Sonic Underground
Volume 1
Starring Jaleel White
Shout Factory
Available Dec. 18, 2007

Sonic Hedgehog is an extracellular protein that transmits signals by binding to a receptor on the surface of a cell causing deformation in the segmentation pattern of fruit fly embryos — essentially creating spiny denticles.

Oh but wait, I’ve got this all wrong…

Sonic The Hedgehog, conceived as part of a contest to come up with a new mascot for Sega way way way back in the early 1990s, is now so famous that some insanely geeky scientist named a freaky wierd-ass gene mutation after him — Sonic Hedgehog.

Sonic was one of my heroes and the game is my most slotted Sega Mega-Drive cartridge. Since then Sonic has transfered to almost every console and video game, and recently was released on the all powerful Nintendo Wii in its first Solo game in AGES.

Sonic and his many iterations kept me and the crew busy on a nightly basis for an embarrassing number of years. We found all the rings, we got all the bonus rounds, we got all the gems, we outwitted that darstardly Robotnik and we released all those annoying little furry creatures, we found the cheat codes so we could choose any level we wanted rather than play through every damn one every time and we all got sore thumbs and a severe lack of exercise — except one of my friends who would insist on standing in front of the TV and contorting her whole body in an effort to make Sonic move faster (oh where was the Wii then!!!)

BUT WAIT!!!! I still have this wrong — Sonic is just such a busy and popular little Hedgehog that I have no idea how to compartmentalize his realm. Games, more games, books, comics, new friends, slot machines, sports sponsorship, more new friends, some more games, all manner of promotional material, and of course… CARTOONS.

Cartoons being the real reason I am here on this geeky work day.

Enter Sonic Underground, the 1998-1999 cartoon series that aired on ABC’s Prime Time Saturday Mornings and was largely missed by the masses.

Of the five or so different iterations of Sonic as an animated creature, one of the strangest is Sonic Underground. Weirdly, only the first 20 episodes are included in the DVD release, either because they are concerned that nobody wants the other 20, or they are concerned that demand will be so huge that they can keep us all on tenderhooks waiting for the second volume, or that nobody wants all 40? But I digress.

First created as Sonic Le Rebelle, in France no less (go figure!), the general story and characters of Sonic Underground skew wildly from the original incarnation — much to the majority of true Sonic fanss complete irritation. Sonic Underground features Sonic as the brother of Sonia and Manic, children of Queen Aleena who, are told by what can only be described as a cross between a toad and the Emperor of the Dark side, that she was forced to separate them all in a “pseudo Secret Skywalker Scenario.”

Sonic Underground‘s premise is that with the aid of certain medallions, each of the kids has the ability — when performing in their band — to command all manner of forces and lazers. Their goal? To utterly thwart The Evil Dr. Robotnik and his crew of miscriants and robots who are bent on the merciless overthrow of the slightly European and almost totally lovely Planet Mobius. Although from Episode 1 on they are consumed with rage at the little blue fireball’s constant ability to outsmart them.

Every cartoon in the series features a key song based on some obvious moral dilemma, teamwork and togetherness being the main theme. I know, it is vomitous to your average Brooklyn geek. I personally found it a little painful that Sonic is voiced by Jaleel White (URKEL – respect). For me it is very difficult not to see Urkel when I hear Sonic talk, not knowing Urkel at this point would be a definite advantage. Apparently, I am in the minority though as White voices Sonic’s siblings and provides the voices for two of the other cartoons based on Sonic.

Fans of Sonic the Hedgehog who have never seen this series would probably do well to… well, give it a miss or go in with a very broad and open mind. Think “CHILDREN.”

I am a fan of cartoons. G-Force, Astro-Boy, StarBlazers, these old cartoons had grit and drama and even now seem adult compared to cartoons of this nature. Sonic Underground was clearly aimed at a cleaner audience.

OK, so hear it is, Sonic Underground to me represents almost all that I cannot stand about television. Take a hero, a cultural icon if you will, give him a silly voice, some silly sidekicks, a sillier nemesis with the silliest servants, and top it off by making him sing silly songs and have a catchphrase like “Cooler than cool” or whatever the hell it was. Ugh.

Props to the myriad of production artists and illustrators and so on, I mean, I am always wary of the work involved in projects like this, some of the mattes (backgrounds) are straight out of the darkest Manga, I swear.

This 3-disc DVD’s special features — the word “special” in this case standing on for “nominal” — include what seems like a PowerPoint presentation of a bunch of sketches from the storyboards and initial blueprints that titilate the artist only just ever so slightly. This set also contains a fourth bonus CD featuring 8 songs of the more “classic” performances of the trio.

Whilst only slightly vomitous, this premise spawned 40 episodes, each with a pertinent song and all with great animation.

DVD Episode Listing

Disc 1

1 Beginnings (Origins, Pt. 1)
2 Getting To Know You (Origins, Pt. 2)
3 Harmony Or Something (Origins, Pt. 3)
4 To Catch A Queen
5 Mobodoon
6 The Price Of Freedom
7 Underground Masquerade
8 Tangled Webs

Disc 2

1 The Deepest Fear
2 Who Do You Think You Are?
3 Last Resort
4 Come Out Wherever You Are
5 Winner Fakes All
6 A Hedgehog’s Home Is Her Castle
7 Artifact
8 Bug!
9 BONUS – Music Videos

Disc 3

1 Sonic Tonic
2 Friend Or Foe?
3 Head Games
4 When In Rome …
5 BONUS – Developing The Underground
6 BONUS – Songs From The Underground
7 BONUS – Storyboard-To-Screen: The Opening Titles
8 BONUS – Original Concept Art
9 BONUS – Music Videos

Sonic Underground’s Greatest Hits (CD)

1 Sonic Underground Main Title
2 Let’s Do It To It (from “A Hedgehog’s Home Is Her Castle”)
3 I Wish I Could Go Faster (from “Sonic Tonic”)
4 Where There’s A Will, There’s A Way (from “When In Rome”¦”)
5 Mummy Wrap (from “Mummy Dearest”)
6 The Mobius Stomp (from “New Echidna In Town”)
7 We’re The Sonic Underground (from “Healer”)
8 Lady Liberty (from “The Pendant”)