Sonic the Hedgehog – Digital Release – Entertaining Extras!

Blue, human-ish Sonic the Hedgehog, a cute creature from another planet, comes to Earth to escape those who want to harness his super speed power. He’s hiding in the hills near the small town of Green Hills, Montana.

Sonic's speed is wanted by allCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

He accidentally causes a massive power outage and is targeted by the government who then hire the power-mad scientist Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) to hunt him down. Meanwhile, Green Hills Sheriff Tom Wachowski (James Marsden) finds and decides to help Sonic evade capture, find a missing bag of travel rings and stop Robotnik from grabbing and experimenting on him.

Sonic the Hedgehog - Becoming Robotnik

Old and New Homes

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 could not. The two were attacked by a tribe of echidnas and, after one fatally wounds Longclaw (Donna Jay Fulks), the owl gives Sonic a bag of rings used to travel to other planets and, before she dies, uses one to send the hedgehog to Earth. Ten years later, Sonic, now a young teen, lives in secret outside 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.

Sonic knows the rings can take him elsewhereCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

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 starts running around the field at top speed. The energy causes an electromagnetic pulse knocking out all power in the region. The U.S. Department of Defense enlists unethical science genius Dr. Robotnik to help discover the cause of the outage. Robotnik's drones locate Sonic and Robotnik sends out soldiers to capture him.

Maddie, Tom and Sonic face Robotnik's dronesCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

Help!

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. Eventually, Tom reluctantly agrees to help him recover the rings. Robotnik invades the house, but Sonic and Tom escape in Tom’s truck. 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. Sonic disapproves of Tom's decision to leave Green Hills, arguing that he is leaving his true friends.

Robotnik is sure Sonic is with TomCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

San Francisco Adventure

The two make it to San Francisco to Maddie’s sister’s house, although Robotnik is in hot pursuit. Sonic has been badly injured on the way in an explosion. Maddie, who is visiting, helps as best she can. Meanwhile, Robotnik has figured out that he can use Sonic’s powerful quill 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 Tom, Maddie and Sonic get to the top, Sonic is about to sadly use a ring to leave but Robotnik confronts them.

Robotnik in his faster shipCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

Big 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?

What just went that fast?Courtesy 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.

Special Extra Features Available with Digital Movie

• Around the World in 60 Seconds is a cute, animated tour of the locations world-wide that Sonic rushed through when running from Robotnik. Narrated by Sonic voice Ben Schwartz. Very cute.
• 5 Deleted Scenes with Intro by Sonic Director Jeff Fowler are: “Original Opening” – a funny romp in the woods as local wacko Carl tries to catch the weird “Blue Devil” that nobody else believes in. Very funny and worth a watch. “Super Observant Carl” sees Carl coming into the local bar to convince Tom and others that Blue Devil is real. “Baby Sonic” is more of Sonic’s backstory with a slightly different twist.. well worth a watch for the difference from what was used.
  Tom and Sonic have a heart-to-heartCourtesy of Paramount Pictures
• “Tom and Sonic Have a Chat”-the two have a really nice heart-to-heart. “Rachel & Wade Plan a Date” further expands these two supporting characters.
• Bloopers – Jim Carrey cracks James Marsden up and other very enjoyable goofs.
• Speed Me Up – Rap Video by Sueco the Child, Wiz Khalifa, Lil’ Yachty and Ty Dolla$ign. – Nice beats.
• For the Love of Sonic – actors and filmmakers talk about playing the game when growing up, placing lots of Easter Eggs for gamer fans into the movie etc. Nice.

On set with James Marsden, Tika Sumpter and directorCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

• Building Doctor Robotnik centers on Jim Carrey as he gives us his take on the famous character and filmmakers and actors talk about working with him. Costumes and look are discussed. Great, especially for Jim fans.

Jim Carrey is great as RobotnikCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

• The Blue Blur: The Origin of Sonic is just that…all about the original game in 1991, creating and designing the character and his personality to equal or surpass the Mario character and games, the TV show etc. Great for gamers but really fun for those who had no idea where Sonic came from.

On set funCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

• On the Set features voice the of Sonic Ben Schwartz as he gets motion capture dots on his face, goofs off with James Marsden and gets his expressions recorded on camera. We see him recording some lines and get his take on the character. Sweet.

Wrapping Up

As we said when the film was in theaters, the movie is “Sharp, heartwarming and fun. 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. 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 as is Jim Carrey’s performance”.

Robotnik looks more like the game versionCourtesy of Paramount Pictures

Extras available on this digital purchase cover a lot of good ground that includes the gaming origin of the character way back in the ‘90’s and the cast and filmmakers’ joy at playing the games and bringing the little blue alien to the big screen. Bloopers are fun. We don’t have a director commentary but enough choices are covered that maybe we don’t need it. Like we did for the film, we award four stars.

Sonic the Hedgehog Digital Rating: 

Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Sonic the Hedgehog is available for Digital purchase March 31^st and on Blu-ray & DVD May 19^th

Will you Watch Sonic at Home?

In these shut-in times, do you think adding a digital version of Sonic to your home collection would be great? What if you found a cute blue alien? Report him, keep him or just be his buddy? Talk up all things fast and blue with a comment or blog it up on your Kidzworld profile page.