I gotta say, after watching the cartoon from episodes 2-6, I call (to use a term from the Spoony One) BETRAYAL!!!!!!
Let me step back a moment. Yes, the character designs are really good and I generally like the animation production. The problem I have is the PLOT (or lack there of), and the crappy personality traits of ALL the characters. I'll sum up the characters personalities:
Sonic the Hedgehog: He has no personality. A blank slate defined as the hero by his friends around him. There's a hint of personality that only serves to drive the "plot" forward but he's otherwise uninteresting.
Amy: The girly girl slate. Much like Sonic in this series she really doesn't have much character either and relies on the audience to draw on their knowledge of her from other shows and games. I have, much to my unfortunate distaste, watched all the episodes thus far when this was posted and all I can remember about her is that she sometimes doles out some watered down dr. Phil-ish advice about feelings centered around whatever the "plot" was about.
Tails: I like the redesign of Tails from the visual standpoint. He's now wearing goggles and a tool belt. A little obvious that he's the techie of the group, but it wasn't offensive at least to my mental view of Tails. However this is pretty much completely wasted as he's shoved to the background during the action scenes. Oh they'll give him a larger vocabulary to make him sound smarter but what we know of Tails since he was established as a gearhead is that he is useful. Yes, he makes gadgets, but he knows how to fight. He helped Sonic overthrow Eggman continuously. But in this cartoon, he's just there to look smart but he's not allowed to utilise it.
Knuckles: His character can be summed up in comparing him to Moose from the Archie comics. He's the muscle of the group and therefore stupid. Case in point, warning there's spoilers, in a subplot of one episode while he's supposed to be cooking chicken on the grill he instead uses them as hand puppets. Knuckles, the guardian of the floating island, tasked with keeping the master emerald that keeps the island floating is later in that same episode, eating a napkin.
Sticks: The original character introduced for the game and cartoon, probably to balance the boy/girl ratio. Her character is that she's a paranoid jungle girl. I honestly don't have much of a problem with Sticks. This however is probably because there's no backstory from previous games or cartoons. That is unfortunately her flaw. She's the outsider of the group and this must be pointed out by having her say something paranoid to which the others just shrug off in pity.
Eggman: I'll say this. Of all the characters visual redesigns, I like Eggman's the best. And there's the problem. Up till now, he's been an evil fat scientist who aside from the "Adventures of Sonic" cartoon way back in the 90's posed a threat to all life Sonic and his friends hold dear. But in this cartoon, he's an annoyance at best. Incredibly incompetent It would have been better to have created a whole new "villain".
It's understandable why each episode is only 11 minutes long. There is NO DEPTH to this series. There is so little entertainment in each episode that both "Adventures of Sonic" and "Sonic Underground" trump Sonic Boom on every front. This cartoon is comparable (or reused) to the Donky Kong cartoon or the more recent Viva Piñata. The entire "plot" is a bunch of people are on an island and one of them makes it a minor pain for the rest. There is no conflict here. I know that this was meant for kids but you can make an intelligent cartoon for kids AND entertain them. Sonic SatAM managed to hit the sweet spot in this regard, Sonic X even managed to not screw up the characters and had an interesting over-arcing plotlines (plural).
In conclusion, Sonic Boom, the cartoon, is a mess of absolute FAIL where everyone will get more enjoyment by jiggling keychain tags that have the same characters on each tag while spouting random catchphrases that you may have vaguely heard them say. Do this and you automatically made a better show than Sonic Boom.
