Jasonic's Favorites: Sonic the Hedgehog
Hello and good evening, Internet!
Many who know me are aware that this character is literally my favorite character of all time so the mere fact that this movie came out three years ago is a dream come true! In fact, it was the culmination of years of waiting and developing my own personal fanboy's take on what a Sonic movie should be like -- seriously, I wrote a 100+ page script about it featuring a majority of the franchise's characters and plot elements. Also if you're wondering where my blog name comes from, it's a combination of my name (Jason) and Sonic. Now that I've gotten to see this movie several times, I think it's only fitting that I finally review it!
Released in 2020, Sonic the Hedgehog (the movie) was originally the subject of Internet controversy for a number of reasons. Fans of the franchise were skeptical about the prospect of this movie being live action + animated characters together -- a concept that Hollywood has often portrayed poorly with classic characters -- as well as certain plot details such as Sonic being described as a "juvenile deliquent". I was willing to give the original ideas the benefit of a doubt, but when the original trailer dropped, I was among many who was worried about the movie's success. Video game movies have often been poor adaptations of their source material in the past, but the content of the trailer was not the problem: it was the design of its main character. The staggering amount of Internet outcry against the poorly, creepily designed Sonic in the original trailer showed the creators that basically no one was willing to watch this movie as long as the main character looked that way. As a result, the movie was delayed by a few months as the studio that designed Sonic got straight to work in reworking Sonic's whole design from the ground up so that people would feel comfortable going to see this movie. Their efforts to remedy audience response was a success as the movie became what was, at the time, the most successful video game movie adaptation both critically and financially. Now that this movie has done the impossible, it's almost safe to say that there's a bit of a video game movie revolution on this horizon, although is this movie, the one that started it, actually good? Let's find out!
*SPOILERS* (if you haven't seen this movie or its sequel, turn away now)
Unlike previous characters I have reviewed, Sonic the Hedgehog may need an introduction for some -- especially since this Sonic is from a different universe than the games. The movie is about a blue space alien anthropamorphic hedgehog named Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) being sent to Earth to keep his powers safe from people seeking to abuse it. Over the years, Sonic establishes himself as a cave-dwelling, local anomaly near the town of Green Hills, Montana where local police officer, Tom Wachowski (James Marsden), is his favorite person whom he watches in secret. While Tom is accepted onto the San Francisco Police Department, Sonic deals with loneliness in the form of playing baseball by himself. After realizing he has no one to congratulate him, Sonic runs about the empty diamond so fast, emmitting his mysterious blue electric energy in a pulse so great that in wipes out power throughout the northwest Pacific border. As a result, the U.S. government sends their best operative, Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey), to investigate this anomaly with his technologically advanced robot army, which nearly allows him to detect where Sonic is. When Sonic attempts to use his Rings given to him by his former guardian, Longclaw (voiced by Donna Jay Fulks), to escape Earth, a confrontation with Tom causes Sonic to lose his Rings, which end up in San Francisco. With Sonic and Tom becoming fugitives from the law after an attack against Robotnik, Sonic must work together with a reluctant Tom to escape Robotnik's pursuit, get back his Rings, and leave Earth, but not without enjoying more of what Earth has to offer with Tom as his guide.
Already, by reading that plot summary, one can probably gather that this movie has a lot of thought and heart put into it. It largely deviates from traditional Sonic media wherein Robotnik is just a measly evil scientist looking to conquer the world who gets bested by Sonic at every turn; while extended media like the comics canon has gone out of its way to establish an origin for Sonic, Robotnik (or Eggman if you wanna call him that), and their enmity, this movie establishes everything in a way that introduces the characters, world, and lore of Sonic to a new audience. In this, Sonic comes from an unnamed distant planet in the universe where his home is basically Green Hill Zone from the games, creating an awesome tie-in to the game universe without being exactly like it. Granted, we only see the traditional Green Hill landscape for the first couple minutes of the movie, but the creators going out of their way to name the fictional town of Green Hills, Montana the way they did showed that they were willing to commit to the zany nature of named locations in the Sonic universe. Not only are there numerous references to the games' iconography in this movie, but they also commit to throwing some fun references to the games in the form of small Easter eggs and references such as the Hill Top Rd sign in Sonic's cave or Sonic falling off the San Francisco building during his fight with Robotnik and his Rings scattering on the ground before he picks them back up. What's more, a piano rendition of the original Green Hill Zone theme plays following the climactic as an fun little extra nod to that place. It's little moments like these that shows that the creators did some research to throw some fun little references into their product for the sake of appealing to long time and keen-eyed fans who may have noticed upon viewing once or even several times over.
A good video game movie is more than its references, of course; what most video game movies have been missing from their premise is good storytelling and heart and this movie delivers on those fronts. We are shown in the beginning that Sonic is a lonely space creature who secretly watches over people on Earth for fear of the population discovering his power and abusing it; this results in him never having any real friends and him realizing this is what kickstarts the plot with his accidental EMP burst he emits in a fit of distress. His circumstances unite him with Tom, a theme of their relationship being the idea of a bucket list after Sonic learns what that is to which he spends time at a bar to get a lot of living done; after they escape a bar fight and Sonic falls asleep at a hotel, Tom reads that the last thing on the former's bucket list is to make a real friend. Although they have a rough patch in the form of a disagreement on why Tom would want to leave Green Hills to join the SFPD, Tom and Sonic eventually unite to defeat Eggman, Tom proclaiming to the latter that Sonic is his friend, which fulfills that goal and gives Sonic the strength to defeat his soon-to-be arch nemesis. That developing friendship arc is honestly a refreshing one for a live human befriending a cartoon animal because they could have easily gone the cliche route of Sonic being so annoying to Tom before the former causes an incident that incites the latter to kick him out of his life before they reunite for the climax. Fortunately, the directors knew how to deliver a fresh take on the formula and did not make anything like that nor did they do a repeat of the movie, Hop -- another human befriending a cartoon movie starring James Marsden.
The actors also do a fine job of the roles they are given. James Marsden gives a good enough performance as Tom Wachowski and while it's nothing to write home about, I do enjoy the exchanges he has with other characters including his wife, Maddie (Tika Sumpter), Sonic, and Robotnik and he meshes well with the vibe of the movie. Ben Schwartz also gives a great voice performance as Sonic himself, being the embodiment of an energetic, hyper-active, confidence exuberating blue hedgehog who lives to have fun while also tending to his responsibilities of keeping himself safe. As a fan of the series, I found his voice and attitude to be a good combination of former Sonic voice actors, Ryan Drummond and Jason Griffith, while also implementing a snarky element similar to the current voice actor, Roger Craig Smith. The side characters such as Adam Pally's Wade Whipple and Frank C. Turner's Crazy Carl are some entertaining side performances and really highlight the charming, quirky lifestyle and character the residents of Green Hills have despite their limited screentime. The real highlight, though, is Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik/Eggman; at the time of this movie, it had been years since Jim Carrey had done a comedic, cartoonish role like he did mostly in the 90s and, I'll say, he really brought back that energy and nailed this take on the character. He is a quirky, selfish, but fun-loving scientist with fun characteristics such as an interest in lattes with Austrian goat milk and whose machines mean everything to him, and it's almost no question that Jim Carrey was picked to play such an entertaining villain. His interactions with his lackey, Agent Stone (Lee Majdoub), are also great and full of creative takes on the bad guy and his lackey tropes such as Robotnik confronting Stone first by telling him to pin himself to the wall, which the latter does most likely because they've done that trope so many times. It's the little things like that that give Jim Carrey's exuberance a unique touch to this character and make for a great modern movie villain.
The special effects and animation also became an excellent aspect of this movie after the studio redid Sonic's entire look. As I mentioned above, the biggest thing that people despised about this movie's first looks was the design of Sonic himself; it was an ugly, realistic take on Sonic that could have completely changed the vibe of the movie and maybe even resulted in it being unsuccessful and never getting a sequel. That said, what they ultimately did saved the movie; Sonic's design is not 100% accurrate to the games, but the final design actually resembles the original character with his green eyes, pointy black nose, rounded, flesh colored face, and highly detailed blue fur. An interesting detail about this version of Sonic is that he originally wears what look to be cheap, possibly homemade shoes that have worn out over time until Tom and Maddie's niece, Jojo (Melody Nosipho Niemann), gives him his iconic red and white shoes so that he "won't hurt his feet anymore". The electricity Sonic emits from his quills to exemplify his speed and power is also visually appealing when it could have easily been cheap, blue electricity and showcases the hefty, mysterious power that this version of Sonic possesses (enough to create a powerful EMP burst that knocks out power throughout the northwest Pacific). Robotnik's machines may mostly be generic floating drones shaped like eggs, but the scene where he dances to Poppy Family's "Where Evil Grows" is full of some fun holographic visuals such as the part where he's running from a fake T. Rex that then "bites his head off". While the movie understandably limits itself to one animated Sonic character -- the star of the show I might add -- it also creates a decent-looking movie version of Tails (voiced by Colleen O'Shaughnessy) in the mid-credits scene when the latter appears out of a Ring portal to find Sonic. Interestingly enough, they did update the Tails model for the sequel, but the one they used here was likely a test so I won't hold that against this movie in retrospect.
With all that this movie set out to do, this was, without a doubt, a shockingly great attempt at a video game movie adaptation. It had great Easter eggs and references both visually and musically, an actually competent plot with heart, great to stellar acting, and, with some time and retweaking, the visual effects managed to be a great selling point as well. To think this movie probably would have been disastrous had they kept the original Sonic design, though I probably would have still seen it regardless of what anybody thought. If this movie taught anyone, including Hollywood, anything, it's that in order for a movie adaptation to do well, the designs of the major characters, animated or not must be accurate or on point so that people may find themselves wanting to go see the movie. If not for Internet outcryers essentially bullying Hollywood into changing their intended design, I don't think the Sonic film franchise could have panned out nor could the game franchise drawn in more players because of a successful movie. All that said, I give this movie a solid B and believe it is worth the recommendation to anyone looking to know or get into Sonic.
Thank you all for reading and I will see you in the next review!
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