On February 16, 2020 I went into the movie theaters for the last time before Covid hit. The movie was Sonic the Hedgehog (2020). After the initial trailer release with the VERY disturbing character model of Sonic, I had low hopes for this movie. There was thankfully a redesign, and I went to see the movie and was pleasantly surprised by how fun the movie was.
I kept the ticket for that movie, (because I like having movie tickets in scrapbooking) and two years later, on April 19, 2022, I went to watch the sequel with a very excited mindset.
Much has changed between the release of both movies: I graduated with a double major at KU, I paid off my loans with the hospital janitor job I had to get after Covid closed all other jobs, my mom passed from cancer, I got a new car and moved to Topeka with a new job as a photographer. There’s probably more things in between, but those are all the big ones I can remember.
Sonic 2 was the video game movie I was waiting for. It has jokes, goofs, laughs, serious moments, and every reference to the video games that I wanted in a sequel.
Very early in the movie, I could tell I would enjoy it. An early scene reminded me a lot of the original SpongeBob Squarepants movie, which I absolutely love. Sonic and Tails find themselves in the Himalayan mountains entering a shady cabin to survive the winter storm. Inside, they find a bunch of scary characters. The part that reminded me so much of the 2004 SpongeBob movie was when the butcher cut off a fish’s head, and it flew to land at Sonic and Tails’ feet, whispering the word “run.” It was exactly the type of humor I love and I’m very glad it was in this film.
There were some weird and off-putting moments that seemed odd originally watching, like the characters dancing to Bruno Mars’ Uptown Funk, but I think the positives in the movie outweigh the negatives.
I don’t know everything about every Sonic game made, but all the game references that I knew and wanted to see in the movie were in there. Eggman’s hover car, his giant robot, even the mean bean machine which I wasn’t even originally thinking about was in there. In the movie, it’s a coffee shop used as a secret lair for Eggman. In the game, at least in Sonic Mania, it’s a bonus boss fight to try and defeat Eggman.
Sonic has had its ups and downs in the game franchise, mostly downs from what I’ve heard, but that’s actually why I started to get into Sonic. I like dumb, bad things. The creepy original version of Sonic is what got me “excited” for the first movie. I wanted to see it just to see it, and I really enjoyed watching it with my friend, and I’m glad we were able to watch the sequel together too.
After the movie, we went to the only place you can go after watching a Sonic movie: Olive Garden. We both just got the classic order of unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks, but when we were there, we were family. It was good soup and good salad.
As I said earlier, a lot has changed between the release of Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022). While change is inevitable, I hope it won’t be as drastic of changes between this movie and the third. And I am definitely going to get my ticket for the third movie when it comes out.
Kristopher K. Online 