The fastest little blue hedgehog has beaten out Birds of Prey this week at the box office with over 70 million for the 4 day holiday weekend. Additionally, Sonic the Hedgehog has also sped past last year’s top grossing video game movie, Detective Pikachu by over 12 million.
Sonic the Hedgehog stars, Parks and Recreation actor Ben Schartz as the voice of Sonic and he definitely embraces the speedy hedgehog to a tee. Overall Schartz does an exceptional job of bringing Sonic to life as he gives his own personal touch by emphasizing key lines especially in the conversations when Sonic is talking to himself.
Additionally, there is a special chemistry between Sonic and his human counterparts and the actors that played them were spot on. Sonic’s friendly donut loving cop, played by James Marsden (Hop) is a great choice especially given Marsden’s previous role with E.B in Hop. In the same way Marsden uses the same acting skills of learning to work with a partner/ best friend, while also trying to decide whether it is safe to trust a small blue hedgehog.
Sonic’s arch nemesis Dr. Robotnek, played by the incomparable Jim Carrey, brings new light to the term bad guy as Carrey does an exceptional job, playing a bad guy who is just trying to be good. All the while, as he works undercover for the secret organization that is trying to find the fast alien who is working tooth and nail to discover just who is on the at the top of this diabolical scheme. Similar to his role in an early movie, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Carrey steps into the role of Doctor Robotnek using an unique charm as the bad guy that makes us crack up when he attempts to try new techniques in his effort for capturing Sonic.
Coming from the 1991 video game, the writers did an adequate job of bringing the fast running blue hedgehog to life, with a few minor liberations. The first of course being how Sonic gets his red shoes, which in terms of the video game is concerned this is entirely different. In the movie, it is more about developing trust in the human child who in turn finds sympathy when Marsden brings him to his wife’s home to nurse him back to health. The niece of Marsden sees his old shoes and decides to give him a new pair of her own.
Additionally, the writer of the movie, incorporates other notable characters including Sonic’s friend Sonic who shows up in the end with a mission of finding Sonic. They also begin the movie with Sonic on as a child with his mother like figure, Longclaw who gives Sonic the rings and tells him to use them to stay safe. Those rings are the overall basis that the writers used for the overall plot of the movie which made it interesting for the audience watching.
The other thing that the writers did was incorporate freeze frames in the human cast to show just how fast Sonic really is, which was also quite impressive.
Overall, Sonic the Hedgehog is an action packed movie that will have movie goers on the edge of their seats wondering what will happen next. The crisp, hilarious dialogue will have us laughing from the first scene on as we wonder what is Sonic going to do next.
The video game based movie came out in theaters February 14 on the eve of President’s day weekend and is currently playing in a theater near you.