‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ review

Spoilers ahead!

This one is going to be a tad bit longer than the others.

Sonic the Hedgehog is very special for me. Not only did I grow up playing the games and watching the cartoons (yes there were two shows on at the same time) but Sonic has the distinction of being the first movie that I took Miles to go see in the movies.

When I first heard of a live action Sonic movie I swore I wasn’t going to see it.

Partially angry because, truth be told, when I was younger, middle school aged, I had wanted to write and direct a Sonic the Hedgehog movie (trilogy). The plot would be simple, take the events of the Sonic 2, Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles video games (specifically Dr. Robotnik’s attempt to take over the world with his Death Star rip off The Death Egg). At the time, I believed I would have tried to make the characters all human and just call his (like a nickname) Sonic, since he was fast.

Death Egg from Sonic & Knuckles (I think – not sure why Tails is there…)

Also, because I didn’t think it was necessary to have a Sonic the Hedgehog movie that was live action. At the time that this movie was announced I thought this should have been all CGI.

Then I saw the first trailer with the horrendous design for Sonic and completely swore the film off.

Word came out (almost immediately) that they were going to redesign Sonic and when the new trailer dropped I thought the movie looked great and fun and family friendly.

Sold Miles into seeing the movie and we went to go see it on Presidents Day in February.

Miles loved it and I had a good time.

We watched it over the weekend (as I started writing this on March 22 this is literally a month old now) and I enjoyed the movie again.

Off the top of my head:

Sonic the character was great, fun and I think Ben Schwartz was a great voice
Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik was fun
- You know he had a blast doing this and this movie was probably the biggest box office he has had in quite some time.
James Marsden – what can I say about this guy other than he is a great actor that has been dealt with a lot of bad movie rolls
- He has been in three family friendly themed films; two of which he was talking to a CGI character
- He is always on the losing end of a love triangle: X-men, The Notebook, Superman Returns
While aside from Sonic and Dr Robotnik there really isn’t a connection to the games or shows which makes this easy to jump in
However, there were a handful of easter eggs to the video games and shows (the town name)
Happy that this film didn’t have a massive budget and will most likely get a sequel
- This is proof that you don’t need a massive budget to get a good movie out. Do well with what you are given

This is by far the best of the movies that have animated characters interacting with live action humans
- Just to name a few: The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Scooby-Doo, Garfield, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Hop, The Smurfs; I challenge anyone to tell me otherwise
Last line from Dr. Robotnik is “Uninhabited planet, no resources, no supplies, no apparent way home… A lesser man would die here. I’ll be home by Christmas!”
- Miles thinks part 2 is coming out around Christmas.
- He’ll be so sad when it doesn’t come out
Stay through the credits to see a mid-credit scene!
I know a lot of people are mixed about this movie, but I think I will always find a special place in my heart for it because it was the first movie Miles saw in the theater

3 out of 4 stars

Not a bad movie, high ranking because of not only nostalgia and because of Miles.

Have you seen ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’? What did you think?