Series of Japanese video games Sonic the Hedgehog is a well-known video game franchise that has endured over time. Sega’s top names include Mortal Kombat, Super Street Fighter, Beyond Oasis, and, of course, Sonic The Hedgehog. Despite having a wonderful lineup of video games, Sonic The Hedgehog has consistently outperformed its colleagues to become the entertainment company’s ultimate pride.
Sonic is a super-speedy hedgehog from the mythical planet Mobius who is continuously pitted against Dr. Eggman Robotnik. This energetic sixteen-year-old speedster has a strong sense of justice, a taste for adventure, and a deep affection for those he cares about.
Sonic was conceived as a Sega mascot to compete with Mario, the extremely successful video game star who serves as Nintendo’s mascot. Sega wanted its mascot to have a Western feel because it is an American firm. Needless to say, the strategy worked perfectly.
Sonic made appearances in comic books and animated shows after becoming well-known in video games. He starred as Sonic The Hedgehog in the Hollywood film Sonic The Hedgehog, directed by Jeff Fowler, in 2020. The combination of live-action and 3D animation as Sonic found himself on Earth among humans was what made this picture unique. A sequel was released in 2022, and a third film is now under production.
In today’s video, we will go through the two incredible action and adventure films in which Sonic starred with his Earthly comrades in a battle against the infamous Dr. Eggman. And, on occasion, with his other alien companions.
Before we get started with the programming, we have a tiny request for our viewers. Please consider being a Marvelous Videos subscriber. Like and comment on our videos, and click the bell button to get notified when we add new ones. We would be grateful, and we hope to provide you with the greatest nerdy stuff possible. Let us jump right into the video without further ado.
Sonic’s Origin – A Whole New Speed Of A Hero
A whopping majority of this movie is narrated in a flashback sequence. We first meet Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) on the streets of San Francisco, running for his life while being chased by the crazy Dr. Robotnik (played by the legend Jim Carrey himself. In fact, the biggest reason why he was interested in being part of this movie was that his daughter loved the Sonic video games during her childhood). Anyway, we are suddenly taken back to Sonic’s childhood.
He originally hailed from a different planet named Mobius. And he was the fastest creature there. He was asked to not use his powers for his own protection, but he paid no heed to those warnings. So, when he was almost caught, his guardian Longclaw the Owl gave away her life to protect him. But before she could die, she gave him a bag of rings with each ring acting as a portal to any place of desire. And that’s how the blue hedgehog ended up on the blue planet. These rings were inspired by the Warp Rings from the games which would take Sonic to different stages.
Time skips to ten years later. Sonic lives in a small town called Green Hills in Montana. He lives in secret though and even has his own cave. He enjoys life by himself, playing around and reading the Flash comics (because he is a speedster, duh!). He even idolizes the local donut-loving sheriff Tom (played by James Marsden) and his veterinarian wife Maddie (played by Tika Sumpter), mainly because he likes how nice they are to animals. He would often go inside their house while the couple was away and hang out by himself. Meanwhile, Tom gets a letter from San Francisco where he is asked to relocate to the big city and be a part of their police department.
Sonic overlooks a bunch of kids playing baseball and begins to feel lonely as he has no friends. When the field is deserted, he plays by himself, which makes his loneliness worse. He begins to run around the pitch pretty fast, possibly to blow off steam, but his speed triggers an electrical charge in his body. This charge triggers another electromagnetic pulse which causes the electrical power across the entire Pacific Northwest to go out.
The local cops and the United States Department of Defense fail at pinpointing the cause of the power outage since it is no mere tech problem. And with no other option, a mad scientist with a terrible attitude, five PhDs, and an IQ that is off the charts is summoned to solve the case – Dr. Robotnik (that is the notorious Eggman).
Sonic goes into hiding now that he is being hunted and decides to go to the safe mushroom planet with no inhabitants. He hates the idea of it but is left with no other choice. Fans may recognize the mushroom planet as it was inspired by the Mushroom Hill Zone from the 1994 game, Sonic, and Knuckles.
Before he can leave, he gets surrounded by Dr. Robotnik’s robot drones. He leaves the place in secret and tries to get into Tom’s house. But he is found by Tom himself who shoots his leg with a tranquilizer meant for bears. Sonic is on the verge of losing his consciousness and drops his portal ring. The last thing he sees is the writing on Tom’s San Francisco t-shirt and ends up opening a portal to the Transamerica Pyramid’s roof. His bag full of rings falls on the roof of the Pyramid while Sonic passes out in Green Hills. The portal closes.
When Sonic regains consciousness, he tries to convince Tom to help him and he agrees. Meanwhile, Robotnik analyzes Sonic’s footprints and learns of his extraterrestrial nature. He also tracks the footprints down to Tom’s house and tries to take Sonic away to dissect him. However, Tom stands up for Sonic and punches Dr. Robotnik. The two of them soon get into a car and escape while the doctor labels Tom as a domestic terrorist. Sonic ends up convincing Tom to take him to San Francisco to get this bag of rings back.
That night, Sonic and Tom go to a bar where Sonic bonds with his new friend and engages in a lot of fun activities from his newly created bucket list such as starting a bar fight. Here, he also does the balance pose from the 1991 game, which was a special request made by the illustrator and director Tyson Hesse. Back at Dr. Robotnik’s den, he is seen with one of Sonic’s quills from his body which was found in Tom’s house. He tests its electrical energy levels which are revealed to be unlimited. Bingo.
The next day, he sends a big robot drone behind Sonic and Tom. Sonic fights them off using his speed and electric charges but when one robot is destroyed, another smaller one comes out from inside it. Ultimately, the smallest drone causes an explosion which terribly injures Sonic. But by this time, they had gotten rid of the doctor.
Tom takes an injured Sonic to Maddie who was in her sister’s house. Here, Sonic also bonds with Maddie and her niece Jojo and later sets off to San Francisco with Tom and Maddie. They go to the roof of the Transamerica Pyramid with help from Tom’s license as a cop and Sonic retrieves his portal rings. However, before he can escape to the mushroom world he hates, Dr. Robotnik arrives with his robots. Sonic pushes Tom and Maddie from the building and via a portal, sends them back to Green Hills while he battles the crazy doctor in San Francisco. What makes the fight crazy is that Robotnik has used the power from Sonic’s quill to gain speed and energy for his inventions so he is now able to keep up with Sonic’s speed.
They race, going through several portals that Sonic creates, and ultimately have a showdown in Green Hills. The residents of the town arrive to back Sonic up but Sonic gets badly injured once again. However, when Tom acknowledges him as his friend, which is something Sonic always wanted, he regains his strength and powers up. Electrical charges course through his body and he absorbs his own power back from the quill in Robotnik’s possession. Ultimately, Sonic uses his spin attacks and sends Robotnik to the mushroom dimension, oblivious to Robotnik having taken the quill with him to the mysterious planet.
In the end, Tom and Maddie decide to stay back in Green Hills and adopt Sonic. However, Dr. Robotnik keenly works on getting back on Earth to defeat Sonic using his brains and the quill while a two-tailed fox arrives on Earth via a ring portal in search of Sonic. And the movie ends.
What Makes Sonic So Powerful?
Sonic is not just any speedster. He is the fastest creature in the galaxy. He can also generate unlimited electrical energy that can power him up by miles. He can turn into a ball and decimate his opponents with his spin attacks, kind of like Cannonball from Ben 10.
He can often dash at the speed of light and create a blue tornado by running all around his opponent. This rapid spinning can turn the air around him into a shield. Naturally, with the wind responding to him, he can conduct whirlwind attacks as well.
Sonic can also release a shockwave with his speed and slow the flow of time, which gives him a huge advantage over an overwhelming number of enemies. When powered up by the Chaos Emerald, he reaches a Super Sonic stage. He can also teleport and manipulate or stop time with this amp.
He uses these powers throughout the movies to outrun and outdo enemies that are much bigger than him. And as such, he proves how versatile super-speed can be as a superpower.
Another Mind-blowing Story From Sonic The Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog returns in 2022. The events of this movie take place eight months after the events of the first.
In this movie, Robotnik finally succeeds in opening a portal but from this portal arrives Knuckles. He asks Robotnik about Sonic’s whereabouts and the doctor finds a crazy opportunity. He strikes a deal with Knuckles and offers to help him get to Sonic if he takes the doctor back home.
Meanwhile, Sonic fails at being a superhero on Earth and begins to be regarded as a vigilante (well, this way he can come close to being Batman). A few days later, Tom and Maddie use a ring portal to attend Maddie’s sister Rachel’s wedding and Sonic stays back alone. Soon, he is attacked by Robotnik who arrives with Knuckles the Echidna. Knuckles asks Sonic about the location of an ancient relic that allows its master to bend reality – The Master Emerald. He wants to do so to honor his now extinct tribe. Sonic always used to believe that this relic is just a legendary myth so this makes things complicated for him. Of course, Sonic is unaware of its whereabouts.
He is suddenly saved by Tails, the two-tailed fox who can fly by turning his tails into a propellor. They drive away in a car and Sonic learns of how Knuckles believes that Sonic is the key to the emerald. Suddenly, Knuckles appears and attacks them but they escape again. Dr. Robotnik also arrives at the scene and surrounds Knuckles with his drones. His real intention was to use Knuckles to get Sonic and harness his power but now, without Sonic, he shifts his fixation towards Knuckles. However, both of them primarily wanted Sonic so they decide to join hands since they have the same goal.
Sonic takes out a map given to him by Longclaw the Owl. Suddenly, a hologram of the owl appears and she tells him how she used to protect The Master Emerald from evil. Since she wasn’t alive anymore, she was giving this responsibility to Sonic. And as its protector, Sonic has to follow the map and retrieve the emerald.
On the other hand, Knuckles wants the emerald to revive his extinct clan while Dr. Robotnik’s true interest lies in using the emerald for his selfish reasons. He traces Sonic’s texts after hacking his phone and learns that he is in Siberia with Tails. The next day, Sonic and Tails travel across the mountains to a cave where they find an owl-shaped door. Here, they also learn the lore behind The Master Emerald.
Long ago, seven warriors condensed their individual strengths into The Master Emerald, birthing a power so strong that any possessor of the emerald could defeat armies all by themselves. The owls realized how disastrous it would be if the power fell into the wrong hands, which is why they took up the responsibility to protect the relic.
Sonic notices symbols similar to the ones on his map and arranges them accordingly. This helps him get a compass to reach The Master Emerald. This means that although he has done the work, someone else will get easier access to everything. And so, Sonic finds himself and Tails surrounded by Dr. Robotnik’s drones and Knuckles. It becomes difficult for him to go against so many of them at once and he ends up losing his bag of rings. He is then cornered by Knuckles and they engage in a conversation right in the heat of the moment. Seems like both of them have experienced similar lives where they lost their loved ones.
Suddenly, Dr. Robotnik attacks Tails and takes the compass away from Sonic. Sonic prioritizes his friend over the compass, which shocks Knuckles. To make matters worse, an avalanche arrives out of nowhere and becomes another obstacle in Sonic’s path. Sonic immediately calls Tom and asks him to use the portal ring that he had, to save them and the plan works out. But it is revealed that Rachel’s
(Maddie’s sister) fiancé and the wedding guests were undercover agents. They capture Tom, Sonic, and Tails thus prompting Maddie and Rachel to team up and find Tails’ bag. Using his high-tech gadgets, they rescue the three of them.
Knuckles and Robotnik use the compass to go to an underwater temple that contained the relic. Sonic finds the location as well and heads to the temple where he engages in an intense 1v1 battle with Knuckles. Robotnik uses this to his advantage and gets his hands on the emerald. The resulting force sinks the temple and Sonic saves Knuckles from drowning. But he himself begins to drown in the process. Suddenly, Knuckles helps Sonic as well. They reconcile and decide to work together.
Tails rescues the two of them while Robotnik brings a huge tornado to Green Hills. The military fights him but they are unable to do anything against the overpowered scientist. He creates a huge robot with his new powers which is too powerful even for Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails combined. Ultimately, Tails goes inside the robot to confuse it while Knuckles punches the emerald out of it, depowering Dr. Robotnik. Tom and Maddie arrive to rescue them but Robotnik uses his own technology to light a fire around them.
Ultimately, Sonic uses the Emerald and goes Super Sonic. He defeats the robot and pledges to protect the Emerald with Tails and Knuckles. In the end, all of them begin to live with Tom and Maddie.
On the other end, it is revealed that Shadow the Hedgehog has been uncovered from an old research facility, which sets the premise for the third film which is now in production.
Why Should You Watch Sonic The Hedgehog 1 & 2?
Before becoming a super entertaining movie, a certain controversy surrounded the live-action and 3D adaptation of the series. The movie initially had a problem with the design for Sonic. Fans hated it and were quick to storm social media with their criticisms, prompting the team to revise the design. It was eventually revamped and the new design (the one we finally see in the movie) was perfect.
In the movies, we get to see Sonic socializing with the humans on Earth and even bonding with them. We dive deep into his emotional psyche as Sonic suffers from being lonely. But he gradually develops a relationship with Tom. We see this side of him in the second movie as well, when he sacrifices the compass for his friend Tails and later saves Knuckles, the one who was trying to defeat him.
Apart from Sonic, the standout character was Jim Carrey’s, Dr. Robotnik. His performance was spectacular as usual and he was often allowed to pull his own strings on set. There’s a galore of comedy in the story. Even though it can occasionally fall flat for the other characters, it never falls flat for Dr. Robotnik who is sitting on a goldmine of good jokes. Apart from that, even Sonic pulls out a joke about getting punched and it being awesome, which is a direct reference to the classic 2000s chick flick Mean Girls.
The pacing of the movie is great and it picks up within the first few minutes. The same can be said for the second movie where we are introduced to more characters similar to Sonic and even get to enjoy more fantasy plots than we did in the first one.
The series that started off as a video game could be enjoyed by people from every age demographic. And it managed to retain those flavors as a movie as well.