Sonic the Hedgehog (film)

Sonic the Hedgehog
Film information
Directed by	Rob Cohen
Produced by	Brad Silberling
Written by	Shiro Maekawa
Based on	Sonic the Hedgehog by SEGA
Starring	Jason Griffith Veronica Taylor
Music by	Masato Nakamura
Studio	OLM, Inc.
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date(s)	November 18, 1998
Running time	119 minutes
Language	English Japanese
Budget	¥5 billion US$50 million
Box office	$263.9 million

Sonic the Hedgehog (ソニック・ザ・ヘッジホッグ Sonikku za Hejjihoggu) is a 1998 American/Japanese computer animated/anime film based on Sega's best-selling video game franchise Sonic the Hedgehog, directed by Rob Cohen in his animation debut, and produced by Brad Silberling. It is the first film in the Video Game Extended Universe.

The film was released in North America on November 18, 1998. The film tells the story of Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends as they arrive in the world of Pokemon as they take on both Sonic's rival Dr. Eggman and Ash Ketchum's enemies Team Rocket while also battling a black hedgehog named Shadow who somewhat resembles Sonic.

Sonic the Hedgehog was very popular upon it's release and was both a critical and commercial success, eventually becoming the second highest-grossing animated film of 1998.

Plot

The film begins with Patty the Puffin telling Perky the Cat that the kids are here to see the lost episode. However, Perky says that he has lost the lost episode, and tells the kids to forget about Sonic. The French Narrator introduces a segment called "Remembering Sonic", a musical montage of clips from the past Sonic video games. After a long treasure hunt where Perky finds a tape that holds the movie, he plays the tape. The tape shows a long clip of Sonic doing walk cycles to upbeat music before abruptly showing the EBS color bars. After Perky sees this, he proclaims that "Sonic betrayed us!" and throws out all his Sonic merchandise and runs away. However, Patty informs him that the tape is not over and that the real lost movie is about to begin. As a countdown to that starts, Perky excitedly says, "Really?!" and his throwing everything away is rewinded and the movie begins.

The beginning of Sonic the Hedgehog is set in 1959 on the space colony ARK where a black hedgehog and a girl are running to avoid capture. The girl shoves the black hedgehog into an escape capsule and launches it towards the planet called Volantis containing all the Pokemon.

Thirty-five years later, Knuckles the Echidna guards the Master Emerald on the floating Angel Island when the evil scientist Doctor Eggman captures Cream the Rabbit and her friend Cheese the Chao. Eggman's machine starts to overload which causes it to warp the entire island and everyone on it to a different universe.

In the world of Pokemon, Pokemon Master in training Ash Ketchum and his friends Pikachu, Misty and Brock continue their journey when they stumble upon Sonic (who is separated from his friends in the aftermath). He quickly befriends Ash and his friends and helps them stop Team Rocket from taking Pikachu, as well as reunited with his other friends.

Eggman meets Team Rocket and decides to unite with each other in order to defeat both their shared enemies. After discovering the existence of a secret weapon mentioned in the diary of his grandfather, Gerald Robotnik, Eggman and Team Rocket infiltrate a high-security G.U.N. facility in search of it. This "weapon," the black hedgehog from the beginning of the film named Shadow who claims that he is the "Ultimate Life Form," offers to help Eggman and Team Rocket take over the world, telling the scientist and trio to rendezvous with him at the abandoned Space Colony ARK with more Chaos Emeralds. Shadow proceeds in stealing one of the Emeralds. During the event, Shadow has a flashback to the final moments of a young girl named "Maria" (who is name of the girl in the beginning), begging him to complete an unspecified task—which he interprets as a request for revenge. Because Shadow makes a hasty retreat and no one is able to get a good look at him, G.U.N. officials mistake Shadow for Sonic. After escaping from the military, Sonic is arrested again shortly after a confrontation with Shadow, who demonstrates to Sonic the Chaos Control technique.

Meanwhile, Knuckles confronts both Rouge the Bat, Eggman and Team Rocket, who each attempt to steal the Master Emerald. Knuckles shatters the Master Emerald to prevent this, and proceeds to search for the scattered shards and restore the Emerald. While Rouge intends to collect the shards for personal benefit, she must also accomplish a mission for the government to spy on Eggman and Team Rocket with a partner, Blake the Cat (who happens to be Cat from Little Bear). This mission causes them to infiltrate Dr. Eggman's base, which also leads them to the ARK, where Shadow relays to Eggman and Team Rocket his plan to use the Chaos Emeralds to charge a "super weapon" on the ARK called the Eclipse Cannon to take over the world. To accomplish this, Shadow, Eggman and Team Rocket recruit Rouge and Blake to assist in the search of the Chaos Emeralds.

Ash, Pikachu, their friends, Tails, Amy and Cream infiltrate Prison Island and rescue Sonic from G.U.N., while Eggman, Team Rocket, Shadow, Rouge, and Blake collect three Emeralds on the island, they then destroy it. Eggman then broadcasts his threats across the planet and demonstrates the cannon's level of power by destroying half of the moon. Sonic and company use the final Emerald within their possession to track down the other six, with Knuckles coming along as well. Together, the group infiltrates Eggman's base, narrowly boarding Eggman's shuttle as it launches into space. Along the ride into space, Knuckles' Master Emerald shards are spilled, and he leaves the group to collect them, encountering Rouge and Blake again. During the fight, Knuckles saves Rouge from certain death, and Rouge surrenders her collected shards, finally allowing Knuckles to restore the Master Emerald.

On board the ARK, Tails reveals that he has created a counterfeit Chaos Emerald designed to reverse the energy fields of the real ones, although it is less powerful. Sonic goes to place the fake Chaos Emerald into the Cannon when Eggman announces that he has captured Tails, Amy, Cream and Ash's friends. Sonic tries to trick Eggman by giving him the fake Chaos Emerald, but at the last second, Eggman, suspecting such a trick, traps and jettisons Sonic in an escape pod rigged with explosives. Using the fake Chaos Emerald, Sonic manages to perform Chaos Control and escape the pod before it explodes, but Tails, thinking Sonic is dead, fights Eggman while Ash takes on Giovanni. Shadow is sent to intercept Sonic before he destroys the Eclipse Cannon, but Sonic succeeds.

After disabling the various security features guarding the core, Sonic and Knuckles encounter the Biolizard, a prototype of the Ultimate Life Form, and Shadow's "biological" brother, who had been awoken from stasis to ensure that the Emeralds would not be tampered with. Shadow defeats the Biolizard, allowing Knuckles to neutralize the Chaos energy and deactivate the Chaos Emeralds using the Master Emerald. However, the injured Biolizard uses Chaos Control to fuse with the Eclipse Cannon, becoming the Finalhazard and continuing the ARK's collision course by physically dragging it along. Using the power of the Chaos Emeralds, Sonic and Shadow transform into Super Sonic and Super Shadow and defeat the Biolizard (as the Finalhazard), which is fused to the ARK. They then use Chaos Control to teleport the ARK back into a stable orbit around Earth. The process, however, depletes Shadow's energy, and he is rendered unable to remain in orbit. He plummets to Earth, and to his apparent death, content that he has fulfilled his promise to Maria. As humanity celebrates openly, the two teams reflect on both the events that have transpired, concerning Shadow's sacrifice and Gerald Robotnik's intent to destroy Earth, and their new plans from there. Giovanni, defeated by Ash, disbands Team Rocket's operations and awards him with the final Gym Badge needed to enter the Pokémon League. As they leave the station, Sonic bids a final farewell to Shadow.

Back on Volantis, Knuckles finds Angel Island, still in one piece. Everyone returns home to their own universe; Blake returns to his home universe, and Sonic and his friends return to their rightful home world. Before Ash leaves the town into his next journey, he talks to Professor Oak about what happened, and muses about the story. Professor Oak tells a sad Ash that he and Sonic are going to be friends forever as true, strong and close friendships can withstand the test of time. Professor Oak is then shown with a sketch-book showing him with Professor Robotnik and Maria as a 15 year old. Ash's mom Delia arrives and see the sketch-book with Oak. A knock is heard on Oak's door as Oak invites the person in, only to learn it is Shadow, who is revealed to still be alive, but does not remember anything.

After the movie, Perky attempts to play it again but doesn't know how to play it. He and Patty press a lot of buttons on the remote but the tape wears out and comes pouring out of the player, causing Perky to get tangled in it. The movie ends with the narrator saying to the viewers to get lost.

Cast

Character name	Japanese voice actor	English voice actor
Sonic the Hedgehog (Sonikku za Hejjihoggu)	Jun'ichi Kanemaru	Jason Griffith
Ash Ketchum (Satoshi)	Rica Matsumoto	Veronica Taylor
Shadow the Hedgehog
Pikachu	Ikue Ōtani
Misty (Kasumi)	Mayumi Iizuka	Rachael Lillis
Brock (Takeshi)	Yūji Ueda	Eric Stuart
Narrator	Unshō Ishizuka	Ken Gates
Togepi	Satomi Kōrogi
Jessie (Musashi)	Megumi Hayashibara	Rachael Lillis
James (Kojirō)	Shin-ichiro Miki	Eric Stuart
Meowth (Nyarth)	Inuko Inuyama	Michael J. Fox
Bulbasaur (Fushigidane)	Megumi Hayashibara	Tara Jayne
Charizard (Lizardon)	Shin-ichiro Miki
Squirtle (Zenigame)	Rikako Aikawa	Eric Stuart

Production

Warner Bros. Pictures bought the rights to produce an animated film of Sonic the Hedgehog in 1992. Rob Cohen, who currently directed live-action films at the time, was chosen to direct the film. Cohen wasn't familiar with animation at the time, but soon grew into the art and style of animation.

It was the first anime film based on the Sonic universe. It was primarily influenced by other anime rather than work from the West, and was created for a Japanese audience. Yuji Naka, then the head of Sonic Team, filled in as executive producer, and Yuji Uekawa created all of the original characters. 4Kids Entertainment handled the show's American localization. 4Kids was told by SEGA themselves not to edit any content from the film. 4Kids complied. 4Kids has been described by Destructoid as being "infamous" among anime fans for this type of overzealous editing.

While traditionally animated, it includes non-outlined CGI elements for things such as Sonic's homing attack.

4Kids found new voice actors rather than using those from the games, with auditions beginning in early 1997. They invited Mike Pollock to audition for Eggman. 4Kids allowed Pollock to make minor alterations to the dialogue when lines "[didn't] work for some reason". He recalled being given only short samples of Eggman's voice from the games—he was not told specifically which game—and brief descriptions of his characters' roles. Beginning with Shadow the Hedgehog (2005), the cast of the film series would assume their respective voice roles in all Sonic games released between 2005 and 2010, at which point all the roles were recast with the exception of Mike Pollock as Eggman.

Reaction

TV series voice cast

Several voice cast members of the 1993-94 animated TV series reacted mixed to the film.

Jaleel White, who voiced Sonic the Hedgehog in the series, was critical about the dark introduction of the Shadow character. Christine Cavanaugh, who voiced Sally Acorn in the series, was uncomfortable with the film's treatment of Sally.

Jim Cummings, who voiced Eggman in the series, expressed his own disapproval concerning the film. In an MTV interview in October 2009, Cummings stated, "When they were working on an early incarnation of the first one — not the script they ultimately did — they wanted the entire team to be destroyed, done away with one at a time, and I was against that. It was basically an action-adventure movie and not Sonic. Sonic was a speed and friendship game. The ideal sonic was getting in and getting out without anyone ever knowing we were there. So the whole texture changed. Why volunteer to essentially have our characters commit suicide? I passed on it ... The script wasn't that good either!"

Critic reviews

Sonic the Hedgehog received positive reviews from film critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a score of 89% "fresh" approval rating. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 74 out of 100 based on 39 reviews, meaning "generally favorable reviews".

Box office

Sonic the Hedgehog was released in 3,110 theaters on November 18, 1998 and broke the record for an animated film opening on Friday with US$11.5 million, beating the $11 million Mission: Impossible made in 1996. The film also set house records in several theaters around the United States. Sonic the Hedgehog grossed $32.5 million on it's first week of release, peaking at #1 at the box office.

Soundtrack

Crush 40, which consists of Senoue and Gioeli, officially debuted with the theme song "Live & Learn", which plays during the main menu, the final battle, and the ending credits.

The Sonic the Hedgehog Multi-Dimensional Original Soundtrack was produced by Jun Senoue and released by Marvelous Entertainment on November 18, 1998. The songs feature the band Crush 40.

Track list

Disc 1

Track No.	Title	Length	Total length
1.	Introduction ...featuring "Open Your Heart"	1:47
2.	Welcome to Station Square	3:14
3.	Event: Strain	1:00
4.	Boss: CHAOS ver.0, 2, 4	2:22
5.	Azure Blue World ...for Emerald Coast	4:13
6.	Windy and Ripply ...for Emerald Coast	3:11
7.	BIG Fishes at Emerald Coast...	1:50
8.	and... Fish Hits!	1:32
9.	Hey You! It's Time to Speed Up!!!	0:33
10.	Twinkle Cart ...for Twinkle Park	2:04
11.	Pleasure Castle ...for Twinkle Park	1:55
12.	Twinkle Circuit	2:21
13.	Fakery Way ...for Twinkle Park	1:09
14.	Run Through the Speed Highway ...for Speed Highway	1:56
15.	Goin' Down!? ...for Speed Highway	0:31
16.	At Dawn ...for Speed Highway	2:41
17.	Choose Your Buddy! -Slap Bass ver.	2:03
18.	Theme of "CHAO"	2:27
19.	Letz Get This Party Started ...for CHAO Race Entrance	4:05
20.	Join Us 4 Happy Time ...for CHAO Race	2:29
21.	The Dreamy Stage ...for Casinopolis	2:15
22.	Blue Star ...for Casinopolis	1:36
23.	Dilapidated Way ...for Casinopolis	2:10
24.	Challange for Another Aim	0:56
25.	Theme of "Dr.EGGMAN"	2:31
26.	Egg Mobile ...Boss: Egg Hornet	2:04
27.	Mystic Ruin	2:26
28.	Windy Hill ...for Windy Valley	1:42
29.	Tornado ...for Windy Valley	1:37
30.	The Air ...for Windy Valley	2:53
31.	Fight for My Own Way ...Boss: Event	2:07
32.	Snowy Mountain ...for Icecap	2:07
33.	Limestone Cave ...for Icecap	1:52
34.	Be Cool, Be Wild and Be Groovy ...for Icecap	2:24
35.	Invincible ...No Fear!	1:00
36.	Choose Your Buddy! -Finger Bass ver.-	2:02
			76:33

Disc 2

1. Mt. Red: a Symbol of Thrill ...for Red Mountain (1:47)
2. Red Hot Skull ...for Red Mountain (4:58)
3. Heartless Colleague ...Boss: E-Series Targets (1:25)
4. Sand Hill (3:09)
5. Event: Sadness (1:14)
6. Theme of "TIKAL" (3:23)
7. Tricky Maze ...for Lost World (2:31)
8. Danger! Chased by Rock ...for Lost World (1:36)
9. Leading Lights ...for Lost World (1:49)
10. Event: The Past (1:30)
11. Event: Fanfare for "Dr.EGGMAN" (0:26)
12. Tornado Scramble ...for Sky Chase (1:33)
13. Funky Groove Makes U Hot!? ...for Options (1:45)
14. Egg Carrier - A Song That Keeps Us On The Move (4:03)
15. ZERO The Chase-master ...Boss: Eggman Robot -ZERO- (1:58)
16. Skydeck A Go! Go! ...for Sky Deck (1:41)
17. General Offensive ...for Sky Deck (2:44)
18. Theme of "E-102g" (4:26)
19. Crazy Robo ...Boss: E-101R (2:33)
20. Bad Taste Aquarium ...for Hot Shelter (3:31)
21. Red Barrage Area ...for Hot Shelter (2:47)
22. Danger is Imminent (1:12)
23. Sweet Punch ...for Hedgehog Hammer (1:04)
24. Militant Missionary ...Boss: Egg Walker & Egg Viper (1:17)
25. Mechanical Resonance ...for Final Egg (3:05)
26. Crank the Heat Up!! ...for Final Egg (3:00)
27. Boss: CHAOS ver.6 (1:54)
28. Calm After the Storm ...Egg Carrier -the ocean- (2:08)
29. Event: Unbound (1:12)
30. Perfect CHAOS Revival! ...Boss: Perfect CHAOS (1:43)
31. Event: Good-bye! (1:19)
32. Will You Continue? (0:34)
33. Open Your Heart -Main Theme of "SONIC Adventure"- (4:29)