Sonic The Hedgehog Movie Review: A Sonic Blast

On the heels of Pokémon Detective Pikachu last year and Sonic The Hedgehog this year, the video game – film adaptation curse may indeed be over.

Despite the production woes, director Matt Fowler does a strong job of delivering a film filled with heart, humor and a straight forward story that will resonate with children as well as teens.

For parents, while the animation of Sonic is much improved, the visual effects are still pretty pedestrian. The plot is predictable. However, there is one major reason Sonic The Hedgehog rises from a children’s movie to a fun family film that will keep an adult’s attention: Dr. Ivo Robotnik.

Let’s ring jump into the latest video game adaptation.

Bringing Sonic The Hedgehog to Life

The original design of Sonic displayed in the trailer in April 2019 was met with an overwhelmingly negative reaction. Fortunately, the impassioned plea from audiences led the animation at Paramount Pictures to push the film’s release to 2020 and a complete redesign of the title character. The results are definitely a success.

While the final design of Sonic isn’t perfect, the animation team succeeds in creating a character that’s endearing, fun and never distracts from the enjoyment of the film. Children will more than likely not notice any issues with the design. There’s one design flaw that could be noticeable to adults or fans of animation.

In Sonic The Hedgehog, Sonic’s retinas never venture far from the center of his face. While the issue doesn’t pose much of distraction, it is somewhat noticeable in this era of animation. Films like Frozen 2 have such expressive eye movement which helps bring the characters to life.

Ben Schwartz voices Sonic and does a good job in the role. However, it isn’t an iconic voiceover performance like Robin Williams as the Genie, Kevin Conroy as Batman or Kristen Bell as Anna. The humor from Sonic is kid-centric with the comedy being more miss than hit for adults.

The movie is infused with much more heart and emotion than you’re expecting. Sonic The Hedgehog continues the really important trend of showing loneliness, the feeling of being on the outside looking in and having a unique perception, connection or ability that you don’t know what to do with that most children and especially teenagers struggle within the animated form. The Frozen franchise, Moana and the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy are recent examples of this trend.

90’s Nostalgia Revisited in the Best Way Possible

Fittingly, 25 years ago Jim Carrey took on his first antagonist role as Edward Nygma aka “The Riddler” in Batman Forever. Carrey turns back the clock in the best way possible as Dr. Robotnik. Carrey’s Robotnik takes on a lot of the qualities that made a mainstay during the ’90s.

Like The Riddler and Ace Ventura, Robotnik has a massive chip on his shoulder and never resists an opportunity to showcase his intellect in the smuggest manner possible. Some of the physical machinations clearly flashbacks to his performances in The Mask and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Carrey is the greatest physical comedian alive today and seeing him channel this kind of performance is just a blast.

He takes over every scene he’s in and all of the comedic beats whether it’s his delivery, facial tick or a strange dance elicits laughter.

The Race from Green Hills to San Francisco

The plot of Sonic the Hedgehog finds Sonic needing to travel from Montana to San Francisco, California to retrieve his rings. In a departure from the games, the rings allow Sonic to teleport to different planets and countries.

James Marsden does a fine job as the Sherrif of Green Hills, Montana. Tom Wachowski is simply the best human being ever. The journey from stranger to friend happens far too quickly. Then near the 3rd act of the film, there’s a weird wrench thrown in that has Sonic showing anger towards Tom in a one-sided conflict in which Sonic comes across as unreasonable.

Most of the comedy is this section is more miss than hit. All of the scenes are amusing though and they never run the risk of being boring.

The action and special effects are competent, but nothing more. Sonic’s powers are shown in a similar fashion to Quicksilver in the X-Men films or The Flash.

Final Thoughts on Sonic The Hedgehog

Overall, Sonic’s first big-screen outing is a success. Carrey’s performance and a strong heartfelt message help carry (no pun intended) the film throughout the 99-minute runtime. The lack of distinctive visuals and the cookie-cutter plot limits the film for parents, but will most likely be overlooked by children.

What did you think of the latest video game adaptation?

Liked it? Take a second to support Chris Lee on Patreon!