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.
