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It Takes a Village to Defeat a Hedgehog
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"It Takes a Village to Defeat a Hedgehog" is the fifty-second episode in the Sonic Boom television series and the final episode of season one.[4] It first aired on 20 September 2015 in France and on 14 November 2015 in the United States.

Synopsis[]

In his most diabolical plan yet, Dr. Eggman decides to band together with all of Sonic's enemies. Shadow the Hedgehog, joins the fight.

Appearances[]

Characters:

Races and species:

Locations:

Items:

Vehicles:

Plot[]

At the beginning of the episode, Dr. Eggman is in his lair and has gathered all of the villains on Seaside Island. Included are the Lightning Bolt Society, T.W. Barker and his Stunt Bears, and Charlie in his mech suit. Eggman says that one member has not shown up yet, but explains anyway that he has assembled the villains to finally accomplish what they were unable to individually: defeat Team Sonic, their shared enemies. Meanwhile, at Amy's House, Team Sonic is busy putting together a Björnvaalden bookcase that Amy has bought at the foreign build-your-own-furniture store, but all the pieces are together in the box and the directions are complicated. Back at the lair, Eggman has passed around cheese, but when Barker asks where the crackers are, the doctor reveals he has none, promising he will send Orbot out to get some. Then, Eggman hears a voice behind him. It turns out to be Shadow the Hedgehog, and Eggman is overjoyed with him joining the team, being a big fan. The villains then start to argue about who should be leader as they take issue with Eggman's leadership, and Eggman decides he should train his recruits in team-building exercises to help get them all to work together.

While Team Sonic continues trying to build the bookcase, training starts for Eggman's recruits. First, the villains participate in a trust-fall exercise where each villain must fall down and trust the villain behind them to catch them. This goes well for everyone except Eggman, as Shadow is behind him; in a clear refusal to participate in the exercise, Shadow makes no attempt to grab Eggman, who lands hard on the floor but brushes off the incident. In their next exercise, the villains pass around an invisible ball while saying "zip", "zap", or "zop". The others participate, but when the ball is passed to Shadow, he does not participate again, saying nothing and simply standing there with his arms crossed. When Eggman attempts to get Shadow to participate and desperately accepts a disgusted scoff from him as a pass of the ball, the hedgehog suddenly orders him to be silent, shocking the others.

Shadow decides that he has had enough of these exercises, believes the so-called "villains" before him are nothing more than "fools that waste time" and, despite Eggman's best attempts to get him to stay, teleports out of the lair. As Team Sonic goes out to buy a new bookcase after Knuckles accidentally breaks a piece of the original, Eggman despairs over losing Shadow as an ally, certain he was the key to his team's victory; however, his recruits insist they do not need an arrogant jerk like him and voice their trust in Eggman's leadership, which gives him the incentive he needs to go through with the plan anyway. Time passes as the two teams work hard on their respective projects, Team Sonic on their freshly bought bookcase and Team Eggman on more serious training.

Back in the Village Center, Sonic declares the bookcase finished as he and his friends ran out of parts and instructions, but there are still a lot of parts laying around, and the bookcase itself is horribly built. But things get worse, as Eggman then shows up with his Giant Robot and some of the other villains in a sudden ambush, and Team Sonic has to split up in order to defeat them all; Amy and Sticks chase after the Lightning Bolt Society because they have stolen Lady Walrus's purse, Tails pursues Moth Bot, piloted by Willy Walrus, in his plane, and Knuckles battles T.W. Barker, who is operating the Octopus Bot. Eggman teases Sonic about his team being spread thin, but Sonic is confident he can still defeat him one-on-one. However, Charlie and several of Eggman's Badniks join the two, complicating matters further.

Eggman's plan actually begins to work as Team Sonic begins to have trouble fighting all of the villains separately, but Sonic gets an idea. He stands on the end of one of the bookcase's boards, using it like a seesaw, and calls to Giant Robot, getting it to slam its hand down on the other end. The makeshift seesaw catapults Sonic into Charlie's mech suit with enough force to knock it into Giant Robot, electrocuting them both and taking them out of the fight. Sonic then jumps onto Eggman's Eggmobile and angrily gives him an ultimatum: call off the other villains, or he will "pound [him] into next week". As Eggman attempts to talk his way out of the situation, Shadow reappears and knocks Sonic off the Eggmobile, unable to watch Eggman fail further even with all the help he has gathered.

The hedgehogs then duel, with Eggman trying to keep up with the attack (and distracting Shadow in the process). Shadow is eventually able to knock Sonic into the air and kick him back to the ground with enough force to create a large crater, and Eggman gloats that Shadow has finally beaten his nemesis. Eggman moves next to Shadow to take a "victory selfie" (much to Shadow's visible irritation), but he forgets to take the flash off, blinding Shadow momentarily. Sonic then gets up and makes his move, knocking Shadow away with an uppercut. Meanwhile, the other members of Team Sonic defeat their respective villains. Having had all he can stand, Shadow tells an apologetic Eggman he is unable to properly defeat Sonic with him around, then turns to Sonic and swears the two of them will fight again, but on his terms, before teleporting out of the Village Center.

Team Sonic reunites, and they all fist-bump each other and briefly celebrate their victory before turning to the one remaining person responsible for all the trouble. Eggman tries to retreat, but the team runs toward him and begins playing a volleyball-like game using the Eggmobile with Eggman still inside as payback for his actions. Watching him being thrown around, Orbot and Cubot express their fondness of this adventure and mention that they cannot wait for more adventures with the same eight people and four main locales. Cubot adds that maybe they should start an internet petition just to be sure. Meanwhile, Team Sonic continues to throw Eggman and his vehicle around.

Continuity[]

Goofs[]

  • When Shadow first appears in Eggman's Lair, Charlie and his mech appear much smaller than normal when a view of the villains' table is shown.
  • The episode's title is a play on the idiom "it takes a village to raise a child'.
  • When Charlie catches Dave the Intern in his mech when he falls over, Charlie and his mech are much smaller than normal.
  • When Eggman is reciting the rules of Zip, Zap or Zop, Shadow is seen standing back from the rest of the group. However, when T.W. Barker passes the "imaginary ball" to him, he is standing directly opposite.
  • After destroying Team Sonic's shelf by landing on it and taunting Sonic about its shoddy construction, while speaking, Shadow's eyes are fully black instead of red.
  • During one of the shots with Shadow and Sonic fighting each other, it is briefly noticeable by their shadows that they continually stop mid-air and teleport to another place.
  • When Sonic falls during Shadow's final attack, his falling position differs from his landing position.

Regional differences[]

  • In the Russian dub, when Orbot and Cubot say what they expect to see in season two, Orbot mentions seven characters instead of eight.

Production[]

According to Alan Denton, it was initially decided during the writing process of the first season of the Sonic Boom television series that Shadow was not going to be used. The reason was that if they had to, it would have to be in a way that did not make fun of him or made him look stupid or goofy. After a lot of work though, the writers came up with "It Takes a Village to Defeat a Hedgehog" which they believed both served the character and made for a funny episode.[5] Denton later mentioned that the reason Eggman said that Shadow was the "second most popular character in the whole canon" was due to a poll the writers saw about the popularity of Sonic characters on TSSZ.[6] The poll originated from Sega's Sonic Channel.[7]

Title in other languages[]

Language Title Translation
Albanian Duhet një fshat per te mposhtur një iriq You need a village to defeat a hedgehog
Dutch Massa-aanval Mass attack
Finnish Eeppinen taistelu Epic fight
French Il faut tout un village pour vaincre un hérisson It Takes a Village to Defeat a Hedgehog
German Um einen Igel zu besiegen brauchts ein Dorf To defeat a Hedgehog you need a Village
Hungarian Egy egész falu sem tud legyőzni egy sünt An entire village can't defeat a hedgehog
Italian Sonic contro Shadow Sonic versus Shadow
Japanese ソニックが大ピンチ!? Sonic in Big Danger!?
Korean (Cartoon Network) 악당 연합군 Villain United Forces
Korean (Netflix) 소닉을 없애려면 뭉쳐야 해 We must unite to take down Sonic
Persian گرفتن روستا برای شکست دادن یک جوجه تیغی Capture the village to defeat a hedgehog
Polish Super Team Eggmana Eggman's Super Team
Portuguese (Brazil) Ouriço Contra Ouriço Hedgehog Vs. Hedgehog
Portuguese (Portugal) É Preciso uma Aldeia para Derrotar um Ouriço It Takes a Village to Defeat a Hedgehog
Romanian E nevoie de tot satul ca să-l învingi pe Sonic It takes the whole village to beat Sonic
Russian Обьединение зла Association of evil
Spanish (Latin America) Todo un Pueblo Para Ganarle a un Erizo A Whole Village to Beat a Hedgehog
Spanish (Spain) Se Necesita un Pueblo para Derrotar a un Erizo It Takes a Village to Defeat a Hedgehog
Ukrainian (PixelTV) Потрібне селище щоб здолати їжака Need a village to overcome a hedgehog
Ukrainian (PlusPlus) Усі на їжака All on the Hedgehog

Trivia[]

  • This episode's name comes from the African proverb "It takes a village".
  • This episode marks the debut of Shadow the Hedgehog in the Sonic Boom television series.
  • The foreign build-your-own-furniture store Amy mentioned might be a parody of the Swedish-Dutch ready-to-assemble furniture store chain, IKEA.
  • The foreign built-it-own furniture store Amy got her bookcase from was first mentioned on the introduction page of Sonic Boom #5.
  • T.W. Barker's complaint about the missing crackers after Willy Walrus comments on the cheeses is a reference to the Wallace and Gromit short film, A Grand Day Out.
  • Eggman breaks the fourth wall by mentioning that Shadow is the second most popular character in the canon series.
    • Orbot and Cubot also break the fourth wall by saying what they expect in season two at the end of the episode, as well as Cubot saying that just to be safe, they should start an internet petition.
  • The "Battleforce Galactica" franchise mentioned by Dave the Intern is a parody of the Battlestar Galactica franchise.
  • The music used during the villains' training montage is based off the theme song of the The A-Team. This song was also used in "Closed Door Policy".
  • This episode, along with the "The Sidekick", "Can an Evil Genius Crash on Your Couch for a Few Days?", "Sole Power" and "Chili Dog Day Afternoon", were the only ones during the first season of Sonic Boom to be released in their production order in the United States.
  • In the Finnish dub of this episode, Shadow was called by the name "Varjoisa".
  • Shadow's teleporting ability is similar to Chaos Control, but with two differences. One: the teleporting is just disappearing with a flash of light, while Chaos Control is bending the space-time rules. Two: In Sonic Boom, Shadow just teleports without an artifact or saying name of the move, while in video games, Shadow uses a Chaos Emerald and says, "Chaos Control!".

References[]

  1. 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."
  2. Sonic Boom: It Takes a Village to Defeat a Hedgehog. Zap2it.com. Retrieved on 4 November 2015.
  3. Cartoon Network - Schedule (2015/11/30). Retrieved on 12 March 2017.
  4. Bill Freiberger on Twitter. Twitter (21 October 2015). Retrieved on 23 October 2015. "Scott Devine: What are Sonic Boom's last two episodes' english names for the first season? / Bill Freiberger: "Counter Productive" and "It Takes a Village to Defeat a Hedgehog"."
  5. Alan Denton on Twitter. Twitter (13 November 2015). Retrieved on 14 November 2015. "Alan Denton: Real quick, before the Twitter fun starts up again. "True story: During the Sonic Boom season 1 writing process, I had a document on my computer with every possible episode concept that we could think of. One of these ideas, way down towards the bottom, simply said, "Shadow Episode." And, next to that title, I had written these words. "Never Gonna Happen." The reason? Because if we were going to use Shadow, it had to be in a way that didn't make fun of him or make him look stupid / goofy. It took a lot of work, but finally we did come up with a concept that we think served the character AND made for a funny episode. It airs tomorrow as the final. I think you should watch it. Hugs and kisses, Alan Denton""
  6. Alan Denton on Twitter. Twitter (8 April 2019). Retrieved on 8 April 2019. "Alan Denton: I'm pretty sure we threw in that line because we saw a user poll on @tssznews about most popular characters and Shadow was in second place."
  7. Sonic Channel. Sega (23 June 2006). Archived from the original on 15 December 2009. Retrieved on 10 April 2019.
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