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Sonic Christmas Blast

From Sonic Retro

SonicChristmasBlastTitle.png
Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog episode #66
"Sonic Christmas Blast"
Written by:
Country: United States
Release Date RRP Code Rating
Television
US
1996-11-24 $? ?
Sonically Ever After

Sonic Christmas Blast was a Christmas television special for the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon series produced by DiC Entertainment, who also produced the Saturday morning cartoon series that had run alongside it. It aired on the USA Network on 24 November 1996, nearly three years after the original series had been canceled. When Toon Disney aired the Adventures series, Sonic Christmas Blast was regularly shown in their annual Christmas marathons.

The special was advertised in issue #41 of the Sonic the Hedgehog comic book as An X-Tremely Sonic Christmas. This suggests the special was intended to promote the Sega Saturn game Sonic X-treme, which was delayed (and later canceled). As a result, the special was changed to be named after the Sonic game that did come out in time for Christmas, Sonic 3D Blast.

Synopsis

Christmas Eve has come to Robotropolis (erroneously pronounced robot-tropolis), and everyone in town is gathered around the Jumbotron in the middle of the square so they can see Santa Claus make a very important announcement - he's retiring, and for some reason, he has picked Dr. Robotnik, alias Robotniklaus, as his replacement! Of course, being the greedy porker he is, Robotnik demands that the children give him presents for Christmas instead of the other way around.

Meanwhile, Sonic recruits Tails to help him find some Christmas presents for Princess Sally. (It should be noted that in the special, Sally is colored in her pink-fur color scheme from the Saturday morning cartoon's pilot, even though she is drawn the way she usually looks. Also, she does not have a single line in the special, except for some gasping and mumbling noises.) This confuses Tails, because Sonic just agreed with Sally that they wouldn't get each other anything this year. It turns out that every year they make this agreement, Sally ends up getting Sonic a bunch of cool stuff (such as a ring on his finger she gave him last year that becomes important later on), while Sonic usually takes the agreement seriously and doesn't get her anything. This year, however, Sonic's decided to actually get Sally a bunch of presents.

The duo arrives at Robotropolis only to find that all the stores in the local mall are empty. A nearby kid shows and alerts Sonic (and Tails) about Santa's retirement and Robotnik taking over the chore. Just then, Scratch and Grounder show up with an animatronic Santa robot who was actually giving the retirement announcement earlier and try to kill them, but of course, they fail miserably. Sonic, disguised as a garbageman, then tricks the henchbots into telling him where the real Santa is.

In spite of attacks by some SWATbots (who look nothing like those seen in the Saturday morning cartoon), Sonic manages to free Santa, but it doesn't change the fact that Robotnik still has all the presents. Just then, Santa recognizes the squiggle on the ring that Sally gave Sonic last year as being the same as a squiggle on an ancient cave painting that reveals the secret of achieving ultimate velocity. Apparently, the one who wears the ring (Sonic) must pass three tests of skills.

Sonic passes the tests easily, in spite of Scratch and Grounder's attempts to stop him, and then he uses his new super speed to steal back the presents Robotnik has taken (as well as the doctor's clothes) and redistribute the presents all over Mobius. After the hedgehog delivers Sally's presents, Santa, impressed with the job, decides to retire after all and turns his job over to Sonic.

Home Media releases

The special has been released onto VHS and DVD numerous times, mainly just containing the special itself, but the 2003 release from Sterling Entertainment also contains 2 (3 on the DVD) episodes of Sonic Underground, those being Three Hedgehogs and a Baby, The Price of Freedom and the DVD-exclusive episode Mummy Dearest.

The Shout! Factory DVD "DIC Animated Christmas Blast" contains the special alongside other DIC-produced episodes or specials relating to Christmas.

Trivia

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  • Humpty from Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine appears, but is never mentioned by name. There is also a little boy who warns Sonic and Tails about Robotniklaws, who is also never named.
  • Sonic is mainly 5-fingered in this episode, but he sometimes switches to 4 fingers and mainly is 4-fingered in AOSTH and SatAM.

Transcripts

Physical scans

VHS version

VHS, US (Lions Gate)
AdventuresofSonictheHedgehog SonicChristmasBlast VHS.jpg
Cover
VHS, US (Sterling)
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Cover
VHS, AU
SonicChristmasBlast VHS AU Box.jpg
Cover
VHS, BR
SonicChristmasBlast VHS BR Box.jpg
Cover

DVD version

DVD, US (Sterling)
SonicChristmasBlast DVD US animationstation cover.jpg
Cover
DVD, US (NCircle)
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Cover
DVD, US "DIC Animated Christmas Blast"
(Shout! Factory)
DiCChristmasBlast DVD US cover.jpg
Cover
DVD, UK (Normal)
SonicChristmasBlast DVD UK cover.jpg
Cover
DVD, UK (with Bonus disc)

DVD, AU
SonicChristmasBlast DVD AU Box.jpg
Cover
DVD, AU (Christmas Cartoon Combo)
SonicChristmasBlast DVD AU combo cover.jpg
Cover
DVD, NZ "Cool Titles"
Cool Titles Christmas Blast AU cover.jpg
Cover
Cool Titles Christmas Blast AU disc.jpg
Disc
DVD, FR
SonicChristmasBlast DVD FR Box.jpg
Cover
DVD, PT
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Cover
DVD, PL

DVD, BG
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Cover
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Disc
DVD, DK/ES/NO

DVD, BR
SonicChristmasBlast DVD BR Box.jpg
Cover

External links

References


Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog
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Main page


Magazine articles
Reception


Development