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"The Biggest Fan" is the fifty-seventh episode in the Sonic Boom television series. It first aired on 10 December 2016 in the United States.
Synopsis
Sonic lets Mark the Tapir, a fanatical, self-proclaimed “number-one fan,” become his personal assistant. Mark eventually goes too far.[3]
Appearances
Characters:
- Bash-up Bot (mentioned)
- Beth the Shrew
- Charlie
- Child Monkey
- Comedy Chimp
- Dave the Intern
- Dr. Eggman (mentioned)
- Lady Goat
- Lady Walrus
- Leroy the Turtle
- Mark the Tapir (first appearance)
- Mike the Ox
- Mrs. Vandersnout
- Old Monkey
- Team Sonic
- Walrus Child
- Walrus Male
- Wild Cat
- Wolfie
Locations:
Items:
Vehicles:
Misc.:
- Career Day (first appearance)
Plot
On a bright day in the Village Center, several villagers have gathered at a make-shift scene for Career Day, an event where villagers come to speak about their careers to the Unnamed Village's youth and students. Standing nearby is Sonic and Amy, the latter expressing her disbelief that Sonic was asked to speak at this event, much to Sonic's annoyance.
The first speaker coming up is Comedy Chimp (who only just now realizes what he is attending) who elaborates on his life as a comedian and past experiences on the dangers of negotiation one's own deals. Next up is Leroy the Turtle, who suggest the attendees should try out a career in the postal arts, followed by Lady Walrus, who advices the attendes to not work at all and instead descend from a family of aristocrats like herself. Finally, Sonic is up, although he uses his turn boast about how he once defeated Eggman, the doctor's minions and Bash-up Bot. Regardless, the villagers still cheer at Sonic, much to Amy's frustration. As Sonic takes his leave though, he catches a tapir yelling his name. Upon Sonic's inquire, the guy admits he is not a student and that he only came to meet him before introducing himself as Mark the Tapir: Sonic's biggest fan. After an awkward handshake, the nervous Mark asks for Sonic's autograph, only realize upon Sonic's request that he forgot paper to write on. Stopping Mark from berating himself, Sonic takes his leave on the note that he might get another chance later. With a sinister smile, Mark promises Sonic to see him soon.
Later at Meh Burger, Sonic suddenly meets Mark again after receiving his order. Mark offers Sonic to sit with him, but Sonic rather wants to sit with Tails, Knuckles and Amy nearby. Annoyed, Mark tells Sonic he understands, only to loudly move his table up to Team Sonic's after Sonic rejoins his friends. There, Sonic introduces Mark to his friends and vice versa. Mark, meanwhile, is ecstatic about eating lunch with Sonic and notes how they even ordered the same meal, only to run up to the counter to get a new soda when Sonic mentions that their drinks are different. Amy quickly points out to Sonic that Mark has a unhealthy attachment to him, earing her a snide remark from Tails on her own attachment to Sonic (which Amy quells with a menacing glade). Sonic, however, insists that Mark is just a fan. Meanwhile, Knuckles insists that he is more deserving of a fan, which he demonstrates by spinning plates on sticks. Mark then shows up (ruining Knuckles' trick in the process) with a soda like Sonic's, only to toss that and his meal out once he hears that Sonic is finished eating. Mark then leaves, promising Sonic pie should he come to Mark's occasionally sealed cabin in the woods. Ignorant to Mark's ominous promise, Sonic highlights to his worried friends that Mark is a normal fan.
Waiting later in line at the post office with a package, Sonic meets Mark again. There, Mark offers Sonic to become his personal assistant so he can handle his mundane grunt work while Sonic can spent his important time on heroics. liking the idea, Sonic hires Mark and gives his first assignment: stand in line with his package while he goes for a chili dog. Mark promptly pushes through the line to the desk, only to freak out over messing up his assignment when Leroy says Sonic's package is insufficiently franked. As Mark tries to downplay this snafu, Sonic returns and gives mark the money for the stamp. Relieved, Mark rejoins Sonic, who is optimistic about his new assistant. Over the next period, Mark helps Sonic out with lots of things, like picking out clothes for him, making barbecues, plating unfinished pictures of Sonic with beige arms, and providing him with successful strategic on how to take down Charlie and his mech suit when he and Knuckles fought him.
As Mark is giving Sonic a massage in his shack, Tails, Knuckles and Amy show up to invite Sonic to a new movie: Captain Garbage 3: Secret of the Garbage (which Knuckles is pretty psyched about). While Sonic is in, Mark convinces him to stay until they can finalize the cover for Sonic's memoirs. In return, he promises to give Sonic a lift to the movies after they are done. Sonic thus promises his friends he will meet up with them. Later, as Mark is taking Sonic on his promise lift on his scooter, Sonic tries to let Mark take the rest of the day off. However, Mark wants to spend all his time with Sonic, and, noting that he knows how to do that, crashes Sonic into a boulder.
When Sonic wakes up, he discovers he is bound in a body cast in mark's cabin, which is creepily decorated with images of himself. Mark also appears, saying that Sonic was injured in the crash, which he claims he had nothing to do with it, and promises to nurse Sonic back to health while force-feeding him soup. Sonic insists he should see a doctor, but Mark's only response is feeding him pie. Meanwhile, at the movie theater, Tails, Knuckles and Amy are existing from the movie (which moved Knuckles to tears). Curious that Sonic did not show up and that he is not answering his Communicator, Amy decides they should ask Mark for his whereabouts.
Back at Mark's cabin, Mark wants him and Sonic to act out one of his family-friendly Sonic fanfictions (out of many mature ones), with Sonic playing the role of Tails and him playing the role of Sonic. While Sonic is discontent with the roles and how inaccurate Mark's portrayal of him, Mark leaves to get his pies which are just don. Sonic tries to escape, but his constricting body cast causes him to overturn Mark's Sonic pictures. Hearing Mark's noticing his escape, Sonic sets the pictures back up in a frenzy and returns to his bed. However, Mark sees that Sonic tried to escape despite Sonic trying to distract him with fake interest in Mark's fanfics, prompting him to punish Sonic by having him eat off his collectible plates, much to Sonic's horror.
Eventually, Tails, Amy and Knuckles arrive at Mark's cabin and asks Mark about Sonic's whereabouts. Mark, however, plays ignorant, despite the group hearing Sonic's muffled screams from within the cabin. Kept out of the cabin, Tails, Amy and Knuckles look for another way in, only to trigger a trap that knocks all of them out with a swinging log. Soon after, the trio finds themselves with Sonic, all of them having been wrapped on in body casts. Once again, Mark explains to the trio that they got injured by a trap he had no relation to and comprises to take care of them. As Mark leaves to get more pie out of the own, Sonic apologizes to his friends for not trusting their opinion on Mark and insists they must take him out. Tails is unused how to do this given their current state, but Sonic notes they still have him outnumbered. As such, when Mark returns, Team Sonic tries to attack him, only for their body casts to inhibit their movements. As the heroes tumble around, Sonic's body cast breaks and he discovers nothing is broken: their injuries were all a lie. Team Sonic therefore breaks free of their body casts and surrounds Mark, who Sonic wraps up with a band of spots tape. While he admits defeat, Mark is amazed over great it is to have his plans foiled by Sonic, who points out to Mark that he is fired as his assistant.
Back in the Village, Sonic muses to his team about how this nightmarish experience has taught him to keep a healthy relationship with his fans. Just then, Beth the Shrew shows up, asking for Sonic's autograph. This makes Sonic run of screaming in terror, while his team laughs at this.
Continuity
- Charlie is still a supervillain as a result of the events in "Counter Productive".
Goofs
- In scene for Career Day, copies of several background characters can be spotted in the crowd (although this might just be the technique where animators fill out crowds with duplicate characters when the animation budget is limited).
- When Sonic turns around to face Mark at Meh Burger, he is standing in front of the counter. However, in the next scene, despite not having moved at all, Sonic is standing behind the fence that is in front of Meh Burger's counter.
- When Mark heads over to Meh Burger's counter to complain, he is standing behind the fence in front of the counter, yet is able to tap on the counter as if he is standing right in front of it.
- In several scenes, the arms on Team Sonic's body casts shift positions.
Production
During the production of this episode, the staff of Sonic Boom research more of the general fandom rather than the Sonic fanbase specifically.[4]
Title in other languages
| Language | Title | Translation |
|---|---|---|
Trivia
- Mark rescuing and later capturing Sonic after the accident is a reference to a scene from Stephen King's novel, Misery.
- Sonic's comment on how most of his fans criticize everything he does might be a reference to the real-life Sonic fanbase, who have become somewhat infamous for being overly critical.
- The painting Mark made of Sonic with beige-colored arms instead of blue is a nod to the mainstream version of Sonic who has beige-colored arms, and perhaps to the fan's criticism of the blue arms Sonic received as a part of his redesign for the Sonic Boom franchise.
- Mark's comment on "SonAmy" (a fanterm for Sonic and Amy being in a romantic relationship) is a reference to the prominence of SonAmy fans in the real-life Sonic fanbase.
- Amy's comment to Sonic after using a roll of sports tape is perhaps a reference to the criticism of the sports tape used for the designs of the characters for Sonic Boom.
- The icon of Sonic's head on Mark's shirt first appeared in Sonic Boom CG Style Guide.
- The pictures Mark has of Sonic in his cabin uses images of Sonic from earlier episodes in the Sonic Boom television series, such as "Eggman Unplugged" and "Battle of the Boy Bands".
- This is the only episode in the second season of Sonic Boom to be written by Doug Lieblich.[5]
- This is the first episode in the second season of Sonic Boom where Sticks and Dr. Eggman never make an appearance.
References
- ↑ Bill Freiberger on Twitter. Twitter (1 December 2016). Retrieved on 2 December 2015. "Bill Freiberger: Episode 204 is "Alone Again, Unnaturally" written by Benoit Grenier. Episode 205 is "The Biggest Fan" written by @DougLieblich"
- ↑ Sonic Boom: The Biggest Fan. Zap2it.com. Retrieved on 25 November 2016.
- ↑ Bill Freiberger on Twitter. Twitter (5 December 2016). Retrieved on 5 December 2015. "Bill Freiberger: 205: Sonic lets Mark the Tapir, a fanatical, self-proclaimed “number-one fan,” become his personal assistant. Mark eventually goes too far."
- ↑ Doug Lieblich on Twitter. Twitter (11 December 2016). Retrieved on 11 December 2016. "Alexander Soerensen: Did you guys do a lot of research on the Sonic fanbase for "The Biggest Fan"? / Bill Freiberger: the research was more towards fandom in general."
- ↑ Doug Lieblich on Twitter. Twitter (11 December 2016). Retrieved on 12 December 2016. "Mathan Sivanesan: That's all I need to know, thank you very much for answering my question. Can't wait for more episodes by you in this season! / Doug Lieblich: sure thing. Glad you liked it. Sadly, that's my only ep this season. But I hope to do more if there's a season 3."
