Did They Fix The Sonic The Hedgehog Movie?

Sonic the Hedgehog Movie Review

It’s hard to talk about the end result of the “Sonic the Hedgehog” movie without addressing the disastrous reveal trailer. While it’s admirable that a studio would take extra time to amend the horrific design, it’s clear that wasn’t the only issue the film had. Name’s Dave with WatchMojo and today we’re asking the question: Did they fix the “Sonic The Hedgehog” movie?

The very first problem with this film comes barely within the two minute mark of the film. As when we are introduced to Sonic, and the world that anyone who has played the Genesis games will recognize, we’re immediately introduced to a CGI character who’s design feels completely out of place with the Sonic Franchise. Over the years Sonic has amassed a wide assortment of friends who all stick to a familiar design similar to that of the blue blur. This character I’m referring too, is not consistent with that design. He feels more at place in some animated film with realistic designs, and since the original Sonic design tried to be too realistic, it feels like a leftover from that original nightmare the team didn’t fix.

Still after the prologue we finally have the film going, albeit in the familiar premise of “Cartoon Character in the real world movies” similar to that of say “The Smurfs” or the “Alvin & The Chipmunks” movies. Though while the film does try to subvert the “Fish out of water” trope that other films of this style have done in the past, it does retain many of its popular negative trappings, most notably the extensive product placement, and it gets really out of hand here with whole brand names being dropped, forced movie & pop music references and the exact same “Fortnite'' reference being used twice. It all seems to come at the expense of barely any nods to Sonic lore, as the film only seems to focus on Sonic, Eggman, Rings, Green Hill Zone, and aside from a post credit scene ... that’s about it.

What this leaves us with altogether; is a film that feels like it’s doing the absolute bare bones of work to do the nearly 3 Decade old Hedgehog justice, and instead fill in knowledge gaps of the franchise with whatever’s popular today. Though perhaps where this format hurts the Sonic movie is with Sonic himself. The film establishes him as a self imposed loner who tries to makeup for his lack of social coolness with witty remarks and projected caricature that seem to be more in line with that 1993 Adventures of Sonic cartoon. If you were expecting Sonic’s “Too cool for skool” attitude, it’s certainly not here. While I applaud the film’s attempt at tackling social isolation, it’s let down by the film’s rather awkward dialogue.

For Sonic awkward dialogue would be understandable given his loneliness, but unfortunately this is an issue that covers nearly all of the main characters. Back in April 2019 at CinemaCon, there were actually two Sonic Trailers that were revealed to the press behind closed doors. That 2nd trailer was never released to the public due to the negative backlash of the first trailer, but there was one notorious exchange from that trailer, that was widely reported on and caused a lot of “huh? … what?”. In a scene between Jim Carrey’s Dr. Robotnic and James Marsden’s Tom. Carrey says “When I was a toddler I was already mixing formulas while you were spitting out formulas” to which Marsden’s Tom replies “I was breastfed.” That exchange made it into the final product, and it’s just as cringeworthy as the reports were claiming.

That being said, Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnic is certainly one of the film’s stronger aspects with his scenery chewing antics, including a very passionate dance routine that you can’t help but love. But there’s only so much he can do with the material that’s available to him.

James Marsden’s character Tom is setup as this lovable everyman, while his performance is good enough, he doesn’t really get the chance to stand out over Sonic, and only really seems to be here since Sonic doesn’t seem to know what a map is. In fact his motivation for helping Sonic is not only poorly conveyed but rather creepy. The film establishes early on that for years Sonic has been spying on Tom and his wife Maddie for years because he’s had nothing better to do, even giving Tom the unofficial label “Donut Lord” because of one scene where Tom is practicing a speech in front of a donut. When Tom finds out this revelation though, he gets over this invasion of privacy news rather quickly.

Maddie, played by Tika Sumpter on the other hand, despite getting prominent crediting, complete with her own character poster; feels underutilized. She has one key scene which only seems to help by speeding up the film’s story, then pretty much tags along for the rest of the film not doing anything.

It’s no secret that Video Game movies seem to be cursed within Hollywood, and a large part of that is due to a lack of understanding the source material, and more interested in cashing in on a popular brand name. “Sonic the Hedgehog'' merely reinforces this negative perspective. It’s a souless ad-heavy cash grab, that plays it way too safe with familiar story tropes and little worldbuilding that only reinforces the problem Hollywood seems to have with understanding nostalgic IPs.

Oh sure, Sonic’s design was fixed, but the problems the film has run deeper than what the star character looks like. Don’t forget, this studio also thought “Gangsta’s Paradise” was an ideal fit as trailer music for Sonic because it seemed to be popular, and that “because it’s popular” mindset seems to have stayed. Kids might get a blast out of the colorful main character & Jim Carrey’s Antics. But for longtime fans of the Sonic series, the only saving grace is that it’s far from the worst thing to happen to Sonic.