Sonic Boom TV Series Initial Impressions

This past Saturday saw the premier of the Sonic Boom TV series on Cartoon Network which, aside from the Wii U title, is arguably the largest piece of the Sonic Boom branding. Does it live up the hype they've been pushing on us since February?  I'm here to share my perspective as a long time Sonic fan as well as some much younger fans, my children.

The first half of the show, titled "The Sidekick," begins with the preview footage we saw earlier in the year where Sonic faces Eggman's misnamed creation, Burn Bot. Now we get to carry on after Tails crashed his plane. After Sonic recovers Tails, burned and injured, from the crash he vows to never put Tails in that kind of danger ever again. So what does he do to live up to his promise? He "fires" Tails as his sidekick and then devises a competition to find a new sidekick. It's a goofy premise meant to showcase the lighthearted comedy of the show, but in my opinion was not a good episode to premier with. It's safe to say that anyone getting up this early to watch knows who Sonic the Hedgehog is, but what of the younger folks out there who don't? I think an introductory episode that shows who these characters are and why they're suddenly living together would have made for a much better premier.

The second part or episode titled "Can an Evil Genuis crash on your couch for a few weeks?" is where the show really shined. Eggman shows up one night in the pouring rain begging to crash with Sonic and Tails for a while until his evil island fortress can be rebuilt. For some reason Sonic agrees and from there Eggman's inner child beneath his evil genius exterior runs a muck. He steals the show at this point and quickly became on of my favorite characters in this universe.

We also see the introduction of Sticks the jungle badger. I think there is already a stigma that her personality would be overbearing and annoying due to the way she was described in her sneak peak trailers from earlier in the year, but she's actually quite charming. She's a tad crazy and paranoid but within reason to the situation. Never is she just bouncing off the walls spouting nonsense like the initial worries I've heard of her.

I really like Sticks, though I still have no idea where she came from.

I think Sticks is a great new character that fits in well with the rest of the cast, but once again some back story would be nice as all I've played is the Sonic Boom 3DS demo, so I really don't know how she came to be with the Sonic crew.

Other than the lack of backstory thus far, the show is really well done and I enjoyed watching it. The voice acting might be the best the Sonic series has ever had and the animation itself is very fluid and expressive. I really dig everyone's personalities, particularly Eggman's. For the most part everyone else fits the roles you would expect, however Amy has been given depth beyond "marry me Sonic" which is tremendously refreshing for the character and sends a much better message to any youngsters out there that would potentially seek her as a role model.

Speaking of youngsters, my kids absolutely loved the show. Of course they already know who Sonic is and have played the games themselves but they seemed to really enjoy seeing Eggman acting childishly, a far cry from his portrayal in other animations. After attending a family lunch on Sunday I learned that their cousins had fallen in love with the show as well. So despite what I may think as an older fan, the show has at least hit the sweet spot with the target audience.

Bottom line, I feel comfortable recommending the show to any age Sonic fan or not. The colorful designs and animation are a pleasure to take in. The humor and writing in general is engaging without having to rely on fart jokes, being obnoxiously loud, or other "I'm trying desperately hard to be the new Ren and Stimpy" moments that other cartoons go for these days. The icing on the cake is that watching Sonic usually makes my kids want to go outside and run around which is always a much better way to start the weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing more with them.

Thanks for reading!