So Sonic the Hedgehog has had a very long and VERY bumpy road to the silver screen. And when I say bumpy I mean it. On April 30th of 2019, SEGA released its first trailer for their new Sonic movie and the general consent was, Ew! Sonic was small, stupidly life-like, and had such dazzling teeth the director thought it necessary to make you be able to count the exact number in each shot.
The main problem with this incarnation of Sonic was that he was too life-like. His design fell into what is known as the uncanny valley. He had small, saturated green eyes, white furry hands instead of white gloves, and those teeth.
Ew.
But now this is a review of the movie and not a trashing of the old sonic, so back to the film. If I were to describe the movie I would call it a buddy cop road trip adventure where one of the cops is a little blue alien hedgehog who is being chased by an evil-genius Jim Carrey with a mustache.
Let me say this, Jim Carrey kills it in this role! He seems to be channeling his inner 90s actor star power and delivers the perfect bad guy who is a balance between quirky, campy, and downright evil.
The movie is the perfect balance between being sweet but not sappy, campy, not corny, and true to the games yet still bringing something fresh and new.
What I most admire about this film is the transformation each character goes through in the film to look and act like their video game counterparts. Doctor Robotnik/Eggman starts out as a normal evil genius but then turns into this.
With Doctor Robotnik, SEGA decided to go a different approach from other video game and comic book movie costumes. The other movies would have them change their costume to adapt into believableness. Where Sonic and it’s characters were at first going to be more everyday earth like but course-corrected and whole-heartedly embraced their inner whacky side. Which one do you think is better?
What really helped this movie was making the characters more like they were in the original game. With Sonic they made his fur flatter and less noticeable. And on his cheeks and mouth, they completely got rid of the fur. Also, they made his ears larger and his brows more distinct. And he got gloves instead of white hands!
So, if you have an open Friday night I would definitely recommend you go to the theater and watch this amazing film. Sonic the Hedgehog is what I would call the best video game movie released to date. I want to leave you with this. If they had stuck with this
would you really have gone to see this movie? Luckily the original version of Sonic they had did not reflect on the finished film we got. Oh, and stick past the mid-credits there is one little scene you do not wanna miss.
Those, teeth.