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Sonic the Hedgehog is a 2007 action-adventure comedy film based on the video game franchise by Sega. Directed by Jon Favreau, produced by Neal H. Moritz, Toby Ascher, Toru Nakahara and Takeshi Ito, written by James Cameron, Spike Lee and George Lucas, from a screenplay by Bruce Mellon and Gary Scott Thompson and a story by Woody Allen and Charlie Kaufman, it is the first installment of the Sonic the Hedgehog original film franchise. The film stars the voice and motion capture performance of Ben Schwartz as the titular character, with Lucas Till, Zac Efron, Amy Palant, Dwayne Johnson, Lisa Ortiz, Kathryn Newton, Laura Bailey, Jim Carrey, Ashton Kutcher, Sam Elliot, Harrison Ford, Patrick Dempsey 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, Knuckles the Echidna and Amy Rose after meeting some new friends, Chris Thorndyke, Danny, Frances, Helen, and Travis Lawton, to stop Dr. Robotnik and Metal Sonic from using the Master Emerald which can be used to take over the world, both who have the aid of Knuckles to find the Emerald in Angel Island and releasing a creature of destruction known as Chaos who goes on a rampage in 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 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 July to November 2006. Industrial Light & Magic, Rhythm & Hues Studios, and Marza Animation Planet provided the animation for the characters, while motion capture performances and animation were done by New Zealand-based Weta Digital.
Sonic the Hedgehog premiered at the Paramount Pictures studio lot on May 23, 2007, before being theatrically on June 8 in the United States, and in Japan on July 4. 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 $987 million worldwide on its budget of $100 million, becoming the highest-grossing film of 2007, and the highest-grossing video game film in the United States until Metroid the following year.
After its success, the film was followed by further sequels: Chaotix (2009), Project Shadow (2010), Shadow the Hedgehog (2012), Rogues to Riches (2014), Silver the Hedgehog (2015), The Legend of the Babylon Rogues (2016) and War for Morbius (2018).
A shared universe called, Sonic Cinematic Universe, was announced on August 11, 2021 and started on January 17, 2022, beginning with Sonic Origins.
Plot[]
To be added
Cast[]
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 Chris, Sonic resolves to use his super-speed to fight and 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. Johnson 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, becomes his self-proclaimed girlfriend, attempting to win his heart by any means necessary and battles random foes while armed with her indestructible Piko-Piko Hammer.
- Kathryn Newton as Cream the Rabbit, a peach anthropomorphic rabbit and the daughter of Vanilla the Rabbit, her mother.
- 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.
- 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 an anthropomorphic lynx) for the character.
- Kevin Grevioux as E-102 Gamma / 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.
- 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[]
- 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".
- Lucas Till as Christoper "Chris" Thorndyke, a 12 year old pre-teen, who befriends Sonic and aids him in his quest to stop Robotnik.
- Zac Efron as Travis Lawton, a 18 year old young adult who wants to become an astronaut, and later newly appointed adventurer working for Lane Stargate who becomes one of Sonic's new adventure comrades.
- Emma Roberts as Helen, a young girl who, despite being confined to a wheelchair, thrives for adventure, and one of Chris' closest friends and love interest.
- Tyler James Williams and Selena Gomez as Danny and Frances, Chris' friends.
- Ashton Kutcher as Devon Corvus, a mercenary and smuggler reluctantly allied to Metal Sonic. He has an intense rivalry with Travis.
- Donald Glover as Rick Kane, an Air-Force pilot working for Lane Stargate.
- Jon Voight as Professor Franklin Donovan, Travis' former University teacher and an astrophysicist who holds initial knowledge about Mobius.
- Whoopi Goldberg as Ellie Jones, Chris' next door neighbor and mother figure who supports him. She also works as the flight controller at Lane Stargate's mission control center.
- Josh Peck as Wallace "Wally" Allen, a nerdy but optimistic cameraman who idolizes Sonic, though his enthusiasm oftenly annoys Knuckles.
- 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 Chris.
- Sam Neill as Nelson Thorndyke, Chris' father and executive.
- Kelly Preston as Lindsey Thorndyke, a movie star.
- Michael J. Fox as Chuck Thorndyke, Chris' grandfather and scientist.
- Sam Elliot as Thunderbolt Lane, Travis' boss who is the head of Lane Stargate, a NASA influenced spacecraft company. He is a supporter of Sonic's quest.
- Harrison Ford as Abraham Tower, the Mobian commander and head of the G.U.N. Force, who is also Sonic's liaison and supervisor.
- Patrick Dempsey as President Michael R., once the president of the United States of America as well as then became president of the Guardian Units of Nations (G.U.N.).
- Catherine O'Hara as Karen, the President's secretary.
Yuji Naka, Sonic's co-creator, makes an appearance as a store salesman.
Production[]
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 troubled production of Sonic X-treme, the game was canceled and the movie had a failed attempt to revive it at DreamWorks Pictures.
Four years later in 2000, 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 for the movie. Hurst told him his strategy and offered to include him in his effort although 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 would 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 canceled after disinterest from Sega executives.
Development[]
In early 2002, famous movie director James Cameron pitched another idea to Sega about a Sonic movie with his draft. Sega originally declined, but when Cameron brought 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 September 2002, when ABC News' website announced the untitled Sonic movie in development. Fans of Sonic became instantly excited but it wasn't 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, named 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 November 2002 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 May 2003, 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 anonymous person who leaked the contract. In late 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 was credited as co-director of the movie, as he was.
Writing[]
Cameron and Lee wanted to bring some new writers 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, Lucas was already working on Indiana Jones. Lee unknowingly did an uncredited rewrite. A rewrite was when Till 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 Till 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 Till 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, Till'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 May 2004. While trying to find an actor for Chris, the main character, she found Lucas Till while watching Knight Rider. She contacted Till's agents and he came down to the studio and auditioned for Chris. Taylor casted Chris for the role as she felt a charm in Till's character. This would be Till's first major protagonist film appearance, before Hannah Montana: The Movie. After that, it was announced Till would be playing Chris Thorndyke, 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, Sam Neill, Kelly Preston, Michael J. Fox, Sam Elliot, Ashton Kutcher, Donald Glover, Jon Voight, Sean Austin, Taylor Momsen, Harrison Ford, Patrick Dempsey, Catherine O'Hara, and Mark Strong would be starring in the film. O'Hara announced her role as a military assistant while Fox would be Till's grandpa lab genius. At that time, it was unknown if Dr. Robotnik 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. Robotnik. The casting of Carrey received some controversy from fans, some praising it, some criticizing it, until Carrey, in an interview, did an impression of Bruce Willis' Robotnik. Because of that, more people started to think casting Carrey 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 Till 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 a 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 California, under the working title of Tsunami Battle, with scenes shot at the San Diego Convention Center, inside BC Place, and at Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve. This was followed by filming in Point Loma, a neighborhood of San Diego. Another scene was filmed at the church along Mission San Diego de Alcalá. Additional shooting took place at the pool of Hotel del Coronado. Additional filming involving extras took place around industrial areas of Cowles Mountain, Torrey Pines State Beach, and the Pacific Beach. The following month, secondary filming took place about an hour outside Palomar Mountain. A chase sequence was also shot in Interstate 405 Freeway at San Diego County. Filming took place in Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California.
The crew began shooting at Dillingham Airfield in Mokulēia, Hawaii, a location Favreau had selected as he felt it fitted the sense of remoteness he was looking for, and continued on Oahu during early March 2005. Filming in Oahu included Heʻeia, Hawaii Heeia Kea Ranch. Aerial footage of Molokai's North Shore cliffs was then filmed over a two-day period, followed by a week of filming in Kauai, where locations included Hanalei Valley and rain forests in the Manoa Valley. Filming in Hawaii concluded in late-March 2005, after scenes were shot at the South Fork of Kauai's Wailua River. By that time, John August had been hired to do the uncredited script revisions, which were followed by additional work from Lucas. Macy also wrote a scene.
In spring 2005, film location manager Peter Martorano brought camera crews to Cleveland, Ohio, due to the Greater Cleveland Film Commission offering production space at the city's convention center at no cost. In Cleveland, they shot the battle between Sonic and Metal Sonic in the armored car. Afterwards, the team moved to Manhattan, where filming took place at various locations, including One Chase Manhattan Plaza, from May 26 until June 30, 2005. Shooting placed a strain on Favreau, who often had to move between several units to complete the picture. Shooting was also difficult for cinematographer Bill Pope, as G.U.N. uniforms were costumed in black during fight scenes taking place at night. Filming also took place outside of the Naval Base San Diego. The base is filmed on a set not attempting to match the actual interior of the bases. A series of water explosions were filmed at San Diego Bay, as part of the battle sequence that began. 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 July 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 November, there were further pick-up shots regarding the resolution of Metal Sonic's story, amounting to four different versions.
Post-production[]
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 began 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 modeling 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 brought 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 Christopher Lennertz to work on the soundtrack after being impressed with his other works. Lennertz said he had to assemble 128 people to compose orchestra music and the process took "about 5-8 minutes total." They wanted to choose Christopher Young, but they decided that since he was too expensive for the budget of the film, they wouldn’t move forward with the decision. They also wanted to choose Danny Elfman, but he was also too expensive. So they decided to go with Lennertz as a less expensive choice for them to save time and money. While eating at a 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 written multiple songs.
Favreau and Lee heard her voice and thought she'd be perfect for the role. Lee was offered advice 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 Lee and went to the international world premiere of the movie.
Release[]
Marketing[]
The film was heavily promoted worldwide, with teaser posters and advertisements spread across the world. During production, a series of "video diaries" on the Internet were released at the film's website, showing behind-the-scenes work being done. After 27 installments, the video diaries stopped for a while shortly before the teaser trailer debuted on May 26, 2006 in theaters with X-Men: The Last Stand. The main theatrical trailer premiered online on November 14, 2006, the same date as Sonic the Hedgehog '06 was released. That trailer appeared in theaters on November 17, 2006, with prints of Happy Feet and Casino Royale, with its current release date of June 8, 2007, while the international trailer came with The Holiday.
For the film, Paramount and Sega made a deal with McDonald's to release toys on June 9, 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 "Chris the Hedgehog", with the same shirt that Chris wears in the movie.
Theatrical[]
The world premiere took place at the Paramount Pictures studio lot in Los Angeles on May 23, 2007. The film premiered at Kodak Theatre on May 28, 2007. It was later released theatrically in the United States on June 8, 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) and HD-DVD on November 6, 2007, and Blu-ray Disc on June 10, 2008, 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).
Reception[]
Box office[]
Sonic the Hedgehog debuted on May 28, 2007 in Los Angeles, on June 8, 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 $987 million against its reported budget of $100 million. Breaking several box office records, the film became the 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 Hostel: Part II, La Vie en Rose, Ocean's Thirteen and Surf's Up, 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 Metroid a year 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 million in 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 July 4, 2007 and debuted at No. 6 that weekend.
Critical response[]
Based on 145 professional critic reviews, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 89% of those reviews were positive, with an average rating of 7.7/10. On the website, the critics' consensus reads, "An undeniably great example of CGI/live-action, with outstanding animation, plenty of action and a star-studded cast, Sonic the Hedgehog quick-paced adventure fit for any fan of the blue blur’s games, and Jim Carrey steals the show every time he’s on the screen." Using a weighted average calculator, Metacritic assigned the film a score of 65 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times 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 it's 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 criticism 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 was 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 an audience score of 83%, as well as an 80 out of 100 on Metacritic.
Future[]
Sequels[]
TBA
Spinoff series[]
- Main article: Shadow the Hedgehog (TV series)
TBA
[]
- Main article: Sonic Cinematic Universe
TBA
Transcripts[]
Coming soon!
Notes[]
- ↑ Sonic the Hedgehog was developed by Sonic Team, published by Sega, directed and programmed by Yuji Naka, designed by Hirokazu Yasuhara, and illustrated by Naoto Ohshima.