Trails of the Missing Tails (Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog)
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| "Trails of the Missing Tails (Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog)" | ||||||||||||
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 If you thought the final episode was extremely crazy, insane, and surreal. Well.. this episode takes that fact about the series to a whole different level of nonsensical.
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"Trails of the Missing Tails" is the seventh episode of an American animated television series Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. Despite being produced as the seventh episode, it aired as the twentieth episode during the show's original run.
Plot
Inside a fish-infested realm called the Warp of Confusion, sits the disgruntled scientist, Doctor Warpnik, who is angry and vengeful at his cousin, Dr. Robotnik, for banishing him to this strange place, years ago. He watches Mobius through a telescope, plotting his revenge by kidnapping Sonic and Tails to catch Robotnik's attention.
Bad Qualities
- Misleading title: The episode is all about Tails going missing, yet it goes into filler territory before and after Tails was no longer missing. He was kidnapped twice but was missing for a little amount of time.
- It has a very similar vibe to another episode, "Tails' New Home", where the animation is very different and less consistent than usual.
- The animation has a slight bit of a downgrade. This can be noticeable when the characters get floaty and some dodgy animation is way easier to spot than before (Tails, Robotnik *in one shot* and Scratch having some rough animation cels when they are standing still).
- It is slightly rushed. Not only because of the inconsistent animation and writing mentioned above, but there is also a moment when Scratch's voice goes off-model when he starts grunting while he was caught by his trap, it sounds like a completely different voice actor was there instead of Phil Hayes voicing him.
- Another example of this is Tails's manly yelling that is played over Tails opening his mouth and biting in a deranged way after Sonic was describing what's delicious about a chili dog.
- While not as random as the final episode, when Robotnik enters the Warp of Confusion to fight his cousin and after Sonic rescued Tails, there is a bunch of crazed nonsense that ensues (given the name of it being a confusing world) and it never takes a break from how chaotic it gets.
- Predictable slapstick and the lack of any actual jokes don't fit its comedic setting.
- There are some reused visual gags, such as the fish and safe falling on Scratch, Grounder, and Coconuts when Sonic opens a drain. Which comes off as forced than ironic.
- The logic of this episode is so illogical, unexplained, and flat-out bizarre; it doesn't make much sense, even for AoStH standards of crazy logic. It's carried to the point that it feels more like a dream instead of being in a surreal world. For example, how does Sonic even have the ability to pull down the smiling sun in the sky with his bare hands and not immediately burn or make the planet lit on fire!?
- Dr. Warpnik's backstory can be resolved so easily. There is a way to escape and yet he continues to plot against Robotnik while he stays in the world he now lives in.
- When Scratch, Grounder, and Coconuts get mutated; they turn against Robotnik to make him learn some manners. But their gloating and taunting allowed Robotnik and Warpnik to escape, which is kind of underwhelming.
- Speaking of Dr. Warpnik, he is extremely unlikable, downright annoying, off-putting, weird, zoophilic, insanely idiotic, both abusive & infatuated towards his fish, and a creepy lunatic who has a lisp and a grating voice. He also lacks depth in his personality when he was meant to have a sympathetic backstory.
- Sonic, while heroic enough to save his brother and still a likable character, has some jerkish moments like preventing Tails to get the chili dog since it was a "solo mission" when he was going to see what it was (to be fair, he just didn't want Tails to get hurt which can basically be understandable although he didn't need to push Tails aside).
- Shameless Plotholes: If the Warp of Confusion can be entered through a tunnel that has an orange claw, then what is the "super dimensional tunnel" that is a trash can that has fish inside of it? It's never explained that it was a way for Sonic and Tails to escape the Warp of Confusion.
- Bad Ending: After Sonic and Tails defeat Robotnik & Warpnik as they somehow escape through some trash can which is still the same way Sonic entered through the orange claw, Robotnik and Warpnik are still fish fighting with each other and they never resolve anything. So there isn't any explanation for how Robotnik escaped the world.
- Despite the Sonic Says segment's moral to remember the area code of your home by the heart being rather informative in a way, it has a nonsensical way of presenting the moral by Tails asking for a home when Sonic and Tails are globe-trotters.
Good Qualities
- The main characters such as Sonic (for the most part), Tails, Robotnik, and his henchmen, for example, still have their charm.
- Robotnik's quotes "You fish fondling fruitcake!" and "You worthless wimp!", are some of his best insults.
- Depending on your view, some people can find Dr. Warpnik rather entertaining to watch.
- Following on that pointer, the sheer chaos that ensues in the Warp of Confusion, despite being incredibly nonsensical, can be viewed as fun to watch by viewers.
- There are plenty of funny and entertaining moments (often done unintentionally).
- The Sonic Says segment has a level of insight in it's message, despite how nonsensical it was presented.
- It had a decent beginning before the plotholes took place.
Trivia
- This is one of the few episodes where Scratch, Grounder, and Coconuts work as a trio rather than Coconuts being in competition with the other two.
- Sonic does not wear any disguises in this episode.
- The Warp of Confusion was based on the Special Stages from the early Sonic the Hedgehog games (the fish that float in the background are specifically taken from the Special Stages from Sonic the Hedgehog for the Mega Drive). These stages were in fact referred to as "Warps of Confusion" in early English-language background material, including Sega of America's internal Sonic bible, the Sonic the Hedgehog promotional comic, and the Sonic Interview from 1991's edition of The Official Sonic the Hedgehog Yearbook.
- This is the second episode where Robotnik does not say "I hate that hedgehog!" at the end.
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