Sonic the Hedgehog film series general

So, finally watched Sonic 2 after not getting to see it in theaters. It was a good time.

Tails and Knuckles were both handled well, and through their respective actions, both have impacts on Sonic and his process of learning to be a hero. Tails could have gotten a bit more to do to help build up his friendship with Sonic more (though a certain scene in the Siberian bar put a smile on my face), but I have no complaints with how he was handled otherwise. This is the same ol' Sonic-worshipping two-tailed fox we remember him being in the early days, and he grows in confidence as he spends more time with his hero and actually gets involved with the action when the final battle rolls around. In turn, it's clear how much of an effect having him around has on Sonic; he has someone who looks up to him now, and that makes it all the more crushing to him when Tails gets hurt on his watch and he feels guilty about it. He'd made a promise to keep him safe, and it didn't work out. Colleen did great, and it's nice seeing her get a little bit of the movie spotlight. Hopefully, she sticks around to voice Tails in future movies.

Even though I don't really have a problem with Knuckles' more recent incarnations, I like how the echidna was portrayed here with a more stoic and honor-focused personality. While I think Idris' voice may be a little too deep for Knux, he did well. I was expecting Sonic to be angry with Knuckles from the beginning because Knux's fellow echidnas were the reason he lost Longclaw, but he seemed more confused about the connection than anything on their initial meeting. The closest we got was Sonic's bitter "you echidnas have a habit of showing up uninvited and ruining my life" line in Siberia. Them both losing their families because of the owl/echidna conflict (props to Longclaw for taking all those echidnas down on her own... while injured) gave them a nice common ground through which Sonic could try to appeal to him. He even says in their last fight that Knuckles isn't giving him much choice but to fight him, signifying he'd rather be talking things out with him. For his part, Knuckles isn't entirely sure about Robotnik, either, given the fact that the latter's eagerness to leave Stone behind offended him and he noted Sonic putting Tails' wellbeing over the compass. I enjoyed Sonic and Knuckles' showdowns throughout, but the beach scene where they finally talk out their differences and similarities and Sonic invites him to be a part of his new family was really heartfelt, too. Seeing him team up with Sonic and Tails and form Team Sonic in the final battle was great.

The idea of combining the Chaos Emeralds into the Master Emerald was a nice touch. Helped simplify the plot, and honestly, with all the plotlines the movie was juggling already, it needed that. It also gives a good reason as to why the ME would be able to neutralize the power of the other Emeralds after they become separate entities at the end: it was formed from them. Interesting to know that Sonic and Tails will also be its guardians in this universe alongside Knuckles.

Again, the human characters were fine, but were definitely given less to do this time around (understandably). As for Rachel's wedding, wasn't expecting that to be a G.U.N. ploy to capture Sonic. Speaking of, I didn't hate that scene too much (same with the dance-off in Siberia). Seeing Tails' gadgets get put to good use by Maddie and Rachel in order to rescue him, Sonic, and Tom was a good way of establishing his technological know-how, allowing him to still get some spotlight despite his being unconscious for a good chunk of the film after the aforementioned injury. That, and seeing Rachel wanting revenge and raining hellfire down on Walters and Randall for her wedding being a sham all along was entertaining thanks to Natasha's performance. I'd say it's somewhat worth the time we spent away from our main trio.

While I got spoiled on the appearance of Super Sonic, I still cackled wildly, since it was an absolute spectacle to witness him take out Eggman's giant robot with incredible ease. It's absolutely clear that he was done with Eggman's shit. And honestly, you can't blame the guy— Eggman threatened and tried to kill him and his friends and adoptive parents several times over. Plus, the fake-out of Sonic seemingly having gone mad with power only to summon celebratory chili dogs was great, almost as much as it was to see the golden hedgehog make his way into cinema in the first place.

I love the ending scene where everyone plays baseball on the field from the first movie. It's a really nice bookend to have Sonic play with his new anthro friends and his adoptive parents (I bet certain people went crazy over Sonic calling Tom "Dad" for the first time) in the very same place where he had a literally-explosive emotional breakdown over being alone forever. That, and Knuckles learning what "fun" is after being serious and focused on his goals for most of the movie beforehand is sweet and hilarious to witness. Props again to Idris for how he voiced the echidna's jubilation— it makes that scene. It might be one of my favorite scenes in movies now, and it was a great way to tie into the franchise's theme of friendship.

Lastly, I also got spoiled on Shadow's stinger appearance, but again, didn't stop me from enjoying it. Looking forward to seeing how they handle him in 3, since the films are fairly lighthearted and Shads tends to be a darker character.

All in all, glad to see the filmmakers are doing their best to satisfy the fans. Here's to hoping the future entries in the Movieverse keep up this quality.

Edited by SonicWind on May 26th 2022 at 5:55:42 AM

Pat Casey and Josh Miller were at KCC Comic Con 2022 and they revealed some trivia about the films

Source: https://tailschannel.com/sonic-the-hedgehog/shadow-voice-actor-sa2-story-tease-q-a-screenwriters/

Well that's not good...

First ten minutes, Shadow stomps Knuckles and he's out of commission the rest of the movie.

I'm only kidding and I hope I'm wrong

Well, that part was in the section for the second movie, not the third, at least?

Counterpoint.

While the Son of Mohg is the Trope Namer for The Worf Effect, lets not act like that's all that he's ever done.

The man's literally decided the fate of the Klingon empire twice...and the first time he was just pissed about losing his woman.

Knuckles has a good role model.

Oh I'm not saying Worf isn't a good role model.

But don't expect Knuckles not to suffer from a bit of humiliation every now and then.

Which has beena huge problem for his fans.

They did say that Worf was one of their inspirations. They don't necessarily have to take all of Worf's aspects for Knuckles's writing.

So is a troublemaking Reality Warper going to say to him "Eat any good books lately?" ;P

Never watched star trek. Anyone might want to explain why the Worf inspiration is a bad thing?

It's a reference to The Worf Effect, it seems. Basically, Knuckles, as an established other badass fighter in the group, would keep getting beaten up by whatever the next threat is to give it cred. The question is if Knuckles would get anything more to do than get his ass kicked once a movie or something.

Oh boy. Yeah that isn't good.

poor Knuckles is going to get bodies by Big The Cat as a joke,and then Cream and Cheese

Didn't he get comedically taken out early in the new animated short so he wouldn't easily destroy the robot? I'm aware it was written before the second movie finished shooting, but it looks like they are already heading down that path. Getting Superman vibes.

I don't want to sound all doom and gloom and there's a good chance the writers will be smart enough to understand the pitfalls of Knuckles being the powerhouse type.

Thor is the powerhouse of the Avengers, but his strength has remained pretty consistent throughout the series regardless of whatever new threat they face.

Same with the Hulk, who only ever lost to Thanos after years of being an unstoppable juggernaut.

Its all a matter of keeping the character in a relevant role.

This very movie's climax makes great use of Knuckles as the strong guy. His role in the team's plan to take down Death Egg Robo is to punch Eggman very hard. He performs that role exceptionally.

Let's hope Knuckles does'nt get tricked again and again into fighting Sonic

In the first ten minutes of the film, Eggman tricks Knuckles into thinking that Sonic's stealing the Master Emerald. Knux agrees to help Eggman take Sonic and Tails down, culminating in a second-act throwdown where Knuckles defeats Sonic and takes the Master Emerald for himself and Eggman.

This lets into the desperate third-act conflict and then, at the eleventh hour, Eggman tries to activate the Master Emerald's power and it does absolutely nothing. It's revealed that Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles were pranking him this entire time. The Emerald they gave him is a fake.

Subverted expectations.

So, what famous celebrity do you think they will have to voice Shadow? A lot of people are looking to Keanu Reeves to voice Shadow.

None, preferably. I love Idris Elba's Knux, but it'd be nice if Shadow is played by someone that doesn't require him to either be written out immediately after the film's over or awkwardly recast since it costs $80 trillion for every line of dialogue he records.

Shadow needs to be voiced by Jack Black!

This'll be a deep cut but I have three ideas for Shadow's voice: Ben Schwartz, one of game Sonic's V As, or one of Shadow's game V As.

I'm not sure it's hard to guess my logic for each.

I'll die on this hill that Shadow needs to be played by Robert Pattison.

It's not like they're going to let the pin cushion live like the games.

Don't be so sure, Shadow is the king of Breakout Characters after all. The writers know he'll put asses in seats.

If anything there'll be a spinoff planned for him.