The story begins with Sonic in the present day, narrating to the audience about what is happening. He running from Dr. Robotnik, who desires to abduct him to use for his machines. Then the scene switches to the past.
Ten years earlier, when Sonic is just a young child hedgehog on the planet, Mobius, he is attacked by a tribe of echidnas. Due to the threats happening, Sonic must leave his owl guardian and travel to Earth via portal.
The present time returns, and Sonic finds ways to occupy himself due to his loneliness. He plays games, such as baseball, with himself.
However, that fails to cheer him up, even just a little bit. So, he speeds around the unoccupied baseball field, only to knock out the power everywhere in the entire region. Authorities investigate the mysterious wide-spread blackout.
Sonic meets a man, who is also a cop, named Tom Wachowski, and nicknames him “Doughnut Lord.” Tom does not like that, though.
Although they struggle to get along, Tom agrees to help Sonic with finding his lost rings that allow him to go places instantly. But Dr. Robotnik is out to hunt for Sonic.
I saw this movie with some friends, and although I am nowhere near familiar with the “Sonic the Hedgehog” franchise, I still enjoyed the film and felt that it wasn’t super-necessary to know a lot about Sonic.
There were some moments that might have made you lost if you know little to nothing about the “Sonic” franchise. But overall, the movie easily stood on its own.
There is one scene that really stands out to me, though. That is when Sonic and Tom are in some country-like bar and lounge area with dancing, a bar, a bull machine for riding, and food. A waitress comes to take the guys’ orders. But when she sees Sonic, she says that there are no kids allowed in the building.
However, Sonic looks nothing like a human child or a person at all. Therefore, I found the waitress’s reaction to be too casually accepting of Sonic’s look as if she was completely used to seeing others who resemble him. I really don’t find that believable.
The waitress would have been spooked by Sonic’s unfamiliar appearance. She would have freaked out and said something like, “Oh my God! What is that thing?!” Even Tom’s defense for Sonic, claiming that he was in his 40’s and had a growth and skin issue, seemed unrealistic. Tom, himself, screamed when he first met Sonic, and so did Sonic.
Okay, I spent a lot of time with that scene. There are others that stand out to me, as well.
The funny moments include Sonic bragging about how he can outrun a turtle and a racoon eating a cake inside Tom’s house.
And then there is a scene when Sonic gets knocked out. Not long after, Tom returns home. His wife and dog know that he is hiding something, though. The dog pulls off the blanket and it shows an unconscious Sonic.
Despite how that scene presents no joy, I thought to myself, I wish I could hold a CGI. I even imagined a place where people could get their pictures taken, holding different “CGI’s.” They would probably have some object in their hands, or even toy versions of the characters, and the photos would be edited into the specific CGI’s.
Some ideas that would have made great pictures would be people holding Olaf from “Frozen,” or a minion from the “Despicable Me” movies. The only thing, though, would that the service would have to have written permission from the companies that own the rights to those characters, and pay them royalties.
Anyway, as for “Sonic the Hedgehog,” I appreciated the characterization as well as the humor at times. That can include how Tom and Sonic interact with each other or how Dr. Robotnik will do anything to catch Sonic for his plans. But I considered the plot to be the most well-executed.
Even though he resisted, Tom went out of his way to aid Sonic in finding those rings, which involved a long road trip from Montana to San Francisco.
The film also consisted of many twists and turns, as well as some emotional moments, both happy and sad.
I rate this movie 4 out of 5 stars and would recommend it to everyone, even those who know nothing about Sonic, the character, himself, or the franchise.