Going Faster than before
Sonic 2 has been out in the Philippines and other countries for about a week now and I still can’t get over how good this movie is.
A quick cliff notes for the unfamiliar
For movie viewers who may not have seen the first Sonic film you don’t need to worry about missing any important details.
Sonic comes from a world where he’s raised by Longclaw the Owl and is hunted by Echidnas because of the Master Emerald. A fan of Sonic’s, Miles “Tails” Prower discovers Sonic’s whereabouts on earth. And that’s all you need to know from the first movie!…sort of.
SPOILERS BEWARE
Before I continue I need to warn you dear reader that I will be spoiling key details of the movie. So don’t make any second thoughts before your proceed. Okay?
Alright. Here we go.
The Plot
Dr. Robotnik survives in the Mushroom Planet because of his superior intelligence. During one of his days on the planet, he lures Knuckles The Echidna to the Mushroom planet so he can get home.
And yes. Dr. Ivo Robotnik shows Knuckles…de way to Sonic The Hedgehog.
Sonic is now living a double life as a hero in Seattle and being Maddie and Tom Wachowski’s son in Green Hills, Montana.
While Tom and Maddie are off in Hawaii attending Maddie’s sister’s wedding, Dr. Robotnik attacks the Wachowski home and chaos ensues.
The plot of the movie is easy to follow whether you’re a kid or an adult.
The story is so well-paced that you forget this movie only runs for 2 Hours and 2 Minutes! That’s right. This film went all out on the number.
I loved how this movie built the friendship between Sonic and Tails but it left me wanting more to learn about Tails’ world.
Is he from the same world as Sonic or is he from another universe? We already know that Knuckles’ and Sonic’s families live in the same world.
Maybe the Freedom Fighters existing this universe? The possibilities are endles now!
Kids will enjoy the humor and adults will love the little details the crew added to this film from the video games. In fact I’ll list them here starting with:
1. Tails carrying Sonic so they can fly
Even the most casual Sonic fan would know that Tails carries Sonic in Sonic 2 in order for Sonic to fly with the help of Tails’…well, tails!
2. Air Bubbles!
Whenever you’re in an underwater level in the original Sonic games you need to collect air bubbles to keep playing or else Sonic will lose a life and it’s game over for you!
This game feature is briefly shown when Sonic saves Knuckles from a collapsed column in the hiding place of the Master Emerald after Dr. Robotnik steals the emerald for himself.
3. Snowboarding!
I’ll be the first to admit that I never went far in the Sonic games. To be honest I never got beyond Sonic 2. Most of my casual fandom of Sonic came from the cartoons like Sonic AM, Sonic Underground and more recently Sonic Boom.
The snowboarding scene shown in trailers is quite reminiscent however of the Ice Cap stage from Sonic 3.
These three moments are just some of the familiar easter eggs casual fans may spot. I’m sure devoted Sonic fans will have seen more that I missed.
The Cast
The live-action stars get the job done. What I want to focus on is the voice actors.
Ben Schwartz continues to impress as teenage Sonic while Idris Elba was surprisingly great as Knuckles The Echidna.
I want to give a special shoutout to Colleen O’Shaugnessy aka the voice of Tails. She has played the role of Miles Prower for over 10 years since she took over from Kate Higgins.
And I really need to place an emphasis on her being cast for the movie because we have seen a trend of popular movie stars being cast for the sake of adding star power to films.
You never get to see voice actors being recognized for their work properly. Could you imagine a Tails voiced by Chris Pratt? Because I can’t fathom that idea.
The selection of Colleen O’Shaugnessy as Tails gives me a sense of comfort from hearing her voice as the character since Sonic Boom so I already know she’s going to get the job done.
Very few celebrities can say they can do excellent voiceover and be great on-screen stars as well. The only example I can think of that does great in both voiceover and on-screen acting, or a combination of voiceover with anything, is Mark Hamill. Now I’m proud to say Colleen O’Shaugnessy can do voiceover on TV and the big screen!
Speaking of celebrity voiceovers, I was very hesitant with the choice of Idris Elba as Knuckles at first but this film made me realize he was a great choice.
Do I wish we got the voice of Knuckles from Sonic Boom in the form of Travis Willingham? Of course! But sadly Hollywood works in different ways and to be fair the character of Knuckles is totally different from Travis Willingham’s version so the character worked.
Knuckles is blinded by rage to seek revenge against Sonic for supposedly stealing the Master Emerald. What he doesn’t realize is that Dr. Robotnik is just controlling him all along to get the Emerald for himself.
I just couldn’t see Willingham play that role to a tee. He’s not a bad Knuckles but he’s just not a fit for this version of Knuckles.
Idris Elba was perfect from start to finish as the last of the Echidnas. You understood his anger because his tribe died in a battle with Longclaw, Sonic’s foster mom. After that battle Knuckles and Sonic both became loners in the world but now their team with Tails gives them a new family. Awwwwwww!
Idris Elba evokes Knuckles’ rage and simple-mindedness so well. He’s not familiar with this universe so he’s raised in a completely different environment. There’s something very reminiscent of Chris Hemsworth as Thor when he first got banished to earth in Elba’s role as Knuckles. Call it a fish out of water situation until the fish became familiar with its surroundings.
The Writing
Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow!
Sonic 2 is able to crunch in so many important details to Sonic lore without alienating casual fans like myself within 2 hours and 2 minutes of run time
Kudos to Pat Casey, Josh Miller and John Wittington on amazing job.
I didn’t feel like the movie was dragging too much. The film is just that good!
Although I only have two complaints.
One was that we didn’t get much character development for Tails but I hope we get a better explanation of his character in the Knuckles TV series or Sonic 3.
My other complaint was that Rachel, Maddie’s sister, became a comedic foil again.
I understand the character felt like comedic foil for Maddie’s character but I felt like we could have had more scenes of her interacting with Tom to make amends with all the trouble has has caused in her life.
The confusing scenes of Rachel and the lack of backstory of Tails would be my only complaints about the film as a while.
Overall, the writing for Sonic 2 was much better than Sonic 1 because we get a cliff notes of the first film while going even bigger with the action in the second.
Final Score:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Sonic The Hedgehog 2 makes the first film look tiny in comparison with all the action, video game easter eggs and the character development of the main characters while balancing their backstories with the human characters. The balanced writing of the movie makes the film a thrill ride from start to finish
Oh! And we haven’t forgotten about the biggest spoiler in the film…
ONE LAST SPOILER
Like the previous film shared a mid-credits scene introduced us viewers to Tails, the sequel’s mid-credits scene shows the aftermath of the battle between Super Sonic and Dr. Robotnik’s Death Egg robot.
G.U.N. or the Guardian Units of Nations, yes we know how it spells out, begins the search for Dr. Robotnik but no traces of him are found. What G.U.N. agents did find, however, is a fifty year old project hidden in the US government archives…a secret known as Project Shadow.
That’s right! We’re getting Shadow The Hedgehog! AKA SONIC WITH A GUN!
The idea of the character sounds so absurd but my goodness do I embrace the ridiculousness of it all. Like the SEGA social media team embracing the Sanic meme, I welcome Shadow The Hedgehog with open arms into the movie universe and I can’t wait to see what comes next!
Steven Maxwell Tan
Steven is a geek at heart who loves to read comics and watch cartoons in his free time. When he’s not watching the latest Japanese wrestling show, he’s listening to Anaheim Ducks hockey games while browsing for hockey gear and jerseys. You can find his rants and his hockey journey on Twitter @steviesaidyup
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