<< Previous episode | — | Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog Robotnik's Rival |
— | Next episode >> |
"Robotnik's Rival" is the thirty-sixth episode of the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog television series. Despite being produced as the thirty-sixth episode, it aired as the nineteenth episode during the show's original run.
Appearances[]
Characters:
- Design Unit Flexible Underling Substitute (only appearance)
- Dr. Robotnik
- Dr. Quark (only appearance)
- Miles "Tails" Prower
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- Super Special Sonic Search and Smash Squad
Locations:
Objects:
- Ants Trance Enhancer (only appearance)
- Darkinator
- Duplicator (only appearance)
- Hi-tops
- Shrinkerator (only appearance)
- Upside-Downer Scrambler Blaster (only appearance)
Sonic's disguises[]
- Newspaper man
- Awards host
- General
- Private (Tails)
- Police officer
Plot[]
Sonic and Tails are running across an open field trying to get away from Robotnik piloting a long green tank. Eventually tracking the two in a manhole, Robotnik replies that his radar system worked to which Sonic replies nothing he invented worked and calls out Scratch and Grounder to prove his point. Seeing this, Robotnik then uses his Magna Beam to send Sonic to the North Pole. But then another beam coming from a shorter but taller yellow tank intervenes and the two tanks begin to battle each other while Sonic and Tails use the distraction to run.
Eventually the two tanks knock each other out with Robotnik complaining to the yellow tank for interfering. The porthole of the tank opens revealing a smaller red headed scientist named Dr. Brandon Quark who also plans for world domination. Robotnik tells him he's taking over and insults Quark by calling him Quack (as he has duck feet because of an earlier lab accident) and shows Scratch and Grounder to prove his genius. Quark isn't impressed and brings out his own robot D.U.F.U.S a machine capable of impersonating any kind of object. After a battle of the wits, the two agree the one who captures Sonic first is the ruler of Mobius though both secretly decide to cheat.
Later Sonic and Tails come across a picnic but are quickly attacked by a group of ants. However the ants focus their attention to the picnic food giving them a chance to run. Coming out of their hiding spot, Scratch is frustrated that Robotnik's Ants Trance Enhancer didn't prevent them from the food while Grounder wonders where the picnic table came from. The table is eventually revealed to be D.U.F.U.S. to which Scratch and Grounder begin to have a rivalry with. When Robotnik and Quark arrive, Quark tells Robotnik that his controller didn't work and Robotnik demonstrates it resulting in both of them getting attacked by the ants.
By the end of the day Sonic and Tails are enjoying the sunset at a canyon when it suddenly goes dark thanks to Robotnik's darkanator. He then tells Scratch and Grounder to catch the two but end up catching each other because of the dark. Suddenly a light appears which is coming from Quark's solar molars that can fire powerful sun beams that melt anything. While trying to hit Sonic, Quark accidentally hits the darkanator resulting in a powerful explosion leaving all four covered in soot. D.U.F.U.S. then arrives telling them that their failure was predictable but if they combined forces their chances of success can increase leading both Robotnik and Quark to team up. Later after Sonic drags Tails away from a free chili dog stand thinking it's too good to be true, D.U.F.U.S. manages to trap them by turning into a cage as Robotnik and Quark enjoy their new partnership.
Later in Robotnik's fortress, Sonic and Tails are imprisioned in a jail cell with Tails wondering if they're going to get out and Sonic tells his plan. When Scratch and Grounder arrive to check on them, Sonic tells them that they're holograms and they escaped earlier. Grounder then proceeds to grab them and throw them to prove they're not and unintentionally let them escape. Scratch yells at him for letting them escape while Grounder replies it was a great plan.
When D.U.F.U.S. arrives to check on Sonic and Tails he finds Scratch and Grounder playing Tic-Tac-Toe. He asks where the prisoners are and the two trick him into thinking he let them escape, making him confused. When Robotnik and Quark start to arrive, D.U.F.U.S. begins to panic and Scratch and Grounder tell him to lie. Even though D.U.F.U.S. refuses at first, the two tell him he'll be in more trouble if the doctors find Sonic and Tails gone. Sometime later Robotnik and Quark arrive in the cell and gloat at what appears to be Sonic and Tails. When the two leave to take over, D.U.F.U.S. emerges from his disguise and is discouraged that he lied but shortly after he says he can live with it.
While watching Robotnik and Quark in disguise, Sonic and Tails decide they have to get the two to hate each other again as they figure two villains are worse than one. In the first city, Sonic and Tails disguised as paperboys hand out newspapers saying that either Robotnik and Quark are spreading bad gossip about one another. The two dismiss, though they then prepare to fire their ray guns (Robotnik: Upside-Downer Scrambler Blaster, Quark: Shrink gun) before remembering their truce. Just then Sonic and Tails fire the guns at each other and start to bicker until D.U.F.U.S. tells them to stop. The two shake hands after Quark notes that D.U.F.U.S. is acting weird, while inside the tank D.U.F.U.S. is still struggling with the confusion earlier.
Seeing a billboard of Robotnik and Quark teaming up, Tails begins to vandalize it while Sonic has another idea. Later that night, Sonic in disguise hosts the Baddy Awards (spoof of the Oscar Awards) where Robotnik and Quark have their own films they made (The Bad the Worse and the Ugly, and Silence of the Yams respectively). Quark is revealed to win and Robotnik accuses him of rigging the awards. Once again, D.U.F.U.S. breaks up their fight by turning into a life-size Baddy Award. He tells them to chill out to which Quark threatens to destroy him and D.U.F.U.S. ignores that. He turns into a skateboarder and skates away making Quark note on D.U.F.U.S.'s behavior. Once the two leave the awards, Sonic tells Tails they have to resort to drastic measures.
The next day, Robotnik and Quark in their own tanks decide to split up and cover more ground to conquest. Arriving at the first city, Robotnik arrives in a city called Quarkland where Sonic and Tails disguised as guards welcomes them. They tell him that they've enlisted to fight the war against the inferior Robotnik and he himself angered by this decides to go duck hunting. Meanwhile in another city called Robotnik City, Sonic disguised as a policeman stops Quark and gives him a ticket since ducks are prohibited in the city. Infuriated, Quark goes after Robotnik for insulting him. The two tanks eventually crash into each other in a valley where they instantly fight each other.
When things are looking bad for Quark, he orders D.U.F.U.S. who's relaxing in a hammock to attack. The robot refuses and abandons Quark to go surfing. He mutters about making him too perfect while Robotnik says he made Scratch and Grounder better by making them complete idiots. Defeated, Quark finally cracks and Sonic and Tails from a hill above eventually see him flying south for the winter. However they still have Robotnik to deal with and Sonic runs away causing Robotnik to roll down the hill and crash through his badniks. Robotnik then orders to fire the Duplicator at them but Scratch still dizzy accidentally hits Robotnik creating two. Still running, Sonic tells Tails that Robotnik's now stuck with his worst enemy; himself, as the two Robotiks argue over who's the leader.
Sonic Says[]
Robotnik and Quark have a race but they end up sabotaging each other and both are disqualified. Sonic explains that it is bad to cheat.
Title in other languages[]
Language | Title | Translation |
---|---|---|
Chinese (mainland) | 机械博士的对头 | Robotnik's Rival |
French | Le Rival | The Rival |
German | Kampf der Giganten | Battle of the giants |
Italian | Un rivale per il Dottor Nick | A rival for Doctor Nick |
Portuguese (Portugal) | O Rival do Robotnik | Robotnik's Rival |
Spanish (Spain) | El rival de Robotnik | Robotnik's Rival |
Spanish (Latin America) | El rival de Mostachón | Mustache's Rival |
Trivia[]
- Tails breaks the fourth wall in this episode, albeit by accident, by crashing into the title at the episode's start, knocking it down.
- The Darkinator in this episode previously appeared in "Birth of a Salesman".
- While the Baddy Awards is a clear spoof of the Oscars, the two movies respectively starring Dr. Robotnik and Quark, The Bad, the Worse, and the Ugly and Silence of the Yams, are respective parodies of the movies The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and Silence of the Lambs, the latter of which won five Oscars.
- This is the second episode in which Robotnik is called "Humpty Dumpty", the first was in "Sonic Breakout".
- Overseas animation for this episode was done by Rainbow Animation Group.