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It's been an overall rough life for Sonic the Hedgehog, as bizarre as it may sound. Despite being one of gaming's most well known names and one of the two leading mascots for the Fourth Generation of consoles, it's not been an uphill ride since. It may be something subject to my own personal opinion, but Sonic honestly hasn't hit a winner since Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast, and even that in my opinion is overrated.  Now many would disagree and state that Sonic Adventure 2 was a great game, though I and many others think it was average, even for its own time. The Sonic and Shadow levels were enjoyable, but the rest of the game boarded on mediocre to dull. Don't get me wrong, it's not like you're not getting a good purchase, but compared to Mario 64, Sunshine and Galaxy, Sonics' subsequent games have been an average fair. And the less said about the Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 game the better.

The only Sonic game released in the 6^th Generation that I find to transcend the above average barrier are the Sonic Advance and Sonic Rush series, which in all fairness barely change much from the old classic Sonic series. But that's not what this reviews about.
I think I can say with all honesty that Sonic the Hedgehog's TV series have overall been pretty poor. Most series suffered from poor ratings or loose connection to the series and the only one to actually borrow story and characters (bar Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Robotnik) from the games is some of the worst and easily overrated anime I've seen in years. Yes that is Sonic X I'm talking about by the way.

The only Sonic cartoon that has ever had an important impact on me is the aptly named: Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie. This VHS release has two very important factors, both of which I'm well aware of. Number one, yes I know that it's not an actual movie. Of course, what movie is less than an hour long? No, in fact this ‘Movie' is actually a two part OVA (original video animation) that was pasted together and presented in the West as the world's shortest Movie. Still to date it's the closest thing Sonic has ever had to a feature production. Secondly, yes, though I may have said that some of the failed Sonic cartoons failed because of their lack of relevance to the games, this film doesn't do much to improve on that, creating a totally new world and new set of characters to go with it. However this film accomplishes what in my opinion no other Sonic the Hedgehog, alas, no video game anime/cartoon has ever accomplished: It feels just like the games, and tries to convey that feeling.

What I find frustrating about new Sonic games is the not complicated, but overly elaborate story. If you strip it down, Sonic the Hedgehog is a blue anthropomorphic hedgehog who runs at high speeds to defeat the evil dictator Dr. Robotnik. Now I know there's a little bit more than that, but there's no need for much else of a story, yet every game from Sonic Adventure out does itself to make sure the story is as far away from a traditional Sonic outing as possible. Some Sonic fans today debate that Sonic Adventure 2 is the best Sonic game ever. That is of course, firkin bull. However their arguments simply refer to the story, which they think is brilliant. It's pretty inventive I guess, but I feel it's Shadow's back story and the overall ‘cool' appeal of the story that made it so popular. Disagree? Just read the longwinded and detailed story Sonic fan boys have attempted to explain to the last detail on the games Wikipedia page.
Also one other aspect of those games that was ridiculous: Sonic should never be in the same dimension as humans, unless it's Doctor Robotnik, who barely counts as human. I mean it's fine in Sonic X because there's a legitimate reason as to why a talking blue hedgehog is in the same time zone as a young teenage boy, but in Sonic Adventure and its sequel, they look totally out of place.

Which brings me to Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie's story: It's simple. The film begins with Doctor Robotnik coveting his own creation: The super powered Sonic clone, Metal Sonic. This is the only Sonic animated series/production to feature the Sonic CD debut enemy, and overall I liked the use of the character. Robotnik needs the original Sonic's DNA so he can make is creation perfect. I personally love this opening, the atmosphere, the dark overtone, plus  Metal Sonic is the first thing we see. It's the ultimate way to begin such a movie.
We swap over to Sonic's island (yes he has an island) where Tails is sporting a newly created jet propelled body board, though he is snubbed by Sonic. One thing I will say at this point is that Sonic is an ass in this film, but we'll get back to that. Tails' jet propelled surf board goes out of control, continuously spraying Sonic with water and sand, whilst conveniently an ‘Old Man' (an anthropomorphic Owl, complete with bad eyesight) comes along and nearly crashes into a mountain along with Tails, ultimately burning them to a cartoon animal crispy brown. But before that could happen, Sonic springs into action and in a feat that strangely is able to establish that he's a super Sonic hedgehog, he runs round the side of a cliff, and is able to save his sidekick and Old Barmy Mc'blindo. It turns out this feathered dimwit put his life at risk simply to give Sonic a message: The President needs him, and it's urgent. Not one to waste time (well actually considering Sonic opened up the film sunbathing...) Sonic and Tails prepare the familiar plane, the Tornado, and head towards the President's, err, house. Something people always seem to nitpick in Sonic is how he is able to ride on the roof of the plane without falling off. If you're really questioning the logic in a film about a blue hedgehog that can run at incredible speeds who's joined by a Fox with two tails allowing him to fly, who's also a skilled engineer...you're delusional.
Arriving at the Presidents establishment Sonic and Tails find Robotnik sitting in his chair, but before they can act they see the President and his daughter are tied up at gunpoint. Oh my, the President's daughter. There's one hell of a character if I ever saw one. Named Sara, she's one of the movies few human beings, and she barely crosses that line on account of one fact: She is a furry. That's right, sporting a set of cat ears and tails, she's the child audience's first exposure to the wonderful world of humans whose sex appeal comes from their animal appearance. God help us. Mind you in the course of the entire film no one ever questions Sara's appearance, so we'll let it slide.
Robotnik merely asks for a moment of Sonic's time, so he can explain a conumdrum that threatens all of them. Explaining his backstory, Robotnik tells them he once lived peacefully in a city known as Robotropolis, until it was attacked by a robotic overlord named Metal Robotnik, who not only took over the city but also sabotaged the generator, which is set to explode and wipe out the whole planet. Naturally Sonic and Tails are the only ones capable of stopping the generator, and are asked to do so.
Now, this is where Sonic is an ass. A jack ass if you will. He just tells Robotnik to clear up his own mess, and that it's none of his responsibility. The fate of the world is at stake and our hero says he wants to do nothing; all the while lying down on a desk, with his eyes closed scratching his nose? Who is this rogue hedgehog? Eventually he accepts, regrettably. However to his credit, does no one see the lack of logic in Robotnik's story? I can get over the fact that he lived in a city based after his name, maybe he ruled it, but all the planets must have aligned to make it so the city was conquered by someone with the exact same name as Robotnik, only beginning with metal. No one even questions this...but I digress.
In order to help them reach the city, Robotnik gives Tails a watch with a navigator in it. Actually on their way to ‘The Land of Darkness' Sonic has an epiphany of logic: Perhaps the navigator Robotnik gave the Fox to help them get to Robotropolis may have a bomb in it. But Tails' response is: "But Robotnik is the only one who knows where Robotropolis is so we have to use his navigator and hope it works!" But he gave you the navigator...the city is...argh!
In between their journey to the city we have some strange scenes with Robotnik and Sara, who as you would imagine, is spoilt self centered bitch. Blunt is my middle name. She gets annoyed with Robotnik after he beats her on a video game for the hundreth time(which uses Genesis controllers, a nice reference), which he keeps playing with her as she threatens to 'not be his hostage anymore' if he doesn't. Wow, why doesn't anyone ever do that when captured by Al Queda? Suddenly she stops playing and wants a ride in one of his ships. Bitch thy name is comic value. Although I do love this lone robot's farewell message...

...Surely he has some unexplained back-story to him, and a hidden love for Sarah, but anyway he's meaningless and generic so let's return to the plot.

After Sonic and Tails crash land in the land of darkness, we get what is arguably the best scene in the movie, where Sonic and Tails have to manoeuvre through Metal Robotniks traps, and it's easily the closet any Sonic animated production has ever come to mimicking the games. It's fast paced, enemies are smashed apart left and right, and the music is fantastic. It's a little short, but a little slice of heaven goes a long way.
Now another nitpick people have with this movie is at times Sonic appears to be flying, when he obviously can't. A fair criticism, but it's not as illogical as it seems. Whenever you fire Sonic off a ramp in the games, doesn't he float in the air before landing on the ground, without accumulating falling damage? Hell unless you make Sonic jump off the stage into what is a bottomless pit, then he never dies from falling, and that's what happens in the movie, except it's from a different angle.
Arriving in an abandoned city (after going through a 'warp zone', another nice reference), looking what I imagined New York city to look like at the end of Cloverfield, Sonic and Tails are ambushed by none other than Metal Robotnik, who surprise surprise, has the exact same voice as regular Robotnik. You guessing yet? After a short fight with Metal Robotnik's arsenal of rockets and machine guns Sonic nearly ends up drowning and Tails, stuck to a wall unable to move, yelling that he "Can save you!"...obviously not, it's at this point that we finally meet the third in the trio: Knuckles. At first I thought it was just a cameo, but thankfully he arrives, saves Sonic and Tails, and uses his exceptional strength to help Sonic defeat Metal Robotnik, who turns out to be Dr. Robotnik and Sarah in a machine. Oh My God! I did not see that coming!

After thanking Knuckles, the movie does two things. One, it informs us that treasure hunting is Knuckles' favourite past time...I figured it was his job, but glad to see the people who made this movie had knowledge of the characters. The second, it tries to piss you off. How? It makes us think Knuckles is going to depart and either come back later in the movie or leave for good. However, he returns just seconds later to join Sonic and Tails. What was the point of his 2 second departure? What did it accomplish?!

This is round about where the first episode of the OVA ends, so before I get into the second episode and the arrival of Metal Sonic, let's talk about some of the movies good and bad points.

For one the animation in this film is brilliant. Well detailed back rounds, fast paced action scenes and a brilliant setting make it an appealing film to look at. To be fair, the character designs feel lacking. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Robotnik (who to be fair is an exact replica of his appearance in Sonic CD) look too basic and plain, and Sarah just contrasts with her short skirt and revealing top. Ouch. The special effects, where used, look great, and the battle against Metal Robotnik is pretty entertaining. But what really gains points is the world the characters live in. Basically, the main world, the land of the Sky, is separated from the Land of Darkness, held together by a set of Icy glaciers. It's very intricate, and you wonder why they used a boring, stereotyped world in Sonic Adventure over this original landscape. I mean, if you notice during the film's opening credits, the Production Directors list includes Yuji Naka, the former head designer of Sonic Team, who also plays a part in the film's production, so why did they shrug off the film's universe? Did they want it to be standalone? Who knows...

Another high point is the music. I'm not sure if it belonged in the film to begin with, or If it was specifically recorded for the North American release, but it sounds brilliant. Unlike newer Sonic games there's no reliance on heavy guitars or cheesy lyrics, it's just laid back techno beats that stand on their own, even without the footage.

The main criticism for the film is pretty obvious: The voice acting for the English dub is pretty pathetic. Horrible voices layered over poorly written dialogue don't do much to keep non-Sonic the hedgehog fans interested. In fact most people who I've watched this film with, who were not big Sonic fans, didn't last for more than the first half, which is a shame, because the second is the better half. To date no one's uploaded the original Japanese dub on sites such as Youtube, and with no region 2 DVD release with the Japanese audio included I may never hear it. I mean Knuckles sounds OK...and Metal Sonic is alright as well (based on the fact he has one line), but the lame humour written dialogue is just unappealing. I mean the film's tagline was: "Scrape your Knuckles. Catch some Tails." Was it supposed to be hinting they were in the movie? Considering they're on the box that's not that surprising. And catch some Tails? Were they just lost as to how they could combine the word ‘tails' with a verb? Yeah, now I'm nitpicking.

And finally we come to the main talking point of the film: The Censorship. I love Japanese anime simply for the fact that it never feels compelled to tone itself down for its youthful audience. The Japanese culture is just so much more lax. In just about every anime presented for children in the West, there are always cuts made. And if you've read my 4kids rant, then you'll know how pathetic they are. The Japanese are just clever enough to realize that having a character clutch to a woman's chest for comedic purposes is not inappropriate; it's clean fun that won't have totally adverse effects on the children. So here are a few examples of the lines and images that got censored on the initial video release of the movie:

The first one obviously shows Sonic raising his middle finger, but this was altered to look like his index finger in the re-cut. Allegedly this edit doesn't exist on the region 1 DVD. Secondly there's the scene where Metal Sonic flies into Robotnik's hovercraft, and looks up Sarah's dress, whilst Sonic, whose mind is linked to Metal's, spazzes out. Then, there's the scene where Tails falls and ends up clutching to Sarah's breast whilst Knuckles says: "I never thought you'd stoop that low..." The last is a truly horrific scene where Robotnik tells Sarah of his plans to marry her, showing this picture of their ghastly children, including one being breast fed. Hilarious stuff ^^

So returning to the story, Sonic and pals basically break into Robotropolis (which again, has Robotnik's face on the front, but no one questions this...you know what, I don't care anymore, it's pointless) and after Sonic is nearly beaten by a conveyer belt he halts the explosion with a comically clichéd one millisecond left  before the bomb goes off. Suddenly Sonic is trapped in a strange electric shield, when out of the ground comes Metal Robotnik, who our heroes are shocked to discover is Dr. Robotnik, and this was all his diabolical scheme. Well fucking done. Finally Metal Sonic is revealed to the heroes, and begins his first battle with the renowned Hedgehog, and being Sonic...he gets his ass handed to him. Meanwhile Robotnik escapes with Sarah, whilst Knuckles and Tails return to Sonic's island.
Sonic survives the battle, and Tails, reprogramming  the locator given to them by Robotnik, discovers that after Metal Sonic went on a killing rampage in the President's city, moved to the glaciers that bind the world together (I repeat my love of this world), and decide he's going to destroy the glaciers, causing the continents to float into space. LULZ. Sonic overhears this and runs there to engage in a final battle with Metal.
And what a fight it is. It's truly the highlight of the film, as Sonic and Metal Sonic literally beat the crap out of each other in a no holds bar fight that actually does more damage to the glaciers than Metal did on his own. Of course the fight is a little more even this time due to Sonic now having knowledge that Metal is linked to his DNA, allowing him to predict his moves. There's a memorable piece of dialogue from Sonic that sums up the battle: "You might know everything that I'm going to do, but that's not going to help since I know everything you're going to do. Strange, isn't it?!" I honestly can't tell whether that's badly written or just clever dialogue, whichever, it makes me laugh.

I don't want to spoil the ending, but all I can say is it's a bittersweet victory for the good guys, but for reasons you wouldn't have guessed. The actual end is incredibly cheesy, but hey it's a kid's film, and all I can say it's a shame there was no sequel to the OVA.

So final thoughts? If you're not connected to the Sonic series that much...you would actually benefit from leaving this alone. If you're the opposite, you'll lap it up. It's a surprisingly impressive production sporting great visuals, a simple yet compelling (however silly) plot, impressive battle scenes and a soundtrack that is so appropriate I can't explain it. However it's slightly spoiled by badly written dialogue coupled with lacklustre performances (the English speaking world ruin everything ; < ) so I would recommend trying to find a Japanese dub if possible. I saw this when I was younger, and to date I still consider it the best animated Sonic the Hedgehog production available, and at a running time of around 45 minutes, you won't exactly be wasting much time. Classic stuff.

Notes: You may have noticed I never called Dr. Robotnik ‘Eggman' throughout the whole review. Damn straight I did.

Also before you condemn my opinions of the recent Sonic games and Sonic X, just think twice, I have valid arguements. And personally Sonic Unleashed is my most anticipated game this year, so it's not like I hate all 6^th Generation Sonic titles and beyond.

Finally if you want to see the film, it's on YouTube in 5 parts, here's the links: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5