How to Catch a Hedgehog

"How to Catch a Hedgehog" (暴走ソニック！捕獲大作戦 Bōsō Sonikku! Hokaku Daisakusen?, lit. "Wild Sonic! Strategic Capture Operation") is the twenty-fourth episode of the anime series,Sonic X. It first aired on 14 September 2003 and 13 March 2004 in Japan and the United States respectively.

Appearances

 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Miles "Tails" Prower
 * Knuckles the Echidna
 * Amy Rose
 * Cream the Rabbit
 * Cheese
 * Christopher Thorndyke
 * Chuck Thorndyke
 * Mr. Tanaka
 * Ella
 * Sam Speed
 * Doctor Eggman
 * Decoe
 * Bocoe
 * E-88 Lightning Bird

Japanese version

 * "SONIC DRIVE" - Opening theme
 * "The Shining Road" - Closing theme

English version

 * "Gotta Go Fast" - Opening theme (USA and CAN)
 * "Sonic X" - Opening theme (AUS, NZ and UK)
 * "Gotta Go Fast" (shortened) - Closing theme

Plot
The episode begins with Sonic facing Eggman with a giant bird robot named E-88 Lightning Bird standing in a farm-like environment with Amy is standing behind Sonic with a worried expression on her face. The robot suddenly beings charging towards the hedgehogs and shines a bright light that blinds Sonic and Amy. When the light finally dims, Sonic hears Amy calling his name in fear. He looks up, only to see Amy being carried away by a giant bird-like robot. Eggman taunts Sonic, saying that if he wants Amy back, then come get her. Amy tries to break free using her Piko Piko Hammer but this causes her dress to rip slightly, making her even more upset. Tails arrives into the scene on the X-Tornado, launching a Ring to Sonic who uses it to destroy the robot, making Amy fall towards the ground. Sonic catches her during the fall, telling her not to worry. As Amy remarks Sonic that he is her hero, they fall into a haystack to soften the landing. Sonic begins to rub his ear as Amy talks about how romantic the moment is. Amy notices that Sonic is not listening and gets mad. Sonic responds by asking her the problem, irritating Amy further. (During the battle, a piece of the robot fell off and landed in Sonic's ear.)

Back at the Thorndyke Mansion, Sonic is on top of the roof, rubbing his ear. Amy, Tails and Chris are all watching him curiously from below on the driveway. Amy continues complaining about Sonic ignoring her. Tails suggests that maybe there's something on his mind. Chris wonders what could be bothering him. As they wonder, Mr. Tanaka flips the switch on a remote control. This causes Sonic to perk up, pull down his lower eyelids and yell as if he suffered an electric shock. They all look up at him, and Sonic suddenly jumps off the roof and begins to run around like a lunatic. Everybody wonders where he might have sped off to and Sonic makes a journey through Station Square while Chris, Tails and Amy board on the X-Tornado to track down the hedgehog.

During this journey, Sonic finds out that he cannot stop running. He runs past Sam Speed who jumps in at the chance to race against Sonic. Chris tries to reason with his uncle that there may be a problem affecting Sonic but his uncle didn't take it seriously. Sam fails to catch Sonic due to his racing vehicle running out of fuel. The X-Tornado continues to follow Sonic as he runs towards a desert. Amy suspects that something bad must have happened to Sonic as he battled E-88 Lightning Bird. When Chris asks what the cause is, Amy replies that she didn't know what it is. The X-Tornado then turns around heading home. Meanwhile Eggman, Decoe and Bocoe watched Sonic as he runs through the seemingly endless desert roads. Chris explains the situation to his grandfather Chuck to which he proposes an operation that the gang will need to find a method to capture Sonic in order to discover his problems. As Tails and Chuck began to discuss with each other in the laboratory, Amy stares at the sky, wishing to know what's wrong with Sonic. Sonic still continues to run despite the time, leaving his evil watchers Eggman, Decoe and Bocoe retire for the night.

The next day, Chuck announces his first method: to wield a rocket launcher and fire a missile filled with helium directly at Sonic, causing him to stop running as he floats up in the air. Tails, Amy and Chris board on the X-Tornado to find Sonic and soon enough, they find the speeding hedgehog. Amy prepares the weapon and upon Chuck's command, she fires the missile at Sonic. Just as expected, Sonic comes to a stop just in front of the operations headquarters where the others were and a balloon forms at Sonic's back. However, Sonic floats away in the air, which therefore the plan didn't work as Chuck notes he used too much helium. Sonic continues to drift along in the breeze yelling for help. Knuckles notices this and Sonic asks him to help get him down to ground. Knuckles throws a rock in response which breaks the balloon causing Sonic to drop into the shallow river and runs towards Knuckles' direction. Knuckles tries to stop him but Sonic zooms past him, leaving him a fish flopping around his hands.

Knuckles headed towards operation headquarters and meets up with Sonic's friends. Amy asks if Knuckles stopped Sonic to which the echidna replies that the hedgehog missed him, much to Amy's disgrace. The gang are treated to some lunch prepped by Ella. While eating, a tumbleweed rolls by them and traps Tails inside it, spinning around as he goes. This instantly gave Chuck an idea. He explains to the gang his next method of capturing Sonic: he would build a technologically modified wheel for Knuckles to push when given the signal. At the right timing, Chuck will then trap Sonic inside it like a hamster running in a cage just as soon as Sonic and the wheel are right next to each other. The gang agrees and prepares their positions. Meanwhile Sonic, still running, notices arrows placed on rocks and follows their indicated directions; little did he know what his friends have planned for him. In a short amount of time, Sonic is approaching towards their position. Mr. Tanaka gives the signal for Knuckles to push the wheel down and successfully, the wheel traps Sonic as he helplessly runs against the direction of the wheel. Despite of this, Sonic still has not stopped running for a long time. This concerns Chuck, as he notes that the wheel was not designed to withstand the speed for a long time. The stand holding the wheel in place eventually breaks, releasing the wheel. Knuckles, who is unfortuately standing right in front of the wheel's direction, tries to move out of the way but he gets crushed by the wheel. The wheel then falls onto its side and because of Sonic's speed, the wheel drills a deep hole in the ground, causing a geyser to shoot up through the hole taking Sonic with it. It turns out that this method of capturing Sonic was a failure again. Eggman, Decoe and Bocoe were delightfully entertained with Sonic's running on the wheel, with the two robot henchmen suggesting that Eggman should go on a workout.

Still attempting to find a means of capturing Sonic, Chuck calls to the group that they will need a "friend" to help out in this operation. The next day, the "friend" arrives to the operation headquarters, who turns out to be Sam Speed. Chuck then explains everyone his third method of capturing Sonic: Sam and Sonic will race against each other until they reach two number gates: 1 and 2. Sam is expected to go through number 2 while Sonic goes through number 1, where a trap will stick him to the ground. The others agree with excitement as they head to their positions. Soon, Sonic is running towards the race's starting position and on Amy's command, Sam took off to race with the hedgehog. Despite of Amy attempting to reassure Sam that it is not a real race and that he is supposed to be the bait to lure him into the trap but after misunderstandings between the two, Sam ends up going through the number 1 gate leading into the trap while Sonic runs through gate number two and still continues to run. Once again, the method for capturing Sonic has failed.

Meanwhile on the X-Tornado, Tails and Amy fly over Lightning Bird. Amy, wanting revenge, attempts to attack the robot. This only leads to her being shocked by an electric net. Sonic then runs by, destroying the robot by jumping into the air. This makes the device in Sonic's ear to fall out. Sonic then runs into a haystack and catches Amy, saving her from the fall. They land in a haystack once again. Amy told Sonic that she was worried about him but gets angry again when Sonic puts his finger in his ear. Sonic remarks that there is still something in his ear. Amy leans over next to his ear, and gently blows into it. This releases some hay that got its way into his ear from the fall. Sonic says that it is much better now and the two sit peacefully in the hay stack, watching the clouds as the episode ends.

Dubbing changes

 * In the Japanese version, after Sonic runs off, Chris says "He ran away...", to which Amy replies "He must have ran off because he's afraid of my punishment!". Chris response with "You think so?" and Amy goes "You bet!." In the English dub, Chris says "He DOES seem stressed", to which Amy says "He thinks he's stressed? Try being me!". Chris response with "That'd be horrible!" and Amy goes "What did you say?"
 * In the Japanese dub, Sam calls himself "Galaxy High Wind". In the English dub, he calls himself "S-Team Leader".
 * In the English dub, Signs ("mmmiklet") are blanked as Sam catches up with Sonic in the city.
 * In the Japanese version, each time Chuck presents one of his plans to capture Sonic (referred to in Japan as "Operation Balloon", "Operation 20-Day Mouse" and "Operation Sticky"), a Japanese title card appears afterwards with the name of the plan on it. Those title cards were removed in the English dub.
 * In the Japanese version, there is a six-second shot of a pot containing the fish Knuckles caught. That shot was removed from the English dub.
 * In the Japanese version, there is a sixteen-second scene of Eggman in the Egg Fort II saying "If Sonic is out training so energetically... then I want... to eat dinner energetically!" while eating some food with chopsticks. That scene was removed in the English dub.
 * In the Japanese version there is an eight-second scene of Sonic running in circles after Sam gets stuck in the goop in Lane 1. That scene was removed in the English dub.
 * In the Japanese version, there is a five second scene of E-99 Lightning Bird chasing a cow. That scene was removed in the English dub.
 * In the Japanese version, after Amy blows the hay out of Sonic's ear, Sonic says "Ticklish!." In the English dub, he does not.
 * In the Japanese version, at the end of the episode, the camera pans away as Amy and Sonic are laughing. In the English dub, the pair does nothing.