Sonic the Hedgehog (2013 film)

Sonic the Hedgehog is a 2013 British–American–Japanese–South Korean–Australian–French animated/live-action action-adventure drama film based on the popular selling series of the same name. It is the seventh film in the Video Game Extended Universe. The film's plot is based on the 2006 video game's plot as Sonic's quest is to protect Princess Elise after she is kidnapped by his arch rival Dr. Eggman and is aided by new and returning allies. However, the plot is completely different in the 2013 film. In the sub-plot, Perky the Cat discovers the disappearance of Kate and William and struggles trying to find Montreal which has also disappeared as well. The film was directed by McG and produced by Masahiro Kumono, the lead producer of the 2006 video game.
The film features the various voices. It featured the characters from The Simpsons, Family Guy, SpongeBob SquarePants, and The Fairly OddParents.
Development originally started in 2007 after the release of Sonic the Hedgehog. Production officially began in 2009. McG was approached by Warner Bros. to direct. Most of the development staff from the 2006 video game came in to assist with the project. After many delays, the film was finished in late 2011.
Sonic the Hedgehog premiered at the Walt Disney concert hall in Los Angeles, California on January 6, 2013 and was released worldwide on January 12. The film set off new box office records in first full month. Sonic the Hedgehog became the first animated to gross over $2 billion worldwide and the second feature film to gross $2 billion after 2009's Avatar. The film was very well received by critics with many calling better than the 2006 video game and many praising it's music and various artists. Sonic the Hedgehog was nominated for over 69 awards and won over 52 including two Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Soundtrack.
== Plot ==
The films opens with Perky stuck in traffic at the US 101. Then, his cell phone rings, and Patty warns that he is going to miss the new Sonic movie. Perky yells at the person driving behind him for honking at him because he is trying to talk to his puffin. Perky tells Patty to record the film, but Patty tells him that he threw the Betamax machine in the trash, making him mad. His super rare Justin Timberlake CD also breaks. Then the traffic lines moves. He arrives at the theater, but then learns that Prince Williams and Kate were kidnapped and yells out "Prince Williams, and Kate, they're gone...NOOOOOOO!"
The movie then shifts to the animation part.
In Soleanna (inspired by Venice), the Festival of the Sun's opening ceremony is disrupted by the arrival of Doctor Eggman who seeks the Flames of Disaster from Princess Hello Kitty. He captures Kitty before she tosses the blue Chaos Emerald to Sonic the Hedgehog who arrives there. He meets Miles "Tails" Prower, Ash Ketchum and Pikachu and they rescue Kitty; Tails distracts Eggman's robots while Sonic, Ash and Kitty escape. Meanwhile, Shadow saves Rouge the Bat, who drops the Scepter of Darkness that releases Mephiles the Dark, a creature in Shadow's image who reveals Shadow sealed him within the scepter ten years ago, before opening a wormhole which transports Shadow, Rouge and Blake to the future: a post-apocalyptic world that is caused by the Flames of Disaster and a fiery monster named Iblis.
There, Silver and his friends Blaze the Cat, Heart the Dog, Mighty the Armadillo, and Ray the Squirrel meet Mephiles, who reveals Sonic as the Iblis Trigger and sends the two back in time using the purple Chaos Emerald. Silver, Blaze, Heart, Mighty, and Ray are separated upon arrival, with Silver witnessing Eggman's attack on Soleanna and Sonic's departure. He meets Amy Rose, who accompanies him to find but defends Sonic when they find him, while Eggman recaptures Kitty. Sonic flees with Ash and Pikachu and meets with Tails, Knuckles the Echidna, and Sally Acorn, before Eggman lures them into a trap sending them into the future where Tails discovers Kitty and Eggman died one day before Iblis was released. Shadow, Rouge and Blake find a shutdown E-123 Omega, and reunite with Sonic, Ash, Pikachu, Tails, Knuckles and Sally. Using two Chaos Emeralds, they return to the present. Shadow faces Mephiles, and learns that in the future he was imprisoned by Omega, blamed for the destruction. Shadow and Omega then return to the present-day.
Shadow and Silver travel ten years into the past and learn Iblis and Mephiles are parts of the Duke of Soleanna's project to harness the power of the city's god Solaris. The Duke gives Shadow the Scepter of Darkness, which he uses to seal Mephiles, while Silver and the Duke seals Iblis into a young Kitty's tears, the dying Duke asks his daughter not to cry for her tears could release Iblis. Sonic and Ash fail to reach Eggman's destroyed ship with Kitty inside it, but Silver sends Sonic and Ash back in time so they can save Kitty. While Shadow, Rouge, Blake and Omega defeat Mephiles' clones, Silver, Heart, Mighty, Ray, and and Blaze (at the cost of her life) stop Iblis in the future.
Meanwhile, in the real world, Perky discovers a puppet version of Eggman was responsible for Williams and Kate's aduction. He defeats Eggman puppet and rescues both Williams and Kate.
After surviving Shadow's attack, Mephiles holds up the purple Chaos Emerald in use and seemingly kills Sonic with an energy blade behind him, causing Kitty to cry and unleash Iblis. Mephiles bonds with Iblis, recreating Solaris to rip the time-space continuum apart. As everyone mourns Sonic's apparent death, Kitty senses that Sonic may still be alive and Silver realizes that the Chaos Emeralds can revive him. As they are all gathered, Kitty gives Sonic a kiss on the cheek which allows him to transform into his super form who transfers some of his powers to Shadow and Silver, and together they defeat Solaris. Sonic, Ash and Kitty go back in time, finding Solaris' original form as a single white flame. Kitty blows out the candle to erase Solaris from existence and the story's events so that Solaris can befriend Kitty again, rebooting the timeline. The film ends with Sonic watching Kitty in the festival show; the two display signs of faintly recalling their friendship.
== Cast ==
=== USA English Cast ===
* Roger Craig Smith as Sonic the Hedgehog
* Billy Bob Thompson as Ash Ketchum
* Jim Carrey as Perky the Cat
* Amber Heard as Henrietta "Hello Kitty" Kitty III (ruler of Soleanna)
* Quinton Flynn as Silver the Hedgehog
* Mike Pollock as Dr. Eggman
* Jim Cummings as Knuckles the Echidna
* Abbey McBride as Miles "Tails" Prower
* Kelly Sheridan as Sally Acronn
* J.P. Karliak as Shadow the Hedgehog, Mephiles the Dark
* Caren Manuel as Rouge the Bat
* Trevor Devall as Blake the Cat
* Vic Mignogna as E-123 Omega
* Bella Hudson as Blaze the Cat
* Alex Hirsch as Heart the Dog
* Alexander Gould as Mighty the Armadillo
* Logan Grove as Ray the Flying Squirrel
* Anthony Ghannam as Chao
* Keone Young as the Duke (Elise's late father)
* Stephen Hillenburg as Patty the Puffin
* Jason Marsden as SpongeBob SquarePants (cameo)
* Alison Brie as Timmy Turner (cameo)
* Jeff Bergman as Homer Simpson (cameo)
* Eric Bauza as Peter Griffin (cameo)
* Various as various characters
=== UK English Cast ===
* Justin Fletcher as Sonic the Hedgehog, Knuckles the Echidna, Dr. Eggman, SpongeBob SquarePants, various characters
* Hugo Harold-Harrison as Ash Ketchum, Silver the Hedgehog, Shadow the Hedgehog, Blake the Cat, E-123 Omega, various characters
* Steve Furst as Perky the Cat, various characters
* Teresa Gallagher as Henrietta "Hello Kitty" Kitty III (ruler of Soleanna), various characters
* Stefan Ashton Frank as Dr. Eggman, various characters
* Dan Russell as Knuckles the Echidna, Patty the Puffin, Peter Griffin, various characters
* Leo Howard as Miles "Tails" Prower, Timmy Turner
* Jessica McDonald as Sally Acronn, Rouge the Bat, Blaze the Cat, various characters
* Rasmus Hardiker as E-123 Omega, Mephiles the Dark, Homer Simpson, various characters
* Adam Long as Heart the Dog
* Freddie Fox as Heart the Dog
* Alexander Gould as Mighty the Armadillo
* Logan Grove as Ray the Flying Squirrel
* Anthony Ghannam as Chao
* Togo Igawa as the Duke (Elise's late father)
* Kate Harbour as various characters
* Maxwell Cazier as various characters
* Various as various characters
== Production ==
=== Development ===
In late 2006, Sega released Sonic the Hedgehog, which was panned by critics and gamers for being rushed and being so difficult.
In October 2007, Stephen Sommers was about to be hired to direct the film, but was unavailable due to working on G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. McG approached Warner Bros. while he was working on Terminator Salvation to see if he could take the director's chair for Sonic, which they allowed.
=== Music ===
Sonic 2006 's score by Hideaki Kobayashi, Tomoya Ohtani, Mariko Nanba, Taihei Sato, and Takahito Eguchi, is featured in the film.
== Marketing ==
=== Soundtrack ===
A soundtrack for the film was released on January 13, 2013, one day after the film's premiere.
The main theme for the film, "His World", written by Tomoya Ohtani, is performed by Ali Tabatabaee and Matty Lewis of the band Zebrahead. R&B artist Akon performed a remix of the Dreams Come True song "Sweet Sweet Sweet", a song originally from their 1992 album The Swinging Star, and was also used as the staff roll theme to Sonic the Hedgehog 2. A number of other songs feature vocals by other artists as well. Shadow's theme, "All Hail Shadow," one of the vocal songs from the Shadow the Hedgehog soundtrack, was re-arranged by Crush 40; it was originally sung by the band Magna-Fi. Silver's theme, "Dreams of an Absolution," by Lee Brotherton (from the Remix Factory, AKA Bentley Jones) was written by Mariko Nanba. Elise's theme, entitled "My Destiny," was performed by singer/songwriter Donna DeLory and plays during the film's ending.
== Release ==
The film held it's world premiere at the Walt Disney concert hall in Los Angeles, California on January 6, 2013. It also held two limited releases in Japan and China on January 12. It officially opened worldwide on January 18 in 4,570 theatres.
=== Marketing ===
=== Home media ===
Sonic the Hedgehog was released on Blu-ray and DVD on May 9, 2013.
== Reception ==
=== Box office ===
Sonic the Hedgehog grossed $391,876,112 in the United States and Canada, and $1,709,430,000 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $2,101,306,112, making it the highest-grossing video game based film and the highest-grossing film of 2013. Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold close to 108 million tickets in North America, the most tickets sold by any film in North America since Titanic in 1997, until being surpassed by Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015. Calculating in all expenses, Deadline.com estimated that the film made a profit of $642.7 million, for Warner Bros.
Sonic the Hedgehog made $23 million from a Thursday night Walmart screening program, and an additional $9 million from midnight shows. This marked Warner Bros.' highest advance night/midnight opening, and the biggest advance night/midnight debut for a sequel. The film eventually earned $55 million during its opening Friday (including midnight grosses) and $62.3 million when the Thursday night showings are included. The opening-day gross was the second highest for a sequel, and the 20th largest overall. The film grossed $166.7 million on its opening weekend, including $59.9 million from IMAX theatres. It's $100 million opening weekend gross was the second-highest of 2013, behind Iron Man 3 ($174.1 million). However, on its second weekend, Sonic the Hedgehogs box office fell  85%–88% if the Thursday night gross is included—putting it in second place, behind Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye.
Internationally, the film was released in over 30,000 screens. It opened on January 19 in 12 international markets and earned $14.1 million on its opening day, debuting at first place in all of them. It expanded in an additional 42 countries on January 20, generating $58.6 million for a two-day international total of $72.7 million, reaching first place in all 44 markets. It grossed a total of $129.5 million in three days after adding $56.8 million on its third day, topped the daily box office in all countries except for South Korea and Vietnam where it was the second, and set a new midnight record in the United Kingdom with $3.6 million. It broke opening day records in the UK, Ireland and Malta ($14.3 million), Germany ($7.1 million), Australia ($6.8 million), Sweden ($1.7 million), Norway ($1.1 million) and in 16 other countries. Other markets which generated large opening days were Spain ($3.5 million), Mexico ($3.4 million), Italy ($3.1 million) and Japan ($3 million). After the five days, Sonic the Hedgehog had a total international opening gross of $281 million from 30,000 screens in 72 markets, a new record for January opening and the third biggest international opening of all time. International markets generating opening weekend tallies of at least $10 million were the United Kingdom, Ireland and Malta ($50.6 million), Germany ($27.5 million), France ($22.5 million), Australia ($19.6 million) and Japan ($13.4 million) and Russia ($12.3 million). The film had the biggest opening of all time in 18 countries including the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, Russia and Sweden. IMAX generated $17.9 million from 276 IMAX theaters.
After five days, the film had a total worldwide opening record of $400 million.
=== Critical reception ===
Sonic the Hedgehog received postive acclaim, with some critics calling it the best film of the Video Game Extended Universe. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 94% based on 344 reviews, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Thrilling, earnest, and buoyed by it's improved story, Sonic the Hedgehog succeeds in spectacular fashion." It is the highest-rated video game based film on the site. On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, the film has a score of 76 out of 100, based on 50 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.
== References ==
Category:2013
Category:Sonic (series)
Category:3D Films
Category:Sonic Films
Category:Films
Category:Fan Films
Category:Video Game Extended Universe films