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Sonic in Sydney was a 25-minute-long live musical performed at the now-defunct SegaWorld Sydney. The show was set up on a stage that was located adjacent to the park's food court so that patrons could watch the show while eating (listed in the CD's track listing as "SegaWorld's Knothole Village"). It used some elements from both the Sonic the Hedgehog and Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog television series, and was performed by costumed actors and dancers. Most of the music and sound effects used in the show were taken from Masato Nakamura's score on Sonic the Hedgehog 2, with three unique musical numbers, written by "D Jacobsen" and "N MacDonald"; "What Are We Waiting For?" sung by Sonic, "Give Me Chaos" sung by Dr. Robotnik, and "Thank You For Being You" sung by Sally Acorn. In late 1997, Sega disbanded the show because they felt that it wasn't dynamic enough and replaced it with a Sonic-themed puppet show. The puppets were constructed by Einfeld’s Puppetoons and the show, featuring new songs by Einfeld and Mark Rosenberg, was performed three to four times daily until 1999, a year before the park's closure. Unlike the costumed show, there is no known CD release of the puppet show.[1] Aside from a few still images taken by the show's staff and audiences, no footage of either incarnation has ever surfaced.

Plot[]

Costumed Show[]

The show begins with Tails piloting a biplane (presumably the Tornado) with Sonic the Hedgehog and Sally Acorn in tow. Suddenly, the engine sputters, forcing the trio to jump out before it crashes. After a rough parachute landing, Sally and Tails figure out that they are in Australia. Sonic then appears, explaining that he was making a "supersonic surveillance of the surrounds", and then explains the reason for being in Australia: after defeating Dr. Robotnik on Mobius, the mad scientist fled to Earth with the Chaos Emeralds and set up his laboratory somewhere in Sydney, with the intent of controlling all of Australia. Sonic and friends begin their search for Robotnik (What Are We Waiting For?).

The next scene features Robotnik, who—following a brief moment of opera—brags to the audience about his new base, which he built on top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. He calls his two comically clumsy robots (simply called "Badniks" but are presumably Scratch and Grounder) to set up his Super Laser Telescope, which will enable him to be on the lookout for Sonic. After asking the audience to keep the location of his base a secret, the scene ends, switching back to Sonic and his friends.

Sally, Tails, and Sonic are still searching for Robotnik, but Sydney is such a large city that they haven't found any clues to his whereabouts. Sally complains that because she has done so much walking, she's worn holes in her boots. Dr. Robotnik overhears this while spying on the heroes with his telescope and begins to come up with an evil scheme. Fortunately, Sally manages to tap into Robotnik's computer with her interstellar modem (which is likely similar to Nicole). She locates him on the bridge, and the team splits up to catch him.

In the next scene, Robotnik reveals his plot: he'll use Sally as bait to catch Sonic. (Give Me Chaos) To capture Sally, he creates a pair of "Egg Boots" (a pun on Ugg boots), and lays one of them in plain sight while he hides in wait. When Sally approaches the bridge, she is relieved to find a new boot, but as she searches for the matching one, Robotnik pops out of his hiding place and freezes her with a freeze ray. With Sally immobilized, Robotnik easily kidnaps her and takes her back to his base.

In the next scene, Sonic and Tails are searching for Robotnik in the area where Sally was kidnapped. They can't find any evidence of Robotnik, so they ask for some help from the audience. After the audience points out the single Egg Boot that was left behind, Sonic starts to become suspicious. The scene changes as Sonic and Tails go on another "Super Sonic Surveillance of the Surrounds".

In Robotnik's base, Sally is frozen to the floor. Robotnik uses his freeze ray (which doubles as a remote) to activate a time bomb which he has set up in the base. Sally can't move, so she begins to sing one line of "Thank You For Being You" to give away her position to Sonic and Tails, who hear her from outside the bridge and start thinking of a way to rescue her. After hearing Sally's singing, Robotnik begins to fall in love with her and asks why she loves Sonic and not him. Sally finds the idea of being in love with Robotnik repulsive, and shouts that she would never go near Robotnik if he was the last man in Australia. Then, Robotnik offers a bargain: If Sally continues to insult him, he'll dismember Sonic right in front of her. However, he'll let Sonic go if Sally states that she likes him. Sally still refuses to give in, stating that if she did, it would betray the good name of the Freedom Fighters. She would rather jump off the bridge!

Sonic and Tails overhear Robotnik's trouble with Sally, and burst in the room disguised as doctors. "Dr. Sonic Stition" claims that he has the perfect love potion for Robotnik, who is so desperate to marry Sally that he agrees to try it. Sonic tells Robotnik to turn around so that he doesn't see that the "love potion" is really sleeping juice. Robotnik quickly drinks the liquid and begins to proclaim his love to Sally once more, telling her how they will get married and have fat children, before suddenly falling asleep. Then, while attempting to figure out how to use Robotnik's ray gun to unfreeze Sally, Tails accidentally causes Sonic to shoot her while it's on the "Sing" setting, causing her to sing about her love for Sonic (Thank You For Being You). After the song, Tails suddenly notices that the time bomb that Robotnik set earlier in the show is about to explode. Sonic uses Robotnik's remote to deactivate the bomb, reveal all seven Chaos Emeralds, and change the Badniks into their natural state; "Goodniks" (possibly animals). With Robotnik defeated, the cast sings a reprise of "What Are We Waiting For", which is temporarily interrupted by an escaping Robotnik. Sonic then says goodbye to the audience and the show ends.

Puppet Show[]

Having been foiled by Sonic once again, Dr. Robotnik invents a machine that he uses to create a robot that he hopes will be powerful enough to defeat his hedgehog nemesis. However, the machine winds up producing the robot Grounder, who it turns out is a little slow in more ways than one. With the help of Tails and Sally, Sonic is able to defeat Grounder, causing Robotnik to flee in a rage.

Cast[]

Costumed Show/Album[]

Role Actor
Sonic the Hedgehog Paula Arundell
Miles "Tails" Prower Diane Adams
Princess Sally Acorn Tanya Bulmer
Knuckles the Echidna Mike Erwin
Dr. Ivo Robotnik Adrian Payne

Puppet Show[]

Role Actor
Sonic the Hedgehog Alexis Nagy
Miles "Tails" Prower
Princess Sally Acorn
Dr. Ivo Robotnik Dennis White
Grounder Phillip Einfeld

CD track listing[]

Track Title Artist(s) Music Length
1. "What Are We Waiting For?" Sonic the Hedgehog (Paula Arundell) 4:20
2. "Give Me Chaos" Dr. Robotnik (Adrian Payne) 2:34
3. "Thank You For Being You" Princess Sally (Tanya Bulmer) 4:15
4. "Sonic in Sydney Live Performance"

Trivia[]

  • Robotnik erroneously refers to Sally as a "merry marsupial". Perhaps this mistake was made intentionally as a localization edit, because while there are no native chipmunks in Australia, it is home to many marsupials.
  • It marks one of the only times Sonic has had a female voice actor, the first being Sonic's Schoolhouse.
  • Robotnik is depicted in his Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog design.
    • Despite Robotnik's voice actor being Australian, he voiced him in an upper-class British accent, likely an impression to Long John Baldry's performance of the character from the said cartoon.
  • Sonic utters a couple of his quotes he says in the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, like: ''I'm the essence of fast thinking!'' and ''We are up, over, and gone!''.
  • It can be presumed that the Badniks are Scratch and Grounder, as Robotnik calls them his "two incompetent cronies" and abuses them, much like in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. Although due to very little amount of photos of the costumed show, the actual appearance of the badniks are unknown. Its also unknown if they made an appearance on stage rather than just being heard. Grounder did however make an appearance in the puppet show.
  • Outside of grunting, laughter, sneezing, and various other sound effects, the Badniks have no lines of dialogue in the show, though its possible they are the background singers singing the line "Give Me Chaos" in Dr. Robotnik's "Give Me Chaos" Song.
  • During the opera scene where Robotnik first appears, the song heard is the aria Largo al Factotum from Gioachino Rossini's famous opera The Barber of Seville.
  • The show features a narrator, but only at the beginning when Tails' biplane is seen.
  • Tails is the only major character in the show who does not have a song.
  • Even though Sally's color scheme is correct on the CD cover (i.e. brown fur, red hair), her costume and puppet have the same color scheme she had from the early Sonic the Hedgehog comic issues, the Sonic the Hedgehog television series' pilot episode, and Sonic Christmas Blast (i.e. pink fur, black/brown hair).
  • Even though Sonic and company refer to themselves as Freedom Fighters, they are missing some of the other Knothole Freedom Fighters (i.e Antoine, Rotor, and Bunnie).
  • Contrary to his appearance on the cover, Knuckles the Echidna is not in any version of this show. It can be presumed he was added on for promotional purposes, as he, alongside Sonic, Tails, Sally, and Robotnik, were featured extensively in promotional material throughout SegaWorld Sydney.
  • One unique feature of the puppet show version of Sonic in Sydney was animatronic announcers. One was a purple bird that would sit perched above the puppet stage and talk to the audience (presumably to start off the show/act as a narrator), and the other two were an animatronic Sonic and Tails that would emerge from respective "mountains" on either side of the stage between shows to announce showtimes.
  • Since the puppet show version of Sonic in Sydney concluded a year before SegaWorld Sydney did, it can be presumed that, much like its costumed predecessor, it too was disbanded, but for financial reasons rather than dynamics.
  • No video of both shows have ever surfaced, its also unknown if any footage of any incarnation still exists. Unless it was either professionally recorded, or someone recorded it on their video cameras, footage of both shows may be lost forever.[2]

Gallery[]

Artwork[]

Gallery

Puppet shows photographs[]

Gallery

Miscellaneous[]

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References[]

External links[]

Sonic the Hedgehog in other media

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