgehog coverage.

we'll be covering the sat a m first uh... and

then adventures inside the hedgehog later uh...

i think it's after episode eighty or eighty one

so join us won't you because pixels in the animation

is way past cool as we celebrate twenty five

years of sega's title character and you can tell

for come on dude this is better than bubsy come

on now it's better it's better than dark stalkers

This is Poochie the Hedgehog. No! I have an aunt,

dude! I want a chili dog! Oh, come on! Alright,

so since this is technically a new cartoon series

that we have never done before, much like years

and years and years ago now when we did the Mario

stuff and the Zelda stuff, we talked about the

video game franchise that these characters obviously

killed at least the title character are already

came out of and as i said technically it's been

twenty six years i guess since june twenty third

was the first release for sonic of ninety one

wow so this isn't i could have sworn that it

was ninety two not ninety one Okay, well then

I screwed that all up didn't I? So when did you

first figure out that you, did you even like

Sonic when it came out? I didn't have a Genesis,

but I did play my friend's Sonic game. Yeah,

I liked it. I don't think it was ever as good

as Mario. things that are wrong with the with

the game like if sonic ever comes to a screeching

halt god forbid if you have to walk uphill yeah

there's a reason the second game got the spin

dash because the first game was just kind of

uh kind of fucky yep yeah gotta love that spin

dash though fastest character fastest creature

alive can't walk up a hill yeah that's a little

wonky um I remember the first game, and I remember

playing it. I didn't have a Genesis. I went Super

Nintendo, and like you, my friends, actually

my cousins, I had the Super Nintendo, and my

three cousins, Rachel, Robbie, and Cassie, they

had the Sega Genesis, and I would go over to

their house and play Sega Genesis games all the

time. But it wasn't until the second game that

I absolutely fell in love with Sonic, his powers,

the characters, and all that, and the worlds,

because by the time the second game came around,

they improved the graphics quite a bit. And the

franchise has been going on strong for, you know,

25, 26 years now. Well, it depends on your definition

of strong. We had a couple of weak moments. More

than a few actually. It's had more than a few

weak moments, but I'm saying like, you know,

there's been a Sonic game or a Sonic type of

game at least once every few years for the last

25 or 26 years. Sonic would like to get 2006.

Actually, there was quite a gap in the late 90s.

For the entire run of the Sega Saturn there was

not a single well there was there were a couple

spin -off Sonic games or Sonic are and Sonic

Sonic are Yeah, the crappy racing game, but no

real platformer to speak of you got Sonic Jam

which was the collection Which is it was a great

collection, but you know that was the only real

Sonic game on the Saturn so from like 1994 to

1990, holy shit, 1999, 2000, there was no Sonic

game. That was like... 1999 is when Sonic Adventure

came out. Yeah, and then the only other Dreamcast

Sonic game was the Sonic Shuffle. Oh my god.

And we all know that because Sonic is... he's...

I don't want to say he's Sega's flagship character,

but he kind of was when the Genesis launched.

He was all over that. He became the mascot about

two years in. When the Genesis launched, they

were still trying to convince us that Alex Kidd

was worth playing. That last Alex Kidd game on

the Genesis was like... I guess it was a callback

to the only other good Alex Kidd game, but still

it was kind of weird. The first level you're

running around punching cars for some reason.

I never felt that Alex Kidd... Was on the same

level as say a Mario or a Spyro or a Crash Bandicoot?

No, he never was yeah Alex kid and Yeah, I guess

you had I guess you had Wonder Boy. I mean I

mean that kind of counts for something Yeah,

I I guess but yeah essentially so when Sonic

came out or when Sonic was debuted he pretty

much ended up being the flagship character he

would always go up against mario and any of the

other mascots and when i think of video game

mascot characters are flagship characters margaret

nintendo you can argue because nintendo has multiples

of flagship characters mario well yeah they got

mario they got donkey kong they got zelda they

got you know metroid starbucks yeah peek at you

Hey for a number of years for a number of years

Pokemon kept Nintendo in business Well, you never

know There may be but because I did not think

of Pokemon as a video game cartoon Because most

of the video games video game cartoons we've

talked about over these last four or five six

years however how long it's been have come from

video games and Pokemon to me was it always was

either a cartoon here or it was originally an

anime or whatever it originally was because I

Have not watched an episode or anything of Pokemon

in decades at this point But you never know Pokemon

made pixels the animation may make a comeback

after episode 100 who knows we're not going to

go episode by episode we might go season by season

but that's down the line season by season well

season by season is easier i know but my my overview

of pokemon is just that the first season is the

one that's worth watching and everything else

is kind of uh overstaying is welcome So Sonic,

like I said, when I think of the mascot characters,

I think of Mario, him. PlayStation had a weird

thing with Crash and Spyro kind of vying for

head mascot duties when those two games kind

of came out. You know and then between 2001 and

2006 we had you know the move to the non Sega

console systems because Sega at this point was

what bankrupt or something They were hemorrhaging

money. Yeah Yeah, I think the only out of all

the games that came out between 2001 and currently

the only game that I absolutely loved playing

back in the day was Shadow the Hedgehog. So,

you know, 11 years ago, I think, because I think

Shadow came out in 2006. I could be wrong. Yeah,

I'm pretty sure I could be wrong, though. But

it's just one of those things where I remember

seeing that game in a store and I'm like, oh

my God, what is this? An evil sort of hedgehog

that has to go... up against Sonic and you actually

play as the character? What the heck? He came

from Sonic Adventure 2, which was also on the

Dreamcast. Shadow got released, wow, it wasn't

2006, it was 2005. Oh, god. And then, you know,

pretty much for the last... four years or so

you know sonic finally got into super smash brothers

on the three d s and we you after there were

years of jokes about him being in there they

finally just said act let's put a bet he was

uh... uh... playable character in lego dimensions

so that was cool in twenty sixteen uh... and

apparently there are two upcoming sonic games

uh... for the twenty fifth anniversary event

uh... last year uh... the first game was sonic

mania which emulates the gameplay and visuals

of the original sega genesis titles that looks

really good and yeah it will release in quarter

two or quarter three of this year development

was done by pagoda west games uh... and there's

another one the second upcoming game developed

by sonic team titled sonic forces currently slated

for quarter four of this year Both titles PlayStation

4 Xbox one Nintendo switch Microsoft Windows

so Having Sonic on the Nintendo switch just seems

wrong Yeah, it's still kind of surreal to see

a Sonic game on a Nintendo system Yeah, the funniest

thing is back when the GameCube was out My buddy

and I were always like big rivals. I was the

Nintendo guy. He was a Sega guy. So I got Sonic

Mega collection on the GameCube and you know

that you know, I have that that GameCube controller

that looks like an SNES controller I look at

my buddy. I'm like look I'm playing Sonic on

a Nintendo console with a Super Nintendo controller

and he his face just gets totally serious He's

like that's so wrong that's just that's just

so funny uh so yeah um sonic has has gone through

many many many incarnations over his 25 year

history and i i did not know that the two cartoon

series uh sat am and adventures i did not know

they were running concurrent to each other at

the time like i just assumed that they you know

sat am came first and adventures was later I

did not know at the time that they were basically

releasing the same year from two different channels.

Really weird kind of pull that Sega had back

in like 1992, 1993, whatever this was. That they

could do two simultaneous Sonic cartoons. Two

very different Sonic cartoons, because Sonic

the Hedgehog, also known as Sad AM, is a very

dark... Dystopian series and Adventures of Sonic

the Hedgehog is pretty much, you know You're

you're you're Laurel and Hardy, you know, yeah

Yeah, and yet you had a much cartoonier. Dr.

Robotnik and he had his two robotic stooges Didn't

they call him Dr. Eggman in that series or did

they call him robot? I guess I don't I haven't

seen adventures in so long. I think they held

back on Eggman until Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast

And the way they explained that was so shitty.

It's like, Eggman was like an insult. I'm like,

oh god, no. So they're taunting him with that.

It's like, hey, Eggman. Oh god. Yeah, no. Sonic

isn't supposed to be that hip. Yeah, no. No,

in Adventures, he is called Dr. Robotnik. So,

yeah. Looking at part of the animation for Adventures,

and we're going to get to the Adventure episodes

down the line here, but comparing that to what

I've watched for this podcast and the next two

or three podcasts that we're going to be doing,

yeah, like you said, Adventures is much more

cartoonish looking, whereas the Sad AM series

is much more diabolical. much more dark and sinister

type. So we are going to take a quick break and

we're going to come back with our review of the

first episode of Sonic the Hedgehog for this.

You'll miss the beauty of this place when I'm

away. Good morning, Dr. Obuffnik. Exciting trip.

Shut up. Does he need another head or just food?

Any hint of that troublesome hedgehog? Not exactly,

you're probably making. What do you mean, not

exactly? Either there is or there isn't. When

I... Isn't that one of those fetid little freedom

fighters? Affirmative, sir. His name is Tails

and he is usually accompanied by Sonic. Take

him. Perhaps his cries will flush out the Hedgehog.

Nope, I'm here. Alright folks, we are back and

first up was the pilot slash season finale of

season one for Sonic the Hedgehog. It was called

Heads or Tails. Okay, I don't know what this

thing wanted to be. Not the cartoon itself, but

I don't know why they would say this was the

pilot. And the season finale as well. That does

tend to happen every now and then. They'll make

a pilot episode that really doesn't fit as like

an opening episode, so they'll just kind of throw

it in later in the season. I know I've seen that

before, I just can't think of... I can't think

of any examples off top my head, but I know other

shows have done that. Brennan Stimpy did that.

That's like the only example that I can think

of right now. Yeah. So basically, Sonic heads

to Robotropolis in search of materials to build

a defense against an impending invasion by Robotnik.

However, the inexperienced Tails is tagging along.

Now see, for me, I thought originally that this

was better off. Now... I have not watched Sonic

Pass... what is it? Yeah, Sonic Pass Cool yet,

which is episode 12 of the first season. But

if we use Heads or Tails as the pilot and not

the finale, that puts Sonic Pass Cool as the...

I'm really weird when it comes to season and

series finales, that I want them to actually

make sense and give us either... like if it's

a season one going into a season two, give us

a cliffhanger, give us something... whatever,

don't just... have a one -off episode. Or at

least some sort of emotional closure so that

it could potentially continue on but it's also

kind of like a farewell if it needs to be. This

is like none of that. It's not really a first

episode, it's not a last episode. This should

have been like an episode six maybe. Yeah, I

mean really. Mean I don't mind it Because when

you mentioned it to me off air about oh, we don't

have that listed as the as the first episode

But that was the pilot I'm like, okay Well, I'll

go back and I'll watch it as as the pilot as

the first episode and I did and it made sense

to me watching heads or tails first and then

watching Sonic was it Sonic boom? Yeah. Yeah,

and then watching Sonic boom is the second episode

because we essentially get in We already knew

who Sonic was, we probably already knew who Tails

was at that point, because this was 1993, so

I think Sonic 2 had already been out, right?

Yeah. Okay, yeah. So, you know, so we kind of

get introduced to Tails in Heads or Tails. I

liked the episode, it was alright, it was, you

know, interesting to say the least. Now, I didn't

get a chance to tell Neil this beforehand, but

good moments and bad moments for the Sonic series.

The good moments are the fast and the bad moments

are the furious. Are you sure you don't want

to be the furriest? Yeah, well, you know, hey,

we can do a Tom and Jerry reference too. More

internet culture, I was pointing that, but whatever.

Yeah, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah, we know all about

Sonic and the internet. Yeah, no, that's, that's

too... No, that'll be by now. Oh my god, no,

you didn't. Holy shit. We won't call it out by

name. No, let's not. Wow. Talk about a bulldozer.

um alright so heads or tails some of the things

I like and I have not seen this cartoon series

in a very long time it's been probably since

it premiered since I've seen it I know that shout

factory released the complete series DVDs years

and years ago at this point and I wanted to catch

them then but I just never did and so it's been

a long time so I'm essentially going into this

fresh what i like about the series so far just

watching this that this first episode thirteenth

episode we want to call it i like the animation

the animation is pretty solid for the most part

it's better than bubsy well yeah uh... i like

that the story starts off with the villain it's

not just the heroes hanging around the camp and

whatever else uh... and swan uh... and swan that

guy that poor fox and of course it's rob paulson

so you essentially have uh... you essentially

have yakko warner and buster bunny in the show

because you have uh... rob doing anton and you've

got charlie adler doing uh... snively or sneedly

or whatever his name is which is just hilarious

to me. I didn't really write any negatives for

Heads or Tails. I thought it was a solid, solid

open plot. I thought it was done very well. I

cringed at some of Sonic's sayings, but I think

that's because that's what they want the character

to be. They want him to be this egomaniacal speedster

that makes really, really bad puns. What were

your thoughts on heads or tails? I think Sonic

the character just kills it for me I mean if

I don't care about the main character that I

don't care about the plot and it's like I don't

like I don't like this This totally hip cool

dude who's like your main character says all

these cool things and Like get get out of here

poochie. I I would rather have like a really

cutesy Sonic like He looks in the games and like

occasionally he has attitude because that's actually

kind of cute This cartoon it's like it's like

every time An American company in the 90s would

try to draw Japanese characters and they just

didn't get it like like dark stalkers Although

this isn't as bad as dark This isn't as bad as

defenders of the realm either so there's that

Well, we have a moral combat as an American...

Yeah, still. Alright, anything else you didn't

like about Heads or Tails? That was pretty much

it. Sonic Boom was the next episode, and pretty

much Princess Sally and Antoine follow up on

the lead that suggests that her father, King...

Acorn, huh, maybe alive. Meanwhile, Sonic attempts

to rescue a captured freedom fighter. Okay, so

the Princess, Antoine, Sonic, and her father,

okay? Go with me on this. The Princess is essentially

Lana, Antoine is Simon, Sonic is Captain N, and

the father is the father stuck in the Mirror

World. Mm -hmm. Yeah. That was the first thing

I thought of when I saw these four characters.

Well, obviously we don't see the father yet.

We don't see King Acorn yet, but that's the first

thing I thought of was Captain Anne. There's

nothing new under the sun. Nope. I do like that

this episode focuses on Sally and we get a good...

told story. The story is told very well. It is.

It's paced out well. The animation is good. The

voice acting, some of the voice acting is really

good, but some of it, sometimes, like, I've interviewed

Rob Paulson twice. I love the guy. I don't want

to say anything bad about the guy, but some of

Antoine's, um, vocals are just strange at times

to me. What did you think of sonic boom? Very

Very traditional first episode is this this is

the first aired episode. Yes, it's I I don't

I'm not even sure what to say because I'm not

even sure what the plot was It's just kind of

like like yeah, this is the situation and here's

here are the bad guys here the good guys and

and and I'm like, okay, I I get what this is

but I'm I have a hard time like really saying

what the plot was well the plot basically was

it was you know sonic rescuing the freedom fighter

and then sally going on in search of her dad

yeah what i mean is that this is kind of like

the archetype of every episode yeah pretty much

yeah it sets the stage i guess yeah it does it

does all right and Lastly up on this episode

we have Sonic and Sally. So Sonic and Sally,

basically what happens here is the princess is

captured by Robotnik who creates a robotic duplicate

of her and it means of spying on and sabotaging

the freedom fighters. Zelda did it better. Yes,

I knew you were going to say that. I would rather

be faced with Dark Zelda than Dark Sally. Dark

Zelda was hot. Yes, she was. So I know not all

of these video games, I know the same people

that worked on the Mario stuff and the Zelda

stuff are not the same people that are working

on this, but they must have seen that stuff.

Well, it was Deak so they were probably down

the hall for most people. That's probably true.

Let's look at these other cartoons for ideas.

Yes, exactly. Sonic and Sally. Let's see. What

did I like about Sonic and Sally? I like that...

Okay, so Sonic is not going to get a lot of character

development. He's not going to get a lot of character

growth. But what I like about this episode is

how... His attitude does stay with him for the

most part, but he also mellows out as well I

thought that was an interesting part of his character

And then the rest of it, you know This is kind

of a Sally and tales story because tails is the

only one that really realizes that hey That isn't

the real Sally and nobody believes him So you've

got a copycat of a Zelda episode and you've got

tails the fox the two -tailed fox that cried

wolf Yeah, I like how tails like suddenly had

had this like had this meeting ritual with her

that like doesn't ever show up again Where it's

like hey Princess, Princess Acorn, why aren't

we doing all these things that we normally do?

You know, you got to kiss me on the nose and

then you got to do the secret handshake. Then

we got to do this, got to do that. You have to

read the book the same way every time. And it

was like, and the robot was like, oh, it probably

gave up at one point. It was like, here, read

the book. It was like, he was just driving this

damn robot nuts. Absolutely. He was, actually.

What else about Sonic and Sally did or didn't

you like? It's hard to say did or didn't like

because like This cartoon was well after my time.

So I Have I have no nostalgia for it. I'm just

kind of looking at it and you know, just kind

of Trying to process it and it's I don't know.

It's just doesn't it isn't resonating with me

So it's like there's nothing I really hate but

it's It's not really enthralling. It's just,

it's very episodic. There's no overarching story

to just, that's what I was actually expecting.

I thought, wow, the Darksonic has really got

to have this overarching story that like carries

through the series. And no, it doesn't. It's

just kind of like, it's just like your typical

cartoon except the setting is a little darker.

Yeah, no, I think the one that has the overarching

story is when they went underground, but nobody

wants to talk about that Yeah, I think that's

what it was But again, I know tons of people

who are sonic fans who absolutely love this series

and I'm enjoying it I'm I'm not when I watched

these episodes, you know, just so we could record

the show I didn't have any moments of my eyes

bugging out of my head, or my eyebrow just raising

so far up it reaches above my forehead. Nothing

enraged me about these three episodes so far.

We've got one more to talk about today, but it's

just one of those things where, compared to what

we have been watching, this is gold. I mean,

between Defenders of the Realm, Street Fighter,

Dark stalkers Earthworm Jim was fun, but you

know for a time and then of course the the pilots

episode in Donkey Kong country too much singing

in that show Too much singing too much If it

was good songs, I would I would give it a pass,

but that was those are bad songs. Mm -hmm Okay,

so the final episode up today we got ultrasonic

Sonic finds his long -lost uncle, Sir Charles,

after a failed mission in Robotropolis. It was

probably not even two and a half minutes into

this episode. The puns in this show, oh my god.

So many bad puns. Plus, Sally and Sonic is a

team. It's kind of like watching an old married

couple. In this episode they argue back and forth

back. It's like they're an old married couple

What are these days Sally? Yeah, oh God, yeah,

they're they're the Cramdons and tails is is

art Kearney It's a dino bot me Grimlock oh my

god that's right they called it a dino bot me

grimlocks say sinek sonic is okay but funny enough

it looked more like zod from go -bots i know

i do like the fact that we find his uncle finally

because he's mentioned his uncle we don't know

where his uncle is Uh, he's, again, they're,

they're kind of trying to put threads of a story

together in this. And it's, it's written well,

but you know, we've got Sally searching for her

father. We've got Sonic now searching for his

uncle. He finds his uncle, but his uncle seems

to be turned into a bad robot. He's brainwashed

by Robotnik or something. And, you know, um...

It looks like they tried to connect him to the

Mecha Sonic from Sonic 2. Okay, that's what I

thought. Yeah. It kind of looks that way. By

the way, I noticed later on that Uncle Charles

is in the opening credits. Yeah, he is. If you

look really fast, there he is. Yep. I'm like,

oh, that's kind of a neat touch. Yep. Absolutely

it is. What did you like about or not like about

Ultrasonic? I cringed when they said Dinobots.

I had to back that up a couple times and be like,

no, no, they did not just say Dinobot. They did.

Oh my god. Sonic will not have a Code of a Hero

episode either. Where was Hasbro with the trademark

lawsuit? I know, right? Decease and desist. All

I can think of is cesium salami and beryllium

baloney. Although, with any luck, if Wheely happened

to long, Uncle Chuck would finish him off instead

of like rhyming with him. Yeah, very true, very

true. Alright folks, that's gonna be it for this

episode. We're gonna take a quick break, come

back with our ratings, final thoughts, overall

thoughts so far. with these first four episodes

and we'll close the show out after this. What

do you mean softer? Oh, I hate softer softer

is for pillows for ice cream music. It's got

a move It's got to be paneled to the metal. It's

got a valid balance smelling. No, no way man

balance make me want to hurl Oh chunk it's contained

He was two minutes ago So that's gonna do it

for us folks for ratings for these four episodes

heads or tails I'll give it a four. It was decent

It was it wasn't great, but you know, there's

a couple of things that aren't really my cup

of tea But overall it's not that bad. What about

you? Okay Yeah, it just didn't resonate with

me and I'm not sure if it would resonate with

anyone born after this cartoon came out. Yeah

For Sonic Boom, I'm gonna give it a three and

a half. I Liked it. I enjoyed it But the funny

thing with me is when they do certain episode

titles like Sonic Boom or ultrasonic I expect

something to happen to him Like he's going to

break the sound barrier for sonic boom or in

ultrasonic. He gets some weird new power and

that did not happen So sonic boom, what are you

gonna give it? I'll give it a three. I mean it

was it was an okay show starter Okay Sonic and

the scrolls. Oh boy this episode was like a really

really really really bad ripoff of Not Legends

of the Hidden Temple. Mysterious Cities of Gold.

Oh man. Now you bring up a good cartoon. Exactly.

Now I'm even more mad. For me, I'm gonna give

it a 2. What about you? I'll give it a 1 .5.

I forgot that there was even a plot about scrolls.

phone celly part of the night what about ultrasonic

uh... for me i've got to give ultrasonic a five

because it was the most enjoyable out of the

four episodes and again it's sort of building

a story for sonic and his uncle so yes i'm all

right what about you i'll give it to you see

i don't i don't trust this cartoon enough to

You might end up like Chuck Cunningham and just

disappear. Oh, that's wrong. So wrong. Alright

folks, so this is the summer of Sonic. We are

gonna run Pixels and the Animation from late

May to early... Well, it's gonna start late May

and run throughout the entire summer until we

can get all the Sonic stuff done. So the summer

of Sonic is upon us, celebrating the 26th anniversary.

I could have sworn this year, I could have sworn

damn thing came out in 92. Anyway. What has been

going on with the scene? I know you can't give

us a preview of what's coming up in the summer

because you don't know But for those that don't

know about Neil's comic to see in the superhero

webcomic. Why don't you tell them about it? Well,

there was there was a spinoff called energized

that released all four chapters there will be

more of him later, but or take a little break

from him and I've got more of chapter 11 to chapter

11 of to see into release I mean, it's a huge

chapter still not done But it's coming along.

Unfortunately, I don't know the proximity of

these dates relative to the releases of this

episode. So I can't give you a precise reading

on what's going to be out right now. But all

I can say is go to Dasein .com and just look

at the latest update. If it's anywhere near the

current date, then you should check it out. I

know. Thank you for joining us here on Pixels

in the Animation. There are several ways to get

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They're like trying to spell it out phonetically.

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be reviewing the next three episodes from Sonic

and the Hedgehog, those being Sonic and the Secret

Scrolls, Super Sonic, and Sonic Racer? For now,

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in next time and help us find the Pixels in the

Animation. Oh, I like to hang, but I got a juice.

Activity.