Hopes For a Good Movie Spin-Dashed
Sonic Maurice the Hedgehog finally gets its mediocre live-action adaptation
By Riley Fink
Sonic Maurice the Hedgehog finally gets its mediocre live-action adaptation
By Riley Fink
Though a movie tie-in to the Sonic the Hedgehog series had been floating around Hollywood since the early ‘90s, it wasn’t until 2014 that Sony Pictures and Marza Animation Planet started production of “Sonic the Hedgehog,” which was later sold to Paramount Pictures with an initial release date of November 2019. After revealing the realistically-animated Sonic the film originally starred, it was unanimously mocked, and he was completely reanimated, adding 5 million dollars to the production budget and delaying the movie to Feb. 14.
“Sonic the Hedgehog” follows the iconic hedgehog alongside a cliche buddy-cop Tom Wachowski, as they drive from Green Hills, Montana to San Francisco. All the while, the two are on the run from Jim Carrey’s Dr. Robotnik.
In this adaptation, instead of rings taking their normal role as a stand-in for Mario’s coins, they function as portals to other worlds. Due to some forced plot points, Sonic’s rings end up in San Francisco, and Tom helps him get there.
As a longtime Sonic fan, this live-action adaptation was exactly what I had anticipated — a painfully subpar ripoff of “ET,” filled with bad jokes and useless pop culture references. The references aren’t bad in concept, as I think having a ‘90s reference spouting Sonic might have actually worked. But having a realistic Sonic floss on camera and constantly mention Olive Garden does nothing but increase the movie's similarities with “The Emoji Movie” and lazy cash grabs like it.
Carrey’s Dr. Robotnik carries the experience, not because he plays a good representation of the character, but because Carrey is always entertaining. Unfortunately they only give him one scene for him to really work his magic, and most of the focus is on Sonic and Tom. After the story’s resolution, they strangely cut to Robotnik again, now actually talking and acting like the character he’s based on, almost like the entire movie was a setup for the villain’s origin. Sonic’s partner, Tails, also shows up before the credits, almost as if they’re already planning on a sequel with an actual Sonic-type plot. Ironically, the possible sequel teased after the ending looks leagues better than this movie.
The animation overhaul was led by Tyson Hesse, the illustrator of the original Sonic comic series, and you can see the care put into it, with plenty of little references to the game series. These references, alongside Carrey’s great performance, made this movie at least tolerable to watch. Both the animation and the ending prove that if Hollywood focused on letting actual fans of these game series make their film adaptations, like with “Detective Pikachu,” they wouldn’t keep turning out these shallow imitations of the iconic source material.
“Sonic the Hedgehog” follows the iconic hedgehog alongside a cliche buddy-cop Tom Wachowski, as they drive from Green Hills, Montana to San Francisco. All the while, the two are on the run from Jim Carrey’s Dr. Robotnik.
In this adaptation, instead of rings taking their normal role as a stand-in for Mario’s coins, they function as portals to other worlds. Due to some forced plot points, Sonic’s rings end up in San Francisco, and Tom helps him get there.
As a longtime Sonic fan, this live-action adaptation was exactly what I had anticipated — a painfully subpar ripoff of “ET,” filled with bad jokes and useless pop culture references. The references aren’t bad in concept, as I think having a ‘90s reference spouting Sonic might have actually worked. But having a realistic Sonic floss on camera and constantly mention Olive Garden does nothing but increase the movie's similarities with “The Emoji Movie” and lazy cash grabs like it.
Carrey’s Dr. Robotnik carries the experience, not because he plays a good representation of the character, but because Carrey is always entertaining. Unfortunately they only give him one scene for him to really work his magic, and most of the focus is on Sonic and Tom. After the story’s resolution, they strangely cut to Robotnik again, now actually talking and acting like the character he’s based on, almost like the entire movie was a setup for the villain’s origin. Sonic’s partner, Tails, also shows up before the credits, almost as if they’re already planning on a sequel with an actual Sonic-type plot. Ironically, the possible sequel teased after the ending looks leagues better than this movie.
The animation overhaul was led by Tyson Hesse, the illustrator of the original Sonic comic series, and you can see the care put into it, with plenty of little references to the game series. These references, alongside Carrey’s great performance, made this movie at least tolerable to watch. Both the animation and the ending prove that if Hollywood focused on letting actual fans of these game series make their film adaptations, like with “Detective Pikachu,” they wouldn’t keep turning out these shallow imitations of the iconic source material.