Sonic the Hedgehog

Summary

“Your egg drones are impressive, egg man! But let’s face it – you’ll never catch me!”

I remember it like it was yesterday. I was six years old and we had just moved houses to a new neighborhood. The neighborhood was full of children that I quickly befriended. One of my first close pals on the block lived three doors down. His name was John Mallory. I remember the first time I was invited to his house and he showed me his room. It had a color television and a Sega Genesis Master System. He turned on a video game called Sonic the Hedgehog. I was amazed. It was so fast. In an instant, my little mind was blown. 

Sonic was designed by Sega to dethrone Nintendo’s plumber mascot. His design was meant to show how much faster the processor on the Genesis was than on the Nintendo. The game took advantage of every technical capability at the disposal of the system. Sonic was fast and he had an attitude. Sometimes, he wore sunglasses to prove it. It wasn’t long before every kid on my street had their own Genesis. Over the following years Sonic starred in spectacular games on every Sega console. (Note: if you are interested in the rivalry between Sega and Nintendo, I can not recommend the book Console Wars highly enough. It will make your inner child smile.)

As a parent, I can tell you that Sonic is just as popular as ever. In fact, my five year old son recently found a way to charge hundreds of dollars in add-ons to my wife’s ITunes account on a Sonic video game app. My son loves the shows that are on Netflix too. That lasting popularity has led to a movie from Paramount Studios. It was a good bet by Paramount because the film is currently one of the highest grossing video game adaptations of all time. I sat down the other night to watch the movie with my two boys.

As the film begins in a magical land, Sonic (Ben Schwartz) is given magic rings by his protector Long Claw the Owl. She opens a portal for him using one of the rings which sends him to Green Hills, Montana. Sonic has a lot of fun in the small town, but he is lonely. A Sheriff for the town named Thomas Wachowski (James Marsden) lives with his girlfriend Maddie (Tim’s Sumpter.) One day, Thomas finds one of Sonic’s blue hairs in the grass while monitoring a speed trap. He has recently applied for a job in the police department in San Francisco. When Tom receives a letter awarding him the job, he has conflicted feelings about leaving his small town. It would be a good step forward in his career and give him a chance to save some lives, but he would leave behind all the people he cares about. Sonic plays a game of baseball by himself at the town’s baseball diamond. He gets upset that he is so alone. He runs in circles so quickly that he accidentally sets off an electrical surge that wipes out all the power in the Pacific Northwest. In response, the government enlists the help of the egotistical and  unlikable, but brilliant, Doctor Robotnik (Jim Carrey) to help figure out what happened. Doctor Robotnik deploys his army of machines to analyze the area. When Sheriff Tom accidentally stumbles upon Sonic, he shoots the hedgehog with a tranquilizer and Sonic drops one of his golden rings. The ring opens a portal to San Francisco and Sonic’s bag of magical rings slide into the hole and land on a building in San Francisco. The hole closes back up. Sonic will need Tom’s help to get his golden rings back before Doctor Robotnik and his army of machines can capture him.

It’s always difficult as an adult to review a family film that is specifically geared towards kids. As an adult, my favorite family movies are not specifically geared towards children – Indiana Jones, The Goonies, Gremlins, What About Bob?, Captain Ron – but there is a special place in children’s hearts for movies that are specifically geared towards them. Sonic is definitely one of the better children’s films I have seen this year. The reasons why I am saying this are small but important. The first reason the film succeeds is it does not rely on any type of jokes that are bodily fluid related or gross. It is stupid that I should even need to write that, but it was a welcome reprieve from the idiotic joke writers for most of the kids movies. The film is innocent and will not leave any parents upset at any point. While it may be “PG” for violence or a couple curse words, this is one of the mildest kids films I have seen in a while. Recently I watched the new Jumanji film and I was surprised by how many times the filmmakers had the characters curse in a film for young kids. Yes – it’s PG-13, but it seemed like such an unnecessary choice. Sonic is not trying to be edgy and is all the better for it. The other principal reason why the film works is the solid choices for actors. Jim Carrey is firing on all cylinders like he is back in full-blown Ace Ventura mode. This type of acting will undoubtedly be obnoxious to some viewers, but those viewers are not children. My kids were losing their mind every time he was onscreen, which reminded me of the way I felt when I was their age. James Marsden is a really likable actor and he is perfectly capable of the role of Tom. Same can be said for Tika Sumpter. The really great choice made by the filmmakers was the casting of Ben Schwartz as Sonic. His voice acting for the character could not possibly be any better for what people would want Sonic to sound like. He nails it.

By all accounts, Sonic should have been a colossal failure. The original character design for Sonic was upsetting on every level and gave him razor sharp teeth. Thankfully the visual effects team went back and achieved a redesign of the character that was more true to what fans would expect. The original trailer is still out there for people that are curious as to why fans demanded it to be fixed. The fact that the film turned out to be fun and work is as surprising to me as it will be to other parents. Is the film a masterpiece that adults will want to revisit time and time again? No. Is it a pleasant enough and inoffensive enough distraction that leads to a good movie night with your young kids. Absolutely.

As mentioned before, it is almost impossible to review a children’s movie because it is not geared for adults. My two boys give the movie two very enthusiastic thumbs up.

Video

Sonic the Hedgehog was filmed in 3.4K and then was finished in 4K. This means that the film is not going to absolutely blow away the Blu-ray counterpart, but it still looks better on UHD in Dolby Vision 2160p. That leads to a difficult decision on the consumer’s part as to whether or not they want to spend the extra money on the UHD upgrade. That said – the film visually is very appealing. The slow motion sequences in particular look great. While the film will not hit the ground running like some of the titles we have seen that were given 4K+ scans, it still looks fantastic overall.

Audio

Paramount have provided a great sounding Dolby Atmos track. There is a lot of energy in the track and surrounds are used consistently. Once Doctor Robotnik enters the film, expect tons of explosions and for all of the different channels to be used. The sound design is excellent and comes across well on the track.

Supplements:

The 4K disc does not feature any supplements, but the included Blu-ray features:

• Audio Commentary: Director Jeff Fowler and Ben Schwartz deliver a fun and light hearted track about the production of the film.
• Around the World in 80 Seconds 
• Deleted Scenes 
• Bloopers
• Music Video for “Speed Me Up.”
• For the Love of Sonic 
• Building Robotnik with Jim Carrey 
• The Blue Blur: Origins of Sonic 
• Sonic on Set

Overall Scores:

Video – 4.25/5

Audio – 5/5

Supplements – 3/5

Overall – 4/5

Sonic the Hedgehog is a joyful and innocent film aimed at children that succeeds in delivering family entertainment that is completely inoffensive. It borders on becoming charming. My two boys gave the film an enthusiastic two thumbs up. I was happy to see a kids movie that didn’t rely on bodily fluid humor or other lowest common denominator appeasing crap. The Paramount Pictures UHD presentation looks and sounds great. Parents should have no fear checking this movie out.