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"Aim Low" is the fifteenth episode in the Sonic Boom television series. It first aired on January 14th, 2015 in France and on February 28th, 2015 in the United States.
Synopsis[]
When Dr. Eggman loses his confidence he enlists the aid of motivational speaker and life coach, Soar the Eagle. Full of confidence, Eggman fires Soar only to discover that he's no longer capable of making a decision on his own.
Appearances[]
Characters:
- Badniks
- Child Monkey
- Cubot
- Dave the Intern
- Dr. Eggman
- Fastidious Beaver
- Gogoba Chief
- Mayor Fink
- Mike the Ox
- Old Monkey
- Orbot
- Satellite robot (only appearance)
- Scorpion Bot (first appearance)
- Soar the Eagle (first appearance)
- Stratford
- Team Sonic
- Wolfie
Races and species:
Locations:
Items:´
Vehicles:
Plot[]
On Seaside Island, Eggman calls forth a new weapon after Team Sonic had just finished off his Scorpion Bot. However, Sonic destroys it before it can even do anything. Instead of getting angry, Eggman retreats in his Eggmobile, dispirited and having lost his confidence. Meanwhile, Team Sonic ponders on why Eggman has not been as challenging as he usually is.
Back at his lair, Eggman tries to watch some TV while moping when he sees a commercial from Soar the Eagle who is advertising his seminar as a motivational speaker and life coach, promising to help his clients "soar like an eagle" like they were born to. Relating to it, Eggman hires Soar to rebuild his confidence. Coming to Eggman's lair, Soar gets the doctor fired up about getting his life back on track with inspirational speeches and convinces Eggman to hire him as his personal guru. However, Soar soon sees he has a lot of work ahead of him after witnessing Eggman's low self-esteem.
To rebuild Eggman's confidence and convince himself of his maliciousness once more, Soar has him get some small evil victories under his belt, such as stealing a meal from Dave at Meh Burger and ruining children's ice cream. Finally, Soar has Eggman use explosives to create a statue of himself, which causes a rock slide that endangers a crowd beholding an enormous ball of twine. Fortunately, Sonic, who was watching the ball with his team, stops the rocks, and Amy notes that Eggman is getting back on track.
Later at his lair, Eggman has made a marvelous recovery from his low confidence. Soar insists that Eggman still requires more guidance, but Eggman becomes arrogant and fires Soar, something the eagle warns him will not bode well. Eggman tries to get back to his scheming with Orbot and Cubot, but it soon becomes clear that Eggman is no longer able to make decisions for his plans on his own. Later on the beach with his team, where they are playing in the sand with Tails' Plane, Sonic becomes suspicious of Eggman's activities since he has not heard from him in a while and leaves to check up on him. When he gets to Eggman's lair though, Sonic finds Eggman slouching on his couch in self-pity while Orbot practically confirms that Eggman has given up on himself.
With the threat of Eggman gone, Sonic tries to relax but soon grows bored and restless. He tries doing something with his friends, but in his hyperactiveness he only ends up scattering Tails' papers in his workshop, destroying Knuckles' new birdhouse and ruining Amy's new painting, all while growing more paranoid about Eggman. Quickly fed up with Sonic's interruptions, Tails, Knuckles, Amy and Sticks decide to remotivate Eggman just to make Sonic more productive. They attempt to pick a fight with Eggman, but when the doctor is indifferent towards their intrusion, they lure Sonic over and provoke him by pretending to be defeated; Sonic easily sees through his teammates' bad acting, though. Amy admits to deceiving him, but when Eggman notes how "stupid" her idea was, Sonic becomes defensive and confronts Eggman; their argument quickly evolves into animosity. Out of frustration, Eggman gets over his slump and summons his robots, which Sonic engages while the rest of the team watches, smiling over things being back to normal.
Continuity[]
- Soar the Eagle is introduced.
- The painting Amy made in this episode would appear in Sticks' possession in "In the Midnight Hour".
- Sonic destroys the Unnamed Village's only tourist attraction (the giant ball of twine). This would be brought up in "Unnamed Episode".
- Dr. Eggman would use a recording of Sonic stopping the rockslide at the roadside attraction to program FriendBot in "FiendBot".
Goofs[]
- In the scene where Scorpion Bot's tail drops down on the ground, its tail is shown to be slightly curled up, but in the scene that follows instantly afterwards, its tail is flattened out completely.
- When Tails growls at Sonic after the latter scatters his papers, the former's sports tape on one of his feet is missing.
- In the scene in Eggman's Lair where Sticks falls to her knees clutching her chest, her eyelashes disappear.
Production[]
The production of "Aim Low" began over a year prior to its release date in the United States, and was one of the first scripts worked with by Bill Freiberger. The idea for the episode itself was conceived by Alan Denton and Greg Hahn.[4]
The giant ball of twine in the episode was inspired by Alan Denton's real-life experience with cheesy roadside attractions, more specifically a real-life ball of twine Denton visited himself in 2004. This concept was incorporation by both Denton and Freiberger, the latter who was also a roadside attraction enthusiast.[4][5] Also, the scene where Sonic makes Knuckles drop his birdhouse initially started with the concept that the writers needed for Knuckles to do something that Sonic could interrupt. After reflecting on Knuckles' personality, it was decided that Knuckles would set up a birdhouse to show an instance of his nature-loving side.[4]
According to Freiberger, Sticks was probably meant to have a few lines in the episode, but they were cut out from the final product.[4]
Title in other languages[]
| Language | Title | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| Chinese | 胸无大志 | Have No Ambition |
| Dutch | Laag mikken | Aim Low |
| Finnish | Puhti Pois | Out of energy |
| French | Coaching perdant | Coaching Loser |
| German | Niedrige Ziele | Low targets |
| Greek | Στόχευσε χαμηλά | Aim Low |
| Hungarian | Tojáshegy depressziós | Eggman is depressed |
| Italian | Morale a terra | Downhearted |
| Japanese | 自信をなくしたエッグマン | Eggman Lost Confidence |
| Korean (Cartoon Network) | 자신감 회복 프로젝트 | Project Confidence Recovery |
| Korean (Netflix) | 에그맨을 되살려라 | Bring Eggman back to life |
| Persian | بی هدف | Aimless |
| Polish | Mierz nie za wysoko | Measure not too high |
| Portuguese (Brazil) | Crise do Vilão de Meia-Idade | Middle-aged Villain Crisis |
| Portuguese (Portugal) | Altos Voos | High Flights |
| Romanian | Țintește jos | Aim down |
| Russian | Эггман в депрессии | Eggman is Depressed |
| Spanish (Latin America) | Bajas Expectativas | Low Expectations |
| Spanish (Spain) | Apunta Abajo | Aim Low |
| Turkish | Üzgün Eggman | Sad Eggman |
| Ukrainian (Pixel TV) | Низька ціль | Low target |
| Ukrainian (PlusPlus) | Прагни меншого | Strive for less |
Trivia[]
- This episode aired in France as the fourteenth episode in the series.
- The way Dr. Eggman's grumbles when returning to his lair after Scorpion Bot's defeat sounds familiar to the trademark grumbling by the Hanna-Barbera character Muttley.
- Sticks does not speak in this episode.
- One of the commercials Eggman views on TV uses an audio clip from a [YouTube playthrough ] of Super Metroid by Game Informer.[6]
- Hedgehog Abbey is a reference to the British drama show Downton Abbey.
- In Finnish dub, Hedgehog Abbey is referred as "Sulatetut Elämät" (Melted Lives), which is a reference to Finnish drama show Salatut Elämät.
- When Eggman claims he got his confidence back, he does the Moonwalk, and another move done by Michael Jackson.
- One of the pictures seen on the shelves in Amy's House is the penguin picture that Amy showed to Orbot and Cubot in "Dude, Where's My Eggman?".
- During the scene where Sonic's friends are blocking Eggman's view of the television, the show on the screen appears to be the exact same episode of "Pawn Shop Wars: Gogoba Edition" that Sonic was watching in "Eggheads".
- This is the first episode where an Eggman robot is defeated off-screen.
References[]
- ↑ Bill Freiberger on Twitter. Twitter (18 March 2016). Archived from the original on 11 May 2021. Retrieved on 18 March 2016. "Alexander Soerensen: Has Natalys Raut-Sieuzac directed every Sonic Boom episode? / Bill Freiberger: Yes she has."
- ↑ Sonic Boom : Aim Low. Zap2it.com. Retrieved on 24 January 2015.
- ↑ Cartoon Network - Schedule (2015/10/26). Retrieved on 8 March 2017.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Sonic Boom Commentary: Ep 15 - Aim Low with guest Bill Freiberger. Youtube (28 February 2014). Retrieved on 1 March 2014.
- ↑ Twitter (Photo circa 2004) (28 February 2014). Retrieved on 1 March 2014. "Alan Denton: This week on #SonicBoom, the gang visited a giant ball of twine. Where do we get these ideas?! (Photo circa 2004)"
- ↑ Andrew Reiner (5 June 2018). Game Informer Is Now A Part Of Sonic The Hedgehog's Continuity. Game Informer. Retrieved on 17 June 2018.
