A Lukewarm Appreciation of Sonic Boom || Franchise Retrospective || Mikaela Thorn
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 มิ.ย. 2024
- In 2014, #SonicTheHedgehog and friends got reworked and transplanted into a tropical island for a very okay kid's sitcom. Let's look back over #SonicBoom and its two seasons, three games, and short-lived comic to see how good, and bad, it really got.
If you enjoyed this video, consider supporting me on Patreon to fund more long-form projects like this: / thornbrain
Thanks to Jacob and Radhames for watching the show with me and contributing to the script, to CJ for joining us for the comic read-through, and to patrons who joined us for both! Also thanks to my vocal therapist Steven for all his help in getting me this far, and thanks as always to Dav for the intro animation and art! / davidsolm_art
===Sources and Links===
The History of Sonic's "Bad Years" - Collapse, Crunch, and Chaos in the Early 2000s || The Golden Bolt: • The History of Sonic's...
The Best of TheStrawhatNO! - Sonic 2006: • The Best of TheStrawha...
Sonic Colors - Asteroid Coaster - Act 1 - S-Rank || DarkspinesSonic: • Sonic Colors (Wii) [Do...
Sonic Lost World All Cutscenes (Game Movie) || Gamer's Little Playground: • SONIC LOST WORLD All C...
DmC Devil May Cry (Definitive Edition) - All Cutscenes || Game On: • DMC | Devil May Cry (D...
Sonic Boom announcement blog || SEGA: tinyurl.com/3t5fh4ds
Sonic Boom - TV Series trailer || SEGA: • Sonic Boom™ - TV Serie...
'Big Red Button Explains Its Sonic Boom Character Designs...' || Thomas Whitehead, Nintendo Life: tinyurl.com/5xbce692
'Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric - New Character Announced || Harry Mackin, GameInformer: tinyurl.com/54fdhfnb
Sonic Boom French Opening || AuroraKnux: • Sonic Boom - French Op...
Sonic Boomcast Episode 8: Welcome to Freibergers || Jason Berry: • Sonic Boomcast Episode...
Sonic Synergy - Every Trailer, Clip and Screenshot || Tootuff Fan: • Sonic Synergy - Every ...
'Sonic Team head returns to US to establish development ‘hub’ for franchise' || MCV Develop: tinyurl.com/jzknk7mz
Wheel of Fortune [N64] Longplay || Amy Rose: • Nintendo 64 Longplay [...
Wheel of Fortune [PS4] Playthrough || Nintendo Complete: • Wheel of Fortune (PS4)...
'Rise of Lyric receives hefty 1.1GB update' || Alex Seedhouse, Nintendo Insider: tinyurl.com/yjb5n3ca
Dinosaur Planet vs. Star Fox Adventures | Side by Side || NeoGamer: • Dinosaur Planet (Ninte...
Sonic 4 Episode 1 Longplay || SinistersDen: • Sonic The Hedgehog 4 E...
'Sonic Boom 11 - The Final Comic' || Ian Flynn on the BumbleKing Forums: tinyurl.com/t63kunda
Interview with Vincent Lovallo || Luke Brown, Comics Alliance: tinyurl.com/y9ebkce5
'Archie Comics Says Farewell to Sonic the Hedgehog' || Jesse Schedeen, IGN: tinyurl.com/bdhzm7u4
'Boycott Color the Spectrum, Finance the Spectrum Instead' || crippledscholar: tinyurl.com/xnwby5xx
'Why the Autism Community is Speaking Out Against This Autism Campaign' || Julia Metraux, The Mighty: tinyurl.com/bdz5md9v
Bill Freiberger and Doug Lieblich deny Mark the Tapir's alleged inspiration: tinyurl.com/y727wzfp
===Chapters===
00:00:00 - Intro
00:02:20 - Part 1: AH! Before the Boom (1999-2013)
00:10:02 - Part 2: Sonic Boom, Season 1 (2013-2015)
00:32:45 - Season 1's Worst, Most Disappointing, and Best Episodes
01:17:18 - Part 3: Rise of Lyric (Wii U, 2014)
01:32:13 - Part 4: Shattered Crystal (3DS, 2014)
01:41:27 - Part 5: The Archie Tie-In Comic (2014-2015)
01:57:45 - Recap, and Why Are We Here?
01:58:46 - Part 6: Fire and Ice (3DS, 2016)
02:07:52 - Part 7: Sonic Boom, Season 2 (2016-2017)
02:15:28 - Season 2's Worst, Most Disappointing, and Best Episodes
03:05:10 - Closing Thoughts - บันเทิง
This video was recorded as I went through vocal therapy for 2-3 months, so my pitch and cadence fluctuates throughout it alongside my progress. You can track how early I recorded something just on how deep -> light my voice is (the livestream segments were recorded before I started, and the intro and live video segments were recorded right as I started, for example). Thanks a ton to my vocal therapist Steven for all his help and guidance! My next videos will be much more vocally consistent after this haha
If you enjoyed this video, consider supporting me on Patreon for additional exclusive videos and sneak peaks, and access to my Discord server: patreon.com/thornbrain
Also check out Dav, who drew and animated my intro and avatar! twitter.com/davidsolm_art
I don't know a better what to broach the subject, so I'm just gonna say it: You are both looking and sounding really good in your transition. More power to ya, thorn!
You look and sound great~💕
You are sounding more confident and comfortable with your speech I'm really happy and hopeful that your transition remains positive for you.
😊
I loved the Sonic Boom cartoon when it was airing, but I've never seen the whole series before, I'm glad I missed some of the worst episodes, though.
(Also, thank you for the cute cat at the end of the video, Miki, truly appreciated 💖)
This video feels effortless to watch, thank you so much for these HUGE analysis videos on these obscure Sonic shows. This is everything I could have wanted from an in depth critique of them, I dont feel like a moment is wasted.
I'm only about an hour in but I absolutely adore your commentary. It's some of the most accurate critiques of this show I've ever seen, but you give credit where credit is due. I might update this comment as I watch through the entire thing but I just wanted to say how fun your videos are to watch❤
also yes!!!! love to see someone appreciate tails as a character!!
1:08:45
This entire scene has the exact same energy as "Sideshow Bob stepping on rakes for a solid half-minute because Kelsey Grammer's indignant grumble was too fucking funny to use just the one time and they needed to pad the episode out a bit."
I would bet everything that they heard that warble Travis Willingham gave, laughed their asses off, and NEEDED to get it out of their system. I think the sheer violence of the explosion the sound designer made/found probably sold them on extending the gag too.
Also the fact that Sticks uses her nature knowledge to befriend a Gore Magala, a monster that literally transmits its constant, frenzied rage as a virus, not only helps give her something interesting to do but also manages to help keep Monster Hunter's representation in the crossover clear as day by showcasing what that franchise is actually about: Cohabitating with and respecting nature, no matter how terrifying it is, because _everyone_ is just a scared animal trying to survive at the end of the day.
It's kinda crazy to think the entire Boom saga was only a decade ago. It feels both recent yet a long long time ago. In one of the strangest eras of the Sonic franchise and even Japanese gaming as a whole. The mid 2010s were not good as a whole. Also Colors' writing is awful and I'm a Colors apologist.
Great work on the retrospective. I was surprised when I saw the video length, thinking it would only be part 1 of a bigger project, but not only did you manage to condense your thoughts on the show in half the time it took you for SatAM and Underground, but the Boom sub-franchise as a whole, including the comics (which I've never seen anybody talk about besides the few TH-cam channels dedicated to reviewing Sonic comics). Impressive how much difference in time you can get depending on if you talk about each episode individually or not. And I still can't believe it's been exactly 10 years since the Boom sub-franchise as a whole got announced. Time sure flies fast. I still remember that day as immediately after that announcement I found and contacted Bill Freiberger on Facebook and learned that his team was actually in the middle of the writing stage. This helped me get a better picture of what the process for making a typical animated series is like. And how I shouldn't throw around unsolicited ideas around willy-nilly. I know better now. Being the hottest new Sonic thing and me being a fresh new curious Sonic nerd hungry to learn about its history and where the franchise is heading, naturally I've always been trying to keep up with Boom as much as I could, at least with the TV show and comics, less so with the games, resorting mostly to gameplay videos and reviews on TH-cam. I've never owned a Wii U (and probably never will) and I didn't buy my own 3DS until 2019 after getting a job and even then I only ended up buying Fire & Ice which I didn't get until... this very year, actually. Along with the steelbook Blu-ray release of the complete series. I think I've mentioned this before but the complete season and series releases on home media as well as streaming services have this show's episodes listed in production order which is a little different from the US airdate order. Which makes me wonder if your opinion would be any different if you watched the show in production order instead of US airdate order.
I can't imagine my opinions would change significantly outside of the few times I mentioned an episode's placement, like how season 1's pacing got better as it went on in the order we watched. Airing the Knuckles episodes earlier or later wouldn't have made them any less numbing though.
@@thornbrain I need to make a slight correction about the episode order as I've finally checked out my Blu-rays. The complete series release is all in US airdate order. In fact, as I've researched the show's home media releases a little more I learned that not only do all Blu-ray releases of this show from NCircle are in US airdate order but also the European DVD releases from Universal. And the only way to watch the show in production order is either via Netflix (I don't know if it's the same case for Hulu and other streaming services, I don't have access to those), or, surprisingly enough, the "Season X, Volume Y" DVD releases from NCircle. So yeah, that's weird. Still, good to know your opinion wouldn't change much. I just felt like I should let others know about this fact to avoid confusion.
Sonic Boom is my guilty pleasure, I enjoy watching it for a laugh and not take anything serious.
I loved the Underground video and was delighted to be a small part of this. (1:26:30 Hi me!) Those watch parties were such a strange mix of delight, boredom and deep frustration, which all came right back watching this.
Wow! I found this channel literally yesterday from the TMBG vid and was bummed about how little videos had been posted in a while. Weird how that works lol. Great vid
Got to watch this almost all of this in one sitting over a weekend. Thanks for the cool, big video!
FELLOW TAILS FAN HERE sonic boom tails is so adorable and cool😭 silly little fella that was my first favorite sonic character and that was probably cuz he was so well done in boom(which was my introduction to the franchise)
I'm a little torn between wanting a full LP of these Sonic games and being satisfied getting the condensed concentrated Thornbrain infodump without having to muck about with all the tedious bullshittery seeming like it drags down the whole commentary crew like certain segments of Ni No Kuni or even the OG Bomberman 64 LP haha.
Also I haven't finished Sonic Boom but after I finish watching/listening to this I might have to. Seems like despite the dragging moments and doubting of the audience's intelligence it's probably worth finishing.
Alright back to the last hour and 40 minutes of this... review? Retrospective? I think "engaging infodump" feels most descriptively accurate.
2:36:57 Okay, I think I can explain this one. So there's this one TH-camr, Roger van der Weide, who's an animator (he did some shorts for Sonic Paradox) and talks a lot about Sonic with his co-host and various guest Sonictubers on his video series called "Sonic dissected" and naturally, he's not the biggest fan of the writing in Sonic games Pontac and Graff worked on (also the overuse of Green Hill) and talking about them for as long as he did (I think his dissected videos go all the way back to 2012) he eventually started referring to the duo as Pontaff. It might be an injoke from the writers. It's kinda like that explanation for why Robotnik changed his name to Eggman when you think about it.
btw, I dunno if you noticed this when reading the comics but in one of the issues Eggman mentions talking to Eggfan1991. That's another *possible* reference to a Sonic fan, this time being SSF1991 aka Donnie, the newswriter from TSSZ, Sonic Stadium, Tails Channel and Sonic Paradox.
I never did get around to watching the show, mainly cuz it gave me vibes like the youtube compilations and viral clips were all you needed to see, and I'm kinda sad that's pretty much the case. The show seems genuinely fun, but I definitely agree with your closing thoughts. Kinda makes me curious how much better the show would've been if they didn't try so hard to do "everyone's an asshole" humor so much
Great video and although I still laugh at Sonic Boom now and then, I agree with a lot of things you pointed out that was bad in the show.
As someone who liked Sonic Boom (the show), I just had to click on this.
So glad this is finally up!
Not gonna lie, as annoying as stupid Knuckles can be, that “Oh wait, I can’t read.” punch line made me chortle.
I've only ever seen fragments of this one, and it sounds like fragments are the only parts noteworthy in practice.
Seems to be a case of "mediocre is less impactful than bad", with some good moments, and quite a bit of lower end stuff.
... I kind of want to see your thoughts Adventures for comparison now, because I have not really seen that since I was the target demographic, but I also acknowledge that it is probably not great even by comparison.
It's in the maybe pile, but only once I can afford additional editors to help with the workload
Damn this video is great!
Thank you for consuming all the mid content so we don't have to 🙏 genuinely
I will absolutely have to come back and edit this comment as I go/react later but needless to say, I am very excited for a new vid from Mikaela, and providing a similar look for boom that she did underground? Sign me RIGHT the hell up ❤
Another good retrospective here. *This also shows that Sonic Boom probably could of survived longer if Sega fleshed out the lore/world more and didn't back out when they felt a little heat from fans. But that's how Sega does nowadays...* always afraid to go far with new ideas. Like seriously, why was Shadow HERE!? lol
Sega of Japan ruined Boom potential in every single way starting from their point of it appealing more to West when Sonic was initially made for Western audience and ending with making game development a living hell for Big Red Button.
Sega just committed a big crime and acted like assholes the most and nobody got critisized after that except BRB who had no solution from making expected failure game.
Lovely video
2:28:52 alright hear me out for one sec ! i have mixed feelings about this bit
when watching this moment in the show i WAS aware of how the show portrayed amy as a caricature feminist and most definitely was very uncomfortable with it and the mansplaining aspect HOWEVER i do enjoy knuckles' bit a little because i found the "dumb character says something unexpected" thing funny and found the idea of feminist knuckles very cool honestly 😭 "just because im a meathead doesnt mean im not a feminist" line definitely got a chuckle out of me and feminist knuckles is a concept im very much here for tbh; not to mention what he actually said is very much true(although, again, the mansplaining aspect does reek of misogyny, that i do agree with) so ultimately, this bit would be much better if it was sticks instead of knuckles, as it would get rid of the mansplaining aspect and still deliver a clever message. this way it would no longer reek of "grrr woman stupid" (which is a message i dont think was the intention)
-a feminist afab queer person:)
aside from this i agree with everything said in the video so far !! this retrospective is very enjoyable to watch and your commentary is truly just great
I still kinda think Flynn's writing in Frontiers has similar issues, just less prominently
Sonic's need to reference random shit in background dialogue for the sake of looking like they got their shit together being an example
albiet that's more of a Flynn-ism than SegaSammy and/or Pontaff thing
the media doesnt want you to know about tw barkers coc-
CJ NO!
I hate that i'm defending the wrapped arm look, but at least for sonic it does re-balance his color scheme since they took away the flesh colored arms, if they cleaned up the look a bit the wrappings/neckerchief ascot thing could have looked at least interesting as an alternate take on the character.
Sweet
the show never interested me, and i just skipped to the ending of the video but the problem of reboots/adaptions in which you watch it and just blurt out "who was this made for?" has gotten more prevalent after boom ended.
2:33 _"A bit saturated with characters who are unsaturated with character. "_ xD
The intro being unimpressive (both visually and audibly) is such a shame. I still rewatch/relisten intros (and endings) from some of the cartoons I used to watch as a kid because they were just, y'know, good songs. I feel bad for modern kids. :(
18:17 Never wish to be older, kids, you'll regret it.
21:39 I used to dislike Stick's voice when all I knew about her were like two random clips, but over time I grew to like it (or at least tolerate it), though she's still hard to understand at times.
34:21 I dunno, I kind of like the name "Justin Beaver". It's so obvious but still funny. No opinion on the episode though.
Funny how opinions can differ, because BoneheadXL - the guy behind the blog "Hedgehogs Can't Swim" - rated "Late Fees" _above_ most episodes, with an 8/10. Entertainment is subjective. What some people might dislike, others might love. And that's fine!
38:00 I'm sorry, while I definitely agree this is funny, I just can't stand listening to people who talk like this for more than 10 seconds. If I could punch him in the face without any repercussions, I would do so *fifteen times,* regardless of the fact that he wasn't actually being sarcastic. Skipping this one.
Heh, just like you couldn't stand "Role Models". ;)
40:13 Tails looks cute when he's determined like this. :3
49:04 Wow, that explains why she looks so... Sonic-y. Funny how both Sticks and Perci got the short end of the stick (no pun intended) in Rise of Lyric.
51:30 I'll respectfully disagree. While I like the idea of what they did here with Sticks (and reading about it was mildly amusing - smileworthy), actually waching it felt a bit... uncomfortable, especially when Stick gets so close to the camera that she fills out the entire screen. I kind of feel bad for her voice actress, for having to hit all those high notes and screams.
57:54 This show is a disgrace to Rotor by association. :P
1:03:38 & 1:03:40 I've read your pinned comment beforehand but it's only here that I noticed the vocal difference. The one from the former timestamp is definitely a big improvement.
1:08:23 😂
1:10:24 This complaint hit waaaay different when it's coming from a person like you. 😳
I feel kind of ashamed for only really remembering "Designated Heroes" because of the gag they do with Sticks. She takes off her shoes and the show does its _darn best_ to not let you see her without her boots. And if the leaked early footage is to be believe, this isn't out of laziness (i.e. not having a a proper character model), but because they genuinely wanted to add this gag. Though admittedly I only found it truly funny because I got introduced to it through a series of Tweets where a guy (SorcererLance to be exact) gets increasingly more angry at the ways the show covers Sticks's lower half.
And yes, I found about this through DeviantArt, how did you know? 🙃
1:29:42 "Ancient Echidnas"
Kenders: _(triggered noises)_
1:33:18 Yoo, this reminds me of the Blade Armor from Mega Man X6.
Now that I finally decided to not arbitrarly avoid anything related to games I haven't yet felt like engaging with and actually watched the segments related to Rise of Lyrics, Shattered Crystal and (partially) Fire & Ice, maybe I'll finally watch some actual fresh content and not the same 5 facts getting repeated in a slightly different way! Thanks, Mikaela, for being entertaining enough to make me want to "break the ice", so to speak (pun this time intended).
2:10:26 *SHADOW VS. METAL SONIC WOOHOOOOO!*
About what "Victory" did to the Cyborg team: while I definitely don't disagree, I really like this exchange:
Cyborg Sonic: "I feel _strooong,_ bro."
Cyborg Knuckles: "I feel strong bro too, bro."
It's so stupid that it ends up looping back to being hilarious and memorable, at least to me.
That take on "The Biggest Fan" was so raw and controversial, and I *respect* the hell out of you for that. 👍
2:28:03 me on literally anything (usually I just parrot whatever the last opinion I've heard is AND USUALLY MAKE IT CLEAR THAT'S THE CASE)
...sorry.
2:28:44 Pfft, HAHAHAH! xD How ironic.
2:29:39 lol
Aight, I'll post what I've written so far and if I get any more ideas tomorrow, I'll just add them in a reply to this comment.
"In the Midnight Hour" also contains one of the few times Sticks directly talks to the audience ("I knew TV was just a way to control everyone's minds! _(looks at the camera)_ Not you, you keep watching."). I'm pretty sure no other character is so direct - sure, they spout out things that can't NOT be interpreted as leaning on or straight up breaking the fouth-wall, but Sticks is the only character to be aware of "us". I *love* every single time this happens. In the "Staycation" episode, it manages to save an otherwise dragged-out joke. "You see them too?! _(looks at the camera in a really funny way)_ " :D
EDIT: oh hey, the moment appears at 2:57:11 :)
2:44:16 I just noticed - why does Soar have the emblem of Poland on his shirt? 🤨
2:47:08 🤣🤣🤣
2:54:46 I remember when I first saw this part ("Who said I skipped leg day?!") out of context and thinking the robot was a train for some reason. :/
3:00:39 Fun fact: I can't find the source for this, but supposedly this wasn't actually sentence-mixed - Roger just said it in a way that makes it sound like it is.
3:02:13 I love the way Shadow teleports. _BZZWIP!_
3:03:27 At least it went out with a bang! How fitting for a show with "boom" in its name. ;)
I am sorry, but there is one thing I must strongly disagree with. How can you not enjoy Chain Letter for the Genius of what it is? that episode basically predicted Elon Musk taking over twitter. It's miraculously prescient and, beyond that it's one of the best Eggman episode. It's not a boomer episode, it's a perfect call out to techbros who end up being in charge of of popular social media,thinking the whole world own them their veneration for that and trashing the whole place when it doesn't work out.
On an other matter, you are absolutely right, Shadow is not Vegeta, Shadow is Tenshinhan. Powerful fighter groomed by a master fallen out of grace to enact his personal vengeance who also get to have sincere sibling relationship with a dead kid (even if Chiaotzu is more of a zombie than actually dead), who ends up wising up and respecting his rival. Also, more superficial, but the third eye also connect to Shadow with the Black Arm.
Ywnbaw