 | |
| Series | Sonic Boom (TV series, 2014–2017) |
| Season | Season 2, episode 31 (S02E31) |
| Episode no. | 83 of 104 |
| US premiere | 10 June 2017 · Boomerang |
| France | 23 April 2017 · Les bowlers du tonnerre |
| Written by | Peter Saisselin |
| Storyboard | Jean-Charles Andre |
| Directed by | Natalys Raut-Sieuzac |
| US viewers | 0.09 million (Nielsen, premiere) |
| Previous | Flea-ing from Trouble (S02E30) |
| Next | Planes, Trains and Dude-Mobiles (S02E32) |
Lightning Bowler Society is episode 31 of Season 2 of Sonic Boom, the CGI comedy series made by Technicolor Animation Productions with Sega of America. It premiered in the United States on 10 June 2017 on Boomerang.
Synopsis
Eighty straight defeats, the latest involving rock-hard fruitcakes, convince the Lightning Bolt Society (Dave, Willy Walrus, the Tree Spy and a Weasel Bandit) that villainy isn’t their calling. Bowling, it turns out, is. As the Lightning Bowler Society they crush the One-Percenters, then Sonic’s team, the Pin Dashers, and the village falls in love.
Suddenly the Bolts have a Meh Burger tie-in and a slot on Comedy Chimp’s show, while sore loser Sonic drills his exhausted friends late into the night. The Tree Spy, now going by his real name, the Chameleon, starts dating Staci, who persuades him the others are holding him back. The row that follows ends in a slap fight: the Chameleon goes solo, and the rest drift into new jobs.
Sonic needs his rematch, so the team sets out to reunite the band, from Willy’s home-shopping show to Dave’s Meh Burger counter. It takes an Eggman attack to do the trick: watching Team Sonic battle the Mega, the old gang remembers how happy they were as trash-talking villains. They rejoin forces, get in the robot’s way so badly that the heroes win easily, and refuse the rematch. Sonic still won’t admit they’re better bowlers.
Trivia
- The title puns on the Lightning Bolt Society, the show’s club of second-rate villains.
- On DVD in the US: NCircle’s Season Two, Volume Two (September 2021), The Complete Season 2 (2021) and The Complete Series Blu-ray (2022).
- French title: Les bowlers du tonnerre. The episode aired in France on 23 April 2017, before its US premiere.
- About 0.09 million US viewers watched the premiere broadcast (Nielsen figures as listed by Wikipedia).
Watch the Episode
NCircle Entertainment, the show’s US home-video label, has not uploaded this episode on its own to YouTube at the time of writing, though its official channel carries two-episode compilations and Season 2 marathons. Season 2 is on DVD from NCircle (The Complete Season 2, 2021) and has been on Hulu and Netflix; see the series page for details.
Part of our Sonic Boom Season 2 guide. See the series page for the cast, the redesigns, the games and the comics.
Sources: air dates, writers and storyboard artists from Luke’s original Sonic Scene episode list, cross-checked with Wikipedia, Sonic Retro (Wayback copy) and Sonic Wiki Zone; synopsis written for Sonic Scene from the episode summaries on those sites; title card and screenshots via Sonic Wiki Zone, copied to our media library.