With the entire Sonic community turning on Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, and not without some valid points, it’s nice to see that something from the Sonic Boom line is going to be good and seems to have found an audience.
The Sonic Boom cartoon is actually pretty genius. It would be hard to compete with Sonic the Hedgehog SatAM, the darker cartoon series with the SWAT bots and Princess Sally, so they went more for comedy. The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, the “comedic” show that was totally nonsensical and featured characters Scratch and Grounder, set the bar really low after the nostalgia wears off. Sonic Boom went the comedic route and has easily surpassed The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, and even comes close to usurping the title of best from the darker Sonic the Hedgehog SatAM series as well.
I’m aware that many long time fans will not like the series, that was evident from the backlash from the character redesign. However the show is rock solid from the ground up. The characters, backgrounds, and animations look great. Everything is clean and fluid. The athletic tape everywhere is a little off putting, but overall the new character designs make a lot of sense. The crew’s looks are more fitting for their location and physical abilities. For example, Knuckles has always been extremely strong, so why not show this difference by adding some bulk?
The voice acting is really solid as well, a massive improvement for Sonic and Amy, and fits the shows tone. Sonic is no longer a dry, boring hunk of sarcastic sounding wood. Amy doesn’t grate on the nerves the way she did before either. There’s a scene in the first episode where she is supposed to be annoying and this is conveyed perfectly, but it’s still somehow less annoying than any other speaking appearance the Amy Rose character has made to date. Knuckles’ voice actor steals the show though. He’s the best, by far: You can feel the dude-bro emanating from his soul with the few lines he’s given.
Voice actors can’t carry a show if the writing is bad though, so the real heroes are the writers.The dialog is simple but funny. The comedic timing works and the repartee built between the characters reminds me of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Elmer Fudd. The humor is mostly for children, but if you enjoyed Looney Tunes then the humor here should be to your taste. Provided the episodes continue to offer the same level of quality going forward of course.
Sonic Boom has a charm and level of quality to it that you just wish would carry over to Sega‘s handling of the franchise in general. If no other good comes from the Sonic Boom universe, at least we have a TV show that’s entertaining and captures the lighthearted side of the Blue Blur instead of trying to be edgy or gritty with anthropomorphic creatures that wield guns and drive motorcycles.
Check out the trailer below, it captures a good bit of the silly tone you can expect from the show:
