Eddie 2

"He's seen their world, it's time they see his"

-*Tagline*

***Eddie 2*** is a 2017 3D computer-animated-adventure-action film and serves as the animated sequel to Walt Disney Animation Studios' 2011 animated film, ***Eddie***. It was distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and is the 57th animated feature film in the Disney Animated Canon.

The film was released on August 4th, 2017 to critical and financial success with overall positive reviews with some exceeding that of the first and making over a billion dollars at the worldwide box office.

## **Synopsis**

2 years after the events of Dark Gaia almost tearing apart the world, Eddie is struggling to deal with the daily life routines of transitioning from a kid to a man. However, his life is about to get even more hectic once more when Sonic the Hedgehog returns to Earth to ask for help with dealing with a mysterious evil that threatens his world. Longing for a possible last adventure with his old friend, Eddie along with Alyssa and Sergio agree to head to Sonic's world and stop the evil before it causes both worlds to become extinct.

## **Plot**

On a dark stormy night in the middle of the Atlantic, a large ship is carrying a bunch of dangerous outcasts set on claiming world domination across the seas. Inside, the group of people are having a party celebrating their latest heist until their head honcho comes out quite steamed, explaining there is no time to party as they need to keep quiet about the artifact they just stole on their agenda: The Cosmotopolis Gem. Two agents on a helicopter named Heather and Trisha infiltrate the ship and try to thwart their plans. After a bit of a hustle, they succeed in obtaining the gem and reveal themselves as the first agents of the new system Eddie’s Mom Julia implemented for the new defense system from Cosmotopolis.

2 years have passed since the defeat of Dark Gaia and now Eddie is dealing with the daily struggles of becoming a responsible young man. He is set to take his driving test but screws up pretty badly when a nervous flashback of him defeating Dark Gaia comes to him. He is unable to cope with the trauma of dying and coming back to life, which is revealed that Eddie has been narrating everything that happened on that day to his therapist. Meanwhile, Alyssa is now a pretty big actress and has moved to Hollywood, however she has to deal with a careless, self-centered agent named Rodrigo who cares nothing about her feelings but more about her image and his reputation. Sergio is also dealing with his new job and ends up making a pretty big mistake at his new job which gets him a write up.

That night, Eddie decides to call both Alyssa and Sergio on a group call and they all converse on how much their lives have gotten back to normal but seem to not really like it. They try to support each other the best they can, but can only do so much through a phone screen. After the call, Eddie pulls back a calendar and it is revealed that it is actually his 16th birthday, but has not told Sergio and Alyssa.

Meanwhile, in Sonic’s world called Angel Island, a mysterious figure with a black cloak whooshes past two nervous guards in front of a large door. The figure signals for them to move and enters a large dark room full of more beings under some sort of control with machinery powering around them. The figure takes off the cloak to reveal a large gash on his left cheek and a glowing yellow eye in replacement of the one he presumably lost. It’s revealed that he is called Slash. Slash monologues on how miserable life has been for him to his minions, he then proceeds to initiate a large machine to spew out a purple substance into the ground, which then begins to eat up the natural life on the island. A creature is closely observing and suddenly throws a ring, which in turn creates a portal to earth to which it jumps into.

Back at Eddie’s house, Julia surprises him with a gift for his 16th birthday and has a mother to son talk with him. After she leaves for the first day of her new job, Sonic suddenly appears in Eddie’s room to his delight. Overwhelmed with emotion, he hugs him tightly but Sonic explains that he needs help and asks where Alyssa and Sergio are. Eddie questions what he needs help for exactly and Sonic tells him that a mysterious evil individual is planning on destroying his world and will eventually come to Earth to have it share the same fate. Realizing the severity of the situation, he calls Sergio to get over as soon as possible while he plans on telling Alyssa that she needs the first plane back to Cosmotopolis as soon as she can. However, she is in the middle of filming a new movie while Rodrigo ignores Eddie’s call. Alyssa abruptly stops the filming and demands to know was calling to the dismay of Rodrigo. He orders for her to continue filming and going as far as to call her personal problems a distraction and should never be brought to the spotlight along with her fame. This was finally enough for Alyssa and she decides to quit acting on the spot while her step dad punches Rodrigo, they demand a private jet back to the city.

Alyssa arrives and while a warm welcome was made between the trio once again, they lose their minds over the sight of Sonic again. Sonic explains the situation to them and they agree to help him without hesitation. Sonic has them eat a small pill and they begin to morph and change shapes to prepare for the intense dimension transition. They all begin to be transported from Earth and head to Angel Island.

Once arrived, they fall from the sky and unfortunately become separated to avoid being punctured by a sharp point on a mountain. Eddie lands in a heavily shrubbed area while the others land near Sonic’s village called Angel Zone. The knuckles clan chases Eddie out of their territory quite rapidly but ends up bumping into a drone that scans him. It quickly decides to fire a bullet at Eddie which he barely dodges. He becomes relieved but instantly becomes exposed to wolves who begin to chase him down as well. Meanwhile, a mysterious person is also on the run from another set of drones chasing them. They end up seeking cover in the same cave unbeknownst to each other with Eddie narrowly escaping inside by avoiding a large explosion from one of the drones. However, he did not avoid it entirely as he is now bleeding from his side and groans in pain. The figure seen earlier comes closer to him but he blanks out before he could react.

Back with the team, Alyssa and Sergio are encouraged to not reveal themselves as humans by sonic as the village leader, Chief Morton, despises them for an unknown reason. Sonic splashes a blue goo over them and has them say they are a new species far from the village and are just humble visitors. When they arrive, they are quickly admired by the townspeople and Chief Morton immediately confronts them about their whereabouts to which Sonic quickly insists the plan on them being visitors. With more encouragement from his daughter Angela and son Michael pleading for him to stop the rude greeting, he allows them to stay and look around but discourages staying too long as he is wary about the great evil that plagues the island.

Back with Eddie, he wakes up in a dimly lit part of the same cave with a bonfire going off just feet away from him. He struggles to stand but notices that his side has been bandaged very well and the bleeding has stopped along with all his bruises and scratches on his face being cleaned up. The figure turns out to be right behind him which startles Eddie and causes him to jump back in fear while still in a little pain. The figure pulls back their cloak to reveal it is another human being. Eddie and the boy stare at each other until Eddie decides to poke him to which he exclaims and speaks. Eddie begins to question everything about him to which he says that his name is Jason Blazer and he has lived on Angel Island for so long he forgot when exactly he was brought there from Earth. Jason begins to leave but Eddie begs him to help him find a way back to his friends and save the mysterious entity plaguing the land. Jason makes the decision to help him but in turn, asks Eddie if he could go back to earth with him. Eddie quickly obliges and the two make a deal to quickly set off.

Back with the team, they try to find information about what the mysterious danger could be. They end up meeting Nastasia, the “town crazy lady” equivalent to Mr.Kam back at Cosmotopolis.  She tells them that she knows a way to stop the distant evil that is quickly approaching. She mentions that she has tried many times to tell the village about what’s happening but none actually seem to take her seriously and only chalk it up to her being a crazy kook. Everyone except Sonic and his friends, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy. The team meet them and have a brief greeting, they then quickly hatch a plan to stop the upcoming disaster set to unfold on the day of the carnival.

Meanwhile, Eddie and Jason encounter a large canyon with no bridge attached to either side. Jason insists they should just grab a nearby vine and swing but Eddie quickly shoots down that idea and suggests they find another route. They begin to argue until a large creature approaches them and they both scurry on a vine across the huge gap with no hesitation. They laugh it off and continue on the path.

At the mysterious fortress, Slash twirls with a small toy of some sort in his secret lair. A guard bursts in, having him freak out and scold him for not knocking. The guard informs him of some movement detected around the area. He heads into the large computer room where it’s revealed that Eddie and Jason are the reason for the activity occurring. Slash makes a silent shocked expression when looking at Eddie but does not say anything about it. He orders more drones to attack them and heads on a hidden ship to fly off.

Sonic and the team tell Nastasia that they are also missing a friend, referring to Eddie. She tells them that she has made a human tracker that can detect anything that isn’t of their world. She reveals that there is rumored to be an entire human sanctuary located somewhere on the island but none know where it actually resides. The tracker also has not been tested according to Nastasia but detects something nearby. Thinking it could be Eddie, they quickly set off to follow the location.

Eddie and Jason have a rather deep talk when pitching a fire for the night under the large moon. Jason takes this opportunity to say that he actually does not remember how his earth life was before he arrived on Angel Island, nor can he remember how and when he arrived. This causes Eddie to remember an event that occurred on earth known as “The Vanishing of 88’”, where on March 10th, 1988, people around the world began to vanish with no rhyme or reason, it was completely random on who vanished and those individuals have not been seen since. While Jason agrees that he may have been a victim, he says that he still isn’t too sure. Suddenly, they hear rustling in the nearby bushes and prepare to charge at it but it’s revealed that it’s the village princess, Angela. Wondering why she is there, she explains that she always sneaks out of the village to visit a secret place only accessible to those who know a secret code.

It is the evening of the carnival and Sonic along with the team prepare to come face to face with the location tracker but end up finding that it’s Angela. Eddie and Jason quickly reveal themselves to the others and rejoice in reuniting. However, the reunion is cut short by Slash interrupting and shoots a substance into Eddie, causing him to lash out in a monstrous state. Sonic knows this feeling all too well and seeing as it is approaching nighttime, he prepares to transform into the werehog with the ring in hand. Eddie suddenly transforms as well into a horrific monster referred to as “Anti Ed”. Sonic and Anti Ed battle it out while Alyssa unfortunately gets caught up in the mix and is scratched badly by Anti Ed. Sonic is beaten pretty badly as well but luckily the power of Anti Ed fades away quickly and Eddie returns to his former self. After seeing the destruction and chaos he caused, he believes that he is a monster and is too dangerous. He then runs away to the dismay of the team.

Eddie sobs on a nearby high peak, with fireworks going off in the distance. Sonic finds him and tells him that he resonates with Eddie on how he feels. He then gives Eddie his ring, to help guide him when feeling lost.  After a lengthy talk, Eddie is motivated to not let his dark side get the better of him and Sonic grabs him on his shoulder and they sprint towards the carnival to thwart Slash’s plans. They jump over mountainous hills with fireworks and a nearby thunderstorm in the background. The others are already aware of said plan and prepare to put it into gear. Before Slash can destroy the village with his huge ship, Sonic makes a leaping jump into it and pierces the engine, causing it to crumble and tumble to the ground, ending in a fiery explosion. Angela insists to the chief everything is fine and that what Nastasia is saying about the darkness approaching is true to the villagers. They once again laugh it off, going as far to say that Angela has been brainwashed. Morton decides to take a stand for his daughter and say that the village is idiotic for doing such a thing and demands they consider taking their warning as a precaution on the days to follow. Sonic and Eddie celebrate a bit on their victory until Eddie is captured by Slash who surprisingly survived the explosion, Sonic is hit by tear gas and collapses.

Eddie wakes up to find himself in a dark room, illuminated by a single candle. Slash makes his appearance known when stepping into the light and decides to let in Eddie on a truly groundbreaking reveal. Turns out his name is actually Aaron, a bully Eddie actually knew back in elementary school. When provoked, Aaron tells his backstory on how he arrived on earth to begin with. He was born on a planet called Normir. Everything in his life was seemingly perfect until Dark Gaia awoke on his planet since his planet was the first of the Gaia cycle, he took everything from him, including his parents. Before they passed, they transformed him to have a human appearance as that was the dominant species on earth, which was the only place his parents found to be safe for him. While on earth, he was uneducated and vulnerable to outsiders, leading to a life where he did not know right from wrong, which is why he thought bullying Sergio in 3rd grade was a good thing. Eddie was the one to step up to him and decided to throw a banana at him, which publicly humiliated him in front of everyone at the school. Eddie tries to tell him that what he was doing was not right and that he resonates with him on losing a loved one. Slash quickly dismisses him and threatens him to leave and never return, for he will be met with death if he does.

Eddie sits by a nearby river and looks at himself in the water. He then takes out the ring Sonic gave him but is then transported to an odd vision-like place. Suddenly, his dad appears and they share a hug while his dad shares a heartbreaking reveal that he actually did manage to see Eddie before he was killed. In a flashback, While he was on a daily routine checkup on the city, he decided to visit Julie and Eddie to have a peek as he was unable to see his birth due to being in a war. Because of this, he was actually planning on resigning that same day. He did not see Julie but did see Eddie in the car and even touched and played with him for a bit, promising to return but ultimately never being able to. Eddie chokes up and becomes relieved that they managed to technically meet at least once in their lives but asks him what he should do next to save the island. His dad tells him that he can't answer that for him, as that is something he will figure out on his own, being gifted with the ring. Eddie takes a last look at the ring before it disappears along with the vision of his dad. Back by the river, Jason is heard calling out for him and Eddie quickly finds him and finds out that the entire village was taken hostage under Slash’s control while Eddie was captured. Eddie tells him that they need to save them but Jason demands that they just go home and let Slash be Angel Island's problem. Eddie isn't so keen on this idea, angered by his side and threatens to end their deal. Jason demands that he just shows him Earth but Eddie refuses. It's here where Jason decides to confide in Eddie about his past and how he was actually abandoned as a child at an orphanage. He grew up never really having a loving parent and since he was taken away during the vanishing, he has been trying to find ways to return back to Earth to try and find a loving person who would care for him, further revealing that's what his main objective was. Out of guilt, Eddie tells him that they both can still defeat Slash and save both worlds, Jason agrees on the matter. Eddie mentions that the ring holds the key to defeating him. He comes to the village to the dismay of the village chief and after learning his friends are the ones who said they were never humans, he becomes even more furious and decides to ban them all from ever returning. Angela and Michael decide to take a stand against them and say he is wrong for being discriminatory against humans.

Eddie and Jason head to a tall cliffside and infiltrate the inside of Slash’s fortress, which is also hiding a giant dam of poisonous water. Eddie finds Sonic tied up in a room and busts him out but alerts nearby minions who Sonic quickly takes care of. In the other room, Nastasia tells Alyssa and Sergio that her whole life has been treated as a joke, but once they are able to get the artifact to stop the evil, all their lives will change for the better. Sonic and Eddie free the others but not without trouble as Slash chases after them. Once they reach a dead end, Eddie seizes this as the opportunity to reason with Slash and let him know how he truly feels and that he can truly still turn everything around. Slash gives in after Eddie’s speech but it is quickly stopped by Nastasia swiping the ring from Eddie. She reveals her true colors and says that she has actually played them all to get what she wants and desires the most: the ring. She puts the ring inside a secret weapon that has the power to create anything one wants. She creates a giant dragon creature that begins to wreak havoc across the land. The team seek refuge beneath a rock hill and quickly plan to stop Nastasia. Angela and Michael offer to help, saying their land is worth fighting for. Slash has his army join forces with the village to fight against the giant dragon and an all out war ensues. Nastasia then creates a portal from the ring to earth which begins to interfere with  Slash’s drones, causing them to run amok along with many other otherworldly creatures entering Cosmotopolis. They begin to create chaos around the city and Julie decides to enter the portal. At some point during the battle, Alyssa gets a bad injury which Eddie witnesses and begins to grotesquely transform into something much bigger. He becomes a giant monster and battles it out with the dragon while Sonic reaches for the ring atop a generator. He manages to grab it but accidentally loses his grip. Luckily Michael is able to catch it just before it falls to the raveen below, however, Nastasia shoots an arrow straight through him, causing him to say he loves Angela one last time and throws the ring towards Angela before plummeting to his death below. Julie then reveals herself and saves Sergio and Jason from being shot at by the drones. Angela gives the ring to Sonic and he comes up with an idea to use the generator’s self-destruct button on the ring and plans to throw it at Nastasia. He does so and before Nastasia can react, the ring explodes in a fiery catastrophic explosion. All the drones malfunction from the blow and the villagers retreat to the village. Eddie reverts back to a human and finds out the team won against Nastasia. The portal to earth closes and all the drones and creatures fade away. The team goes to comfort Angela while she silently sobs.

Jason decides to tell Eddie the truth that there was an entire human civilization on Angel Island, and that’s where he actually came from when he arrived on the Island. They meet the other humans on the island, and see how they have adapted to another world. Tails lets the team know that there is a way for the humans to return to earth but because of the time difference, some of them will be much older when they arrive and unfortunately most of them will actually die. Just before they could make a decision to return home, The giant dam shows signs of collapsing, they book it to the village and let Morton know the severity of the situation. Angela pleads with him that he needs to listen to them and he then decides to give in. During the retreat, the dam collapses and a large wave of poison comes rushing towards them, Eddie decides to take a stand and holds the shattered parts of the ring in a fist, hoping the power is still there. Luckily for him, the power reawakens and causes him to possess superhuman abilities, he creates a wormhole that sucks up all the poison from the island and closes it in a dramatic fashion. After seeing his bravery, the chief apologizes to all of them and thanks them for saving their home. Slash decides to apologize about how he started the entire mess and how he treated Sergio. Eddie tells him that he will never have to apologize for his history, but can still become a better person, which Slash agrees on doing and has a change of heart. They go to Tails’ lab and when provoked if Jason is willing to return, he decides not to, saying that home doesn’t have to be where you came from, it is what you make it. Eddie and Jason share a hug before the team bid farewell to the island and head home, with Eddie and Alyssa sharing a kiss while teleporting through the inner vacuums of space and time.

Back at home, Julie decides to throw a big birthday bash for Eddie. After celebrating, Eddie stares up pondering at the moon, much like how he did after his last adventure two years ago.

## **Development**

Talk about a sequel can be traced as far back as 2015 when on May 5th, there was apparently a false leak showing Eddie's ring being intertwined with dark magic. The alleged false poster was immediately said to be fake by Disney executives and many speculated that it had to be true due to Disney being so quick to deny any truth to it. Disney reassured the public that a sequel to the 2011 film had not even been considered or been in the works. This brought the attention of Jared Bush and Byron Howard who were immediately asked by the press around the time the falsified poster was shown online. According to Howard, it was brought to mind a couple of times as time went on and on to make a sequel but it just never emerged. That all changed when they decided to do just that but said if they were gonna make a sequel, it would have to be a "worthy" one to the orginal. Many sequel ideas were thrown around such as Eddie having to spend the summer with his aunt and uncle in the countryside out of the city, and Sonic coming back only to find that Eddie isn't home, and so would have been a road trip adventure with Sonic, Sergio, and Alyssa trying to find him to spend one last time together before the portal to each other's worlds closes forever. While this idea was to be greenlit quite quick, it was then shelved when the crew realized the character the movie was named after would have barely appeared in it.

Another idea for a sequel was where Eddie would go back in time to relive the events of the first film by Dr Kam's newest time machine invention, only to find himself dealing with a time anomaly disaster that threatens the universe. The idea was scrapped due to lack of agreement. Whatever each idea was, one thing was always common that the crew didn't realize: no idea dealt with Sonic's world. The idea of traveling to his world was brought up and that was the one that got the most votes and thus; on November 8th 2015, it was officially announced by Disney that a sequel was in the works and had a release date of November 22nd 2017.

On March 10th, 2016, the film was pushed ahead to August 4th, 2017 since Pixar's *Coco* was set for the original date.

## **Marketing**

A teaser poster was released online on February 4th, 2017 by Disney on their social media accounts. Reactions were positive out of the gate and a special look for the film was shown during the commercials for *Super Bowl L*I. The special look was released online a few days later. The official teaser trailer premiered alongside the 2017 Disney live action remake of *Beauty and the Beast*. The official trailer was shown in theaters in front of *Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, Pirates of the Caribbean 5, Despicable Me 3,* and *Cars 3*.

## **Release**

Premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on July 21st, 2017, it was then released into US theaters on August 4th, 2017. The film was a tremendous success financially and critically, generating box office numbers unheard of when it came to releases in the month of August. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a fresh tomato score of 94% with the critic consensus: *"Another rare case of a sequel that is just as if not better than the original that came before it, it's got the laughs, emotion, but most importantly the heart of what made the first so great."*

## **Trivia**

* The film was reportedly not even considered until false leaks of a sequel were brought to Disney's attention
* Introduced more advanced animation for the team working at Disney and the editing software is still used in many of their films today
* In original storyboards, there was originally set to be a love triangle between Eddie, Alyssa, and Angela but this potential plot point was immediately scrapped as Howard was not a fan of the idea
* Sergio's voice actor Trevor Loren had a dramatic voice change and was actually considered to not be in the role anymore, but fans grew outrage over the idea and even threatened to not watch the film over it, as a result he was kept in during production
* Like *Ralph Breaks the Internet*, while this movie isn't considered a musical, there was actually set to be a muscial number sung by Alyssa but this was instead given to Angela. The musical number would have been called, "Flown by Luck" and it would have revolved around Alyssa having a hard time dealing with being in another world and under extreme stress of not being able to find Eddie. Instead, the final cut was "A Cursed Blessing" which is sung by Angela
* In the scene where Eddie is being chased and unknowingly enters Jason's cave, the wolves that chase him are identical to the timberwolves from Zootopia
* The Heart of Te Fiti from Moana makes a cameo appearance in Nastasia's hut
* In the scene where Eddie runs away to Misery Peak, Olaf from Frozen can be seen as one of the snowmen on the mountain slope
* An explosion during the final battle takes the shape of a hidden mickey
* The candy Nastasia offers the team is nearly identical to candy seen from Sugar Rush in Wreck it Ralph
* The film is known in other countries as Eddie: Angel Island