YMMV / Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM)

• Adorkable: Rotor has a distinctly quirky personality, especially in early episodes.
• Angst? What Angst?:
  • Compared to the games' usual scenarios, Dr. Robotnik is treated far more seriously, and his method of robotizing characters, which had no known method of reversal, was considered tantamount to being killed. While there are genuine moments of heartbreak and emotion in the series, the cast often acts less horrified than they should. For example, "Sonic Boom" and "Blast to the Past" feature one-shot characters being captured and robotized. And in both cases, a main character mourns over the loss for only a few minutes, never speaking of them again afterwards.
  • Uncle Chuck, a victim of roboticization who regained his free will, nonchalantly mentioned that the process left his mind completely conscious but with no control over his body for the decade it was under effect. He shows not one sign of issue over it.
• Audience-Coloring Adaptation: This show has greatly colored and influenced how many perceive the Sonic franchise, and for many fans who grew up with the show back in The '90s, this was Sonic to them, not the original games. It helps that it would form the basis for the longrunning and popular Archie comic series, on top of the show and its characters being heavily pushed by Sega's western branches for several years. This has died down over time due to Sonic Team retconning and burying away the Western canon in favor of strictly enforcing their original Japanese canon beginning with Sonic Adventure, but it's not hard to find many (particularly older fans, people who don't play video games, and/or people who have become out of touch with the franchise after the '90s) who still consider the show to be how they view Sonic and his world today.
• Awesome Art: Sonic SatAM boasted lush, detailed backgrounds and fluid animation.
• Awesome Music: The opening theme is probably the most iconic thing about the show.
• Badass Decay:
  • Bunnie, after a great showing in Season One, was a thoroughly inactive character in Season 2.
  • Sonic, while still having competent moments, became a lot more error prone and idiotic compared to his portrayal in season one.
  • Crossing over with Villain Decay, Robotnik became more prone to being the butt of jokes and making stupid decisions in Season 2.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • This show's version of Sonic is either a far more relatable and humanized take on the character thanks to his wider range of emotions, or an obnoxious Leeroy Jenkins who speaks in grating nineties slang and mannerisms.
  • Sally is either a poignantly developed Action Girl and one of Sonic's best foils in the series (if not the entire franchise), or a bland Flawless Token. Her relationship with Sonic is a point of extreme contention, thanks to the fans of Amy. A third party will say Sally started okay until Season 2, when the writers increased Sally's spotlight and positive qualities at the expense of other characters.
  • SatAM's interpretation of Robotnik is either adored as a sinister and terrifying presence compared to other versions of the character, or abhorred as a stereotypical bad guy who's not fun to watch compared to the sillier versions, including the Archie comics version who shared a design and background with this one.
• Broken Base:
  • Despite being an adaptation of a video game, the series is critically acclaimed and highly regarded by its fans. However, it's also one of the most divisive works in the franchise. Its nature as a very early adaptation based on an exaggeration of the original Western lore separates the show entirely from the later games, a fact that has caused a great deal of friction within the notoriously broken wider Sonic fanbase over how much of its style (if any) should be adopted by modern Sonic works.
  • Was Season 2 an improvement on the first, thanks to having more consistent writing and overall continuity, or is it Seasonal Rot thanks to its simplified characters and more formulaic plot lines, as well as introducing a dragon Cloudcuckoolander named Dulcy?
  • The show's themes and tone is either subtle, strong, and surprisingly mature for an adaptation of a video game. Or it's preachy, pretentious, and melodramatic.
• Can't Un-Hear It: This cartoon ran concurrently with the beginning of the Archie comic, so it's hard not to imagine the characters being read by their respective voice actors. Sonic gets this the most, due to Jaleel White voicing him in two other DiC cartoons. Special mention especially to legendary voice actor Jim Cummings for giving Dr. Robotnik an especially menacing voice.
• Complete Monster: Dr. Julian Robotnik is the absolute ruler of Mobius in the present day, having acquired the throne by betraying every person he used to be loyal to and using the monstrous Roboticizer to transform the planet into a hellish, mechanized dystopia. A tyrant whose only love is reserved for the pollution choking his entire empire, Robotnik subjects countless Mobians to Unwilling Roboticisation, a process they object to and fight against even after it happens. One of Robotnik's first victims of this was the Roboticizer's inventor, Sonic's own Uncle Chuck. Robotnik has mercilessly wiped out almost all resistance to his empire and tries time and time again to torture and kill Sonic and his Freedom Fighters, employing his "Doomsday Project" in the finale to kill off all life not already roboticized. Robotnik is also happy to execute his own worker-bots at his own whim and ultimately tries to leave all of his minions, including his long-abused nephew Snively, to die.
• Cult Classic: It only got 26 episodes, which made it the shortest of all the finished Sonic cartoons (even the similarly Cut Short Sonic Underground got a good 40 episodes), and yet it was relatively well-received compared to other Saturday-morning fare at the time and has maintained a notable fanbase since then.
• Designated Hero: Sonic, though not unpopular in the show per se, gets occasional criticism claiming him to be this. While a fairly effective hero, Sonic is by far the most dysfunctional and arrogant of the Freedom Fighters (Antoine notwithstanding), frequently endangering the team due to his cockiness.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Bunnie had less spotlight than the other main Freedom Fighters, especially upon her demotion in the second season. Despite that, she is quite popular for her cyborg powers, personality, and ironic angst. She is one of only a few Sonic Canon Foreigners not to gain much disdain from the games' fandom.
  • Lupe, the leader of the Wolf Pack, is popular in the fandom despite having only one episode devoted to her.
• Ethnic Scrappy: Antoine is widely disliked for being a French stereotype. The character's entire concept is that he is a guy who is useless in any action-related situation with an annoying French accent. He also gets flak for being rude to Sonic (even though Sonic is more or less equally rude to him), and ending up a Spotlight-Stealing Squad due to inexplicably getting inducted into many later missions over other characters. Even taking a level in badass in the Archie comics didn't stop some of the hate, since many feel it strips him of any defining characteristics and reduces him to a Generic Guy with a French accent.
• Evil Is Cool: The show gives us possibly the most evil incarnation of Robotnik ever, and also one of the most popular. Being voiced by Jim Cummings helps immensely.
• Fan Nickname: Aside from the SatAM one, which was made to distinguish this Sonic cartoon (which ran on Saturday mornings) from the concurrent one at the time (which ran on weekdays), the other nickname occasionally used by fans is "Sonic TAS" (which is short for "Sonic the Hedgehog: The Animated Series").
• Fandom-Enraging Misconception: Thanks to Sonic the Hedgehog (Archie Comics) using some similar themes and characters to the cartoon, there are several misconceptions floating around that can get on the fans nerves.
  • The comic is often considered to be a continuation of the cartoon. However, not only did the comic not follow up on the Doomsday story arc in any way, in the comic, Doomsday doesn't even exist.^note The Doomsday arc ends with Sonic and Sally destroying the Doomsday Project - a machine designed to swarm the whole world with nearly invincible robots - by using the Deep Power Stones, apparently killing Robotnik in the process. After this, they confess their love for each other and share a passionate kiss... while Snively and Naugus are making plans to take control. By contrast, the comic book's Endgame arc goes in a totally different direction from the very start by killing off Sally (Which was undone by Executive Veto later on) and having Snively kill Robotnik by re-targeting a disintegration gun.
  • It's also said by many that the cartoon is based on the comic. It's the other way around, and even then the comics are only barely based on the cartoon's early concepts. In fact, the art (and storytelling) for roughly the first year of the comic was based on an early unaired pilot of the cartoon series that was eerily similar on both fronts to the far-more-whimsical syndicated cartoon, Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog.
• Fanfic Fuel: Thanks to Internet usage expanding in the mid-90s, this series provided numerous examples of such. Fans have made their own theories of the SatAM continuity with stories written about pre-Robotnik Mobius, the Freedom Fighters' establishment, Tails meeting the group and Bunnie's half-roboticizing among other things.
  • One could also make fanfics on how other Archie exclusive characters could be like in this continuity.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • For readers of the comic spinoff, Sonic's nightmare of Sally getting roboticized is this. She actually does get roboticized in the comic, and due to behind the scene circumstances, she isn't saved before the Cosmic Retcon.
  • A highly common complaint about the show is that Tails, the only other character who hails from the video games with Sonic and Robotnik, is barely in it. As the second season began airing, Tails had more significant roles in the episodes, with "Drood Henge" having him devise the plan that prevents Robotnik from acquiring the Power Stones. Word of God would later confirm that Tails would play a large role in the third season, after becoming a freedom fighter at the end of the aforementioned episode. Then the show was cancelled.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • There was a two-parter that had Sonic traveling through time and interacting with his past self. This would happen in the games eighteen years later.
  • Initial promotional art for the show◊ depicted a Flicky among the Freedom Fighters (who was likely replaced with Tails in the final draft), though his color scheme was red instead of the species' usual blue. Fastforward to 1996, and it turns out that red Flickies do actually exist.
  • Dulcy's very existence becomes this with the existence of Sonic Superstars, which heavily features dragons in its story with its new character turning out to be one. Even earlier, there was the Dragon animal in Sonic Adventure 2.
• Hype Backlash: Many fans of the later games become irritated by the mere mentioning of the show, due to many fans' tendency to boast its story and characters as superior to the Sega canon. They tend to retort that the show has been overhyped and viewed through the Nostalgia Filter, and suffers from just as many problems associated with the games such as the sometimes pretentious attempts at Darker and Edgier storytelling, cheesy Mood Whiplash inducing comic relief and one liners, the over-saturation of original characters, and their occasional Flanderization.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Antoine is a self centered Dirty Coward, but his constant failed attempts at respect and heroism, and Sonic's relentless jokes at his expense, can make you feel some sympathy for him.
  • Snively for the most part is suggested to be just as remorseless and ruthless as Robotnik; however, he is still pitiable for the overwhelming amount of abuse he has suffered under his uncle for over a decade. The fact the Freedom Fighters often trigger Robotnik's wrath, and that wrath gets taken out on him, gives him a very valid reason for hating them.
• Love to Hate: Dr. Julian Robotnik. He is pure evil incarnate and has absolutely zero passion for anybody, but he proves himself as a Worthy Opponent by enslaving most of Mobius outside of Knothole, and with how downright scary he is, it's hard to not feel a level of respect for him thanks to how effective of a villain he's shown himself to be.
• Magnificent Bastard: Naugus is the former master of Dr. Robotnik who was banished to the Void by him, and spends his banishment plotting revenge on his traitorous apprentice. Realizing Sonic's speed is the key to releasing him, he attempts to capture him using a device, only to instead end up capturing Sally and Bunnie instead. Realizing that Sonic would likely attempt to rescue them, he uses them to lure Sonic to him and attempts to convince him to help him escape. When Sonic refuses, he disguises as the King, who was also banished to the Void, and effortlessly convinces Sonic to get him out. Revealing his deceptions after escape, a grateful Naugus allows Sonic to rescue his friends while he takes care of Robotnik, reveling in humiliating the traitorous doctor. Discovering that, thanks to spending too long in the Void, he'll die if he spends too long outside of it, he scares off Robotnik before he can notice and exploit it, and retreats alongside the King, content to plan his revenge for another day.
• Narm: The second season, while some might say was stronger in narrative, wasn't above moments of cheesiness.
  • In the two-parter "Blast to the Past", the catalyst which causes Sonic to bemoan the war against Robotnik is the loss of two freedom fighters. Specifically, a generic horse and bear. It doesn't help that these two characters only appear in this episode and are never seen or heard from again. Yet Sonic takes their loss exceedingly hard.
  • In "Sonic Conversion", Bunnie is de-roboticised, but abruptly changes back to her original form. When she does so, she inexplicably disappears in a cloud of green smoke, dramatic music plays, and Sally frantically calls her name. The next shot is of Bunnie sitting on the floor with a dissonantly deadpan expression. Upon realising that she's back to being a cyborg, Christine Cavanaugh gives out a small whine which sounds more like she dropped her ice cream.
  • "The Doomsday Project" makes it abundantly clear that all of the Freedom Fighters across Mobius will band together to fight Robotnik. Half of the main cast stay at home and all the other Freedom Fighters are instantly captured, ultimately leaving everything up to Sonic and Sally. For the umpteenth time.
• Narm Charm: "What color is my heart?" It's a weird Gross-Up Close-Up where Robotnik asks Snively to look down his throat in an effort to see his heart. Adler and Cummings really manage to sell the scene and make it sound menacing, despite the inherent tackiness of the situation and the line.
• Popular with Furries: SatAM was a popular early work in the fandom, premiering just about right when the commercial Internet was beginning to open up.
• Recurring Fanon Character: In the earliest days of the Sonic internet fanbase, uber-fan Serinthia Kelberry (then living as David Pistone) created the characters Bookshire Draftwood, a raccoon doctor, Sandra Nightweaver, a vulpine anti-heroine, and Packbell, a humanoid robot, who showed up in quite a few fanfics from different writers, to the point many unfamiliar with their origins confused them as being from SatAM in some way.
• The Scrappy: Dulcy was the direct result of executives wanting another female lead in the show, resulting in a klutzy, loud mouthed dragon appearing out of nowhere in the second season. This was especially bad since an infinitely more popular female character, Bunnie Rabbot, was Demoted to Extra as a result. In the years since however, she's gained a small fandom of her own, and despite the Executive Meddling, Ben Hurst actually considered her one of his favorites.
• Seasonal Rot: The first season of Sonic SatAM had many different writers, as typical for such a cartoon. The second season was written almost entirely by duo Ben Hurst and Pat Allee; this made for a much more consistent and streamlined story format than the first season thanks to there being central storytellers. However, it also resulted in their preferred characters, interpretations of said characters, and specific writing styles taking the spotlight for the rest of the series run. Sally and Antoine were prominent in every episode, and were simplified to their positive and negative traits respectively, while fan favorites such as Rotor and Bunnie were reduced to being background characters. While Season 2 is often commended for its more developed overall plot, it is equally often criticized for its extreme changes in characterization and tone, from Sonic and Robotnik's increased incompetence, to the overabundance of cheesy comic relief, including the inexplicable introduction of Dulcy the Dragon.
• Second Season Downfall: The cartoon ended abruptly after Season 2. However, this was due to the simultaneous cancellation of all of ABC's then-current lineup in favor of Disney-sourced programming, rather than the actual popularity of the series. Upon cancellation, the cartoon ranked #9 for all of Saturday Morning with a 5.2 rating, an estimated 4.8 million viewers during its second season, according to the Media Studies Journal, Volume 8, Issues 3-4.
• Suspiciously Similar Song:
  • The orchestral background music certainly sounds familiar... This extends even beyond the show's orchestral theme tune, to the point where the entire score is essentially one big riff on Alan Silvestri's style, complete with harmonies and dissonances based on octatonic scale patterns.
  • Robotnik's theme sounds a little similar to the 1983 Scarface theme.
• Take That, Scrappy!: Sonic lampshades Antoine's obnoxiousness and uselessness quite often. Given his own obnoxious ego and reckless decisions don't always get him fans, Sally in turn mercilessly calls him out.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Bunnie Rabbot made interesting use of the show's roboticization concept and had kickass cyborg powers to boot. However, she had a supporting role in the majority of the first season and was Demoted to Extra in the second, arguably getting the least amount of development time out of the rest of the Freedom Fighters (Rotor and Tails were also heavily Out of Focus for most of the show's later run, though at least had a spotlight episode or two to show for it).
  • Tails. They took Sonic's Best Friend and sidekick from the games and reduced him to a minor character. He stays home most of the time, resulting in him hardly ever participating in any of the missions. When he does, his contributions are little at best or pretty much nothing at worst. A later Season 2 episode tried to fix this, but by that point the show was almost over. Word of God said he would have been more important in the third season... which didn't happen.
  • One of the complaints against Dulcy is that she got introduced with little to no fanfare and the show expected everyone to just assume she was always there. She actually could have been a relatively interesting character. She lost her mom to Robotnik's takeover, which could have been an interesting story arc on it's own, but on top of that, she's a freaking dragon that has both fire and ice powers, and she serves as a mode of aerial transportation. Not to mention she's portrayed by well-known voice actress Cree Summer. A lot more could have been done with this character had they properly set up an arc where they find and save her, she joins the main Freedom Fighters and begins fighting to try and save her mom, taking several levels in badass in the process. Instead, she mostly serves as comic relief, and even that many found Antoine to supply in better variety and pathos.
  • Season 2 had an arc involving the other Freedom Fighter groups. Of the four assembled leaders, only Lupe and Ari get any characterisation, as two episode slots intended to introduce the other groups were given to the Antoine shorts. They all ultimately get captured quite early into the finale and reduced to Damsels in Distress while Sonic and Sally do the majority of the mission.
  • None of the other freedom fighters & Knothole residents who appear in the background are given any characterization whatsoever (they would however become the basis for characters like Geoffery St John & the Substitute Freedom Fighters in the Archie Comics).
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The Two Shorts episodes in Season 2, though the result of Executive Meddling, had potential due to their Slice of Life format and allowing the Freedom Fighters some casual limelight and personality focus when not dealing with Robotnik, even if they were slapstick. Unfortunately they are pretty much all devoted to arbitrary Too Dumb to Live antics by Antoine, with every other character Demoted to Extra.
  • Some fans, while liking the show for having its own distinctive direction from the games, believe it was divergent to a fault, sometimes applying plots and concepts near identical to the games but discarding a perfectly set up adaptation for a blander Suspiciously Similar Substitute. "Sonic Racer" has Sonic race a Super-Speed robot by Robotnik that isn't Silver Sonic, "Harmonic Sonic" has Sonic sabotaging Robotnik's Star Wars-esque space station that isn't the Death Egg, "Blast to the Past" has a mysterious floating island that possesses time stones....that are of no relation to Knuckles' Angel Island or Little Planet's time stones. It's further punctuated by the fact that the Archie comics at the time utilised proper adaptations of most of these game concepts within the SatAM universe, demonstrating how easily the ideas could have worked within the same interpretation.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Sonic, while much more sympathetic against Robotnik, often teases or undermines his friends (even Antoine sometimes fails to be provocative enough), man handles (and has supposedly damaged) NICOLE out of irritation, and frequently almost gets the rest of the team killed in an arrogant stunt. Add to that his inability to stop talking about how awesome he is for all of a minute, and Sonic's characterization leans towards a Jerk Jock.
• The Woobie: Most characters had their moments of this. Sonic and Sally sure did, but Bunnie is the biggest contender by a long shot.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: How some respond to this show. Cute animal soldiers fighting a war to de-throne a depraved genius who is responsible for genocide of Apocalyptic proportions.

---