Sonic the Hedgehog

Sweet story, good animation, amazing music, definitely worth watching.

I saw this movie when I was ten years old and fully into the whole American Anime craze. I was watching DBZ and Pokemon when I saw this film. I haven't seen it since, but for some reason I cant describe, it held a place in my heart. I never forgot that first scene where Sonic is laying on the beach, enjoying a sunbathe and Tails comes up with a jet-propelled body-board and annoys Sonic by blocking his rays. I remembered the first time Knuckles appeared, flying in front of the city with that hat. The character design is inaccurate to the games design, but the animation really makes up for it with beautifully done action pieces that truly defined Sonics sense of speed in the games and integrated into the film. The story is decent and has its fair share of moderately clever twists, but nothing thats going to turn the heads of many critics anytime soon. Sonic has seen rise and fall, but this film was nowhere near his fall.

I'm writing this breakdown in response to other users scathing reviews. I also appreciated a few others' tidbits concerning the transition from it's Japanese to North America release.

The SatAM universe that this movie is often compared to was a great work, especially considering it's cohesion and strikingly well constructed universe. However the SatAM, and by extension the Archie Sonic Comics, were great but entirely separate from the video game series.

My defense for this movie is that at the time, this was a fair representation, even with the NA dubbing. The animation was passable, but the action sequences were fun, the characters were colorful and lively and the voicing could easily have fallen prey to awful "someone from the office" actors that plagued many games and low-budget shows. The voice actors also typically have to match the intensity of the original actors, and compared to some people considering this 'screeching', matched the voicing purposely (Tails is a child, Sara is a brat, etc.). Watching the VHS and the edited DVD release, both of these versions are just enjoyable to watch, beginning to end.

I think this movie falls prey to reviewers who have had plenty of Sonic the Hedgehog (TM) movies, games and TV show series (Sonic X, Sonic Boom (I'm so sorry), Sonic Adventure) that are more palpable than this 1-hour short, but didn't know that at the time to find ANYTHING Sonic the Hedgehog outside of the games was rare.

When i saw these pair of videos, (which were apparently paired together for the official US release), they were special order from Japan, and weren't dubbed or even subtitled. You had to guess what was going on. It was interesting. It took years for the Sonic anime to make it over here. Sega wanted five arms and three legs for it, so it was tied up legally. When anime gets dubbed, sometimes alot of stuff is cut out for US audiences. Censorship is poison. And it's out of control. Aside from that, the videos were fairly decent. I am sure the characters would be far more interesting with English subtitles than totally dubbed. I believe the DVD version allows you to watch it in Japanese with subtitles, but I could be wrong. Knuckles is an interesting character. He was never featured in the US tv series for fear of stealing the spotlight off the main character; Sonic. I can only hope that more anime videos will be made in the future.

I watched this movie many times in my young childhood and still watch it today. It is absolutely outstanding even now, and that's not to mention the nostalgia from re-watching. This movie has a phenomenal soundtrack, incredible animation, a- in my opinion- well-written plot, and humor that I found hysterical. I completely adore this film and I see no reason fit to explain the hate it received on IMDb from one of the reviewers. I highly recommend this movie.