Sunday, July 11, 2021

Praise4Media #71 - Sonic the Hedgehog

Haven’t done a lot of Praise4Media this year, though I haven’t done a lot non-retrospective long reviews period. Chalk that down to a very busy year. Maybe the day will come when I retire Rage4Media and Praise4Media reviews entirely to focus on retrospectives and shorter reviews but that day is not today.

I don’t have any real history with Sonic. He’s that blue hedgehog who likes to collect rings in 2D and later 3D platformers and some other sh*t. I only really got into Crash Bandicoot with the n-sane trilogy and Jak and Daxter I got into much later than the more combat oriented Ratchet series.

But I am not unaware of the reputation of video game movies being dire trash. From the abysmal attempt at a Super-Mario bros movie to the mediocrity that was the Ratchet and Clank movie. Still, there have been some good ones of late. The Tomb Raider movie felt faithful, Detective Pikachu was a blast and Rampage, I still like Rampage too.

Then we have the idea of transforming characters from a cartoon aesthetic into the modern world, a trend I don’t really understand. Alvin and the Chipmunks wasn’t bothered by it because it was just an aesthetic change, but the Smurfs and more recently the Tom and Jerry Movie (apparently, I haven’t seen it) suffer from putting focus on human characters not from the original source material.

Sonic the Hedgehog follows a similar format, putting Sonic in a human world and having half the focus being on a human character. There was controversy pretty quickly with his design which had a complete and expensive overhaul following fan backlash. And I’ve seen the trailer, I do see why. When you have a CG character not bound by the laws of looking realistic, find a way to make it expressive.

Made on around a $90m budget, the film grossed around $320m. Not bad as it released in February 2020, weeks before everything went nuts with Covid. The film has received a moderate critical praise with a 62% Rotten Tomatoes rating, but rated highly with audiences giving it a 92% RT rating.

So what made this one work? Well let’s take a look and find out.

We open in Media Res, with Sonic being chased through a city by a guy driving a gunship and good job there’s no traffic. I mean, even accounting for his speed the cars are all parked. Sonic acts as our narrator, kinda fitting as he can never miss an excuse to talk in this film.

We cut back to his upbringing on an island, he’s been told to keep his powers secret but he’s a kid and there’s no chance that’s happening. A group of echidna archers attack him and his guardian, Longclaw. Longclaw flies away with but is soon shot down by a precise shot. She gives sonic a bag of rings, which in this film is a means of travelling between places. She tells Sonic to keep himself hidden and leave if he’s ever seen. He goes through but Longclaw stays behind to deal with the Echidnas, seemingly sacrificing herself to save him.

Interestingly in an alternate version of this scene, she travels with him and raises him on Earth until she dies of old age. I get the appeal of this version as him surviving on his own when he’s that young is implausible, however him being alone for so long is a major facet of his character arc so I get whey they went this way.

He’s in the small town of Green Hills, and we’re next introduced to the local sheriff, Tom Wachowski aka Donut Lord (James Marsden, who’s no stranger to these kinda films as he played the lead in Hop) he’s kinda bored of the little things a sheriff has to do in this town. He’s busy reading traffic speeds in a road with no traffic so Sonic ends up using this to test his own speed. He’s in fact been watching them for years, learning so much pop culture that won’t stop making references… Please stop, please, you’ll make the film dated.

Back with Sonic (voiced as an adult by Ben Schwartz) he’s created his own little cave with comic books, and various bits and bobs for him to entertain himself. He’s a big fan of the Flash, what does he think of the adaptations, I wonder? Tom returns home from a boring day’s work to his wife, Maddie (Tika Sumpter) he’s been accepted into the LAPD so he can finally shoot people with prejudice, like a good cop. Maddie made him a cake, and is looking at <product placement> for a new place to live, planning to head down to LA to visit some with her sister.

Sonic watches a Junior League Baseball game and that night decides to try it himself, playing all the positions at once. But his adrenaline wears off quickly and soon the gloom of realising how alone he is dawns on him. In his saddened state he runs around the pitch and creates an electrical field so powerful it shuts down power to the town, except for the answerphone at the police station which would have to have electrical power.

The top brass at the Pentagon take notice and decide to send in their technician, Doctor Robotnik to sort the problem out. Jim Carrey is a blast in this film as Doctor Robotnik, but I’ve got to give credit to the government Agent Stone (Lee Madojib) who serves as the straight man, I love their dynamic, it’s entertainingly funny, it’s a great shame he disappears about half way through the film.

Robotnik sends out his drones and they soon pick up a lead, a footprint that doesn’t match any registered species. Sonic’s cave is soon found and Sonic is ready to leave but he needs to find somewhere less conspicuous to activate his portal. His first thought is Tom’s garage. But Tom thinks the noise is Raccoons and sets out with a dart gun, shooting Sonic unconscious before he can travel. Sonic opens a portal to San Francisco, inspired by Tom’s shirt and accidentally drops the bag of rings through the portal as he falls unconscious.

He comes to and the two quickly establish a dynamic as Robotnik has tracked Sonic to the house. Proving that he’s not a total idiot, Tom immediately sees through Doctor Robotnik’s initial attempt to get in the house. Sonic is curled up in a ball, hiding in the attic but his inability to stay still combined with his panic has him eventually freak out, even though his legs are still not working great from the tranquiliser.

Tom sucker-punches Doctor Robotnik and Sonic grabs hold of the drone, hoping to do something, but doesn’t. They destroy the drone and drive off just as Agent Stone arrives, who goes to see how Robotnik’s doing instead of going after them, much to Robotnik’s irritation. Sonic explains the situation and Tom finds just ridiculous enough to kick him out. Dude, you’re talking to a blue hedgehog, I think you’ve crossed the weird line already.

Sonic needs to get to LA but he has no idea where that is so needs Tom to take him there, after some back-and-forth Tom relents. So we have a buddy cop duo and to be honest it’s handled better than most because Tom is not the usual low-rent dufus they usually put in this role. Even if his eyes are little off where they should be looking, nobody’s perfect.

After a few miles of driving, they stop off at a gas station. Tom is now wanted for ‘domestic terrorism’ and he gets some threats from Robotnik for good measure. Sonic meanwhile has become entranced by a nearby biker bar and decided to pay it a visit, despite being told to stay. When Tom finds him, he relents that he’s spent so long hiding on Earth he’s never really had time to experience it… OK, but Robotnik most likely traced the call, he’s probably already on his way, best to keep ahead, or you could stay in the bar and start a fight so we can get that Quicksilver slow mo thing that everyone’s obsessed over replicating for some reason.

They stay in a Hotel, because sleep is important, I guess and Sonic is about to tick a few more things off his bucket list but he sugar-crashes to sleep. On the road again the next morning he finds out about Tom’s plans to transfer to the Los Angeles Pistol Department and angrily scolds him for it. But before that can go anywhere Robotnik has one of his drones chasing after them. Sonic is able to destroy one but Robotnik’s machine has back-ups, it’s like the Russian doll of drones. The last one is set to explode and Sonic runs off with it, it blowing up and knocking him unconscious.

During that time, Sonic used his super-move and his hair, which is Robotnik’s mobile lab is glowing. He runs some tests and believes that his hair is a source on unlimited energy furthering his desire to capture Sonic so he can upgrade his machines because, yes, that’s the first thing you’d do… Well, he openly likes machines more than people so maybe that’s exactly what he would do.

Tom takes Sonic to LA and to his wife, and her very disapproving sister. Dude, we found out earlier he took on 3 jobs to support her through college, what exactly do you have against him? And yes this stems back to before all this, it’s not just the wanted fugitive thing. They tie her to a chair.

Maddie herself takes all this in her stride, but even she has limits and demands answers from Tom. Sonic’s fine, it would seem, just unconscious and with some rather sore feet, so the step-sister’s daughter provides him with his iconic sneakers. He comes too and after apologising for over-reacting to Tom, he, Maddie and Tom head to the building where the rings landed.

He uses his police ID to get to the roof, which shouldn’t work as its registered to another town and he’s literally a wanted fugitive right now and Sonic manages to get his rings. But Robotnik shows up with a tonne of drones. To avoid them being blown up, Sonic decides that them splatting against the pavement is less painful and pushes them off the roof.


Another obligatory slo-mo section but in a bit of subversion, Robotnik is able to utilise the power of the hair to move as fast as sonic. Sonic easily deals with the drones, and uses one of the rings to provide a safe landing for Tom and Maddie. And we’re back where we started, Sonic being chased by Robotnik through Los Angeles, then the Great Wall of China, then the Pyramids and then back to Green Hills.

In Green Hills, he’s defended by the town’s inhabitants as they stand up against Robotnik. Sonic decides that rather than running he’s going to stay and use his power to protect people. With a combined effort, they send Robotnik through a portal to the Mushroom Planet (I presume that’s meant to be a Mario reference). Tom decides that he’s fulfilled his quota of life saving for the rest of his life, making it a tally of 1, and is gonna remain at Green Hills. All those donut speeches for nothing.

A few weeks pass and one of the guys from the Pentagon show up with an Olive Garden gift-card, check out their endless pasta bowls. Yeah, the product placement in this film is not subtle, how much did Olive Garden give them? Hopefully more than on the gift card. Maddie and Tom have moved the contents of Sonic’s cave into the attic, making him an official part of their family.

Meanwhile, Doctor Robotnik is growing out his moustache and shaving his head (now all he needs to do is put on weight, not sure how you can do that with Mushrooms though) promising that he’ll be back. And in a mid-credits sequence, Sonic's ally tails shows up.

So, Sonic the Hedgehog it’s not exactly the most original show out there, but it’s a good one. And for the reason beyond all else, they put the focus on Sonic. Sure, Tom has an arc in the film, but beyond the one scene they use to set that up, they spend the entire film together. The payoff to his arc is intwined with Sonic’s.

Sonic is the major focus and thank god for the redesign, it looks so much better than the one in the original trailer, it’s a shame the company behind it went out of business soon after. And it’s his origin story from outsider to hero. Ben Schwartz is definitely an interesting choice of voice. I keep thinking of Dewey from the Ducktales reboot as they have similar voices and personalities.

Obviously, the story is different to the games, but I think it keeps just enough with the rings being given a different importance and the core Sonic vs Doctor Robotnik conflict is there, and setting up for greater things to come.

It’s not exactly an inventive story but it’s a good one, good enough to appeal to newcomers like me and fans alike.

Praise Rating 75%

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