Random Hoo Haasthe blog with the guff

It don’t take any fuel ’cause the rocket’s in my pocket

Friday, March 30, 2012 at 11:20 pm Comments (7)

Bloop. Some updates! There’s Games I Own reviews, some music, a couple of sprites, and a Bomberman update that could’ve been a lot more substantial if I had the patience to work on it. Recapping a game’s content in a blank, encyclopaedic manner only has its kicks for so long. Sometime!

Earlier in the month I watched all of the Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon on Netflix – the one with Sally and Rotor and all those fellas. I was surprised to discover that I’d only ever seen three episodes when I was a young ‘un; I was almost sure I’d seen more, but I guess when those three episodes were rewatched repeatedly on tape, it feels like I saw more. Probably the same situation with Dino Babies – I’m sure I saw a bunch of those, but it was probably only three or four episodes over and over again on tape.
(speaking of Dino Babies, I’d love to cover some of it on Random Action Hour – especially the episode where everyone rides on a big boat and there’s two characters called Dick and Butt. No, seriously, they show up just for that episode and I can’t even remember what they do, but they introduce themselves by saying, “Hi, my name’s Dick. This is Butt.” Keep it classy, 1990s!)

I might give it a more in-depth ramble another time, but my basic thoughts after watching it were that I was more interested in the basic premise and concept of the series than the actual content. You’ve got a planet of animals conquered by a human and his robot army, who’s roboticised a good chunk of the landscape and population, and in all manner of places exist small pockets of freedom fighters. There’s weird, unearthly environments inhabited by strange creatures, and there’s a nature vs. technology theme going on, but not for one of the two to win, but for a peaceful balance of the two. I just think it’s a pretty great concept.

I just wasn’t dying about the actual content. The first series had some decent drama and ambiance, and the second series had more emphasis on fun (and the pilot really emphasised the goofy whimsical nature, though it kinda diluted any of the sinister atmosphere of the setting), but I just never really got into any of the characters or stories. Robotnik was cool, but in an unfortunate Boba Fett way – he looked and sounded cool, but what did he actually do that was villainous or worthy of coolness? On-screen, I mean. The heroes were okay, but weren’t really developed to the extent that I really liked any of them – some were underused, and some were just plain bad to begin with (Antoine’s comic relief was pretty wretched, sorry).

I guess what finally sunk my feelings on the series is the rather lacklustre finale. Robotnik has unleashed a type of robot that will either destroy the remainder of the world or roboticise it or something nasty! The various freedom fighter groups from across the planet band together to take him down! What seems like a suitably dramatic finale is then turned into yet another “it’s up to Sonic and Sally!” scenario we’ve seen a million times.
They do take down Robotnik, but not through something fulfilling like character development or their own ingenuity and cunning – they use the power of some magic MacGuffins they’d found in an earlier episode that gives them the power to literally wipe out Robotropolis in one fell swoop. Not only is it astoundingly unrewarding, but it gives the impression that the whole time their battle strategy was just to maintain the status quo until they found a plot device. I could rant on the final episode alone for several more paragraphs if I could be bothered.

It was neat to see the episodes I’d first seen so many years ago, and I do love soaking in the series’ atmosphere and world-building, but I didn’t get much else out of it. At this rate, will there be anything left in the Sonic franchise that I still like? Only time will tell!