Underground is Better than Sat Am (Part 7)

Best Worst Moments? 

What the--

Despite being made with a lower-budget, the DiC Sonic cartoons have a soft spot among fans. Some like the light-hearted, Sonic and Tails focused Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. Some the more experimental Sonic Underground. But for some reason, Sonic the Hedgehog, or the "Saturday Morning" show, seems to be the most easily remembered. 

I like the cartoon, but I would not call it the best. With that in mind, I've been explaining some of the things that made Sonic Underground a better show. 

Neither were perfect, though, and this time I'm addressing some of the all-time lows for each series. 

Underground

THE SINGING

While it could be cute, for the most part the triplet's little songs were a mistake. Some, like "Fun in the Sun," seem to be random and just quickly written into the plot. Others, like "Face your Fear," just don't sound very good. And others, like "Liberty's Gonna Rock," suffer from both of these problems. 

Not all of them sucked. If memory serves me correct, the ones featuring Manic's voice faired better. And the "first" song, "Someday," is rather fitting. The best option would have been to have their band as a hobby rather than a necessity--like Sonic's band in (oh no--but yes) Sonic Boom. 

Even though music was made into a theme of the show, many times it came across as forced and awkward.  

REUSED PLOTS

The second most cringe-worthy element of Underground was when they'd "borrow" a plot from a previous show. This is most noticeable with "Sonic Tonic," but also "Who Do You Think You Are," which reuses the amnesia idea. 

DUMB TRANSFORMATIONS

In the previously mentioned "Sonic Tonic," the feet of whoever drank the "tonic" would grow into comical size. Only it's not funny, it's just stupid. Some of Dingo's shape-shifting wasn't very pretty, either.  

THEY TRIED TO KILL ROBOTNIK WITH FLOUR

Okay, that's not what happened at all. Actually, they essentially had an opportunity to take him out, but let him go. Always kinda' bugged me. 

Except for the songs, which are impossible to ignore, I'd say these worst moments weren't too bad. Still, even though the music is worthy of most of its criticism, each song was just about minute in length. Repetitive, but nonetheless a small part of the episode.  

To clarify, the main weakness was mostly the vocals/lyrics. 

Sat Am

USING POWER RINGS TO SAVE THE DAY EVERY EPISODE

Well maybe it wasn't every episode, but it sure seemed that way. It made the episodes predictable, and, unlike in Sonic X where the ring simply helped Sonic, in a lot of Sat Am episodes they were always the solution. I get that Uncle Chuck made them for Sonic, but it also seems to have other random traits whenever the plot demands it. It even helped restore Uncle Chuck for some reason. 

ADDING RANDOMS WIZARDS AND MAGIC

Sonic Underground was filled with some random fantasy storylines, usually with the Oracle character. The reason it gets a pass, though, is that its main plot already established the show with fantasy elements like a prophecy and magical medallions (talismans). 

Sonic the Hedgehog (aside from being about talking animals) was not created with the same themes. Clearly set in a dystopia, with evil robots and "future" technology like Nicole, the show leaned more into Science Fiction. Many "magical" items such as the Power Rings were inventions. Other, more mysterious powers like the "Power Stones" at least had unknown origins.

However, characters like Lazar, the Guardian, Nagus, and even the "Headless Gopher" are all extremely random and go nowhere fast. With some creative thinking, Sonic's speed could have been taken away by some new Robotnik weapon. Maybe Naugus could have been a shape-shifter rather than a sorcerer. 

Point is "magic" often came out of nowhere and was used as an lazy way to move the plot forward. The Time Stones don't resemble their in-game versions, so why even bother? Make it another invention by Uncle Chuck. Or have Rotor do something useful for a change.   

ADDING IN RANDOM DINOSAURS/DRAGONS

Hey, Underground fell victim to this one, too, when they introduced Knuckles. However, it didn't take over the plot and wasn't really memorable. 

Sat Am had a whole, fairly random episode dedicated to "terapods." Then came "Dulcy." Not just the cringe-y character, but the episode as well.  

REDUCING TAILS TO THE BABY OF THE SHOW

As mentioned before, even though Tails didn't make it into Underground, his Sat Am counterpart did not even come close to competing with the Sonic-Tails dynamic in AoStH.

Let's ignore that for now, and just look at what Tails did do on the show...

Riding in Sonic backpack, calling Sally his "aunt," having stories told to him, being ignored by his friends (even Sonic) when he thinks there is something up with Sally, playing hockey, picking flowers...

Tails was the baby of the show. While he was running alongside Sonic in Sonic 2 and even saving Sonic in some episodes of AoStH, he wasn't even considered an offical freedom fighter until near this show's end. 

What bothers me the most about Tails' role is that he's TEN. Not 8 like he is now. Not 4-5 like in AoStH. He's TEN. The oldest version of Tails (aside from the Archie Comics where he went on to be 11) yet he acts like the youngest. And, really, the others are only around 5 years older, so what makes them think they're more adult?   

 THOSE RANDOM ANTIONE EPISODES

Last time I checked, this was Sonic the Hedgehog, not Antione Depardieu. Yet strange episodes like "Hooked on Sonics," "Fed Up With Antione/Ghost Busted," and "The Odd Couple/Ro-Becca" gave the character too much screen-time for my taste. Especially "Fed Up With Antione" and "Ro-Becca," ugh.  

GRIFF

That whole episode: no. Not a good idea. 

As if Antione wasn't bad enough...

So...

Ah, well. They both had weird, annoying, and down-grading moments. Despite the mostly out-of-place singing or poorly written lyrics, I don't think Underground completely suffered. To it's credit, Sat Am wasn't completely tainted by these things, either. But it doesn't help, and I really can't stand what happened with Tails.   

 Overall I think Underground faired better than Sat Am. Least it didn't take away from who the characters were.