Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie (1996)

Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, Sonic The Hedgehog games were actually good. Because Sonic was popular the world over, SEGA decided to make a pilot for an anime series based on the Sonic characters around 1996. Unfortunately, they forgot that Sonic wasn't actually all that big in Japan. As such, it was never picked up.Cut to 1999. A group of hardcore otaku by the name of ADV Films realized that, with the imminent release of Sonic Adventure for the Dreamcast, they could make a fair sum of cash by releasing the pilot as a direct-to-DVD movie here in the States. Hence, Sonic The Hedgehog: The Movie.I explained all that because I wanted to make it clear that a great opportunity was missed when nobody in Japan picked the pilot up. They could have made a killing on the US market.I mostly say this due to the animation. To say the least, it is absolutely gorgeous. The scenery is very detailed, the characters look exactly as they're supposed to, the actions scenes are nothing short of awesome, and it never descends into QUALITY at all. It captures the qualities of the video games perfectly, and the fact that it may remind fans of the FMV sequences in Sonic CD only helps.Granted, it's not perfect. The plot, which involves Sonic and Tails attempting to disable a generator in Robotnik's underground city before it explodes, is not very well developed, and is really just an excuse to watch the nice animation. The VAs are kind of love-em-or-hate-em, as well. I personally think they're alright, but I can understand why people would find them kind of annoying. People who aren't fans of the Sonic The Hedgehog games, or are only familiar with the post-Adventure games, probably won't get what the big deal is.It really is a shame that this was never picked up, as Sonic fans would have loved the show at the time. As it is, Sonic fans owe it to themselves to watch this, if only for the beautiful animation. If you are not a Sonic fan, however, you won't miss too much by skipping it.

Sonic the Movie/Sonic OVA is a well-made Japanese dubbed movie which really captures the early games and elements of the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series before it all became about 3D aspects, werehogs and Shadow. The animation and music are good, although the voice acting is a little iffy but full of memorable lines (e.g. "Strange isn't it?").The plot is split into two acts. Eggman sends Sonic and Tails down into what looks like a dark abandoned version of New York to stop Metal Eggman, a giant fat robot, from doing something. Knuckles makes his animated debut in this film, sporting an Indiana Jones' hat and wrongly-coloured shoes, and for some reason, is mistook for a mole. Eventually, Metal Sonic makes his fantastic appearance to initially take over the world for Eggman.Being an anime cartoon, there are a large number of elements from the Japanese cartoons that are included, including characters randomly falling over, the character Sara is placed into a rather short miniskirt of sorts, and there is some adult humour. Unlike America, Japan doesn't really care about swear words and the protection of their kids, and included some adult jokes in the movie. The notable jokes include Sonic flipping the bird towards Metal Eggman, Sara has a vision of her breast-feeding a baby resembling Eggman, Tails accidentally touching her cleavage, and rather dodgy scene involving Metal Sonic unintentionally looking up Sara's skirt.Regardless, it is a great movie to watch if you are a Sonic fan. I recommend you watch a parody of this film on YouTube, called Sonic B******ized.

People seem to think that the anime adaptations of video-games are somehow better than the films based on games using live-actors. Personally what I can't stand is how people who make this kind of anime always have to crowbar anime-conventions into places where they don't belong, in pathetic attempts to add some depth to the characters and their game-world. Undoubtedly some of the goofier elements of Anime do find their home in the Sonic Anime, but the over-all plot is rather ridiculous in hind-sight.That's not to say that the OVA doesn't look good, but for some reason OVAs just tend to disappoint me with their lack of comprehensive closure, just like with Burn Up W and New Dominion Tank Police. Why OVAs can't look to Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki for a way to keep an OVA alive, I just don't understand.As a side-note (and notice that this did not affect my vote): I have always thought that of all Sonic cartoons this has had the worst English-speaking voice-cast. The Japanese voices were decent, but none of the characters sound themselves in the English dub.Sonic Anime is a nice tribute to the old-school Sonic-fans, but other than that there's nothing very appealing about it.

I saw this movie when I was ten years old and fully into the whole American Anime craze. I was watching DBZ and Pokemon when I saw this film. I haven't seen it since, but for some reason I cant describe, it held a place in my heart. I never forgot that first scene where Sonic is laying on the beach, enjoying a sunbathe and Tails comes up with a jet-propelled body-board and annoys Sonic by blocking his rays. I remembered the first time Knuckles appeared, flying in front of the city with that hat. The character design is inaccurate to the games design, but the animation really makes up for it with beautifully done action pieces that truly defined Sonics sense of speed in the games and integrated into the film. The story is decent and has its fair share of moderately clever twists, but nothing thats going to turn the heads of many critics anytime soon. Sonic has seen rise and fall, but this film was nowhere near his fall.