Director: Jeff Fowler
Cast: Ben Schwarz, James Marsden, Tika Sumpter, Jim Carrey
Have I Seen it Before: Sigh. No. I’ve been resisting seeing it because I ultimately wasn’t aching to see a live-action Sonic movie (more on that later) and it felt like the time might come again fairly quickly wherein I could go catch it in a quick matinee. I eventually caved and watched it on demand.
Did I Like It: You know, kind of?
I’m a longtime player of the video games (or at least some of them), I can probably walk the Green Hill Zone, Act 1 in my sleep and get over 200 rings for my troubles. So, I’m not coming to the series blind, but I’ve never seen the point of any of the extended mythology surrounding the characters. The moment Knuckles the Enchida (which is a thing) arrives, there are far too many characters circling the series that are essentially repainted versions of the original blue streak*.
Thankfully, the movie eschews almost everything found in the nearly thirty years of history with the games. Aside from a cameo by Tails in a mid-credits scene and a brief prologue featuring one of the Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole (2010) (I think, honestly the opening is pretty weird) there is little mythology in sight, in favor of an agreeable abusing buddy road picture. The Chaos Emeralds are nowhere in sight, and some fans may blanche at that, but I maintain that we’re all better off.
Ben Schwarz is always a welcome presence, and it’s nice seeing Jim Carrey return to the kind of schtick that made him famous. We probably don’t need two or three rubber-faced tirades a year, but a visit once in a while from a character not terribly removed from the
Sonic as a creature doesn’t fully work, but one can imagine a large part of that is because of the film’s famed delays in production after we all collectively cringed at the unholy furry thing that greeted us in the trailer. Honestly, I think people would have gotten used to the new version of Sonic if he had been brought to full gestation, but we have what we have, and the fans are not rioting. That’s fine.
*Yes. I know Tails, Knuckles and the rest (the names of said characters escape me at the moment) all have slightly different approaches to and abilities in both the 2d and 3d worlds of the games, and no, I’m not terribly interested in discussing them. That’s kind of the point.