Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) Movie Review

 Hey everyone! How were your weekends? Mine was pretty great. So today I'm gonna be reviewing the 2020 film, Sonic the Hedgehog. I've been wanting to see this movie since it was in theatres two years ago, but of course, I wasn't able to see it in theatres, and I didn't get it on Blu-ray or DVD when it came out. But it was one of the DVDs that my friend Katie gave me last weekend, and I decided it was going on my list of reviews to get to once I'd reviewed Ghostbusters: Afterlife. So here we are. Now this movie is two years old so there might be spoilers in this review, so if you haven't seen this movie yet and planned on watching, then go do so then come back and read this review. Let's get into it.

Growing up I was a Nintendo kid, and nobody I knew had a Sega Genesis, so I never played any of the Sonic games. My introduction to the character was Sonic the Hedgehog (1993-1994), which was the Saturday Morning Cartoon action type animated series, and then Sonic Underground (1999). I've also read several of the Free Comic Book Day issues that Archie Comics put out when they had the comic book license. So my experience with Sonic is different from what many of you may have experienced over the years. Yet, I found myself enjoying the movie as much as I would've if I'd played any of the games. Maybe even more so. 

The plot is pretty simple. Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) and Tom (James Marsden) have to get to San Francisco so Sonic can recover his power rings, while being chased by Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey), who wants to dissect Sonic to discover the source of his powers. Pretty standard stuff. But it works because they didn't try anything fancy with it and they didn't make it overly long either. Which is appreciated.

I love the cast in this movie too. James Marsden played Cyclops in the original X-Men trilogy in the 2000s and returned in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) and played Lois Lane's fiance in Superman Returns (2006). He's also been in a few other movies I've seen. I'm not very familiar with Ben Schwartz's work though. I've never seen Parks and Recreation (2009-2015) or any of his other movies or TV shows, but he was really good as the voice of Sonic. And of course Jim Carrey was playing Jim Carrey when he was playing Dr. Robotnik. Just like he did in 1994 and 1995 when he played Ace Ventura, the Mask, and the Riddler. Which is awesome.

I also like how the movie did away with some of the tropes that these movies have while keeping others. For example at no point in the movie do Tom and Sonic have a falling out, which leads Sonic right into the hands of Robotnik. That got really tired in movies like Alvin and the Chipmunks and other movies similar to this. 

I do wish there was more about Sonic's background at the beginning of the movie especially because I haven't played the games and the cartoons had different backstories for him, and we did get a little bit here, but as someone who isn't all that familiar with Sonic as a character a little bit more would've been nice. That's just me though. It was also a bold move to tease Tails in a mid credits scene at the end of the movie. Good thing this movie got a sequel because Power Rangers teased Tommy back in 2017 and that movie didn't get a sequel. Just sayin'.

Overall this was a pretty good movie. It's better than I feared it would be and more entertaining than I thought it would be given I'm not a big Sonic fan like other people are. If you haven't seen it yet, I recommend you give it a watch. It's a pretty easy watch even if you're not a Sonic fan. 

Alrighty that is going to be it for me for today. I'll be back tomorrow for this week's VHS Corner post, then Wednesday the finale of Obi-Wan Kenobi drops so I'll have my review for the entire show after I've watched the finale. So until then have a wonderful evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.