Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)

When I first watched it in the movie theatres I thought it was fine and nothing more. When I say a Sonic movie people tend to talk about the sequel but never really talk about the first one. Sure over time it when Sonic 3 was released it has the less to offer but that's we are talking today. Before I talk about the review I'm not the biggest Sonic-fanatic here I'm more of a Mario or FNAF fan. ( okay Sonic community chill down and put your pitch forks down and SHUT UP, please). Okay IntoFilm Club where's the FNAF movie I want to see it! Not to mention I don't often talk about live-action and CGI but here we are now. Any ways without a further-a-do let's gotta go reviewing:

The CGI: Before I talk about the plot and characters I want to talk about the CGI first because for a movie from 2020 during the *BIG SICK* it's surprisingly is not bad. I'm not saying it's hold up super great particularly the scene where Doughnut Lord and Pretzel Lady ( which is the best names I ever heard) falling down, to me I find it distracting because it was filming in a green screen and just any one falling off ( I'm not saying they should filming people falling off from a real building because that's is the stupidest thing ever it's that it didn't aged well for me).

How can I not talk about Sonic The Hedgehog himself because the CGI in this is pretty impressive and the stand out! I should worth mentioning the people behind it have a model for Sonic for rendering it which is something to give credit for the team to bring Sonic alive. Okay fine, I'll talk about the elephant in the room, you know what it is? Sonic's original design... AH IT'S DISGUSTING! GUARDS! GUARDS! I ORDER TO GET THIS OUT OF MY SIGHT! NOW!

Yeah the original design of Sonic is pretty awful, do you know why here's a list:

Human teeth

generic stunts

the glove is the fur for some reason

Skinny

too small

small eyes

hard to understanding his emotion because oh his face

white fur

dose not looks like Sonic and more like a monkey to me

I had no Idea what are the people going for with this but on May 2nd, 2019 which is three days after the original trailer Jeff Fowler makes announce on Twitter (or X whatever) he acknowledges the criticism of the design and he change it by delaying the movie so the animators. It's amazing how on Earth that Paramount a big corrupt that most likely to ignore the public critiques actually go out of it's way to fix and re-animated again , it shows how much they actually cared for the movie and fans. It was delayed for 4 months but then delayed for next year on Feb 14th, 2020 (which is before lockdown) and everyone on the human race planets basically says "understandable".

On 2020 Sonic got a redesign and it looks... AWESOME! He looks like pulled out from the game perfectly! Sonic real do feel like he is really there and one of the few animated in live-action that's we feel to Sonic ( the others are Paddington, Rocket and Rodger Rabbit) Anyways enough of me gushing over the CGI let's talk story and characters.

Plot and Characters: Right at start of the opening they show us the scene with Dr. Robotnik chasing Sonic and Sonic being the narrator and talks to you and revered to the start to the movie which is an interesting way to say to start the story. It starts off with a younger Sonic and his guide LongClaw but then ambushed by the red mysterious which I wondered that's a set up for the sequel by LongClaw sacrificed herself and give the rings to Sonic. In the deleted scene it shows that Sonic and LongClaw escapes to the human world which I'm glad they deleted that because LongClaw sacrificed herself impacts the plot more but also give us a puzzle to the sequel.

Sonic the Hedgehog: So Sonic is the main of the story, how are you going to adapt by giving him what the audiences to relate but keeping Sonic true to his character. Similar to Mario that the team didn't have to change much of his character or re-invented the wheel to make a spin on the character. Yet again you got to remember that try to change things but still keeping the aspects what people like. Sonics character arc is being with family. He soon realised that being lonely and doing nothing but looking at everyone lifting one up to another is turning the worse for him. I like he isn't stupid he is more unfamiliar and he is creative with his room and not to mention his inspiration is the Flash from DC. I also like he hates mushrooms which ironically what Mario hates too 3 years later. I also love that before he has dynamic with any of the human characters he calls them the funniest name ever like Doughnut Lord. You know what that's what I'm calling for now on. I did forget that during my re-watch in the second act of the movie is a road trip movie and there are stops half way threw out the movie since we are more used to Sonic's adventure side.

The action: Before I talk the others I want to say about the action scenes and I like the action of the movie (Sonic vs Dr. Robotnik scene in particular) and none of it feels like filler or over the top. Like I said the rendering of Sonic doing his stunts to a car is pretty impressive and not to mention they hired a guy to do the stunts and animated it. They could have used the animation from the Polar Express but no they animated from scratch.

So after the Sonic causes a lighting in a bottle the governments call in our villain of the day which is Oscar the Fish.... *throw brick on his head* our real villain is Jim Carrey- FINE! Dr. Robotnik there I said it your welcome! But for real I love the new take on Dr. Robotnik instead of taking over the world (which is the next movie) he is basically trying to get Sonic like he is an obstacle to Sonic and I also should mention that his dialogue is soooo "iconic" "No, Wrong , I'm in charge! Me! I'm in charge!", "Give me a big fat break!" , "What do I look like? An Imbecile. Of course I want a latte. I love the way you make them!". Jim Carrey carries this movie with funny performance and none of it is tone death or go a bit too far. I also love that the robots he build are in fact robots because his the robots in the Sonic games are animals and it feels like Sonic is killing this animals and I like robots a lot better.

It's not just Sonic in the trip also with James Marsden from Illumination's Hop... (okay ignoring that film the existed) it's similar to the Godzilla movies to me like sure Sonic is the main character, hell he is in the poster for cry out loud but it would be pretty boring if Sonic go the road trip by himself then that means Sonic is in a Looney Tunes cartoon but stretched out. I like the humans inclusion to the movie if not the franchise which makes the world more flesh out and they live in a small called Green Hills which is creative to me and it's the start of Sonic's journey. So Doughnut Lord is a cop who is moving job to San Francisco but ended up with Sonic and Robotnik is coming to get him. His bond with Sonic is pretty memorable and I like he grew into Sonic and at the end of the movie he defeated Sonic saying that Sonic is his friend. I'm glad there is no misunderstand sub-plot to Sonic but (this is the first part of my criticism)

Doughnut Lord is on the news and for some reason get called out like sure the people in the got their a$$ kicked but no one died and also is nobody noticing that guy on the news since he is in a big City. The sub-plot drop out after that and basically forgotten about so what Is the point of that. I love that he get a room in his home for Sonic and Sonic's theme is just perfect.

The funny: For the most part it's funny for the most because of the the actors performances and I'm glad that any movie references aren't too on the nose or cringe (well except the floss which they did it twice and another in the sequel which is out of touch for the character to do like Sonic doesn't have a phone for Pete sake and they made a fart joke yeah it's just baby humour but that's the only ones that I didn't laugh) My favourite scene in the whole movie is when Sonic slow motion in the bar scene which the people behind it takes inspiration from Over The Hedge by the way.

Final thoughts: So that was Sonic the Hedgehog, a movie that is a good movie and I did enjoy it a lot. Is it better then the Mario movie? No not quite. (Maybe because I'm a Mario guy) Is it perfect? No not really there are some useless scenes , the buddy road trip movie plot is okay at execution and the few of the comedy is not funny. Besides that sure it's not amazing but I think it's a great way to start out a Sonic or Sega's Cinematic Universe or how about the SCU. If your a Sonic fan or some jerk in general I would recommend this movie! So that's everything I got to say!