Review: Sonic Boom Cartoon Premiere

Sonic has returned to television. The premiere of the show has come and gone and, as promised, here’s a review of it.

First off, let me begin by saying that it seems that it took the premiere of the show for Cartoon Network to acknowledge it on television. There was a commercial for Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, bumpers specifically made for Sonic Boom, and there was a promo for the show after the premiere concluded. Now for the actual content. Do note that I will not be spoiling anything out of respect for those who haven’t seen it yet.

Episode 1 – The Sidekick

The first thing that showed up was a brief animation of all the main characters then the title card. It lasted a total of, I’d say, twenty seconds. Not much of a theme at all and it ends halfway through or so and there were Buzzbombers that got destroyed and hoverboards ridden. Quite underwhelming but that, shockingly, was the lowest point of the show to me in my opinion and I can look past that. Right away it gets right into the action and it may look familiar to some people. This episode, as it turns out, contained the preview we got to see earlier this year at E3.

The writing isn’t that bad at all. There was no bathroom humour, nothing offensive, nothing that felt immature. Some of the jokes were random but not all of them. What surprised me was how they had a nice moment with Sonic and Tails halfway through. And they gave a couple of nods to the main series. Sonic still can’t swim either.

Episode 2 – Can an Evil Genius Crash on Your Couch For a Few Weeks

Episode 1 set the scene. Episode 2 got the ball rolling. And did it ever. The writing and humour were even better. The random jokes were toned down and Eggman shined a lot in this episode. They really brought out his childish side and it worked. This episode contained portions seen in the Sonic Boom event trailer so, once again, some moments were familiar. Sticks also made her debut in this episode and, surprisingly, she had a very minor role in the episode.

Overall

The animation is superb. Very detailed, smooth, and everyone is quite expressive. So expressive that it got comical on its own at times.

The humor was better than I expected. I didn’t expect the jokes to have context, punch lines, and quite possibly the best voice acting I’ve heard in a Sonic cartoon in a long time really helped put emphasis on that. In fact Amy has received probably the best voice she’s ever had. Eggman is as awesome as ever, Sonic and Tails sound more natural the more I hear him. Even Sticks’ voice wasn’t that bad. I’m impressed!

As for the character personalities they stick out enormously. Sonic is the cocky guy that cares for Tails and his friends but will be honest and blunt when he feels he needs to. Tails is the guy determined to complete his mission and will prove that he’s capable to handle the job. Knuckles is…Knuckles. Amy’s complicated. She’s a goofball but not an idiot or oblivious. She’s the problem solver, the mediator. The one who will look at both sides of the situation and be as understanding as possible. When there’s a mission she tries to keep the team optimistic as much as she can. Basically Amy’s goofy when she wants to and understanding when she needs to. Both worlds.  Eggman’s an evil genius with a childish side, has an ego, and will find any opportunity he can to destroy Sonic and his friends. Even if it means him getting into otherwise awkward situations to do so. He finds Orbot and Cubot to be useless robots Orbot and Cubot didn’t get a lot of dialogue but from what it seemed they’re loyal to Eggman and try to earn his respect as much as possible despite his terrible treatment in return.  As for Sticks she’s paranoid and hyper at times but she’s not gullible. In fact she’s the first that sees through Eggman’s lies.

Every character is unique, shines, and they only get involved when the plot calls for them. Sticks only showed up more when she was a necessity. Tails was the focus of episode one because of the role he played in the plot. It was all about replacing him as Sonic’s sidekick. No one stole the focus when they didn’t need to. There was no filler either. The plot of each episode took up both in their entirely.

In closing, I love this show. A worthy successor to Sonic X. What you think of the show, however, is a different story for obvious reasons. At the very least I recommend watching both episodes. I won’t give the episodes a rating as there’s no point and I feel that an explanation helps more than a vague score but I will give some advice: if you do sound off your opinions on the show please respect the opinions of others. Hopefully this review gives you a general idea of what the show is like.

On a side note people were really tuned in. The show trended on Twitter in the US for an hour and a half. It peaked at #1, dropped to #2, then shifted between #4 and #5 for the rest of the period before dropping completely. Here’s the images for proof. Special thanks to MTwinny for them:

This post was originally written by the author for TSSZ News.