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"Robot Employees"[2] is the seventy-first episode in the Sonic Boom television series. It first aired on 18 March 2017 in the United States and on 9 April 2017 in France.
Synopsis[]
Dr. Eggman creates a new line of automated robot workers for Meh Burger. Dave loses his job, being lazy and entitled, and Sticks flees, fearing the "tin death chefs." When Dave joins forces with the Lightning Bolt Society to win back his job, we soon discover that Eggman has evil ulterior motives. This time, Sticks might have been right, and it's up to her to save the entire village.
Appearances[]
Characters:
- Beth the Shrew
- Cubot
- Dr. Eggman
- Fennec Male
- Gogobas (mentioned)
- Lady Goat
- Lady Walrus
- Lightning Bolt Society
- Mike the Ox
- Mr. Slate
- Mrs. Dave's Mom (mentioned)
- Old Monkey
- Orbot
- Rabbit Girl
- Reindeer Girl
- Sheep Villager
- Soar the Eagle
- Stratford
- Team Sonic
- Walrus Camera Man
- Warthog Male
- Wild Cat
- Wolfie
Races and species:
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Plot[]
The episode begins with Eggman at Meh Burger, where he asks Dave for a chili dog (believing it seems "cool and edgy"). Upon getting a burger instead, he vows to burn the restaurant to the ground and begins to call his robots in to attack, but Sonic quickly arrives to defuse the situation. Discouraged but not defeated, Eggman vows to find another way to deal with this issue; with the aid of Orbot and Cubot, he goes to the office of Meh Burger's owner, Mr. Slate, and proposes ideas for efficient robot employees, a cleaner Meh Burger, and proper customer service, ideas which Mr. Slate likes; later, the robot employees are at work at Meh Burger. Dave attempts to convince his boss that they are no replacement for him (despite that clearly being the case) and suggests a contest to keep his job, and Mr. Slate agrees to those terms; should he lose, he will be fired.
Dave and the robot employees compete in three events—grilling, cleaning, and order-taking—with Soar the Eagle serving as commentator. Despite trying his hardest, Dave loses horribly in each event to the far-superior robot employees, and Mr. Slate fires him before announcing that there will be a gathering at Meh Burger tomorrow to celebrate the robots' hiring (and his good mood). The villagers, as well as Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy of Team Sonic, cheer this, but technophobe Sticks instead opts to go into the forest to scavenge a meal, disgusted. That night, Dave complains to the other members of the Lightning Bolt Society about his firing, who are just as upset over the news, and creates a plan to sabotage the celebration.
The next day, Mr. Slate is celebrating the grand re-opening of Meh Burger, with the villagers, the remaining members of Team Sonic, and Eggman in attendance, though Eggman is further away. The Lightning Bolts prepare to put their plan into action, only for everyone other than Dave to be lured to the party by free cheeseburgers and abort the mission, forcing Dave to leave defeated. Eggman toasts the new Meh Burger, but adds that he has not forgotten his past treatment at the restaurant and that he is taking his revenge on it and its customers. He then traps everyone except for himself in a force-field around the restaurant, at which point the robot employees inside become hostile; Team Sonic quickly dispatches them, and Tails calls Sticks, who is in her burrow, on his Communicator and informs her of what happened (at which point she dances in celebration at being right).
With Tails guiding her, Sticks heads for the fox's workshop to gather the objects that will be useful to getting them out of the force-field (though she ultimately decides to just take everything). Back at Meh Burger, Sonic tells Eggman that they cannot be kept in the forcefield forever, at which point Eggman tells him that that is why he is launching the restaurant into space. After activating thrusters connected to the force-field, he walks away, laughing evilly as Meh Burger and everyone on it is carried into the air. Sticks returns to the crater where it once stood, confused, but Tails is quick to alert her to the rising restaurant and tell her to borrow his plane, though she will need a co-pilot. As such, she goes to Dave's house, but despite Dave being reluctant to help her save Meh Burger, he eventually agrees to after Sticks convinces him that they both hate robots.
Clad in spacesuits, Dave and Sticks fly up to the still-airborne Meh Burger in order to free everyone; meanwhile, Eggman relishes in his victory over Dave, Meh Burger, and Sonic all at once with Orbot and Cubot (though he complains about the lack of service as he searches for pants). Still guided by Tails, Dave brings Sticks closer so she can throw her boomerang at half of the thrusters, destroying them and slowing their ascent thusly. However, Tails mentions that the remaining thrusters are struggling as a result and are about to seize, which will send Meh Burger plummeting. On the ground, Eggman decides to tan in the crater unaware of the events above as Sonic hurriedly gets everyone to grab a tablecloth to use as a parachute before the thrusters seize. Simultaneously, Tails, with aid from Dave, guides Sticks through the assembly of a blaster from the various parts she brought with her, which she uses to fire a laser that disables the force-field.
The villagers are able to escape, but the other members of Team Sonic do not get the opportunity to jump off before the remaining thrusters seize and Meh Burger begins to fall; Dave and Sticks are forced to bring the plane into a nosedive so they can grab onto the wing. Back down on the ground, Eggman quickly notices the growing shadow and runs out of the crater (only for Mr. Slate to land on him as he does so) before Meh Burger lands in its exact spot, with Team Sonic and Dave crash-landing soon after. Things return to normal, and Dave is promoted to manager by Mr. Slate for his part in saving the restaurant. Tails mentions that he salvaged and reprogrammed one of Eggman's robot employees, who serves its creator salad, despite him ordering a chili dog; it responds by saying it is on its break, just like Dave.
Productions[]
The outline of the episode was written on 18 August 2015 and the first draft was submitted on 17 September 2015.[4] The first record draft of this episode's script was later completed on 26 September 2016 while the blue record script was completed on 1 October 2016.[5]
Title in other languages[]
Language | Title | Translation |
---|---|---|
French | Les employés 2.0 | Employees 2.0 |
Italian | I camerieri robot | Robotic waiters |
Polish | Robota dla robota | Job for the robot |
Portuguese (Brazil) | Empregados robôs | Robot Employees |
Portuguese (Portugal) | Empregados-Robô | Robot-Employees |
Spanish (Latin America) | Empleados robóticos | Robotic employees |
Ukrainian | Ро́боти для робо́ти | Robots for work |
Trivia[]
- Nine days before this episode aired on Boomerang, Bill Freiberger released the title card for this episode on Twitter as a teaser.[6]
- Eggman got the idea to eat chili dogs in this episode from a Wienerschnitzel commercial.[7]
- Eggman describes the chili dog as "cool and edgy", the same phrase he used for Shadow the Hedgehog in "It Takes a Village to Defeat a Hedgehog".
- The wrong slide Orbot showed of Dr. Eggman in lederhosens blowing in an alphorn in the mountains is a nod to the story "Eggtoberfest" in Sonic Boom #5, which was written by Bill Freiberger.[8]
- Sticks' "I told you so" dance is a reference to Elliot Reid's dance on Scrubs.[9]
- The way Team Sonic hangs onto Tails' Plane when Meh Burger is about to crash is a nod to the ending of the Wing Fortress Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 where Sonic hangs onto the Egg Jet as it takes off.[10]
- Soar the Eagle states that Dave's failure to best the robots is "a devastating blow to humanity." This is the second episode (after Knuck Knuck! Who's Here?) to use this terminology, despite none of the village residents actually being human.
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: Robot Employees. Zap2it.com. Retrieved on 3 March 2017.
- ↑ Tous les Programmes (French). Canal J. Archived from the original on 8 June 2017. Retrieved on 28 March 2017.
- ↑ Bill Freiberger on Twitter. Twitter (18 March 2017). Retrieved on 18 March 2017. "Sonic Paradox News: So when did you guys originally write today's episode? / Bill Freiberger: Outline submitted 8/18/2015. First Draft submitted 9/17/2015."
- ↑ Mike Pollock on Twitter. Twitter (17 March 2017). Retrieved on 18 March 2017.
- ↑ Bill Freiberger on Twitter. Twitter (9 March 2017). Retrieved on 9 March 2017. "Bill Freiberger: A #sonicboom preview for next Saturday on Boomerang: 220 "Robot Employees" written by Anne Baraou."
- ↑ Alan Denton on Twitter. Twitter (18 March 2017). Retrieved on 18 March 2017. "Alan Denton: Fun fact: Eggman got the idea to eat chili dogs from a Wienerschnitzel commercial! (Not everything's about Sonic y'know…)"
- ↑ Bill Freiberger on Twitter. Twitter (18 March 2017). Retrieved on 19 March 2017. "Bill Freiberger: The “wrong slide” is a nod at my Sonic Boom comic book “Eggtoberfest”. I’m a big Oktoberfest fan."
- ↑ Alan Denton on Twitter. Twitter (18 March 2017). Retrieved on 18 March 2017. "Alan Denton: Sticks' "I Told You So" dance? Oh you'd better believe that's a Scrubs reference."
- ↑ Alan Denton on Twitter. Twitter (18 March 2017). Retrieved on 19 March 2017. "Alan Denton: You guys catch the subtle nod to Wing Fortress Zone? / Alexander Soerensen: No. What was the nod. / Alan Denton: just the way they all hung on to the plane."