Sonic the Hedgehog (film)

Sonic the Hedgehog
Studio: Original Film, Marza Animation Planet, Blur StudioMedia:SonicTheHedgehog Film US FullBilling.pdf
Country: United States, Japan
Distributor(s): Paramount Pictures
Running time: 99 minutes
Language: English
Release Date RRP Code Rating US 2020-02-14 $? ? UK 2020-02-14 £? ? US 2020-05-19 $? ? UK 2020-06-08 £9.99 ? US 2020-05-19 $? ? US (4K Ultra HD) 2020-05-19 $? ? UK 2020-06-08 £14.99 ? UK (4K Ultra HD) 2020-06-08 £24.99 ?

For the 1999 animation, see Sonic the Hedgehog (anime).

Sonic the Hedgehog, known as Sonic the Movie (ソニック・ザ・ムービー) in Japan, is a live-action film featuring an animated Sonic the Hedgehog. The film stars Ben Schwartz as Sonic the Hedgehog and Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik, alongside James Marsden as Tom Wachowski, Tika Sumpter, Natasha Rothwell, Adam Pally, and Neal McDonough.

The film was initially set for a theatrical release on 18 November 2019 in the US, but due to negative feedback from fans regarding Sonic's design in the initial trailer the film was delayed to update Sonic's model, and the film's release was rescheduled for 14 February 2020. The redesign was shown in a new trailer, with Sonic's new appearance receiving praise.

Sonic the Hedgehog premiered at the Paramount Theatre on 25 January 2020, and was theatrically released in the United States on February 14, 2020. The Japanese premiere was planned for 27 March 2020, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film received praise for the cast performances (particularly Carrey's), Sonic's design, visuals and faithfulness to the source material, but criticism for its plot and perceived lack of originality.

The film's success led to the production of a 2022 sequel, titled Sonic the Hedgehog 2, with a third film and a series on Paramount+ starring Knuckles the Echidna.

Story

Before battling Dr. Robotnik in the streets of San Francisco, Sonic was born on another world away from Earth. There Sonic was taken care of by a noble owl warrior named Longclaw. Sonic always had incredible power; he was warned to keep secret, but he couldn't help himself running around the island. His running caught the attention of the echidna tribe. Longclaw sacrificed herself to protect Sonic by giving him a bag of rings that can open a portal to anywhere. She sent him to a world on the far side of the universe where he could be safe, and if Sonic ever needed to leave, he had a map that instructed him to travel to a Mushroom Planet to hide next. Ten years later, Sonic became known as the legendary "blue devil" of Green Hills, Montana. He made a home for himself inside of a cave reading comics. One day, he decided to play baseball but he didn't have anyone else to play with. He played a whole baseball game by himself with his super speed. Once he realized how alone he is, he ran as fast as he could. This created a huge shockwave that knocked out power to Green Hills. The town's sheriff Tom Wachowski found a blue quill Sonic left behind after he fled the scene.

The pentagon held a meeting about the power surge Sonic caused. They realized they needed to send someone to investigate, and Commander Walters decided that it should be the problematic Dr. Robotnik. The doctor traveled to Green Hills with his partner Agent Stone. His drones discover evidence of an unidentified lifeform in this town. As the government searches for Sonic, the hedgehog prepares to leave for the Mushroom Planet. There being dogs outside makes him decide to activate the rings somewhere safer and he chooses to make the portal inside of the sheriff's house because he has become the only person he trusts after years of watching over the town in secret. Tom sees the talking blue hedgehog for the first time and shoots him with his tranquilizer gun. As Sonic is fading out, he sees Tom is wearing a San Francisco shirt. Thinking about it, he accidentally opens a portal to it that his bag of rings falls into. With his only way off the planet gone, Sonic has no choice but to ask Tom for help as Dr. Robotnik enters the neighborhood.

The doctor enters Tom's home to look for Sonic after finding more evidence and inside finds Sonic's quill that Tom took earlier. He calls in one of his drones to gun down Tom if he doesn't tell him where the creature he's hunting is. Sonic reveals himself to Robotnik and Tom punches the doctor in the face to knock him out. The drone starts firing at them, wrecking the house, but they deal with it. The two of them get away in a car while Agent Stone arrives to pick up Robotnik. The doctor makes it his mission now to neutralize the creature and discover the source of its power. In the car, Sonic explains that rings are how all advanced cultures travel between worlds and how important it is to get them back from San Francisco. The two of them decide to travel together to the city to find them. On the way there they stop to call Wade Whipple, who on the other side of the phone is trapped in a room with Robotnik and Stone. Once he hung up on Robotnik, Tom went back to the car where he realized Sonic went into the bar they stopped at. They got into a fight inside but Sonic easily won it with his super speed. Afterwards, Robotnik investigates the bar and realizes where Sonic and Tom were heading. A drone was sent to attack but Sonic took it out with a spin dash. Little did they know that there were other drones inside of it. One of them took Sonic out with an explosion. Tom got Sonic out of there so he could rest. Tom's niece JoJo gifted Sonic with a new pair of red and white shoes for the road and the two went back to the road after that. Tom and his wife Maddie Wachowski took Sonic to the top of the building the rings fell on.

While they were heading there, Robotnik finished building his Eggpod, his hovercraft powered by the energy of Sonic's lost quill. He found Sonic on the building before the blue blur could travel to the Mushroom Planet. Sonic teases that Eggman will never catch him, which annoys the doctor. To get Tom and Maddie to safety, Sonic pushes them off the building away from the missiles and bullets and throws a ring under them back to Green Hills. Eggman's pod however shifts speed to match Sonic and attack him. While chasing him, Sonic opens portals to different landmarks across the world. Sonic tries to blind him with a sand tornado while in Egypt but it doesn't work. The chase ends back in Green Hills where the people now defend Tom and the blue devil they didn't know was real.

Hearing Tom defend him, Sonic's eyes turn blue and takes his energy back from the Eggpod. The craft is still functional but Sonic now is way faster than it. He wrecks the machine and a beautiful light show. Now while the systems are starting to fail, Sonic launches Eggman through a portal Tom made to the Mushroom Planet. Robotnik is now trapped on an uninhabited planet, but he still has Sonic's lost quill. Tom and Maddie rebuild their home after the damage Robotnik caused. They are greeted at the front door by Commander Walters who tells them to stay quiet about Robotnik and gives them a card as a show of thanks. He asks them about the alien creature but they tell him they doubt they'll ever hear from him again. They then show Sonic his new room upstairs so he doesn't have to go back to his cave.

Eight months later, Miles "Tails" Prower appears through a ring portal to Earth looking for Sonic, hoping he's not too late to save him. He then flies off using his two tails to go find Sonic.

Production credits

Cast list

Character	Actor
Sonic the Hedgehog	Ben Schwartz
Sonic the Hedgehog (young)	Benjamin L. Valic
Dr. Robotnik	Jim Carrey
Tom Wachowski	James Marsden
Maddie Wachowski	Tika Sumpter
Rachel	Natasha Rothwell
Wade Whipple	Adam Pally
Crazy Carl	Frank C. Turner
Major Bennington	Neal McDonough
Agent Stone	Lee Majdoub
Longclaw	Donna Jay Fulks
Miles "Tails" Prower	Colleen O'Shaughnessey

Localised titles

Also known as

Language	Localised Name	English Translation
English	Sonic the Hedgehog	Sonic the Hedgehog
Japanese	ソニック・ザ・ムービー	Sonic the Movie
French	Sonic Le Film
Spanish	Sonic: La Película
Italian	Sonic: Il Film
Portuguese	Sonic: O Filme
Greek	Sonic: Η Ταινία
Polish	Sonic. Szybki jak błyskawica
Czech	Ježek Sonic
Slovak	Ježko Sonic
Croatian	Sonic: Super jež
Hungarian	Sonic, a Sündisznó
Bulgarian	Соник: Филмът
Serbian	Sonikov Film
Finnish	Sonic the Movie
Latvian	Soniks: Filma
Lithuanian	Eziukas Sonic
Russian	Соник в кино
Chinese (Simplified)	刺猬索尼克
Chinese (Traditional; Taiwan)	音速小子
Chinese (Traditional; Hong Kong)	超音鼠大電影
Vietnamese	Nhím Sonic
Hebrew	Sonic Ha'Seret

Promotional material

File:Sonic 2019 film animated poster.mp4

Animated poster

File:Sonic 2019 film JP animated poster.mp4

Animated poster (Japanese)

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  Poster

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  North American poster (April 2019)

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  Japanese poster (April 2019)

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  Australian poster (April 2019)

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  Mexican poster (April 2019)

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  North American poster (November 2019)

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  North American poster

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  Japanese poster (February 2020)

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  Full billing

CG Development

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  CGWORLD Excerpt

Physical scans

DVD version

DVD, JP (Rental)
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DVD, US
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DVD, UK
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DVD, FR
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DVD, DE
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DVD, ES
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Disc Printed advertising

DVD, IT
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DVD, AU
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DVD, BR
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Blu-ray version

Blu-ray, JP (Rental)
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Blu-ray, JP
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Blu-ray, JP (4K Ultra HD)

Blu-ray, JP (Limited Edition)
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Blu-ray, US
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Blu-ray, US (Limited Edition)
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Blu-ray, US (4K Ultra HD)
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Blu-ray, US (4K Ultra HD; Limited Edition)
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Blu-ray, UK
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Disc Cover Advertisement

Blu-ray, UK (4K Ultra HD)
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Blu-ray, UK (4K Ultra HD; Limited Edition)
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Blu-ray, FR

Blu-ray, FR (Édition Spéciale)
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Blu-ray, FR (4K Ultra HD)
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Blu-ray, FR (4K Ultra HD; Édition Spéciale)
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Blu-ray, DE
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Blu-ray, DE (4K Ultra HD)
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Blu-ray, DE (4K Ultra HD; Limited Edition)
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Blu-ray, ES
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Blu-ray, ES (Limited Edition)
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Blu-ray, ES (4K Ultra HD)
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Blu-Ray, IT
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Blu-ray, IT (Limited Edition)
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Blu-ray, IT (4K Ultra HD)

Blu-Ray, SE/DK/NO/FI

Blu-Ray, AU
Cover

Blu-Ray, AU (4K Ultra HD)

Blu-Ray, BR
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Blu-ray, BR (Edição Especial)
Cover

External links

• Official website (archive)
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  April 2019 official trailer
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  November 2019 official trailer
• Sonic the Hedgehog on Paramount Movies
• Sonic the Hedgehog on Paramount.jp
• Sonic the Hedgehog on Amazon: US, US (4K UHD), UK
• Sonic the Hedgehog on Apple TV+
• Sonic the Hedgehog on YouTube Movies

Streaming services

• Sonic the Hedgehog on Paramount+
• Sonic the Hedgehog on Hulu (U.S. only)
• Sonic the Hedgehog on Prime Video (Outside the U.S. only; U.S. users check Amazon.com listing above)
• Sonic the Hedgehog on Netflix (Select countries only)