With a release date of February 14th, 2020, The Sonic Movie hit theaters across the country. A movie based off of the famed video game character, created by SEGA Entertainment, Sonic the Hedgehog is known for his blue fur, and running at insane speeds. With lots of anticipation swirling around the movie, our newsgroup decided to check out this new film, and we want to find out how audiences are receiving the movie. 

Sunday night, our newsgroup took a trip to the Quakertown Regal Theater. Arriving at 7:30 for a 7:40 showing, we got our concessions and prepared for what was to come. As we were waiting, we thought about the backlash this movie has gotten after releasing their design for the CGI (computer generated imagery) of Sonic. Many people were furious about how their design looked nothing like the classic character they were used to seeing. We wondered how the now changed Sonic would look on the big screen. The movie’s director, Jeff Fowler, was quoted on Twitter saying, “You [people] aren’t happy with the design and want changes. It’s going to happen.” 

Throughout the movie, we were not only enjoying the plot line that was written, but how fantastic the movie looked overall. The CGI, locations, sets, and props were all fantastic and looked like they were picked right out of our world. There was a lot of fighting and futuristic technology used like attack robots, a control panel implanted into the villain’s arm, and lots of explosions. We also found the casting to be very successful. With Ben Schwartz as the voice of Sonic, Jim Carrey as the main villain, Dr. Ivo Robotnik, and James Marsden as Tom Wachowski, we were impressed how well they acted in their main roles. Being the teengers we are, we made jokes during the movie, but in actuality, we were enjoying it. Looking back at it now, we can see why it has brought in a lot of money already. 

To be honest, we didn’t know what to really expect going into this movie. We jokingly kept talking about how we were the only kids from high school here, and how we expected a lot more children to be in attendance. We were pleasantly surprised to find that not only were there other adults and teenagers there, Pennridge’s own Sean Lerro also showed up for the movie. Our group tracked him down after the movie was over to ask him some questions about what he thought about the movie. When asked what he thought of the movie as a whole, he responded with, “The movie extremely exceeded my expectations. I figured it was going to be another cheesy video game movie that really had no plot, wasn’t good, and was only going to make money off the name.” He rated the movie as 7.4 out of 10, saying, “It was a good movie for what it’s worth. It didn’t have potential to have a powerful storyline which is why it can’t get into the 8 or 9 range, but it was still a good movie.” 

The group found similarities in our rating of the movie. While it did in fact really exceed our expectations, in the end it was just a movie about a famed video game character who came to be on planet Earth. We found the CGI of the movie the strong point, and while the movie may not appeal to our age group much at all, we think The Sonic Movie really is not just for kids. If you’re looking for a pleasant movie experience, this film is highly recommended for that.