Western Animation / Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog

He's Up, Over, and GOOOOOONE!

"I hate that hedgehog!"

— Dr. Robotnik in nearly every episode

Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog is a syndicated 65-Episode Cartoon produced by DiC Entertainment, and is the first Animated Adaptation of the Sonic the Hedgehog series. It stars Sonic and Tails as they run around the planet Mobius while trying to foil Dr. Robotnik's plans. Meanwhile, Robotnik and his two (sometimes three) incredibly incompetent helpers, robots Scratch and Grounder (and sometimes Coconuts), try to Take Over the World.

The show deviates from the games a lot. Mostly, it's a humorous series with abstract art style, putting it in very stark contrast to the much darker and more plot-heavy series that aired right alongside it on Saturday mornings: Sonic the Hedgehog, most often known as Sonic SatAM.^note Ironically, the only reason that series existed was because DiC was pressured by ABC executives to come up with a replacement concept for a Sonic series. Adventures was DiC's first idea for it, and they even made a workprint of a pilot episode for the network, who ultimately rejected it. It does feature occasional nods to the games, however, including a mini-arc based around a series of Chaos Emeralds, many of Sonic the Hedgehog 2's Zones receiving references, and multiple episodes which pay homage to the Tornado.

In addition to the aforementioned Sonic SatAM, this show is not to be confused with Sonic Underground, Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie, Sonic X, Sonic Boom or the live-action film adaptation.

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TroPING AS usual, I see?!:

Tropes #-H

• 555: In one "Sonic Says" segment, Tails has trouble remembering his phone number. Sonic whispers into his ear, and "555" is audible.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Quark's minion D.U.F.U.S. is considerably smarter than Scratch and Grounder, which eventually leads to him rebelling.
• Abhorrent Admirer: Katella the Intergalactic Huntress is this to Robotnik due to her overaggressiveness.
• Abusive Parents: Robotnik's mother is incredibly abusive to him. In some cases, she almost makes him look sympathetic. It's implied this turned him to villainy. This eventually carries over to Robotnik himself, who is also incredibly abusive to the robots he creates.
• Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: The infamous "SnooPING-AS usual, I see?"
• Achilles' Heel: In a more literal sense than usual: Robotnik falls into a vat of super strength potion, and the only part that didn't hit was his... well, as he terms it, "caboose". Terms it after calling it his "unmentionable" two seconds before:
  Scratch: "Gasp! He mentioned it!"
• Acid Reflux Nightmare: The knowledge that Tails has these sometimes is what propels the resolution of an episode.
• Acronym Confusion: From the "Zoobotnik" episode:
  Robotnik: You lame-brain, knuckle-dragging dork! How dare you interrupt me when I'm having a bath with my rubber crrrrrrrrocodile!
  Coconuts: But I only wanted to tell you I saw one of those F.O.U's - I mean, C.I.A's, uh, or C.O.D's, heheh, I mean...
  Robotnik: Get to the point, or your name will be M.U.D.!
• Ad-Break Double-Take: Lampshaded in "Over the Hill Hero"; after Robotnik brags about having Mobius in his clutches both before and after the commercial break, he wonders if he hasn't repeated himself.
• Adaptation Induced Plothole: Marble Zone is depicted as a mine here, rather than marble ruins, making its name seem completely nonsensical.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: The "Submerged Sonic" episode has a lot of it.
• Age Lift: Tails was aged down from 8 to 4 1/2.
• The Ahnold: Arnold Robonegger in "Robolympics".
• Alliterative Name: The Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad.
• Alliterative Title: "Submerged Sonic".
• Alternative Foreign Theme Song:
  • The Italian dub has an original tune performed by Cristina D'Avena. The Italian theme song was later translated into French, and performed by child actor Alexis Tomassian.
  • The Persian version's theme song plagiarizes the instrumental of Last Friday Night by Katy Perry
• Ambiguously Gay: Scratch seems to show a little too much like for Robotnik.
• Amnesia Danger: As a result of being hypnotized by Robotnik into considering himself an "ordinary slow-mo", Sonic has a tough time dealing with a gang of bikers in "Road Hog".
• Amnesiac Villain Joins the Heroes: In "Blank-Headed Eagle", Scratch chases after Sonic with an Eagle-Copter kit he ordered from watching the Edgar Eagle TV show. After Sonic tricks him into shooting himself out of the sky, Scratch gets amnesia, and when Henrietta Peck finds him, Scratch thinks he's Edgar Eagle. Sonic takes advantage of this, and uses Scratch to help him save Farmer Peck's farm from destruction from Dr. Robotnik's machines. Scratch ends up regaining his memories near the end of the episode.
• And Knowing Is Half the Battle: "Sonic Says". This was Mythology Gagged in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, referenced in Wreck-It Ralph, and recreated with a Spoof Aesop in OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes.
• And That's Terrible:
  • "If someone tries to touch you in a place or in a way that makes you feel uncomfortable, that's no good!" Admittedly, the series was aimed at kids generally under 10 who probably could use the warning.
  • When Sonic and Tails are pulled over (on foot) for speeding, Tails suggests they outrun the policeman before he takes them to court. Sonic replies, commenting on how that would be illegal.
• Animation Bump: The show already has its fair share of silly drawings and trippy scenery, but occasionally episodes combine this with advanced cinematography, using animated backgrounds or exaggerated staging. The best example of this can be seen in Robotnikland, where Scratch runs through the park's trap-filled tunnels as the camera backs away at the soon-to-be-scrap chicken.
  • One of the companies who animated Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog was future Sega-owned studio TMS Entertainment. While the exact episodes they worked on are unknown, their style can be discerned in episodes like Blackbot the Pirate where characters like Robotnik suddenly display a soft, weighted exaggeration characteristic of the studio's contemporary work.
• Appease the Volcano God: Robotnik does so in order to obtain a Chaos Emerald in "Prehistoric Sonic". Scratch and Grounder are the sacrifices, but since the supposed lava is actually volcanic mud, they survive.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking:
  • From the episode "Spaceman Sonic":
    Robotnik: You lost my rocket ship, you let the hedgehog ruin my plans, and NOW YOU'RE RUNNING UP MY LONG DISTANCE BILL!
  • In the episode "Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad", when listing Sonic's offenses, Robotnik tells his men that Sonic ruins his schemes, he escapes his traps, and he helps nice people.
  • From the episode "Birth of a Salesman":
    Robotnik: Listen, Weasley, you are brash, arrogant, obnoxious, pushy, rude, and you dress funny. You're my kind of guy!
  • The Weapons Detector in "Mass Transit Trouble" has settings for bombs, knives, guns, and spitballs.
  • In "Coachnik", Dr. Robotnik puts every kind of explosive into his Long Bomb, with the final one being a well-shaken can of soda.
• Ascended Extra: Several background characters from the second (officially aired) pilot "Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad" are used as opponents in the Genesis video game Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, being given slight redesigns and individual names and personalities most of them didn't even have long enough to establish in their one appearance in the show. Scratch, Grounder and Coconuts themselves come from badnik designs from Sonic the Hedgehog 2, with Scratch being the most radical change.
• Aside Comment: "I'll have to give myself a PROMOTION!"
• Aside Glance: Usually done by Sonic when he is about to break the fourth wall.
• Ass Kicks You: In "Zoobotnik", Mama Robotnik rams into Katella butt-first, leaving her flattened against the wall.
• Assuming the Audience's Age: During some "Sonic Says" segments, Sonic appears to think that the viewers are kids and addresses them as such. An example of this is in "Lovesick Sonic", where Sonic tells the audience that if they're sexually harassed, they have to tell someone they trust, such as their parents or their teachers.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever:
  • Tails in "Too Tall Tails". Being so big he develops an appetite to match... which is bad since he's in a town full of walking, talking hot dogs!
  • In the Chaos Emerald saga, the Supreme High Robotnik, Master of the Universe.
  • As well the odd walker machines used by Scratch and Grounder which are basically cockpits attached to massive walking steel beams with overly massive shoes. Sonic panics when he sees some massive robots in "The Last Resort", but before he has to fight them, they surrender and run away due to Robotnik calling off the attack as part of a long-term ruse.
  • Scratch, Grounder, and Coconuts are caught in a huge explosion at the end of the episode "Trail of The Missing Tails" and become extremely huge (they "blew up" so to speak). Upon discovering this, they decide to deliver some payback to Robotnik.
• Attractive Bent-Gender: Sonic himself manages to seduce Robotnik while dressed as an attractive Blonde in "Sonic is Running".
• Autobots, Rock Out!: The titular "Sonic's Song". So much so that Kitty Carlisle sings it for Sonic and Tails after they rescue her at the end of the episode.
• Babysitting Episode: In "Baby-Sitter Jitters", Sonic and Tails wind up babysitting a trio of baby beavers. Tails made the offer to the parents because Sonic "loves babes".
• Badbutt: This incarnation of Sonic is one. On one hand, he's supposed to be a cool character with attitude. On the other one, he delivers PSA speeches to kids at the end of every episode in the infamous Sonic Says segments...
• Bait-and-Switch: The sequence where Dr. Robotnik makes his extremely busty robot wife Omletta:
  Robotnik: Well, what do you think?
  Grounder: She has really big...
  Scratch: HAIR!
• Balloon Belly: Tails is forced to eat tons of junk food (although he's rather happy to do so) in order to create a dream creature to combat a nightmare monster, and ends up massively bloated, triggering the Growling Gut trope to happen to him.
• Batman Gambit: Sonic frequently does these to Robotnik and his lackeys in order to stop Robotnik's plans.
• Beatnik: The Giant in "Sonically Ever After" is one. Sonic lampshades this.
• Beehive Hairdo: Parodied in "Momma Robotnik Returns", when a social worker has actual bees flying around it.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Sonic, Tails, and especially the latter temporary pet alien Goopster.
• Beware the Silly Ones: How Mobius would fare if Sonic wasn't around to stop Robotnik's plans (or if Tails wasn't around to save the day whenever Robotnik, Scratch and Grounder actually succeeded in immobilizing Sonic) is surprisingly dubious for a show with Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog's reputation for wacky comedy.
• Big Bad: Robotnik is always trying to take over Mobius.
• Big Damn Heroes: The show had their share of these. This is justified as Sonic and Tails travel all over Mobius. In the episode "Zoobotnik", Mama Robotnik even makes one.
• Big "NO!": Often done by Robotnik when he is mad or whenever Sonic thwarts his latest plans.
• Big, Thin, Short Trio: Robotnik, Scratch, and Grounder, respectively.
• Big "WHY?!": The episode "Spaceman Sonic" gives us this quote from Dr. Robotnik as he yells at his minions:
  "WHY is my precious rocket-ship drifting off into deep space?! WHY am I reaching you at the coordinates of the abandoned space station?! WHY?! WHY?! WHY?!"
• Bigger on the Inside: The Pseudo Sonic robot is this, since it's roughly Sonic's height on the outside yet oddly spacious inside when Tails and Laurence are piloting it.
• Birthday Episode: "Robotnikland". Also a Forgotten Birthday, though it doesn't quite follow the usual formula.
• Bland-Name Product: "Sonic's Song" features the front covers of a albums by such acts as "KIZZ", "ARRA", The "Ramons", "Lunk Wray"^note A more obscure one. This name is based on Link Wray, a popular singer from the 1950s., "Drg Dre"^note Just replace the letter g with a period., and "Slëyar" while "The Mobius 5000" features a gas station that has "86" gasoline (a reference to 76 gasoline)^note This ultimately leads to the "86 on the chicken" joke..
• "Blind Idiot" Translation: In the Mexican Spanish dub, Tails is translated as a female character. For Latin American fans of the games, this created a series-long problem, especially when talking to people who only knew of Sonic via the Mexican Spanish dub of the cartoon (More specifically to Latin American audiences (who only saw the cartoons) outside of Mexico, and Argentina), and of course, were entirely (and understandably) convinced of Tails's female gender.^note This is mainly because Sonic as a whole is unnoticed in non-Mexican, non-Argentinean Latin American countries due to SEGA's lack of interest in almost all of the region. (Mexico, Argentina, and the Portuguese-speaking country of Brazil notwithstanding however.)
• Blob Monster: In "Spaceman Sonic," Sonic and Tails come across a hungry and sick slime monster who tries to eat them.
• Bond One-Liner: In one of the PSAs, when Scratch and Grounder get run over by a truck. "Looks like these dumbots were flat out wrong about going in the street!" Leads to a bit of a Broken Aesop as Sonic then spends the remainder of the PSA standing in the street.
• Boom in the Hand: In "Pseudo Sonic", Scratch mistakes the titular robot for the real Sonic and tries to stop him with a bubble gum bomb. However, like the real Sonic, Pseudo Sonic won't hold still, and Scratch tells him, "Hey, hey! Hold still! This thing's gonna ex... plo-ho-hode!" while still holding onto the bomb. Cue the bomb exploding and Scratch getting covered in bubble gum.
• Bound and Gagged: Many characters, including Sonic and Tails, end up like when they are captured by Robotnik.
• Bowdlerise: When the aforementioned "Mass Transit Trouble" episode was picked up for broadcast by Toon Disney, they removed a questionable scene where Sonic removes a bomb from the bottom of a chair.
• Brain with a Manual Control: In "Honey, I Shrunk the Hedgehog", Sonic, Tails, and a gang of Mole Miners get shrunken by Dr. Robotnik. Towards the end of the episode, Sonic and Tails find their way into Scratch and Grounder and control them to turn against Robotnik, save the Mole Miners, and unshrink themselves. Of course, Scratch and Grounder are robots.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Sonic does this a lot. This is especially the case in the "Sonic Says" segments when he is talking directly to the viewers.
• Broad Strokes: The mentality with which this cartoon adapts the Sonic games. While most episodes are typical cartoon plots set in whatever generic Wacky Land setting the show calls for, and centered around (often one-shot) Original Generation characters who stick out like a sore thumb compared to characters lifted from the games, don't be fooled - AoStH is actually the most accurate of the DiC Sonic cartoons by far in terms of the elements it lifts from the games. For example:
  • Grounder is a real Badnik from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 redesigned.
  • Scratch appears to be based on Clucker.
  • Other Badnik models from the games, like the Buzz Bombers in "Mystery of the Missing Hi-tops" and Choppers in "The Last Resort," appear as one-off enemies with heavy redesigns.
  • The Warp of Confusion from "Trail of the Missing Tails" is a vague impression of the Special Stages from Sonic 1^note Which actually were referred to as Warps Of Confusion in early background materialsand a whole four-part Story Arc was made centered around the Chaos Emeralds from the games.
  • Some of the Zones from the games make appearances as well. The episode "Mobius 5000" sends Sonic and Tails on a race that takes them through Chemical Plant Zone (complete with Mega Mack), Casino Night Zone, and a fairly accurate representation of the Special Stage from Sonic 2!
  • In both "Robotnik's Pyramid Scheme" and "The Mobius 5000" rings make an appearance and a certain number is needed for certain purpose. In the former it's to escape a Pit Trap, in the latter they're used to warp between posts via the Special Zone. Though, in the latter appearance they are colored blue.
  • "Robotnik's Pyramid Scheme" also accurately replicates certain aspects of the Marble Zone such as using cubed stone blocks to float across lava and a chained weight falling from the ceiling and crushing Scratch.
• Broken Aesop: The Sonic Says segments are quite prone to this, since it tries to shoehorn Aesops in while being slapstick:
  • An episode about the importance of reserving 911 for emergencies is broken by Sonic using two robots attempting to kill him as an example of what not to waste 911's time with. Sonic can defeat them fairly easily, but "don't call 911 if you think you can probably handle the life threatening situation" isn't nearly so great a message for helpless kids.
  • Another Sonic Says segment has Sonic give a message about not playing in the street as he stands in the middle of the street.
  • Another has Coconuts trying to run away from home, saying that Dr. Robotnik doesn't love him. Sonic convinces him to not do this by explaining why this is a bad idea. This is all ignoring the fact that Robotnik really doesn't love him.
  • Yet Another segment has Captain Rescue, with no help from Sonic, tell Tails that "Older people can be very wise, and they often know the right direction to take in life" after an old bear tells Tails that moss grows thickets on the north side. This is beside the fact that moss doesn't care about north and south and grows most on the parts that are more moist.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: A very good case can be made for Robotnik falling into this. In the episode "Birth of a Salesman", Wes Weasley sells him a variety of weapons that are surefire tools to catching Sonic, yet Robotnik passes them all off to Scratch and Grounder, who of course fail miserably, being too dumb to use the gadgets properly. Oddly enough, Robotnik puts most of the blame on Weasley, demanding refunds and accusing him of selling defective products. Weasley points out that if anything, his gadgets have worked too well, and are in incompetent hands. Robotnik remedies this by...threatening Wes Weasley into going along with Scratch and Grounder to oversee Sonic's capture, despite clearly being the only one capable of effectively operating the weapons, or at least more capable than his minions "supervised" by an unwilling peddler. The good doctor doesn't seem to realize capturing his hated enemy may require physical effort on his part. You'd think he would either step up his game or quit whining.
• Brother–Sister Incest: Breezy and Robotnik Jr. Being robots, this is easy to miss, but both were invented by Robotnik. It's not helped by the fact that "Hero of the Year" gives Breezy's full name as "Miss Breezy Hedgebot Robotnik".
• Bumbling Henchmen Duo: Scratch and Grounder are the most prominent of Robotnik's robots and rarely manage to do anything right.
• Burning Rubber: Sonic often leaves a trail of fire when running. In "The Mystery of the Missing Hi-Tops", it is revealed that his shoes are friction-proof, and thus his feet would literally burn up if he tried running without them.
• Butt-Monkey: Pretty much all of the bad guys, but especially Coconuts. In Coconuts's case, Robotnik always yells at him and gives him demeaning jobs.
• Camp: To the point where it's like the animated equivalent of the 1960s Batman.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: In one Sonic Says, Scratch and Grounder collapse after sharing one bottle of "booooooooze".
• Captured on Purpose: In "Zoobotnik" and "Sonic Breakout" Sonic allows himself to be captured so he can break out and rescue others, though in the latter the plan backfires when Robotnik builds a custom cell just for him.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Robotnik as he is the big bad.
• Casino Episode: The episode "High Stakes Sonic" has Robotnik build a casino where all the games are rigged, so that all the sheep villagers who go there lose everything and are forced to work for him as slaves. Sonic goes to the casino to stop him, and plays many of the games to help the sheep. Also, in this episode only, Robotnik has a new henchman, an anthropomorphic shark (as in "card shark") named Smiley.
• Character Catchphrase:
  • Sonic: "I'm waiiiiiiting!", "Way past cool!", "Gotta speed, keed!", "Up, over, and GONE!" and "Gotta [verb], [noun that rhymes with the verb]!
  • Tails: "Tres Cool!" in some episodes.
  • Ivo Robotnik: "I hate that hedgehog!"
  • Robotnik Jr.: "Big Whoop!"
  • Wes Weasley: "Hey palzy, how are ya', how are ya', how are ya'?"
  • And in a few episodes, we have "DA BEARZ."
• Chekhov's Gun: In "Sonic Breakout", Tails gets a free poster of Sonic in the latest issue of the Crack Ups comic book, which leads to a minor complaint by the hedgehog himself since he's shorter on the poster. It comes up later when he sticks it on Grounder's back due to a security system specifically programmed to shoot at anything "hedgehog blue".
• Christmas Special: Sonic Christmas Blast.
• Circling Birdies: Happens to Scratch when he regains his memory in "Blank-Headed Eagle".
• Clip Show: "Hero of the Year".
• Clueless Aesop: The Sonic Says segments were absolutely drowning in these:
  • The first episode's Sonic Says segment showed Sonic and Tails surrounded by Badniks. Tails suggests they call 911 and Sonic tells him not to do that unless it's a real emergency. Although Sonic is very capable of trashing an army of Badniks, children could very easily get the wrong impression and think that Good Old Fisticuffs is the right approach when surrounded by bigger, stronger, and possibly armed attackers.^*Actually, fighting in self-defense may seem to be the right approach when you have no time to reach for a phone or cellphone by the time stronger foes quickly approach to kill you, or if the power is out when trying to use a phone. Possibly, the writers themselves realized that this was a stupid lesson to teach kids, so in a later Sonic Says, Tails is being chased by Badniks, and calls for help by a nearby police officer. He arrests the Badniks, and Sonic congratulates Tails for doing the right thing.
  • Another one has Sonic talking about how bad an idea running away from home is. This one is fine in itself, but he was telling it to Coconuts, whose "parent" is Dr. Ivo Rrrrrobotnik.
  • Sonic begins the "Poison Ivy" Sonic Says by saying "There may not be any poisonous flowers on Earth." ¿Que?
  • "Bad touching" is kind of a unique example, as while it does make a point on how children should be aware of inappropriate physical contact, the fact that Sonic doesn't specify exactly what type of contact, as well as the complete lack of context, renders this message rather vague.
  • In a self-contained example, the "Stupidity" Sonic Says shows Robotnik accidentally shooting himself with a ray gun, suggesting the aesop would be on Reckless Gun Usage. Sonic then appears at the end to deliver the completely unrelated aesop "stay in school".
• Co-Dragons: Scratch and Grounder. Though Grounder is slightly more submissive and dumb, both don't hesitate to point out the others' follies in sucking up to Robotnik and maintaining his plans.
• Coconut Meets Cranium: In "Big Daddy", when Coconuts first meets Boom-Boom, the son of the titular ape, he tosses a coconut at his head, much like his video game counterpart does to Sonic in Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
• Comically Oversized Butt: The Fat Bastard Dr. Robotnik's large butt is frequently shown and exaggerated. Animator Milton Knight says this was done to show Robotnik's inflated sense of self-love. Sonic even calls Robotnik "Robuttnik" sometimes.
• Conjoined Eyes: Sonic and Dr. Robotnik.
• Conviction by Contradiction: In one episode Sonic's special sneakers are stolen. Sonic dismisses one suspect because his feet are too big to wear them, but the guy who actually stole the sneakers didn't want to wear them either. In fact, none of the suspects did.
• Cowboy Episode: In "The Magnificent Sonic", Sonic becomes the Sheriff of Tranquil Gulch after defeating Six-Gun Pete, one of Dr. Robotnik's robots.
• Cranial Eruption: This happens to Grounder when he becones a genius in "Grounder the Genius".
• Cut Phone Lines: In "Momma Robotnik's Birthday", Sonic tricks Scratch and Grounder into thinking they are contestants on a game show he is hosting. Robotnik sees this from the monitor in his lair and tries to call them to warn them about Sonic, but Sonic literally cuts through Grounder's phone line with a knife, which also somehow cuts Robotnik's phone line, much to the latter's bewilderment. This scene, unfortunately, was cut from the Toon Disney broadcast.
• Damsel in Distress: Henrietta in "Blank-Headed Eagle" when she is captured by Grounder.
• Dartboard of Hate: Schoolteacher Lucinda keeps one of Robotnik in her classroom.
• Dating Catwoman: Sonic and Breezie, at least in the beginning.
• A Day in the Limelight: Any episode that focused on Tails. Also "Grounder the Genius" for Grounder and "Blank Headed Eagle" for Scratch as well as "The Robots' Robot" for both Grounder and Scratch and "Magic Hassle" for Coconuts.
• Department of Child Disservices: Averted. Sonic is temporarily put into the custody of Momma Robotnik, but a social worker annuls the adoption when it's revealed that Momma Robotnik disowned her own son.
• Depending on the Artist: Each episode draws Sonic with a varying scale on his quills or proportions. This is because the episodes were animated by four different studios (Hong Ying, Rainbow Animation, TMS Entertainment, and Saerom). Each of these studios interpreted the model sheets differently, with Hong Ying being given a model sheet depicting a rather bouncy and Disney/Warner Bros.-esque Sonic. The influence of The Ren & Stimpy Show is also apparent, with the different storyboard artists (many of whom were Ren & Stimpy veterans) adding their own flourishes to the designs.
• Determinator: Even on the rare occasion he is faced with a genuine threat, Sonic is never one to give up.
• Didn't Think This Through: In "Birth of a Salesman", Scratch and Grounder hit Sonic with an anti-gravity beam, which prevents him from building up the necessary traction to run away. However, they hit Tails with the same beam, and without gravity weighing him down, Tails can pick up Sonic and carry him away.
  • This is where a good number of Scratch and Grounder's schemes go awry; they succeed in capturing Sonic and/or Tails temporarily often, but don't take into account Sonic's Spin Dash or Tails' ability to fly. In "Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad", they successfully lure Sonic into a pit with a female hand puppet, but Sonic burrows his way out of the pit effortlessly.
• Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: Catty Carlyle's song in "Sonic's Song" is the show's theme song With Lyrics.
• Disguised in Drag:
  • Sonic does this all the time, in addition to putting on ordinary male disguises. Despite always being obviously in disguise, Robotnik and his cronies never seem to be able to tell it's him, with a few small exceptions. This is slightly lampshaded in one episode where Sonic dresses up in a red dress, fruit hat, and lipstick to do something "really funny and cool" to Scratch and Grounder, but decides against because the two of them are already engaged in silly bickering over Grounder's nose of all things.
  • Scratch, of all robots, does this in "Robotnik's Pyramid Scheme" to try and seduce Sonic's ancestor, Masonic, away from his true love Penelope (and thereby erase Sonic from existence). It doesn't work, so Masonic is kidnapped instead.
• Disney Death: Sonic briefly has one in "Lovesick Sonic".
• Disproportionate Retribution: Dr. Robotnik does this throughout the entire show. For example:
  • In "Sonic Breakout", he imprisoned cartoonist Sketch Lampoon because the latter compared him to Humpty Dumpty.
  • When he was in high school, he wanted attention from a girl he admired by attempting to kill his romantic rival by strangling him with a robotic snake out of jealousy. Robotnik was then expelled after the incident, and started his road to villainy.
• Disqualification-Induced Victory:
  • In one of the "Sonic Says" segments, Sonic holds a race between Scratch and Edgar Eagle to determine who is the real Edgar Eagle. Scratch wins the race, but gets disqualified for not wearing his seat belt, leaving the real Edgar Eagle, who does, the winner by default.
  • Another "Sonic Says" segment involves Dr. Robotnik and Dr. Quark racing each other. Sonic disqualifies them both for cheating, the former for throwing a Banana Peel in the latter's path, and the latter for tying the former's shoelaces together.
• Distressed Dude: Tails gets kidnapped or threatened to be kidnapped in at least half the series. These occurrences are often followed by a cry of "SONIC! HELP!"
• Ditzy Genius: Robotnik at times:
  Sonic: "You spelled "Kidnapped" with a 'C.'"
  Robotnik: "So? When I take over Mobius, that's how everyone will spell it!"
  • Tails can go from a goofy, innocent little kid to a technological genius at the drop of a hat. His intelligence is usually downplayed in the series in favor of his innocence (to pair with Sonic as he has something of a 'role model' theme in AoStH).
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • "The Robots' Robot".
  • In one episode, Grounder makes a comment on the radio about being "single and willing to disassemble". Now think about what that would mean for robots.
  • The rivalry among Robotnik's robots seems to be a reference to sibling rivalry. "He made me first! I'm his favorite!"
  • Scratch really goes to town with that plunger of his in the opener. He's got his tongue hanging out and everything!
• The Dog Bites Back: Scratch and Grounder are usually mindlessly loyal to Robotnik and recessive to his constant abuse. They are shown to exploit the odd moment to get revenge on him, however, with varied success.
• The Door Slams You:
  • In "Momma Robotnik's Birthday", Robotnik orders Scratch and Grounder to stop whoever's invading his fortress. Just as they run up to the front door, Momma Robotnik kicks it open, and crushes them with it.
  • At the beginning of "Birth of a Salesman", Grounder tries to answer the door, but Wes Weasley crushes him with it when he opens it.
• Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Subverted. In "Zoobotnik", intergalactic huntress Katella falls in love with Robotnik, but she absolutely refuses to keep her hands off him. Robotnik doesn't love her but he's too scared to say anything, and is visibly relieved when Mama Robotnik shows up and interrupts their Shotgun Wedding, whereby Katella calls off the whole thing because she refuses to have Mama Robotnik as an in-law. Sonic himself was the one who invited Mama Robotnik, but it was more to get rid of Katella than for Robotnik's sake, though Katella's abuse was not considered a good thing.
• The Dreaded Toilet Duty: Dr. Robotnik regularly has Coconuts scrub his toilets, a job Coconuts deplores, while assigning Scratch and Grounder to capture Sonic. This is despite the fact that Coconuts is smarter than Scratch and Grounder and sometimes sees through Sonic's plans, whereas Scratch and Grounder rarely succeed in capturing Sonic. Throughout the series, Coconuts tries to capture Sonic by himself in often unsuccessful attempts to get on Robotnik's good side to get off janitorial work and become head of the Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad.
• Dream Land: Dreamsville from Boogey-Mania. Its ruler is the Dream Meister, who controls the dreams of Mobius ina a fashion similar to a telephone operator.
• Dreams vs. Nightmares: In "Boogey-Mania", the kindly Professor von Schlemmer invents the Dream-A-Ma-Jig, a machine that takes creatures from the dreams of whoever puts it on and brings them to the real world. Von Schlemmer demonstrates by summoning a Non-Ironic Clown. However, Dr. Robotnik kidnaps von Schlemmer and uses the Dream-A-Ma-Jig on himself to summon a creature from his nightmares, simply called the Boogey Man, so it can terrorize Mobius. Sonic and Tails save the day by using the machine on Tails to create a stronger creature from his food-themed dreams.
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: Sergeant Doberman. He treats Sonic and Tails like they are in boot camp.
• Drugs Are Bad: The main point of two of the Sonic Says segments.
• Drunk on Milk: "You robot chickens make me sick. Get a couple of pints of motor oil in ya and suddenly you're a tough guy!
• Dub Name Change: The Mexican Spanish dub, Las Aventuras de Sonic, has a few, likely due to the source material not being a hot item in Mexico at the time. Robotnik is changed to Mostachón, and Tails becomes Colitas ("Little Tails") - not only did they give him a feminine name, the Mexican staff made him a girl.
• Duck!: Said by D.U.F.U.S. to Dr. Quark in "Robotnik's Rival". Quark, naturally, assumes he's being referred to as a duck. Again.
• Dumb Is Good: Pretty well averted. Scratch and Grounder are dumber than sin, and Sonic is just as likely to defeat Robotnik with his intelligence as with his super-speed.
• Dynamite Candle: In "Robotnikland", Robotnik traps Sonic and his friends in a giant mechanical birthday cake and uses 10-foot sticks of dynamite to finish them off.
• Early Adaptation Weirdness: Sonic lives on a World of Funny Animals called "Mobius". There's sign of no Knuckles, Amy, or any of the extended cast besides Tails.^note Admittedly, Amy was a rather new character, while Knuckles was from a then-upcoming game. Most glaringly, Tails' portrayal differs heavily from his later portrayals. He's four instead of eight and rarely displays any of his Gadgeteer Genius traits until later in the series.
• Educational Short: A short segment called "Sonic Says" is featured at the end of episodes where Sonic gives advice and teaches morals to the audience.
• Embarrassing First Name:
  Sonic: "You get outta here now or I'll tell everyone your real name is Miles."
  Tails: "Not that!"
• Engineered Public Confession: The "Scrap Valley" episode has Sonic mess with Robotnik's speech in a way similar to a scene in Batman Returns.
• "Eureka!" Moment: In "Tails New Home" Sonic tries to find Tails a home(due to Sonic's concern for Tails well-being after the latter gets injured as a result of Scratch and Grounder) and he eventually finds Tails real parents... or so he thinks as right after Sonic leaves Tails, its revealed to be a trap set by Robotnik. Meanwhile Sonic gets depressed over Tails being gone and has a flashback to when they first met and Sonic gave him the nickname Tails due to him hating his real name-Miles, and then after remembering Tails "father" saying "Tails belongs with his own kind" he then realizes that if those were actually Tails real parents, that they would've called him by his actual name Miles, not the nickname Sonic gave him(since they'd have no way of knowing it) and Sonic then immediately springs into action to save Tails from his fake parents and Robotnik.
  Sonic: Wait a sec! If those were his real parents they'd have called him Miles, not the name I gave him. Something smells and I bathed this morning.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Dr. Robotnik was disturbed enough by his loony cousin Dr. Warpnik that he banished him to the Warp of Confusion just to keep the dangerous fish-obsessed loon away from Mobius.
• Everyone Has Standards: Wes Weasley is willing to aid villainous causes if paid enough. But even he wouldn't vote for a tyrant like Dr. Robotnik when he runs for office. Of course, that's quickly subverted when Robotnik shows him the payload he'll get for helping him.
• Evil Is Petty: In one episode, Robotnik captures Tails and coerces Sonic to race against his robot minions and lose (thus needing to walk at a depressingly slow pace) if he wants to see Tails again.
• Exact Eavesdropping: In one episode, Sonic is trying to figure out Robotnik's plan, who then proudly recites his plan to himself next to an open window.
• Exit, Pursued by a Bear:
  • "Spaceman Sonic" ends with Robotnik being chased by the slime monster from the space station Sonic and Tails were on after Sonic promises that he can eat Robotnik if he helps them get back to Mobius.
  • "Road Hog" ends with him chased by an alligator.
  • "Coachnik" ends with him chased by Coachnik's disembodied foot.
  • The ending of "The Magic Hassle" has Robotnik on the delivering end, where he's chasing Weasley while wielding the latter's bad luck ray.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap! In "Sonic Breakout", Robotnik builds a giant prison complex and imprisons Sketch Lampoon, a cartoonist who made fun of him, and later on, Sonic. When Sonic gets out of his Tailor-Made Prison, Robotnik is with Lampoon when the alarm sounds:
  Robotnik: (to Sketch Lampoon) "Hm? You haven't escaped. I would have noticed that. The hedgehog!"
• Expy:
  • Scratch resembles Clucker, a Mook who appears in the Wing Fortress Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog 2.^*Although this particular character did appear in Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball.
  • Grounder resembles the badnik of the same name that appears in Sonic 2, though the one in the game is red instead of green. As a reversal, the 2013 remake features a hidden green colored Grounder as a Mythology Gag.
  • Coconuts similarly is a redesigned version of the badnik of the same name.
  • Variants of Scorpius, Ballhog, Roller, Jaws, Buzzer, Octus, Masher and Chop-Chop also make appearances in the show.
  • Breezie seems to be one of Jessica Rabbit.
  • Wes Weasley is very clearly inspired by Phil Silvers.
  • Scratch and Grounder also seem like evil but dimwitted versions of C-3PO and R2-D2. There's Scratch, the tall and bossy robot, and Grounder, the stout Swiss Army-bot. On the flipside, they seem to form their own Expies, as other Sonic media tends to give Robotnik/Eggman a Bumbling Henchmen Duo as his dimwitted right-hand men.
• Expressive Mask: In "Magnificent Sonic", Scratch uses a mask in the shape of a mustached man with a moving mouth in order to deceive Ms. Possum.
• Every Man Has His Price: Robotnik almost quotes the trope by name when offering Professor von Schlemmer diamonds in exchange for converting his "Dream Machine" into a "Nightmare Machine". Von Schlemmer instinctively accepts, but then reconsiders.
• Eye Pop: Many characters usually do this when they are either surprised, shocked, or when something bad is about to happen.
• The Face of the Sun: A somewhat bipolar variation of this appears in "Tails' New Home".
• Falling into His Arms: Two characters invoke this towards Sonic at separate points: Fangirl Sonette...and Scratch.
• Family-Friendly Firearms: "Magnificent Sonic" in spades. Even the "Sonic Says" that warns about the dangers of guns plays this straight.
• Fan Disservice: There's many shirtless shots of Robotnik, as well as scenes that draw a little too much attention to his rear end. The epitome of this trope, however, is that bikini shot in "Hero of the Year." Seriously, are all those scenes of Robotnik bathing/shirtless/in skimpy clothes/wriggling his butt really necessary? What makes this all the more hilarious is how in an interview, Milton Knight (the show's head animator) mentions that in creating Robotnik's design for the show, he strove to convey the doctor's perception of his own sexiness. It's no wonder he calls Robotnik "animation's sexiest fat man" and why Robotnik-in-bikini is in the page picture of Fan Disservice.
• Fantastic Aesop: One episode has Tails disobey the "No Flying" sign and Sonic heavily scolds him for it, and at the "Sonic Says" at the end, Tails even has to go to the juvenile office for it. The moral is supposed to be "obey every law". We see quite a few avian characters throughout the show (heck, the judge in that episode is an owl), so the law probably applies to them as well.
• Fantastic Racism: Tails' fake father from "Tails' New Home" tells Sonic he "belongs with his own kind."
• Felony Misdemeanor: Robotnik's quip against Sonic in the episode "Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad":
  "He helps NICE people!"
• Five-Aces Cheater: In "Magnificent Sonic", Sonic plays a game of strip poker with Scratch and Grounder. His first winning hand is five aces, that all have his face on them to boot.
• "Flowers for Algernon" Syndrome: Grounder becomes super-intelligent in "Grounder the Genius".
• Foe Romance Subtext: In "Best Hedgehog", Sonic marries Robotnik as part of a prank and they're never technically shown getting a divorce. Sonic seals the deal with a big, sloppy kiss. In a later episode, "Sonic's Running", Sonic disguises himself as an attractive blonde woman and briefly seduces Robotnik to give his robot wife the impression the he was seeing another woman.
• Forced into Evil: In "Pseudo Sonic", Lawrence the Lab Rat was forced by Dr. Robotnik to pilot the titular robot and frame Sonic for various crimes because Robotnik threatened to kill his parents with a surface-to-Sonic missile.
• Foul Ball Pit: A non-germ example in "High Stakes Sonic"; Sonic instructs Tails to stay in the nursery of Casino Night Zone while he battles Dr. Robotnik and his henchmen, thinking it will be safe. Although the nursery has a babysitter, there are no other children to be found. Tails discovers that the babysitter works for Robotnik a little too late, as she charges him 1,000,000 Mobiums for spending ten minutes in the ball pit. When Tails tells her he doesn't have that kind of money, she presses a button that opens a Trap Door, which he falls down, leading to Robotnik capturing him.
• Fountain of Youth: Sonic, Tails, and Dr. Robotnik get turned into babies in "Musta Been a Beautiful Baby". Hilarity Ensues.
• Four-Fingered Hands: Unlike most Sonic media, most of the characters actually have these. This carried over into the Saturday morning series.
• Friendly Enemy: Scratch, Grounder, and Coconuts come across as being on better terms with Sonic and Tails in some of the "Sonic Says" segments.
• From Bad to Worse:
  • Coconuts tells Robotnik about the dream machine, but gets yelled at for not stealing it. Coconuts catches Tails, and gets demoted because it's not Sonic. Coconuts warns Robotnik that Sonic said he'll outsmart him, Robotnik takes it out on Coconuts and essentially demotes him as far as he can go. Each time it seems Coconuts falls farther and farther (literally).
  • Sonic dupes Robotnik into trading loot he stole from a nearby town for fake gold. Coconuts gets blamed in spite of not even being around for the dupe.
• Fun with Acronyms: In the episode "Robotnik's Rival", D.U.F.U.S., Dr. Quark's robot, stands for Design Unit Flexible Underling Substitute.
• Furry Reminder: In "Lovesick Sonic", Sonic is eaten by a giant python who then spits him out due to Sonic's quills.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Tails gets to show this on occasion, repairing trucks and even building Sonic a hovercraft from scratch which was apparently incomplete despite working perfectly.
• Getting Crap Past the Radar:
  • In "The Magnificent Sonic", Sonic ends up partaking in Strip Poker with Scratch and Grounder, mentioning the game by name and explaining how they need to strip themselves if they lose. While Scratch and Grounder are robots and thus don't have any clothing besides their metal frames, strip poker is a notoriously adult game. Even in the Toon Disney rebroadcast, where a scene was edited out of Robotnik ordering Scratch and Grounder to shoot themselves, the strip poker game went unedited.
  • In "Robotnik's Rival," Quark's shapeshifting D.U.F.U.S. robot introduces itself by showcasing some of its 2486 "offensive modes." One of which happens to be a posing, bikini-clad beach babe version of itself.
• A Gift for Themselves: In "The Last Resort", Robotnik presents a gold watch as a "retirement" gift "to Dr. Robotnik, from Dr. Robotnik".
• Girl of the Week: Examples include Breezie the hedgebot and Sonette the Super Sonic Stalker fan in a few episodes.
• Girls with Moustaches: Dr. Robotnik's mother has a moustache similar to his.
• Giving Someone the Pointer Finger: Robotnik in "Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad" and "Big Daddy". In the latter episode, said pointer finger was drawn big enough to take up a good portion of the screen.
• Glory Hound: Scratch, Grounder and especially Coconuts are constantly trying to take credit for schemes or otherwise prove they're Robotnik's favorite minion.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: Some of the "Sonic Says" segments involve Sonic trying to give advice to Robotnik's mooks (with varying success). Coconuts tends to get the most sympathetic treatment from these. Scratch and Grounder usually serve as the Goofuses to Sonic's Gallant.
• Goofy Print Underwear:
  • Robotnik is occasionally seen wearing boxers that has polka dots or hearts on them.
  • In "Over the Hill Hero", Captain Rescue wears a pair of boxers with hearts on them.
• Gone Horribly Right: In one episode, Robotnik gives Grounder super-intelligence. Grounder quickly turns on him.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: Robotnik created Scratch and Grounder intending for them to be unbeatable Super Soldiers who could easily beat Sonic. Instead, he got the exact opposite: two Lethally Stupid bumblers who Sonic regularly outsmarts and runs circles around.
• Gotta Catch Them All: The quest for the four Chaos Emeralds in "Blackbot the Pirate", "Hedgehog of the 'Hound' Table", "Robotnik's Pyramid Scheme" and "Prehistoric Sonic".
• Growing Muscles Sequence: At least four times - Tails's New Home had Sonic puffing it up for about 5 seconds. Tails flexes comically in Spaceman Sonic, Robotnik became and stayed pretty well-muscled in the Chaos Emeralds special part 2. Tails got a taste of the power too, just long enough to scratch Grounder and ground Scratch.
• Growling Gut: After eating a ton of junk food in order to fight a monster, Tails' bloated stomach gurgles loudly just before he deflates with a belch.
• Happily Adopted: Sonic meets Tails when the fox is just a baby, orphaned and looking for a family. Sonic then adopts Tails as a brother and becomes his caretaker.
  • One episode, "Tails' New Home," focuses on Sonic trying to give Tails a stable life and a new family in concern for his safety. Tails, however, is perfectly happy living with the blue blur.
    Sonic: Sorry for all of the trouble, squirt. I was just trying to find you a real family.
    Tails: I got a real family. I got the best!
    Sonic: Yeah? Where?
    Tails: A family is just people who care about each other more than anyone else, right?
    Sonic: Right.
    Tails: You're it! You're my mom, you're my dad, and you're my picket fence!
• Harmless Liquefaction: In "Tails' New Home", Sonic briefly gets muscular while he's trying to tell himself that giving Tails to his "real" family^note They were actually disguised Badniks was the right thing to do. He then melts and slides down a rock.
• Harmless Villain: Zigzagged with Dr. Robotnik himself since he is implied to be rather imposing to anyone who isn't Sonic.^note Even then, Dr. Robotnik has the occasional formidable streak. His henchbots, however, are pretty incompetent for the most part, and when not being defeated by Sonic, are outmatched by random powerless civilians or even their own bumbling.
• Haven't You Seen X Before?: "What's everybody afraid of?" "Yeah! You'd think they never saw a blue hedgehog before."
• Heel–Face Turn: Robotnik Jr. and Breezie.
• Hellevator: "Robotnikland".
• Helping Granny Cross the Street: Played with in "Pseudo Sonic". The titular robot helps an Eldery Lady cross the street deliberately at the wrong time so that she will get run over by a bus. This later comes to bite the real Sonic on the butt, as the Elderly Lady thinks he had her run over, and tries to alert the police to arrest him.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Robotnik makes Sonic this in "Pseudo Sonic". He also does this to Tails in "Too Tall Tails".
• Heroic RRoD: In "Mass Transit Trouble" after Robotnik cooks up a genuinely Not So Harmless scheme that requires Sonic rapidly sabotage three booby traps in three far separate areas. Sonic succeeds Just in Time, though submits to exhaustion afterwards, with Tails have to stop him from drowning in the sea.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In "Tails' Tale", Sonic brings LeQuack and Tails to safety from a cursed temple at the expense of having to remain prisoner in said temple. However, this convinces King Kommamachs that Sonic's not as evil as Robotnik led him to believe.
• High-Class Glass: Grounder gets one in the aforementioned "Grounder the Genius".
• "Home Alone" Antics: In the episode "Tails in Charge", Tails sets traps for Scratch and Grounder to get back at them for turning Sonic to stone.
• Horrible Judge of Character:
  • Captain Rescue in "Over the Hill Hero", who allows the Obviously Evil Robotnik to convince him that he's another hero who's overshadowed by the show-off Sonic.
  • Da Bears in "The Robotnik Express", who mistake Scratch and Grounder for Sonic and Tails, and vice versa.
• Humans Are Bastards: Pretty much every human character is a villain, save for the Ambiguously Human Professor Von Schlemmer, and Lucas and Lucinda from "Best Hedgehog".
• Humiliation Conga: Happens to Robotnik in nearly every episode. Particularly noteworthy is the ending of "Robotnik Express" and "Robotnikland".

Tropes I-Z

• I Am Not Weasel: Quark, who, despite his duck-like lower half, insists that "I'm not a duck!"
• I Have Your Wife:
  • In order to get on Lifestyles of the Very Good, Robotnik kidnaps host Throbbin' Screech's niece and threatens to drop her in lava. Screech acquiesces, although not without some consideration.
  • In "Pseudo Sonic", the titular mecha is being piloted by a character whose family is being held hostage by Robotnik.
• I Remember It Like It Was Yesterday: Used twice in "Best Hedgehog".
• Ice-Cream Koan: Master Kwai Chang Crane perpetually rides the line on this. Some of his statements are alarmingly sensible:
  "Surprises along the path of life are like dirty socks in the laundry of barefoot cousins."
• If I Wanted You Dead...: In "Trail of the Missing Tails", Tails had been kidnapped and Sonic thought it was Robotnik's doing. Robotnik denied it by claiming he'd be torturing Tails had he kidnapped him.
• Impact Silhouette: Used to comedic effect in "Pseudo Sonic" in that while piloting the robot Tails had no way to go through doors other than bashing through them.
• Imposter Forgot One Detail: In "Tails' New Home", robots posing as Tails' parents trick Sonic until the latter realizes that Tails' real parents would have called him "Miles" instead of the nickname Sonic gave him.
• In Name Only: The actual stories certainly don't have much to do with the games, and while the show borrows more elements from the games than DiC's other Sonic shows do, this applies to about everything present. Badniks appear in the series, but as wild variations from their game designs. Completely reinterpreted versions of actual Zones from the games are featured in the occasional odd episode; "Submerged Sonic" takes place in Labyrinth Zone, "High Stakes Sonic" takes place in Casino Night Zone, and "Trail of the Missing Tails" features the Warp of Confusion as a tribute to the Special Zones. There's a short story arc that deals with the Chaos Emeralds. However, they look and work completely differently from their game counterparts.
• Inflating Body Gag:
  • In "Musta Been a Beautiful Baby", Tails practically turns into a parade float after eating a huge quantity of dehydrated food, then drinks a glass of water.
  • In "Pseudo Sonic", Sonic accidentally follows Pseudo Sonic into Poison Flower Valley, which has effects similar to poison ivy, causing Sonic to get extremely itchy, followed by making him bloat up like a balloon. He stays like that for pretty much the rest of the episode.
• Instant Mass: Just Add Water!: In "Musta Been a Beautiful Baby", Tails eats some dehydrated food at a factory, then drinks a glass of water. This results in him swelling up to the size of a parade float, and getting caught in the doorway when Sonic tries to get them away from Scratch and Grounder.
• Interspecies Romance:
  • Even though they're both robots, Robotnik Jr. (human) is involved with Breezie (hedgehog).
  • Many of Sonic's Girls of the Week qualify.
• Invincible Hero: Sonic is more-or-less this. Robotnik, Scratch and Grounder very seldom get the opportunity to lock him up in a trap he can easily escape from.
• Ironic Name: One of the sloths Sonic and Tails meet is named "Rocket". Despite his claims that he's the fastest sloth, he's still incredibly slow, even when compared to people other than the titular hero. When he gets zapped with a Fast-Mo ray, he actually lives up to his name.
  • Doctor Robotnik's rival, Doctor Quark, has a robot named "DUFUS", whose name is, in fact, an acronym to show he's anything but.
• It Came from the Fridge: Grounder gets attacked by lasagna come to life in "The Little Merhog".
• Karma Houdini:
  • "Mass Transit Trouble" has Dr. Robotnik get away with terrorism. Although his plot to blow up three major transit centers around Mobius is stopped, he never faces any actual consequences for this beyond a self-inflicted injury.
  • "Sonically Ever After", the series finale ("Sonic Christmas Blast" not counted), ends with Robotnik and his goons simply having their plan stopped and then walk away scot-free, Robotnik having new plans in mind that he got from the events of the episode.
• Key Under the Doormat: In "Blank-Headed Eagle", when Sonic tries to get an amnesiac Scratch to tell him what he knows about Dr. Robotnik, Scratch recalls that Robotnik leaves the key to his fortress under his "Unwelcome" mat.
• Killer Rabbit: The Sonic Says at the end of "Zoobotnik" warns viewers to stay away from wild animals and even unfamiliar pets, lest they could become this. The end of the segment shows Robotnik being chased by a fearsome dog.
• Knighting: Sonic is dubbed "Sir Sonic the Speedy" at the end of "Hedgehog of the Hound Table".
• Landslide Election: Occurs at the end of "Sonic Is Running". Not even Scratch and Grounder or Mama Robotnik vote for Robotnik, since the former forgot to vote at all and the latter was so disgusted by her son's campaign that she actually voted for Sonic.
• Large Ham: Robotnik, thanks in no small part to the incomparable Long John Baldry. Robotnik actually invokes this in "Coachnik"; one of the ingredients he uses to create the titular Coachnik robot is "Thrrree hundred pounds of ham".
• Laser-Guided Karma: In "Sonic Brakeout", where Robotnik imprisoned cartoonist Sketch Lampoon for comparing him to Humpty Dumpty, Robotnik ended up falling in the same position as Dumpty (albeit not broken) and unable to get up on his own.
• Latex Perfection: Sonic, who is normally a Paper-Thin Disguise master, does this in "Birth of a Salesman," wearing a rubber shark mask with his salesman outfit to pass himself off as salesman "Sid Sharkley" and give Robotnik and his henchmen A Taste of Their Own Medicine.
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: Lucas, seen in "Best Hedgehog", resembles the title character of the Where's Waldo? series which also had a cartoon produced by DiC.
• Letting the Air out of the Band: In "Sonic the Matchmaker", Robotnik, wanting a wife, puffs out his chest and claims, "Any woman on Mobius would be proud to be 'Mrs. Robotnik'." The music dies as Scratch and Grounder look at him skeptically.
• Lions and Tigers and Humans... Oh, My!: And robots and aliens and sausage people and what not.
• Leitmotif:
  • Several of of the recurring characters have music that plays alongside their scenes. Most recognizable is Sonic's, which doubles as the show's title theme.
  • Robotnik has a pretty catchy one.
  • Scratch & Grounder have one, which is just a shortened version of Dovregubbens Hall.
  • While the title theme was used as background music on occasion, Sonic is more often accompanied by an extended remix of the original title theme from the Sonic games.
• Look Behind You: Sonic manages this by just pointing and saying "I'M over there."
• Losing Your Head: A constant occurrence with Scratch and Grounder.
• Malicious Misnaming: As in Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM), Sonic almost always refers to Robotnik as "Robuttnik."
• Manipulative Bastard: There are times Robotnik and his goons manage to convince others they are the heroes and Sonic is the villain. They also can rather easily pander to less scrupulous civilians such as Wes Weasley to assist them for a reward.
• Mass Hypnosis: Wes Weasley's Hypno-Vision commercials during Robotnik's campaign do this. Sonic is immune, though since his eyes are too fast.
• Meaningless Villain Victory: Robotnik gives Wes Weasley his own shopping channel in exchange for helping to capture Sonic and friends, but Weasley isn't actually allowed to broadcast. This inspires a Heel–Face Turn.
• Medium Awareness: Sonic Says segments had this sometimes, as well as the show itself.
• Metronomic Man Mashing: How young gorilla "Boom-Boom" got his name in "Big Daddy".
• The Millstone:
  • Bad guy example. In the first episode, Scratch and Grounder actually manage to capture Sonic and lock him in a cage. Then Coconut ties them up, so that he can claim the reward. Sonic points out to him that the rope could break any second and suggests putting Scratch and Grounder in the cage. Coconuts does so and Sonic escapes locking all three robots in the cage.
  • Tails has a habit of being this to Sonic. While still often helping Sonic, his childishness or slowness on the uptake sometimes causes complications. Robotnik and his minions also capture him or use him as a pawn against Sonic on several occasions.
• Missed Meal Aesop: In the "Sonic Says" segment at the end of the episode, "Fast and Easy", Sonic skips breakfast and as a result, he doesn't have enough energy to dodge Scratch and Grounder when they pounce at him. Fortunately for Sonic, Tails moves him out of the way just in time, causing the two robots to fall off a cliff. After Sonic and Tails have breakfast together, Sonic explains to the viewers that their bodies need food like a car needs fuel, and advises them to eat a good breakfast every morning.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: The reason why Robotnik's plan fails in "Hero of the Year"; Wes Weasley helps Sonic escape from his prison as a result of not being allowed to broadcast his shopping channel.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: The Merhogs, who are part hedgehog and part fish.
• Ms. Fanservice: Breezie. She's voluptuous, wears a red dress, and has a curvy and slender hourglass figure.
• My Rule Fu Is Stronger than Yours: In "Momma Robotnik Returns," Momma Robotnik exploits the fact that Sonic's a minor to adopt him and free her up to wreak havoc on Mobius. Sonic is saved when Robotnik, who was disowned beforehand, exploits another law that states no one who disowns a child may adopt another to annul his mother's takeover.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Fortunately for Sonic and Tails, as there are badniks, so are there "goodniks", namely Breezie, Robotnik Jr., the Robot made by Scratch & Grounder (from "The Robots' Robot"), and the robots of Scrap Valley (from "Sonic Gets Thrashed"), all of whom are robotic creations of Robotnik but befriend and help our heroic duo instead!
• Mythology Gag:
  • Despite being named Robotnik as opposed to Eggman, Robotnik makes a very, very large amount of references to eggs, either in puns or in his general planning (like the Omletta episode noted above), in reference to his alter-ego; in the beginning of "Robotnikland", he even flies into a rage when Scratch and Grounder attempt to serve him pancakes for breakfast, rather than the egg-related dishes he prefers.
  • The episode "Lifestyles of the Sick and Twisted" actually had Tails call Robotnik "Eggman".
  • A cartoonist drew a story featuring Robotnik as Humpty Dumpty.
  • "The Mobius 5000" has Sonic find a tunnel full of rings to get through a Special Zone.
    • The same episode has Scratch tell Grounder he's going to introduce Sonic to "Mr. Bad Wrench". This was one of Dr. Robotnik's proposed names.
  • The unaired pilot episode contains several references to the games which includes the Egg Mobile-H from the original Sonic the Hedgehog, some of the Badniks from Sonic the Hedgehog 2, a Green Hill Zone-esque loop-de-loop, and an area that uses the background of Emerald Hill Zone.
  • The scene in the end credits originated from the unaired pilot.
  • Tails ends up flying a small handful of planes throughout the series, at least one of which looks quite a bit like the Tornado from the games.
• Near-Villain Victory:
  • In the very first episode, Scratch and Grounder catch Tails, forcing Sonic to give himself up lest Tails be hurt. Both of them are successfully imprisoned with no escape in sight and the two robots call Robotnik in to claim their reward. Their scheme only fails because Coconuts wants to take credit and Sonic successfully tricks the monkey into releasing him. Had Coconuts not interfered, Robotnik would've won before the show even hit its second episode! Of course, being that it was an Origins Episode being told by Sonic, it's only natural things turned out the way they did.
  • Robotnik actually comes very close to defeating Sonic a fair few times. He does so each time he gains a Chaos Emerald in the four parter arc, only for Sonic to usually manipulate some time paradox against him.
  • The Clip Show "Hero of the Year" has Sonic surrender to stop Robotnik from drowning his friends by sinking a yacht, only for Robotnik to lie and set the yacht to sink anyway, with Sonic trapped at the bottom of the ocean in an escape-proof cell that would cut off his oxygen supply if anyone tried to save him. Only Wes Weasley's timely intervention saves the day.
  • Momma Robotnik comes closest of all in "Momma Robotnik Returns" when she disguises herself and becomes Sonic and Tails' legal guardian; Sonic is practically helpless to stop her from taking over Mobius with a supercomputer, since she takes Tails hostage. Sonic has to be saved by Coconuts and none other than Robotnik himself, both of whom rat her out to a social worker to avenge her mistreatment of them.
  • During the time-travelling Chaos Emeralds arc, Sonic's Egyptian ancestor never met his future wife at a chilli dog stand, leading Sonic himself subject to being Ret-Gone. After this, Tails takes it upon himself to play matchmaker.
• Never Recycle Your Schemes: Robotnik seems to adhere to this quite diligently, even after episodes where the evil gadget of the week is never shown being destroyed.
• Never Say "Die": The show went to great lengths to avoid this, with "Road Hog" being an exception.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Collie Chang,^note Newscaster Connie Chung. Throbbin' Screech,^note Robin Leach, host of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, which is also parodied in the episode he appears in. and Katty Carlisle.^note A slightly more obscure one; her name is based on Kitty Carlisle, a TV personality who often appeared on panel game shows in the 1950s, '60s, and '70s. Wes Weasley may have been based on Phil Silvers. There's also one of the robots in "Sonic Gets Thrashed"; a cooking robot named "Wolfgang Puke"^note Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck. Furthermore, the robot's name may or may not be a Take That!..
• No Fourth Wall: Seen throughout the series, most notably during the "Sonic Says" segments.
• No Indoor Voice: Dr. Robotnik has a penchant for being loud and boisterous.
• Nobody's That Dumb: In the episode "Birth of a Salesman", this exchange occurs when Scratch and Grounder actually manage to catch Sonic and Tails in a gravity-stopper ray:
  Sonic: Just turn off that gravity stopper ray, and we're yours!
  (Scratch and Grounder laugh evilly, then stop.)
  Grounder: What's so funny?
  Scratch: We're dumb, but we're not that dumb!
  Grounder: That's right! We're not that dumb! We're not?
  Scratch: Of course not! If we shut off the gravity stopper machine, Sonic will fall back to the ground, and run away!
  Grounder: Oh yeah, I knew that!
• Noodle Incident: In "Robotnikland", when they decide to surprise Robotnik with something new for breakfast, Scratch tells Grounder to give it to him and Grounder initially refuses. Apparently, whatever he did the last time he surprised Robotnik was enough to get him demoted to an anchor on the latter's yacht for a week.
• Not Me This Time: "Trail of the Missing Tails" featured Tails being kidnapped and it wasn't Robotnik's doing. In another episode, somebody steals Sonic's shoes. The fact Coconuts had been caught at the crime scene suggested he had something to do it but Sonic reasoned Coconuts would have captured him instead of just stealing his shoes.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: While Robotnik and his mooks are frequently defeated rather handily by Sonic, the doctor does have a fair few smart moments, with some of his gadgets being genuinely deadly (at the very least, most of them do what he intends them to). There are a few times even Sonic seems genuinely unnerved by one of Robotnik's plans.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Sonic claims to not know how Grounder's snare trap is supposed to catch him. Grounder frustratedly proceeds to demonstrate, and no points for guessing what happens.
• Obviously Evil: Dr. Robotnik. He's always scheming to take over Mobius.
• Of Corsets Funny: Any attempt to squeeze Robotnik into a corset ("Blank-Headed Eagle", "Lovesick Sonic") is doomed to end in failure.
• Office Golf: Robotnik plays a round in "The Little Merhog", and even provides his own commentary.
  Robotnik: If Dr. Robotnik can sink this final putt, he'll win the Mobius Tournament of Champions and the grand prize of the dictatorship of the universe.
• Oh Wait, This Is My Grocery List: In "Sonic's Song", Robotnik hands Grounder a sheet of paper that contains the location of the Rebel Radio Station....and sheepishly retracts it when Grounder reads it aloud and realizes it's a "lonely hearts" advert.
• Ominous Pipe Organ: In "Sonic's Song", Robotnik is infuriated when everyone starts singing a song about Sonic, so he creates a robot to destroy all music, except for the Villain Song that he writes about himself, which he plays on a pipe organ.
• Once per Episode: Robotnik's catchphrase "I hate that hedgehog!" which is generally said at the end of most episodes. This is played with in "Over the Hill Hero," where, shortly after Robotnik has retreated with his mooks, Captain Rescue ends the episode with "I like that hedgehog!" Wes also says "I love that hedgehog" at the end of "Hero of the Year".
• One-Book Author: Tails was Christopher Stephen Welch's only major role outside of commercials. He retired from acting at the age of 13 and now works as a sales representative for a food distributor in Vancouver.
• The One Thing I Don't Hate About You: Sure, Sonic hates Robotnik with every fiber of his being, but he loves the chili dogs he makes, even admitting he's improved his recipe.
• Origins Episode: "Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad", the first episode, is a How We Got Here episode where Sonic tells Scratch and Grounder about how they were created and became his enemies.
• Overnight Age-Up: Invoked by Robotnik in "Musta Been a Beautiful Baby". He plans to use his "decrepitizing ray" to age Sonic to the point where he'll be too old and feeble to escape him, but Scratch and Grounder's incompetence complicates things.
• Painted Tunnel, Real Train:
  • In "Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad", Scratch and Grounder try to paint a background on a wall in order to catch Sonic. They fail miserably at it.
  • "Coachnik" provides an inversion. When being chased by Scratch and Grounder, Sonic comes across a wall and is about to paint a tunnel on it, but the tunnel is already there. Instead, he paints over the tunnel, leaving Scratch and Grounder confused when they hear a train coming, but don't see it until after it runs over them.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Sonic is a master at this. It happens in almost every episode, and Scratch and Grounder fall for it every time. However, there were occasions where Sonic and/or Tails fell for these as well.
• Parental Bonus: A few, one example being "Silence of the Yams".
• Pervert Revenge Mode: When Katella the bounty huntress arrives, Coconuts falls to the floor and tries to look under her dress and smiles before she kicks him.
• Prepare to Die: During the fight with Boss Scorpion at the Pinball Fortress:
  Robotnik: Prepare to be exterminated!
• Popcorn on the Cob: In "Birth of a Salesman", Scratch accidentally clones Sonic with one of Wes Weasley's devices while hiding out in a cornfield. The real Sonic makes a trail of fire, and each of his clones holds a cornstalk over the trail of fire. This results in a giant popcorn ball which chases Scratch and Grounder away.
• Pseudolympics: Or rather, "Robolympics".
• Public Domain Soundtrack: In keeping with the overall lower budget of the show compared to the concurrently running SatAM, public domain music pops up a lot. Most notably, the Theme Song is the Sonic theme from the games mixed with Edvard Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King" and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee."
  • Also in most episodes including "William Tell Overture", "Hungarian Dance No. 5", "Waltz of the Flowers", "Toccata and Fugue", "Piano Concerto No. 5 (Emperor)", "Farandole", "Ode to Joy", "Sakura Sakura", and finally "Hebrides Overture".
• Punctuated Pounding: I DON'T REMEMBER PROGRAMMING YOU TO BEAT ME!
• Railroad Tracks of Doom: In the episode "Full Tilt Tails", Tails tries to race a train but gets his foot caught in the tracks. Sonic saves him by quickly building a new set of train tracks out of harm's way.
• Reality Is Unrealistic: It's ridiculous to think that kids climbing into tumble dryers would be pervasive enough to devote a Sonic Says to, which is why Sonic lampshades this with a "Believe it or not..."
• Recurring Character: A couple like Da Bearz, Breezie, Wes Weasly, and Robotnik Jr.
• Recurring Riff: A section of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" plays repeatedly throughout the series, most notably during the end credits and often when Robotnik appears.
• Ret-Gone: Robotnik tries to prevent Sonic from being born in "Robotnik's Pyramid Sceme", and nearly succeeds.
• Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue...: Parodied in Sonic's love poem to Breezie in "Lovesick Sonic":
  Robotnik is rotten,
  Alfalfa is sneezy;
  The minute I met her,
  I loved my Breezie.
• Rushmore Refacement: Done by Sonic, ironically.
• Save the Villain: Sonic actually tries to stop Robotnik's minions from killing each other in some of the "Sonic Says" segments, even giving safety advise. The "Robotnikland" segment where he extinguishes Scratch and Grounder on fire is a key example.
• Saving the Orphanage: "The Mobius 5000".
• Self-Punishment Over Failure:
  • In "So Long Sucker", when Scratch and Grounder return to Robotnik's fortress after a failed attempt to catch Sonic, Grounder brings back the pieces of their planes and accidentally drops them on Robotnik's foot. Just to save Robotnik the trouble of doing so, Grounder kicks himself in the butt. When he and Scratch try to explain the situation to Robotnik ^note  that an alien creature from another dimension sucked up Scratch's plane with his Vacuum Mouth , Robotnik doesn't believe it and demands that Grounder keep kicking himself.
  • In "Robolympics," after getting another object dropped on his foot (in this case, a massive barbell), Robotnik offers Scratch and Grounder the choice of either taking a punishment from him, or doing the job themselves. They promptly smash their own heads in with hammers.
    Robotnik: An excellent choice...
• Series Fauxnale: The series was supposed to end after 65 episodes but after that they released "Sonic Christmas Blast" in December 1996, between SatAM and Sonic Underground.
• Shockingly Expensive Bill: The "Sonic Says" segment about false advertising. Tails watches a commercial for a toy robot priced at $9.98, only to find out it actually costs $99.98 with all the bells and whistles thrown in.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Often times Robotnik put up a proper serious challenge for Sonic, his robot minions would disappear (usually due to already being defeated by Sonic prior).
• Shout-Out:
  • In the opening titles, Scratch goes after Sonic in a place that is a homage to the Sea of Holes from Yellow Submarine.
  • Professor Caninestein is obviously a reference to Albert Einstein.
  • There was also a rabbit character named Updike which is a reference to John Updike, the author of the book Rabbit, Run.
  • The end of Robotnikland is heavily indebted to Bimbo's Initiation, going as far as to recreate three of that cartoon's visual gags almost scene-for-scene.
  • Energizer.
    Sonic: It must be running on a battery! And batteries don't just keep going and going and going!
  • "Attack on Pinball Fortress" is based on Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball.
  • Mad Mike, Da Bear Warrior!
  • I... HAVE... YOU... NOW!
  • Dr. Robotnik uses a cartoon version of Rod Taylor's Time Machine to search for the four Chaos Emeralds.
  • Da Bearz!
  • In 'The Magic Hassle', Robotnik's computer makes suspiciously familiar sounds.
  • The very first episode, "The Super Special Sonic Search & Smash Squad", had this vaguely familiar creature appearing for a moment in the background.
  • "Uh-oh! Here come Tweedledum and Tweedle-dumber!"
  • In "Tails in Charge", after fooling Scratch and Grounder with improvised traps, Tails asks them if they want to give up. Their answer? "Never!"
    • In the same episode's Sonic Sez, Tails ends the episode telling the Dumb-Bots "I hear you knocking, but you can't come in!" Referencing the 1955 Blues song.
  • According to Milton Knight, the ending of Zoobotnik (with Katella chasing after an anthropomorphic planet) is an homage to the Famous Studios Popeye short "Hillbilling and Cooing".
• Show Within a Show:
  • Scratch and Grounder are seen watching the unaired pilot in "Untouchable Sonic". They then switch over to a dramatic medical-themed show then settle on a gangster show.
  • A movie shown at one point features a scene of Robotnik shooting at a building. Scratch and Grounder crash through the roof directly when this happens.
  • "Blank-Headed Eagle" begins with Scratch and Grounder watching the Edgar Eagle TV show. After the show is an advertisement for an Eagle-Copter kit, which Scratch buys to attack Sonic with. After Sonic tricks Scratch into shooting himself out of the sky, Scratch gets amnesia and thinks he's the real Edgar Eagle.
• Sidekick Glass Ceiling: Tails in "Full Tilt Tails".
• Signature Headgear: Wes Weasley wears a small hat that floats on his head.
• Silence, You Fool!: Frequently said by Robotnik.
• Single-Episode Handicap: Sonic loses his trademark sneakers in "Mystery of the Missing Hi-Tops", and as such can no longer run at his usual supersonic speeds without hurting his feet.
• Sleep Aesop: In the 'Sonic Says' segment "Boogey Mania", Tails tells Sonic that he wants to stay up late to watch a TV show. Sonic allows him to do so but warns him that the next day, he may be too tired to go hiking if he does. The next day, Tails is indeed too tired, so Sonic lets him catch up on his sleep and tells the audience that not getting enough sleep can leave you too tired to do the things you want to do.
• Sliding Scale of Adaptation Modification: The series is a Type 1 (In Name Only) adaptation of the video games.
• Smart People Speak the Queen's English: When Grounder gets a genius chip, his usual Simpleton Voice changes to Received Pronunciation.
• Smelly Skunk: The episode "Road Hog" as Colonel Stench, a skunk who has tried unsuccessfully for years to make a perfume that would get rid of his stench. What he created instead was hypnotic flower pollen, which Robotnik stole from him and used to hypnotize the law into arresting him and Sonic.
• Smokescreen Crime: In "Mass Transit Trouble", Robotnik has his minions attack three different locations, with Sonic seemingly foiling them and running himself ragged in the process. However, Robotnik reveals that he has planted bombs in all of the locations and the attacks were just a cover.
• Snake Oil Salesman:
  • Robotnik accuses Wes Weasley of being one when the weapons he sales him fail to capture Sonic. However, Robotnik places the Scratch and Grounder in charge of actually using the weapons, who fail to use them properly. If Robotnik actually used the weapons himself, he actually would've won.
  • Played straight in a Sonic Says segment where Wes tries to sell Tails a "RoboDude", an automated cleaning robot. The robot itself is $9.98. However, the attachments required to allow the RoboDude to function are sold separately, and when purchased together with the RoboDude itself, the total adds up to $99.98.
• Space Episode: "Spaceman Sonic".
• Spanner in the Works: Robotnik, Scratch and Grounder only occasionally take into account Tails or his ability to fly. Averted in "Prehistoric Sonic"; before throwing Sonic and Tails into a volcano, he ties Tails' tails together.
• Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace: Invoked in "Sonic the Matchmaker".
• Spin-Off: Received a tie-in video game called Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, in which Sonic is curiously absent. This is a subversion, as it's actually a Dolled-Up Installment of the original Puyo Puyo^*which ironically, Sega now owns after original creators Compile went out of business.
• Spotting the Thread: In the episode "Tails' New Home", Sonic and Tails meet an elderly fox couple who are apparently Tails' long-lost parents. Sonic allows Tails to stay with the couple, and while reminiscing on their first meeting, remembers that Tails is Only Known By His Nickname, and on top of that, it's a nickname that Sonic gave him. If the couple really were Tails' parents, they would have called him "Miles". Sure enough, the 'parents' are actually some of Robotnik's robots in disguise.
• Squashed Flat: Robotnik, during the credits sequence (actually a scene from the pilot episode) of every single episode. Also happens numerous times to Scratch, Grounder, and Robotnik in the episodes themselves.
• Stock Sound Effects: A non-public domain example: many of the show's sound effects come from Hanna-Barbera's sound archives, especially the times when Sonic runs around. This is likely to help epitomize the show's comedic style.
• Storming the Castle: Done with Robotnik's fortress a number of times, but also in "Attack on the Pinball Fortress".
• Strip Poker: Parodied in "The Magnificent Sonic". Scratch and Grounder "strip" and lose their mechanical parts to Sonic in several rounds of strip poker.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Extremely frequent. "Robotnikland" alone has about three consecutive comical explosions.
• Stupidity-Inducing Attack:
  • One episode involves both a "smart chip" and a "stupid chip" that make whoever takes them become much smarter or dumber.
  • In "Attack on the Pinball Fortress", Robotnik invents a Stupidity Ray, which becomes an object of interest to Sonic, Sergeant Doberman, and Wes Weasley. Sonic simply wants to save Mobius, Doberman wants to create an army of soldiers too dumb to question his orders, and Weasley wants customers gullible enough to buy his products.
• Sudden Anatomy: Grounder's drills are replaced with human hands whenever he needs to hold something. This is justified by him being a Swiss-Army Weapon.
• Superhero Episode: Or rather, Supervillain Episode in the case of "Super Robotnik". In the episode, Coconuts accidentally spills a shelf of chemicals into a vat while attempting to clean Robotnik's fortress. When Robotnik falls into the vat, the chemicals are revealed to have created a formula that gives Robotnik superpowers. Robotnik then uses his new superpowers to capture the Mobius World Leaders so he can seize control, and challenges Sonic to a fight for their freedom.
• Surrounded by Idiots: Robotnik sometimes makes a variation of this statement.
• "Take That!" Kiss: Sonic gives one to Robotnik in "Best Hedgehog".
• Taken for Granite: Used four times throughout the series: first by Grounder in "Grounder the Genius", then by Scratch and Grounder in "Tails in Charge", then by Coconuts in the episode "The Magic Hassle", and last by Merlynx in "Hedgehog of the Hound Table", though that time it only affected Sonic's legs.
• Tempting Fate: Complete with a You Just Had to Say It.
• Terrible Trio: Scratch and Grounder with Robotnik as the higher up. Sometimes Robotnik himself joined them, and led from the front. Semi recurrer Coconuts also joined the team on occasion.
• Testing Range Mishap: Played for Laughs in "Tails' New Home". While trying to find a foster parent for Tails, Sonic takes him to the remote home of Sergeant Doberman. Doberman spontaneously makes Sonic and Tails do exercises, but is interrupted by an explosion near them. He nonchalantly explains that his wife is doing target practice at the artillery range... without glasses.
  "Hmm... probably shoulda waited till she got her new glasses."
• That Came Out Wrong: In "Sonically Ever After" Sonic and Tails first end up in the story of Hansel and Gretel. Upon noticing he's been hampered with the latter role, Tails points out "Hey, I just noticed; I'm a girl!". Doesn't help that a handful of fans have probably mistook him for one in the past.
• Thumbtack on the Chair: In "Super Robotnik", Scratch hangs up a picture in Robotnik's office and one of the nails accidentally falls on Robotnik's chair. Since Robotnik's butt was the only thing that wasn't affected by the Superpower formula Coconuts inadvertently created, it wasn't invulnerable like the rest of his body. Thus, he is in geunine pain when he sits on the nail.
• Time Travel: The Chaos Emeralds four-parter. Complete with a massive...
• Timey-Wimey Ball: Sonic and Tails defeat Robotnik in several different eras, keeping the Chaos Emeralds out of his hands. Robotnik, in a rare flash of ingenuity, goes back to the time periods and grabs the Emeralds anyway. Sonic and Tails defeat him by traveling through time to the same time until about a dozen temporal clones of each have assembled, totally smashing any pretense of a Stable Time Loop in the process. The fact that it toys with so many time travel tropes is one reason this four-parter is well-regarded.
• Tongue on the Flagpole: A variant: Scratch and Grounder are in the Arctic cold, Scratch kisses Grounder, Hilarity Ensues.
• Too Unhappy to Be Hungry: In "So Long Sucker", Tails adopts an alien creature from another dimension as a pet, naming him Goobster. At the end of the episode, Sonic reunites Goobster with his parents, and Tails tearfully waves goodbye to him. To cheer Tails up, Sonic offers to take Tails to lunch, but Tails tells him he isn't hungry. Sonic then tells Tails that after lunch, he'll get him another pet (but not an alien this time).
• Totally Radical: Both used and lampshaded. Sonic does this when he is about to run or is talking to Tails.
• Track Trouble: In "The Robotnik Express", the titular bomb-loaded train is headed towards an unfinished bridge, built directly over the Buffalo Village. When Sonic reaches the bridge, he informs two of the workers that they only have five minutes to fix the bridge before the train gets to it. Towards the end of the episode, when Sonic is forced to sacrifice his original plan to switch the train onto a dead end and save Da Bearz, they have to fix the bridge as fast as they can, at least to the point of launching the train to the other side of the bridge.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Chili dogs for Sonic and Tails, eggs for Robotnik (to the point where he beats Scratch and Grounder for making him pancakes as a surprise).
  • Chili dogs seem to be the Trademark Favorite Food of EVERY heroic character on Mobius. Robotnik appears to be one of the few people on the planet who doesn't like them, although it is shown in one episode that he keeps the ingredients used to make one in his kitchen.
• Trap Door: Robotnik has used a few of these. For an example, Coconuts has been a victim of one, sometimes multiple in the same episode. One was even mobile with hammerspace inside it.
• Trap Is the Only Option:
  • The plot of "Sonic Breakout" is based around Robotnik imprisoning a cartoonist who drew a less-than-flattering strip of the Eggman. In order to break into the prison and save him, Sonic willingly lets himself get captured by Scratch and Grounder... but not before putting them through the usual hijinx.
  • In "Zoobotnik", Robotnik teams up with Katella the Intergalactic Huntress, who has captured everyone on Mobius, in order to catch Sonic. They lure him using an obvious doll of Tails, whom Katella captured earlier. Even though Sonic knows it's a trap (he even informs the viewers of it), he willingly falls for it in the hope of finding Tails.
• The Trap Parents: "Tails' New Home" follows the standard plot outlined on the trope page.
• Trash the Set: Some of Robotnik's minor one off bases end up being destroyed at the end of their episodes:
  • His "Rot-Your-Life-Away Dungeons" in "Sonic Breakout" is destroyed by Sonic and Tails by triggering every alarm beam, causing the computer to breakdown and self-destruct.
  • His "Emporium of Devastation, Destruction and Demolition" from "The Robotnik Express" is destroyed when the train smashes into the factory due to failed brakes.
  • In "Robo-Ninjas", Robotnik's main base and home inexplicably collapses and explodes, and did not appear anymore in the remaining two episodes.
• Trrrilling Rrrs: Rrrobotnik, in almost every sentence.
• Turned Against Their Masters: Breezie and Robotnik Jr. after their Heel–Face Turn. Grounder also openly questions his allegience to Robotnik after becoming intelligent in "Grounder the Genius," and in "Momma Robotnik Returns" Scratch and Grounder betray Robotnik for her, with only Coconuts remaining loyal.
• The Un-Favourite: Coconuts, which is saying something considering how Robotnik treats his "favorites" Scratch and Grounder.
  • In one episode, Robotnik demotes Coconuts for capturing Tails instead of Sonic, while congratulating Scratch and Grounder for doing the same thing in other episodes.
• Unfortunate Item Swap: Grounder accidentally swaps his stereo remote for Robotnik's radio-controlled anti-gravity ball remote in "Robolympics", much to the latter's dismay.
• Unreliable Illustrator:
  • You won't believe how many times Sonic's arms turn blue (long before they were officially made blue in Sonic Boom and the 2020 film). Or the time when his mouth disappeared◊.
  • The character art inside the disk cases of the second box set.
  • Done intentionally in Dr. Robotnik's case. Unlike the above instances, the animators were actually encouraged to put accuracy second to emotion◊.
  • Even the Chaos Emerald 4-parter has this going on between parts. For example in "Blackbot the Pirate", the pupils of Sonic, Scratch and Professor Caninestein are often overshadowed by the light reflecting into them. Robotnik also looks less comedically obese than usual in a few scenes too.
  • Mentioned In-Universe in "Sonic Breakout" when Sonic responds to a depiction of him on a free poster that came with Tails' latest issue of the "Crack Ups", which he complains that he was drawn shorter.
• Usurping Santa: In the Christmas episode, Dr. Robotnik hatches an evil plan to steal Santa Claus's spot as Father Christmas and steal all the toys for himself.
• Vacation Episode: "The Last Resort".
• Violin Scam: "Full Tilt Tails" contains an unusually heroic variant of this con. At the beginning of the episode, the Badniks come across an ignorant bumpkin who's interested in their wagon of stolen loot, unaware that the gold nuggets he's carrying in his own Bindle Stick are far more valuable. Robotnik, who considers the loot worthless anyway, seizes the opportunity and trades all the contents of the wagon for the hillbilly's "tiny" bag of "dirty" gold. Back at his fortress, Robotnik congratulates himself for his cleverness...until he realizes that the gold nuggets are (stale) chili beans, the hick was Sonic in disguise, and that Sonic conned him out of the stolen goods so he could return them to their rightful owners.
• Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey: Scratch and Grounder, the bumbling robot minions, have this dynamic with Dr. Robotnik.
• Villain Ball: Robotnik refusing to allow Wes Weasley to actually broadcast his shopping channel in "Hero of the Year".
• Villain Protagonist: The show sometimes borders near this. While Sonic and Tails are still often the center focus, a lot of screentime and focus is given to Robotnik and his henchbots in many episodes. The fact the show takes notes from one of the most iconic Villain Protagonists to date probably only fuels this.
• Villain Song: Robotnik writes two brief ones in "Sonic's Song"; in his first attempt, Catty Carlyle twists it into a "The Villain Sucks" Song.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Robotnik at times, such as in "Too Tall Tails".
• Vocal Evolution: If you watch some of the earliest episodes, you'll notice that Scratch and Grounder talk quite differently from their later performances � Scratch is voiced with a Brooklyn accent, whereas Grounder has a lower, stupider voice. These attributes disappeared over the course of the series.^note Grounder still sounded dumb, but less so.
  • An odd case in the German dub: Gerald Paradies and Oliver Feld had already adopted voices for the henchbots right from the get-go (Paradies adopting a nasally voice and Feld an appropriately chicken-y voice), but for some reason, during the flashback in the first episode where Robotnik is shown making Scratch, Feld's voice for Scratch was a rather cute variation of his normal speaking voice (up to the line "Mein zwillingsbruder? Bin ich so haesslisch?!"); then when he first interacts with Grounder, Feld switches back to the previous voice. Paradies' Grounder also got slightly higher over the episodes.
• Volumetric Mouth: When Grounder's head lands on Robotnik's foot in "Grounder the Genius", it results in Robotnik's mouth briefly becoming as large as his body.
• Walking the Earth: Pretty much what Sonic and Tails do for the entire series because they are never sure where Robotnik will strike next.
• Warm-Hearted Walrus: When Robotnik runs for president, the incumbent is a walrus with a 90% approval rating.
• Wearing a Flag on Your Head: Tails can grow one in his tail, as seen in one episode.
• Where's the Kaboom?: At the beginning of "Sonic the Matchmaker", Scratch and Grounder attempt to destroy Sonic with a dynamite stick disguised as a chili dog. Sonic brings the dynamite stick to Robotnik as Scratch and Grounder wonder why they didn't hear an explosion. They are quick to realize that Sonic left with the dynamite stick, but not quick enough to stop Sonic before the dynamite stick explodes in Robotnik's face.
• Who's on First?: In "Sonic Gets Thrashed", when Sonic and Wallace are preparing to start their sabotage on Robotnik's resort opening, Wallace shouts "Roger!", only for Sonic to get confused at that.
• William Telling: Sonic does this to one of Robotnik's robots. Getting up in Robin Hood garb and balancing an apple on his head, Sonic tauntingly asks the robot (Called Dragon Breath in Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine) if he's ever heard of William Tell. Infuriated, Dragon Breath throws his spiked club at Sonic, but the hedgehog's super speeds allows him to dodge just in time, so that the only damage done is that apple is split in half... and the tree behind Sonic falls over onto Dragon Breath.
• Wink "Ding!": The introduction to the "Sonic Says" segments has Sonic giving one.
• With Friends Like These...: Sonic delivers a variant of this in "Over the Hill Hero" to Captain Rescue for cutting in on his heroism:

  Sonic: You're making my work go really slow!

  Captain Rescue: I'm just trying to help!

  Sonic: Yeah, well, with help like yours, we don't need badniks!

• World of Ham: With the exception of Tails, every character is overblown, with Robotnik being the standout. The Deranged Animation only helps.
• Xtreme Kool Letterz: Each "Sonic Says" segment opens with Tails painting "Sonic Sez" on a wall. Sonic pops out from a hole in the wall and changes "Sez" to "Says".
• You Answered Your Own Question: "What would I want with a two-ton baby ape who can lift giant rocks, fire bananas like a shotgun— HUH? and help me capture that pesky hedgehog SO ROBOTNIK WILL TAKE ME BACK!"
• You Are Already Dead: Happens to Grounder when he attempts to swashbuckle with Blackbeard in "Blackbot the Pirate".
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: A non-lethal version occurs in "The Last Resort", when Robotnik talks to one of his minions over the phone.
  Fumfer: The hedgehog bought it, your malignancy! He's on his way to the island now!
  Robotnik: Ah, excellent work, Fumfer! You're fired!
  Fumfer: Fired?! Why? I did my job perfectly!
  Robotnik: Exactly! That's why I don't need you anymore!

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