"Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)" Feature Talkback (Spoilers)

[Yojimbo]

When the world needs a hero... think fast.

Based on the global blockbuster videogame franchise from Sega, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG tells the story of the world's speediest hedgehog as he embraces his new home on Earth. In this live-action adventure comedy, Sonic and his new best friend Tom (James Marsden) team up to defend the planet from the evil genius Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) and his plans for world domination.

Sonic the Hedgehog
Theatrical Release: February 14, 2020
Rated PG for action, some violence, rude humor and brief mild language.
Directed By: Jeff Fowler
Written By: Patrick Casey and Josh Miller
Cast: Ben Schwartz, Tike Sumpter, James Marsden, Jim Carrey, Lee Majdoub, Adam Pally, Neal McDonough, Frank C. Turner, Natasha Rothwell, Debs Howard, Shannon Chan-Kent
Related Threads: Movie News and Discussion

 

[Mandouga]

I read the synopsis on Wikipedia, and for me, that was enough. A caretaker? Sonic doesn't have a caretaker. He doesn't need one. Everybody (who's even remotely familiar with the franchise) knows that. I guess the writers were worried about what the parents would think, or even anyone who might be reminded of the "free range children" idea, and might have a problem with it? As for "Green Hills, Montana", that was an obvious "adaptation of a video game" gag that may or may not assume that the viewer has never heard of Sonic the Hedgehog in their lives (along with the rest of the movie, possibly). It also seems to favor a message about the importance of friends, which in and of itself is all well and good, but is something any movie can do. It also ends with what looks to me like a cliffhanger, making it another movie that counts its chickens before they hatch.

Overall, while I couldn't determine that this is just another parody movie, I can be sure of one thing: this is just another "adaptation" that throws out the source material in favor of its own personal vision of any famous franchise, let alone Sonic the Hedgehog. I'm sorry, but this could have easily been done with any characters. Furthermore, even if this movie was the kind of movie it was supposed to be, there's no way I'm watching this after learning about the cliffhanger. I would even go so far as to call it an in-name-only adaptation, with the appearance of a certain character being nothing more than short-term "reassurance" to anyone even remotely familiar with the franchise (especially those who were there from the beginning) that this movie is worth watching for them.

I said the redesign wasn't going to change how the movie is, and I was more or less right. Moreover, this is yet another Hollywood movie that--redesign aside--seems to thinks the viewers otherwise either won't know the difference or care; a movie that thinks people will only see it because it has a familiar franchise, or thinks that people will only be "Just Here For Godzilla" (TV Tropes), or in this case "Just Here for Sonic the Hedgehog". I suppose they figured they would save that certain character who appears at the end (and more) along with the Chaos Emeralds for a possible sequel. However, and once again, such a sequel may never come for all we know. I guess the worst part about all this is that, even if a sequel actually did get made, Hollywood seems to have really not learned its lesson one way or the other.

On a related note, I just hope Nintendo knows what they're doing by allowing Illumination to make a Super Mario movie...

(sigh)...

 

[PF9]

It looks like this movie is going to be successful.

Since Paramount and Sega were co-owned under Gulf and Western in the 1970s, they should continue their renewed relationship with Paramount adapting more Sega properties. Two I had in mind were Persona and Bayonetta, the latter with Warners with involvement from some of Supernatural's principals. I would think that the studios are willing to make Bayonetta R-rated, to distinguish itself from other adaptations of M-rated games.

Also they should have used Sonic Drive-In as the fast food tie-in.

 

[Rabbitearsblog]

I just saw the movie yesterday and I LOVED IT! I really loved Sonic's personality as he is shown as being a hyperactive hedgehog who wants to have friends. I also loved the fact that we get some depth with Sonic's character in this movie as it shows he is lonely and we actually get to see some emotions with his character.

I thought that James Marsden was pretty decent, even though I was worried that he would steal the show from Sonic, but he didn't. While I didn't find his story that interesting, I did like his relationship with Sonic.

Jim Carrey's performance as Dr. Robotnik really surprised me in a good way! He was actually pretty funny in the role and I can't wait to see more from him!
With that being said though, I did have some problems with this film. First off, I felt that the plot of the movie moved a bit too fast for me and they didn't really developed some of the characters that well, like I would have liked to know more about Sonic's surrogate mother Longclaw and where she is.

Also, I will admit that this wasn't the Sonic the Hedgehog movie that I wanted for Sonic's first time in the movies as I was expecting the movie to take place in Sonic's homeland and not be another "road trip" movie cliché.

Overall though, despite the problems I had with this movie, I actually had a fun time with it and I can't wait to see more from this film!

Also, who didn't get excited when

Spoiler

Tails

showed up in the credits?

 

[Yojimbo]

Yeah, at first I thought Longclaw was a gender flip of Harvey Who but I take it she's a brand new character created for the movie? And who attacks them at the start? Hoo boy, that was an interesting easter egg.

 

[KeldeoKitty]

So it looks like this movie is doing well. Wonderful. Now if only Sega could make a better 3D Sonic game *cough* Sonic Boom and 06.

 

[SkyPikachu]

This movie was great. As someone who knows of Sonic but has played very little games I was surprised I enjoyed the movie so much. Plot wise it wasn't as good as detective pikachu but the rest of the movie was just as good as detective pikachu. I laughed a lot and got a few of the Easter eggs.

I really wasn't expecting the ending either.

The movies instantly become one of my favorite movies.

 

[tucsoncoyote]

Detective Pikachu: "I'm the greatest Videogame movie ever!"
Songic: "Hold my Chilli-dog, I'm about to ruin this talking Electric Rat's entire career."

Let's be honest, no let's truly be honest here..

Now when we first saw the original trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog the movie, we all were shocked to see the design and fans revolted , and guess what? Paramount listened..

Sure they had to move this movie back a few months (4 to be aexact, ) but was it worth the four month wait? Well to be honest, yes. yes it was.

Sonic The Hedgehog was a really good movie, it did have it's moments but still, it was pretty solid and the story wasn't half bad..

And Jim Carrey as Robotnik Eggman? Pure comedy gold as this is how Eggman should have been played.. and in fact Carrey knew how to do it quite well.

The real surprise is at the end, where we have another character from Sonic's world pop in, and believe me, if there is going to be a sequel , then this would make it all the better..

And yes after this first four days Sonic has done what not even the Mario brothers or Lara croft or even Detective pikachus could do and that is actually attract audiences.. Rotten Tomatoes viewers gave it a 95 Favorable vote..

So is it worth it? yes , yes it is.. Thank you paramount for not being like other movie companies and actually doing something right for once..
And that is listening to your fans.

 

[Descendants3Sucks]

If Stefan Karl was still alive, he would have made a good Dr. Robotnik

 

[SkyPikachu]

I read the synopsis on Wikipedia, and for me, that was enough. A caretaker? Sonic doesn't have a caretaker. He doesn't need one. Everybody (who's even remotely familiar with the franchise) knows that. I guess the writers were worried about what the parents would think, or even anyone who might be reminded of the "free range children" idea, and might have a problem with it?

Spoiler: First 5 minute spoilers

sonic is a baby/toddler in this scene. Sonic's given a tonne of freedom and longclaw is more of a teacher. Atleast that's how I viewed it. Also if anything it does the complete opposite of trying to please the free range clindren thing by throwing sonic's into earth all by himself and learns to live by myself from the very very young age of baby/toddler. Age is never mentioned but sonic to me acts like a preteen in the movie with is set 10 years after the opening scene.

I think you're already made an opinion of the movie though and I don't think it's mind blowing enough for this to change your mind on the movie.

 

[ShadowBeast]

Just watched it today and it was such a great film. Jim Carrey practically stole the film. He was like an evil Sheldon from Big Bang Theory. He fitted perfectly as Dr Robotnik with his crazy antics. Sonic was good too, and luckily his voice didn't have constantly thinking of Dewey from Ducktales. Tom was alright, but he and the others were pretty much there for the sake of interactions with Sonic. Luckily, with Tails' appearance at the end, the sequel(we all know this is getting a sequel considering the audience reviews) it will take place hopefully mostly in Sonic's home-world and we'll get other known characters introduced as well. I love Dr Robotnik started looking more like the Robotnik we know from the franchise and I wouldn't be surprised if Metal Sonic will be built and share the role of main antagonist in the next movie.

 

[SkyPikachu]

I really think Presidents Day weekend has boosted the stats of Sonic. Elsewhere in the world Detective Pikachu has consistently beaten Sonic in the box office. (Data from Box Office Mojo)

Opening Weekend Stats as of 23:00:00 GMT 17th Feb 2020

Domestic	58,018,348 (SONIC)	54,365,242 (Detective Pikachu)	+6.7% Sonic
Croatia	91,458	127,133	+39.0% Pikachu
France	4,314,412	5,418,922	+25.6% Pikachu
Hungary	210,035	171,032	+22.8% Sonic
Iceland	61,370	46,381	+32.3% Sonic
Norway	399,113	744,499	+86.5% Pikachu
Portugal	234,786	292,630	+24.6% Pikachu
Slovenia	49,676	169,598	+241.4% Pikachu
Australia	2,603,967	3,514,851	+34.9% Pikachu
New Zealand	332,643	599,550	+80.2% Pikachu

It's hard to take Iceland stats as much since it's such a small sample size as well as Slovenia however a 70% swing is interesting. Otherwise other than Hungary everyone favored Detective Pikachu.


There's a few things I'm interested in here. If Sega is just way more popular in North America over other countries and thus Sonic is more well known, If timing wise Sonic just didn't make sense for people to go out but for North America it was a 4 day weekend.

I'm Australian and looks deeper into the Australian stats, Sonic still did well. It got the same numbers as Birds of Prey and beat out other movies from last year like The Lego Movie 2.

The big thing is so far with the small sample of stats we have is that North America is completely out of the ordinary compared to the Norm and the only thing I can think of that would warp the stats is Presidents Day weekend.

I personally thought Detective Pikachu was the better movie (but I'm probably somewhat biased due to my love of Pikachu) so it did surpise me to see Sonic do better than Detective Pikachu.

Thoughts?

Edit: Fixed mathematics error

 

[SkyPikachu]

Opening Weekend	Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)	Detective Pikachu (2019)	Percentages more $USD earned
Total Opening ("Worldwide")	66,315,808	65,449,838	+1.3% Sonic
Internationally (Without Domestic)	8,297,460	11,084,596	+33.5% Pikachu

Thought I'd also show the worldwide total (including only the countries listed in Sonic the Hedgehog) vs the total excluding Domestic.

Edit: Fixed mathematics error

 

[Pooky]

The two performed almost the same here in the UK (£4.7mil for Sonic vs £4.95mil for Pikachu). I suspect Sonic may end up with a higher total here, there's less competition (although surprisingly Dolittle is doing quite well here) and it'll probably do well this week with kids out of school for Half-Term.

I enjoyed the film, but the pacing is a little off and almost all of the big set pieces were shown, at least in part, in the trailers. I think I'll like it even more when I see it again some day. It's certainly far better than I assumed it would be when it was announced, let alone from the early publicity.

 

[SkyPikachu]

The two performed almost the same here in the UK (£4.7mil for Sonic vs £4.95mil for Pikachu). I suspect Sonic may end up with a higher total here, there's less competition (although surprisingly Dolittle is doing quite well here) and it'll probably do well this week with kids out of school for Half-Term.

I enjoyed the film, but the pacing is a little off and almost all of the big set pieces were shown, at least in part, in the trailers. I think I'll like it even more when I see it again some day. It's certainly far better than I assumed it would be when it was announced, let alone from the early publicity.

Where did you get those numbers? I assumed box office mojo would have them but they didn't.

 

[ShadowBeast]

almost all of the big set pieces were shown, at least in part, in the trailers.

That seems to be a common thing these days with trailers. They reveal too much and it takes away a lot of surprises that could've made the films even better. Robotnik's look at the end of the film would've been a fantastic surprise as he continued to look like the Eggman we all know.

 

[Action!]

I really liked the movie. Baby sonic was cute. Jim Carey did a amazing job in the movie. 8.5/10

 

[19MagiswordLane]

I LOVED the SEGA logo at the beginning and the music that accompanied it (they even got the "SEGA!" chant):

 

[SkyPikachu]

I really think Presidents Day weekend has boosted the stats of Sonic. Elsewhere in the world Detective Pikachu has consistently beaten Sonic in the box office. (Data from Box Office Mojo)

Opening Weekend Stats as of 23:00:00 GMT 17th Feb 2020

Domestic	58,018,348 (SONIC)	54,365,242 (Detective Pikachu)	+6.7% Sonic
Croatia	91,458	127,133	+39.0% Pikachu
France	4,314,412	5,418,922	+25.6% Pikachu
Hungary	210,035	171,032	+22.8% Sonic
Iceland	61,370	46,381	+32.3% Sonic
Norway	399,113	744,499	+86.5% Pikachu
Portugal	234,786	292,630	+24.6% Pikachu
Slovenia	49,676	169,598	+241.4% Pikachu
Australia	2,603,967	3,514,851	+34.9% Pikachu
New Zealand	332,643	599,550	+80.2% Pikachu

It's hard to take Iceland stats as much since it's such a small sample size as well as Slovenia however a 70% swing is interesting. Otherwise other than Hungary everyone favored Detective Pikachu.


There's a few things I'm interested in here. If Sega is just way more popular in North America over other countries and thus Sonic is more well known, If timing wise Sonic just didn't make sense for people to go out but for North America it was a 4 day weekend.

I'm Australian and looks deeper into the Australian stats, Sonic still did well. It got the same numbers as Birds of Prey and beat out other movies from last year like The Lego Movie 2.

The big thing is so far with the small sample of stats we have is that North America is completely out of the ordinary compared to the Norm and the only thing I can think of that would warp the stats is Presidents Day weekend.

I personally thought Detective Pikachu was the better movie (but I'm probably somewhat biased due to my love of Pikachu) so it did surpise me to see Sonic do better than Detective Pikachu.

Thoughts?

Opening Weekend	Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)	Detective Pikachu (2019)	Percentages more $USD earned
Total Opening ("Worldwide")	66,315,808	65,449,838	+1.3% Sonic
Internationally (Without Domestic)	8,297,460	11,084,596	+33.5% Pikachu

Thought I'd also show the worldwide total (including only the countries listed in Sonic the Hedgehog) vs the total excluding Domestic.

With more statistics coming it it's leaning even more towards Detective Pikachu.

Country	Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)	Detective Pikachu (2019)	Percentages more $USD earned
Bulgaria	153,613	62,163	+147.1% Sonic
Germany	2,899,166	4,051,631	+39.7% Pikachu
Slovakia	9,015	169,598	+1781.2% Pikachu
Brazil	2,710,115	1,554,876	+74.3% Sonic
Russia	2,129,917	3,909,614	+83.5% Pikachu
South Korea	464,033	1,704,608	+267.3% Pikachu
Total Opening ("Worldwide")	74,681,667	76,902,328	+2.9% Pikachu (4.2% swing)
Internationally (Without Domestic)	16,663,319	22,537,086	+35.2% Pikachu (1.7% swing)

Brazil and Bulgaria are showing heavy favoring towards Sonic but the 2 biggest countries listed here (Germany and Russia) had strong favoring of Pikachu while other smaller countries like South Korea and Slovakia showed amazing numbers for Pikachu and pitiful numbers for Sonic making the gains in Bulgaria and Brazil barely noticeable.

 

[Dudley]

Saw it today.
I’ve seen my fair share of movies where CG characters partner up with humans, some of which are downright horrible. This Sonic movie ended up being alright. Not great, but alright. However there are plenty of things I do enjoy.
First off despite cliches, it kind of works in the movie’s favor. Sonic is more obnoxious and talkative in this, but it suits him since he’s been lonely on Earth. I gotta say, it was nice seeing a vulnerable side to the character. His loneliness in a way drives his actions a lot, seeing as how he really could’ve easily just gone to San Francisco on his own to collect his rings.
Also, the whole “traveling to the real world” plot gets a pass since we’ve seen that before with Sonic X, and thankfully gives a bit of an origin story for Dr. Robotnik (how did his mustache grow so much though?).
But all in all, Tails’s appearance in the end has me really excited for a sequel. Hopefully, more of the movie will take place on Sonic’s home planet so we can see other familiar characters (everyone in the theater left before the mid-credit scene!)
Overall, a decent movie.

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