Sonic the Hedgehog, an iconic video game character and staple of the 1990s, has finally hit the big screen, and despite all the cards being stacked against it, the Sonic movie has still managed to cross the finish line with blazing speed.

The film’s premise is simple. Sonic is an alien who comes to Earth and creates havoc. In this case, Sonic’s super speed and newly added electrical powers cause a nationwide power outage. Sonic then teams up with a human counterpart, Tom Wachowski, on a journey. As their friendship bond grows, they each find the purpose they were seeking.  Plot wise, “Sonic the Hedgehog” offers nothing new, and the story has been told too many times to count, but the added nostalgia factor of seeing a beloved character like Sonic as well as others, will often make you forget how predictable the plot actually is.

The film’s antagonist, the equally iconic Dr. Robotnik, is played by Jim Carrey and is the soul of this film. Carrey’s performance in “Sonic the Hedgehog” takes inspiration from his earlier roles such as “Ace Ventura” and “The Mask.”  Carrey’s outgoing and oftentimes exaggerated performance fits the character of Dr. Robotnik well, and as a result, the audience is rewarded with some great one-liners and a vintage, over-the-top performance from Jim Carrey.

Sonic fans also get their fair share of references and easter eggs in the film. Sonic is attacked by a group of Echidnas at the beginning of the film, and the group is a reference to the “Knuckles Clan,” a clan featured in several Sonic games, and the ancestors of the iconic character, Knuckles. Sonic leaves his hometown and finds his way into Green Hills, Mont., a reference to the first level of several Sonic games called “Green Hill Zone.” Sonic also devours his favorite food, chili dogs, in one scene, and proceeds to let it out in the next scene. The infamous “Sanic” drawing also makes an appearance early in the film. It’s obvious the Sonic movie had a lot of love and care put into it in an attempt to please the fans of the Sega icon. The path for the production team to get to this fan favorite film was not an easy one.

In December of 2018, the first poster for the film was shown to the public. Sonic’s new design was more human-like and sparked outrage among fans and the general public. On April 30, 2019, the first trailer was released, and the world was able to fully witness the new Sonic design. Reception was terrible, and the original trailer on Paramount Pictures’ YouTube page was taken down, but a mirror of the trailer remains up and has over 5,000 dislikes. Director Jeff Fowler took the negative reception to heart and promised to re-design the character along with the help of Tyson Hesse, an artist who has worked on official Sonic art for years. The updated trailer was released in November 2019 with a new release date of Feb. 14, 2020.

The decision to rework the design of Sonic was proven to be the right choice, as general reception drastically changed for the better. The redesign is much more akin to what fans and the general public were comfortable with. Seeing a re-designed Sonic, with an improvement from before, changed people’s opinions and attitudes about the film and Paramount Studios is seeing the benefits of listening to fans.

The Sonic movie opened up to an incredible $58 million dollars, and as of Feb.22, the Sonic movie has already surpassed its $85 million dollar budget with a total of $137 million worldwide.

Although “Sonic the Hedgehog” is targeted towards children and fans of the character, the film still successfully does the Sega mascot justice and has enough to it to make it an enjoyable experience for people of all ages.  “Sonic the Hedgehog” – 8/10