Sonic the Hedgehog Movie Review - Fast and Funny

In Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic (voice of Ben Schwartz), a blue, sorta human-ish creature from another world, comes to Earth to escape those who want to harness his power of super-speed. He’s been hiding out in a cave near the small town of Green Hills, Montana. When he accidentally causes a massive power outage, he is targeted by the government who then hire the power-mad scientist Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) to hunt him down.

Weird Dr. Robotnik has one of Sonic's quills.Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Meanwhile, Green Hills Sheriff Tom Wachowski (James Marsden) discovers Sonic and decides to help him evade capture, find a missing bag of travel rings and stop Robotnik from experimenting on him and taking his power.

Sonic the Hedgehog Trailer

At Home in Green Hills

Sonic tells us about his home world where his teacher and friend Longclaw the owl told younger Sonic to hide his powers but playful Sonic can’t.  The two are attacked by a tribe of echidnas and, after one fatally wounds Longclaw, the owl gives Sonic a bag of rings used to travel to other planets and, before she is killed, uses one to send the hedgehog to Earth. Ten years later, Sonic, now a young teen, lives in secret in the town of Green Hills, Montana. He idolizes the local sheriff, Tom Wachowski, calls him “Donut Lord” and likes his veterinarian wife Maddie (Tika Sumpter). Tom, bored with small town law work, has recently been hired by the San Francisco Police Department and is preparing to move.

Tom can't believe how fast "something" was goingCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

Big Black Out

Tom sees something whoosh past his patrol car at amazing speed and finds a strange blue quill. Although he enjoys watching all the humans, Sonic is lonely and has no friends. One night, he plays baseball by himself, filling all the positions. Frustrated, he gets upset and starts running around the field at top speed. The energy causes an electromagnetic pulse that knocks out all power in the region. Worried about high tech terrorists, the U.S. Department of Defense enlists unethical science genius Dr. Robotnik to help discover the cause of the outage. Robotnik's drones find Sonic and Robotnik sends out soldiers to capture him.

Lonely Sonic plays baseball by himselfCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

Help Me!

Grabbing his bag of travel rings, Sonic hides in the Wachowskis' shed, planning to use a ring to transport  to an isolated mushroom world because at least it has breathable air. Tom discovers him causing Sonic to drop his rings through a portal that one ring opens to San Francisco. Freaked out, Tom hits Sonic with one of his wife’s animal tranquilizer darts. After Sonic awakes in a cage and explains, Tom reluctantly agrees to help him recover the rings. Robotnik invades the house, but Sonic and Tom escape in Tom’s truck.

Robotnik is sure Sonic is with TomCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

Robotnik comes across one of Sonic's quills. We see that Tom is being set up as a domestic terrorist. The two bond as friends over their road trip adventures that include a wild night in a cowboy bar where Sonic sets up a chain reaction at super speed that decks everyone during a bar fight. Sonic disapproves of Tom's decision to leave Green Hills, arguing that he is leaving his true friends.

Sonic has fun on his road trip with TomCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

In San Fran

With Robotnik behind them at every turn,  the two make it to San Francisco to Maddie’s sister’s house.

There are lots of mishaps on the roadCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

She is there visiting but Sonic has been badly injured on the way in an explosion. Maddie helps as best she can. Meanwhile, Robotnik has figured out that Sonic’s quill is very powerful. He can use it to power his ship. Sonic recovers and Tom’s niece gives him a pair of her red sneakers. On to the top of the Transamerica Pyramid building where the bag of rings fell. After the Tom, Maddie and Sonic get to the top, Sonic is about to sadly use a ring to leave but Robotnik, who has used Sonic’s quill to create supersonic speed ability for his flying ship, confronts them.

Robotnik in his shipCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

Final Battle

After tossing Tom and Maddie off the building to “safety”, Sonic runs to Paris and other world-wide locales and realizes that the Dr. has matched his speed and is right behind! Sonic uses a ring and returns Tom and Maddie to Green Hills. Robotnik follows. The townsfolk defend Tom as their Sheriff and this little blue alien as well. Sonic lies in the street and seems defeated, even dead. Can he regain his strength? Will he stay on Earth? Will Tom stay in Green Hills? Will Robotnik be truly defeated?

Sonic is followed by RobotnikCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

In a mid-credits scene, Tails, Sonic’s best pal from the video games, emerges from a ring portal on Earth, searching for Sonic.

Will Robotnik follow Sonic forever?Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Wrapping Up

Sonic the Hedgehog is a funny, obviously fast-paced, energetic, very likable family-friendly movie. Fans of Sonic and the old games should be at least somewhat pleasantly surprised. After a controversy over the first movie design for the lead character, he was re-designed and, to me, looks more like the Sonic of the ‘90’s. Sonic’s faster-than-fast moves have been compared to the Marvel Quicksilver character moving through space. I agree, especially during a scene in which we see bar fighters in slo-mo from Sonic’s point of view as he sets them up for a great chain-reaction smack down!  

Sonic must recover his ringsCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

Action scenes are colorful and clever and there are several appropriate and fun songs in the movie. Queen’s “Mr. Fahrenheit” (traveling at the speed of light) is a perfect theme song for little Sonic’s power. Robotnik’s gadgets are cool and interesting.  

Sonic powers upCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

Jim Carrey is back in his element giving us just the right amount of over-the-top manic attitude as the evil Dr. Robotnik. James Marsden is perfect as the good guy Sheriff who just wants to prove his worth and “save somebody”. His relationship with Sonic is sort of cool dad with teen son and it works nicely. Ben Schwartz as the voice of Sonic succeeds in making him a great mix of precocious and just loveable.

Tom is a dad figure to SonicCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

The film is set up for a sequel and Sonic is just cute, heartwarming (hey, it’s Valentine’s weekend!) and funny enough for us to be happy about that. We go four stars.

Sonic the Hedgehog Movie Rating: 

Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

See Sonic the Hedgehog in theaters now!

Are You a Sonic Fan?

Have you heard of or played the Sonic games? What would you do if such a fun creature came to Earth and you found him? Are you looking forward to the film or couldn’t care less? Tell everyone. Leave a comment or talk it up on your Kidzworld profile page!

By: Lynn Barker