Sonic the Movie (Johnsonverse)

Sonic the Movie is a 2020 action-adventure comedy film based on the video game series published by Sega. Directed and co-written by Chloe Johnson, it stars Ryan Drummond and Mike Pollock reprising their roles from the games, along with supporting roles by Lee Majdoub, Neal McDonough, Phil Hayes, Garry Chalk, Ian James Corlett, and Jaleel White. The film follows Sonic (voiced by Drummond), a blue anthropomorphic hedgehog who can run supersonic speeds, who must stop the mad scientist Dr. Robotnik (Pollock).
Development for a Sonic film began in the 1990s but did not leave the planning stage until Johnson began production in 2017. Most of the cast signed on by August 2018.
Sonic the Movie premiered at the San Jose Theatre on January 25, 2020, before being theatrically released in the United States on February 14. It set the record for the biggest opening weekend for a video game film in the United States and Canada and grossed $320 million worldwide, becoming the sixth-highest-grossing film of 2020, and was the highest-grossing video game film adaptation of all time in North America until 2022, when it was surpassed by its sequel. It received positive reviews from critics, who praised its action sequences, performances, and screenplay. Sonic vs. Knuckles was released in 2022, while Sonic Adventure is scheduled for 2024. A spin-off miniseries Knuckles is scheduled to be released in 2023.
==Plot==
In a secret jungle on a distant planet, Sonic, a young anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who can run at supersonic speed, is unexpectedly attacked by an echidna tribe. His guardian, an anthropomorphic owl named Longclaw, gives him a bag of warp rings that open portals to other places. She uses one to send him to South Island on the planet Mobius while she stays behind to hold off the echidnas, leaving Sonic behind.
Ten years later, an older Sonic enjoys his life in Green Hill, but longs to make friends. One night, Sonic grows upset over his loneliness while playing baseball alone and, while running at high speeds, accidentally triggers an electromagnetic pulse that causes a massive power outage across South Island and the southern United Federation. The Guardian Units of Nations (G.U.N.) reluctantly enlists the services of eccentric roboticist and scientific genius Dr. Robotnik to determine the cause. Seeing he is being hunted, Sonic reluctantly plans to leave Mobius for a different planet only consisting of fungi. Meanwhile, Robotnik, discovering that one of Sonic's quills holds an almost limitless amount of electrical energy, plans to capture Sonic to use his powers for his machines. As he tracks him down, Sonic manages to tie Bennington to a chair and fight off several Badniks sent by Robotnik, freeing the animals inside, but Sonic is injured in the battle, accidentally dropping his bag of rings through a portal to a tower roof at Station Square, upon reading the writing on a billboard, before passing out.
Frustrated, Robotnik decides to build a super-Badnik that could catch Sonic easily, using power from the shed quills. He builds a rooster Badnik named Scratch, who ends up the opposite of what Robotnik intended. Unsatisfied with Scratch, Robotnik constructs a second robot, a mole Badnik named Grounder, hoping he'd be "twice as effective"; to Robotnik's dismay, he turns out to be even stupider than Scratch, and the two robots begin fighting over whoever was Robotnik's favorite. Robotnik then builds a third robot, a monkey Badnik named Coconuts, hoping that he doesn't end up like the other two. Coconuts turns out to be the most competent and dangerous of the three, and a delighted Robotnik appoints him as his lead henchbot, much to Scratch and Grounder's jealousy; the two robots are demoted to menial tasks, such as polishing equipment.
The freed animals, including a bluebird named Flicky, bring Sonic to other animals, who treat him on a boat headed to Station Square, as they had assumed he wanted to go there. Sonic receives a new pair of red sneakers to replace his ruined ones. The group heads to the roof of the tower and recovers the rings as Robotnik and Coconuts arrive in an advanced attack hovercraft powered by the quill, with Robotnik now decked in a red and pink flight suit and red flight goggles. Sonic fights off Robotnik's Badniks; however, Robotnik uses the quill's power to match Sonic's speed. Sonic fights Robotnik and Coconuts in a chase across the world utilizing the Warp Rings before Robotnik subdues Sonic in South Island. The animals intervene, and acknowledge Sonic as their friend, causing Sonic to regain his power. Sonic takes back his quill's power from Robotnik and Coconuts, weakening Robotnik's hovercraft. Using his powerful spin attack, Sonic obliterates Robotnik and Coconuts' hovercraft and defeats them by banishing them into a warp ring portal to the mushroom planet.
Following the incident, Sonic settles down in Green Hill with his new friends. G.U.N. erases all evidence of the events, including records of Robotnik's existence, and Bennington rewards Sonic with a Mario's Super Pasta gift card as a small token of gratitude. Three months later, Robotnik and Coconuts are still in possession of one of Sonic's quills and usable equipment salvaged from the remains of Robotnik's hovercraft, planning their return and revenge against Sonic.
In a mid-credits scene, Miles "Tails" Prower emerges from a ring portal on South Island, searching for Sonic.
==Cast==
* Ryan Drummond as Sonic the Hedgehog, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog with superhuman speed. Sonic resolves to use his super-speed to fight and to put a stop to Dr. Robotnik from getting his hands on his super-sonic speed powers for his plans of conquering the world. Drummond has voiced Sonic in English since 1998.
** Benjamin L. Valic voices Young Sonic.
* Mike Pollock as Dr. Ivo Robotnik, a brilliant robotics expert and mad scientist who works with G.U.N., covets Sonic's abilities and plans to exploit them for personal gain, leading him to become Sonic's archenemy. He is nicknamed "Eggman" by Sonic for his rotund body, and adopts said nickname by the end; Flicky occasionally uses "Robuttnik" (Sonic's nickname for Robotnik in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Underground) to refer to him. Pollock has voiced Robotnik in English since 2005.
*Lee Majdoub as Agent Stone, Robotnik's lead servant.
*Neal McDonough as Major Bennington, a soldier tasked with assisting Robotnik (whom he dislikes) in his efforts to capture Sonic.
*Phil Hayes as Scratch, a rooster Badnik who is slightly smarter than Grounder, but still very incompetent and idiotic. Hayes previously voiced Scratch in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog.
* Garry Chalk as Grounder, a mole Badnik even dumber than Scratch. Chalk previously voiced Grounder in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog.
*Ian James Corlett as Coconuts, a monkey Badnik. Unlike in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, where Coconuts is constantly demoted to menial maintenance (even if he did nothing), this version of Coconuts is one of Robotnik's most competent and dangerous Badniks, and is considered by Robotnik to be his favorite (much to Scratch and Grounder's jealousy). Corlett previously voiced Coconuts in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog.
*Jaleel White as Flicky, a wise bluebird. White previously voiced Sonic in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Sonic Underground, as well as the 2013 Sonic fan film.
*Tom Butler as Commander Walters, the owner and leader of the military organization Guardian Units of Nations (G.U.N.). Walters orders Robotnik to investigate the power outage caused by Sonic.
*Jess Harnell as Becky: A bear.
*Billy West as Locky: A bald eagle.
*Kate Higgins as Micky: A mouse.
*Kate Micucci as Picky: A pig.
*Ben Schwartz as Pecky: A penguin.
*Jenny Yokobori as Pocky: A rabbit.
*Kevin Michael Richardson as Ricky: A squirrel.
*Christine Marie Cabanos as Rocky: A seal.
*Bill Farmer as Tocky: A turtle.
*Jeff Bennett as Wocky: A monkey.
*Jim Cummings as Bomb, a bomb Badnik. Cummings previously voiced Robotnik in Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic Underground and the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog pilot, as well as Scratch and additional voices in the latter.
*John DiMaggio as Burrobot, a mole Badnik.
*Fred Tatasciore as Buzz Bomber, a bee Badnik.
*Kyla Pratt as Chopper, a piranha Badnik.
* Phil LaMarr as Crabmeat, a crab Badnik.
*Cam Brainard as Jaws, a shark-based Badnik. Brainard previously voiced Rotor in seasons two through five and Yoke in seasons six through twelve of Sonic the Hedgehog.
* Adam Pally as Moto Bug, a ladybug Badnik.
*Tara Strong as Newtron, a chameleon-based Badnik. Strong previously voiced Amy Rose in Sonic the Hedgehog.
*Frank Welker as Orbinaut, a sea urchin-based Badnik. Welker previously voiced several characters in Sonic the Hedgehog.
*Charlie Adler as Roller, an armadillo Badnik. Adler previously voiced Snively in Sonic the Hedgehog.
*Alicyn Packard as Spikes, a hermit crab badnik.
* Donna J. Fulks as Longclaw, an anthropomorphic brown owl and Sonic's caregiver.
* Colleen O'Shaughnessey as Miles "Tails" Prower, an anthropomorphic yellow-orange two-tailed fox who appears in the mid-credits scene where he emerges to find Sonic. O'Shaughnessey has voiced Tails in English since 2003.
== Production ==
=== Prior efforts ===
Development for a film adaptation of the Sonic the Hedgehog video games began in 1993 during production of DIC Entertainment's television show Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. Michealene Risley, the newly appointed consumer products director who helped license Sonic for Adventures, negotiated with several Hollywood producers. Sega of America CEO Tom Kalinske was wary of damaging the brand, citing the commercial and critical failures of the Super Mario Bros. and Street Fighter films. Despite Kalinske's concerns, Sega was enthusiastic. In August 1994, Sega struck a development deal with MGM and Trilogy Entertainment Group, with Pen Densham as executive producer.
MGM and Sega hired Richard Jefferies, an associate of Risley from her days at Marvel Comics, to write a film treatment. At the time, Sega was developing the video game Sonic X-treme for its next console, the Sega Saturn, and asked Jefferies to feature the Saturn in the screenplay. Jefferies' treatment, Sonic: Wonders of the World, was submitted in May 1995. While the draft received a positive response among MGM and Sega executives, Sega COO Shinobu Toyoda suggested Kalinske replace Robotnik with a meaner villain. MGM canceled the project after a failed attempt to revive it at DreamWorks. Jeffries suggested that the film was scrapped as both Sega and MGM wanted a higher share of the profits, while Densham said it followed creative differences between Sega and Trilogy.
=== Development ===
=== Casting ===
In May 2018, it was announced that Ryan Drummond and Mike Pollock would reprise their respective roles as Sonic and Dr. Robotnik, having voiced their respective characters since 1999 and 2005.
=== Animation ===
The animation is provided by Marza Animation Planet.
== Music ==
In February 2019, Richard Jacques and Jun Senoue were hired to compose the score. The soundtrack was released alongside the film on February 14, 2020, in both digital and physical formats. "Speed Me Up" by American musicians Wiz Khalifa, Lil Yachty, Ty Dolla $ign, and Sueco The Child received 15 million streams, along with 1.8 billion views for the "Speed Me Up" TikTok challenge. "Friends" by Hyper Potions, which previously appeared as the opening theme of Sonic Mania, also appears, along with arrangements of several tracks from Masato Nakamura's score for the original Sonic the Hedgehog (1991). Both composers attempted to capture the feel of Nakamura's soundtracks for the Sonic and Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992) games, using Yamaha digital FM synthesizers (such as the DX7) similar to the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive console's Yamaha YM2612 sound chip.
== Release ==
== Reception ==
=== Critical response ===
=== Box office ===
== Sequel ==
== See also ==
* Gallery
Category:Johnsonverse