The redesign for the controversial Sonic the Hedgehog movie design has undoubtedly gone over well, but the quality of the film itself is still up in the air until its release. It’ll undoubtedly have some stiff competition on its race to the franchise’s bottom, however. For as prolific and iconic as the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise is, it’s had a litany of stinkers both in and outside of gaming.

Chief among those is the 1999 animated series Sonic Underground. Completely removed from any other continuity of Sonic media, including the two DiC produced animated shows before it, this series is possibly the best signal of the end of Sonic’s popularity in the 90s. Here’s a look back on this not very fondly remembered series, and what exactly made it so bad.

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What’s It About?

The plot bore the slightest resemblance to previous and current Sonic stories, with Sonic facing off against the mechanical machinations of Dr. Robotnik. Beyond that, however, the series is almost completely original, featuring a bizarre, poorly written attempt at epic fantasy. Sonic is apparently the son of Queen Aleena the Hedgehog, who was forced by way of an esoteric prophecy to abandon Sonic and his siblings, Sonia and Manic. This happened during the rise of Robotnik, whose subsequent deal with the aristocrats of Mobotropolis allowed them to continue to live high on the (hedge)hog, while normal citizens were roboticized into slaves. From there, Robotnik would conquer Mobotropolis and rename it Robotropolis. The prophecy says that one day, Aleena will reunite with her children to overthrow their new dictator, but for now, she remains in hiding.

The hedgehog triplets go on a mad dash to find their mother, armed with abilities and weapons that help them along the way. Sonic has a guitar, Sonia has a keyboard, and Manic has a drumset, all of which can both transform into laser weapons to use against Robotnik, as well as be used as normal instruments for the siblings’ rock band, the titular Sonic Underground. Sonic also has his trademark super-speed, while Sonia has super strength.

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What Went Wrong?

As displayed in the basic premise, the show’s bizarre prophecy-based storyline is pretty poorly written, as it confuses being complicated for being complex/deep. There’s no real rhyme or reason given for why this prophecy made Aleena go into hiding, or how her hiding somehow saves the world that’s being roboticized anyways. Whatever level of depth that this premise blindly attempts to grasp at is immediately undercut by the outlandish secondary premise of the three hedgehogs having a rock band, let alone the fact that they use their weapons for the instruments. Tonally, the previous series featured darker, more epic plot elements much better, while the first Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog series was much better in its use of zany, wacky elements.

On top of that, besides Robotnik, an occasionally appearing Knuckles the Echidna, and Sonic himself, pretty much everything else is completely removed from the Sonic the Hedgehog mythology. Notably missing are Tails and Amy Rose, Sonic’s sidekick and his usual love interest. Also gone are the Freedom Fighters, namely Princess Sally Acorn, who appeared both in the concurrent Archie comic books, as well as the previous DiC series, Sonic the Hedgehog (referred to as SatAM Sonic by fans). To top it all off, the animations and designs were very wonky, to say the least.  Particular offenders in this regard are the lame redesigns of the SWAtbots from the comics and previous animated series, as well as Robotnik, who looked goofier than ever, despite having received the much cooler Sonic Adventure redesign in the games by that point. The animation disasters also abound, with one episode featuring a scene where, after Sonic saves Knuckles from falling off a cliff, he’s suddenly twice the size of the echidna.

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Facing the Music

For a series based around music, the show doesn’t particularly excel at it. The admittedly epic theme song does a much better job of illustrating the story’s supposed epic nature than any other element of the show, but it’s all downhill from there. The episodes typically have lame songs toward the end performed by the hedgehog band, with their performances interwoven with the equally as underwhelming action. This is all in contrast to the previous and succeeding Sonic cartoons. Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog used remixed music from the games, while Sonic SatAM also had good music throughout. Conversely, Sonic X’s theme song gave the franchise one of its most memorable lines, whereas all Sonic Underground has served as is a punchline. The voice acting is equally grating. Jaleel White not only voices Sonic again but also both of his siblings. Sonic and Manic sound fine (aside from Sonic’s occasional Southern drawl), but Sonia literally sounds like White’s more famous performance as Steve Urkel!

There are apparently fans who wish to see the series, or at least its basic premise, revived in some capacity. This could, however, simply stem from unfounded nostalgia, as well as the show’s cliffhanger, unresolved ending. For making as much ado about the prophecy, the show certainly doesn’t put forth much narrative effort to fulfill it. There’s also a notable lack of any real impact on the overall franchise from the show, with Sonia and Manic never appearing again. This may be due to rights issues, but fans certainly haven’t lamented their absence like they have the Freedom Fighters. In the end, the hedgehogs’ mother never was found, and with the Sonic franchise now trying to return to its glory days, perhaps this show should remain lost as well.

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