Review of Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie (1996) by Andrej P — 26 Jul 2015

Great animation,well established characters,over the top dialogue,however it perfectly fits 90's action comedy,and yeah comedy is really good,very fun movie,but it still takes thing seriously that it should,like relationship between Sonic and Metal Sonic,many references to other movies,also beautiful landscapes and action,recommended for everyone who likes Arnold Arnold Schwarzenegger movies like Terminator(you will get what I mentioned earlier...) or Commando,or people who like adventure comedy action anime like Dragon Ball(original,not "Z",but maybe "GT") and of course all Sonic fans!Some younger Sonic fans might be a little disappointed,because many concepts and characters from newer games are not present in this movie,it has a completely different world than games like Sonic Adventure and anime Sonic X,because it came out in 1996 in Japan(as a two part direct to dvd,or,i guess VHS miniseries),which I can guess caused a lot of confusion because in US it came out in 1999,a year after Sonic Adventure,a game with a completely new look of the characters and world,with that said,the world is great,it really makes you think about it,it's post apocaliptic,but still kind of peaceful,it could be even compared to Studio Ghibli movies in that terms,mostly Naussica Of The Wind Valley and Porco Rosso(it has beautiful skies).The animation is not near as good as those,but keep in mind this was a direct to video two part miniseries,when Sega ordered this,they probably didn't know how good it would turn out,I can only imagine what these people could do with a bigger budget.This really is action comedy done right,most 90's action comedies turn out too cheesy or with bad characters,even though I like,Super Mario Bros. Movie,is an example of this,but this is really good quality.Now for the voice acting,Japanese is,well,what you expected,English sounds pretty silly,but I still recommend it,because it's a comedy,jokes come with a better pacing,there's also one great joke added in it,but you need to get used to it,especially if you watched other Sonic cartoons and anime,or played Sonic games with voice acting,because all characters sound almost completely different than there,but they're personalities are left.Just a reminder,if you are watching English version,watch the 2004,because 1999 cut some things that were considered "offensive to Western audience".This is one of the best video game movies,and you know most of them are bad,DOA and Mario movie are fun,but this is really good,up there with Ace Attorney and Silent Hill(though,those video game movies are good for different reasons,so even if you hated them,you can like this).This movie is one of the times where Sega really did what Nintendon't.Now,the bad stuff,well,except for English dub sometimes,and a few wacky frames of animation,it's runtime really doesn't leave room for bad stuff(when you have so much good stuff),so go watch it and have a blast!

Also !!!SPOILERALERT!!!............................................................................................

Seeing Sonic show his middle finger is priceless!