I think a lot of us wish we could go back to our childhoods and do life all over again, maybe go back to our twenties, or teens, or maybe even pre-teens, or heck, if we really wanted a complete do-over, we'd go right back to being infants. For us in the real world, such things can only be dreamed about, but in the wacky world of Sonic the Hedgehog, it could be possible to either reverse or advance the aging process at the press of a button. Hey, what if Dr. Robotnik invented such a gizmo to finally stop Sonic? He might just do that in this week's episode of Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, which happens to be among my favorite episodes of the series. It all started when Robotnik viewed a videotape of yet another of Scratch and Grounder's screw-ups in trying to capture Sonic. The evil scientist laments that with these robots always mucking up, it will take him years and years, him being a feeble old man by the time he finally captures his enemy. Hey, here's an idea, Robotnik: recycle those two idiots and build smart robots. But instead of doing something logical like that, he invents a horn-shaped decripitizer ray. It will rapidly advance the age of any living thing that crosses its path. With this new weapon at his disposal, Robotnik will age Sonic to a geriatric old slow-mo and do him in. Kind of reminds me of that Ninja Turtles episode where Shredder travels to a point in the future where the turtles were old and elderly and were pretty easy to defeat, that is until their younger counterparts came to lend them a hand. Well, I can't see how Robotnik could fail, but I'm sure he'll find a way. Meanwhile, Sonic introduces Tails to the latest in food preparation: freeze dried meals, just add water. A pile of dust can turn into a chili dog instantly. They go to the factory where it's prepared, and if you're like me, you spotted the large Robotnik billboard near the factory, which is never a good sign. Deciding to speed up the automated assembly line of freeze dried meals, Sonic cranks up the conveyor belt so he and Tails can reenact a famous episode of I Love Lucy, but much showier. Because Tails is such a little glutton, he loads up on dehydrated chili dogs so much that when he gets a drink of water, he blows up into a Macy's Thanksgiving Day balloon. As if that weren't bad enough, the Goon Squad show up to try and skyrocket Sonic to old age, but when dummy Grounder presses the wrong button, he zaps both Tails and Sonic into babies! Baby Tails only knows one line: "Goo goo poo poo", but Sonic can speak full sentences, and he's even potty trained. Guess his development skills are as fast as his running. Before the robots can get another shot, babies Sonic and Tails end up destroying the decripitizer ray and cause it, along with Scratch and Grounder to be put through the freeze-dry cycle, and I love how they already had labels with their pictures on them to go on the vials. Robotnik comes in to chide his robots for screwing up, though wouldn't Sonic be just as easy to catch as a baby than as an old man? This never occurs to him, as he orders his henchmen to fire the decripitizer, even though it's been completely destroyed and improperly reassembled. I think you can all guess what's going to happen: Dr. Robotnik himself gets turned into a baby. D'oh!
With their pint-sized adversary on their heels, baby Sonic and Tails race from the factory, and then all three stop outside an ice cream shop and start bawling. That's when kindly old Miss. Saccharine shows up and takes the three of them to her day care center, where Robotnik tries to prove he can be just as diabolical in diapers as he was in his older years. First, he plants an explosive under the seesaw, but falls victim to the explosion when he's forcibly placed upon it. Next, he rigs up a trap on the merry-go-round, using jellybeans to lure Sonic and Tails, but they're taken away by Miss. Saccharine, and Robotnik's short-term baby memory and large stomach makes him get caught in his own trap again. His third attempt involved tying one end of a very long rope to a car bumper, running it through the entire house and using the other end to trick Sonic into playing cat's cradle. The baby blue hedgehog outsmarts him yet again, and yet again, Robotnik suffers at his own hands. Jeez, if he was this inept as a toddler, I'm surprised he even made it to adulthood. Fortunately, Scratch and Grounder find their junior boss and successfully manage to bring him back to his normal age, courtesy of the somehow fixed decripitizer. Quickly, they go back to the day care center where Robotnik poses as Sonic and Tails' guardian, and once he has them in his grasp, orders the robots to age them up. The attempt is foiled by Miss Saccharine, causing not only Sonic and Tails to return to their rightful ages, but also blasts Robotnik into an old man, complete with a patch in his beard. Our Sonic Says is about playing in a clothes dryer, and I know that when the Nostalgia Critic reviewed this series, he balked at that concept, but the truth is, little kids playing in dryers is a very serious problem. That's why when movies showing kids playing in dryers air on TV, they always edit those parts out. It's a good lesson.
So that was "Musta Been a Beautiful Baby", one of my favorite episodes. I remember hearing about it through a friend of mine, and the concept of Sonic, Tails, and Robotnik being turned into babies was something I really wanted to see. It eventually did air on TV, and it did not disappoint. There isn't much story or plot, but the jokes are pretty funny and it's a cute concept. If you can stand to hear Sonic and Robotnik babbling in baby talk for fifteen minutes, then it's for you. I wonder why Baby Tails had such a limited vocabulary, because when he previously saw him as a baby in the flashback scene of "Tails' New Home", he spoke normally. Also, those familiar with the series will note that Baby Robotnik in this episode looked nothing like he did in the flashback scene in "Momma Robotnik's Birthday", and for good reason, as in that one, he looked like a deformed humanoid blob... but then, doesn't he already? Man, I really watch this show too much. "Musta Been a Beautiful Baby" was written by Gordon Bressack, who also wrote "Sonically Ever After", one of the series' worst episodes, and I guess he liked the character of Miss Saccharine so much, he brought her back in that one. Not much else I can say, except I definitely recommend this episode. It's very funny, very entertaining, and if you're like me, you like seeing what your favorite characters look like as babies. A lot of shows played with this concept back in the day, like Super Mario Bros when Princess fell into the fountain of youth, Real Ghostbusters when Egon got transported back to his formative years, Super Mario 3 where Mario, Luigi, Toad, Bowser and Ludwig were turned into babies, then there's Dexter's Laboratory, Ninja Turtles, Men in Black, Futurama, The Mask, I am Weasel, Biker Mice from Mars, and The Smurfs to name a few. It's an age-old plot trope, but it always works.
With their pint-sized adversary on their heels, baby Sonic and Tails race from the factory, and then all three stop outside an ice cream shop and start bawling. That's when kindly old Miss. Saccharine shows up and takes the three of them to her day care center, where Robotnik tries to prove he can be just as diabolical in diapers as he was in his older years. First, he plants an explosive under the seesaw, but falls victim to the explosion when he's forcibly placed upon it. Next, he rigs up a trap on the merry-go-round, using jellybeans to lure Sonic and Tails, but they're taken away by Miss. Saccharine, and Robotnik's short-term baby memory and large stomach makes him get caught in his own trap again. His third attempt involved tying one end of a very long rope to a car bumper, running it through the entire house and using the other end to trick Sonic into playing cat's cradle. The baby blue hedgehog outsmarts him yet again, and yet again, Robotnik suffers at his own hands. Jeez, if he was this inept as a toddler, I'm surprised he even made it to adulthood. Fortunately, Scratch and Grounder find their junior boss and successfully manage to bring him back to his normal age, courtesy of the somehow fixed decripitizer. Quickly, they go back to the day care center where Robotnik poses as Sonic and Tails' guardian, and once he has them in his grasp, orders the robots to age them up. The attempt is foiled by Miss Saccharine, causing not only Sonic and Tails to return to their rightful ages, but also blasts Robotnik into an old man, complete with a patch in his beard. Our Sonic Says is about playing in a clothes dryer, and I know that when the Nostalgia Critic reviewed this series, he balked at that concept, but the truth is, little kids playing in dryers is a very serious problem. That's why when movies showing kids playing in dryers air on TV, they always edit those parts out. It's a good lesson.
So that was "Musta Been a Beautiful Baby", one of my favorite episodes. I remember hearing about it through a friend of mine, and the concept of Sonic, Tails, and Robotnik being turned into babies was something I really wanted to see. It eventually did air on TV, and it did not disappoint. There isn't much story or plot, but the jokes are pretty funny and it's a cute concept. If you can stand to hear Sonic and Robotnik babbling in baby talk for fifteen minutes, then it's for you. I wonder why Baby Tails had such a limited vocabulary, because when he previously saw him as a baby in the flashback scene of "Tails' New Home", he spoke normally. Also, those familiar with the series will note that Baby Robotnik in this episode looked nothing like he did in the flashback scene in "Momma Robotnik's Birthday", and for good reason, as in that one, he looked like a deformed humanoid blob... but then, doesn't he already? Man, I really watch this show too much. "Musta Been a Beautiful Baby" was written by Gordon Bressack, who also wrote "Sonically Ever After", one of the series' worst episodes, and I guess he liked the character of Miss Saccharine so much, he brought her back in that one. Not much else I can say, except I definitely recommend this episode. It's very funny, very entertaining, and if you're like me, you like seeing what your favorite characters look like as babies. A lot of shows played with this concept back in the day, like Super Mario Bros when Princess fell into the fountain of youth, Real Ghostbusters when Egon got transported back to his formative years, Super Mario 3 where Mario, Luigi, Toad, Bowser and Ludwig were turned into babies, then there's Dexter's Laboratory, Ninja Turtles, Men in Black, Futurama, The Mask, I am Weasel, Biker Mice from Mars, and The Smurfs to name a few. It's an age-old plot trope, but it always works.
