As promised the biggest review I've ever written, please click full view for the full review. Now to begin my longest ever review, Sonic OVA.
Sonic the Hedgehog is a video game character with as much significance to the industry as Michael Jackson was to pop music and sometimes just as controversial. His most popular titles were over and done with in the early 90s and by the modern era he struggled to keep pace with business rival Mario and other heavy hitters like Halo & any other game involving killing with guns, but as to why Sonic plummeted so far into obscurity can be traced back as far as 1996, a year significant for a number of reasons as it was the year the Nintendo 64 came out and what was Sonic doing that year you may ask? Releasing a Sonic style Virtua Fighter Arcade game, promoting the release of isometric dullness Sonic 3D for the big black failure that was the Sega Saturn and releasing a poorly made OVA Anime series which has the same resentment as many modern Sonic games and today's review talks about this OVA series.
Repackaged as Sonic the Movie in the west, the story starts with some dialogue from Dr Robotnik talking about capturing Sonic’s data to use in his Metal Sonic creation just before the main title screen appears, afterwards we go to South Island to see Sonic relaxing on the beach while Tails tests a new hoverboard, their choice of home is a little strange as it’s made from numerous vehicle wrecks such as a train car, a jet plane and for some strange reason the S.S.Enterprise from Star Trek.
The peace is interrupted very quickly when the President’s messenger: a strange Old Owl; literally crashes into the beach prompting a very quick action scene in which Sonic saves the owl & Tails, this scene is made even more pointless when you see what happens next as the owl tells Sonic that the President wishes to see him prompting the response of “you could’ve phoned us to tell us that”, this isn’t going to be the last pointless scene you’ll see in this production.
Upon arriving at the President’s house, Sonic is confronted by Doctor Robotnik but before he can attack the egg shaped scientist he’s stopped by the President & his catgirl daughter Sara who resembles an 80s groupie for Cyndi Lauper; and this is where the first question of Game Logic VS Anime is asked: Where is Amy Rose?
Context Explanation: The idea of Sonic’s girlfriend has been played around since the character’s creation with each design being vastly different to the other, by the time of this film’s release Sara was the fourth design joining the ranks of a human in a red dress, pink hedgehog Amy Rose and SatAM American Cartoon Chipmunk, Sally Acorn. Due to Sonic’s design and ideals being based around freedom the idea of being tied down in a relationship doesn’t suit the franchise, so in the late 90s, Amy Rose was redesigned, and continued with a one-sided romance. Whether Sara was a serious consideration for Sega as a replacement will forever be debated.
Anyway, Robotnik says that his home has been taken over by his robot counterpart and has caused a robot generator to go berserk and will apparently destroy everything if not stopped as demonstrated by a failed piece of slapstick. After a few refusals, Sonic finally agrees to stop the generator.
We then have a scene of the journey to the Land of Darkness, briefly interrupted by more slapstick involving Sara & Robotnik playing fighting games before they leave in some kind of machine; meanwhile in the Land of Darkness having crash landed, Sonic & Tails go through a lengthy journey scene imitating the opening to Sonic CD and occasionally showing game homages like springs, spikes & buzz bombers if only to keep the fans happy before suddenly going through a convenient warp portal to an abandoned city referred to as ancient relics. After a few more scenes of pointless info and slapstick, Metal Robotnik finally appears and begins fighting our heroes. This fight has everything you need in a typical animated Sonic fight; slapstick, spin attacks, chasing and some peril. Although I don’t remember Sonic ever sticking the middle finger up to anyone; you know Sonic’s a bit of a dick in this movie, so far he’s told Tails to shut up, he only helps Robotnik when Sara tells him so, he gives the middle finger to his enemies and later he gets perverted thoughts about Sara but more on that later.
After getting stuck in glue shot out of Metal Robotnik’s ass (yes really), Knuckles shows up to join the fight and free our heroes and for some reason he can fly; after being freed from drowning Sonic then takes down Metal Robotnik by literally slicing straight through him and yet he couldn’t even scratch him earlier. Part one ends with Sonic, Knuckles & Tails going to Robotropolis, with an in-between scene in which Robotnik & Sara are shown in the cockpit of Metal Robotnik engaging in more slapstick; I can tell it’s the end of part one because the theme music is playing in the background.
Now I’m willing to overlook much of the video game logic as the fight scenes were enjoyable enough to not bother with it, the fact that Knuckles can fly instead of glide is confusing but it’s not the most offensive thing to the fanbase this movie produces; now onto part two.
Our heroes have now arrived at Robotropolis and begin traveling to the robot generator while being attacked by Sonic 3 badniks; upon arriving at the machine, in typical cartoon fashion they stop the generator with one second to go only for Sonic to get scanned by a weird green light which looks painful and yet Tails just stares at him and does nothing. Once that’s done the machine falls apart and several pretty lights are shown before revealing Metal Sonic & the reappearance of Metal Robotnik; well I can certainly see where the budget went in this production.
Metal Robotnik falls to pieces in front of our heroes to reveal that Sara & Robotnik were inside during which we get innuendo and some more slapstick before we are told of the evil plan. Actually Robotnik’s plan was genius, think about it; he had two fail safes in case Metal Robotnik was defeated and the robot generator was stopped; credit where credit is due, in comparison to his other cartoon counterparts and even his video game counterpart it’s a very well thought out plan.
Now we get the highlight of the movie as Sonic finally fights Metal Sonic Dragonballz style showing more gravity defying stunts but it’s short lived as Sonic is KO’d; before we return to the main story the Old Owl makes another appearance lying on the beach before Metal Sonic arrives, and we can only hope that he gets assassinated, at least that’s what the movie implies.
The next set of scenes keeps switching between characters so try your best to keep up.
Sonic wakes up in a wood having been knocked senseless by Metal Sonic and then goes after him, meanwhile, the President is keeping track of the destruction caused so far by Metal Sonic. Tail & Knuckles have somehow returned to South Island despite the plane being destroyed and in a weird way they comment on the state of the house despite the fact it looks exactly the same as before only with smoke; Tails then remembers that the Old Owl is still here and finds him wearing what Tails describes as “Sonic’s favorite clothes”, despite the fact that Sonic doesn’t wear clothes except for sneakers and gloves.
Okay so the most evil thing Metal Sonic has done so far is force an old man to wear gaudy 90s skater clothes, how sinister.
Tails begins work on the navigator he received from Robotnik near the beginning and talks about how Sonic & Metal are essentially one in the same and by recalibrating the navigator it will apparently make Metal Sonic good.
Back with Sara & Robotnik, (because she’s apparently still a hostage) who are playing dress up which transforms her from an eighties groupie into an eighties pop idol. This is meant to encourage Sara to marry Robotnik which involves a disturbing daydream and more slapstick.
Back with Knuckles & Tails who receive a call from the President demanding to know what’s going on in which Knuckles answers by first introducing himself as Sonic’s best friend.
Okay Sonic & Knuckles are friends but I wouldn’t keep them together for very long before Knuckles kicks the crap out of Sonic.
Knuckles continues his explanation by saying that Metal Sonic’s target is an ice bridge in the North Pole which has a river of magma running through it which holds the planet together, if destroyed it could destroy the Planet, now tell me why the key to destroying this planet is so damn easy, global warming could literally destroy this planet, Robotnik doesn’t even need Metal Sonic. Sonic overhears everything which causes Metal Sonic to go straight to the North Pole while everyone else chases him down.
When Sonic arrives, Metal has already started making a mess of the area and so begins round two of their fight, more Dragonballz style. When Robotnik turns up with Sara, Metal is sent through the bottom of the ship promoting a bizarre reaction from Sonic which turns out to be him reacting to Metal’s perverted thoughts of looking up Sara’s skirt (I’ve got nothing for this scene). Sara then falls out and is saved by Knuckles while Tails knocks out Metal only to be then blown up by Robotnik; then some slapstick happens, then Knuckles, Tails & Sara crash, and Tails ends up in a groping position.
Sonic is still busy fighting Metal and generally making a mess of things which prompts Knuckles to stop the magma flow with a little encouragement from Sara which contains more slapstick. Metal Sonic looks to have gained the upper hand by choking Sonic; Sara tries in vain to help free him involving yet more slapstick while Tails performs some technical wizardry which cause Metal’s circuits to mess up, Metal is then spin dashed into oblivion and all seems done until a convenient plot twist turns up when the President crashes into the ice bridge which traps him & the Old Owl inside the ship. Metal is not done yet either as he returns for a third round. Tails tries to stop Metal with the navigator only for Robotnik to shoot it off him. Sonic continues fighting Metal while Knuckles & Tails tries in vain to break open the ship (okay you’re telling me that Knuckles can dig through the ground of solid rock & ice but can’t break open a rocket canopy).
Sonic then carelessly launches Metal into the ship which causes it to explode which should’ve killed everyone inside but emerging from the black smoke is Metal Sonic holding the President and the Old Owl; apparently Tails’ tinkering actually worked and Metal Sonic is now good but before he can be praised he’s knocked into the magma by a falling rock; Sonic tries to save him but Metal Sonic decides to die. With everything done and the world saved the movie finishes with more slapstick and a catchy theme song.
As you can tell, my overall opinion of this production is simply too much unnecessary slapstick; comedy timing is very bad and makes no sense, such as the whack-a-mole joke with Knuckles or the horrid attempts at innuendo; the action and the fact that Robotnik was creative with his plans made sure the production didn’t totally suck. It’s also worth noting that I’ve never seen the subbed version seeing as ADVfilms didn’t release one, so I got stuck with the god awful voice acting and dialogue (Almost makes you miss Jaleel White’s voice).
But if there is something that the Sonic fans really can’t stand about this film, it’s the fact that Sonic is a complete jerk in this.
He’s frequently negative, swears at his enemies, lazy, rude to his friends, careless when his friends are in danger, gets a kick out of dressing the elderly in his crappy clothes if Tails’ theory is correct and has perverted thoughts about his supposed catgirl girlfriend. I don’t think that does much for Sonic’s image as a hero and yet Tails pretty much stopped Metal Sonic with his tinkering, Knuckles saved the damsel and the world’s destruction, even Metal Sonic saved the President and the Old Owl; overall it just makes Sonic look like a jerk and I can see why fans are not impressed by that.
Final Verdict: With enough crappy dialogue to fill a modest Youtube account, poor comedy timing with too much slapstick, some poor character design choices with some fairly decent action and decent villain, Sonic the Movie is at least more watchable than Sonic X & AoStH but far from the sophisticated and dark tones of Sonic Underground & the more superior SatAM Sonic; with better guidance it could’ve made for a decent anime series but it’s best to resign this movie to the discount video shop for the rest of its life.
Now for an extra helping character reviews.
Character Reviews
Sonic: Portrayed as a jerk at times and sometimes shown to be a burden in certain situations, at least his voice is passable.
Tails: Despite sounding like he’s got a permanent cold, Tails stays pretty much the same old child genius so I can’t really criticize that.
Knuckles: Definitely my favorite portrayal of Knuckles seeing as the games insist on making him stupid. His voice is nothing special but his script and his personality more than make up for it, and should be considered the real hero of this production seeing as he actually acts like one.
Robotnik: Strangely enough, this is the most capable Dr Robotnik I’ve ever seen, his plan was always to destroy Sonic & take over the world but executing it as a plan with two fail safes is actually quite ingenious, he’s also deadly accurate with weapons, twice stopping Tails and even acknowledges his mistakes as “design failures”. I want this Robotnik, an actual mad scientist to be Sonic’s arch nemesis, not the wishy-washy villain the modern games portray him as.
Sara: A spoiled needy little rich girl who sounds like a cheerleader and dresses in eighties pop fashion. I can see why the fandom abandoned this character.
Metal Sonic: Pretty straight forward robot character, programmed for evil and serves as Sonic’s opponent for the film, although I don’t get why he would dress up the Old Owl or openly commit suicide.
The President & The Old Owl: They just drive the plot, I can hardly call them important, and the film could easily run without them.
Dub VS Sub: N/A as I’ve never seen a Subbed version.
So that's a huge in-depth review of the Sonic OVA Film, if you enjoyed reading it and would like to see me do similar in-depth reviews then don't hesitate to ask.
