Anthony's Film Review - Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)

Sonic the Hedgehog finally gets a theatrically-released movie, and it's actually not bad...

When looking at the history of video games, plenty of enthusiasts will point to the 1980s and 1990s as the heyday era. That was when two major video game companies had competing console systems and game libraries: Nintendo and Sega. Each of those two also had a flagship game whose protagonist could act as the company mascot. Nintendo had the Italian plumber Mario while Sega had the speedy Sonic the Hedgehog. Yet, at the time, only one of them got the Hollywood treatment, with the 1993 movie Super Mario Bros. which was absolutely terrible with little connection to the fictional world the game series is known for.

Sonic didn't have a movie at that time, but maybe that's a good thing. Video game-based movies were not ready for primetime, and moviemaking technology in the 1990s was nowhere near as sophisticated as what is available now. Now, computer-generated imagery is ubiquitous in popular culture movies, and that's what you need to bring Sonic to life. As for whether movies based on video games can finally get the respect they deserve, I say there's a chance for that, based on two recent examples I've seen: Tomb Raider and Warcraft.

Many video games involve the player controlling the hero who fights his or her way past enemies and obstacles to reach the grand antagonist for an epic climactic battle. It's fine for the world of video games, but people who watch movies expect the basic elements of plot and characters, even if it's an action movie. Thankfully, this movie doesn't make the mistake of simply reproducing the video game experience in full within a cinematic environment. It establishes a story with characters, even if both are developed on a fairly basic level here.

In this movie, Sonic the Hedgehog, voiced by Ben Schwartz, is a creature from a distant world across the universe. He suddenly finds himself in danger, and the only way to survive is to escape to another world using special teleportation rings. The world he ends up in: our world. Planet Earth. Specifically, the small town of Green Hills, Montana. Sonic does adapt to this world and builds a new home for himself in a cave somewhere. But he also has to avoid all human contact for his own safety. Sadly, he's lonely and longs for friendship.

Nearby, James Marsden plays Tom Wachowski, a police officer for the fairly quiet town of Green Hills. Things are so quiet that the town incidents he attends to are fairly tame, and there are barely any cars on the highway at all to even use a speedometer. He applies for a job as a cop in San Francisco, California, in order to take on greater challenges. As the story begins, he and his wife are getting ready to move out west because the SFPD accepted his application.

But a strange incident triggered unintentionally by Sonic throws the area into great confusion. Suddenly, the U.S. Department of Defense asks the brilliant but crazy Dr. Robotnik, played by Jim Carrey, to investigate the matter. Robotnik may be super smart with an off-the-chart IQ, but that also makes him an angry narcissist. With his incredible intelligence, he is also someone with very powerful high-tech weapons. If you want an illustration of Robotnik's demeanor, just imagine Ace Ventura, one of Carrey's wackiest characters from the early part of the actor's movie career, mixed with a sinister persona.

What follows is definitely not the equivalent of watching someone else play the video game Sonic the Hedgehog. Here, Sonic is not rushing to Robotnik to fight him directly. In fact, for a while, Sonic cannot run super fast because of a tranquilizer dart hitting his leg. Rather, Tom and Sonic are escaping together. Imagine the combination of a road trip movie, a fugitive-on-the-run movie, and a human-alien friendship movie. Sonic may be the one tagging alongside, rather than taking lead over, the other character, but he's ultimately not a weakling. We know he will emerge as a hero later on.

At this point, I'm just gonna say that the rest of the movie is a fun one. Nothing super stellar about it, but at least it definitely avoids being a travesty like the 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie. As long as I'm talking about movies based on video games, one thing that I thought was neat was the beginning of this movie's end credits. It recaps the major events in the movie, but in the style of the 16-bit graphics of the Sonic the Hedgehog game on the Sega Genesis. It's a neat way to bridge the classic Sonic with the new Sonic as well as bridge movies with video games.

And there will undoubtedly be a sequel. It shouldn't surprise you if you regularly watch pop culture movies. I don't know when Sonic the Hedgehog 2 will come out, but it'll come faster than you know it. Not faster than Sonic himself, but you know what I mean.

Anthony's Rating:

For more information about Sonic the Hedgehog, visit the Internet Movie Database.

In addition, check out my review of Sonic the Hedgehog 2.