It’s February 14th which means Happy Sonic the Hedgehog Day! I can’t think of anything else worth celebrating. Sonic Day was originally scheduled for November last year, but online backlash regarding the title character’s design (and maybe some script updates) pushed the release to today. Our review team saw it early, was the wait worth it fellas?
Cole: It’s usually the job of the person that liked the movie more to go first. It’s just not usually me. I thought Sonic the Hedgehog was loads of fun!
Madison: It’s not that I don’t like the movie, it’s that I don’t like how many times I rolled my eyes at jokes aimed way below my age. I grew up playing Sonic and watching that more than silly anime. I anticipated the film being aimed at the generation who grew up on Sonic.
Cole: After seeing the tone of the movie, it makes me wonder more what they were ever thinking with the first animation design. This is firmly a kids movie, maybe more than last year’s Detective Pikachu and so it needs a soft, friendly, cartoonish Sonic. Not monster-hedgehod-with-teeth.
Madison: Firstly, the studio deserves commendation for listening to fan reactions and actually altering it. I don’t want to think about how they overworked those animators or whether or not they paid them fairly. I’m just happy to see a Sonic I can recognize.
Cole: The VFX industry had a rough weekend after being the butt of the (funniest) joke at the Oscars too. As CGI takes over more and more movies, let’s pause and give thanks for how great Sonic looked in the final product.
Amen. Madison: As for the movie itself, it’s a pretty straightforward roadtrip movie. Sonic can’t find San Francisco without the help of Donut Lord (James Marsden) who’s actual in-movie name I can’t remember. He loses his purse of magic rings and must get to San Fran to get find them. Along the way Sonic gets a bucket list and starts checking things off. This is a guaranteed recipe for antics and writing basically any semi-humorous bit they want.
Cole: It’s a…predictable movie, and I say that with love. The tropes and plot-posts they pass through are pretty obvious, but I think done well enough that in 15 years kids will recognize when a protagonist stops, freeze-frames, and says ‘I bet you’re wondering how I ended up here’ that they’ll say ‘oh yeah, like in Sonic’.
Madison: Jim Carrey is making his way back into movies and becomes Dr. Robotnik AKA Eggman. I’ll say some of the cringiest humor comes from Carrey, but also my few genuine chuckles came from him as well. I wonder if Carrey’s humor is stuck in the 90’s when zaniness was the name of the game. But I don’t think the world will ever truly tire of Jim Carrey.
Cole: That childish zany humor that I’ve done my share of cringing at before is right at home here. All the characters are brought together by Ben Schwartz’ fast voice-overing titular Sonic.
Madison: Finally, my disappointment comes down to one thing, really. If you go back and play the games and watch the shows, Sonic is always one thing — cool. He talks cool. He interacts with other characters in a cool way. And other characters think he’s cool. But in the film, he’s more annoying than cool. This is a character departure. I get that they made it for kids and kids think annoying is cool but, well, they’re wrong. I wanted Sonic to be as cool as I remembered him and I don’t think the writing nailed it.
Cole: And I was able to enjoy it because I just wanted Sonic to say ‘gotta go fast’ and hear the Green Hill Zone theme. I did. Good movie.
Madison: Above all, children will like this movie. Hell, it might even give you an excuse to blow out the dust from the old sega cartridge and play it with your kids. Personally, I’d say wait for Sonic to appear on a streaming platform before you watch it with them. Maybe take them to Birds of Prey. I bet the kids will like that.
(Birds of Prey is an R-rated flick. Don’t take your kids. But definitely take yourself because it’s great!)