What was your favorite Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon?

I really enjoyed "Adventures" when I was a little kid. I never got into "Sat AM" though, as it was too dark and gritty for my taste at the time. But when I look back at it as an adult, I now can appreciate it much more.

edited 19th May '14 9:05:28 PM by Furienna

To be honest neither was all that good. Adventures was good if you enjoyed crazy goofiness, OVA was OK but Metal was the only thing I really liked, and Sonic X had many slow moments, annoying Flanderization, and some characters like Cream were really bland. That I hate what they did to Emerl. Still early episodes about Rouge and Knuckles were fun and Chaotix provided nice comic relief. Underground had really stupid premise, ugly designs, and was very repetitive (heroes were ambushed by Dingo pretending to be an object about once a episode). But to be honest, they had few creative ideas, few funny jokes, characters were mostly likable, and songs were just bad enough.

But Satam...its like opposite of Unerground. I will admit first, premise is cool, voices and designs promising, and when I heard about it I really though its has to be a good show. And as reader of Archie's Sonic comics I am grateful for introducing these concepts to otherwise plotless world of Sonic. But after watching whole show, I cant understand why it gets all that praise. Sally being Creator's Pet, wasting good characters (even Lupe was underused in her debut), overuse of catchphrases and attitude, Antoine, stories that went to nowhere (Sonic Boom, Secret Scrolls) forced attempts to be dark (red shirts, Sonic suffering from PTSD because of bad dream), just plain dumb writing (Sonic Racer made more sense when Underground did it, those riddles in Secret Scroll were ridiculous, and in Sonic and Sally Robotnik should've won if it wasn't random system overload, Lazar suppose to be The Atoner, but he forces Sonic to retrieve his Artifact of Doom without any powers) Episodes that weren't stupid were usually forgettable and the only characters I liked were Uncle Chuck and Snively.

edited 20th May '14 3:22:56 AM by Sunchet

Talk about Negative Nancy.

1) Because if I gave only one or two argument why I think this series is overrated, then my post would be much more convincing?

2)I've said good things about other shows. I've got little to nothing good to say about Satam, the only show here considered to be Cult Classic. I think I have right to be disappointed.

I admit, Gruesome might have been too big of a word to describe the Roboticization process of Sat AM, but I still think it fits, because apparently it's painful as crap, akin to torture and brainwashing, and Robotnik enjoys doing it to others...

... But I still think Sat AM is too dark; too dark for my tastes, anyways.

Concerning Satam, to me it's more the fact it has good points, it's no worse than most standard Saturday morning cartoon, but it is ridiculously overhyped by fans as being brimming with depth and drama. Even the writer compared it to 'a blockbuster epic', which it certainly isn't.

Most of the character archetypes I've seen utilized to fuller and more rounded extent in many other cartoons (with more even spotlight as well) and some plots feel rather broken. It also has perhaps the most odious version of Sonic outside the two comics (too many western interpretations tend to simplify 'cool' into 'glorified bullying jock'). Most complaints I can also issue to the other Sonic cartoons and there's still a lot of fun in there, but it's a very flawed and grandiose affair.

I'm not a big fan of most 'dark' Sonics really. They follow the usual standard of trying to fill a light hearted cartoon with loads of (often incompatible) 'dark' cliches and often using them in place of actual characterization and making the story look incredibly pretentious. Satam is actually one that does better to me, it's at least the retro Sonic formula just with a high order Cerebus Syndrome. It's still riddled with problems however.

It's also another thing it can't really add up to in terms of emotional depth. It's played off as this unsettling 'living death' where the victims are aware of everything they do but have no control, and more or less all the victims have been stuck like this for over a decade. How do we know this? Uncle Chuck, you know, that jolly old guy, mentioned it offhand in a conversation. At least with brainwashing there's justification he hasn't lost his sanity.

edited 20th May '14 7:46:14 AM by Psi001

Yeah, it seems like Sally qualifies as a Creator's Pet. But from the little I have seen of the show, she seems to be a cool character.

Her personality is likable. I just think it's the 'wins nearly every argument' part that tends to grate, especially since she's Sonic's opposite, so simplifies the main character's attributes as being negative (I'm guessing you've seen at least one 'Sonic doesn't listen to Sally and screws up' story because it's the formula of almost half the series).

As said the character archetype is likable (the neurotic Team Mom/Smart Girl), but it's been developed more broadly in other cartoons (eg. Rebecca Cunningham, Twilight Sparkle). In the comics she's pretty much just been simplified to a generic lucid Straight Man.

Ben Hurst also liked her and Antoine a bit too much. Nearly every episode in Season Two paired them with Sonic, with Bunnie, Rotor and Tails being little more than background characters. It's probably a reason characters such as Dulcy and Lupe didn't really develop past one note extras, they weren't allowed to tread on the dynamic.

edited 20th May '14 8:37:58 AM by Psi001

I kinda suspect liking Adventures and dishing SATAM has kind of become the 'hip' thing to do.

edited 20th May '14 9:53:17 AM by NapoleonDeCheese

And where did I say that?

Accentuate the Negative is all I got from your post. You seemed more focus on dishing that show than the others.

edited 20th May '14 11:50:09 AM by AfroWarrior27

Adventures has it's own flaws, it's just that people tend to put Satam on a pedestal, and are often just as derogatory to the other shows in the process. It's no better or worse than all the other cartoons.

And it's 'dissing' by the way.

edited 20th May '14 11:54:12 AM by Psi001

In British dishing means utterly destroy, confound, or defeat.

Useless trivia ftw I guess.

edited 20th May '14 11:59:49 AM by AfroWarrior27

Being a Brit I should really know that. :P

"And where did I say that? "

Nowhere, that just an assumption on my part. I assumed that your Nancy comment was aimed at my Satam Rant and I doubt that you would call someone negative just for saying "I don't like show that most people do." Ergo, my riposte.

"Accentuate the Negative is all I got from your post. You seemed more focus on dishing that show than the others."

Usually when I make a post I talk about unpopular opinion to make sure that I bring something new to the topic. My other rule is that if I want to complain about something that is popular I try to collect as much evidence as possible to back-up my opinion. Besides I wanted to talk about Satam cause I got strongest feelings about Satam. Nobody here is forced to make posts that talk equally about all shows.

Hell, I at least complain about shows. You only made post to complain about my complaining.

edited 20th May '14 2:05:03 PM by Sunchet

And why do you have the strongest feeling with Satam? Is it because it's popular? Is that why your complaining about it? Because everyone likes something you don't like?

Though to be truthfully honest I've never seen Satam, this topic just intrigues me.

edited 20th May '14 6:13:48 PM by AfroWarrior27

Sonic Adventures was my favorite. I loved the crazy art design (courtesy of Milton Knight) and Long John Baldry was a hilarious Dr. Robotnik. It was a fun show.

SatAM I got issues with. The show did have some cool things about it (the artwork, the cyberpunk aesthetic), but there were a lot of things about it that I thought were generic and hollow, too. Dr. Robotnik was voiced by Jim Cummings and he had a cool appearance, unfortunately he was just a Captain Planet villain with none of the goofiness. There also wasn't a whole lot of thought put into the show's backstory; The whole show could have been a He-Man cartoon, it was pretty much just about a band of freedom fighters vs evil overlord with some magic and sci-fi elements tossed into the setting. SatAM also had a huge influence on the once comedic Archie Sonic series, turning it into the most infamous furry drama of all time, for what it's worth.

Sonic Underground had terrible animation, cheesy songs, it took a great deal of assets from SatAM, and it was trying pretty hard to be hip and cool (Sonic and his siblings are not just freedom fighters, they're part of a band). I liked it a lot. There was a little more thought put into the story and setting (There was more than just one city on the entire planet of Mobius, for starters), and Dr. Robotnik had his fair share of funny moments, making him closer to how he is in the games (it helps that he was voiced by Garry Chalk, who did Grounder's voice in Adventures). Jaleel White also did a nice job voicing all three Hedgehogs.

I haven't seen the Sonic OVA in a while, I do remember it having Metal Sonic in it, which is neat. Cool artwork, too. It also had Sonic flipping the bird at Robotnik.

I never watched Sonic X. It doesn't seem like the show that would appeal to me, though it's cool that it has characters from the Sonic Adventure games.

I first learned about the Sonic movie from a YTMND about the scene where Metal Sonic forced the owl to wear Sonic's "favorite clothes". Also, Knuckles in a hat, who is a mole!

I complain because it's both more popular that other Sonic shows and much worse that other Sonic shows.

So basically what I said earlier, you dislike it because it's popular, and because everyone likes something you don't like.

Hype Backlash practically border on disliking something because it's popular, which I disagree with that mindset big time.

edited 21st May '14 6:04:18 AM by AfroWarrior27

I listed plenty reasons why I dislike this show, how can you claim I dislike it because its popular?

Popularity is not a reason I dislike the show, although it a good reason for me to voice my complains. If I complained about something that everybody complains about already, what would be the point?

You dislike it more because it's popular is my point. That makes you more biased of your judgement compared to the other show. And it shows because you made an entire paragraph blasting that show while making sentences describing the other shows.

Ok, I'll admit. I'm biased. Does that mean that my opinion doesn't matter? Sally Acorn disappointed me, not burned my house. People are biased. Always were, always will be. You can psychoanalyze me all you want, I gave a show a chance, judged it, some time later rewatched it, analyzed each episode. You cant just say that my opinion must be worthless. I am willing to discuss my point of view, not give it up just because you're telling me I'm might be a little prejudiced.

And where did I say that in ANY of my comment?

"Accentuate the Negative is all I got from your post.", " you dislike it because it's popular (...) which I disagree with that mindset big time.",

Do we have to escalate this into a flame war?

Anyways, I've not seen Adventures(Kinda want to), seen a bit of Sat AM (I should finish it, and the environmental message isn't pounded into your head), not seen Underground (don't care), love the OVA, and I actually like X.