Sonic the Hedgehog (2007 film)

Sonic the Hedgehog is a 2007 action-adventure comedy film based on the video game franchise series by Sega. Directed by Jon Favreau, produced by Neal H. Moritz, Toby Ascher, and Toru Nakahara, written by Ehren Kruger, George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg, the film stars the voice and motion capture performance of Ben Schwartz as the titular character, with Amy Palant, Dwayne Johnson, Lisa Ortiz, Kathryn Newton, Kathleen Delaney, Jim Carrey, Dave Franco, Ashley Olsen, and Mark Strong. The film follows Sonic, an anthropomorphic hedgehog who can run supersonic speeds, reluctantly teaming up with a two-tailed fox named Miles “Tails” Prower after meeting some new friends, Jake Bradley and Jenny Parker, to stop Dr, Eggman and Metal Sonic from using the Master Emerald which can be used to take over the world, both who have the aid of Knuckles the Echidna to find the Emerald in Angel Island while traveling across dimensions to San Diego, California.

Originally in development with Columbia Pictures, the project was placed in turnaround before it was given to Paramount Pictures in 2000. Following Jon Favreau's directorial success with Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005), Paramount secured a development deal. The main characters were cast between June 2002 and July 2003, with principal photography taking place between December 2004 and November 2005. Filming took place in San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Vancouver, and San Diego. Additional filming and pick-ups occurred in January to May 2006. Industrial Light & Magic, Rhythm & Hues Studios, and Marza Animation Planet provided the animation for the characters, while motion capture performances and animation done by New Zealand-based Weta Digital.

Sonic the Hedgehog premiered at the Paramount Pictures studio lot on May 30, 2007, before being theatrically on June 8 in the United States, and in Japan on October 5. The film received universal acclaim upon release, with critics praising its animation, visual effects, screenplay, voice cast, musical score, animated characters, plot, story line, humor, songs, and faithfulness to the source material, although its runtime drew some 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 $887 million worldwide on its budget of $100 million, becoming the fourth highest-grossing film of 2007. 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).

Plot
In a forest of Madagascar, two American journalists Robbie and Julie are discretely reporting about mercenaries and smugglers led by Devon Corvus attempting to illegally capture and move out exotic animals for an unknown mobster. Just as they are discovered and chased by the smugglers, the pair has their lives saved by unknown shadowed warriors who defeat the smugglers, destroy their weapons and vehicles and free the captured animals. The journalists' saviors are revealed to be Sonic the Hedgehog and his comrades Miles "Tails" Prower and Knuckles the Echidna. Sonic acknowledges the pair as reporters and Tails passes them a flash-drive containing the information their people will need about the world the trio came from before they depart in a incoming ship and the U.S. Marines arrive to retrieve the journalists and the apprehended the smugglers.

Elsewhere, Victoria "Vicky" Lane and her fiancee Travis Lawton attend to a lecture at the City College of New York, where their former teacher Professor Franklin Donovan tells the lecture guests about Mobius, a new tenth planet in the Solar System which was discovered six months ago by scientists and astrophysicists working for Vicky's father Joel Lane at Lane Stargate - a new high-tech NASA influenced spacecraft company, although some more details have yet to be disclosed and what is already known is classified, except the fact that life is evolving on Mobius. Following an interview with a psychiatric hospital patient who claims to have been in Mobius before and seen its true nature. Vicky and Travis dismiss the patient's words due to his crazed behavior, but they eventually grow driven by curiosity when Robbie and Julie come and give them a golden ring which can heal the wielder's injuries and diseases, leading them to decide to travel to Mobius via a spaceship piloted by their long time old friend Rick Kane and monitored by flight controller Ellie Jones. Vicky's cameraman Wallace "Wally" Allen also joins the trip.

Meanwhile, after returning to Mobius, Sonic and his friends manage to stop their old foe Dr. Eggman from another attempt to kidnap Princess Elise and destroy Soleanna. Eggman is defeated by the group before he is taken by Sonic to be arrested by G.U.N. Units commissioned by Shadow the Hedgehog and Commander Abraham Tower, leaving Eggman's robots leaderless and getting his loyal assistants Orbot and Cubot to find a temporary replacement for him. After a date with his sweetheart Amy Rose, Sonic is informed of the approaching Lane Stargate spacecraft crew who went to visit Mobius and he and Amy go on to investigate. At the same time, Corvus escapes custody and sneaks into and hijacks one of the NASA Spacecrafts, setting course to Mobius, where the mobster who hired him (who turns out to be Eggman) lives in.

Vicky, Travis, Rick and Wally arrive in Mobius, where they find and experiment on countless rings around the forest and befriend the Chao, creatures which can absorb and learn skills and traits from other life-forms. Through their course, they are ambushed and chased by one of Eggman's runaway robots, but are saved by Sonic and his friends before following them to Soleanna, where they are greeted by Elise. Corvus lands on Eggman's headquarters in the Death Egg Base, where Orbot and Cubot, still searching for a new replacement for their apprehended master, reluctantly accept Corvus as their new leader. Under his orders, the robots forcibly exact to activate Eggman's forbidden machines, inadvertently awakening Eggman's deadliest and most rebellious of the robots: Neo Metal Sonic, who then enslaves and takes command of the other robots and makes Corvus his servant, though Orbot and Cubot escape.

While their visitors learn more about Soleanna; Vicky interviews the residents, including Amy in the Chao Garden and Elise in the palace and Travis and Rick practice the use of G.U.N. technology, Sonic and Tails visit Prison Island, where Eggman is still held in custody for his crimes. Orbot and Cubot arrive to warn Sonic and Shadow about the situation in the Death Egg Base. Metal Sonic sends Eggman's robots to attack Prison Island and retrieve Eggman to enslave him. Sonic and Shadow battle and repel the robots, though Commander Tower is injured in the fight. Deducing that Metal Sonic is after the Chaos Emeralds, Sonic's group and Travis' crew agree to work for a way to collect them all before Metal Sonic does.

Tails, Wally and Rick travel to Angel Island. where they implant cloaking devices to keep the Master Emerald safe from Metal Sonic's sight. Sonic and Knuckles travel to Earth and collect three Emeralds which appeared in there. In the progress, the duo also wins Joel and Ellie's trust by defeating some smugglers hired by Corvus to assault Lane Stargate as Vicky's daughter Felicia bonds with Sonic after having many visions and dreams of him since she made contact with one of the Mobian Rings. Shadow and Travis retrieve three Emeralds in a ravaged sector of Eggman's research labs, where they defeat the reactivated E-101 Mark II and Shadow Android Prime with help from Shadow's G.U.N. comrade Omega. Vicky and Amy search for the last of the Emeralds in the Soul Realm of Soleanna, where Maria Robotnik, who was revived as the keeper of the Emerald, informs Vicky that the Emerald can only be retrieved by her memories of someone she mourns. Vicky tearfully remembers the death of her husband Scott before having a short but emotional reunion with his spirit, earning the Emerald in the progress.

Sonic's group and Travis' crew gather in Angel Island just as Metal Sonic's armada arrives to attack the island to obtain the Master Emerald. Shadow summons a G.U.N. air-fleet to protect the island and a massive battle begins. Sonic duels with Metal Sonic himself while the others hold their on against the corrupted robots. On the middle of the battle, Travis confronts Corvus, who is attempting to escape with the captured Chao. After a brief fight, Travis frees the Chao before Corvus is killed by one of Metal Sonic's robots.

Using a Master Emerald-powered ring given to him by Vicky, Sonic absorbs the Chaos Emeralds and activates his ultimate power, which he uses to defeat Metal Sonic and throw him into the Death Egg Base reactor, annihilating the robot along with the space-station, short-circuiting and killing off all remaining Eggman Robots, except for Omega, Orbot and Cubot.

In the aftermath of the battle, the Chaos Emeralds are placed into seven different continents of Mobius as Commander Tower is revived in the Soul Realm, where he reunites with Maria. After Shadow is promoted by the President of Westopolis as the new commander of G.U.N. Units, Sonic and his friends visit Earth to attend to Travis and Vicky's marriage before departing back to Mobius for their next adventure, vowing that their worlds will meet again.

In a mid-credits scene, two mysterious hooded figures emerge from a inter-dimensional portal which is awakened by one of the Chaos Emeralds. One of the figures is moving countless objects out of the way and rebuilding a destroyed cabin with telekinetic talents; a close-up reveals a pair of white gloves with gold cuffs and circular aqua symbols. In a post-credit scene, a mysterious vigilante is shown scavenging one of Eggman's destroyed research labs and collecting a pair of G.U.N. Unit pistols. A silhouette reveals the stranger standing up and in putting on his hat.

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 Jake, 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, Sonic's best friend and sidekick, he is an eight-year-old anthropomorphic yellow fox with two tails, hence his nickname "Tails", and a mechanical genius who is able to use his two tails to propel himself like a helicopter and fly. Palant provides voice and motion capture for the character.
 * Dwayne Johnson as Knuckles the Echidna, Sonic's other best friend and adventure partner, he is a red anthropomorphic echidna from Angel Island in Mobius with the ability to glide and climb up walls, and is a powerful fighter due to his spiked hands. He serves as the guardian of the Master Emerald, a huge gemstone which controls the seven Chaos Emeralds. Jordan provides voice and motion capture for the character.
 * 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.
 * Hugh Jackman as Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic's former rival-turned-ally, he is an anthropomorphic black hedgehog from Mobius who can run at supersonic speeds and can manipulate Time and Space through a technique called "Chaos Control". He is also an officer working for G.U.N. (Guardian Units of Nations), a military army force dedicated in watching over and protecting Mobius. Jackman provides voice and motion capture for the character.
 * Patrick Dempsey as Michael R., the Mobian President of Westopolis and the benefactor of G.U.N. Units.
 * Catherine O'Hara as Karen, the President's secretary.
 * Henry Goodman as a psychiatric hospital patient (credited as "Mad Mobian") from Earth who claims to have been in Mobius before.
 * Laura Bailey as Omochao, a robotic Chao with a propeller on its head. It appears in the film as a Live-Reporter of Westopolis. It is shown reporting about Sonic's heroic actions in Soleanna and also about Shadow's services with G.U.N. Units.
 * Danielle Panabaker as Nicole the Holo-Lynx, a portable computer and artificial intelligence system which helps Sonic and his friends. Panabaker provides voice and motion capture (for Nicole's artificial form of a anthropomorphic lynx) for the character.
 * Kevin Grevioux as E-123 Omega, a robotic officer of G.U.N. Units originally created by Eggman as the last and most powerful E-Series robot, and is now out to eliminate him due to harsh mistreatment and lust for revenge. Grevioux provides voice and motion capture for the character.
 * Nathan Lane as Orbot, Eggman's red orb-shaped robot henchman. He is the blunter, more formal of the two, often being totally honest even at Eggman's expense. Lane provides voice and motion capture for the character.
 * Seth Green as Cubot, Eggman's yellow cube-shaped robot henchman. He is the slower, more dimwitted of the two, often misunderstanding the meaning of other characters' statements. Green provides voice and motion capture for the character.
 * Mark Strong as Metal Sonic, Sonic's robotic clone and nemesis who seeks to overthrow his creator Eggman and wipe out organic life on Earth and Mobius.
 * Gary A. Hecker as Robotnik Robo: Robotnik's metallic henchman.

Live-action cast
Yuji Naka, Sonic's co-creator ,makes an appearance as a store salesman.
 * Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik, an evil human scientist and the arch-nemesis of Sonic from Mobius who seeks to collect the seven Chaos Emeralds and robotize the animals on Earth and Mobius to create his corrupt empire. 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".
 * Kirsten Dunst as Victoria "Vicky" Lane, a widowed journalist and reporter who befriends Sonic.
 * Chris Pratt as Travis Lawton, an astronaut and adventurer working for Lane Stargate and Vicky's fiance who becomes one of Sonic's new adventures comrades.
 * Sophie Turner as Princess Elise the Third, a confidant to Sonic and his human friend, who is the crown princess of the Mobian nation of Soleanna.
 * Tom Felton as Devon Corvus, a mercenary and smuggler reluctantly allied to Metal Sonic. He has a intense rivalry with Travis.
 * Donald Glover as Rick Kane, a Air-Force pilot working for Lane Stargate and a friend of Vicky and Travis.
 * Jon Voight as Professor Franklin Donovan, Vicky and Travis' former University teacher and an astrophysicist who holds initial knowledge about Mobius.
 * Whoopi Goldberg as Ellie Jones, Vicky's next door neighbor and mother figure who supports Vicky's relationship with Travis. She also works as the Flight controller at Lane Stargate's mission control center.
 * Sean Astin and Taylor Momsen as Robbie and Julie, the journalists who are saved by Sonic, Tails and Knuckles from Corvus' henchmen in the beginning of the film. They are also acquaintances to Vicky.
 * Jonah Hill as Wallace "Wally" Allen, Vicky's nerdy but optimistic cameraman who idolizes Sonic, though his enthusiasm oftenly annoys Knuckles and Shadow.
 * Sam Elliott as Joel Lane, Vicky's father, Felicia's grandfather and Travis' boss who is the head of Lane Stargate, a NASA influenced spacecraft company. He is a supporter to Sonic's quest.
 * Harrison Ford as Abraham Tower, the Mobian commander and head of the G.U.N. Forces who is also Sonic's liaison and supervisor.

Previous attempts
Original plans for a Sonic movie begun in 1993 during the production of the DIC TV show Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog when consumer products director Michaelene Risley talked with several Hollywood producers. However, at the time Sega of America president Tom Kalinske had talked her out of doing it after worrying about the box-office failures of Super Mario Bros. and Street Fighter. Despite Kalinske's worries, Sega was enthusiastic about the idea and signed a deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer with Pen Densham as the executive producer. Both MGM and Sega hired Richard Jefferies to write a screenplay for a Sonic movie titled Sonic the Hedgehog: Wonders of the World. The film would have followed Sonic and Dr. Robotnik transporting into the human world with a young human boy helping Sonic get back into his world. It would have been made to tie in with the Sega Saturn game Sonic X-treme, which was set to release in late 1996. However, due to the trouble production of Sonic X-treme, the game was cancelled and the movie had a failed attempt to revive it at DreamWorks Pictures.

Six years later in 2002, Ben Hurst expressed interest to DIC Entertainment in making a Sonic film, a film that would be a direct continuation of the Sonic the Hedgehog TV series, whereas in that show, he was a writer. Hurst was put in contact with a Sega executive who was interested in the idea of a Sonic movie. Archie Comics' Sonic the Hedgehog writer Ken Penders contacted Hurst having been alerted of Hurst's plans of the movie. Hurst told him his strategy and offered to include him in his effort althought Penders told Sega that Hurst was trying to co-opt the franchise and Sega dismissed Hurst and his project. Penders later pitched his own concept for a Sonic movie titled Sonic: Armageddon. The film wouls have been an origin story of the Sonic series which would have reset the franchise resolving the plot holes of Sonic SatAM. However, the project was cancelled after disinterest from Sega executives.

Development
In mid 2003, famous movie director James Cameron pitched another idea to Sega about an Sonic movie with his draft. Originally Sega declined, but when Cameron bought on George Lucas to rewrite the script, Sega approved it. "Sega absolutely loved it," said Cameron "they hit the greenlight button immediately." It wasn't until January 2004, when ABC News' website announced the untitled Sonic movie in development. Fans of Sonic became instantly excited but it wasnt until the next month where Cameron actually announced the development of the movie. Spike Lee, also interested in directing a Sonic movie, signed onto the project, as co-director originally. But there was a problem. "Cameron was involved in like, 4% of the film," Lee said. "He had to also make Avatar, which he was working on since the freakin' 90s. James didn't even come to the world premiere, and I had to take his role as lead director, I'd tell him about updates on the film he'd just say "Okay that's good keep working on it." and we did it without him." Cameron did not receive director's credit and has not talked about this film since a 2017, 10 year anniversary interview. Lee says he refuses to talk about the film but has not told why. Jon Favreau replaced Cameron in his spot. Lee stated that he "kinda" liked the Sonic franchise for a long time and had always wanted to direct a movie based off it. Favreau stated he was also a fan of the franchise and that his kids were big fans of the game, including Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Heroes.

Favreau tried having Sony distribute their film, with them opening a new animation studio, titled Sony Pictures Animation. However, Sony declined the offer to distribute the movie. Eventually, former Paramount Pictures president Sherry Lansling expressed interest to Favreau in helping distribute the film. Favreau accepted the offer, and it was announced in late 2001 that Paramount would be distributing the movie. Yuji Naka, Sonic's co-creator who was working on the franchise from 1991-2005, announced he would be executive producing the film. Sega also enlisted the help of DreamWorks Pictures to distribute the film. In 2002, a contract deal was leaked online that if the film was a box-office success, that it would be renewed for a trilogy. Later, Paramount fired the anymonous person who leaked the contract. In early 2003, Favreau had the tough decision to direct Sonic the Hedgehog or Zathura: A Space Adventure. Favreau decided to go with managing production on Zathura while Lee hired Steven Spielberg to co-direct the film. It wasn't until early 2006 when Favreau rejoined the project during post-production. Spielberg were credited as co-director of the movie, as he was.

Writing
James Cameron and Spike Lee wanted to bring some new writer onto the film to rechange Lucas' draft. Lee wanted an independent writer with greater ideas, while Cameron wanted a famous writer. Every writer they found declined the offer, so they decided to use Lucas' original draft. When Lucas heard about this, he was angry and thought about suing Cameron and Lee, but decided to settle it calmly. Lucas would go on to write the script for the movie, "50% original, 50% reused" while making new revisions to the draft. A problem Lucas had was working on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull while writing the script. To solve this, Lucas used half of the stuff he had used in his original draft to save more time, so he can work on Indiana Jones. By the time the film entered development, Brooks was already working on Indiana Jones. Lee unknowingly did an uncredited rewrite. A rewrite was when Jake meets Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy for the first time on the beach. Lee did this because he felt the scene was stupid. The original scene was Jake using a metal detector to find Sonic and his friends frozen on a ship under the sand in the beach, and then brings it to his grandpa's lab, when they thaw them and they come back alive.

Lee felt this was stupid because "how would Jake bring the ship to his grandpa's house without anybody looking at him suspiciously?" Lucas was uninformed of the rewrite and in the world premiere, when he saw the scene was removed from the final version, he was upset and walked out of the theater. He was mad at Lee, but forgave him later on. Despite this, Lucas would say he did not like the movie. "It felt stupid to me despite it being my script. The Mobian species, Jake's grandpa having a lab, the original frozen ship scene, it feels so ridiculous. If you like the film, that's ok but, I just didn't like it." A script leak from the film revealed Shadow was going to be in the film, with some fans frustrated that he wasn't going to have his original Project Shadow backstory.

Casting
Juliet Taylor was announced as casting director for the movie in September 2005. While trying to find a actor for Jake, the main character, she found Dave Franco while watching Law & Order. She contacted Dave Franco's agents and he came down to the studio and auditioned for Jake. Taylor casted Jake for the role as she felt a charm in Franco's character. This would be Franco's first major film appearance, before Superbad. After that, it was announced Franco would be playing Jake Bradley, the main character of the movie. Taylor was also given a task to find a voice for Sonic. She held many different auditions for voices for Sonic, until Ben Schwartz came in. Coincidentally, Schwartz came in uninvited just when Taylor was leaving. According to Schwartz, Taylor instructed him to make a kind of high pitched American accent, like going for Jason Griffith's Sonic. Schwartz did a "great performance" according to Taylor and he got the job. To prepare, Maguire watched many voice clips of Griffith's Sonic to imitate and sound like him.

More news would come out about casting. Eventually it was announced, Michael J. Fox, Jennifer Saunders, Alec Baldwin, Christina Ricci, and Mark Strong would be starring in the film. Ricci announced her role as an military assistant while Fox would be Jake's grandpa lab genius. At that time, it was unknown if Dr. Eggman was going to be in the movie, many fans speculated about what his role would be and what he would do. It was announced Jim Carrey would be taking the role of Eggman, now renamed in this movie into his original American name, Dr. Ivo Robotnik. The casting of Carrey received some controversy from fans, some praising it, some criticizing it, until Carrey, in an interview did a impression of Bruce Willis' Robotnik. Because of that, more people started to think casting Willis was an good idea. Lisa Ortiz and Dwayne Johnson were also cast in the voice roles for the characters as Amy and Knuckles, respectively, with the appearance of Amy's iconic piko-piko hammer. In a 15th anniversary interview, Ortiz recalls auditioning after hearing that Franco was going to be in the movie, then getting the role. Yuji Naka, Sonic's co-creator who was also the programmer for the three Genesis Sonic games, made an cameo in the film as a store salesman. Favreau wanted to get Naoto Ohshima to make a cameo too, but was not able to contact him.

Despite that, Oshima attended the world premiere along with Naka. Amy Palant was cast as Tails in the movie shortly after. Frank Welker and Dee Bradley Baker, two veteran voice actors, had a small role in the film, voicing Robotnik's badniks in the movie. Gary A. Hecker voices Robotnik Robo, the henchman of Robotnik, and also voices the badniks too. Chris Pratt, the then-boyfriend of Faris, wanted to audition in the film as Sonic, but Pratt denied the role. In a 2023 interview for The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Pratt regretted not accepting the role, but later praised Schwartz's performance as the titular character.

Filming
Principal photography began on December 6, 2004, in Vancouver, under the working title of Tsunami Battle, 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 San Diego. A small battle scene was shot in Wisconsin Dells, involving approximately 30 soldiers, 5 police vehicles, an MD 500 helicopter, and a BearCat G3. 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, Torrey Pines States Natural Resource, and the Jacumba Mountains. 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, 2005, 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 27, 2005.

Production relocated to Downtown Vancouver in early-June 2005, where filming took place in North Wells Street to be used in climactic battle scenes over a period of four 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. The station's Space Power Facility was used to portray a G.U.N. research facility. A series of water explosions were filmed at San Diego Bay, as part of the 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 Carl Vinson, while additional scenes were shot on board the similar John C. Stennis and Ronald Reagan between July and late-September 2005.

The 10-month shoot proceeded as scheduled (From December 6, 2004), and concluded on November 6, 2005. On February 17, 2006, pick-ups were conducted as Favreau sought to film more action scenes. The film then wrapped in May, although additional special effects shots were taken to finalize the production a month later. In July, there were further pick-up shots regarding the resolution of Metal Sonic's story, amounting to four different versions.

Animation and visual effects
When Paramount agreed to distribute the film, Favreau would also agree to have Industrial Light & Magic and Rhythm & Hues Studios provide the animation for the film. With the Sega company also distributing the film, they would have their own animation division Marza Animation Planet provide the animation too. This news of the two animation studios teaming up was first announced on December 13, 2005 by Variety and Dailymail.co.uk. Animation would begin in February 2006. Since Marza was working on cutscenes for Sonic Unleashed, Sega and Paramount made a decision. Sega decided to split the Marza Animation team in half. Half the Marza staff would work on the Sonic Unleashed while the other half would work on the movie, along with 23 people from ILM moving into Marza Animation to work on the animation. Work on the animation lasted for five months. From February 12 to July 8, 2006. When the animation was finished, the 23 people went back to ILM.

Favreau originally wanted the CGI characters to have fur on their skin, like other characters in CG / live-action hybrid movies, but after seeing the negative reaction of Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, Favreau decided against this. Instead, the animators put a tiny bit of fur on the characters, except for Metal Sonic and the badniks. The animators got the source of Metal Sonic and badniks' metal from using real scrap metal, and modelling a version of Metal Sonic. The team bought back Metal Sonic's design from Sonic Heroes, while they bought back many badniks from classic games such as the Motobugs, Buzzbombers, and animals such as Flickies. South Island from the original Sonic the Hedgehog was considered being boight back, but the team decided more on West Side Island since they "thought it had more lore."

Music

 * Main article: Sonic the Hedgehog (soundtrack)

Favreau hired Michael Giacchino to work on the soundtrack sfter being impressed with his other previous works. Giacchino said he had to assemble 97 people to compose orchestra music and the process took "about 5-8 minutes total." They wanted to choose Christopher Young but since he was too expensive for the budget of the film. They also wanted to chose Danny Elfman but he was also too expensive. So they decided to go with Giacchino as a less expensive choice for them to save time and money. They also hired John Debney as co-composer with Giacchino. While eating at an restaurant, Lee thought of a song in his head. He pitched the idea of having a famous singer sing his idea for a song titled "Help Me Push Through." The executives loved the idea and held auditions for people to sing a song. They went through eight singers before finding Avril Lavigne, an already famous singer and songwriter who had already wrote multiple songs.

Favreau and Lee heard her voice and thought she'd be perfect for the role. Lee was offered adviced from Johnny Gioeli from the Crush 40 band on how to make a rock song. Lavigne and Lee worked with Gioeli as well as mainline Sonic game composer, Jun Senoue, whereas they spent a month and a half recording and composing the music for the song. After the song was done, Lavigne offered to make a cameo in the movie, but it was too late since filming was already done. Lavigne finished the song with her crew and Bird and Lee and went to the international world premiere of the movie.

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 May 26, 2006 in theatres with X-Men: The Last Stand. The first theatrical trailer premiered on November 17, 2006, in theatres with Happy Feet and Casino Royale. with its current release date of June 15, 2007.

For the film, Paramount and Sega made a deal with McDonald's to release toys on June 24, a day after the film came out and release toys of the Sonic characters. As a joke, McDonalds even included a toy with a yellow and white orange hedgehog named "Jake the Hedgehog", with the same shirt that Jake wears in the movie.

Theatrical
The world premiere took place at the Paramount Pictures studio lot in Los Angeles on May 30, 2007. The film premiered at Kodak Theatre on June 3, 2007. It was later released theatrically in the United States on June 15, 2007 by Paramount Pictures. The film was rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America for some rude humor, mild peril, language and action.

Home media
Sonic the Hedgehog was released 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: Phase One – The Beginning" which includes all of the Phase One films in the Nintendo Cinematic Universe, was released on May 4, 2010.

Box office
Sonic the Hedgehog debuted on June 3, 2007 in Los Angeles, on June 15, 2007 in the United States and on June 30, 2007, 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 $887.7 million against its reported budget of $100 million. Breaking several box office records, the film became the fourth highest-grossing film of 2007, the highest-grossing superhero film of the year, and was the highest-grossing film distributed by Paramount until its sequel.

In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongside DOA: Dead or Alive, Eagle vs. Shark, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and Nancy Drew, and was initially projected to gross $40–50 million from 4,130 theaters in its 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 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, 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 September 14, 2007, it became the highest-grossing film based on a video game in US box office history, surpassing The Legend of Zelda, until the release of Kirby five months later.

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 October 5, 2007 and debuted at No. 6 that weekend.

Critical response
The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an approval rating on 71% based on 145 reviews and a average rating of 7.7/10. Its critical consenus reads: "Sonic the Hedgehog the Movie is a good film for everyone, including non Sonic fans. The CGI is outstanding for its time, and the acting is great, especially from Jim Carrey who steals the show." Metacritic assigned the film a score of 65 out of 100, indicating positive reviews. Roger Ebert gave the film a positive review, three stars out of four stars, calling it "a goofy fun film that everybody should watch, including non-fans." The Denver Post's Lisa Stepkram praised the animation, calling it the best CGI animation she had ever seen. IGN's Tod Gilchrist called it the second best film of 2008, also calling it "a film where its undeniably really fun." Ken Fox of TVGuide.com called it a "great film and worthy of winning an oscar." Cinemascore's audience graded it an "A" on an A+ to F scale. Dave Franco received critical praise for his role as Jake. Jordan Mintszer of The Hollywood Reporter praised Franco, for being able to act like a nerdy kid who has his moments and bravery and confidence. Robert Pattinson also received praise for his performance as Sonic and Shadow.

However, some critcism was pointed at the writing and runtime. Joe Srami of Entertainment Weekly criticized the film for this, saying that ”the pointless filler is what makes the movie so long and it feels like it drags out for so long despite only being two hours." Ty Burr criticized the screenwriting, pointing out the movie's many flaws, and also pointing out the runtime of the movie. When the film released, fans also had praise for the film, with some calling it "nearly flawless." Fan polls on the Sonic website showed that 93% of Sonic fans had loved the movie. Ranks showed that 2/3 of the audience watching the movie was fans of Sonic the Hedgehog. Although before release, fans were skeptical of the film, saying that it would turn out like the Rocky & Bullwinkle movie. Also on Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a audience score of 83%, as well as a 80 out of 100 on Metacritic.

Sequels
Sonic the Hedgehog was followed by two sequels: Sonic the Hedgehog 2: The Next Adventure in 2010, and Sonic the Hedgehog 3: World Adventure in 2015.

Transcripts
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