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"Planes, Trains and Dude-Mobiles" is the eighty-fourth episode in the Sonic Boom television series. It first aired on 17 June 2017 in the United States.
The episode begins at Meh Burger, where Sonic and Knuckles are goofing off. After Knuckles finishes downing a milkshake and gets a brain-freeze, Tails comes running up to the two and says that he has big news. Knuckles thinks that Tails is getting married but Tails says that he is not and tells him and Sonic that their band Dude-itude has been asked to perform a concert on the other side of Seaside Island. Sonic and Knuckles are excited although Sonic asks Tails why, in which Tails reminds both him and Knuckles that the trio formed the band to save the females of Hedgehog Village from a hypnotic spell and ended Justin Beaver's musical career and also that there were crackers in the green room, after which Sonic and Knuckles both remember. When Sonic asks how they are going to get their gear to their concert, Tails introduces the Dude-Mobile.
As Sonic, Tails and Knuckles finish packing their equipment into Dude-Mobile, Amy and Sticks, who have been watching the boys, see them prepare leave. Upon their departure, Amy tells them to have fun and do nothing she would not do, to which Sonic remarks that that means having no fun, much to Amy's annoyance. Heading down the road on their fifteen-hour long road trip, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles relax by jamming to some beats, with Sonic being confident that nothing can stop their trip. His hopes are dashed however when the group makes a stop so Knuckles can use a toilet. As Tails then takes an interest in seeing a ketchup bottle-shaped water tower on the way after reading about it in a pamphlet, an impatient Sonic allows this one stop. Sonic gets annoyed during the road trip, however, as the stops do not end there because Tails and Knuckles keep stopping for more potty breaks and roadside attractions. After the group then stops to see the world's largest non-rocking chair, Sonic has had just about enough and contacts Amy, who says she and Sticks are having a relaxing spa weekend, over his Communicator to complain. This does little to help Sonic's mood, which is taken down another notch as he sees Tails and Knuckles' amazement over worthless tourist merchandise.
On the road again, Sonic snaps after seeing Tails drive at an incredible slow pace. Taking over, Sonic tries driving the crew to the concert as fast as possible, but soon gets pulled in by a police trooper. Disgruntled about Sonic's lack of respect for the local speed limit, the Trooper gives him a speeding ticket despite Sonic's attempts to explain who he is and what his band has to get to with Tails' aid. After the Trooper leaves with promise that he will be keeping an eye on them, Sonic lets Knuckles take the wheel for the time being. Later at night, Sonic and Tails are fast asleep while Knuckles is driving. Arriving at a fork in the road, Knuckles takes the path with a thunderstorm about it, interpreting it as a sign.
Sonic awakes soon after in the Dude-Mobile, only to find a large opossum next to him. The surprise makes Sonic scream in chock, which quickly makes everyone else in the vehicle scream too. After everyone calms down, Sonic asks Knuckles who the opossum is, to which Knuckles explains that he was a drifter he picked up so he could have company while Sonic and Tails slept. Tails asks the opossum what he is doing in these parts, but he only reveals that he was "biding [his] time". No sooner, the car radio plays an announcement that identifies the opossum as the notorious "Bike Chain Bandit". As Sonic and co. "discretely" plan to deal with the Bike Chain Bandit, the bandit attacks Knuckles, causing him to veer off course. Sonic thus kicks the Bike Chain Bandit out of the Dude-Mobile, gets behind the vehicle's wheel, and drives everyone away as the Bike Chain Bandit comes back.
The next morning, Sonic and co. get pulled in by the Trooper again for exceeding the speed limit once more. Sonic tries to explain that they saw the Bike Chain Bandit, but the Trooper only notices the duffle of bike chains on the Dude-Mobile's backseat (which was left behind by the bandit). Declaring that he always knew Sonic and co. were up to no good, he has the trio arrested and put in jail. The Trooper gives Sonic one phone call, which he uses to call Amy to bail them out. However, Amy, who is busy dealing with another catastrophe in Hedgehog Village alongside Sticks, does not believe his story and hangs up. As such, the Trooper leaves Sonic, Tails and Knuckles behind in their cell. It is then that the trio sees that Salty is in their cell too. Recognizing Sonic, Tails and Knuckles as "Dreamboat Express" (whom he is a big fan of), Salty reveals, after seeing that the trio has been imprisoned too, that the Trooper has been arresting everyone lately thanks to the Bike Chain Bandit, including Salty himself after he started his own chain wallet business. Sonic says that if they can get out, his group can clear their names by bringing in the Bike Chain Bandit, to which Salty offers his to help them bust out. Sonic then formulates a plan: while Salty distracts the Trooper, he and his friends will break out using a powerful and inconspicuous magnet (which Tails happens to have). The group puts their plan into action when the Trooper arrives with food, with Tails snatching the cell keys on the wall with the magnet while Salty spills the food for the Trooper to pick up. As Sonic and co. escape though, the Trooper notices them.
Boarding the Dude-Mobile, Sonic and crew head out to find the Bike Chain Bandit, with the Trooper right on their tail on his motorcycle. When the heroes find the bandit however, he snatches a scooter from an Old Lady and tries to escape. The chase eventually takes the group into a forest where a lava river separates the Bike Chain Bandit from the Dude-Mobile. In response, Sonic uses the Blue Force One inside the Dude-Mobile to catch up to the bandit from the air. Meanwhile, Tails uses Dude-Mobile's boosters to help them jump over the lava river. When the Trooper fails the jump however, Tails flies out and saves him with his Enerbeam. At the same time, Sonic brings the Bike Chain Bandit to a stop. After the Trooper arrests the bandit, he apologizes to Sonic and co. for misjudging them and allows them to go free.
Now pressed on time, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles race to their concert. When they arrive however, they find the concert stage empty and being swept by the Fennec Male. Knuckles wonders if they are too late, but the Fennec Male reveals that they are actually too early--by a whole month. It is by then that Tails realizes that he was so excited about the concert that he did not pay attention to the date and suggests they pass the time by visiting the "World's Oldest Rock" which was not too far away from the area. Sonic subsequently snaps and lunges at Tails, although Knuckles holds him back while the fox flees.
When the second season for Sonic Boom was approved, Alan Denton and Greg Hahn knew that they wanted to write a road trip story, which lead to the development of "Planes, Trains and Dude-Mobiles".[3] When pitching "Planes, Trains and Dude-Mobiles", Alan and Greg knew they needed a second plot for Amy and Sticks, though no ideas were really established right away. They soon thought up of the idea to have two separate episodes run side-by-side, crossing over.[4][5]
The cover of the Sonic comic-based magazine getting simplified is most likely due to it featuring pre-Super Genesis Wave characters such as Mina Mongoose. Due to Sega's mandates after the lawsuit with Ken Penders, no pre-Super Genesis Wave character was allowed to be used in any future Sonic the Hedgehog issue or media.
The recurring usage of the sentence "gotta go fast" in this episode is a reference to the theme song for Sonic X, which has since gone on to become an iconic Sonic catchphrase.
However, the "Gotta Go Fast" montage was Alan and Greg's love letter to 1980 movie montages.[8]
The World's Largest Non Rocking Chair (left) and Alan Denton at the World's Largest Rocking Chair.
As Alan Denton personally loves road trips, the locations Dude-itude visited (the water tower shaped like a ketchup bottle, the rusted cars that were stuck in the ground and the World's Largest Non-Rocking Chair) are based on real-life locations Alan visited.[9]
Even the "World's Oldest Rock" that Tails mentioned at the end of the episode is a real-life location that Alan visited during a college road trip.[10]
↑Bill Freiberger on Twitter. Twitter (15 June 2017). Retrieved on 15 June 2017. "Bill Freiberger: 236: The guys are stoked to find out their band, Dude-itude, has booked its first road gig so they hit the road in their new decked-out van."
↑Alan Denton on Twitter. Twitter (18 June 2017). Retrieved on 18 June 2017. "Alan Denton: From the moment season 2 was a go, Greg & I knew we wanted to write a road trip story. Hence, "Planes Trains & Dude-Mobiles." 2/"
↑Alan Denton on Twitter. Twitter (25 June 2017). Retrieved on 25 June 2017. "Alan Denton: When we pitched the Dude-Mobile episode, we knew we needed a B plot for the girls to be doing, but nothing seemed to stick right away. 4/"
↑Alan Denton on Twitter. Twitter (25 June 2017). Retrieved on 25 June 2017. "Alan Denton: That's when Greg thought up the idea of two concurrent episodes with separate adventures that could cross-over. Bingo. 5/"
↑Alan Denton on Twitter. Twitter (18 June 2017). Retrieved on 18 June 2017. "Alan Denton: btw, the Bike Chain Bandit was loosely inspired by Mr. Hitcher from Tiny Toons' How I Spent my Summer Vacation. 8/"
↑Bill Freiberger on Twitter. Twitter (8 June 2017). Retrieved on 8 June 2017. "Bill Freiberger: A #sonicboom preview for next Saturday: Ep. 236 "Planes, Trains and Dude-Mobiles" written by @AlanTheWriter & @ItsGregHahn."
↑Alan Denton on Twitter. Twitter (18 June 2017). Retrieved on 18 June 2017. "Alan Denton: ...Speaking of which, "Gotta Go Fast" is our love letter to 80's movie montages. And, of course, Sanic. Always Sanic.
Sanic 4ever.
6/"
