Sonic - (Sonic The Hedgehog Fan Film)

I...

I...

... I...

... don't know what to say just yet.  Well, let's first start with my first initial impression of the fan film where a lot of us old school fans are brought to it thanks to the contribution of Jaleel White, who as most of us know starred as Steve Urkel in the old 90's sitcom Family Matters and the successful Sonic SATAM cartoon as none other than Sonic The Hedgehog.  Back then, Mr. White gave life to Sonic in a way that would be appreciated for many years.  He was great... but I do not think he was the end to all english Sonic voices.

Blue Core Studios wanted to make a live-action movie of Sonic and there were some clips of CG Egg Carriers that made their entry into the series in Sonic Adventure, as well as the E-series robots from the same game.  We have a very, very, very serious Dr. Robotnik/Eggman which all looked nice... until I saw what Sonic looked like.

Now, I know this is a live-action movie and I will admit that the furry level of Sonic's 3D model was looking rather... plushie.  I suppose the artist was aiming for a Sonic that would resemble more of a hedgehog based on it's real-life appearance with transparent hair, an unsmooth, scattered and very detailed exterior with a bigger mouth that opens front and center opposed to on one side, and teeth.  I have not seen too many 3D models of Sonic that were fan-made or centered around a real-life setting, but here if I could sum up Sonic's appearance in a few words... it would be... frighteningly cute.  Imagine Sonic The Hedgehog from Sonic Unleashed and you wrapped Sonic The Hedgehog's body with Sonic The Werehog's exterior... and dyed the white parts blue.

The e-series, Robotnik, plus everything else Sonic related seemed quite comfortable to me.  It didn't take long for me to warm up to Eggman's appearance and portrayal at all, even if his outfit was looking super 16-bit.  Sonic's o.g. voice actor did not fail to disappoint me, even if he sounds a little older from our more matured Jaleel White - for a more matured modern Sonic.  Unfortunately, this is where all the fun stops for me.

Outside of Sonic's rough around the edges exterior, by the time it had all come to it's 18-19 minute conclusion, I was glad it had ended.  I'm not exactly sure what is going on with this story.  Eggman has trapped the "highly intelligent" animals on South Island by roboticizing them and is aware of some creature called "The Blue Blur" who has yet to be caught and identified.  So... Eggman doesn't know Sonic exists yet. But for some reason, the presence of G.U.N. is here on planet Mobius... what?  (In other words, the canon is fucked here.)  So Eggman's new objective after identifying Sonic is to destroy him and after 4 G.U.N. soldiers get saved from Sonic after not really putting up a fight with less than 5 of Eggman's machinery.  The soldiers prattle on about needing Sonic's help while one of them is untrusting due to the fact Sonic is from South Island which apparently is some unexplored territory that we somehow have observed has highly intelligent animal life.  After landing from riding a missile into the sky and free falls in the sky landing on a Buzz Bomber to help him hit the ground safely, Sonic runs to the Green Hill Zone excitedly where Knuckles watches him from a distance for reasons that have yet to come.

Okay... first, I can't say that I really enjoyed this film.  The overall presentation would get an A- for effort, but between the times Sonic and Eggman are not on the screen, and you see people staring at the Egg Carriers in NEW YORK CITY, I kind of expect the people to kind of have some sort of verbal reaction from seeing a ton of Egg Carriers scraping their skies.  What are the Egg Carriers even doing?  One of the fires a missile into some random forested area only to tell less than 1% of mother nature, "Fuck you. I'm here."  They do not appear to be a significant threat or concern to anyone except G.U.N. who sent 4 soldiers on the ground to... shoot an Egg Carrier from "out of sight" when they are just beneath them.  I can understand putting soldiers out for an assault on Eggman, potentially endangering the soldiers of course, but this... isn't exactly a convincing way to execute it.  Why not have some of the e-series on the ground be the targets of G.U.N. for whatever reason and then have them get caught by surprise?  When one of the soldiers announced that there were Buzz Bombers, immediately that's what I expected to see, but you don't see them for another 30 or so seconds for the very first time.  When Sonic enters the scene, a part of me is personally bothered that his every jump is a spin attack and that's probably because Sonic in a real-world setting or even in current games, has more than 3 ways of jumping in the air.  It just seems to give off this feel that I'm watching a video game than Sonic being as theatrical as he naturally is.  Secondly, there isn't any emphasis on speed and I don't really see how difficult executing could be.  Yes, he gets chased by (of all things) Motobugs, and Buzz Bombers which barely matched Sonic's running speed in Sonic 1, and in Green Hill he runs and rolls - all at the speed limit more than the speed of sound without a care in the world.

Even though I couldn't care too much about who voices Sonic these days, I can honestly say that Jaleel White's voice acting was by far the best aspect of this film.  It's not so much that it's him, but it's the enthusiasm he brings.  The attitude of Sonic that made him attractive when a voiced Sonic came into existence is one of those things about the current Sonic Sega seems to overlook.  After Naka left, it was as if this part of Sonic was left in the backburner when this kind of expression really reflected on what Sonic was as a character.  It was the most professional aspect of this entire film - not a surprise, really but it stands out so much that if Sonic's script/personality was similar to that of Sonic Colors... oh boy.

Still, I'm sort of glad that this was made.  It may not be the greatest written, the best directed, the best animated, but it does have some charm to it.  Given that the story is messy, it's completely up in the air whether or not I would want to see the next part of it.