Preamble to Sonic the Hedgehog 3: Reflecting on Sonic 1 and 2

So for the first movie I would see in a movie theater in 2025, I chose a movie from 2024. Incidentally, the first movie that I've watched in 2025 period was a movie from 2022. When looking at the lineup at my local movie theaters, only a couple caught my interest off the bat: Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (dir: Jeff Fowler, 2024) and Babygirl (dir: Halina Reijn, 2024). I decided to watch Sonic 3 first and then I'll watch Babygirl next week. Before getting into that though, I decided to catch up by re-watching Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022), both directed by Jeff Fowler.

Funny Enough, Sonic the Hedgehog, was the last movie I would see in theaters in 2020, right before the COVID-19 Lockdown. My friends and I were going out on the town hitting up the local comic shop and getting grub at the local Tacos Mexico. One of my friends and I preferred to watch Gretel and Hansel (dir: Osgood Perkins, 2020), however the other friend thought it would be really funny to watch Sonic the Hedgehog instead to see how bad it would be. To this day I have yet to watch Gretel and Hansel. It seems a little quaint now, but back when this movie was coming out practically everybody (at least in the online film and game community) thought that this movie would fail. The initial reveal of a live action Sonic showcased a CGI creation so revolting that it was instantly criticized and meme'd on overnight, prompting Paramount to delay the movie to redesign Sonic into something more appealing. Now that we're years removed from that initial reveal, to the point that recently Paramount saw fit to release "ugly-Christmas" sweaters featuring a depiction of the old "Ugly Sonic", people made themselves believe that "Ugly Sonic" was some genius 4-d chess marketing play to get attention and then wow moviegoers with how much better the redesign looked to get them into the theater. Nah dude, no studio would purposefully spend time and money designing and rendering a CGI character into a movie, and then do it all over again. It's likely the VFX team that got brought back were not payed for the extra labor either.

Anyhow, after my first watch of Sonic 1 back in 2020, I concluded that the movie was better than I thought it would be. Surprised to say that it was actually a decent kids movie that would've been my shit if I saw this back when I was attending elementary school. After watching the movie for the second time, I still think that to be the case, but I got a few extra notes this time. In regards to the performances, I thought back then and now that Ben Schwartz as Sonic and Jim Carrey as Doctor Eggman were excellent casting decisions. This may be an unpopular opinion, but the lines given to Jim Carrey shine the best in this first movie, as it certainly gave me a few laughs and chuckles. The original characters (don't steal) for this movie: James Marsden as Sonic's small town cop buddy Tom, Tika Sumpter as his wife Maddie, and Lee Majdoub as Eggman's right hand man, Agent Stone, do a completely adequate job; they add on to the laughs & contribute to the plot at best and do nothing to detract from the movie at worst. That seems like a low bar, but you got to remember that this was back in 2020 when practically all video game adaptations were and expected to be bad. Tom, being roped into the adventure with Sonic, obviously is given a lot of screen time and I actually believed and liked their friendship dynamic here. Maddie and Agent Stone predictably aren't given a whole to do, with Maddie being absent for a good chunk of the movie before returning in the third act and Stone being just a henchman that doesn't come into his own as a character just yet. The effects were pretty good as well, with the highlight being the Over the Hedge (dir: Tim Johnson, Karey Kirkpatrick, 2006) inspired slowed down time sequence when Sonic is getting him and Tom out of a bar fight. Not kidding about the Over the Hedge bit either, it's been confirmed that the sequence of the Steve Carrell Squirrel using an energy drink to move faster than light to save the day was a direct inspiration. Makes me wonder if the implementation of Olive Garden and Zillo product placement was inspired by Wayne's World (dir: Penelope Spheeris, 1992). Overall, I give Sonic the Hedgehog a Just a Movie. Again it's a good movie for the kids and, as an adult, you won't find yourself wondering when it'll end as you watch it with them. Who knows? You just might find yourself enjoying it.

I watched Sonic the Hedgehog 2 yesterday for the first time. I kinda look at making a sequel to a movie like Sonic 1 as making a sequel to a Godzilla movie. Do you play it safe and keep it reigned in to allow for inoffensive widespread appeal or do you lean into the goofy nature of the subject matter that only more passionate fans would appreciate? I feel like Sonic 2 does both, leaning more into the goofy video game aspect. For one, there are some more deep cut visual references, Agent Stone's coffee shop being called "The Mean Bean" and Sonic snowboarding like in Sonic Adventure are good examples. Even Eggman and Sonic make auditory references with the doctor quoting Ash William's "Klaatu Barada Nikto" line from Army of Darkness (dir: Sam Raimi. 1992) and Sonic's delivery of the line, "the woooorst!", referencing Ben Schwartz's character, Jean-Ralphio, from Parks and Recreation (2009-2015). Examples like these seem minor, but taken as a whole, point towards Sonic 2's confidence to get a little more nuts. Not all of the humor lands for me though; Sonic is constantly giving out one-liners, which is fitting, but hits & misses can vary throughout. Jokes given by Eggman are not as funny as they were in Sonic 1 (in my opinion), but Jim Carrey putting more physicality into his performance is always a good thing. For me the visual humor generally shines better in this movie.

This movie being called Sonic the Hedgehog 2, we now got 2 new characters to talk about: Tails (Colleen O'Shaughnessey) and Knuckles (Idris Elba). Both characters are brought to the screen with some great and faithful designs, the effects as a whole are a step up from the original with a couple fleeting images of obvious greenscreen. Anyone that's played the 3D Sonic games from the late 90s to the 2000s can tell you that one of the few consistent things about them is Tails' voice, to put it charitably, being the weakest performance. It can range from being a little too high pitch to sounding like they actually just put a random child in the booth. That's not the case in this movie as I think Colleen's performance as Tails does a great job of conveying an excited kid that slowly gains more confidence to back up his capabilities (bet you thought that was more thought than you imagined I would put into a movie like this). I find Sonic's instant bond with Tails to be pretty sweet and it's nice that the friendship also ties into his arc for the movie. As for Knuckles, I would've never thought to hear Idris Elba in the role, but damn it if he also doesn't do a good job. The whole "Knuckles being kinda dumb" jokes do wear thin pretty early on, but he along with Eggman make for effective threatening antagonists. I also appreciate Knuckle's eventual turn to good not being hamfisted as the movie does sprinkle in moments of Knuckles questioning his motives and who the bad guy really is before being betrayed by Eggman.

Speaking of Eggman, he's a lot more bonkers in this movie (which I totally on board with btw), aided once more by Agent Stone. Dude, get you a man as dedicated and caring as Agent Stone. My man out here in the hometown of his beloved Doctor's arch nemesis, biding his time by running a coffee shop. However, as soon as he receives word that Eggman has returned, he doesn't skip a beat and is ready to help out his main man in any and every way he can. That's some true love right there. The other side characters, Tom and Maddie, act more as parents than friends to Sonic, which is a weird shift considering Tom and Sonic's buddy dynamic from the previous movie, but it generally works here. Initially the movie seems to shuffle them out to Hawaii on a small scope b-plot while Sonic goes off on an adventure with Tails, but the b-plot somehow works its way back into the main story which I honestly was not expecting. It's a welcome choice though and I was glad to see that Maddie actually has more to do this time as she and her sister, Rachel (Natasha Rothwell) [another character I was not expecting to see comeback], get in on the action.

As a whole, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, like the video game is Sonic 1, but better. Much of the established characters fall more into their own, and/or are given more screen time to be better fleshed out, the new faces are adapted well to the screen, visual effects are better, and the movie is more bombastic. I'd be more likely to rewatch this movie over Sonic 1, but I'd still probably not rewatch this for a long while. Like the first movie, kids are gonna get a kick outta this, which is great because the movie is enjoyable. However, if you're an adult that's not really a fan of Sonic games and didn't care for the first movie, then this one likely isn't gonna convince you otherwise. I'll give it a Just a Movie.

Next post I'll be talking about Sonic the Hedgehog 3 proper.