Sonic The Hedgehog (4k Ultra Hd + Blu-Ray + Digital)

Blu-Ray Reviews | May 22nd, 2020

Sonic The Hedgehog
Image used with permission for review purposes.

Starring: Ben Schwartz, James Marsden, Jim Carrey, Tika Sumpter, Adam Pally
Written By: Pat Casey, Josh Miller
Directed By: Jeff Fowler
Studio: Paramount
Buy On Amazon.com

Sonic The Hedgehog caused quite a bit of controversy before even finishing production. Was it worth the delay and fixing the issues? I think so because the movie ended up being surprisingly fun and entertaining.

The movie’s premise is an alien blue hedgehog named Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) teleports to Earth and ends up in Green Hills, Montana for some reason. He stays there for 10 years without being noticed and from a distance, longs to be friends with the local sheriff, Tom Wachowski (James Marsden). One night, Sonic triggers an EMP pulse throughout the upper Northwest part of the country. An evil, scientific genius, Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) is called in from the government to find out what is causing the EMP pulses. Once Robotnik discovers it’s Sonic, Sonic enlists the help of Tom.

I literally had no expectations for this movie. Well, maybe I went into this thinking I was going to hate it but that wasn’t the case. I watched the movie with my four and half year old son and we both enjoyed it. It’s definitely geared towards kids but there’s some things in there that parents will only get. Paramount should have taken a less kiddie approach to some of the humor though. Some will see the trailer and want to skip it. I think the delay in getting the character design right helped the movie out a bit. It showed that the studio and filmmaker cared what people think and made the right movie. Of course, that might be a double edge sword to walk on going forward.

The movie is funny, particularly scenes with James Marsden and of course Jim Carrey. I like Ben Schwartz usually but thought he was wrong for the part. The sonic character itself got annoying to me quickly but again, this is a kid movie. Jim Carrey was in his old form and quite funny, if you don’t mind him. He can be a bit much at times but I like how he took the role and ran with it. He was definitely a highlight for me. I’m not sure what it says about the movie that I find the lead character the most annoying. Sometimes he was funny but other times it was too much.

The 4k quality looked excellent on my TV, so no complaints there. The special effects looked good, but of course looked too cartoony at times. The 4k/Blu-Ray bonus materials include some deleted scenes, bloopers, commentary and a few other things.

As a video game movie, I was pleasantly surprised that this was enjoyable and fun. Go in with an open mind and might want to watch more of this in the future. I could definitely sit down and watch another one with Sonic going up against Robotnik. Perhaps the movie & script could be geared less towards kids next time? Make it Pixar-ish without the sad tropes those movies have in them. I’m sure others have no desire to watch this and I could see that. I’m not sure I would have watched this if I didn’t see a few people said they enjoyed it. I was curious and in the end, thought the movie was fun. Sure, the Sonic the Hedgehog could have been better in some areas but overall, can’t really complain too much.

Features:
Commentary
Deleted Scenes
Bloopers
Building Robotnik with Jim Carrey

Video:
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (59.53 Mbps)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Audio:
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
German: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
French (Canada): Dolby Digital 5.1
Italian: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Japanese: Dolby Digital 5.1
Russian: Dolby Digital 5.1
Thai: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Note: Castilian and Latin-American Spanish, specs are for 4K version

Subtitles:
English, English SDH, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Cantonese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Korean, Malay, Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Romanian, Russian, Swedish, Thai, Turkish

Bottom Line: A lot better than I was expecting
Running Time: 99 mins
Rating: PG
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating:

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