Sonic the Hedgehog (film)

This article is about the 2020 film. For the 1996 animated feature, see Sonic the Hedgehog (OVA).

Sonic the Hedgehog
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jeff Fowler
Written by	Pat Casey Josh Miller
Produced by	Neal H. Moritz Toby Ascher Toru Nakahara Takeshi Ito
Starring	James Marsden Ben Schwartz Tika Sumpter Jim Carrey
Cinematography	Stephen F. Windon
Edited by	Stacey Schroeder Debra Neil-Fisher
Music by	Tom Holkenborg
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release dates	January 25, 2020 (2020-01-25) (Paramount Theatre) February 14, 2020 (2020-02-14) (United States)
Running time	99 minutes
Countries	United States Japan
Language	English
Budget	$81–95 million

Sonic the Hedgehog is a 2020 adventure comedy film based on the video game franchise published by Sega. The film is directed by Jeff Fowler (in his feature directorial debut) from a screenplay by Pat Casey and Josh Miller. It also stars James Marsden, Jim Carrey as Doctor Robotnik, and Ben Schwartz as the voice of the title character. In the film, Sonic teams up with a small-town sheriff named Tom as he attempts to escape Dr. Robotnik and the government.

In 2013, Sony Pictures acquired the film rights to the franchise, and by 2014, had a movie adaptation in development. Fowler was hired to direct in 2016. After Sony put the project in turnaround, Paramount Pictures acquired it in 2017, and the majority of the cast had signed on by August 2018. Filming took place between September and October 2018 in Ladysmith and Parksville, both on Vancouver Island, and in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Sonic the Hedgehog was initially scheduled to be released in the United States on November 8, 2019, but after an overwhelmingly negative reaction to the first trailer, Paramount delayed the film to redesign Sonic, whose original design drew harsh criticism. The redesign was shown in a new trailer which was well-received for its tone and humor, with Sonic's new appearance receiving particular praise.

The film premiered at the Paramount Theatre on January 25, 2020, and is scheduled to be theatrically released in the United States on February 14, 2020. The film received mixed reviews from critics, praising the cast performances, Sonic’s design, and its faithfulness to the source material, but criticizing the formulaic plot and certain visual effects.

Plot

Sonic, a blue anthropomorphic hedgehog from an alternate dimension, comes to Earth to escape malevolent forces that seek to harness his power of super-speed. After accidentally causing a massive power outage while hiding out in the town of Green Hills, Montana, Sonic is targeted by the government who then hire the tyrannical roboticist Dr. Robotnik to hunt him down. Meanwhile, Green Hills sheriff Tom Wachowski meets Sonic and decides to help him evade capture, collect his rings, and stop Robotnik from using Sonic's powers for world domination. In a mid-credits scene, Tails is seen seeking out Sonic.

Cast

• Ben Schwartz as the voice and the facial motion capture of Sonic: An anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who can run at supersonic speeds and is on the run from Robotnik and the United States government.
• Jim Carrey as Dr. Ivo Robotnik / Eggman: A mad scientist and inventor who is after Sonic's super-speed powers for world conquest.
• James Marsden as Tom Wachowski: The sheriff of Green Hills who wishes to join the SFPD. He befriends Sonic and aids him in his quest to stop Robotnik. Sonic refers to him as 'The Donut Lord'.
• Tika Sumpter as Maddie Wachowski: Tom's wife who later helps him and Sonic evade Robotnik. She is a veterinarian and referred to as 'The Pretzel Lady' by Sonic.
• Lee Majdoub as Stone: A government agent who works closely with Robotnik.
• Adam Pally as Wade Whipple: A police officer in Green Hills and Tom's friend.
• Neal McDonough as Major Bennington: A soldier who holds a dislike to Robotnik.
• Frank C. Turner as Crazy Carl: A crazy man in Green Hills who refers to Sonic as 'The Blue Devil'.
• Natasha Rothwell as Rachel: Maddie's sister
• Debs Howard as New Girlfriend
• Elfina Luk as Secretary of Homeland Security
• Shannon Chan-Kent as Roundhouse Waitress

Additionally, Garry Chalk (who previously appeared in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog as Grounder and Sonic Underground as Robotnik respectively) and Riff Raff have been cast in undisclosed roles.

Production

Development

Development for a film adaptation based on the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series began as early in 1993 during production of DIC Entertainment's television show Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. Michealene Risley, the newly-appointed consumer products director who helped to green-light Adventures, was assigned to negotiate with several Hollywood producers to find support for a Sonic film. Sega CEO Tom Kalinske, however, was unsure of having a movie based on the video game because he didn't want to hurt the brand, citing Super Mario Bros. and Street Fighter as commercial and critical failures which damaged the reputation of their namesake video game franchises. Despite Kalinske's concerns, the company was highly enthusiastic about a film adaptation, and a year later, Sega struck a development deal in August 1994 with MGM and Trilogy Entertainment Group, with Pen Densham as the executive producer of the movie.

With a deal secured, MGM and Sega hired Richard Jefferies, an associate of Risley from her days at Marvel Comics, to write a film treatment for the film. While working on the film, Sega had the ill-fated Sonic X-treme in development for the then upcoming Sega Saturn, so they requested Jefferies to feature the still unreleased console prominently on his screenplay to tie-in with the movie. Jefferies' story involved a 12-year-old boy named Josh Pinski accidentally bringing Sonic the Hedgehog to life from his Sega Saturn, but inadvertently allowing Doctor Eggman to escape into the real world, willing to turn every kid on Earth into badniks and plotting to steal the world's landmarks to create virtual reality experiences from which he can profit. Jefferies' treatment, entitled Sonic the Hedgehog: Wonders of the World, was submitted in May 1995. While the draft received a positive response among MGM and Sega executives, Shinobu Toyoda suggested to Kalinske remove Doctor Eggman from the script in favor of a "strong/mean villain" to give the series a fresh idea. Neverthless, in the end, MGM suddenly backed out the development deal and cancelled the project after a failed attempt to revive the film at DreamWorks, though Jeffries suggested that the film was scrapped as both Sega and MGM wanted a higher share of the film's projects while Densham claimed that it was because of creative differences between Sega and Trilogy.

Sony Pictures Entertainment acquired the rights to produce and distribute a film based on Sonic the Hedgehog in 2013. On June 10, 2014, a live-action animated film was announced as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Marza Animation Planet. It would be produced by Neal H. Moritz by his Original Film banner alongside Takeshi Ito, Mie Onishi, and Toru Nakahara, and written by Evan Susser and Van Robichaux. In February 2016, Sega CEO Hajime Satomi said the film was scheduled for 2018. Blur Studio's Tim Miller and Jeff Fowler were hired in 2016 to develop it; Fowler would make his feature directorial debut, and Miller and Fowler would executive produce. Patrick Casey, Josh Miller, and Oren Uziel were writing the screenplay, while Casey and Miller wrote the story.

On October 2, 2017, Paramount Pictures announced that they had acquired the rights after Sony's Columbia Pictures put the film into turnaround. Most of the production team remained unchanged. In February 2018, it was announced that the movie would be released in November 2019.

Casting

On May 29, 2018, it was reported that Paul Rudd was in talks for a lead role as Tom, "a cop who befriends Sonic and will likely team up to defeat Dr. Robotnik", but was later denied. A day later, it was announced that James Marsden was cast in an undisclosed role, but later revealed to be Tom Wachowski. In June 2018, Tika Sumpter was cast. Jim Carrey was cast to play the villain, Dr. Eggman, here renamed to his original Western name of Dr. Robotnik. In August 2018, Ben Schwartz joined as the voice of Sonic. A few days later, Adam Pally and Neal McDonough were cast. Debs Howard and Elfina Luk joined the cast the following November. Yuji Naka, former head of Sonic Team and lead programmer of the original Sonic the Hedgehog video game, was initially supposed to appear as an extra, but was forgotten during production.

Filming

Principal photography began in mid-September 2018 and ended in Vancouver, Ladysmith, and Vancouver Island on October 16, 2018. Post-production and additional photography took place in October in New York, where Carrey shot his scenes.

Visual effects and design

File:Sonic film comparison.jpg

Comparison of Sonic in both trailers; from top to bottom: original design from first trailer released in April and edited design from second trailer released in November.

The visual effects are provided by Moving Picture Company (MPC), Marza Animation Planet, Blur Studio, Trixter and Digital Domain. The production team created a realistic version of Sonic using computer animation, adding fur, new running sneakers (which turn out to be the Puma Speed 500s in Red), two separate eyes, and a more humanlike physique. They used Ted, the living teddy bear from the Ted films, as a reference to insert a CG character into a real-world setting. Executive producer Tim Miller said: "It would be weird and it would feel like he was running around nude if he was some sort of otter-like thing. It was always, for us, fur, and we never considered anything different. It's part of what integrates him into the real world and makes him a real creature." According to Miller, Sega was not "entirely happy" with the design of Sonic's eyes.

On May 2, 2019, in response to criticism of the design, Fowler announced on Twitter that Sonic would be redesigned. The November release date was delayed to February 14, 2020 as a result. Artist Tyson Hesse, who worked on previous Sonic the Hedgehog media, was brought on to lead the redesign. For the redesign, Sonic was given larger and differently colored eyes, new running sneakers (based on Women's Dare Mesh Sneakers made from Puma, which also resemble the original Sonic sneakers from the games), white gloves, and a less humanlike body in order to resemble the character's design in the video games. It is estimated that the delay of the film and the redesign of Sonic put the film $5 million or less over its original budget of $90 million for a total of $95 million.

Music

In February 2019, Tom Holkenborg, who previously worked with executive producer Tim Miller on Deadpool, signed on to compose the score. It will be released alongside the movie on February 14, 2020 in both digital and physical formats. Riff Raff, who has a role in the film, will also appear on the soundtrack. An original song titled "Speed Me Up" by Wiz Khalifa, Ty Dolla $ign, Lil Yachty, and Sueco the Child will appear in the film's soundtrack; the single was publicly released on January 24 on Atlantic Records. On February 11, an unused song for the film titled "Gotta Go Fast" was uploaded by rapper Chizzy after the brief part of the song reached 100k views on Twitter. Many speculate the song didn't make it to the final film due to the Green Hill Zone theme having copyright issues.

Marketing

Sonic's initial design received heavy criticism for his overly humanoid appearance and lack of similarities to his game appearance. Fowler confirmed on May 2, 2019 that his design would be changed, with the film also being delayed for three months.

Test footage was screened at the Comic Con Experience in Brazil on December 6, 2018. A teaser poster was released on December 10, 2018, revealing the silhouette design of Sonic. It received a mostly negative response from critics and fans, and was compared unfavorably to another 2019 video game film adaptation, Detective Pikachu, which had added fur and skin textures to the Pokémon characters in a much more successful manner. His humanoid appearance was described as evoking an uncanny valley-type of repulsive response by viewers. Former members of Sonic Team, who created the original Sonic the Hedgehog games, also expressed surprise at the design.

A second poster was leaked online shortly after the release of the first. Fans complained of a lack of resemblance to the games and criticized the positioning of Sonic's legs, spawning an Internet meme in which users recreated the position. The film's official Twitter account posted an image of Sonic behind a sign reading: "Can't a guy work out?" Images of the Sonic design were leaked in March 2019 to more fan criticism. Former Sonic Team president and Sonic co-creator Yuji Naka was "shocked" by the design and felt the ratio of Sonic's head and abdomen was imbalanced. According to animator Max Schneider, Paramount expected that Sonic fans would object to the redesign but that general audiences would not care, as had been the case with their 2014 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film. He said Paramount felt the design gelled with the real-world setting and characters.

The first trailer premiered on April 4, 2019, at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, and was released online on April 30. It experienced a highly negative reception, with Gita Jackson of Kotaku calling it "horrific" and "a blight upon this weary earth". Sonic's design was criticized, particularly for his overly humanoid appearance, while some writers found the use of Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise" out-of-place. Conversely, CNET's Sean Keane praised the humor and references to the games. Within two days of its release, the trailer had been viewed more than 20 million times on YouTube, and had received hundreds of thousands of "dislike" ratings which drastically outnumbered the "like" ratings. Paramount deleted the original trailer from its YouTube channel around the same time when the new trailer was released.

A second trailer revealing the redesigned Sonic was released on November 12, 2019. The trailer received far more positive responses, with many praising Sonic's new design. The tone and the humor also received positive reviews. Naka said he felt the new design was "much more Sonic-like". Schneider said the redesign took around 5 months and was achieved without stressful overtime. The second trailer received the highest like-to-dislike ratio of any trailer on Google in the last three years.

As a promotional tie-in for the film's release, the movie versions of Sonic (both Teenage and Baby variants) were added as playable characters to the Sonic Dash and Sonic Forces mobile games.

Release

Sonic the Hedgehog was originally scheduled to be released sometime in 2018 by Sony Pictures Releasing under its Columbia Pictures label, but in February 2018, shortly after taking over the rights, Paramount Pictures rescheduled it to November 15, 2019. The film was later moved a week earlier to November 8, 2019. Following the announcement of the character's redesign in May 2019, director Jeff Fowler announced that the film would again be delayed for just one last time to February 14, 2020, to get "a little more time to make Sonic just right." The redesign was later shown in a new trailer released worldwide on November 12, 2019. The film's world premiere took place at the Paramount Theatre in Los Angeles on January 25, 2020.

Reception

Box office

In the United States and Canada, Sonic the Hedgehog will be released alongside Fantasy Island, The Photograph and Downhill, and is projected to gross $40–50 million from 4,130 theaters in its four-day opening weekend.

Critical response

Jim Carrey was praised by critics and fans for his performance as Dr. Robotnik.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 65% based on 88 reviews, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Fittingly fleet and frequently fun, Sonic the Hedgehog is a video game-inspired adventure the whole family can enjoy — and a fine excuse for Jim Carrey to tap into the manic energy that launched his career." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 47 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

IGN gave the film a 7/10, praising the performances and the nostalgia, stating, "While this family-friendly action-comedy suffers from a simplistic story and leans too heavily on tired visual cliches, Sonic the Hedgehog is nevertheless boosted by solid performances from Ben Schwartz as Sonic and Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik. Their ongoing cat-and-mouse game is entertaining, and passionate fans of the Sega franchise should appreciate all the nods to Sonic's history." Dami Lee of The Verge gave the film a positive review, praising the nostalgic elements seen in the film, stating, "The movie shines when it remembers it's based on a video game, and there's some genuinely fun stuff — like when Sonic uses his time-stopping powers or Robotnik's elaborate 'evil-plotting' montage that makes you wonder why more movies don't feature bad guys with choreographed dance sequences. Carrey plays up Robotnik as the cartoon villain he is, and it’s a true delight to watch him in his element." Inverse called it a "road trip superhero movie" and "the best superhero movie of 2020" so far. Amon Warrman of Empire Magazine, gave the film a 4 out of 5 stars, saying "An on-form Jim Carrey can’t stop Sonic’s live-action debut from feeling like a missed opportunity. If the teased sequels do materialise, here’s hoping the storytelling levels up."

In a more negative review, Variety's Owen Gleiberman criticized the commercialization of the film, stating, "A review like one should probably come with a disclaimer: For all the borderline tedium I felt at Sonic the Hedgehog, I do realize that this is a picture made for 8-year-olds. And they'll probably like it just fine. Yet I would also call the overly kiddified tone of the movie a mistake." Writing for The Guardian, Steve Rose gave the film a 2 out of 5, criticizing the lackluster visual effects, stating: "There are action scenes and effects flourishes, but even these feel borrowed from other movies. Sonic's ability to freeze time then dart about rearranging things before starting it again, for example, is clearly indebted to QuickSilver's antics in the X-Men movies. And what messages this exercise can be bothered to deliver are trite and familiar: the true meaning of friendship, be happy with what you’ve got, machines bad, people (and space hedgehogs) good." Simon Abrams of Rogerebert.com, gave the film a 1 out of 4 stars and said: "Sonic the Hedgehog” is only as successful as the amount of time you want to spend watching its animated protagonist go on instantly forgettable adventures, and boy, is that unfortunate."

External links

• Official website
• Sonic the Hedgehog at IMDb
• Sonic the Hedgehog at Metacritic
• Sonic the Hedgehog at Rotten Tomatoes
• Sonic the Hedgehog at Box Office Mojo
• Sonic The Hedgehog Movie on Facebook