As a child, I grew up watching Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, which I usually had a love/hate relationship with, mostly owing to just how nonsensical, over the top, and outright goofy the show was. Still, I preferred that one to the Saturday morning show, which looking back, I wish I had given a better chance because it looks really good. The Adventures series ran for a single season and was canceled in 1994, along with its weekend counterpart, and then, two years later, we got this Christmas special which, for some reason, decided to combine both shows. It's set in the Adventures universe, yet it contains elements from the other show for no particular reason and it really doesn't mesh well. For example, in the Saturday Sonic show, it's set in a dystopian future where Dr. Robotnik has essentially conquered the world and has turned living beings into robots. He controls the city of Robotropolis, which is included here in this Christmas special where a bunch of weird looking people are crowded around a large television monitor for their annual greeting from Santa Claus. Though this year, something isn't quite right about Jolly ol' St. Nick. First off, he abruptly announces his retirement and quickly names his replacement, Robotniklaus! Yep, it's Dr. Robotnik squeezed into a small-sized Santa suit. So the citizens of Robotropolis just accept this without question, and Robotniklaus greets little kids at the department store, asking them what they plan on giving HIM for Christmas. One little boy gives him a sock to the gut in response. Meanwhile, Scratch and Grounder go around collecting "charitable" donations and literally robbing houses. Where is a hero when we need him? Good ol' Sonic makes a deal with Princess Sally that they won't exchange gifts this year, but you all know they're gonna. Especially after she gave Sonic a cool ring with a weird insignia on it last year. This will come into play later in our story. It's weird they included Sally here, even though she was never on the Adventures series. Also, she doesn't talk. Was Kath Soucie unavailable? Who knows? So Sonic and Tails venture into Robotropolis to find all the stores completely empty, as all of their contents are going to Robotniklaus. The young boy from earlier meets up with them and tells them of Santa's unexpected "retirement", which they suspect was not voluntary. Fortunately, Sonic gets more information when Scratch and Grounder show up to try and kill him, and fail as always. The two dumb-bots reveal the robot Santa that was shown on TV, and then they're both tricked into revealing where the real Santa was being held prisoner. Wasting no time, but wasting two lackey robots, Sonic and Tails race toward St. Nick's location, giving whatfor to an army of incompetent Swat Bots in the process. They manage to save Santa and take him back to his workshop, which Robotniklaus had robbed of every gift. Santa quickly falls into a depression and claims it's all hopeless. Christmas is ruined.
Sonic tries to stay optimistic, knowing his super speed could allow him to swipe all the stolen presents from Robotnik and help Santa deliver them before the night was out, but the not-so-jolly fat man tells him he wouldn't be finished by the Fourth of July... so the planet Mobius not only celebrates Christmas, but the Fourth of July too? Weird. Anyway, just as Sonic himself is about to give up, Santa notices the ring he's wearing. He saw the same insignia on the wall of the cave where he was held prisoner. A pictograph which Santa somehow interpreted as saying whoever wears that particular ring can unlock the secret of ultimate velocity and super, duper speed. Okay, I know this series is based off a video game, but why would they include video game-style power-ups in the cartoon? I know they had them in the Super Mario shows, but that was to stay faithful to the source material. In the games, Sonic got super powers by collecting all the Chaos Emeralds and becoming Super Sonic, and in the Saturday show, he got his power through big, golden rings which worked like Popeye's spinach. Things like that didn't happen in the Adventures show. But, okay, I'll bite, how is Sonic supposed to gain super speed powers through a ring that Princess Sally no doubt got out of a box of Crackerjacks? As Santa puts it, Sonic must master several "impossible" challenges, such as running up a very steep hill, then snowboarding down a canyon. Of course, Grounder and Scratch show up to try some Wile E. Coyote traps on the hedgehog, but end up getting caught in them themselves. The snowboarding course then turns into parasailing, then bike riding. So, it's not so much a series of "impossible" challenges as it is a triathalon. Incidentally, how does the ring know if he completes these challenges or not? Anyway, by nightfall, Santa tells Sonic that he met every challenge and has unlocked the ultimate velocity power-up. Now... it would have more sense had the ring started glowing after each course was passed, like I had a strange case of the Mandela Effect watching this because I swore the first time I saw it, the ring did light up each time Sonic made progress. So, with his new power of super, duper speed, Sonic races to Robotniklaus' castle and grabs up ALL the gifts he stolen and returns them to their proper recipients, including a bundle for Sally, who thanks him in her own non-speaking way. After that, Santa announces his true retirement and turns his job over to Sonic. Now he's Soniclaus. Yep, Soniclaus and his two-tailed elf.
And so ends Sonic's Christmas Blast. You know, I have to wonder what Robotnik's motives were in this. Usually he's cooking up schemes to take over the world, but here, he just wants to steal everyone's Christmas presents and have them all to himself, up to and including kidnapping Santa Claus and taking over his job. It reminds me of Inspector Gadget Saves Christmas, which had the exact same plot: Dr. Claw kidnaps Santa and takes over the job himself. I guess that's DiC's go-to plot for Christmas specials. But for diehard, obsessed fans of Inspector Gadget like me know, M. A. D is an agency that tries to take over countries, is involved in organized crime, committing thefts of money and gold, and now it's just Dr. Claw becoming the Grinch. At least Sonic was more helpful to Santa than Gadget, who just thought he was a M. A. D. Agent in disguise and tries to arrest him. But, as usual, Penny and Brain saved the day and Gadget got the credit, but that's another story. Back to Sonic, did Dr. Robotnik not have any Christmases growing up? He didn't seem to hate the holiday, I guess he just likes watching people suffer, as he less than subtly suggests before Sonic foils him. I'm not sure why this special had elements from both Sonic shows, and I know they chose the Adventures universe because the Robotnik in the Saturday show wouldn't have cared about kidnapping Santa and stealing presents. He ruled the world and could just take what he wanted. Don't know why they included Sally, when any of Sonic's generic Adventures girlfriends would've worked. Sally was a major character in the Saturday show, so to just toss her in a non-speaking throw-away cameo was pretty lame on the producers' part. Also, why was she pink? Well anyway, if you're a big Sonic fan, you've played the Genesis games and you watched this cartoon as a kid, I recommend Sonic's Christmas Blast. I also want to recommend checking out Phelous' review, as he made some good points about it as well.
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