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The Fight for the Fox Box is a one-shot TV special produced by 4Kids Entertainment in 2003 to promote the second season of its Saturday morning cartoon block, the Fox Box (later renamed 4Kids TV). It is presented as a crossover story involving characters from the shows Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Ultimate Muscle, Cubix: Robots for Everyone (which had just moved there from Kids' WB because FOX needed one more show to fulfill the weekly 3-hour E/I quota), Sonic X, and most relevant to this wiki, Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, told entirely using animation recycled and redubbed from the shows themselves. It premiered as a prime-time special on August 31st of that year (the television version was shortened by several minutes to fit in the commercials), and was released as a promotional DVD distributed in the mail and various magazines, as well as being included as a bonus feature on the Kirby's Egg-Cellent Adventure DVD.
Due to characters from Kirby: Right Back at Ya! and Sonic X appearing in this special, this is technically the first officially licensed crossover between the Sonic the Hedgehog series and any Nintendo franchise, beating Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games by four years.
Plot[]
King Dedede and Escargoon are called alongside four other bad guys from the Fox Box's line-up (including fellow video game villain Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik, DMP member Dial Bolic, recently-transferred-from-another-network roboticist Dr. K, and returning Saturday morning cartoon villain Shredder) into a conference call by a mysterious entity with a deep voice. This entity informs the villains that they all have a common enemy - the Fox Box, which has spent the last year broadcasting shows glorifying their arch-foes and showcasing their defeats (or is about to do so this coming season, in Eggman and Dr. K's cases). Thus, he has somehow managed to steal the block's broadcast codes, without which the block can't go on the air, and is entrusting each of the villains with one of them. However, Ace Anderson and Jack Kowalski, the main characters from new show Funky Cops, manage to pick up the villains' conference call on their car's CB radio.
A little later, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles find that the Fox Box has been knocked off the air (Raphael is apparently a big fan of Kirby). After showing the audience a promo for Shaman King (since its characters couldn't actually take part in the crossover), Donatello sets up a website called SaveTheFoxBox.com (which is now defunct, but has been archived), in which viewers could enter the codes. Soon after, the heroes from the other shows represented catch wind of the villains' plan and set out to retrieve the codes so the audience can learn them for the website. In the case of Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, Tiff overhears King Dedede announcing to the Cappys (through redubbed animation from "Cartoon Buffoon") that he's retooling the show so that he's the new main character (this scene does not appear in the televised version). After Tiff alerts Meta Knight and Kabu about it, Kirby, Tiff, Tuff, and the Cappys race against Dedede and Escargoon to find the treasure chest that their code is being kept in (through redubbed animation from "Buccaneer Birdy"). Dedede tries to distract them by sending out Moggy, but he accidentally drops the chest when he and Escargoon escape. During all this, the characters take time to remind the audience of their respective shows' premises, including a scene where Meat from Ultimate Muscle informs Ace and Jack about what's been happening on his show (the only time in the special any of the different shows' characters actually interact outside of the villains' conference calls).
At the end of the special, the villains report to their mysterious benefactor about how they failed to keep their codes safe (except for Shredder, who successfully managed to trap and almost kill the Turtles and their allies after Leonardo told everyone his code). The voice chastises them for this, informing them about the website Donatello set up. Eventually, the sound visualization for the mastermind's voice fades away to reveal his real identity - Wayne Cramp, the naughty half of The Cramp Twins.
Notes[]
- Sonic previously crossed over with the Ninja Turtles (sort of) in issue #10 of Archie Comics' Sonic the Hedgehog comic book (in which the Turtles made a background cameo to joke that they're in the wrong comic). He would crossover with the Turtles again in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds 22 years after this special.
External links[]
- The Fight for the Fox Box at the Internet Movie Database
- The special's page on TV Tropes
| Nintendo-related movie adaptations | |
|---|---|
| Mario | Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach! (1986; JP; video) • Super Mario Bros. (1993) • The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) • The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026) |
| The Legend of Zelda | Zelda Video (2003) • Untitled The Legend of Zelda film (2027) |
| Pokémon | Pokémon film series (I Choose You! continuity) |
| Other series | Animal Crossing: The Movie (Animal Crossing; 2006; JP) • Star Fox Zero: The Battle Begins (Star Fox, 2016) |
| Compiled | Donkey Kong Country: The Legend of the Crystal Coconut (1999; video) • Kirby: Fright to the Finish (2005; video/TV) |
| Miscellaneous | The Wizard (1989) • Super Hornio Brothers (1993) • The Fight for the Fox Box (2003) • Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (2005) • Wreck-It Ralph (2012) • Pixels (2015) • 8-Bit Christmas (2021) • Close to You (2025) |