Overview

This is a TV series following the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. Sonic and his friends are transported into the human world (i.e. earth). Dr. Eggman, the villain, is also transported there, and Sonic tries to stop him from taking over the world and making it part of the Eggman empire.

The episodes are a standard half an hour long.

Formula

Most episodes have some recurring elements:

• Sonic and friends adjust to living in this strange new world.
• Dr. Eggman makes a fiendish new plot. He usually chooses a robot for the job using his slot machine.
• Dr. Eggman’s messenger, Bokkun, informs Sonic and pals about Eggman’s latest new scheme.
• Sonic and friends battle Dr. Eggman’s latest robot.
• Sonic gets a ring which increases his abilities (like spinach for Popeye), and defeats the robot.

Critique

Objectively, this is a fair-to-meddling series, but quite watchable. The best episodes are from 1 to 13. In episode 2, Sonic’s friends Cream and Cheese are captured by the government in case they are hostile. Sonic, and his new friend Chris and his grandpa Chuck go and rescue them. The gang decide that it’s best Sonic and his friends stay out of the public eye. But in episode 12 and 13, our heroes inflict a defeat on Dr. Eggman and become celebrities. The general public and the press are then aware of their presence.

This violates the rule “Keep the Press Out” which Blake Snyder listed in his book “Save the Cat”. Therefore I think the earlier episodes are the best.

The best episode is number 5 – in part because the humans mostly stay out of the way and let the regular Sonic characters take centre stage. The best scene was on the train, where Amy needed to blink and was being harassed by a little girl.

The battles are lack-lustre – visually they could have been more exciting – but I’m not sure how.

I’m not sure about the premise – sending Sonic and friends to the human world. I must assume the creators were trying to follow the formula of Pokemon, where a human boy is the protagonist and the animal creatures are his friends. I wonder if the show would have been better if it was set entirely in the usual Sonic universe (with no humans apart from Dr. Eggman).