Commentary: Critic No, Enter Yes.

39 min read

Deviation Actions

Channeleven's avatar
By
Published:
3.1K Views

Search


Before we get into the commentary, I'd like to provide a little insight before any fans of this guy come onto the journal and label me as a SatAM fanboy. Firstly, I'm doing this because Sonic SatAM has gathered a lot of hatred recently (at least that's what I've heard), and most of the new haters seem to have come from this particular review. Second, I've been wanting to commentate on one of Mixedfan's reviews for quite some time, and I may do more on them in the near future. Oh, and before any of you ask why I'm calling him out in a commentary of all things, he disabled the comments on his review, and this will have some humor for good measure. Now then, let's get on with the review.

Requested by bvw1979

You know you're off to a good start when a reference to someone as disgusting as Brian Walmer is present. Why would he request a SatAM review from Mixedfan, in spite of his clear disfavor of the series? Perhaps he was expecting a positive review.

I am the Media Man
I come from not so far away

:iconnostalgiacriticplz::iconsaysplz: And I'm the Nostalgia Critic, I make quotes for many wannabe reviewers to manipulate and pass off as their own original works.

And I review! What can you review?
I review TV shows…

So you're implying that you can't review beyond that single medium? BTW, the bold text below isn't me, it's Mixedfan.

(Heads up: My opinions in this review are EXAGGERATED SO DON’T TAKE EVERYTHING I SAY IN THIS REVIEW SERIOUSLY!!! I MEAN IT!)

First, chill out. People who rage like that are prime targets for trolling. Just ask Moleman9000. Second, keep the bold text in mind.

(inhales through nose and then exhales through mouth.)

I don’t like Sonic SatAM!

SatAM fan: No worries, to each their own. Even though I firmly believe SatAM to be an underrated gem, I won't take it personally if someone doesn't like it-

Oh wait, this is Mixedfan's review so we have to deal with his impression of SatAM fan(brats)....


SatAM fanbrats: BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m dead serious! I don’t like Sonic SatAM!

Uh.... good for you...?

Hello there, I’m the Media Man and I’ve decided to write my will and sign my death warrant here because I think I’m going to die right now. Why?

Because there's a new Spongebob episode where Squidward gets harmed, whether warranted or not?

Because I’m going to review the most overrated, overly-praised cartoon in the history of Sonic the Hedgehog.

Weird, this isn't an Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog review.

And that cartoon is…Sonic SatAM.

Yes, because we clearly couldn't read the title.

Sonic SatAM is the nickname given to the Saturday Morning cartoon series Sonic the Hedgehog that was released in 1993 by Dic(k) Entertainment.

Weird, I could've sworn that it was always pronounced "DEEK" Entertainment. Also, while they did gear out some crap like the Sailor Moon dub and the Mario cartoons, there do exist some gems, like the Dennis the Menace cartoon, Inspector Gadget and Archie's Weird Mysteries.

The series was unbelievably approved by many a Sonic fan and now we have one of the most obnoxious fanbases ever.

Then clearly you're unaware of the Sonamy, SEGA Genesis and Archie Sonic (not surprising he ignores this because he used to be an avid defender of that spin-off series) fanbases within the Sonic fanbase.

People praise this thing as like the Messiah, the God of all things Sonic and anything not SatAM related is blasphemy!

Well, as opposed to its competition, it attempted to create a grounded plot and further develop on the Sonic franchise, whereas shows like Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog are the equivalent of a man farting in an elevator and expecting someone else to deliver the punchline.

So is it a sin that I think this thing is deathly overrated? Why do I dislike this thing? Let’s find out for this is my review on Sonic SatAM and this review will be the death of me. I’m carving my tombstone right now…

If you're carving your tombstone, how could you possibly draft this review? Before we go any further, I'd like to bring something up. Mixedfan seems to draw a lot of his influence from Mr. Enter, namely the poor attempts at humor, the crudely drawn title cards for their review, treating a cartoon like it's serious business, blatantly stealing ideas from the Nostalgia Critic, among other stuff that I may overlook.

So what’s the story? Dr. Robotnik has taken over Mobius so Sonic and a band of Freedom Fighters have to save the world from his tyranny. OK, that’s a creative set-up and has a lot of opportunities. But many things hurt this show and really prove that no matter how good your ideas are, you can still make it suck. So let’s break down what is wrong with this overrated monstrosity. 

For all we know, you just hate it because it gets praised. I'll admit, I'm kinda the same way with Regular Show and Adventure time, but at least I'm trying to keep my mouth shut about it nowadays.

First off, the writing is PRETENTIOUS. It thinks it’s this cool dark epic show when really, it’s just a goofy, silly cartoon about Sonic the Hedgehog.

Whether or not the writing in SatAM is pretentious is a matter of opinion. As for being goofy, I don't see how. To me, the tone of the show is kinda similar to shows like the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon and Teen Titans, shows that're dark yet include some humorous moments for good measure.

It’s trying to be big and epic but the writing is where it falls flat on its face. The light-hearted moments of the show are often in the wrong places and end up spoiling the mood during the more depressing moments. Here’s one example: In one episode (forgot the title to it) a character named Ari gets sucked into the void and we’re supposed to be feeling for this character and what happens in the next scene? Sonic zapping himself humorously and having his quills messed up. Aren’t we supposed to be feeling sorry for Ari instead of laughing at Sonic? Hell, it’s almost like nothing bad happened! Way to kill the mood writers! Not only does it do that but the writing gets REALLY bad in places.

Ah, getting pissed at the writers. A signature trademark of Mr. Enter. As for the scene, even with the subject matter, Sonic SatAM was still a kids show at heart, and if they kept it at that dark moment with Ari, it could act as a massive turn off for viewers and the show would be canned. But, I digress. Let's continue.

Some things in this show are introduced and forgotten about like the Secret Scrolls in “Sonic and the Secret Scrolls”. Why even have that MacGuffin if they don’t even get USED later in the series?!

First, keep the Hitchcock references out of your reviews, you're not worthy. Second, even if the use of the scrolls was used for one time, who cares? Yes, it could be used as a reliable complaint, but you seem to treat it like it's your life. As for a rebuttal, I suppose they were only meant for one episode, as the cast could still work off with what they had prior.

What a waste of time! They even introduce characters and forget about them. Remember Cat from the very first episode? Of course you don’t! He shows up, gets captured then disappears and we NEVER SEE HIM AGAIN! WHAT THE HELL WRITERS?!?!

"Killing off a character, likely to symbolize the significance of Robotnik's reign of terror and how serious viewers need to take it!? Blasphemy!" In all seriousness, characters getting killed off are usually done to help set the dramatic tone most shows try to capture. Considering your attitude towards that approach, you must really hate X-Men for killing off Morph in the first episode for the previously mentioned reason.

We also get the odd nameless Freedom Fighter or two and they just show up and get roboticized. Why even have characters if you’re not going to do anything with them?!

Having characters roboticized to convey Robotnik's evil and set the dark tone further doesn't count as anything apparently.

Oh and it gets better. In season 2, Dulcy the Dragon shows up from nowhere and has no given explanation as to why she’s here. She’s just…there and we have to pretend we don’t care why. That is an insult to the viewer’s intelligence and I’m ashamed of you SatAM  writers for doing that!

Because a cartoon from the 90s doubles as a child evidently.

And need we forget the pointless double-episodes we got in the series? Those episodes were silly and stupid and were completely inconsequential to the entire series.

Sounds more like an opinion than anything else, so why treat it like a fact?

Hell, this show BARELY has a continuity when you think about it! How lazy!

Seems like the show follows the "status quo is god" trope. Normally, a reviewer would read up on certain tropes to get better ideas as to what occurs on certain shows, but it seems like he didn't have the common sense to do so.

Still it’s got more continuity than Spongebob though so I’ll give it a point for that.

Dissing Spongebob, another parallel to Mr. Enter.

But the crowning moment of suck comes from the god-awful “Blast to the Past” two-parter. That episode is the worst of the series! It’s convoluted, it makes no sense, has a bazillion plot-holes and in the end was just utterly pointless! NOTHING was accomplished from Sonic and Sally going back in time! OK they saved Rosie from being roboticized but we don’t see her again so it’s not like it was important. The whole thing was just a pointless joy-ride through time that nobody asked for! What a load writers! And you fan brats SERIOUSLY think this is quality material? This is horrible writing at its finest!

I've waited this long to make this point. Calm the fuck down. The two parter wasn't very good, big deal. It sounds like you're just raging for the sake of raging.

Still, I’ve seen worse so I’ll give it that. It could have been much worse than it already is. Still, the writing of this show sucks and I can’t believe anyone considers it remotely good.

You know, him making that remark reminds me of this guy on YouTube who denounced everyone who grew up with the Spiderman game on the PlayStation. Can't figure out who? Oh well. In all seriousness, who are you to imply (key word, IMPLY) that people liking the two parter are stupid for liking it.

Not only is some of the writing bad but its clichéd too. Some of these episode ideas are clichéd stories we’ve all seen before like “Sonic and Sally”. Who didn’t predict how that lame episode turned out? It might not have been clichéd at the time but it’s still clichéd. I’ve seen preschool shows with more original writing then this. 

Oh joy, another Mr. Enter node. Treating one measly cartoon episode like it's somehow draining your life.

And here’s where the writing gets REALLY pretentious. The character development. Any attempts at character development are few and between and it’s usually pretty bad. Only Sally gets ANY character development because she’s Ben Hurst’s pet Mary-Sue in this show.

Almost forgot, there'll be plenty of Sally bashing in this. Let's start a drinking game. For every time Mixedfan calls Sally Arorn a Mary-Sue (or at the very least makes any jab towards the character), take a drink of whatever you have. Just start keeping tabs.

Hell, the show seems to be more about her then Sonic at times. She usually has the most stories that focus on her, she gets all the character development and she is glorified beyond belief what with being a princess, being the only level-headed, normal and non-kooky person in the show, going on nearly EVERY mission with Sonic and having about THREE BOYS (Sonic, Antoine and Griff) falling for her!

Would you rather have her shafted to being a background character with little to know purpose in the show?

How can you NOT say that Sally’s a Mary-Sue after seeing this godforsaken trash you call entertainment?!?! She is clearly a Mary-Sue in this show and you know it!

If we claimed she was a Mary-Sue, then we'd have the luxury of being lumped with THOSE Sonic fans, if you catch my cold.

Thank god Archie started developing her and using her much better then this show did!

Ah yes, especially how she was actually used a hell of a lot more frequently in the comics than SatAM, and was rendered into a whiner at one point and then thrown away to become a crappy villain at another.

Ian Flynn’s iteration of the character is the best version of Sally currently in official media.

Yeah, because the man behind crap such as Scourge the Hedgehog and overrated trash such as Mecha Sally is certainly one who warrants top marks. BTW, here's a new rule for the drinking game, take a drink not only when he bashes Sally, but when he praises Archie Sonic.

In the world of fanfiction, that honour goes to mastergamer20.

Ok, no contest there, coming from someone who read most of MG's tics.

Sally Acorn should have been more like his version of Sally from his great fanfic series “Sonic X-treme”! But no, we get Ben Hurst’s pet Mary-Sue Sally instead in this show. And don’t you purists dare deny it, you know it’s true! You’re just in denial if you dare say anything about this!

Yes. How dare we enjoy something we like?!

So anyway, that’s why the character development in this show sucks. It all goes to Sally and even then, it’s not very interesting for we’ve seen it before, and thus we don’t get time to develop Bunnie, Antoine, Rotor or even Tails and Sonic himself. Where’s their stories? I wanna know more about those guys then Sally Flippin’ Acorn! But no, we have to indulge with more of Ben Hurst’s pet Mary-Sue Sally Acorn! Archie Sally puts this Sally to shame!

Dat Sonicfaggotry. :icondatassplz: Also, yes, she does, especially with her slapping Sonic over choosing to save the world, moping around all day and being cast aside to be turned into a robot is clearly the pinnacle of brilliance. 

Now for the next section, the characters. We have Sonic and Tails of course and then we have all the other characters. We have Sally the Mary-Sue whom I’ve already gone on about, Bunnie Rabbot who is a cyborg rabbit with a horrible pun for a name that also thinks “poor literacy is kewl”(sorry Linkara!),

Well, it's still better than Robotnik's name. Also, why apologize for stealing from a superior reviewer, you've already stolen plenty of material from a rip-off of a superior reviewer.

Rotor Walrus who is just a cheap replacement for Tails and Antoine. Oh…GOD! I HATE ANTOINE!!!

Uh... #feels?

He is the most annoying, pretentious, cowardly, stuck-up, pompous, arrogant douche bag I’ve ever had the misfortune to encounter in all of media! Why people love this asshole I’ll NEVER know!

Well, there're people who love Scourge the Hedgehog, so it kinda balances out.

I could read that scene from issue 234 where Metal Sonic blows up in his face a million times! Antoine, much like Sally, is much improved in the Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comics. See SatAM purists? Archie is improving the characters you love and yet you slander them! Crazy fan boys.

At least we don't gush over green stereotypes, useless betrayals and willingly get fucked financially.

All these characters have interesting abilities, attributes and personalities but we barely get to see any of them because Sonic and Sally get all the spotlight and Sally gets all the development as I’ve already said. Tails has no business being in this show due to how little used he is and Bunnie is BARELY in the whole series. The only other character who gets used as much as Sonic and Sally is pretty much Antoine. So how about that? All these characters and they give us the obligatory, the Mary-Sue and the annoying scaredy-cat. That’s what a good show should do right? WRONG!!! Thankfully, Archie improved on this by having the spotlight focus on everybody else and not just Sonic and Sally.

And more Enter parallels and Archie fanboyism. Well done. 

We also get the villains Dr. Robotnik and Snively. Robotnik in this show is evil and all but he’s no real threat.

Even though he has captured and roboticized the three characters you complained had no purpose over, HELLO!?

He’s schemes are thwarted easily and he just sits on his arse all day doing nothing. How can I take a villain like that seriously? I think they over-do his dark and serious personality too (the “What colour is my heart?!” scene is an unnecessary gross-out moment that makes no sense). Still, he is a pretty cool villain and I love his voice which is provided marvellously by Jim Cummings. Oh boy, a great voice actor like him and he wastes his valuable time in this crap.

Well, Jim Cummings is the go-to guy for voice acting. Also, I'd say his time on SatAM was more worth it than Michael McGaharn's time voicing Knuckles (why would he leave after Sonic Adventure? I don't know)

Snively is an hilarious sidekick (and is also responsible for the over-the-top but hilarious “MARGARINE!!!” scene that really cracks me up every time I see it) although he’s just another Starscream character. His voice, provided by Charlie Adler, his great too and his girly squeals have me rolling on the floor in hysterical laughter. Why is it the villains are the ones we’re supposed to be hating and yet they’re the only saving grace of this show? If this show was entirely about Robotnik and Snively, it would be much better. 

You should understand that villains get as much praise as heroes do. Just look at Frollo and Gaston. Hell, I find myself loving the adults from Codename: Kids Next Door more than the heroes.

And now it’s time for the animation. The animation is TERRIBLE! Even for a Saturday Morning Cartoon! You get your usual animation errors and such but the real kick to the go-nads is in “Spyhog” where after Sally says “They’re onto Uncle Chuck’s bug!” we transition to the next scene with Antoine and Rotor and a clip of Rotor yelling “ANTOINE!” is randomly played for no reason and his mouth isn’t even moving so it’s clear he shouldn’t be saying anything or he should be saying something but they forgot to animate his mouth.

I dunno, the animation in SatAM kicks the shit out of the animation in Darkstalkers, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Captain N, the 1987 TMNT cartoon and the Mario cartoons.

Our go-nads get kicked even harder in “The Doomsday Project” (insert out-dated 2012 joke here) wherein the whole sequence with Sonic and Sally destroying Robotropolis objects to animating an epic sequence and instead uses recycled animation frames and scenes from other episodes to do it. How lazy! I’ve seen better animation in Chip N’ Dale Rescue Rangers and even Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!

Yes, because a comparison between a full fledged animation studio and a lesser known animation studio is a completely fair comparison.

Even for a Saturday Morning Cartoon this is bad animation! But I bet there’s even worse out there so I’ll go easy on it. 

Refer to the examples I've listed prior.

Other complaints I have with this show is the lack of any real conflict in this series. EVERY SODDING THING is resolved VERY EASILY and without much problems. There’s no real sense of peril and danger, you just know everything’s gonna be resolved very quickly and that’s a bummer right there.

But by the end of it all, Robotnik is still dominating, the characters are still at risk of getting captured themselves and much more.

I didn’t really care for what was going on in this show because of how little effort they put into the conflict. The show got boring and predictable VERY FAST and I just stopped caring about it after a while and just went on watching it just so I could say “I’ve seen the whole series”. This whole lack of conflict makes me take Dr. Robotnik even LESS seriously since I just start wondering to myself “How did this guy manage to conquer Mobius seeing how he gets so easily defeated?”

I don't know, yet he still somehow managed to maintain control over Mobius throughout the series.

And that’s why the Archie Sonic Comics are so much better than this show. It has more conflict and makes us take the villains more seriously then we could in SatAM. But as if you SatAM fanbrats will see that because you’re so biased, stubborn and opinionated!

And its that attitude alone as to why people hate Archie Sonic fans.

Oh and one more nitpick. Sonic is able to swim in this show. 

EPIC FAIL!!!!

That is the ONE THING you do NOT get wrong on Sonic! He can’t swim and his weakness is water! SatAM, you fail!

If that one flaw is enough to make you go into a spastic rage, why not apply it to Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog too? Also, the show was released when only the first two games were released. In those games, it was never made clear that water was Sonic's weakness, seeing as how he could leap into water and only die from a lack of oxygen. Water serving as a more blatant weakness became obligatory in Sonic Heroes. So it really wasn't a flaw on the writer's part, it was just something that was never fully elaborated upon in the games.

So after all of that, is there anything I DO like about SatAM? Well…some of the comedy. The comedy’s legitimately funny a lot of the times and despite me thinking the writing sucks, I don’t think EVERY episode sucks. I kinda liked “Cry of the Wolf” and “Spyhog” and “Sonic’s Nightmare” wasn’t too bad ethier (especially since you get “Where were you when they were handing the brains out?”) So don’t think I just blindly hate everything about this show. There’s some things I do like so I don’t completely hate it. I don’t even HATE the show, I DISLIKE it. There’s a big difference. 

If you only dislike it then why did you get pissed over the most trivial things, and why did you go all fanboy on the Archie comics? I'm just saying.

So that’s my review on Sonic SatAM. This show is clearly out-dated and it hasn’t aged well at all.

I'd say it has aged better than the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon.

The writing is all over the place, the characters are ill-used and in Sally’s case, over glorified, the animation stinks and the overall execution just isn’t very good. Now let me clarify something with you SatAM fans. I TIRED to like this show.

So attempting to like this show put you to sleep?

The key word being “TRIED”. I TRIED to like this show. I really, REALLY did. But I just couldn’t. It just wasn’t what I wanted and it wasn’t what everybody said it was. I’m sure there was a good show buried somewhere but it just didn’t have the staff to make it good. That isn’t to say it ISN’T good. We all have different tastes when it comes to the media. There is NO LAW that says what a good story is and what isn’t. We all have our perceptions on good writing and bad writing.

"Which is why I insult SatAM "fanboys" while hypocritically acting like a fanboy for Archie Sonic."

What I think is bad writing might be considered good writing to you people. We all have our opinions and this is mine. You’re free to have yours and I’m cool with what you people think. If you like Sonic SatAM then that’s fine. If you hold this show close to your heart then hey, that’s great, I do NOT have a problem with it. I personally just don’t like this show. And if you have a problem with that then you guys need to grow up. 

Again, this end review reminds me of that one crappy LPer. He makes a sugarcoated review even after he pissed himself off over the games he has played. If you could figure our the reference, then congrats.

As a matter of fact, since I can’t trust you SatAM fans to be civil, I’m disabling the comments section.

"Because fuck the freedom to disagree! Hell, not even the sane SatAM fans get a pass!"

If you PROMISE to be civil about my opinions and act like mature, grown-up individuals instead of getting angry at me just for the fact I have a difference of opinion then I’ll allow the comments section to be back up. If you have something to say to me then leave me a note but BE CIVIL ABOUT IT! I won’t tolerate blind rage and hate after all.

A little late for that, considering your blind fanboyism for Archie Sonic.

I’m the Media Man and now if you’ll excuse me, I have my own funeral to attend to. 

(He gets up and leaves while carrying a tombstone under his arm.) 

Wait, so the Media Man was an entirely different person the entire time?

Mixedfan8643’s REAL thoughts: I DON’T actually think Sonic SatAM’s as bad as what I said in this review. My thoughts were exaggerated mostly. Sonic SatAM was actually pretty OK. It's not perfect but it's still a decent show. I prefer Sonic X and the Archie Sonic Comics though but Sonic SatAM is NOT a bad show by any means. YOU GOT ME?!?! I DO NOT HATE SATAM UNLIKE WHAT THE REVIEW SAYS SO DON'T THINK I DO!!!

Remember when I told you to keep his bold text in mind? It's likely that the text was put in after his review was originally published. Through his final words, we could tell that he stereotypes many SatAM fans.

Now for my final thoughts. This review was honestly not good. Though, am I really surprised? Whenever you take inspiration from someone like Mr. Enter, it's just a recipe for disaster. Plus, the less I say about the obvious tard raging, Archie fanboyism and SatAM fan bashing, the better. There do exist sane SatAM fans. Hell, many of them are even fans of modern Sonic. The way you view SatAM fans doesn't warrant any longterm respect.

This is REM, and I think I've found a new commentary fodder.


Install skin!
6:45 PM



This Skin was activated!

Just two rules: keep the copyright link and the "Install skin!" button.


© 2015 - 2024 Channeleven
Comments136
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
WillPower276's avatar
Is it just me or is Media Man is a biased review, like IGN, since he made a biased review on Captain America and Spongebob Squarepants.