Such a frustrating disappointment

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Let's get it straight that this as the best TV show based on a video game ever made. Although that is not saying much at all. Despite what may seem like a very great comment, let's look at it and see if the show really is any good or not. The intro theme song is a song that sticks in your head even if you don't want it to. It is one of the most catchy theme songs that might have ever been put into a English cartoon. And possibly the second best I have ever heard. Behind the amazing 'I Am The One' from Digimon Frontier. The story is actually possibly one of the darkest that has ever been put onto a kids show. It was actually voted as the second most violent, darkest and serious kids show of all time by several critics. It follows Sonic and a few friends that he has gathered up to defeat Robotnik who had taken over all of their homeland and covered it into a metal wasteland. With only pockets of forest left. That could all be destroyed with Robotnik's progressive advancement with his machines that he has been getting by getting more power on the world. One of the amazing things about this show is that there is no one central character. Yes, we have Sonic, the title character. Who is technically the main character. But there is also Sally, Antoine, Rotor, Bunnie Rabbot. Heck even Robotnik's nephew, Snivley you could argue is a major character. Which is not a surprise, as he is the second cast member credited.All of them, Antoine being the exception, are actually very well developed in even more so in a time when shows like these were expected to just be turn your mind off entertainment. Nothing was expecting it to be the Star Wars of kids shows. Which if there ever was one, it is this show. The effects, while arguably dated now, were superb back in 1993, when this show first came out. And while the characters might not look the best anymore, the lands and world building the show had is outstanding. There is in reality so much good from this show that is is hard to tell what is bad about it. In fact, it is even harder to actually tell what is good about it in depth. From the moment the theme song ended in the first episode to the red glowing eyes in the last episode, you are sucked into this world. You want to see Sonic and his team win, but over time you start to see that you might actually want Robotnik, or at least his nephew, to make it out alive. The voice acting. Don't even get me started on that. If I wanted to, I could make the entire review just about the outstanding performances given in not only every character, but every single line. When I sat down to watch this 26 episode masterpiece, I saw it all in one sitting. When I was done, I felt like I was on the couch for twenty minutes. That is how much it pulls you into the world. This show was so much better than we were expecting it to be. This show was so much better than it needed to be. Than it should have been.While Birth of a Nation may have been the birth of filmmaking on its own level, this was the birth of kids shows in their own levels to. This was the show that showed people that kids shows can be intelligent, can be deep and developed and have story telling as good if not better than adult shows these days. Avatar and all those amazing shows that people talk about cannot have been made or even considered without this show. Not only was this one of the best kids shows ever made, this show is possibly one of the best shows to come out of the nineties. This was back in the days when Sonic was considered to be one of the best franchises ever made. This was in the decade of time when Sonic was almost unstoppable. If only we knew that every Sonic show following would only get worse and worse. But don't worry about that. We have this show and as long as that is around, we are fine. This show gets full grade. 10/10. There is so much great in this show that everything bad is minor by comparison. The worst scene of this is still a thousand times better than the best scene of most cartoons these days. Until shows like Digimon Tamers, Frontier, and Avatar this was the best kids show ever made. Hands down, not even with a close range. Arguably better than the other three I listed, this show is a true gem of television. Worth checking out even if you are not a Sonic fan. Because you are watching a birth of a art.

"Sonic the Hedgehog" (or "Sonic SatAM" as it was nick-named due to it airing on Saturday mornings) was the second animated series based on Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog video games. And like the previous Sonic show this one was also produced by DIC Entertainment, and also featured Jaleel White (Steve Urkel from "Family Matters") as the voice of Sonic. But unlike that show, this one had an actual continuing story, an actually menacing version of Dr. Robotnik, and was also more serious, darker, and dramatic. But this type of show suits Sonic much better if you ask me. This show follows the same story of the video game series, but there are new Freedom Fighters like Princess Sally Acorn, Antoine Depardieu, Bunnie Rabbot, Rotor, and starting in season 2: Dulcy. Also there is now a king of Mobius (voiced by Tim Curry), Sonic now has a super-smart, robotic genius uncle, Dr. Robotnik has a nephew named Snively, and in this show Robotnik has already taken over Mobius, so it's kind of a sequel to the games.This show was just great. It leaves the first Sonic toon (Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog) in the dust. SatAM had stories that were very well written, and very interesting. The writers on this show obviously put a lot of effort and work into this show. There were the exciting action-filled scenes, the sad scenes, and the funny scenes. Also this show had an excellent voice cast. With Jaleel White ("Family Matters") as Sonic, Kath Soucie ("Rugrats"; "Dexter's Laboratory") as Sally, Jim Cummings ("The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh"; "Goof Troop"; "Darkwing Duck"; "The Lion King"; "Aladdin"; "The Powerpuff Girls") as Dr. Robotnik, Charlie Adler ("Rocko's Modern Life"; "Tiny Toon Adventures"; "Cow and Chicken"; "Aaahh!!! Real Monsters"; "The Smurfs"; "Beavis and Butt-Head") as Snively, Rob Paulsen ("Animaniacs"; "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles"; "The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius"; "Goof Troop"; "The Tick"; "Pinky and the Brain"; "The Fairly OddParents") as Antoine, Christine Cavanaugh ("Rugrats"; "The Critic"; "Babe"; "Dexter's Laboratory"; "Darkwing Duck"; "Aaahh!!! Real Monsters") as Bunnie, and Cree Summer ("Inspector Gadget"; "Tiny Toon Adventures"; "Rugrats"; "Drawn Together") as Dulcy. These very talented voice actors and voice actresses brought a lot of life into the characters.Sadly this show was canceled on a cliff-hanger. The final episode of season 2 wasn't supposed to be the ending. They left it on a cliff-hanger to get people excited over season 3. But when the new ABC president came in 1994 he said he didn't like the show, and thought it wasn't good competition for Fox's "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers". So he canceled it. And we never got to see Tails as a full-fledged Freedom Fighter, what Snively would do when he was in control, who those red, sinister pair of eyes belonged to (writer Ben Hurst said they were Naugus's eyes), what happened to Robotnik (Hurst said he got sucked into The Void), or see the citizens of Mobotropolis turn back into animals, and the planet Mobius return to it's former beautiful and peaceful state.Well Sonic SatAM is just a fantastic show. It had great characters, superb voice acting, and excellent writing. Too bad the plots were never resolved. Still, it's easily the best animated video game adaptation to date, and honestly, one of the only good ones.Rating: 9/10 "Excellent"

Arguably one of the most well written Sonic TV shows ever aired.It's a little darker that any other sonic TV show. The Sonic TV franchise had taken a bad rap with it's first ever TV series "The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog". Produced in 1993, the show was aimed for preschoolers and, more that anything, tried to educate kids.The executives wanted something different with the newer series (dubbed by fans "SatAM Sonic"), and the writers set it in a darker world that is already taken over by Robotnik. There are new characters as well, most memorable of them are Sally, Bunnie, and Snively, all living with scars from the aftermath of Robotnik's rise to power.Judging from only the first season, it's easy to see why this was on ABC's "B" list of cartoons. Despite it's "A" list voice actors the series had many old habits from the "Adventures of" series. The animation is second rate and the plots to each episode became repetitive. Towards the end of the first season it almost went back to the "Adventures of" series, having Tails caring for baby, prehistoric, elephant-shaped dinosaurs.The second season Sonic was again restructured. The animation is improved upon and series finally takes a turn for the darker side of the characters the plot calls for. Robotnik becomes a villain comparable to Darth Vader, while Sonic and Sally dig into the history of Sally's father for clues and weapons to destroy Robotnik. And Tails was starting to mature and train for missions. There are cut-throats and traitors on both sides, and in the end one of them attempts to takes over Mobus from Robotnik.But, sadly, the series was scratched off from ABC's programming. New executives came in and wiped clean most of the older TV shows that were on ABC's "B" list. Sonic wouldn't be evaluated for TV again until 1999, and this time as a musical "Sonic Underground" that strays completely from the ideas and characters established in the "SatAM" series.

The thing I love about this show is that it's a Saturday morning cartoon with cute cartoon animals that's based on a popular video game, but it still has great character development and a dark, gritty setting. The cartoon breaks away from the game in many ways, and mostly for the better. Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic 2 were excellent games, but they did not provide much background for a good story, and the writers of this show were right to use creative license. Pretty much the only similarities are the presence of Sonic and Tails and a bad guy named Robotnik.Unlike the bright, cartoony settings in game, the show features a cyberpunk city ruled by the despotic Dr. Robotnik. This Robotnik bears little resemblance with his goofy video game counterpart. He is truly vile, turning cute cartoon animals into mindless robots, and he is also one of the more powerful cartoon villains. While many bad guys come up with some crazy plan every episode just to get beaten down by the heroes, Robotnik has a firm hold of the world he has conquered and he does his part to keep the good guys in their place. The good guys in this show, led by Sonic and Princess Sally, have a difficult time fighting him, and not every victory of theirs is a complete one. Another thing I love about the show is that most the good guys don't come off as stock characters, but as a group kids who had all experienced some great loss in their lives because of Robotnik's actions. Sonic's character is in line with his can-do attitude in the games, but he also has his own suppressed issues. This cartoon isn't afraid to occasionally show him crying like a baby because of his uncle's roboticization. An original character in the show, Princess Sally, is very balanced and well-developed. She is intelligent and assertive without being unpleasant, kind without being sugarcoated, strong without being an unrealistically powerful fighter, and a good, but not invincible, leader. Her romance with Sonic is well done and credible. It's never cloying or ham-handed, and it is fun to watch them bicker and poke fun at each other like a married couple. It is a truly well-developed romance, and Saturday morning cartoons aren't exactly know for that. Bunnie Rabbot is also a good character. She is very friendly and good-natured, but in one episode it shows briefly that she struggles with her partial roboticization. Considering the strong female characters in this show, it's sad that most children's programming nowadays seems to encourage girls to be annoying, materialistic valley girls. Tails is good as an eager child who idolizes Sonic. The animation is above average for a show of this type. Backgrounds are detailed, characters move convincingly, and faces are expressive. Voicework is good as well. Sonic may be voiced by the infamously annoying Steve Urkell, but Jaleel White does fit well, and he even does a decent sad voice. Robotnik is voiced with smooth malevolence by veteran voice actor Jim Cummings.Sonic the Hedgehog, despite being a video game adaptation, is original and is one of greatest Saturday Morning cartoons out there. My childhood memories of this show are quite vague and most of my experience of it comes from the past year, so it's not like some cartoons I like more because of nostalgia than any merit of the shows themselves. Still Sonic "SatAM", despite being light years ahead of other cartoons, has its flaws. Jaleel White's voice is mostly appropriate, but sometimes annoying (like when Sonic does his announcer voice). He also talks in annoying early-90's slang. I suppose having him say words like "mondo" was to make an otherwise dark and serious show appealing to kids. At times it has the strained environmental posturing, but only in isolated bits of dialogue. The 90's are my favorite era for cartoons, but this problem plagued them. At least there was no contrived episode where Sonic where Sonic learned the value teamwork. There are some minor plot holes, but that doesn't detract from the show.Unfortunately, this show is reviled among more puritanical fans of the games themselves. It is still a great show nonetheless,and most of the people who hate it are anime freaks and gamer dorks anyway. Even if you're not a fan of the Sonic games, you should check this show out; it really is a quality cartoon. Don't be discouraged by the fact that it was based on a video game; it's probably the only good game adaptation out there. It might have been a good thing, though, that this show got cancelled when it did, since I don't particularly like the ideas they had for the third season, but the cancellation is still one of the greatest examples of television injustice. SatAM was a superior cartoon that did not have the ratings enjoyed by inferior shows; it was a sort of like a Saturday Morning "Arrested Development" to the Power Rangers' "Friends."