Film of the Week: Sonic the Hedgehog (I Gave It a Chance)

I wrote an article a couple of weeks back explaining how the filmmakers changed the appearance of Sonic due to the overwhelming negativity from the first design. They delayed the film to rework his design and as a result the animation studio went bust. I wrote the article stating how we owe it to those who worked on the redesign and the filmmakers who did what many studios wouldn’t have done.

I gave it a chance and my conclusion to the film is… not bad. Due to it not being a direct adaptation of a specific game but an original story, the filmmakers were able to create a story from scratch. What they developed was more of an origin story for Dr Robotnik (who was never referred as Dr Eggman), played by Jim Carrey, Sonic’s character was merely introduced to the audience, and the story that they were both involved in saw the two tangled up in their common rivalry seen in all the video games and TV programs. You can’t have one without the other, which will make it interesting to see how Dr Robotnik returns since becoming trapped in the mushroom world.

Even though most of the negativity came from fans of the franchise, who are mainly comprised of adults, the final product is intended to be a family film, therefore must be suitable and be understood by children. This does make the film feel a little clunky in areas and rushed in others; flitting between emotions at speeds rivalling Sonic’s.

Sonic the Hedgehog isn’t the best film ever made, nor was it made to be. Everyone knew it wasn’t going to be, but the fact that the studio redesigned Sonic’s appearance tells me that they at least wanted to make the best film they could. The final edit was bouncy, action packed, and overall enjoyable. To be completely honest, Jim Carrey held a lot of this film solely on his performance alone; he captures Dr Robotnik’s craziness and runs with it. He stated how much fun he had whilst making this film, and that rubbed off on me as I watched it, because every time he came on screen, the whole atmosphere got a little bit zanier. It may have had a bumpy ride during production, but it smoothed itself out as much as possible by the time it was eventually released. Could it have been better, sure, but at least we didn’t get the version with Sonic’s first design – those teeth are the stuff of nightmares.

This is the second video game adaptation which didn’t succumb to the curse which surrounded previous films – the first being Pokemon: Detective Pickachu. As of writing this article, the figures state Sonic has surpassed Pokemon’s box office total, becoming the highest earned video game adaptation of all time. That’s impressive considering what it went through, which does mean people have been given this a chance.

Do I hope there’s a sequel? I do. Do I hope it’ll include the other two characters, Tails and Knuckles? I do, and from the mid-credit’s scene, if there is a sequel, that’s exactly what we’re going to get.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)