History Fridge / SonicTheHedgehog2020

* You know how in Sonic games they keep adding friends and foes, much to the annoyance to the critics, and more recently even fans? The movie answers that. It's because Sonic knows what it's like to be lonely, and doesn't want to go back.

** Clearly, he must be some manner of MartialPacifist. Any of his powers, [[FlyingBrick when taken to their logical conclusion]], have [[SuperWeight tremendous, near-unstoppable killing power]]. In the scene where he runs from Western Montana to the Pacific Ocean and back, he travels approximately 1000 miles in 4 seconds. This means he's capable of running at [[SuperSpeed 1172 times the speed of sound]]. To put that in perspective, if Sonic were to let go of a 200-gram glass beer bottle while traveling at that speed, it should carry a kinetic energy equal to the explosion of [[StuffBlowingUp four 2000-pound JDAM bombs]], or about 16 gigajoules, more than enough to practically erase a city block. Anything that Sonic is holding in his hands is a [[KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter potential kinetic weapon]]. So, let's look at the bar fight in that context. If Sonic had intended to kill everyone in that bar, it would have been trivially easy for him to smash that glass bottle over the first tough guy's head, and then [[HighPressureBlood slash everyone else's carotid arteries]] with [[GrievousBottleyHarm the broken bottle]], and [[BewareTheSuperman absolutely no one would have been able to stop him]]. Him failing to break that bottle over that guy's head was him feigning and baiting the guy into a fight. Sonic is strong enough to jump off a wall and tackle two adult humans each three times his size off of a ledge. He's strong enough to break a glass bottle over someone's head hard enough to put them in the ER. It wasn't that he wasn't capable of doing it. He could. He just didn't ''want'' to. Robotnik and the government are correct to fear Sonic's power. The thing is, he's an AllLovingHero who would never use his powers that way. And that's something that everyone on Earth should be thankful for. Yeesh.

!!Fridge Brilliance

!!Fridge Horror

!!Fridge Logic
* Robotnik using his government blank cheque to declare Tom a suspected terrorist really brings the whole rest of the movie into question. How exactly did he manage to drive all the way to San Francisco, walk into a heavily populated area, and even ''use his police badge to gain access to a building''? Not to mention what he was supposed to do with himself if Sonic left when he was supposed to.
** The lack of organized roadblocks could be down to Robotnik - InsufferableGenius he is - may have declined to relay that information on to others, wanting Tom [[TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou for himself]]. Robotnik's BerserkButton is being punched in the face. Given how absolutely petty the man is, it's a plausible theory that [[DisproportionateRetribution he personally wants to destroy Tom for punching him in the face]]. Well, that and also running off with his alien guinea pig. Hence, he likely skewed a lot of info so that he could keep Tom for himself or interfered in the government's own attempts at roadblocking, acts which may, to a lesser extent, have also contributed to the government's decision to {{Unperson}} him by the end.
** It's possible that by the time Tom arrived in San Francisco, the government has figured out his "terrorist" status is bogus. Robotnik's citation of the death penalty for treason would have been a strong case to cooperate if Sonic had ''actually'' been an enemy of the state. Maybe they figured things out when Robotnik was threatening Tom on the phone, or maybe afterward while investigating his home for clues (which is likely to have occurred off-screen what with the terrorism charges) and figuring out that the damage to the home was exclusively from Robotnik's drone. Either way, it's possible they realized that Tom was innocent and acting in self-defense; in that case, they might have had time to rescind the order to look for him, but hadn't yet issued a public notice to news outlets. Even then, it's possible the news wouldn't report that he was no longer wanted, instead just no longer reporting when other stories get more views.
** It's established that hiring Robotnik for the job was a GodzillaThreshold for the government. He's a genius, but his abrasive and arrogant personality would piss anybody off. Its possible that Robotnik himself leaked the info to the news, but the government, (or perhaps the military on scene in Green Hills did a follow up examination after Sonic and Tom evacuated, and clarified the issue to spite Robotnik as well). Robotnik's already unpersoned as a classified matter (all but putting him above the law) at the start, which made the government's sweep up very easy.
** The region was also hit by a massive blackout very recently. This does not make disseminating information any easier, nor does it necessarily make a vaguely-described "terrorist" a higher priority than public health. Plus, Tom's a sheriff; he may have been using his training to avoid patrols.
** Furthermore, Tom's face doesn't really have any identifying features like noticeable scars. Even if someone recognized his face, they might have thought he was an IdenticalStranger to Tom.

!! Fridge Brilliance

* When Sonic is shown fooling around with nunchucks in the trailer, he hits himself with them. Sonic almost never uses weapons (save for his laser guitar in the ''WesternAnimation/SonicUnderground'' cartoon and Caliburn the sword in ''[[VideoGame/SonicStorybookSeries Sonic and the Black Knight]]''), so naturally he should be terrible at handling them. Not only that, but when he's throwing darts, a game which requires concentration, he hits everything else surrounding the dartboard. It’s a good thing the waitress wasn’t injured by them. [[WhatTheFuAreYouDoing Throwing around nunchucks or darts without aim or focus is definitely not a good strategy]].

!! Fridge Horror

!! Fridge Logic

** Furthermore, Tom's face doesn't really have any identifying features like noticeable scars. Even if someone recognized his face, they might have thought he was an IdenticalStranger to Tom.

* The whole idea that this movie got delayed just to fix the design of Sonic and some of the story mirrors how games get updated to fix the models and change features. Making this a Video Game Adaptation of a game patch.

* This theme may branch across the entire ''Sonic'' series, but it is most visible in this game that Robotnik is ''just'' as obsessed with speed as Sonic himself. Robotnik's desire to use Sonic's power in his experiments shows an obsession with technological acceleration, seeing Sonic as a springboard towards the future. He's tripping over himself, desperate to obtain the thing that will let him advance at the speed of sound.

* Tom's status as a suspected terrorist '''really''' shouldn't have allowed him to reach San Francisco, as his truck's plate numbers would have been widely circulated, and his face was plastered all over the news, so the odds of his being able to access the roof of the building are slim to nil.

** The region was also hit by a massive blackout very recently. This does not make disseminating information any easier, nor does it necessarily make a vaguely-described "terrorist" a higher priority than public health. Plus, Tom's a sheriff; he may have been using his training to avoid patrols.

* This theme may stem across the entire ''Sonic'' series, but it is most visible in this game that Robotnik is ''just'' as obsessed with speed as Sonic himself. Robotnik's desire to use Sonic's power in his experiments shows an obsession with technological acceleration, seeing Sonic as a springboard towards the future. He's tripping over himself, desperate to obtain the thing that will let him advance at the speed of sound.

* This theme may stem across the entire ''Sonic'' series, but it is most visible in this game that Robotnik is ''just'' as obsessed with speed as Sonic himself. Robotnik's desire to use Sonic's power in his experiments shows an obsession with technological acceleration, seeing Sonic as a springboard towards the future. He's tripping over himself, desperate to obtain the thing that will let him advance just as fast as Sonic runs.

* Despite how Sonic can enter BulletTime, he doesn't use it when Tom discovers him in the garage, leading to him being tranquilized and losing his rings. It makes sense, considering the context; Sonic was already panicking about being discovered with Robotnik hot on his trail, and Tom showing up made him forget about his own powers after actually being spotted by a human.

** It becomes FridgeHorror when you consider what would have happened to Sonic had he fled there as intended... It's a good thing Sonic's love for his friends (and his [[DoesNotLikeSpam dislike]] of mushrooms) were what kept him from ever going to the mushroom planet.
** Alternately, Sonic's super-fast metabolism would allow him to "process" the spores before they can affect him, and Longclaw picked the planet for that reason. That, and despite his personal distaste for them, real-life hedgehogs are omnivores and can eat mushrooms just fine. He knows he'd go from feeling lonely in a crowd to feeling lonely ''alone'', and is projecting that onto mushrooms in general.
* The only breaks from reality are the rings, Sonic's biology and speed abilities (notably, he can touch things at BulletTime speed without friction effects), and Robotnik's devices. Everything else acts more or less how it's supposed to.
** The only exception is Tom and Maddie falling from the Transamerica Pyramid: from that height, they would have been moving at or near 100 mph when they went through the ring. Even with their landing in straw, that's a very sudden stop. Safety limiters on the rings themselves makes more sense, especially since they're apparently widely used off of Earth.
** Sonic can touch things in BulletTime likely because he has a RequiredSecondaryPowers, which is enhanced durability to be able to survive his SuperSpeed.
* In the end of the movie, not only does the US government not seem all that concerned with catching the culprit behind the EMP blast (i.e. Sonic), but they act as though Tom, Maddie and Sonic are American heroes for stopping Robotnik when he wasn't a world-conquering supervillain (yet). Even better, it's the guy who recommended putting Robotnik on this mission who personally gives them the gift card as a bribe for their silence. While this might seem strange, throughout the film Robotnik's chase for Sonic involved very publicly firing lasers and missiles in San Francisco, the Great Wall of China and Giza, ''blowing the head off of the Sphinx itself in the process''. It is very likely that such maverick behavior proved that involving Robotnik was an embarrassment on the government's part and that if they didn't try to make the American government as uninvolved as they possibly could, America would be stuck in a socio-political quagmire that even its massive military couldn't fight its way out of.
** The government's likely spoken to enough witnesses to realize how powerful Sonic is, and that he wants to live his life in peace, unlike Robotnik who basically went rogue when he had a ''fraction'' of that power. The government realized that by helping Sonic evade capture, Tom kept Robotnik from ''becoming'' a world-conquering supervillain. The government still wants to keep tabs on Sonic - he's a teenager that ''beat'' the guy they considered their own GodzillaThreshold, but they know not to force the issue for that reason.
* Before the bar fight starts, the customers claim it's because they don't want "hipsters" in the bar. The next time we see the guy, he's actively lying to Robotnik and other governmental/professional people. Why? Well, he may not like them, sure. But for all he knows, a weird guy and maybe a kid just beat up an entire biker bar. Whomever they were, definitely not hipsters and probably worth defending.
** A more humorous possible explanation is that Robotnik has a long, elaborately styled mustache, something commonly associated with hipsters, so he thought ''he'' was a hipster too.

* How does this whole adventure begin? With Sonic losing his rings after getting hit!
** And what is Sonic's first impulse and topmost priority afterward? Getting his rings back.

** Blink and you'll miss it, but "Run along the Great Wall of China" is one of the items on Sonic's bucket list.

* Jokes aside, the government's bribe of [[ComicallySmallBribe $50 Olive Garden gift card]] might seem rather off. But notice the general, he's being rather excited about Olive Garden and even suggests they all talk it over brunch. Its likely that the government wasn't going to offer anything, and the General gave the gift card as a personal thanks. Olive branches are also a sign of peace. So what better place to offer peace than at a (figurative) olive garden?
** It can also be a silent way for the government to tell the Wachowski's and Sonic that they are family. Because remember, at Olive Garden, you're family.
** Also a sort of BrickJoke as Tom mentioned the only app on his phone is Olive Garden (he likes it that much) and maybe the government tracked his interest by that. That and the General might be excited to have someone who also likes the place.

* In an interview Jeff Fowler reveals this Sonic is about 13 or 14 years old, younger than his usual counterparts. This actually can allude to the fact that the classic Games were revealed to be in the past in ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'', before being retconned as alternate dimensions in ''VideoGame/SonicForces''.

* "Where Evil Grows" is actually a pretty good song choice for Robotnik. The song is about someone developing an obsession with someone, and then becoming more and more evil the more they pursue the object of that obsession. Perfect song to describe Robotnik's relationship with Sonic in this movie.

* As stated above, an element of Sonic's character arc throughout the film is him learning how to moderate and control his powers, as he becomes [[UnskilledButStrong far too uncontrollable]] when blindly embracing his super speed, but [[WeakButSkilled can hardly leave a mark]] when trying to fight like a normal person. Funnily enough, this relates to the original design philosophy of Sonic's gameplay from [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1991 all the way back in 1991]], and how it was built entirely around the player mastering Sonic's speed:

* [[https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/bj2w4y/sonic_the_hedgehog_official_trailer_paramount/em52bey/ A Reddit user]] calculated how many people (especially ''babies'') died because of Sonic's power turning off the entire Pacific Northwest. ''491 babies'' were possibly killed accidentally by Sonic. [[RootingForTheEmpire More fire to support Robotnik against the furry menace.]] Of course, this is ignoring hospitals have emergency generators and neo-natal equipment with batteries, but there's still the possibility that some of those ''malfunctioned'' due to Sonic's power.

* Here's a fun one: the "Pacific Northwest" generally does ''not'' include Montana (which is plainly not on the Pacific ocean). Think about that. This leaves two options. First, the energy phenomenon either expanded outward in a ''single'' direction, towards Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia (which are usually considered the PNW) - and that makes it a directional EMP weapon. Or, second, it expanded in a circle - meaning "the Pacific Northwest" is less the diameter affected, and more a measure of the ''radius'' of effect.
** But then this raises further questions. For example, the Rocky Mountain range is between Montana and the Pacific Northwest to the W and SW - but the topography just gets flatter E and N of Montana. This would seem to suggest that the energy phenomenon was ''attracted'' to mountains in the first option, or not hindered by them in the second option.
** ...the easiest explanation, of course, is that the writer conflated the Pacific Northwest and the Northwestern United States (which would include Montana and Wyoming).
* So Sonic says that on his planet, there are things trying to steal his power. Dr. Eggman is shown to be living exclusively on Earth. What could be on Sonic’s world that is trying to get him? Are there threats like [[VideoGame/SonicLostWorld the Zeti]], [[ComicBook/SonicTheComic Dr Zachary, Commander Brutus,]] [[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics the Destructix, the Iron Dominion, Mammoth Mogul]] or [[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogIDW Dr Starline?]]

*** A big question is ''how'' the Echidna tribe is alive in present day to begin with? Did they succeed in their plan to use the Master Emerald instead of being wiped out by Chaos?
*** They probably had Tikal to help them out.
* Robotnik proves how insane he is the first time something doesn't go his way - his immediate reaction to Tom denying knowledge about Sonic is to ''threaten his life'', and as soon as he sees Sonic for himself has the drone start shooting up the house. Shortly after, he starts regaling his disdain for humans to Agent Stone, more or less confirming that outside of himself and those that are useful to him, he has ''no regard for human life.'' That all comes to a head when he starts attacking Sonic in San Francisco with no regard to civilian or structural casualties in the process. How many people ''died'' in his rampage? He's a visible threat the whole way, but when you start to put everything together in your head, this may be the most effective ''and'' ruthless version of Eggman to be depicted.
** Think about this for a second. Robotnik almost killed Tom over having one of Sonic's quills in his house. Tom picked that quill up by the roadside. He had it before Sonic was even at his house. It wasn't even proof that Sonic was present at all. Anyone could've recovered one of Sonic's quills, and Robotnik could've murdered them for truthfully denying that they'd ever seen Sonic.
** Considering how quick Robotnik is to violence when he doesn't get his way, you have to wonder, just how many people has he killed when they don't bow to his demands.

* At TheStinger with Robotnik on the Mushroom Planet, he notes that a "lesser man" might die shortly upon living on this planet. If there's any truth to that, this might imply (at least some of) the mushrooms on the aforementioned planet aren't exactly safe to eat or make skin contact (something Robotnik may be able to power through or use technology to remedy). With this in mind, this would suggest if Sonic's initial plan to retreat there actually came through. Sonic might've later [[DyingAlone died alone]] from fungi poisoning in a matter of days at least or months at most depending on how his powers would factor into the situation.

* Sonic is holding back a ''lot'' of his power. Clearly, he must be some manner of MartialPacifist. Any of his powers, [[FlyingBrick when taken to their logical conclusion]], have [[SuperWeight tremendous, near-unstoppable killing power]]. In the scene where he runs from Western Montana to the Pacific Ocean and back, he travels approximately 1000 miles in 4 seconds. This means he's capable of running at [[SuperSpeed 1172 times the speed of sound]]. To put that in perspective, if Sonic were to let go of a 200-gram glass beer bottle while traveling at that speed, it should carry a kinetic energy equal to the explosion of [[StuffBlowingUp four 2000-pound JDAM bombs]], or about 16 gigajoules, more than enough to practically erase a city block. Anything that Sonic is holding in his hands is a [[KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter potential kinetic weapon]]. So, let's look at the bar fight in that context. If Sonic had intended to kill everyone in that bar, it would have been trivially easy for him to smash that glass bottle over the first tough guy's head, and then [[HighPressureBlood slash everyone else's carotid arteries]] with [[GrievousBottleyHarm the broken bottle]], and [[BewareTheSuperman absolutely no one would have been able to stop him]]. Him failing to break that bottle over that guy's head was him feigning and baiting the guy into a fight. Sonic is strong enough to jump off a wall and tackle two adult humans each three times his size off of a ledge. He's strong enough to break a glass bottle over someone's head hard enough to put them in the ER. It wasn't that he wasn't capable of doing it. He could. He just didn't ''want'' to. Robotnik and the government are correct to fear Sonic's power. The thing is, he's an AllLovingHero who would never use his powers that way. And that's something that everyone on Earth should be thankful for. Yeesh.

** It's more likely Sonic didn't know the full extent of his powers and when he's not going fast, he just doesn't pack much muscle.

* Countless viewers have pointed out that Sonic was able to go into BulletTime to avoid Robotnik's missiles, but he couldn't avoid Tom's tranquilizer dart, even though he already saw him coming in with a gun. The fact that those two scenes are very close to one another in the trailer caused people to question this even more.
** It might be that a mere tranq-dart isn't enough to trigger an adrenaline rush like a overkill of live ammo and rockets do for Sonic, hence why something non-lethal might be able to move faster than a real bullet would.
** Except Sonic wouldn't have known it was a tranq-dart until the gun was fired. As far as he could tell, it was live ammo.
** Except that a dart-gun and a real gun sounds completely different when fired, which might have confused him since the weapon in question didn't sound as a real gun, therefore, "no danger".
** More logically, this follows (as seen in the first trailer) right after Sonic is surprised by Tom's surprised scream. Tom's a police officer, and had the gun out and ready -- by the time even Sonic worked out of his shock at someone screaming in his face, the dart was more than halfway to his leg.
** The movie shows that Sonic had been secretly watching over Green Hills for several years, with Tom being his favorite person to watch. He knows Tom is a good person who is caring and respectful towards animals, even those considered pests, so he doesn't see him as a threat, which explains why the tranquilizer gun was a total surprise for the hedgehog.
** The simple answer here is that Sonic wasn't ready. It's made clear that while he's normally very fast, entering bullet time is an active decision (in the bar fight, he gets back into position and then "resumes" time). So it really comes down to Tom caught him by surprise (from trust, screaming, and other factors)
* Tom's status as a suspected terrorist '''really''' shouldn't have allowed him to reach San Francisco, as his truck's plate numbers would have been widely circulated, and his face was plastered all over the news, so the odds of his being able to access the roof of the building are slim to nil. The lack of organized roadblocks could be down to Robotnik - InsufferableGenius he is - may have declined to relay that information on to others, wanting Tom [[TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou for himself]].
** To elaborate on this, Robotnik's BerserkButton is being punched in the face. Given how absolutely petty the man is, it's a plausible theory that [[DisproportionateRetribution he personally wants to destroy Tom for punching him in the face]]. Well, that and also running off with his alien guinea pig. Hence, he likely skewed a lot of info so that he could keep Tom for himself or interfered in the government's own attempts at roadblocking, acts which may, to a lesser extent, have also contributed to the government's decision to {{Unperson}} him by the end.

** It's established that hiring Robotnik for the job was a GodzillaThreshold for the government. He's a genius, but his abrasive and arrogant personality would piss anybody off. Its possible that Robotnik himself leaked the info to the news, but the government, (or perhaps the military on scene in Green Hills did a follow up examination after Sonic and Tom evacuated, and clarified the issue to spite Robotnik as well).
** Robotnik's already unpersoned as a classified matter (all but putting him above the law) at the start, which made the government's sweep up very easy.

* Sonic clearly has no formal education on either planet; how'd he learn how to speak and more importantly ''read'' English? ...easy: he's smarter and more resourceful than at first glance, which bears out through the movie.
** That said, whatever his original language was, it wouldn't be surprising if he no longer understands it.
*** He is not a human; his brain might function different way around language patterns.
** It’s also possible that whatever planet he came from [[AliensSpeakingEnglish just happens to speak English]], like in ''Anime/SonicX''.
* When Sonic is shown fooling around with nunchucks in the trailer, he hits himself with them. Sonic almost never uses weapons (save for his laser guitar in the ''WesternAnimation/SonicUnderground'' cartoon and Caliburn the sword in ''[[VideoGame/SonicStorybookSeries Sonic and the Black Knight]]''), so naturally he should be terrible at handling them.
** Not only that, but when he's throwing darts, a game which requires concentration, he hits everything else surrounding the dartboard. It’s a good thing the waitress wasn’t injured by them. [[WhatTheFuAreYouDoing Throwing around nunchucks or darts without aim or focus is definitely not a good strategy]].
* How can Sonic be both UnskilledButStrong and WeakButSkilled? Because they're both extremes and he's going between them like a pendulum due to his lack of emotional control and focus. It's not till the final battle that he gets [[StrongAndSkilled enough self-control]] to use his speed and electricity properly in a fight.
** Moreover, Sonic has always used his speed to hide, for stealth, amusement, etc. He's never used his powers in a directly offensive matter, so getting into a fight is a completely new experience. Moreover, he's ''never'' encountered somebody who could keep up with him, so Robotnik harnessing his power catches him completely off guard.
** Up until the final battle, Sonic's had it ingrained into him to always stay hidden and keep a low profile (since the first EMP kicks off the plot). He's been holding back the entire time, but now ''he can finally cut loose.''
** When he tries to fight like a human, he's WeakButSkilled (he's clearly learned from action movies, and does things like keep his back to Tom during the BarBrawl that don't actually make sense for someone like him to do). When he fights like ''Sonic the Hedgehog'', he's UnskilledButStrong due to never having had any opportunity to learn how to do so until Robotnik's gunning for him.

* Of course Sonic would read Flash comic books. Both are speedsters with laidback attitudes who also go out of their way to be heroes by helping people around them.
** Sonic's powers in the movie are also very similar to the Flash, including being surrounded by a protective electric aura and being able to enter BulletTime.
* Sonic says that he hates mushrooms, but doesn't explain why. Perhaps it's a reference to the tension back in the 8-bit and 16-bit era that he had with his former video game rival, [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]], who lives in the Mushroom Kingdom.
** Or it could be a reference to how, in his own game franchise, he met his first rival, Knuckles the Echidna, in the ''Mushroom Hill Zone''. Which especially makes sense seeing as how he was stranded on Earth escaping from a tribe of echidnas (who're implied to have killed his adoptive mom!) and so he's naturally going to be rather hostile towards them.
** WordOfGod is that it's the former: a shot at Super Mario Bros.

* Dr. Robotnik (condescendingly) telling the Major about ''Literature/CharlottesWeb'' does a nice job of establishing how he'd view Sonic. For instance, yes Charlotte dies in the book and yes she lays a "creepy" egg sac. But he's also [[EvilCannotComprehendGood missing the point]]. Despite being a [[SpidersAreScary spider]], what counts is that she died saving her friend and [[SomeoneToRememberHimBy left a legacy]]. A more empathetic person would connect with Charlotte because she's friendly to Wilbur, but not Robotnik. His disconnection from Charlotte [[EstablishingCharacterMoment clues us in]] how he'll only see Sonic as [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman an alien to study and dissect]], despite that the young hedgehog is a friendly soul.
** Another instance where he misunderstood Charlotte is that she died giving birth to children who will live on after her and carry on her jobs. Robotnik creates robots, which he considers his children, because he can't see anyone else as trustworthy and capable as his own mechanical creations.
*** Fridge Tearjerker if you think about it: Robotnik must be really lonely and out of touch that he has to make up slaves to be his only companions. He's kind of like Sonic, except he's too proud to admit it.

*** To elaborate further and give a specific example, playing a ''Sonic'' game like you would a Mario game would result in it taking far more time to reach higher ground, since Sonic's Spin Attack jump would lack the power, height and momentum given by a running start. Similarly, in the film's BarBrawl scene it's shown that Sonic ''does'' know how to throw a punch like a normal person, but said punch lacks any real weight and momentum behind it, hence why it barely even fazes the thug.

* One quill shed by Sonic is able to maintain his charge throughout the film and the eighty plus days Robotnik has been stranded, and cause the destruction seen in the movie. Sonic's probably been regularly shedding his quills, all over the place, for the past decade he's been on earth. So who else found them lying around, and how long before the government catches on? Its not like Robotnik is the only genius they'd have on payroll.
** With that in mind, suppose someone else pursuing Sonic, like the Echidna Tribe, chances upon the Mushroom Planet and finds Robotnik with the quill? they might start asking questions and Sonic may find himself dealing with them again, only this time '''there's nowhere left for him to hide!'''
*** This is especially likely when you consider how Tails was able to track Sonic to not only what planet he's on, but the town he's living in. How do we know someone else with more malicious intentions for Sonic can't eventually do the same?
*** Slightly mitigating: if this Tails is a mechanical genius like his usual counterparts, ''Tails himself'' might have come up with the way to find him. Still, that leaves other mechanists like Robotnik or Lyric to make that switch, and we've already seen what Robotnik can do...

*** You're right. According to Sonic X, Gerald was the one who created Shadow, after all.

** The region was also hit by a massive blackout very recently. This does not make disseminating information any easier, nor does it necessarily make a vaguely-described "terrorist" a higher priority than public health. Plus, Tom's a sheriff; he may have been using his training to avoid patrols.
* Speaking of which: ''Why did no one notice a "fugitive" was out''? It felt like they almost completely dropped that, but not a single person seemed to care.
** Probably because Tom basically looks like A Guy. A handsome guy, but he's just some dude. Many actual fugitives went for years without being identified, and Tom lasted, what, a day? Or maybe someone called in a tip, and ''that's'' how Robotnik found him.
*** And then he kidnapped a kid and shoved him into a duffel bag...

* The whole idea that this movie got delayed just to fix the design of Sonic and some of the story mirrors how games get updated to fix the modals and change features. Making this a Video Game Adaptation of a game patch.

*** Fridge Tearjerker if you think about it: Robotnik must be really lonely and out of touch that he has to make up slaves to be his only companions. [[NotSoDifferent He's kind of like Sonic]], except he's too proud to admit it.

** Not only that, but when he's throwing darts, a game which requires concentration, he hits everything else surrounding the dartboard. It’s a good thing the waitress wasn’t injured by them. [[RealityEnsues Throwing around nunchucks or darts without aim or focus is definitely not a good strategy]].