Sonic the Hedgehog (2007 film)

Sonic the Hedgehog is a 2006 action-adventure comedy film directed by Jon Favreau, produced by Walter F. Parkes, Broderick Johnson, and Andrew Kosove, written by Ehren Kruger, George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg, and was based on the Sonic the Hedgehog series by Sega and Sonic Team. The film stars the voice of Ben Schwartz as the titular character, with Amy Palant, Dwayne Johnson, Hugh Jackman, Kathleen Delaney, Hannah Tointon, Kathryn Newton, Elara Distler, Jim Carrey, Macaulay Culkin, Kate Mara, Tyler Perry, and Mark Strong. After his home Green Hills gets tarnished by the wrath of Doctor Robotnik, Sonic the Hedgehog teams up with his friend Miles "Tails" Prower and Knuckles the Echidna after meeting some new friends, Wilson Brenton and Jenny Parker, as Doctor Robotnik travels across dimensions to Madison, Wisconsin.

Warner Bros. Pictures bought the film rights to the game franchise in June 2000 for a reported $300 million. A development deal was secured with Warner Bros. following Favreau's success directing Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005). The main characters were cast between June 2002 and July 2003 and principal photography took place between October 2003 and September 2004 in San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Vancouver, and Wisconsin with additional filming and pick-ups taking place in April and November 2005.

The film premiered in Los Angeles on December 7, 2006, and on December 22 in the United States, and in Japan on January 18, 2007. The film received universal acclaim upon release, with critics praising its animation, visual effects, voice cast, musical score, animated characters, plot, storyline, humor, songs, and faithfulness to the source material, although its screenplay, runtime and pacing drew criticism. It set the record for the biggest opening weekend for a video game film in the United States and Canada and was a box office success, grossing $987.7 million worldwide on its budget of $300 million, becoming the third highest-grossing film of 2006. After its success, the film was followed by two sequels: Sonic the Hedgehog 2: The Next Adventure (2010) and Sonic the Hedgehog 3: World Adventure (2015). All rights of three films were sold to Paramount Pictures on December 17, 2008.

Plot
Sonic the Hedgehog, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who can run at supersonic speeds, was enjoying his life in Green Hills, when one day, it was mysteriously bombed by an evil scientist named Doctor Robotnik.

Voice cast

 * Ben Schwartz as Sonic the Hedgehog, an anthropomorphic blue hedgehog with the ability to run faster than the speed of sound, hence his name, and possesses lightning-fast reflexes to match his speed, from Robotnik and the United States Government. After meeting and teaming up with Wilson, Sonic resolves to use his super-speed to fight and to put to stop and prevent Robotnik from getting his hands on his super-sonic speed powers for his plans of conquering the Earth. Schwartz also provided the motion-capture for Sonic.
 * Amy Palant as Miles "Tails" Prower, an anthropomorphic yellow-orange fox, with two distinct twin-tails, hence his nickname "Tails", that makes him fly when running at high speeds. Tails is a humble genius who invents gadgets for locations and fighting, and a Tornado biplane he uses in dangerous situations.
 * Dwayne Johnson as Knuckles the Echidna, an anthropomorphic red echidna warrior with super strength, and the former guardian of the Chaos Emeralds until they were stolen by Robotnik.
 * Henry Cavill as Shadow the Hedgehog, a black anthropomorphic hedgehog/Black Arms hybrid who resembles Sonic in many ways and is his main rival and occasional ally.
 * Kathleen Delaney as Rouge the Bat, a white anthropomorphic bat and jewel thief that has worked as a part-time government spy for the President of the United Federation and in close association with the military organization Guardian Units of Nations (G.U.N.)
 * Lisa Ortiz as Amy Rose, a pink anthropomorphic hedgehog who has a crush on Sonic, since meeting him on Little Planet, become his self-proclaimed girlfriend, attempting to win his heart by any means necessary.
 * Kathryn Newton as Cream the Rabbit, a peach anthropomorphic rabbit and the daughter of Vanilla the Rabbit, her mother.
 * Elera Distler as Tikal, ???
 * Tyler Perry as E-123 Omega, ???
 * Mark Strong as Metal Sonic, a robotic copy of Sonic created by Robotnik with the purpose of terminating Sonic and dominating the world.
 * Gary A. Hecker as Robotnik Robo: Robotnik's metallic henchman.
 * Frank Welker and Dee Bradley Baker provide the vocals of the badniks, Robotnik's evil inventions.

Live-action cast

 * Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik, an evil human scientist and the arch-nemesis of Sonic. Carrey compared his character to his portrayal of the Riddler in Batman Forever, saying: "I wouldn't put one against the other. I think they'd be a great team. But you know, it's like Robotnik and every supervillain in Marvel or DC basically comes from a place of neglect with a feeling of absolute worthlessness that manifests itself in magnificent creations that are designed to control the world, put their brand on everybody, and maybe even get inside your bloodstream with some nanotechnology occasionally".
 * Kieran Culkin as Wilson Brenton, a 17 year old high school student, known to Sonic as "Donut Lord", who meets Sonic and his friends and aids him in his quest to stop Robotnik.
 * Kate Mara as Jenny Parker, Wilson's love interest, who helps him and Sonic stop Robotnik. Sonic calls her "Pretzel Lady".
 * Macaulay Culkin as Timothy Brenton, Wilson's older brother.
 * Alec Baldwin and Jennifer Saunders as Martin and Judith Brenton, Wilson's parents.
 * Michael J. Fox as Edward Brenton, Wilson's grandpa who works on scientific stuff in his underground lab.
 * Neil Patrick Harris as Uncle Mike, Jeff's uncle.
 * William Hurt as Commander Mackerel, the owner and leader of the military organization Guardian Units of Nations (G.U.N.)
 * Christina Ricci as Chloe Sanchez, Thomas' personal assistant and Svenson's girlfriend later wife.
 * Gary Shandling as President Earle, the president who declares war on Robotnik and his badniks.
 * John Travolta as Mayor West, the mayor.

Pre-development
Following the success of Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie on home video, Sega had visions of making another Sonic feature-length film. Plans for a second Sonic movie was in talks with Hollywood Pictures in 1998. Rocky Morton, the director for the 1993 live-action adaptation to Super Mario Bros., was set to direct it. However, it never came to fruition.

In 2000, 20th Century Fox was interested in doing a movie adaptation to Sonic, and was set to produce it with Regency Enterprises. However, like the plan with Hollywood Pictures, the idea never came to fruition. The aesthetic of the film was going to be 2D animated, with animation provided by Philippine Animation Studio Inc., with Shane Acker attached as director, in his directorial debut. After the idea was disbanded, it was switched to Warner Bros. Pictures. In early 2001, test CGI renders were provided, depicting Sonic as an altered version unlike the video games, with pointier spikes, improved details, textured fur, and other details. Sonic was given semi-realistic eyes, colored green like the video games. After a thorough corporate discussion, a deal was made.

Development
In 2002, a Sonic the Hedgehog movie was given the green light by Warner Bros., who had worked out a deal with Sega to produce a live-action/computer-animated film, after it was previously envisioned as a 2D-animated film, with animation to be provided by Warner Bros. Feature Animation. However, it never fell through, as Warner Bros. was dealing with the development of other television shows at this time period. It was later announced that Amblin Entertainment was attached to the project, with Steven Spielberg as an executive producer and screenwriter. Additionally, DreamWorks Pictures co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg served as a co-executive producer and a storywriter for the film, though DreamWorks was not credited in the final film.

Broderick Johnson and Andrew Kosove, founders of Alcon Entertainment, were signed to the project for additional editorial work, and both served as producers for the film. Bruce Berman of Village Roadshow Pictures was also attached to the project, as a producer. Originally intended to be a screenwriter and storyboard artist, they attached Berman to the project as a co-executive producer. Spike Lee and Adam KcKay were attached to the project as the additional screenwriters, and served as the storywriters for the film, alongside George Lucas and Gary Scott Thompson. It was later revealed that Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy were attached to the project, who both served as co-executive producers.

Casting
Revealed by Spielberg in June 2002, Ben Schwartz was signed to the casting team as Sonic the Hedgehog. During recording tests, casting crew found Schwartz to deliver a young, yet mature tone to Sonic. Fans praised the decision of Schwartz as Sonic, since it was Sonic's first feature-length motion picture, and that Schwartz would capture the perfect voice of Sonic in film. Amy Palant was cast as Miles "Tails" Prower, the same time as Sonic X and the rest of the franchise from 2005 to 2010. Director Jon Favreau said that Amy Palant was "the perfect voice for Tails", and that she "captures the young, smart voice of the fox".

WWE Championship professional wrestler and actor Dwayne Johnson was cast to the film as Knuckles the Echidna. Johnson had expressed interest as playing Knuckles since the film's announcement in July 2002. Originally supposed to be cast by Toy Story actor Tom Hanks, Johnson was given the role. Hanks expressed in an interview that he was "disappointed that [he] didn't get the role", but appreciated the casting of Johnson to the project, and wished him "good luck". Hanks was cast as minor character appearances in the film.

Kieran Culkin was cast in the film as Wilson Brenton, a 17 year old student at Middleton High School, and is friends with Jenny Parker, a teenager from Toronto and student at Edgewood High School, who was provided by Kate Mara. This would later apply to the 2020 film Sonic the Hedgehog, starring James Marsden as Tom Wachowski, a sheriff for the Green Hills Police Department, and Tika Sumpter as Tom's wife Maddie Wachowski, a doctor.

Following the casting of Culkin and Mara, it was revealed by Frank Marshall in February 2003 that acclaimed actor Jim Carrey would be providing the voice work for Doctor Robotnik. Carrey expressed in an interview with CBS News that he was "ecstatic", "thrilled", and "honored to voice the big bad Robotnik". Carrey's vocal performance as Robotnik was sinister, evil, demeaning, and cunning, much like the video games. Test audiences absolutely loved Carrey's performance, that he was guaranteed to win an Oscar when the film was released. Around the same time, in early November 2002, British actor Henry Cavill was cast as Shadow the Hedgehog.

Cavill had expressed interest in voicing Shadow the Hedgehog during the animation process. His moment came in June 2003 when he was approached by Warner Bros. for him to lend his vocal performance for Shadow. Cavill agreed, and signed to the project. His voice delivery was evil, witting, and demeaning, similar to Carrey's vocal performance of Robotnik. Later during the production, acclaimed actor Lisa Ortiz was cast as Amy Rose, Sonic's love interest. Test audiences praised Ortiz's test performance of Amy, calling it "charming", "wholesome", and "natural".

Filming
Principal photography began on October 19, 2003, in Vancouver, under the working title of Station Square, with scenes shot at the Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre, inside BC Place, and at Hi-View Lookout in Cypress Provincial Park, West Vancouver (as San Francisco's Bay Area Park). This was followed by filming in the neighborhood of Madison, Wisconsin. A small battle scene was shot in Wisconsin Dells, involving approximately 30 soldiers, 7 police vehicles, an MD 500 helicopter, and a BearCat. Another scene was filmed at the fisherman's wharf along Finn Slough. Additional shooting took place on Vancouver Island, around Nanaimo and Victoria in British Columbia. Additional filming involving extras took place around industrial areas of Coquitlam, British Columbia. The following month, secondary filming took place about an hour outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the Butler area. A chase sequence was also shot in Worthington, Pennsylvania at Creekside Mushroom Farms, the world's largest single-site mushroom farm, which provided 150 miles of abandoned limestone tunnels 300 feet below the ground for filming. Filming took place in Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California.

On March 18, 2004, the crew began shooting at Dominica, a location Favreau had selected as he felt it fitted the sense of remoteness he was looking for. However, this was also a problem; the Dominican government were completely unprepared for the scale of a Hollywood production, as while the 500-strong crew occupying around 90% of the roads on the island they had trouble moving around on the underdeveloped surfaces. At Hawaii, the sequences involving Mystic Ruins and the forest segment of the battle were shot. Favreau preferred to use practical props for the giant bridge and metal cage sequences, feeling long close-up shots would help further suspend the audience's disbelief. Filming on the island concluded on May 26, 2004.

Production relocated to Downtown Vancouver in early-June 2004, where filming took place in North Wells Street to be used in climactic battle scenes over a period of two weeks. Army Reserve soldiers assigned to the Columbus, Ohio-based 391st Military Police Battalion provided background action during the battle scenes in Chicago. Staff Sergeant Michael T. Landis stated the use of real soldiers made the scenes more realistic and helped portray the military in a more positive light, explaining that, "It's easy for us to make on-the-spot corrections to tactics and uniforms. The director actually took our recommendation on one scene and let us all engage the enemy as opposed to only the gunners in the trucks engaging". Filming also took place in the large vacuum chamber at the NASA Plum Brook Station near Sandusky, Ohio. A series of water explosions were filmed at Downtown Milwaukee, as part of the final battle sequence that began. Scenes from the film were also shot in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Some aircraft carrier scenes were filmed on board the US Navy aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, while additional scenes were shot on board the similar Nimitz and Carl Vinson between July and late-September 2004. The 11-month shoot proceeded as scheduled (From October 19, 2003), and concluded on September 22, 2004. On April 17, 2005, pick-ups were conducted as Favreau sought to film more action scenes. The film then wrapped in July, although additional special effects shots were taken to finalize the production a month later. In November, there were further pick-up shots regarding the resolution of Metal Sonic's story, amounting to four different versions.

Animation and visual effects
The animation and visual effects were produced at Sony Pictures Imageworks and Industrial Light & Magic. The film includes 1,205 computer-animated shots. Each shot was rendered using high-performance graphics card systems provided by American technology corporation Intel, and high-quality rendering capabilities funded by Microsoft Corporation. The main characters' fur and hair were rendered with additional CGI work by the now-defunct American animation studio Rhythm & Hues Studios. The latter company was credited in the final film, in the end credits.

Sony Pictures Imageworks and Industrial Light & Magic produced their animation separately. Sony Pictures Imageworks produced the CGI animation, while Industrial Light & Magic supervised in CGI animation, while they also provided the visual effects for the film. Rough Draft Studios, a Korean animation studio, providing 2D animation work for flashback sequences involving Sonic's past life. They, like Rhythm & Hues Studios, were credited in the final film.

Blur Studio, an American animation company, who had previously worked on animation for South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (1999), was attached to the project to provide additional visual effect work. German visual effects company Scanline VFX was also signed to the project, providing minor CGI details, and provided additional visual effects. British animation companies Double Negative and Moving Picture Company were also signed to the project.

Upon the completion of the animation in full, the animation was packed and shipped to Warner Bros. in Hollywood, California. The animation was compiled and put together, with editorial work done by John Carnochan and Gregory Perler, the latter of which provided editorial work for Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001).

Music

 * Main article: Sonic the Hedgehog (soundtrack)

The film's score was composed by American composer Michael Giacchino and British composer Henry Jackman as an additional composer. Giacchino and Jackman worked closely with Sonic composers Masato Nakamura and Jun Senoue, and Crush 40 on the project, with Giacchino incorporating music from the games into the film's score. The scoring took place at the Newman Scoring Stage at 20th Century Fox. The process spanned from November 28, 2005 to July 12, 2006.

The film's score album was released on December 17, 2006 through Sony Music Entertainment, via Warner Bros. Records. The film's soundtrack album, which contained original songs and already existing songs from various artists, was released on December 10, 2006 through Universal Music Group, via Interscope Records. The song "The Speed of Sound" by Black Eyed Peas received critical acclaim, earning 8x Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. "Gotta Go Fast" and "The Fastest Thing Alive", both from Sonic X and Sonic SatAM are included in the film's official soundtrack album.

Marketing
The film was heavily promoted worldwide, with teaser posters and advertisements spread across the world. The first teaser trailer was promoted in the United States, with its original release date of November 4, 2005 in theatres with Chicken Little. The first theatrical trailer premiered on May 5, 2006, in theatres with Mission: Impossible III, The Da Vinci Code, Over the Hedge, X-Men: The Last Stand and The Legend of Zelda. with its current release date of December 22, 2006.

A special trailer debuted during commercial breaks, and featured the song "Gotta Go Fast", the main theme song for the 2003 anime television series Sonic X. Response to this was overwhelmingly positive. A second trailer debuted in October 2006, with the song "The Fastest Thing Alive" from the DiC animated television show Sonic the Hedgehog, abbreviated as Sonic SatAM. As the song was a popular piece of Sonic media during the '90s, the trailer received acclaim from audiences, with many appointing it as a fit to the trailer and the film's aesthetic. The song, along with "Gotta Go Fast", were included in the film's official soundtrack.

Theatrical
The film premiered in Los Angeles on December 7, 2006. It was later released theatrically in the United States on December 22, 2006 by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film was rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America for some rude humor, mild peril, language and action.

Home media
The film was released by Warner Home Video on DVD (in separate widescreen and pan and scan editions), HD-DVD, and Blu-ray Disc on May 1, 2007, in the United States and Canada, and June 30, 2007 in most of Europe. DVD sales were very successful, selling over 4 million copies the first week and generating a gross of over US$93 million. There were a total of 9 million copies sold and an accumulated total sales of over $160 million (not including Blu-ray).

The film was also collected in a 10-disc box set titled "Nintendo Cinematic Universe: Level One – The Beginning" which includes all of the Level One films in the Nintendo Cinematic Universe, was released on May 4, 2010.

Box office
Sonic the Hedgehog debuted on December 7, 2006 in Los Angeles, on December 22, 2006 in the United States and on Decemebr 25, 2006, internationally. The film grossed $385.4 million in the United States and Canada and $602.3 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $987.7 million against its reported budget of $75-85 million. Breaking several box office records, the film became the third highest-grossing film of 2006, the highest-grossing superhero film of the year, and was the highest-grossing film distributed by Warner Bros. until 2008's The Dark Knight. The film's budget was estimated at being between $200 million and $400 million.

In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongside The Good Shepherd, Night at the Museum, and We Are Marshall, and was initially projected to gross $40–50 million from 4,130 theaters in its four-day Christmas opening weekend. After making $21 million on its first day (including $3 million from Thursday night previews), estimates were raised to $64 million. It went on to top the box office with a $58 million debut over the three-day weekend, and $70 million over the four, breaking The Legend of Zelda 's record for the biggest opening weekend by a video game-based film. It was also the fourth-best Christmas holiday weekend and Jim Carrey's second biggest opening weekend, behind Bruce Almighty (2003). The success was attributed in part to the redesign of Sonic and the publicity it created, and the delayed release date, which meant it opened with less competition from other family films. Opening day audiences were 56% male and 44% female, with 70% under 25 years and 30% over 25 years. In its second weekend, Sonic the Hedgehog made $26.2 million and retained the top spot at the box office, bringing its ten-day domestic gross to $106.6 million. On February 14, 2007, it became the highest-grossing film based on a video game in US box office history, surpassing The Legend of Zelda.

Sonic the Hedgehog was released in 40 countries during its three-day opening weekend, topping the international box office with $43 million. Its strongest international regions were Latin America and Europe, with its largest openings being $6.7 million in Mexico, $6.2 million in the United Kingdom, $4.3 millionin France, $3.3 million in Germany, and $3 million in Brazil. Worldwide, it made $101 million over the three-day weekend and $113 million over the four days. In its second weekend the film again topped the international box office with $38.3 million from 56 countries for a ten-day overseas gross of $96.5 million, and topped the global box office again with $64.6 million for a ten-day worldwide gross of $203.1 million. Its largest international markets in its first ten days were the United Kingdom ($19.1 million), Mexico ($12.3 million), and France ($9.1 million), retaining the top spot in these markets. The film opened in 16 new markets, led by a number-one debut in Russia ($6.3 million). The film was released in Japan on January 18, 2007 and debuted at No. 6 that weekend.

Critical response
Sonic the Hedgehog holds an approval rating of 95% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes based on 196 critics, with an average rating of 8.95/10. The sites' critical consensus reads: "Fast-paced, speedy, beautifully animated, and a breathtaking adventure, Sonic the Hedgehog is an animated dessert for fans of the classic Genesis games to enjoy." On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 88 out of 100 based on 21 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore assigned the film an average grade "A" on its scale of A+ to F.

Sequels
Sonic the Hedgehog was followed by two sequels: Sonic the Hedgehog 2: Next Adventure in 2010, and Sonic the Hedgehog 3: World Adventure in 2014.

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