Ah, video games. They were the boom in the late eighties and through the nineties. If you didn’t own a Nintendo or Sega, you were boring. Luckily, the popularity of their respective mascots eventually got them their own cartoon series. Nintendo’s mustachioed siblings kicked things off first. With the Console Wars kicking into high gear in the nineties, Sega needed to get their speedy blue mascot to the masses. Devildriver1313 is here to take you back to the days before Y2K. It’s a Cheesy Cartoons look at the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog!
The Blue Blur’s animated outing followed him and his dual tailed pal Miles “Tails” Prower as they stop the nefarious plans of Dr. Robotnik and his robot army from taking over the planet Mobius. The plots often used elements loosely borrowed from the storyline of the Sonic video games series. Three of Robotnik’s henchbots, Scratch, Grounder and Coconuts, are directly based on badniks that appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog 2. The series also incorporated several recurring original characters not seen in the games, such as Robotnik’s mother, Stinky the Badger, and Wes Weasley, a salesman and con-man, not dissimilar to Phil Silvers. The show’s other characters largely consist of non-human creatures, such as anthropomorphic animals and robots. Episodes of the show normally revolved around Sonic and Tails foiling Robotnik’s latest villainous scheme to dominate the zany, colorful world of Planet Mobius. At the end of each episode, Dr. Robotnik’s plan would ultimately fail due to Sonic’s efforts, his own incompetence and the stupidity of his henchbots.
CHEESE FACTOR!! Now we all know that the Sonic game are genre to be bright and entertaining. Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog took some of that vibrancy and basically sprinkled it with some Warner Bros and Three Stooges. The slapschtick ran ramped in each episode with Robotnik raiding Chicken Boo’s wardrobe using an array of disguises to trick Sonic and Tails. Don’t get me wrong. I like slapstick. The cheesier, the better. And for a nineties cartoon, the animation was very Tex Avery, who was known for such style. However, this actually worked considering that this is a comedy cartoon.
WHY WE WATCHED!! Sonic was a true competitor to Mario and still is. Even though Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog had little to do with the video games, it was still a video game cartoon and it still got watched for that very reason. The comedy may have been cheesy but that is what also made it fun. Not to mention that the end of the show is bookended by an additional segment called “Sonic Says” (or “Sonic Sez”, as Tails misspelled it on screen). This segment teaches viewers life lessons about subjects such as alcohol abuse and general safety which was a big thing back then and lost in today’s programming. Plus, Sonic was voiced by Jaleel White aka Steve Urkel!
The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog ran for 65 episodes in 1993. A second series based on Sega’s mascot surfaced in the same year but set with a darker tone. However, that’s a story for another time. The popularity of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog resurfaced in 2000 with fans creating mashups and remixes of the series that spawned Internet memes, most of which place an emphasis on the series’ campy dialogue. Still, Sonic and Tails comedic outing was certainly a delight that still has enough goofy fun to entertain any resident of the 16-bit gaming era and even some from the Blue Ray disc era.
The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog gets a cheesy rating of:
This is a good slice of gouda that anyone can enjoy!
The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog Intro!!
