Sonic Christmas Blast: The Hedgehog's Holiday Adventure

During the 1990s, Sonic the Hedgehog was the star of no less than three animated series from DIC, each of which had their own positive aspects that have made them fan favorites over the years. In 1996, Sonic even went where many other characters have gone before and since: to become the star of his very own Christmas special. Airing on the USA network, Sonic Christmas Blast can best be described as a mixture of Sonic's first two animated series (Sonic Underground would not premiere for another three years), though it owed more to the goofy Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog than the more serious Sonic SatAM. What was the hedgehog's holiday special like? That is what I shall reveal to you today.

The story takes place on the planet Mobius, where on Christmas Eve, the citizens are in for a huge shock when Santa Claus announces his retirement, and Robotnik is named as his successor. Instead of bringing presents to all of the good little children, he demands that they should bring him presents. What the Mobians do not know is that the Santa who makes the announcement is a fake, and the real Santa has been kidnapped. All they know is that this could be the worst Christmas ever. Luckily, there is a beacon of hope for these people, and it comes in the form of Sonic, the world's fastest hedgehog.

Sonic has plenty of reasons to save Christmas, including the need to give lots of presents to his girlfriend, Princess Sally. A prominent character in Sonic SatAM, Sally made her only animated appearance outside that series in this special with two notable differences. First, instead of being brown with red hair, she has pink fur and black hair, like she did in the SatAM pilot Heads or Tails and the early issues of the Archie Sonic comic. This was despite the fact that by this time, the brown fur version of Sally was being used everywhere else. Second, Sally does not have a single line of dialog in the few scenes that she appears in, as if DIC could not get Kath Soucie to reprise her role, nor could they find a reasonable sound alike to take her place. Nevertheless, it is interesting to see Sally in a different Mobian universe than she was in the SatAM series.

Aiding Sonic in his quest is his trusty two-tailed companion Tails, and the two of them deal with Robotnik's minions, including Scratch and Grounder, who are as dumb and useless as they were in Adventures; and some Swatbots, who despite being named after the soldier robots seen in SatAM looked completely different from them. Eventually, Santa is rescued, but with the presents in Robotnik's possession, all hope for a merry Christmas for the Mobians seems lost. Fortunately, Sonic happens to have a ring-a gift from Sally-that enables him to take on a series of tests that would determine whether he would become even faster than normal. By doing this, Sonic manages to retrieve the presents, deliver them to all the children of the planet, and foil Robotnik's scheme once again.

Sonic Christmas Blast is often considered to be the series finale of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, though the latter ended its 65 episode run three years earlier. It retained the show's rather silly aspects, with sight gags and silly quotes. It included a holiday remix of the show's theme song, along with recycled animation from its opening. It even brought back most of the original voice actors: Jaleel White as Sonic, Phil Hayes as Scratch, Gary Chalk as Grounder, and Long John Baldry as Robotnik. Christopher Welch did not reprise his role as Tails on account of his voice changing at that point; instead, Chris Turner took his place. One interesting bit of trivia: the special's original name was An X-Tremely Sonic Christmas, which would tie it in to Sonic X-Treme for the Sega Saturn. When that game's release was pushed back, only for the game to ultimately be canceled, the name was changed to tie in with Sonic 3D Blast, which managed to be released in time for the 1996 holiday season.

So how is the special? As far as Christmas specials go, it is surprisingly pretty good. It does not try to be too hip, nor does it try to forget the true meaning of the holiday season, both of which are flaws that I have seen in many holiday specials in recent years. While Robotnik fails to learn the error of his evil ways in the end, it does not feel all that bad since he is an established villain who would try to take down Sonic many more times in the years to come. The humor and sentimentality is sincere, and the animation is a huge improvement over that of Adventures. While not quite reaching the caliber of Rudolph, Frosty, and other Christmas classics, it is still a fairly solid special in its own right.

Sonic Christmas Blast has been released on DVD, so that those who want to see Sonic's first and only Christmas special have a chance to do so. It is an improvement over many of the holiday specials that I have seen in the past decade-the new ones, not the classics, mind you. We certainly need more Christmas specials like this, and less specials like It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie, which leave a bad taste in my mouth on account of being less than merry. Catch this special at least once if you can, as it is better than it has any right to be, and it is proof that Sonic could do almost no wrong in the 1990s.