"Sonic Underground" (1999) TV series 1999-2000

User Rating:

6.0/10   

Writers:

Pat Allee (writer)
Eleanor Burian-Mohr (writer)

Seasons:

1 | unknown

Release Date:

30 August 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Action | Adventure | Fantasy | Music | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot:

In this 3rd cartoon of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic and his two siblings, Manic and Sonia are the hit rock band...

Plot Keywords:

Queen | Hedgehog | Dingo | Sonic The Hedgehog | Medallion

Cast

Maurice LaMarche	...	Great Grandfather Athair / ... (17 episodes, 1999-2004)
Jaleel White	...	Manic / ... (16 episodes, 1999-2004)

Also Known As:

Sonic le rebelle (France)

Runtime:

USA:30 min (40 episodes)

Country:

France | USA

Language:

English | French

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

USA:TV-Y7

Company:

DiC Enterprises

Trivia:

This show marks the first appearance of Knuckles in a mainstream television show. It is also the first show in which Tails, another major character, does not appear.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: In the title sequence there is a number of clips with Queen Aleena Crying however one of these clips is played backwards; this is obvious as the tear goes UP her face.

Quotes:

Knuckles: Those hedgehogs want the emerald, do they? Well, they'll have to get past me! All right you wolf-faces are free to go, this time, but you most leave the island now!

Movie Connections:

Spin off from Sonic the Hedgehog (1991/I) (VG)

A shame to carry the name Sonic...

This show came out in fan's favor of wanting a new Sonic series; however, they became mortified to found out there would be no reference to the original Freedom Fighters many of us had grown to love. Some complained that the Saturday morning Sonic strayed from the games, but this series strays from everything Sonic. The only two characters we know are Sonic and Robotnik; Tails and the others have been replace by Sonic's stereotypical sister Sonia and thieving brother Manic. Snively and Naugus have been replaced by two henchmen known as Sleet the tricky wolf, and Dingo the stupid... well, dingo.

In the 1993 - 95 series, a great message was sent to younger viewers as Bunnie struggled to use her handicap to the best of her abilities. In Sonic Underground, many wrong messages are sent as Sonia is the picture of stereotypical girls. She's always worried about her hair and looks; younger girls who watch this will think they need to be like this. Manic is constantly lock picking and stealing from others, which is definitely not something good for children to see, especially since it's most often used to their advantage. These shows shouldn't be used as role models anyway, but certainly there were better messages sent out in SatAM.

Another problem is though the show is aimed for younger viewers, many times the plot would be hard to follow for them. In Mobodoon, the writes assumed all viewers have a background of the musical Brigadoon. When Manic explains about Mobodoon appearing once in a great while, he speaks too fast to be understood, so it may be confusing for some. Another instance was when Manic was trying to sneak into Robotnik headquarters and the 'camera' shows a blinking light behind him, and the next time we see him, he's being thrown in a cell by SWaTBots. The blinking light was obviously a camera of some kind, but younger children won't comprehend that. Along this line, the show contains many flashing bright light sequences that can't be good for the eyes. In a few episodes, I had to turn my head or close my eyes to stop my eyes from hurting. People with epilepsy are cautioned.

Finally, the characters from Sega have completely gone out of character. Knuckles, who in Sonic adventure claims 'he doesn't need a possy' and 'independence is his first step' has Sonia as his girlfriend. They even have a kissing scene together! Sonic, who used to be cool and 'never gives up the fight', has become week and deathly afraid of water. The love he has for his brother and sister are peanuts to the love he had for Sally in the SatAM series.

One good thing is the songs in the episodes are usually done quite well, but the singing voices don't always sound like the characters. Singing once in a while is good, but in every episode, it gets old fast. The songs will sometimes come at bad time during something exciting, which will seem less exciting then. Other times, the songs will be the plot filler which is really annoying.

Poor writing, the lack of well-known and loved characters and confusion are what make this series a shame to carry the name of Sonic the Hedgehog.