"Hello. Would you like to play? Come play with me! Play... Play... PLAAAAAY. COME PLAY WITH ME, MY CHILD. COME... PLAY WITH... MEEEAAAAARGH—"
— Tails Doll, Sonic Shorts Volume 3
While the Sonic Shorts are usually satirical, yet celebratory of the Sonic the Hedgehog series and its fanbase, there are times when the animators can get downright freaky.
- Any of the shorts starring the Tails Doll. They're usually hidden within a short.
- Volume 1 was the debut of all this. Wait until after the credits. The doll's lines get increasingly creepier, and on the very last one, the screen fades to black with his eyes being the last things to disappear, followed by him laughing demonically as a closeup of his head scrolls past the screen. This is mitigated in the YouTube release, where all the clickable stingers remain, but they play over time, usually with the file select theme from Sonic 3 & Knuckles in the background. In this case, it never cuts out, though it could still be creepy to the first time viewer.
- The scariest thing he says is actually one of Metal Sonic's lines, from Sonic Heroes:
- If you click on the poorly-drawn Sonic with a bird on his head in Volume 2, this short plays.
Words appear warning the viewer to get away before it's too late. After that, Tails Doll appears, covered in blood and smiling horrifically. Its eyes turn red and it raises its claws just before lunging at the viewer, revealing a maw full of sharp teeth.- For bonus points, the music that's playing is one of the scarier songs from Silent Hill's OST, "Over".
- The ending of Sonic Shorts Volume 3 could possibly be the scariest moment. "Hello. Would you like to play? Come play with me! Play... Play..." (doll goes demonic) "PLAAAAY. COME PLAY WITH, ME MY CHILD. COME... PLAY WITH... MEEEAAAAARGH—" (doll lunges at screen, screen goes to static)
- In Volume 1 and 3, the Tails Doll is arguably less creepy in his demonic form than his normal form. He looks vaguely like Tails does, but at the same time, he isn't — making his appearance super uncanny.
- Another one in Sonic Shorts Volume 4. After clicking on the Tails Doll (that's Charmy Bee in disguise) in the 15th short, a particularly scary short appears featuring Dr. Mario and Sonic: it involves post-operation Sonic in Dr. Mario's office. After comforting Sonic and muttering, "You're one of us now," he then offers him a lollipop. The camera angle then reveals the operation was a lobotomy, and as Sonic struggles for the sucker, the respective logos of Sega and Nintendo appear, the latter ending the short.
- In Sonic Shorts Volume 5, in one of the transitions between two shorts, you can see a faint image of Tails Doll, covered in blood and bearing sharp teeth. Clicking on this grants you the pleasure of seeing a dark alleyway with a flickering light as Tails Doll flashes in front of the camera. What's worse is that the shot looks like it was filmed from somebody's point of view...
- Not to mention the doll's freaky breathing.
- Sonic Shorts Volume 6 has a Bubbles badnik after the credits. You can click on it to make it scream and release the spikes in its body, but the scary moment is the third time you click it, where it starts spewing blood as its spikes come out, giving a rather terrifying shriek as it fades away.
- Subverted in Sonic Shorts Volume 7. Tails Doll looks like he's chasing Tails, trying to kill him. But, in actuality, Tails Doll was just trying to give Tails his ring back.
- Knuckles Briefs introduced us to the Knuckles Doll, in a similar vein to the Volume 5 example.
