It's Sonic the Hedgehog's birthday, and Dr. Robotnik has the perfect gift for him: a theme park transformed into one, large death trap. Pretty ambitious, but when it comes to his arch nemesis' special day, he's going all out. Will he finally succeed in eliminating the one thing that stands between him and global domination? Seeing as how this is episode 54 out of 65, it's pretty obvious he won't, but let's watch him try and fail anyway. We open on Dr. Robotnik being served breakfast, but instead of it being his usual eggs, Scratch and Grounder each made him something different, resulting on Botsy physically abusing them. He's like a modern day moviegoer, he wants the same thing over and over and hates any form of deviation. Reading the newspaper, he discovers that today is Sonic's birthday, which I guess is a national holiday on Mobius. How is the hedgehog celebrating his day? At a chili dog stand, of course, but it seems the only one who remembered his birthday was Tails. Needless to say, Sonic was pretty bored and wished for a real party. Well, Sonic, be careful what you wish for, because right at that moment, Robotnik was flying into the Mobiusland theme park, encased inside of a giant glass dome, where he hypnotized the blobby guests into Egyptian walking right out the door. He needed the park clear to enact his master plan, for this would no longer be a place of laughter and fun, but a place of doom for a certain blue hedgehog. Anything to liven his spirits I guess, as just when Tails excuses himself to use the bathroom, Scratch saunters up dressed as Chuck E. Cheese and gives Sonic an invitation to Mobiusland, which he deduces was part of Tails' "secret" party plan, so he races off. I have to give props to both Scratch and Grounder as their disguises actually fooled Sonic, and they're more creative than any of his. Once he arrives inside the domed amusement park, it doesn't strike him as odd that it's devoid of other guests, as he preoccupied with his supposed party. That's when Botsy flies overhead in his Egg-o-Matic to unveil his intentions: right away, he seals the front gate and the top of the dome, and reveals Mobiusland is under new management and thus has been renamed Robotnikland, the nastiest place on Earth... er, I mean Mobius. I like that when Sonic jumps at Robotnik, he simply bats him away with a wrench. Too bad his video game counterpart never considered that trick. Sonic attempts to extricate himself, but finds the barred exits impenetrable. Tempered steel, reenforced concrete, Robotnik thought of everything. Deciding to make the best of things, Sonic hits the rides. The first is a life-sized pinball game, and unfortunately not the one that counts to 12. Think Sonic Spinball, but if it were programmed by Robotnik. The two begin playing against each other to achieve the free game, and Sonic gained the lead, so Robotnik decided to unveil his secret weapons, or in this case, "special" weapons, as he sends Scratch and Grounder into the machine. You might as well just admit defeat right there, Botsy. Naturally, they fail, and Robotnik has himself a temper tantrum. Well, what did you expect, you blubbering blimp? Sonic escapes the pinball maze and checks out the Jungle Ride, which is like Disneyland's Jungle Cruise, except if the animals ate the tourists, and no, we don't see the backside of water! A giant robot hippo tosses Sonic off his boat, where he's grappled by a robotic water snake. Scratch and Grounder even show up dressed as natives, and had this episode been made today, they'd be dressed in monkey suits for no reason, because needlessly updating something 60 years old is stupid and wasteful. Back to the show, a robotic elephant tries to attack Grounder and Scratch for some reason, and it leads into a ridiculously stupid moment where they beg Sonic to rescue them, so he puts them in the same trap he magically escaped from, then just leaves.
Meanwhile, Tails and the party guests, which consist of Professor Caninestein, Cleaver Beaver from Babysitter Jitters, and a bunch of other random, generic characters -too bad they didn't get Da Bears, MacHopper, or Captain Rescue to come, but I guess this was the best he could do on such short notice- read the script and deduce that Sonic is in Mobiusland. That's the only way I can assume they knew where he was, as Sonic ran off without telling anyone. Dr. Robotnik sees them coming via a secret underground tunnel and lets them in, then shows video footage of a Sonic doll trapped on a rollercoaster. Man, Botsy can imitate Sonic's voice perfectly. Of course Tails and the others fall for it, even Caninestein who's supposed to be a genius. In order to save him, they all board the coaster, which is taking them directly to an active volcano. I mean, Tails could just fly out of there, but then everyone else would be left to die. How is Sonic going to save them? He simply cuts off the track leading to the molten lava, sending them to the track below, then joins them as the ride reaches its end. Turns out, that wasn't Robotnik's entire plan, as he next unveils where exactly they are: trapped inside of a giant birthday cake, decorated with ten-foot candles made of TNT. Well, looks like Robotnik finally won. Sonic and his friends will be blown to pieces and Mobius will be all his. Well, it would be if the hedgehog didn't know a thing or two about science. Opening the floor grate to the steam pipes below, he reroutes them to the ceiling where the giant Roman candles were sticking through, thus allowing the hot steam to literally blow out the candles: high into the air where they exploded, causing Robotnik and his bots to come crashing to the ground. Defeated and now pursued by Sonic and his angry friends, Botsy, Scratch, and Grounder flee to the exit, which they obviously forgot was locked and for some reason don't have the key. Once Sonic took control of the park, it was time to give the doctor a taste of his own medicine, for you see, Robotnikland was now under NEW new management and dubbed Sonicland. That is until Disney buys it, but anyhoo, Sonic sends Robotnik and his robots on a wild ride through the park via roller coaster cars, doing a loop-the-loop on the ferris wheel, where they go flying into the Jungle Ride and are nearly devoured by the robotic pink hippo. Surprisingly, the robot elephant wasn't pink too. Next, they get bopped and biffed and bumped around the giant pinball game. What follows is a sequence that just boggles the mind. I would say they go through a twisted funhouse, but we didn't previously establish the park had one. They go through a room full of ghosts, then take an elevator down to Hell, then back up to a room filled with more spooks from Dr. Seuss' Halloween is Grinch Night. Next, they open a door with numerous doors, until one swallows them whole. I'm not making any of this up. Watch the episode and see for yourselves. As if things weren't already insane, it's a shadow war where Scratch sees his shadow decapitated, then he jogs down a hallway with falling axes, even spitting out his own heart then swallowing it again. For those who are fans of Golden Age cartoons, especially Max Fleischer, this whole sequence will look strangely familiar, and I'll tell you where it originated at the end. All three soon end up back on the rollercoaster, where fire-spitting bee bots attack them, and finally, the ride ends in a massive crash. Whew! Well, with the baddies out of the way, Sonic can finally have his big surprise party with all of his friends, and here's the best part: Robotnik jumps out of the cake and throws a defeatist temper tantrum. Just what he wished for. Our Sonic Says is about safety in the kitchen: children should never turn on a stove without parental supervision, and this even pertains to robots with the brains of children.
This episode was pretty amusing, if not a bit strange. It's one of two birthday episodes for Sonic, and while his age is never revealed, I'm guessing he's either 15 or 16. The theme park angle was a good idea, and at least it wasn't like Carnival Night Zone in Sonic 3. I don't think Sonic 3 was out when this show was in production, but if you're like me, you're scarred by a certain point in Act 2 that involves a floating column. Now as I said above, the final sequence of Robotnik, Scratch, and Grounder going on that drug hallucination of a funhouse was inspired, even copied verbatim from a 1931 Max Fleischer cartoon called Bimbo's Initiation. In it, Bimbo the dog is sent on a wild, underground ride, going through rooms and having experiences very similar to what we saw here, including the multiple doors, the beheaded shadow, coughing up and swallowing his own heart. It's clear the producers and animators were Fleischer fans, and they also took a risk, as what kid from the '90s is going to be familiar with a cartoon from the '30s? Being a fan of cartoons and movies from that era, I picked up the parody right away. The skeleton on the phone wasn't here, but we saw him in "Spaceman Sonic." And at least Betty Boop as a dog didn't show up asking if they wanted to be a member. You know, a Sonic themed amusement park sounds like a good idea. If Universal Studios has Marioland, why not Sonicland? Super fast rollercoasters, hover copters, even something like Disney's Dumbo Ride, except you're in Robotnik Egg-o-Matics. They could also include Knuckles, Amy Rose, Shadow, and a bunch of other characters that were introduced after my time, and to me, he will always be Dr. Robotnik. I will never call him Eggman! In closing, I recommend "Robotnikland", while it's no masterpiece, the animation and voice acting is not bad, and it's entertaining.
Meanwhile, Tails and the party guests, which consist of Professor Caninestein, Cleaver Beaver from Babysitter Jitters, and a bunch of other random, generic characters -too bad they didn't get Da Bears, MacHopper, or Captain Rescue to come, but I guess this was the best he could do on such short notice- read the script and deduce that Sonic is in Mobiusland. That's the only way I can assume they knew where he was, as Sonic ran off without telling anyone. Dr. Robotnik sees them coming via a secret underground tunnel and lets them in, then shows video footage of a Sonic doll trapped on a rollercoaster. Man, Botsy can imitate Sonic's voice perfectly. Of course Tails and the others fall for it, even Caninestein who's supposed to be a genius. In order to save him, they all board the coaster, which is taking them directly to an active volcano. I mean, Tails could just fly out of there, but then everyone else would be left to die. How is Sonic going to save them? He simply cuts off the track leading to the molten lava, sending them to the track below, then joins them as the ride reaches its end. Turns out, that wasn't Robotnik's entire plan, as he next unveils where exactly they are: trapped inside of a giant birthday cake, decorated with ten-foot candles made of TNT. Well, looks like Robotnik finally won. Sonic and his friends will be blown to pieces and Mobius will be all his. Well, it would be if the hedgehog didn't know a thing or two about science. Opening the floor grate to the steam pipes below, he reroutes them to the ceiling where the giant Roman candles were sticking through, thus allowing the hot steam to literally blow out the candles: high into the air where they exploded, causing Robotnik and his bots to come crashing to the ground. Defeated and now pursued by Sonic and his angry friends, Botsy, Scratch, and Grounder flee to the exit, which they obviously forgot was locked and for some reason don't have the key. Once Sonic took control of the park, it was time to give the doctor a taste of his own medicine, for you see, Robotnikland was now under NEW new management and dubbed Sonicland. That is until Disney buys it, but anyhoo, Sonic sends Robotnik and his robots on a wild ride through the park via roller coaster cars, doing a loop-the-loop on the ferris wheel, where they go flying into the Jungle Ride and are nearly devoured by the robotic pink hippo. Surprisingly, the robot elephant wasn't pink too. Next, they get bopped and biffed and bumped around the giant pinball game. What follows is a sequence that just boggles the mind. I would say they go through a twisted funhouse, but we didn't previously establish the park had one. They go through a room full of ghosts, then take an elevator down to Hell, then back up to a room filled with more spooks from Dr. Seuss' Halloween is Grinch Night. Next, they open a door with numerous doors, until one swallows them whole. I'm not making any of this up. Watch the episode and see for yourselves. As if things weren't already insane, it's a shadow war where Scratch sees his shadow decapitated, then he jogs down a hallway with falling axes, even spitting out his own heart then swallowing it again. For those who are fans of Golden Age cartoons, especially Max Fleischer, this whole sequence will look strangely familiar, and I'll tell you where it originated at the end. All three soon end up back on the rollercoaster, where fire-spitting bee bots attack them, and finally, the ride ends in a massive crash. Whew! Well, with the baddies out of the way, Sonic can finally have his big surprise party with all of his friends, and here's the best part: Robotnik jumps out of the cake and throws a defeatist temper tantrum. Just what he wished for. Our Sonic Says is about safety in the kitchen: children should never turn on a stove without parental supervision, and this even pertains to robots with the brains of children.
This episode was pretty amusing, if not a bit strange. It's one of two birthday episodes for Sonic, and while his age is never revealed, I'm guessing he's either 15 or 16. The theme park angle was a good idea, and at least it wasn't like Carnival Night Zone in Sonic 3. I don't think Sonic 3 was out when this show was in production, but if you're like me, you're scarred by a certain point in Act 2 that involves a floating column. Now as I said above, the final sequence of Robotnik, Scratch, and Grounder going on that drug hallucination of a funhouse was inspired, even copied verbatim from a 1931 Max Fleischer cartoon called Bimbo's Initiation. In it, Bimbo the dog is sent on a wild, underground ride, going through rooms and having experiences very similar to what we saw here, including the multiple doors, the beheaded shadow, coughing up and swallowing his own heart. It's clear the producers and animators were Fleischer fans, and they also took a risk, as what kid from the '90s is going to be familiar with a cartoon from the '30s? Being a fan of cartoons and movies from that era, I picked up the parody right away. The skeleton on the phone wasn't here, but we saw him in "Spaceman Sonic." And at least Betty Boop as a dog didn't show up asking if they wanted to be a member. You know, a Sonic themed amusement park sounds like a good idea. If Universal Studios has Marioland, why not Sonicland? Super fast rollercoasters, hover copters, even something like Disney's Dumbo Ride, except you're in Robotnik Egg-o-Matics. They could also include Knuckles, Amy Rose, Shadow, and a bunch of other characters that were introduced after my time, and to me, he will always be Dr. Robotnik. I will never call him Eggman! In closing, I recommend "Robotnikland", while it's no masterpiece, the animation and voice acting is not bad, and it's entertaining.
