Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

Personally I've never been that much of an anime fan, I have nothing against the animation style, in fact I think it works particularly well with some films in particular, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that anime is a movie genre in it's own, and I wouldn't get a movie strictly because it was anime. With that said, one of my close friends is a big freak when it comes to anime, and he'll pick up any movie that uses this unique style of animation no matter how corny it looks, and believe me, there are some awful ones out there. Well, one night I was over at his house working on homework, when he decided that it was his life's goal to get me to watch his latest movie, Sonic The Hedgehog: The Movie, and so with little protest I decided that a movie starring everyone's favorite speeding blue hedgehog, but I went into the movie expecting it to be a mere children's movie, and while it is for the most part aimed at children, I was shocked to see suggestive themes in place. It's just too bad that the movie didn't last long enough for me to really enjoy it.

Title: Sonic The Hedgehog: The Movie
Year: 1999
Director: I Honestly Don't Know
Starring Roles Voiced By: Martin Burke (III), Lainie Frasier, Edwin Neal, Bill Wise (I)

Sonic The Hedgehog is one of the most popular video game characters in the world, I would say that he is second only to Mario, and so naturally one would expect that if someone was to release a movie starring the blue hedgehog that it would sell decently enough, and that is exactly happened with this movie, as it sold surprisingly well from what I've heard. Sonic has always had sort of a "cool" style, and thus is extremely easy to market, and that is exactly what Sega has done with Sonic over and over again, and while Sonic's games are certainly going downhill in a very fast way, the name still sells if by nothing more than brand recognition.

Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie seems as if it was aimed at 2 types of people in particular, video game fans, and anime fans, but with that said Sonic the Hedgehog is extremely shallow when compared to most anime movies, but it performs decently enough when compared to other game licensing disasters (Super Mario Bros. anyone?). Sure, Sonic The Hedgehog doesn't follow any of the Sonic The Hedgehog games specifically, but it manages to retain that classic Sonic feeling you get when playing the classics.

Do you remember the old Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon that used to play on... ABC I think it was? Well just throw everything you know about any of the Sonic The Hedgehog cartoon series, because this movie has absolutely nothing to do with the overly simplistic cartoon series. In fact, the only thing that the movie and series have in common with each other is the usage of the characters; all of your favorites are in the movie including Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Eggman/Dr. Robotnic. The voices don't match up with the characters %100 from what I can tell, but this doesn't take too much away from the movie. The movie definitely carries on Sonic and friends' attitudes though, as Sonic still plays the part of the "too cool for his own good hero", and yes, Tails still sounds girly whenever he talks and still seems like just a sidekick. Dr. Robotnik has had several different personalities in his many different appearances in the games, and it just seems as if the writers blended these personalities together for the movie.

Story
Sonic the Hedgehog is back, but this time he's ready to kick some tail. After his arch nemesis, Dr. Robotnik is banished from the land of darkness, and Planet Freedom will be destroyed unless Sonic and Robotnik team up together. Sounds a little strange, doesn't it? Well to be completely honest with you I thought that the story from this point on became very hard to follow, and so I only picked up bits and pieces of it but I'll try my best to explain the rest of the movie, but please feel free to correct me if some of my information is incorrect, as I didn't know what was happening through most of the film. Late into the film, the president's daughter is kidnapped by Robotnik, and so it's Sonic's job to rescue her and ultimately do battle with the only thing that stands a chance against Sonic; Hyper Metal Sonic. Now it's once again up to Sonic to save the world from complete destruction.

My biggest problem with this movie was the fact that so much is going on that I had a hard time keeping up with it all, and so that's why my summary of the plot may be a little out of whack. One of the major problems I have with this film is the fact that it is just so short, with all the action it has don't you think this film should be at least slightly longer than 60 minutes? The plot is a little on the uninteresting and corny side though, but so is everything that Sonic the Hedgehog is associated with, but this really makes this movie a better choice for Sonic fans than anime junkies, as the plot is extremely shallow.

The style of anime used in this movie seems fairly primitive when compared to more recent movies, and so I'm guessing that this is because the movie was released in Japan long ago and saw a release in the US only about 4 years ago. With that said, the animation seems to fit Sonic's style perfectly, as the style looks pleasant on the screen and in motion, but screenshots really do not do this movie justice. The best looking thing in this movie is without a doubt the characters; I really like what the artists did with Sonic, Tails, and Knuckle's characters and I wouldn't mind if they based a game off of the character's appearances in this movie.

The biggest downfall to this movie is the length of it, but what makes this aspect even worse is the fact that at some parts in the movie it seems as if the creators wanted to waste time by showing Sonic running, just simply running while avoiding obstacles, and this seems almost like a cheap tactic to make the film seem longer than it really is. In fact, a lot of things in this movie seem to be dragged out so that the movie could reach the 60 minutes length, including the action packed fight scenes.

The fight scenes are really something else; the fights in the movie are fairly action packed. The movie has a good amount of techno music that cuts in during the fight scenes, and this makes the action seem intensified, simply through the tactic of setting the correct mood.

It's really too bad that the fight scenes seem dragged out, as the action goes fast for a couple minutes, and then the movie tries to confuse you by moving the camera around really fast. Even despite the fact that a lot could have been cut out of the fight scenes without taking a lot from the movie, I found these action sequences to be the most entertaining part of the movie, even more entertaining than all of the humor found in the movie. The fights are pretty cool, usually involving bright lights, techno music, and a fast moving camera. Oh yeah almost forgot, people who get seizures probably shouldn't watch this movie.

The dialogue in the movie is bad, and when I say bad I mean really, absolutely freakin' bad. Not only do Tails and Sonic have semi annoying voices, but some of the stuff they say is just dumb. For example, Tails often states the complete obvious, like when his tails get glued together he yells that his two tails are stuck together and that he can no longer fly. That's just a petty example when compared to the other stuff in the movie, but I'd rather not rant on and on about it.

Oh and just as a fair warning, even though this movie is aimed at the younger crowd of people, it contains some sexual jokes, and even a scene where Tails "accidentally" gropes the president's daughter's breasts. Yeah, I also thought it was strange how a children’s movie would use sexual jokes to get a couple of laughs, and so I don't think that most parents out there would probably want their children to watch this.

Final Recommendation
Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie isn't a good movie no matter how you look at it, and sadly enough I found that the best way to get any entertainment value from this movie is by laughing at it with your friends. Personally I really don't know who to recommend this movie to.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12