Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction and Review. Tonight guys, I'm going to be covering a Japanese animated OVA from 1996. Tonight, I'm taking a look at "Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie".
Now, I have been a fan of Sonic the Hedgehog for roughly the last 20 years. Maybe a little longer than that. I have played most of the games, I have seen various episodes of "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog" from the mid-90's. I have seen "Sonic X" at least a dozen times back when it was airing on Saturday mornings back in either 2003 or 2004, not totally sure which year it came out in. And while I haven't kept up with the series in say the last 5 years or so, I still eventually go back and replay some of my favorite games from back in the day from time to time. My own username kinda gives it away, at least until I decide to change it for some goofy reason.
Now as for this movie, I have never seen it. I have seen clips of this movie before, which was years ago, and if those clips are anything like this movie has made them out to be, then I may be in for a, possibly, bizarre ride. Or it could totally suck. I'm not totally sure if this takes place in any cartoon universe, or if it's just a standalone film. I did mention this was an OVA, so it's basically two episodes stitched together to turn it into a 54 minute movie. So the good news is that if this movie sucks, at least my pain will be short and sweet. But who knows? This movie could totally shock me and actually wind up being halfway decent.
But the only way I'm going to know that for sure is if I shut up and I push play, and I'm going to do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie"
4 minutes later
Well guys, one thing I can tell you this much, so far; the voice acting in this movie is terrible. I understand it's still very early in this movie, but if this is the kind of acting I have to get use, then I fear it's going to be torturous.
11 minutes later
All right, well, I can say this much about this movie. As horrible as the voice acting is, the music is fantastic. It really does sound like it came from the video games and I'm absolutely digging it.
5 minutes later
OK...so Metal Robotnik has bat-wings. That's sorta different. But still kinda cool, though.
2 minutes later
Wait, so now Metal Robotnik is shooting, I guess what looks to be some sort of sticky glue out of it's ass. That...was something I didn't need to know. It was a little a bit disgusting, guys. I'm not going to lie.
16 minutes later
All right. I just want to go ahead and say this now. I'm really beginning to despise Sara. She's been nothing but a whiny bitch throughout this entire movie and it's really starting to aggravate me. I hope Robotnik just throws her off so she falls and breaks her neck. I totally understand that's never going to happen, but it would make this movie a little bit more watchable. Just thought I'd share that with you guys.
7 minutes later
Wait...is Sara going to actually fall to her doom? Oh please, please, let her fall. Then nothing of value would be lost...aw, damn it. Knuckles had to ruin the moment. But I did call Sara falling, almost, so at least I can give myself a little bit of marks there.
The Review
Thank god it's over. Well guys, that was "Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie". I'm gonna shut that off...OK. You know, I was really hoping for this movie to be better then what I expected, but it really wasn't. Because when I saw those clips years ago, I kinda figured I was in for kind of a stupid ride, and I got it. But it's still a little bit too stupid, even for me.
I guess I should start with writing. The writing here kinda sucks. Let me try to summarize the story as best as I can. So Robotnik has taken the President and his daughter, Sara, hostage. He explains to Sonic and Tails that he was driven out of his home city of Robo-tropolis by something known as Metal Robotnik. I want to touch upon Metal Robotnik for just a moment, because when Sonic and Tails first encounter Metal Robotnik, I can already tell you the identity of Metal Robotnik because the movie telegraphs it about almost 10 minutes beforehand, and if you telegraph it that far in advance, then it's not a surprise to anyone.
But anyway, getting back to writing. So Sonic accepts the task as he and Tails goes to the inner dimension of Planet Freedom. Now, because I don't have a ton of knowledge about the classic Sonic games, I'm going to assume that Planet Freedom was a thing back then before the modern games basically scrapped it, so I won't complain about how that world works too much, but I will say that I do not recall ever remembering another dimension to Planet Freedom. I always thought it was basically just their own version of Earth. But again, that's just me not having much knowledge about how Sonic's world worked back then.
Basically, to shorten the plot, Robotnik's big scheme is that he has created Metal Sonic, in which he uses it to steal Sonic's life data so that he can destroy Sonic once and for all. Which OK, that's fine in terms of Sonic plots. I'm not asking for something ultra deep. However, I think it would be better if the characters were, in some way, likable. But they aren't.
Sonic, for whatever reason here, acts more like a dick in this movie than anything I have ever seen in my times of watching "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog", "Sonic X", or playing any of the games. I mean, OK, I know that his character trait is that he is snarky and is somewhat dickish. However, that has been cranked up here to a tee. It doesn't help that his acting really sucks here, however, I'm going to cover acting in just a moment.
Sara is a whiny bitch who serves no purpose here other than being some dumb damsel in distress, who for whatever reason, travels with Robotnik because she wanted to 'take a drive'. And from there, she ends up being incredibly useless next to Robotnik, whom I should mention wants to marry Sara after Metal Sonic destroys Sonic and his friends. Don't ask why, it's sort of a stupid subplot. You could sorta tell I fucking hated Sara and wished a quick and painless death. But unfortunately, that didn't happen. And as much hate as people gave Princess Elise for her uselessness of getting kidnapped, at least there, it sorta worked, and Elise served more of a purpose in "Sonic 06" than anything Sara does in this movie.
Now before, I did say that the writing kinda sucked, but after talking about it for a bit, the writing here really sucks. However, when compared to certain other plots synopsis' within the Sonic lore, that isn't really saying a whole lot.
It also doesn't help that the voice acting is horrible. I totally understand that fans of Sonic have always bitched about the voice acting when the "Sonic Adventure" games made their debut, but this honestly is some of the worse voice acting I have heard in a long time. The worst of it comes from whoever voices Tails. I can't believe I would ever say this, but Tails voice is worse here than what was heard in "Sonic Heroes"! I didn't think Tails could sound worse than that, but somehow, this movie proved me wrong. And nobody else here turns in even a halfway decent showing. However, I'm going to blame more of that on the writing, because you can only do so much when you're given a script that is this bad.
Moving onto animation. The animation here looks a bit cheap, however I can't say that it looks awful because I have seen quite a bit of cartoons from the 90's that had cheap animation, some of which looked a bit worse than this movie has, so I'm going to give animation here a bit of a pass. But I do need to talk about mouth flaps. Since this was a Japanese animated OVA, the one thing you do have to worry about when dubbing a movie is that you want to match what the voice actors are saying along with the character's mouth flaps. And for the most part, it's fine. But there are a ton of moments in the movie where the character's mouths start moving for about a half second before the voices start officially talking. Now this may be a technical issue on my end, or it might've been the version of the movie that I watched on YouTube. But I did notice quite a number of moments of the characters mouth's moving before the voices start to pick up. Now again, this is honestly a minor issue and most people aren't going to notice it unless they were looking for it. And I did, so take it for what you will.
The music here is fantastic. But considering that it's Sonic we're talking about here, the music will, most of the time, sound great no matter what game or TV show it's coming from. The music in this movie is almost kind of a mixture with what you would hear in the classic Sonic games from the early 90's to "Sonic Adventure". In fact, I think this movie might've been released around the time of "Sonic Adventure" when it was being released for the SEGA Dreamcast. But either way, the music in this movie is really good and that's something I'm always happy to hear.
So with all that being said, am I able to recommend "Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie"? Unless you either have a morbid curiosity like I did, or if you have kids or knows someone who does have kids, then they are going to adore this. Because this is technically a children's film, most children aren't going to notice any of the flaws that I have mentioned. However, if you're someone like me who's been a Sonic fan since say...the early 2000's and you've never watched this movie and are curious of checking it out. Then personally, no. This is quite possibly one of the worst movies in involving Sonic I have had the displeasure of watching. And I know someone's going to ask me if I'm going to see the current live action Sonic movie. No. I am never wasting the time on it because that movie looked terrible even before fans started bitching about Sonic's design. And if you were to force me to pick either the live action movie or the OVA at gunpoint, I would take the OVA every time because at least this movie was short and it would only take about 54 minutes compared to the 1 hour and 40 minute run-time of the live action movie. But still, this movie was crap and I'm kinda happy I was able to watch this thing once. Now I don't have to worry about watching this thing ever again.
I'm gonna go find something else to do. I think I'll go marathon the first eight episodes of "Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue" on DVD, because I haven't watched that series in almost 10 years and I kinda need something good to watch.
Anyway, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction and Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all in the near future. Peace.
Now, I have been a fan of Sonic the Hedgehog for roughly the last 20 years. Maybe a little longer than that. I have played most of the games, I have seen various episodes of "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog" from the mid-90's. I have seen "Sonic X" at least a dozen times back when it was airing on Saturday mornings back in either 2003 or 2004, not totally sure which year it came out in. And while I haven't kept up with the series in say the last 5 years or so, I still eventually go back and replay some of my favorite games from back in the day from time to time. My own username kinda gives it away, at least until I decide to change it for some goofy reason.
Now as for this movie, I have never seen it. I have seen clips of this movie before, which was years ago, and if those clips are anything like this movie has made them out to be, then I may be in for a, possibly, bizarre ride. Or it could totally suck. I'm not totally sure if this takes place in any cartoon universe, or if it's just a standalone film. I did mention this was an OVA, so it's basically two episodes stitched together to turn it into a 54 minute movie. So the good news is that if this movie sucks, at least my pain will be short and sweet. But who knows? This movie could totally shock me and actually wind up being halfway decent.
But the only way I'm going to know that for sure is if I shut up and I push play, and I'm going to do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie"
4 minutes later
Well guys, one thing I can tell you this much, so far; the voice acting in this movie is terrible. I understand it's still very early in this movie, but if this is the kind of acting I have to get use, then I fear it's going to be torturous.
11 minutes later
All right, well, I can say this much about this movie. As horrible as the voice acting is, the music is fantastic. It really does sound like it came from the video games and I'm absolutely digging it.
5 minutes later
OK...so Metal Robotnik has bat-wings. That's sorta different. But still kinda cool, though.
2 minutes later
Wait, so now Metal Robotnik is shooting, I guess what looks to be some sort of sticky glue out of it's ass. That...was something I didn't need to know. It was a little a bit disgusting, guys. I'm not going to lie.
16 minutes later
All right. I just want to go ahead and say this now. I'm really beginning to despise Sara. She's been nothing but a whiny bitch throughout this entire movie and it's really starting to aggravate me. I hope Robotnik just throws her off so she falls and breaks her neck. I totally understand that's never going to happen, but it would make this movie a little bit more watchable. Just thought I'd share that with you guys.
7 minutes later
Wait...is Sara going to actually fall to her doom? Oh please, please, let her fall. Then nothing of value would be lost...aw, damn it. Knuckles had to ruin the moment. But I did call Sara falling, almost, so at least I can give myself a little bit of marks there.
The Review
Thank god it's over. Well guys, that was "Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie". I'm gonna shut that off...OK. You know, I was really hoping for this movie to be better then what I expected, but it really wasn't. Because when I saw those clips years ago, I kinda figured I was in for kind of a stupid ride, and I got it. But it's still a little bit too stupid, even for me.
I guess I should start with writing. The writing here kinda sucks. Let me try to summarize the story as best as I can. So Robotnik has taken the President and his daughter, Sara, hostage. He explains to Sonic and Tails that he was driven out of his home city of Robo-tropolis by something known as Metal Robotnik. I want to touch upon Metal Robotnik for just a moment, because when Sonic and Tails first encounter Metal Robotnik, I can already tell you the identity of Metal Robotnik because the movie telegraphs it about almost 10 minutes beforehand, and if you telegraph it that far in advance, then it's not a surprise to anyone.
But anyway, getting back to writing. So Sonic accepts the task as he and Tails goes to the inner dimension of Planet Freedom. Now, because I don't have a ton of knowledge about the classic Sonic games, I'm going to assume that Planet Freedom was a thing back then before the modern games basically scrapped it, so I won't complain about how that world works too much, but I will say that I do not recall ever remembering another dimension to Planet Freedom. I always thought it was basically just their own version of Earth. But again, that's just me not having much knowledge about how Sonic's world worked back then.
Basically, to shorten the plot, Robotnik's big scheme is that he has created Metal Sonic, in which he uses it to steal Sonic's life data so that he can destroy Sonic once and for all. Which OK, that's fine in terms of Sonic plots. I'm not asking for something ultra deep. However, I think it would be better if the characters were, in some way, likable. But they aren't.
Sonic, for whatever reason here, acts more like a dick in this movie than anything I have ever seen in my times of watching "Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog", "Sonic X", or playing any of the games. I mean, OK, I know that his character trait is that he is snarky and is somewhat dickish. However, that has been cranked up here to a tee. It doesn't help that his acting really sucks here, however, I'm going to cover acting in just a moment.
Sara is a whiny bitch who serves no purpose here other than being some dumb damsel in distress, who for whatever reason, travels with Robotnik because she wanted to 'take a drive'. And from there, she ends up being incredibly useless next to Robotnik, whom I should mention wants to marry Sara after Metal Sonic destroys Sonic and his friends. Don't ask why, it's sort of a stupid subplot. You could sorta tell I fucking hated Sara and wished a quick and painless death. But unfortunately, that didn't happen. And as much hate as people gave Princess Elise for her uselessness of getting kidnapped, at least there, it sorta worked, and Elise served more of a purpose in "Sonic 06" than anything Sara does in this movie.
Now before, I did say that the writing kinda sucked, but after talking about it for a bit, the writing here really sucks. However, when compared to certain other plots synopsis' within the Sonic lore, that isn't really saying a whole lot.
It also doesn't help that the voice acting is horrible. I totally understand that fans of Sonic have always bitched about the voice acting when the "Sonic Adventure" games made their debut, but this honestly is some of the worse voice acting I have heard in a long time. The worst of it comes from whoever voices Tails. I can't believe I would ever say this, but Tails voice is worse here than what was heard in "Sonic Heroes"! I didn't think Tails could sound worse than that, but somehow, this movie proved me wrong. And nobody else here turns in even a halfway decent showing. However, I'm going to blame more of that on the writing, because you can only do so much when you're given a script that is this bad.
Moving onto animation. The animation here looks a bit cheap, however I can't say that it looks awful because I have seen quite a bit of cartoons from the 90's that had cheap animation, some of which looked a bit worse than this movie has, so I'm going to give animation here a bit of a pass. But I do need to talk about mouth flaps. Since this was a Japanese animated OVA, the one thing you do have to worry about when dubbing a movie is that you want to match what the voice actors are saying along with the character's mouth flaps. And for the most part, it's fine. But there are a ton of moments in the movie where the character's mouths start moving for about a half second before the voices start officially talking. Now this may be a technical issue on my end, or it might've been the version of the movie that I watched on YouTube. But I did notice quite a number of moments of the characters mouth's moving before the voices start to pick up. Now again, this is honestly a minor issue and most people aren't going to notice it unless they were looking for it. And I did, so take it for what you will.
The music here is fantastic. But considering that it's Sonic we're talking about here, the music will, most of the time, sound great no matter what game or TV show it's coming from. The music in this movie is almost kind of a mixture with what you would hear in the classic Sonic games from the early 90's to "Sonic Adventure". In fact, I think this movie might've been released around the time of "Sonic Adventure" when it was being released for the SEGA Dreamcast. But either way, the music in this movie is really good and that's something I'm always happy to hear.
So with all that being said, am I able to recommend "Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie"? Unless you either have a morbid curiosity like I did, or if you have kids or knows someone who does have kids, then they are going to adore this. Because this is technically a children's film, most children aren't going to notice any of the flaws that I have mentioned. However, if you're someone like me who's been a Sonic fan since say...the early 2000's and you've never watched this movie and are curious of checking it out. Then personally, no. This is quite possibly one of the worst movies in involving Sonic I have had the displeasure of watching. And I know someone's going to ask me if I'm going to see the current live action Sonic movie. No. I am never wasting the time on it because that movie looked terrible even before fans started bitching about Sonic's design. And if you were to force me to pick either the live action movie or the OVA at gunpoint, I would take the OVA every time because at least this movie was short and it would only take about 54 minutes compared to the 1 hour and 40 minute run-time of the live action movie. But still, this movie was crap and I'm kinda happy I was able to watch this thing once. Now I don't have to worry about watching this thing ever again.
I'm gonna go find something else to do. I think I'll go marathon the first eight episodes of "Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue" on DVD, because I haven't watched that series in almost 10 years and I kinda need something good to watch.
Anyway, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction and Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all in the near future. Peace.
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