For over 30 years now, Sonic has gone on many adventures in many different art forms. This,
of course, includes the games, comics, even movies now, as well as quite a
few cartoons. With Sonic Prime being the newest addition to the cartoon category,
we thought we'd take a look at Sonic's cartoon history to see how they hold up today.
I'm Kifinosi with WickedBinge, and this is Sonic the Hedgehog cartoons, Worst to Best.
A quick couple rules… First, we’ll be including Sonic The Hedgehog cartoons only… and secondly,
because Sonic Prime only just started, we can only judge it based on season 1.
The shows we’ll be ranking today are Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog (aka Sonic
SatAM), Sonic Underground, Sonic X, Sonic Boom, and Sonic Prime. With that said, let's begin.
As it is with our other videos, we will start at the bottom and work our way up to the top of the
list. Our title for Worst Sonic show is Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. This entry is kind of like
the Thor: Love and Thunder of Sonic shows. It is part of a much bigger franchise that had a pretty
good track record up to that point, and when this show came out, it leaned WAY too hard into the
goofiness. Not to say that it doesn't have its moments, because it definitely does. However,
there aren't enough to save this show. One of the glaring issues is that the bad guys aren't
really that threatening at all. In fact, Sonic actually spends a lot of time making fun of them
throughout the show. One of the more recognizable ways he goes about doing this is through his many
disguises. We are willing to buy that this would work up to a certain point, and that point is:
How do they almost never seem to notice that these bizarre characters are all spiny and
blue? Sonic will even sometimes use his super sonic speed or have his face completely visible
while wearing these disguises, and the bad guys STILL don't catch on. Even in the first episode,
Sonic is sitting with the audience in the front row with all of Robotnik's robots
WITHOUT a costume on as Robotnik himself gives a speech. The craziest thing is,
despite Sonic leaving himself in PLAIN SIGHT, they STILL don't notice right away. In addition
to this comes the infamous moment in the same episode where Sonic tells one of the robots “I'm
over there”, and it actually works! Then there's Robotnik's main minions, Scratch and Grounder.
These two are to Sonic and Tails what Wile E. Coyote is to Road Runner. They are always
trying to catch them in some bizarre trap, but it typically doesn't work. Heck, they sometimes get
caught in their OWN traps. It also doesn't help that Scratch's voice can be a pain to listen to
after a while, which can be a problem given how often these two bots appear. The show in general,
even for a cartoon of the era, can be a bit too cartoony at times to the point where you can't
even try to make sense of what's happening. A prime example of this is when we see Sonic and
Tails napping. Grounder approaches and blows into one of his hands, which somehow inflates like a
balloon. It gets even crazier though, as his hand somehow just magically turns into a PUMPKIN that
he can throw at Sonic, and all of these moments are just from the first episode!! Finally,
we get to the end of each regular episode. They all have a short called “Sonic Says”,
where somebody, usually Sonic, is seen teaching an important lesson to the presumably younger
audience. Some of them make sense, such as not smoking, when you should call 911,
and so on. But then there's some bizarre ones, with a good example being Sonic saying,
“Even YOU can learn something from a sloth”. It's kind of cool that Sonic is teaching good morals,
but it isn't enough to save this show in its entirety. If you have
some nostalgia for it or if you like a lot of goofiness in your cartoons,
you might like this show okay. Otherwise, you can overlook this show and probably not miss much.
We may be going one step UP now, but our next entry takes us underground; Sonic Underground
that is. The premise for this show actually seems kind of promising when you first hear about it.
The idea of Sonic having a brother and a sister is so genius. Even the theme song makes the show
sound epic. The song gives the general plot in the span of a minute. To fulfill a prophecy,
Sonic's mother, who is actually a Queen, must give up her children and reunite with them at a later
date. Throughout their journey, Sonic, Sonia, and Manic go up against Robotnik and his minions,
often combatting them with the power of....music? Yes, you heard right. The trio all get a different
instrument, and each one CAN be used as a weapon. However, they do still take time to just make
music, usually with some sort of lesson attached. While this could work if this was executed well,
the way they decide to do this makes it one of the show's biggest issues. They could have done
something like Sonic Says where they do this at the end of the episode, but they opt to do it in
the middle of that episode. Because of this, even if the song itself was good, it still brings the
pace of the story to a screeching halt. Then there's the minions. While Sleet and Dingo are
not as annoying as Scratch and Grounder, they still can be just as goofy at times, especially
with Dingo. He is kind of like Storm the Albatross or even Knuckles in Sonic Boom, playing up to the
stereotype of being big and tough yet not too bright. Thankfully, his voice is a lot easier
on the ears than Scratch's. What about Robotnik, then? Well...he's definitely better than he is in
Adventures, but not as great as he could be yet. His voice doesn't make him nearly as threatening
as he would like you to think he is. He does have his moments, but we could have used more
than what we got. The show in general also was one of the ones that got canceled before it was truly
finished. There was a planned comic-based epilogue from Ian Flynn that could have been attached to
Sonic Universe #50, but that was unfortunately scrapped. If the story could have been finished,
the ranking might have changed for it. When it comes to what we have, however, Sonic Underground
actually has a few good ideas that just needed to be executed a bit better. At the very least, we
hope we see more of Sonia and Manic in the future. Maybe the movies can somehow bring them in?
Closing out the first half of the Sonic shows is a much more recent series: Sonic Boom. This
entry and all others after this are the ones that are really enjoyable. We are all for the whole
“never judge a book by its cover” thing, but we wouldn't blame you if you still haven't watched
the show yet simply because of the name. For a lot of people, when they think of the name Sonic Boom,
a couple things might come to mind. A few people might think of the rockin' opening song for Sonic
CD, but many others probably associate that name with the infamous game: Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric.
This is especially due to how Rise of Lyric uses the same characters as the show. However,
after the show aired a few episodes, a lot of people were actually surprised by how much they
enjoyed it for what it was. Yeah, the show is very goofy, but it turned out to be a mostly good kind
of goofy. This is also one of those shows that gets even better as it progresses. One of our
personal favorite parts is whenever the show acted self-aware or broke the fourth wall in general. In
fact, here are a couple of the script writer's favorites. The first comes from the episode
“Fiendbot”. Sonic comes into the room with a copy of a game called “Tomatopotamus 2”. The group
gets really excited, with Tails saying it's the best one in the series and how the series never
worked in 3D. Knuckles proceeds to say how game companies are always ruining their franchises,
and Sonic follows it up with a comment about the color of the character's legs. What makes this
so good is that they are reflecting almost exactly how many fans feel about the Sonic
franchise. Some people don't like a lot of Sonic's content after the transition to 3D,
and quite a few people lost their minds when they saw Boom Sonic's arms get changed to a blue color.
The other moment comes from the episode “Give Bees a Chance”. Sonic gets chased by Eggman,
and as Sonic is falling, he is asking Tails if he has him covered; to which Tails responds with
“Roger”. When Knuckles asks who Roger is, Sonic responds with “He's talkin' to me”. After hearing
Sonic say that, you might have noticed that Sonic's voice got deeper for a second. This is
because Sonic's voice actor spoke in their normal voice just for that line, and what is the actor's
name? Roger! On the subject of Knuckles, though, he is actually one of the biggest complaints some
people have with the show. We get it that, sometimes, character's need to be changed in
some ways for one reason or another. Many people could get past how big Knuckles is in the show,
but what they couldn't ignore is how unintelligent Knuckles is. A prime example is in the episode
“Chez Amy”, where Knuckles states that he forgot how to feed himself, proceeding to show that he
thinks he eats by sticking carrots in his ears! And then there's Sticks. Sticks, overall, is still
an enjoyable character, with some of her moments of paranoia providing some good laughs. However,
just like Scratch from earlier, she has a voice that can only be tolerated for so long before it
becomes bothersome at times. This comes especially when she is screaming a lot. In the episode
“Sleeping Giant”, Sticks tries to sing to put the giant back to sleep, which she does a lot of in
this episode. It works for the giant, but anyone else who hears it (including the audience)....oh
boy. Neither of these characters ruin the show by any means, though. They can
still be really funny. Knuckles' surprisingly complex comment about breaking gender roles,
along with the other characters' reactions makes us laugh every time. All in all, Sonic Boom is
a really fun experience that we will definitely come back to watch again, and this is only #4!
We have now reached the latter half, thus the top 3, on our list. Coming in with the bronze medal
is the anime of the franchise: Sonic X. Right off the bat, we gotta give credit to the people behind
this show for turning Sonic into an anime. Anime as a genre is filled to the brim with characters
that have superhuman abilities, so the Sonic characters fit right in with that formula. Not
only this, but the fact that they adapted the stories from the Adventure games into an anime
form was simply a brilliant idea. Even King Boom Boo from Adventure 2 and his ghostly followers
make an appearance before those sagas even happen! This is also another show that hooks us in right
away with an incredibly catchy theme song with “Gotta Go Fast”. Unlike the other shows so far,
where the characters are on Mobius or some other similar location, Sonic X starts by
taking place in our world. This idea has its ups and downs. On the positive side, it gave
us a possible answer of how Sonic characters might interact with the real world long before
the movies did. Through these interactions, we got many memorable moments. Any time Sonic raced Sam
or his team was fun to watch, and the martial arts tournament they held definitely had a few
highlights (Tails' visual and audible reaction to Rouge kissing him is just priceless). We also
loved whenever any of the human characters got their first look at the Sonic characters. Not
only were some of them at least a little funny (though we also felt sorry for them sometimes),
but we also feel that a lot of people in the real world would likely react the way these humans did.
Speaking of the humans, though, this is where a few problems are. Not to say that all of them are
bad or anything, but some of the scenes either just don't work or take away from the experience
of seeing Sonic characters in a show. A good chunk of the scenes where it is JUST humans also doesn't
help things move along very well, though there are some exceptions. One such example that always
comes to our mind is near the end of season one where Mr. Stuart takes Chris to the counseling
office to help him figure out why he feels so confused. Helping him realize that half of him
wants to help Sonic and his friends go home while the other half doesn't want them to leave brings
about a very touching moment. We also can't give Chuck too much flak since he does actually often
try to help the heroes accomplish their goals. At some point, the group goes into space,
resulting in most of the humans being out of the picture with the exception of Eggman and
Chris. These space battles were fun to watch and provided many different story elements we'd love
to see more of. The connection between Tails and Cosmo felt pretty legitimate,
Chris is actually a bit more helpful at this point (long story, but he is older now and
retains his younger form in Sonic's world), and that entire sequence with Dark Sonic really made
us wish we could see a lot more of him. On top of all that, the battles themselves were fun!
Watching all these different characters interact off of or against each other kept us on the edge
of our seat. The rematch between Sonic and Shadow in their Super forms was awesome, and the sequence
of the heroes against the Final Mova had a few highlights of its own. One of the most notable
is when Tails hesitates to fire the Sonic Power Cannon at the planet where the battle was because
that was where Cosmo was. Especially if you watch the Japanese dub (with subtitles if needed),
you will flat out see Tails confess how he feels to Cosmo. After the fact, watching Tails' reaction
to having to do that is absolutely crushing. Whether you watch this show in English, Japanese,
or any other language that's available, Sonic X is a great show that we will also come back to again.
For our silver medal of Sonic shows, we are giving it to the most recent show to come out,
Sonic Prime. Yes, we are fully aware that the series is not done yet. However,
with the first batch of episodes already released, we wanted to see how it stacked
up to the other shows so far. Considering we are already putting it this high on the list,
you know this show has a lot of promise. The story they have set up is quite the interesting
one. After the Paradox Prism is destroyed, Sonic travels to multiple different worlds. Along the
way, he comes across many different versions of his friends. He works alongside them to not only
help them with their own problems, but to find a way to fix his own issues that he ultimately
caused. The show could have easily lost a few points if each world was its own story arc, not
being connected to anything else. Thankfully, by the end of the first 8 episodes, it's clear that
these worlds are and will be interconnected. Sonic can already travel to other worlds on his own,
while other characters by the end have figured out how to when using a Prism Shard. On the subject
of other characters, all the different versions of the side characters are actually really enjoyable.
Even the characters in the Boscage Maze, a.k.a. The Forest World provide a good laugh. While
we have made note of characters from other shows having been made too goofy or greatly dumbed down,
this story actually gives a solid reason for these characters to act that way. They live
in a much less modern fashion, surviving solely off what they can find in the jungle. Mangey,
Hangry, and Gnarly are also a bit more primitive than the others, so Tails acting like an actual
animal or Gnarly thinking the trees can speak is quite amusing. It also is quite fun to see
all of these characters in different lights since we don't normally get to see the original versions
of them in these ways. There certainly wasn't a lot of Shadow since there were no alternate
versions of him seen thus far, so hopefully future episodes will add more screen time for
him. A few people have also pointed out that Sonic himself is a little less bright than he
usually is. Not to say that other versions of Sonic don't think with their feet a lot too,
but it seems to be especially the case here. It's not as bad as someone like Boom Knuckles,
but it is still noticeable at times. Thankfully, it's not to the point where it takes away from
his overall character. There honestly isn't much else to say right now since there are
only 8 episodes to work with, but as it stands, the future of Sonic Prime is looking bright.
We have now gotten all the way up to the top of the list. If you have been using your deduction
skills, then you probably already know which show it is. In case you haven't,
our gold medal for Sonic TV shows goes to the show simply titled Sonic the Hedgehog,
otherwise commonly known as Sonic SatAM. This is a show that truly can be seen as epic. Like
with some of the other shows we've talked about, it draws you in with a wonderfully catchy theme
song. What's also interesting about the theme is that, while the lyrics are talking about how cool
Sonic is, the visuals are showing that Robotnik has already taken over the world. Most other shows
with a notable hero and villain, even some of the other Sonic shows, show said hero trying to stop
the villain from conquering the world. This show has the heroes trying to take the world back and
reverse the effects caused by the villain. As a result, it creates a darker atmosphere than most
shows that have characters like these, which is a surprisingly nice change of pace. And of course,
with the overall atmosphere of the show being darker, you would have to expect a
darker villain. Other versions of Robotnik are usually too goofy or just not that threatening.
This one is the exact opposite. His voice alone just makes him come across a lot more creepy,
which is just the way we like it. However, he doesn't even have to say anything to pull this
off. There is a scene where all the lights are off for a moment, but then an angry Robotnik somehow
makes his eyes glow in the dark, which amplifies his threatening persona. Then there's Sonic. His
personality mostly carries over form the other Sonic shows of that era, but it's not to the
point where it is obnoxious. The supporting cast is also really well put together. Tails is back,
but he doesn't play as big a role here, which actually works in this setting. Princess Sally
is thankfully not like other princesses that become damsels in distress. She actually leads
the charge a lot of the time, working on the front lines to stop Robotnik. You've also got Rotor,
who serves as their tech genius, a cowardly French guy named Antoine who still tries to
carry out his duties despite his cowardice, and Bunnie Rabbot, who has a fitting name. While
she is still on the side of good with trying to restore Mobius to a more natural world, the lower
half of her body has been made to be robotic. Instead of letting that slow her down, she uses
it to her advantage in the overarching battle, using Robotnik's own tech against him in a way.
Pretty much every episode keeps us interested, wondering how the story was going to progress.
It has triumphant moments, sad moments, and so much more that adds so much to these characters.
In this show, instead of Tails having a love interest, Sonic himself does with Sally,
and this time, the love is mutual. They spend a lot of time together, and experience many
different events together. As a result, their relationship is very solid and believable. It
has its ups and downs, but even some of the best relationships have those. We're also pretty happy
that it isn't a human having a relationship with Sonic here. If you don't know what we are talking
about....let's keep it that way. Honestly, we don't really have much of any problems with
the show itself at all. However, it does have one glaring issue. Like with Sonic Underground,
this show was never finished before it got the ax for one reason or another. By the end of the
last episode, it could technically be seen that Robotnik was defeated, but we would argue that
he just retreated for now and wouldn't have been gone for good. It also doesn't help that
the last episode ended on a MASSIVE cliffhanger. It turns out that Robotnik's sidekick, Snively,
was ready to take command and would take his turn fighting Sonic. As he walks off screen,
a pair of glowing red eyes appear behind him. Many people for the longest time wondered who or what
those eyes belonged to. Was it Metal Sonic? A new character? Thankfully, at some point,
we at least got closure on that, and it turns out that the eyes belonged to a pre-existing character
in the show: Naugus. Unfortunately, no other episodes have come out yet. Fear not though, for
this series' story isn't done. As of writing this, there is large, fan-made project in the works that
seeks to continue the story. There is even a trailer for it out already with the vocalist
from Crush 40 singing the theme song! It may not be official, but it's certainly better than
nothing. Even without the coming web-sequel, Sonic SatAM is a blast to watch, and even though it is
as old as it is, we don't see it's popularity amongst Sonic fans slowing down any time soon.
But let us know what you think. Which Sonic TV show is your personal favorite and why? If
you want more Sonic content, be sure to hit that notification bell and check out our recent videos
that have covered various aspects of Sonic prime. But most importantly, stay wicked.