The first sign that this movie wasn’t for me was when the theater’s attendees consisted only of 11 year olds and their parents. As a kid, I was a pretty big Sonic fan, so when I heard about a movie all about Sonic the Hedgehog, I was excited. It seemed like it would be just the type of thing that old fans of the franchise could enjoy. Then I watched the trailer.
Sonic looked like some kind of nightmare creature,. When I first saw his face, I yelped, transfixed by his teeth and his small, far apart eyes that were, quite frankly, terrifying. Many other people also complained about the design, and Paramount actually listened. They said that a complete redesign of Sonic the Hedgehog was in order, and they dropped a new trailer that completely blew the old one out of the water.
This excited me, and I was pumped to watch it in theaters. However, when I watched it, I realized that the writers were aiming toward a younger crowd. Sonic the Hedgehog is just like many CGI animal movies before it–it has the plotline of Alvin & the Chipmunks but with robots, super speed and Jim Carrey.
The plot was predictable and cliche, as were the characters; I’ve already forgotten their names. You don’t expect fantastic writing from a kids’ movie, because the only thing you have to worry about while creating a kids’ movie is if the jokes are funny. Sonic succeeded in this regard—Jim Carrey had me busting a gut, and Sonic had a few one-liners that cracked me up.In essence, Sonic the Hedgehog was a good movie for kids, just not a movie for longstanding Sonic fans. I applaud Sonic’s director Jeff Fowler for the redesign, but a small part of me wants to see the original version with Sonic as a “blue devil”.
