Sonic Boom TV!

So I kinda liked Sonic Boom!

For those of you that don’t know, the other week Sonic the Hedgehog returned to television in the form of a new show on Cartoon Network called Sonic Boom based on the new video game coming out soon.

Sonic has had a bit of a history of television shows; from the early 90’s brilliant series occasionally known as Sonic SatAM, or the atrocious The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (sorry Matt, I know you love the show) to later on in the 2000’s with an anime take on Sonic with Sonic X – his time on television has been full of ups and downs.

Sonic Boom is a very beautifully animated half hour show comprised of two short-stories per episode. In the premiere’s first story, Sonic and Tales are fighting Doctor Eggman (I’ll never get used to not calling him Robotnick) when Tales guts hurt and Sonic vows to never let anything bad happen to Tales again, so he fires him and starts looking for a new sidekick. Soon, Tales and Doctor Eggman are competing for the new sidekick position (because all illegible applicants may apply – Sonic is an equal opportunity employer, apparently) and antics ensue.

click to embiggen
click to embiggen

In the second story, Doctor Eggman moves in with Sonic and Tales because his evil lair was destroyed, but it’s all really a part of a plot to tire Sonic and Tales out so much that they are unable to fight back, thus leading to a sleepy robot fight between our heroes and Eggman.

click to embiggen
click to embiggen

So where does Sonic Boom fall on the chart of Sonic TV shows? Despite the fact that many of you are probably questioning the quality, the visual style is complex and dynamic, reminding me of the old Saturday morning show. It looks great and something about it gives off an air of the Freedom Fighters period of the franchise – I like that! As for the story, well, it’s similar to the groan-worthy parts of Adventures, with its “so bad it’s good” gags. It’s just full of soem really gold lines.

“They are robots, they don’t sleep because they have no souls” -Eggman
“I think you would make a great sidekick for me, we would have to do something about the name though, how do you feel about ‘Knuckles Jr'” – Knuckles to Sonic as he interviews people for the sidekick position

It’s all very sitcomy, even down to the way everyone on the show seems to hate Amy Rose; akin to Family Guy‘s treatment of Meg (though, not as cruel, thank goodness)

Does it fill my need for good hard-hitting long-form storytelling on television with Sonic characters, no, but you know what it’s nice to see a Sonic project in recent time that’s not god awful – and that has to count for something. ย (So yeah Matt you might get a kick out of this show.)

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James Carolan is a Host on the Line Cutters. He is the groups film expert and has a strong love of great characters. He is frequently known is the loud Line Cutter and can be found on Twitter @bombchuxox