Sonic Underground: The Last of DIC's Sonic Cartoons

1999 was an important year for Sega's superstar Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic Adventure launched with the Sega Dreamcast, Sonic's anime videos, retitled Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie, came out in America, and Sonic Underground premiered on television. The latter would be Sonic's last cartoon made by DIC, which had previously made Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog (a.k.a. Sonic SatAM), and it would air in syndication, the Sci-Fi channel, and the now-defunct UPN over the next decade. In this series, Sonic and his siblings, Sonia and Manic, were a rock band who doubled as a trio of freedom fighters out to rid the planet Mobius of the evil Doctor Robotnik and to find their mother, Queen Alena. Ten years after the series premiered, the time has come to tell you more about this rather enjoyable animated series.

Just as Robotnik ceased control of Mobius from King Acorn in Sonic SatAM, here he overthrew Queen Alena, who subsequently sends her infant children to live with other families. The three young hedgehogs would each develop their own traits: Sonic would become fast and go wild over chili dogs, Sonia would become quite athletic, and Manic would turn into a thief, but still remain fairly good. One day, they reunited and discovered that they would have to find their mother and form a council in order to free Mobius from Robotnik's tyranny. So it was that they traveled the entire planet so that their mother could be located and the entire planet could be saved. Queen Alena herself would often help her children out secretly, but would not show herself to them for fear of their safety as well as that of Mobius.

The trio of siblings were not only heroes, but they also formed a rock band, and they would use special medallions to create instruments that would double as powerful weapons. Sonic wielded a guitar that could be used as a powerful gun. Sonia had a keyboard which could also become a gun but also was used to create smoke. Manic's drum set not only had the ability to become a gun like the other instruments, but it could also create earthquakes. In addition to using the instruments as weapons, the hedgehogs could sing, and in fact, each episode would feature a music video of a song that was often related to the episode's plot. All three hedgehogs' speaking voices were provided by Jaleel White, who had previously voiced Sonic in both of his other DIC cartoons.

Robotnik, of course, did not wish for the hedgehogs to locate their mother and fulfill the prophecy, so he would spend each episode trying to capture them. As in Sonic SatAM, he had a machine that would change innocent beings into robotic slaves, and he wanted to have the siblings meet the same terrible fate. Aiding him in his endeavors were Sleet and Dingo, a pair of canine villains whom he would often send to carry out his evil wishes. The former had a device that could change the latter into just about anything. However, like many other assistants of cartoon villains, Sleet and Dingo would often fail in their endeavors. Nevertheless, Robotnik would continue to have them try and keep control of Mobius forever.

One significant aspect of Sonic Underground was that it was the first and only DIC cartoon to feature Knuckles the Echidna. As in the games, he was the protector of Angel Island and the Chaos Emerald which kept it afloat. Initially thinking that Sonic and his siblings were out to steal the emerald, he eventually gained their trust and helped them to stop Robotnik in several episodes. His great-grandfather, Athair, a character from the Archie comic book series, would give him advice and warn him not to join Sonic's team for fear that it would bring disaster to the island. While no other game characters besides Sonic, Robotnik, and Knuckles appeared, there were some appearances by Sonic's Uncle Chuck, from Sonic SatAM, who would become one of the roboticized Mobians.

Although the main storyline of the hedgehogs' quest to find the queen was apparent in each of the forty episodes produced, many of the episodes were self-contained. There was a pair of three-part stories made: one which had the siblings reunite and learning to work together and another where they had to help Knuckles save Angel Island from certain doom. Unfortunately, the series was never given a proper ending: in the final episode, there were hints that Robotnik may have been finally defeated, but the siblings never found their mother nor was the council formed, at least on screen. The series would last a single season and was never renewed, so no one found out whether or not there was a happy ending for the hedgehogs.

To me, Sonic Underground was the least of the Sonic cartoons produced by DIC, but it was still quite an enjoyable series. Seeing the hedgehog in animated action one more time was awesome, with good story lines, excellent action, and some nice humor. The songs were catchy, and seeing Knuckles in animation was an extra special treat. That said, it did not quite exceed Sonic SatAM or even Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog because it lacked the intense drama of the former and the delightful goofiness of the latter. Instead, the drama and humor laid somewhere in the middle. As it is, Sonic Underground is a series worth checking out, and has become available on DVD for Sonic fans everywhere to check out.

Sonic Underground would be the last of Sonic's DIC cartoons, which is a shame as the company made solid cartoons featuring the speedy hedgehog. The series was quite solid, if not quite as good as Sonic's previous animated escapades, and one wishes for more episodes to be made so that the show could be given proper closure. Failing that, there could always be another Sonic cartoon, something other than Sonic X, that would continue the animated adventures of Sega's most popular star. In the meantime, be sure and check out Sonic Underground to see the hedgehog's swan song from DIC. It is a pretty good series that should be seen at least once by Sonic fans young and old alike.