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"Return of the Buddy Buddy Temple of Doom"[2] is the eighty-ninth episode in the Sonic Boom television series. It first aired on 22 July 2017 in the United States and on 2 September 2017 in France.
Synopsis[]
Unable to use his robots, Eggman employs the Froglodytes to force Gogobas to mine for a crystal that will power his giant new Mech Suit.[3]
Appearances[]
Characters:
- Badniks
- Crab Bot (x2)
- Mantis Bot (x2)
- Charlie
- Cubot
- Dr. Eggman
- Drill Bot
- Gogobas
- Froglodytes
- Froglodyte High Priest
- Froglodyte Taskmaster (only appearance)
- Frogymandias
- Orbot
- Team Sonic
Races and species:
Locations:
Items:
- Amy's Hammer
- Communicator
- Tummel Crystal (only appearance)
- Wrist controller
Vehicles:
Plot[]
In the Village Center, Sonic is in the middle of a battle with a Mech Suit-wearing Charlie, who he promptly defeats by spinning around to the point of dizziness. Eggman, having observed the battle with Orbot, complains to his minion that he could defeat Charlie easily with only a third of his robots and explains his desire to have his own mech suit to crush his foes with. Later, at his lair, Eggman designs blueprints for his mech suit, another iteration of his MeBot, and then starts to build it. After his work is done, he gets inside and marvels at his own creation, listing off its features such as lasers, missiles, a tractor beam, and power windows. He then activates the mech, but it quickly powers down despite its batteries being at full charge; Eggman theorizes he added too many features, ultimately blaming the power windows, but upon Orbot's suggestion of removing some features, he refuses as he clearly does not want to alter his mech suit.
This failure leaves Eggman depressed, and he goes to Meh Burger to sulk; at a nearby table, Sonic, Tails, and Amy watch him, with Amy deciding to talk to him (and leaving Sonic and Tails to question Team Sonic's dynamic with the supervillain). Eggman explains his troubles with MeBot to Amy, and she responds by saying that while she would like to help, it is against her best interests in this case, as she knows MeBot's creation is probably part of an evil plot to destroy her and her teammates, and instead suggests he find someone else to aid him. Eggman, while questioning who would be able to help him with mech suits, quickly notices Charlie nearby, still in his mech suit and attempting to eat a burger with no success. Later, the two are discussing their continued failures to defeat Sonic, with Charlie wishing he had the legendary Tummel Crystal in his possession to make fighting him easier; having caught Eggman's interest, he goes on to explain that it is a power source that can energize any mech suit and that it is believed to be located in the catacombs underneath the Buddy Buddy Temple. Eggman abruptly brings an end to the conversation and leaves while convincing Charlie that he is not going after the Crystal when, in reality, he is.
In the caves, Eggman, in his Eggmobile, is having Drill Bot drill for the Tummel Crystal, joined by some of his Badniks and Orbot and Cubot, when Drill Bot informs him of an incoming magnetic pulsar that soon after causes his robots' AI to malfunction, rendering them useless. He then runs into the Froglodytes and their high priest, who believe him to be a kingly centaur because of the Eggmobile, and the high priest begs for their lives to be spared. Eggman, taking advantage, promises to do so in exchange for their eternal servitude and, after the high priest agrees, their aid in digging for the Tummel Crystal (and a hat and cape), not caring how they get it done. Above ground, Sonic, Tails, and Amy are lost in a forest and eventually come across Gogoba Village. Sonic wants to leave before they get guilt-tripped into doing the Gogobas a favor, but Amy notes the place is empty, save for the Gogoba Chief, who informs them that everyone else in the village was taken away by the Froglodytes and, vindicating Sonic's worries, guilt-trips them into rescuing them.
Back underground, in the Froglodyte Caves, the Froglodytes have forced the Gogobas to mine for the Tummel Crystal, and their constant complaining gets on the nerves of one Froglodyte in particular, who orders other Froglodytes to capture them. When Eggman (now in the hat and cape he ordered the Froglodytes for) checks in, said Froglodyte tells him that the Gogobas are unable to do anything, but Eggman reminds him that if they do not mine for the Crystal, the Froglodytes will, causing him to order the Gogobas to continue working. Meanwhile, Sonic, Tails, and Amy find the entrance to the caves, noticing the footsteps leading inside; despite Sonic wishing to turn back and leave the Gogobas to their fate, Amy convinces him into going in. They quickly ambush the Froglodytes guarding near the entrance and look down from a cliff as below, Eggman is being fed and discussing his plans to gain the Tummel Crystal. However, when the heroes are about to intervene, Tails accidentally steps on a switch, triggering a net trap that ensnares them; Eggman notices this and orders the Froglodytes to seize them.
Later, the trio are chained together and forced into labor, with Amy's Hammer having been handed off to a nearby Gogoba who soon after finds the Tummel Crystal and tosses it to Eggman; after Sonic mentions the urgency of their situation, Amy informs him and Tails of her plan to use reverse psychology on the Gogoba with her hammer to give it back so she can break them all free. The plan works, allowing Amy to smash the trio's chains and Sonic to knock Eggman out of the Eggmobile, exposing him as a fake to the Froglodyte High Priest. Despite this, Eggman has what he needs and quickly uses his wrist controller to call MeBot into the caves, tossing the Tummel Crystal into its power chamber and jumping inside. Likewise, Sonic uses his Communicator to call his mech suit into the caves and takes control of it. The two have an intense and evenly matched fight that continues after they go above ground. Eggman eventually uses MeBot's tractor beam to pull Sonic in close, at which point Sonic uses his mech suit's hands to cover MeBot's shoulder-mounted missiles as they fire; the ensuing explosion knocks MeBot to the ground, and Eggman decides to take Sonic down with him by using its self-destruct feature. He pushes the button, but to his initial confusion, nothing happens; he once again blames MeBot's power windows for this development.
Sonic removes the Tummel Crystal from MeBot's power chamber, and the Froglodytes quickly bow to him, but he reminds them of how Eggman tricked them into servitude and tells them that instead of believing in false kings, they should make their own decisions. Though the high priest notes he is right, they still decide to bow to him anyway. Sonic, Tails, Amy, and the formerly enslaved Gogobas soon return to Gogoba Village and the Gogoba Chief, but as the episode fades to black, Tails shouts that they forgot to end on a joke, at which point three cream pies fall from the sky onto his head and everyone else laughs.
Continuity[]
- Sonic still has the mech suit he acquired in "Mech Suits Me".
- A boulder seen during Sonic and Dr. Eggman's mech suit fight has an Eggman-shaped imprint, signifying it as the same boulder that a mech suit-bound Sonic slammed Eggman into in "Mech Suits Me".
Goofs[]
- Charlie's Mech Suit is smaller than normal in this episode.
- When Sonic and the gang attacks the Froglodytes near the entrance, Tails' bangs are seen through his cap.
Production[]
According to Sam Freiberger, the mech suit fight in this episode was a major contributing factor to getting this story greenlit, as Freiberger wanted to do something a bit different with the battle.[5]
When pitching the title for this episode, Sam Freiberger initially suggested "Return of the Buddy Buddy Temple of Doom" as a goof. Against expectations however, the title never got changed.[6][7]
Title in other languages[]
Language | Title | Translation |
---|---|---|
French | Le retour qui craint du temple des Copains-Copains | The fearful return of the Buddy Buddy temple |
Italian | Ritorno al tempio maledetto | Return to the cursed temple |
Polish | Powrót do Świątyni Buddy Buddy | Back to the Buddy Buddy temple |
Portuguese (Brazil) | O Retorno do Templo da Amizade e da Perdição | The Return of Friendship and Doom Temple |
Portuguese (Portugal) | Regresso ao Templo Perdido da Amizade | Return to the Lost Temple of Friendship |
Spanish (Latin America) | De vuelta al templo Compa Compa | Back to the Buddy Buddy temple |
Trivia[]
- This episode is based loosely on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom:
- Said film's eponymous location is directly referenced in the title.
- The premise is at least partially similar; i.e., villagers being enslaved in a subterranean lair to look for magic rocks and the heroes being tasked with rescuing them, although Sonic was guilt-tripped whereas Indiana went voluntarily.
- The cap Tails wears is a reference to Short Round,[8] Indiana's kid sidekick, and Eggman wears a ceremonial skull headdress similar to the villain Mola Ram.
- The arrangement of the protagonists mirror Temple of Doom's: the main hero (Sonic/Indiana Jones), a heroine (Amy Rose/Willie Scott), and a young sidekick (Tails/Short Round).
- Tails being the butt of a joke at the end parodies Temple of Doom's finale, where Short Round pranks Indiana and Willie.
- Part of "The Raiders March" can be heard as Team Sonic and the captured Gogobas return to the village.
- Nine days before this episode aired on Boomerang, Bill Freiberger released the title card for this episode on Twitter as a teaser.[9]
- When Sonic, Amy and Tails get captured by Dr. Eggman's booby trap, he says "Ah, Sonic the Hedgehog. Snoo-ping as usual I see." Eggman's quote is a reference to the internet meme Robotnik Pingas, which is well known among Sonic fans on YouTube and based on an out-of-context line from the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog episode "Boogey-Mania".
- The montage of Eggman designing MeBot is taken from the 2002 American superhero film, Spider-Man.[10]
- When Eggman remarks MeBot as his "Ninth Symphony", he is referencing Ludwig van Beethoven's famous Ninth Symphony, which means a magnum opus of his.
- Eggman talking about how it seems like there is a "strict set of formulated guidelines" that keeps him and the villains from winning might be a reference to the story mandates companies, like Sega, tend to set for their franchises to ensure their storylines unfold as the companies want.
- The Tummel Crystal's name contains a small reference: "Tummel" is the Yiddish word for "chaos" which could be a nod to the Chaos Emeralds or Chaos Crystals.[11]
- The quotes "Hail to the king, baby!" and "We're bumping with the flavor now!" said by Eggman and Sonic respectively in this episode are narrator exclamations from the 1999 Nintendo 64 video game Beetle Adventure Racing.[12]
- The scene where Sonic's Mech Suit is dodging shurikens from MeBot is reminiscent of the scene in Spider-Man where Spider-Man is dodging spinning blades fired by the Green Goblin.
- This episode marks the first time an element from the Sonic Boom comic series (MeBot) has been included in the Sonic Boom television series.
- Charlie says the word "sigh" in the same context as Lucy Loud from the Nickelodeon animated series, The Loud House.
- Coincidentally, Nika Futterman, who is the voice of Sticks in this series, went on to voice Luna Loud in that same Nickelodeon series.
- Sticks herself didn't make an appearance in this episode.
- Bill Freiberger has explained that the AI-disrupting magnetic pulsar in this episode that shut down Eggman's robots was a "naturally occurring event".[13]
References[]
- ↑ Bill Freiberger on Twitter. Twitter (29 October 2016). Archived from the original on 11 May 2021. Retrieved on 29 October 2016. "Tailooey Fan: Jack Fletcher is still the dubbing director and Natalys Raut-Sieuzac is still the director in Season? / Bill Freiberger: Jack Fletcher is the voice director. Natalys Raut-Sieuzac is the director. / Tailooey Fan: In season two too? / Bill Freiberger: Yes, Jack Fletcher is the voice director and Natalys Raut-Sieuzac is the director in season 2 of #sonicboom."
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Sonic Boom: Return of the Buddy Buddy Temple of Doom. Zap2it.com. Retrieved on 25 June 2017.
- ↑ Bill Freiberger on Twitter. Twitter (20 July 2017). Retrieved on 20 July 2017. "Bill Freiberger: 234: Unable to use his robots, Eggman employs the Froglodytes to force Gogobas to mine for a crystal that will power his giant new Mech Suit"
- ↑ Sam Freiberger on Twitter. Twitter (22 July 2017). Retrieved on 23 July 2017. "Sam Freiberger: The mech suit is MeBot from my comic book "Sonic Boom #11""
- ↑ Sam Freiberger on Twitter. Twitter (22 July 2017). Retrieved on 23 July 2017. "Sam Freiberger: The mech suit fight was a major contributing factor to getting this story greenlit- wanted to do something a bit different with the battle"
- ↑ Sam Freiberger on Twitter. Twitter (22 July 2017). Retrieved on 23 July 2017. "Sam Freiberger: Another bit of trivia- I thought there was no way in hell they'd let me call it "Return of the Buddy Buddy Temple of Doom". Was half kidding"
- ↑ Sam Freiberger on Twitter. Twitter (22 July 2017). Retrieved on 23 July 2017. "Sam Freiberger: Again, pitched the title "Return of the Buddy Buddy Temple of Doom" as a goof. Somehow it was never changed."
- ↑ Sam Freiberger on Twitter. Twitter (23 July 2017). Retrieved on 23 July 2017.
- ↑ Bill Freiberger on Twitter. Twitter (13 July 2017). Retrieved on 13 July 2017. "Bill Freiberger: A #sonicboom preview for next Saturday: Ep. 234 "Return of the Buddy Buddy Temple of Doom" written by Sam Freiberger."
- ↑ Sam Freiberger on Twitter. Twitter (22 July 2017). Retrieved on 23 July 2017. "Sam Freiberger: That montage of Eggman designing MeBot is straight from Sam Raimi's SpiderMan. that movie made me want to make movies. Made a remake at camp."
- ↑ Sam Freiberger on Twitter. Twitter (22 July 2017). Retrieved on 23 July 2017. "Sam Freiberger: Fun fact - Tummel Crystal: named for the Yiddish word for chaos, which is... tummel."
- ↑ Sam Freiberger on Twitter. Twitter (22 July 2017). Retrieved on 23 July 2017. "Sam Freiberger: "Hail to the king, baby!" and "We're bumping with the flavor now!" are narrator exclamations in Beetle Adventure Racing on N64"
- ↑ Bill Freiberger on Twitter. Twitter (23 July 2017). Retrieved on 23 July 2017. "Alexander Soerensen: Who set off that EMP in the latest Sonic Boom episode that shut down Eggman's robots? Was it the Froglodytes? / Bill Freiberger: It was a naturally occurring event"