VGFlicks: Sonic the Hedgehog (Part 2)

Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Part 5

Better get this show going, I’m not even 10 minutes into the film yet!

A Day in Green Hills

Green Hills, Montana? Looks like
British Columbia, Canada, to me.

Sonic presents Green Hills and its people. First Tom Wachowski, who’s the sheriff but helps with anything around town; Sonic nicknames him “Donut Lord”, since Tom likes donuts so much. Tom’s wife Maddie (Tika Sumpter) is a veterinarian; however, Sonic nicknames her “Pretzel Lady” due to her yoga, which he can’t replicate. There’s Crazy Carl, the only one who has figured out Sonic’s existence (and can only draw a very Sanic-esque version, love the meme reference here), but nobody believes him. The hedgehog even watches from Tom’s window when the cop puts on a film. Sonic likes to pretend he’s got all those friends who never heard of him, but deep down he’s a lonely kid who just wants to talk to someone.

Oh my God that's Sanic. That meme has gone PLACES.

Awww. Hey, this film came out around Valentine's Day,
I'll say that makes it count with the holiday.

Tom gets home after work. He chases some raccoons out of the trash cans outside his home, then comes in. He’s greeted by Maddie holding a letter from the San Francisco Police Department. Tom loves working in Green Hills, he’s continuing the Wachowski family tradition as town sheriff (and, to be fair, he IS the most competent member of its force). But he feels that he would be more useful in San Francisco, where much more is bound to happen. He opens the letter – he’s accepted! Maddie shows him a “you tried” cake… then realizes her mistake and pulls out a “Congratulations!” cake instead. She never had a doubt!

She mentions that she started looking up apartments on Zillow. 4K$ a month? That’s a bargain! (Yeah, this movie is a bit… blatant in its product placement. Zillow was intentional, but Olive Garden, which is name-dropped twice, was meant as a recurring gag.) She offers to fly to San Francisco with their dog Ozzy and look for a place to stay. She mentions how much they helped each other as a couple before, and how much they’re willing to help each other in this new development.

It's on the screen for four entire seconds. And name-dropped.
(...And now I'm guilty of it too, dammit.)

I enjoy Tom and Maddie’s relationship, it's so nice and sweet. They’re adorable and I bet they’d be fun to watch even in a movie without some CGI character running around. That said, they are original human characters in a Sonic movie; they’re not the reason fans walked into theaters. Human-focused adaptations are common, and when it comes to live-action it’s especially notable. After all, special effects are expensive, and these CGI characters are nothing but VFX (because that doesn’t count as “animation” proper), so having more scenes with only live-action actors can help cut the costs.

I'd argue that some of the recurring characters - specifically
Maddie and Agent Stone - aren't given enough focus here
and get to shine more in the second film. Then there's
Rachel, Maddie's sister, and... Oh, I'll have a lot to say.

The solution is tough: Make those new live-action characters interesting! Again, that’s not what the audience goes to see the film for, so there’s already a mark against them. You’ll need to put in the work. And here, at least for the big three (reads: Tom, Maddie and – I did say “original” characters for the adaptation – Agent Stone), the work was indeed put in. All three of them I’m happy to see come back in each subsequent movie. There are only three other film-original humans to return in every film, and… oh, I’ll get to them as well.

Oopsie.

Later, Sonic watches kids playing baseball, and that evening, he takes the field for a solo game. He proceeds to parody everything he’s seen from the sport. He then plays a single round, occupying every role at the same time. And he scores! But there’s nobody around to cheer. Again, that sadness… He starts running around the field, building up as his emotions overpower him. And then, BOOM. A blue shockwave bursts from him, causing a power outage that spreads across the entire Pacific Northwest. Uh oh.

A new take on Robotnik

Might as well present him right away, seeing as Commander
Walters becomes much more important in the following
films.

While the inhabitants of Green Hills prep for the surprise outage, Tom notices that the blue quill he found is glowing. Meanwhile, generals at the U.S. Department of Defense are discussing what they now assume to be an attack on the United States. However, since they don’t know what happened, Commander Walters (Tom Butler) suggests they send a man of science to investigate. One that can deal with dangerous stuff. The generals around the table try to dissuade him from calling "that guy", because they consider him to be messed up (the phrase used is “psychological tire fire"), but…

We are, of course, talking about the mustache guy.
Carrey is great at delivering "big menace" energy.

Cut back to Green Hills, where a group of soldiers is settling to find the source of the EMP. A gigantic truck joins in, followed by SUVs. Out of the large, hi-tech truck walks a man dressed in a black coat and shades, a nice head of hair and a sweet mustache. Jim Carrey as Doctor Ivo Robotnik, everyone. He looks nothing like the classic video game villain – but we know, after three years and two more films, that this is an origin story for the guy. How he became the nutty, large, bald, mega-mustachioed genius. For now, he only has the “genius” part – and he’s on his way to “nutty”.

He's got a holographic monitor, sixty inches wide...

He presents his character by talking over the Major leading the efforts, taking control of the forces present, and calling everyone idiots. All this, backed by Robotnik’s lackey, Agent Stone (Lee Madjoub), who vulgarizes his abusive boss’s statements. Robotnik tops this off by revealing an armada of egg-shaped drones, and claiming their superiority over humans, because machines do what they’re told without question. The drones find a strange footstep on a rock. The scientist studies it, and concludes that no recorded animal could have left it. It's too early to link this to the energy shockwave, but two inexplicable happenings in one place is an odd coincidence.

This Robotnik is great. He’s wildly different from the original, owing to the origin story aspect of this iteration; but also, there are things that either aren’t or can’t be done with Doctor Eggman from the games that can be done with a version of him in a realistic world.

Don't believe the silly exterior. He's smart as Heck,
and armed to the teeth.

There's also his odd relationship with his lackey, Agent
Stone (still no name given), but I'll get around to talking
about it eventually. Also, yes, he does have his hand in
Stone's mouth right now.

His complete disdain for people (and organic life in general), due to his intellect so great that he sees everyone else as idiots, though it means he underestimates the intelligence of others. His need to declare superiority; that intelligence came with an ego the size of North America. But hey, maybe it’s a logical evolution of his super-intellect; when you can out-think everything, the rest of the world feels… slow. Huh, I think I said something like that before. Then, there's him being a control freak, hence why he prefers machines. The whole “300 IQ” from the games is never openly stated, but I believe it a lot more from Carrey’s interpretation than I could seeing Sonic’s lifelong enemy in the games.

Finally, there’s an implication that he’s “done it all”, implied by his offhand mention of training with Native American tribes. A man who no longer has a challenge to face or something to learn, and needs something new. Much of Robotnik’s interest in finding the “alien” starts as unethical but scientific, rather than obsessive – he only sees a subject of study in Sonic, at first.

It's interesting how much Jim Carrey did to sell the character; he ad-libbed so much that very few of his lines from the original script remained in the film. He also suggested many additions to the character, like the gloves with buttons on them – another way to show that Robotnik is a control freak – or the song the doctor listens to while doing tests.

The entire "testing the quill" sequence is peak Carrey.

Sense of personal space? Robotnik doesn't seem to know
what that is. Or he does and he doesn't give a crap.

Foremost, what Jim Carrey brings to Robotnik is his sheer zaniness. This role feels like a condensation of several of Carrey’s roles, especially from the 1990s, when he regularly went bonkers. It shows in the interpretation. The one difference is the “high intelligence” part, which adds a different flavor to the shtick, and yet he makes it all work. It’s said that Sonic’s design cost an extra 5M$ to the production? Jim Carrey chews through so much scenery that he probably cost a few mil on his own. He’s not alone, but Jim Carrey-s this film on his shoulders – he’s one of the most enjoyed aspects of the series, even though many thought he was wildly unsuited for the role when he was first announced.

See? It’s like I said. A different take on a famous character isn’t automatically a bad thing, if the result is respectful of what we know of them, consistent, interesting and entertaining.

Battle at The Wachowskis

Sensing himself spotted, Sonic picks up a few essentials and flees with his rings. The only safe space he can think of is Donut Lord's house, so that’s where he goes to use up a portal ring.

I would advise against being so willing to use a firearm-like
weapon for any reason, but then I remembered that Tom is
a cop. *checks list* There goes my social commentary joke
for the review.

Tom was talking to his wife, who stays at her sister’s house in San Francisco. Maddie’s sister Rachel is rather outspoken in not supporting their union. Tom hears something breaking and assumes it’s raccoons, so he picks up one of Maddie’s tranquilizer dart guns and investigates the noise coming from his basement. Sonic prepares to toss his portal ring… when Tom shows up and surprises him. Knowing he doesn’t want to hurt Donut Lord, but still having a gun pointed on him, the best Sonic can manage, you already know what it is:

Imagine a portal on your basement's floor being only the
second weirdest thing you see at once.
He got hit, he lost his rings. Checks out.

They both yell, Tom panics, he shoots Sonic in the leg with a tranquilizer dart, and in his daze Sonic sees Tom’s shirt and says “San Francisco” by accident. The ring opens on the floor and Sonic, as he faints, drops his bag of rings into it, where it lands on the Transamerica Pyramid's roof. When the portal closes, Tom’s left with a knocked-out alien in his basement… which he promptly puts in a cage. Hey, good thing his wife is a veterinarian.

He’s still bewildered that Crazy Carl had been right the whole time and the blue devil is real. The tranquilizers don’t last too long, though, and Sonic awakens. He exits the cage and talks a bit with Tom, who can’t believe that this creature is intelligent. When Robotnik’s giga-truck parks in the street, Sonic begs Tom for help in this life-or-death situation. Tom agrees and hides Sonic in his attic.

"You stay there and shut up!" ...Yeah, he's doomed.

As I mentioned, one detail of this Robotnik is that since he's
so used to thinking everyone else is an idiot, he tends to
underestimate the smarts of people around him.

Robotnik shows up, studying the footsteps Sonic left in Tom’s driveway. He approaches the house claiming to be from the power company, but Tom is smart enough to spot Robotnik’s lie and trick him. In response, Robotnik  secretly summons mini drones that enter the house from various windows to find the alien, while he keeps distracting Tom on the porch and mocking him with every single hillbilly stereotype in the book. Tipping cows? Jug band? Really?

Forget the quill, he could convert that sheer smugness
into energy and power up his machines with it.

Sometimes, when taking screenshots, I strike gold.
This... this pic is amazing.

Sonic’s attempt at hiding as a ball in the attic fails when he panics and rolls down the stairs. This alerts the mad doctor, who barges in, to see… a raccoon munching on Tom’s congrats cake. However, he’s observant enough to spot the blue quill. Yup, he's in the right place. The doc further threatens Tom, giving him a five-second ultimatum to reveal where the alien is and threatening him with an attack drone. Sonic comes out of hiding, Robotnik screams like a little girl, Tom gives him a well-deserved knuckle sandwich. Then, Tom and Sonic team up to destroy the drone, which was shooting up the house.

I kinda want to see the behind-the-scenes for this film, and
whether Tom was carrying a size-accurate Sonic puppet
for this shot, or any other that involves physical contact
with the hedgehog.

Tom takes a dazed Sonic to his car and drives off, just as Agent Stone shows up to help Robotnik. Stone gets admonished by his boss for not chasing after the two. Robotnik, more determined than ever to catch this alien, sets his plan in motion – though his glasses did get broken in the scuffle, so he'll need a new pair first. Oh, and that quill, gotta study that quill.

Looks like the “road trip” part of the film won’t start until Part 3.