The Good: So bad it's funny, moments of great art detail, decent japanese voice acting
The Bad: Bad art, bad animation, bad english dub, horrible quality control, juvenile scripting and dialogue, incoherent story
***********Review***********
Released in 1996 as two OVA episodes and edited together into a movie in 1999, Sonic the Hedgehog is a funny little animated outing for the light-speed blue hedgehog and his fox friend Tails. However, "funny" is all that this movie has going for it, and it not the actual witty type of funny mind you. It is the painfully cringe worthy funny where you laugh at how bad this movie is.
Its first most obvious flaw is its animation, which for all intents and purposes seems worse than some of the episodes in 1993's Sonic the Hedgehob TV series. It boggles the mind how an OVA, which is meant to have a higher animation budget than a TV show, can look worse than TV animation from years ago. The animation and artwork can only be classified as "lazy". For example, Tails no longer flies by spinning his tails like a helicopter. His tails disappear and in their a brown and white disc forms over his head which gives him the ability to levitate.
Similarly, whenever Sonic runs, you do not see a blur of feet but a simple red ribbon-like object that is meant to represent his feet.(at times those said "feet" are not even attached to his body). A couple of scenes do stand out such as Black Eggman chasing sonic and tails through the streets of "EggmanLand" and some scenes involving Metal Sonic, they look really good. But overall, the artwork and coloring is flat and the characters lack a sense of fluidity. Some off-model art does creep in, possibly due to poor quality control.
Depending on one's expectations, the story could be seen as either a flaw or a boon. But either way, one cannot deny the childish nature of the story nor the absurdity the plot. Dr Eggman has kidnapped the president and his daughter in order to enlists the help of Sonic and Tails to destroy "Black Eggman" who has taken over his realm of EggmanLand. However, it is all a ruse to trick Sonic into being an unwilling subject in Dr Eggman's latest evil plot. One involving the might Metal Sonic. Sure the games were not exactly shining examples of good storytelling either, but an anime deserves to be compared to others of its kind. And sadly, it falls short in the comparison.
Most fatal flaw of all is the portrayal of the characters. Despite many claims of the superiority of the Japanese version over the English version, it does not do justice to the characters at all. The character of Sonic has always been a smart mouth and a braggart, but in this movie he definitely crosses the line and comes across as a truly unlikable jerk. This impression is further amplified by the Japanese script which as a good bit of harsh language coming from both Sonic and Tails (tails screaming at Sonic to "Go to Hell" kinda kills the whole innocent perception of the character). As villains go, Dr Eggman is a complete idiot and the President's daughter, Sarah, is one of the most irritating damsels in distress in anime history.
Fans of the game, do check out the much superior Sonic the Hedgehog series from 1993(Known in fan circles as "Sonic satAM), or the Japanese version of Sonic X. This so called "movie" is not even worth the time to stream on youtube.
***********Review***********
Released in 1996 as two OVA episodes and edited together into a movie in 1999, Sonic the Hedgehog is a funny little animated outing for the light-speed blue hedgehog and his fox friend Tails. However, "funny" is all that this movie has going for it, and it not the actual witty type of funny mind you. It is the painfully cringe worthy funny where you laugh at how bad this movie is.
Its first most obvious flaw is its animation, which for all intents and purposes seems worse than some of the episodes in 1993's Sonic the Hedgehob TV series. It boggles the mind how an OVA, which is meant to have a higher animation budget than a TV show, can look worse than TV animation from years ago. The animation and artwork can only be classified as "lazy". For example, Tails no longer flies by spinning his tails like a helicopter. His tails disappear and in their a brown and white disc forms over his head which gives him the ability to levitate.
Similarly, whenever Sonic runs, you do not see a blur of feet but a simple red ribbon-like object that is meant to represent his feet.(at times those said "feet" are not even attached to his body). A couple of scenes do stand out such as Black Eggman chasing sonic and tails through the streets of "EggmanLand" and some scenes involving Metal Sonic, they look really good. But overall, the artwork and coloring is flat and the characters lack a sense of fluidity. Some off-model art does creep in, possibly due to poor quality control.
Depending on one's expectations, the story could be seen as either a flaw or a boon. But either way, one cannot deny the childish nature of the story nor the absurdity the plot. Dr Eggman has kidnapped the president and his daughter in order to enlists the help of Sonic and Tails to destroy "Black Eggman" who has taken over his realm of EggmanLand. However, it is all a ruse to trick Sonic into being an unwilling subject in Dr Eggman's latest evil plot. One involving the might Metal Sonic. Sure the games were not exactly shining examples of good storytelling either, but an anime deserves to be compared to others of its kind. And sadly, it falls short in the comparison.
Most fatal flaw of all is the portrayal of the characters. Despite many claims of the superiority of the Japanese version over the English version, it does not do justice to the characters at all. The character of Sonic has always been a smart mouth and a braggart, but in this movie he definitely crosses the line and comes across as a truly unlikable jerk. This impression is further amplified by the Japanese script which as a good bit of harsh language coming from both Sonic and Tails (tails screaming at Sonic to "Go to Hell" kinda kills the whole innocent perception of the character). As villains go, Dr Eggman is a complete idiot and the President's daughter, Sarah, is one of the most irritating damsels in distress in anime history.
Fans of the game, do check out the much superior Sonic the Hedgehog series from 1993(Known in fan circles as "Sonic satAM), or the Japanese version of Sonic X. This so called "movie" is not even worth the time to stream on youtube.
***********Review***********
Entertainment: C-
Art: C-
Animation: C-
Art: C-
Animation: C-
Story: C-
Voice Action(Japanese): B+
Voice Acting (English): C-
Voice Action(Japanese): B+
Voice Acting (English): C-
Characters: D
Music: C-
Replay value: C
"Brains": D-
"Brains": D-
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