vrijdag 27 januari 2017

(Good) Sonic Boom

Series in one sentence:
Every day Sonic and his assholish friends save their ungrateful, easily influenced town from Dr. Eggman's incompetent creations, while trying to have more interesting adventures in the meantime.

Series in more sentences:

Every day Sonic and his friends save their town from Dr. Eggman's creations, while trying to have more interesting adventures in the meantime. Also memes.
 

I think watching only one episode of this will leave you confused and unsure what to think, but after 5 episodes or so, you understand what the show wants to be. I found myself liking its strange sense of humor.
 
When the Sonic Boom series was first announced, and fans became loudly critical of the characters' redesigns and Sonic's new voice, I wrote an article on one of my other blogs where I expressed my interest in the series based on the teaser clip they showed at the time. My opinion hasn't really changed and that's all I hoped for.
The bad/good humor is a sign that the creators had a jolly good time making it, and I find that important. The series tries to be self-aware and includes some internet memes, which are always a hit or miss with people, but in general, it works in this new Sonic universe they set up. And it's definitely more subtle and less
frequent than in the Powerpuff Girls reboot.
 
This is the first Sonic adaption since a long time that doesn't try to take itself seriously, much like the first Sonic series back in the 90s, which I used to watch as well. To me, funny Sonic is canon Sonic; nobody asked for it to become a Final Fantasy clone, which is probably why so many people started to dislike the Sega mascot. There was barely any humor and everything had to be dramatic, creating a mess of a story every time.

Even so, while I like the reimagining of the characters, this show has its flaws. I adore Sonic, Dr. Eggman and Knuckles, but Amy Rose and Sticks tend to be painful. Amy is extremely naggy and Sticks' obsession with spies and conspiracies seldom creates funny dialogue. It doesn't help she has an annoying voice as well and her entire existence is unnecessary. What for did they add this new character, there's enough predesigned characters they could've picked as the 4th teammate. They could've made Shadow Sonic's grumpy neighbour for all I cared.
But t
he characters that work keep this show running and I am grateful for their genius, if not cute, dialogue. The episode about the Sonic fan kidnapping him was a clever stab at the fandom itself. It's the first good episode of the still running 2nd season, I would say.

 
I'm going to keep following this series and hope I can buy the DVDs in my language one day. I think our dub and the original have equally good voices and lines, I like that kind of effort.