Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)

“Turns out, with great power comes great power-hungry guys!” – Sonic

Number of Times Seen – 1 (3 Oct 2020)

Brief Synopsis – A local small town police officer must try and save a fast and blue alien from the clutches of an evil scientist who wants to use him for experiments.

My Take on it – This is a film that I had no desire to watch until I saw a documentary about the rise of Sega video systems that featured Sonic the Hedgehog as their flagship character when they debuted their system in the 90’s.

This is a really fun live-action adaptation of Sonic and it works quite well.

The film utilizes great special effects in helping merge the animated characters with the real world.

The character’s super speed is animated in a very believable way.

The story itself is pretty good and they make it very easy to accept everything that happens.

Jim Carrey is quite impressive as the villain and he is able to produce lots of cartoonish antics which mesh really well with the animated hedgehog.

The pacing of this story is quite rapid and that helps keep things moving along the whole way through especially given the themes and atmosphere of the story.

James Marsden is also great as the lead (human) character.

His character is developed quite firmly and we get to understand his decision making process when trying o pursue his dream of working as a policeman in the big city.

This helps the audience sympathize more with his inner conflicts throughout the story.

Bottom Line – Fun live action adaptation of the hit video game. The special effects and animation of Sonic are great to watch especially when placing it in the real world. The story itself works quite well and it’s easy to accept everything going on. Carrey is an amazing choice to play the villain and his cartoonish antics fit right in with it all. The story is paced really quickly and that works with the theme and atmosphere of everything going on. Marsden is pretty good in the lead ‘human’ character role and they do a nice job developing him in order to help make us sympathize with all that he goes though here. Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – When Robotnik shoots missiles at Sonic on the roof of the Transamerica Pyramid, Sonic puts his hands on his hips and taps his foot impatiently, copying his idle animation pose from the games. (From IMDB)

Rating – Globe Worthy (7/10)