Sonic the Hedgehog Review
PG: For action, some violence, rude humor, and brief mild languageRuntime: 1 Hour and 39 MinutesProduction Companies: Sega Sammy Group, Original Film, Marza Animation Planet, Blur StudioDistributor: Paramount PicturesDirector: Jeff FowlerWriters: Patrick Casey, Josh MillerCast: Ben Schwartz, James Marsden, Tika Sumpter, Jim Carrey, Adam PallyRelease Date: February 14, 2020
The film follows the (mis)adventures of Sonic as he navigates the complexities of life on Earth with his newfound -- human -- best friend Tom Wachowski (James Marsden). Sonic and Tom join forces to try and stop the villainous Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) from capturing Sonic and using his immense powers for world domination
You’re probably already aware of the production story regarding Sonic’s redesign. When the first trailer was released, the Internet had an entire field day with it until Jeff Fowler said, “Aight, back to the lab again,” and announced the redesign. As much as the sentence, “Thank God they listened to the fans for once,” sounds so immature for any movie adaptation of a popular property, I will apply that sentence here. It’s the bare minimum to ask for the titular character’s design to resemble the character’s iconic look, but thank God for the VFX team behind the redesign who committed to making Sonic the Hedgehog resemble Sonic the Hedgehog instead of Sonic the Humanhog. He’s incorporated into the real world, which is one of this movie’s greatest advantages. He’s visually appealing, he’s cute, and, thanks to his huge eyes, he’s expressive. Because he’s expressive, a lot of the emotional beats genuinely work, especially when it’s centered on Sonic experiencing loneliness on Earth. Ben Schwartz does a great job voicing the titular character as he brings a blanket of warmth and charm to the character. There are ample moments where I found myself going, “Awww” because he’s so adorable. Now, imagine the emotional beats regarding Sonic’s loneliness but if he still looked like this monstrosity:
Obviously, it wouldn’t work. At all. Due to the artists, animators, and other employees having months upon months to start from the ground up thanks to the delayed release date, I’m glad to say that he’s fully complete. I would say he’s completely rendered to the extent that even his fur reacts to the motion of the environments he’s in. Okay, some of his renders may vary in certain shots but it works most of the time. If they maintained the initial release date with the redesign, it would’ve been much worse. MUCH WORSE.
One of my biggest fears was Jim Carrey’s portrayal of Dr. Robotnik. It’s Jim Carrey doing his over-the-top, physical, silly ‘90s shtick that we’ve grown out of. But given the kind of movie he’s in, he oftentimes steals the show with his impeccable comedic timing and his eccentric charisma. Hell, he makes the movie. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Jim Carrey delivers a fantastic performance in a movie called Sonic the Hedgehog. The writers actually gave Carrey good material to work with and his deliveries are so perfect that I found myself laughing out loud more often than I expected. Carrey’s Robotnik is a blend of Ace Ventura and Zoolander’s Mugatu. He’s never menacing or intimidating — neither was Robotnik in any sense, for he was wacky as hell — but Carrey does give the character more personality.
The redesign benefits many components of the film but it doesn't compensate for the generic, lazy screenplay that never seems to capture the reasons why this franchise, and more importantly this character, is so beloved. We’ve seen the generic blueprint of characters being taken from their world and tossed on Earth ample times, specifically for cartoon/comic book characters during their first big-screen outing, and they applied it to Sonic when you know this property is capable of far more. If you’ve ever seen Masters of the Universe, Fat Albert, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Thor, or The Smurfs, then chances are you've seen this movie play out before. It's nothing new. Now, this is the best of the bunch but is still lazy nonetheless.The Sonic franchise has been in existence for nearly 30 years with countless worlds and a variety of iconic characters and the best thing you come up with as a concept was… an origin story set on Earth?
I kid you not, you get a good two minutes of Sonic’s backstory where you see Green Hill Zone and right when you ask the five W’s, in accordance with the bizarre exposition, he’s thrown onto Earth in a town called Green Hill, Montana where the story is set.
The running trend regarding these movies based on famous properties, which has gotten so banal, is how the writers strip away the essence of the character just so they can spew pop culture references that contextually make no sense. It is established that Sonic does learn about American culture by spying on Tom and his wife Maddie through the window and the stuff he leaves in his cave. That said, why is he making references to modern pop culture, such as Vin Diesel or Amazon? I love a good Amazon shot but from Sonic? Why is Sonic doing the Backpack Kid dance? All of these moments are played for laughs and they fall flat for the sole fact that they don’t match his character. It just doesn’t work. Writers Patrick Casey and Josh Miller spend too much time trying to modernize Sonic, making sure he's adapting to the real world, but they sacrifice so much of his character in the process. His charm is retained, but it still doesn't feel in tune with the character that kids and fans know and love. The story itself is a hodgepodge of pieces taken from so many other movies of this genre. The last thing you’d want to see in a Sonic movie is Sonic going on a road trip when he has legs and the power to run ridiculously fast. My main issue with Sonic the Hedgehog is that he's not given much to do despite this being his movie. He's paired up with the town sheriff, Tom (Marsden), and he delivers a good performance, but his relationship with Sonic isn’t all that developed. Plus, he isn't given much to do outside of being the generic regular schmoe human sidekick. The only time Marsden shines is when he's having a face-off with Carrey. Even Tika Sumpter, who plays Tom’s wife, isn’t given much material to work with.
If we ever need a Jim Carrey-led comedy, director Jeff Fowler is obviously the man for the job. Carrey shines best through his direction. However, Fowler wasn’t the best choice for a Sonic movie. This is his debut as a director and you can tell. The action sequences and set pieces are all recycled from other movies… one superhero property specifically. You can easily guess which property and what sequence they rip off that they shouldn’t be doing in the first place because it’s SONIC! The worst crime that this movie commits (aside from something I will mention in a minute) is that it was put in the hands of people who didn’t know the property. It’s honestly a damn shame. You had so many ideas to pull from for this one adaptation, an adaptation that you’re planning to turn into franchise (oh yeah, this has two post-credit scenes teasing a sequel), and this was not the approach to take at all. When the best thing about a Sonic the Hedgehog movie is Jim Carrey, you know something's up. A redesign and a great Jim Carrey performance just aren’t enough. As a kids’ story, this has been done way too many times before. I would’ve been keen on giving this an initial rentable pass because it is harmless, entertaining, and has heart, but I got so pissed because, to add insult to injury, they added a sassy Black woman stereotype. Natasha Rothwell is a hysterical performer and has proven that through her roles in Love, Simon and Like a Boss, but seeing her as this unbelievably over-the-top sassy Black woman made me cringe. She portrays Maddie Wachowski’s sister Rachel and every time she spoke my heart broke because it’s two White dudes writing a Black woman in 2020 and she’s the stereotype we try to deviate from in films. This begs the question of why the fuck is this present in 2020 and in a Sonic movie? A Black woman stereotype in a Sonic movie! Seriously, her lines make no sense, for her entire gag is hating on Tom, trying to convince Maddie to divorce Tom for no reason. He’s displayed as a good man with no marital problems at all, so all of the jokes regarding that are grating and they just pissed me off.
“Rolling around at the speed of sound, got places to go, got a hedgehog to ruin!” That’s probably what the creative forces behind this film sang while crafting Sonic the Hedgehog’s plot. Granted, Casey, Miller, and Fowler didn’t completely butcher this movie as a whole, but a disservice was certainly done to the iconic Sega character. Unfortunately, the titular blue speedster was reduced to a mediocre family story that we’ve seen time and time again. Out of all the unique settings that could’ve been introduced in this big-screen adaptation, the creators settled on… wait for it… Earth.
James Marsden did the best he could with what little he was given, though it probably didn’t require much effort on his behalf to portray a kind, lighthearted sheriff with an average life and a penchant for donuts. The true star of the show is Jim Carrey, who provided the bulk of the laughs and memorable moments. It’s been a hot minute since we’ve seen Carrey in such a zany role and he definitely had a blast bringing Dr. Robotnik to life. He’s the shining beacon in a film meant to revolve around a blue hedgehog — one that apparently needs to be chauffeured around despite his ability to run at 300 mph on a bad day.
Sonic the Hedgehog works as a run-of-the-mill family movie with oddball pop culture jokes that won’t make sense in two years. It’s fun, generic, and will likely appeal to most children. However, it has very little to offer for those of us who have been a fan of the character throughout the years. Sure, Sonic’s updated CG design was well worth the wait, but the script wasn’t quite up to par. Much to our dismay, Sonic was tossed into the hands of filmmakers who weren’t qualified to handle his origin story. Perhaps it’ll gross enough to warrant a sequel so they can hire a different team of writers/directors to helm it. Rating: 2/5 | 48%If you want us to get more in-depth with our conversation regarding the film, listen to our audio podcast series The Myan and Rendy Spoiler Show. Our Sonic the Hedgehog spoiler-filled discussion drops this weekend on Spotify and Apple Podcast.
