Retro8bit

I think most people out there are acquainted with the little blue hedgehog known as Sonic, he has been a popular character in both America and Japan for years. He has also stared in 2 OVA titles combined to make one movie, and while its not perfectly made, it shouldn't let down the Sonic or anime fans out there. Story: 6/10 Works well enough, basically its up to Sonic to stop an evil robot called "Metal Robotnik," though Metal Sonic is actually the primary villain here. It keeps things all around balanced as Sonic first starts out relaxing at the beach, then later is battle his waythrough Robo-troplic, where the enemy lies in wait. It keeps up the action all the while moving the story along quite nicely, and the major Sonic characters (for the time) are all present and accounted for, and are complimented with a sparse, yet decent supporting cast! The only bad part to the story was the action scenes, now don't get me wrong they were quite well planned out and entertaining, but if I were to estimate how often they occurred, I would say the whole movie was probably about 70% action and 30% story. While again the story does get moved along well enough, it just seems like they were more concerned about putting in a lot of action scenes as apposed to the actual storyline, and it would have also been cool to see more of the Sonic environments from the video game. (other than Robo-tropolic) Still for what they do have, the action is at least spaced out well enough with the story scenes to where its not all that noticeable. The overall movie is actually much closer to an actual comedy (even with all the fighting in it) than anything else, and will make you laugh on some parts. Artwork: 8/10 Definitely shows its age when compared to today, but is actually still quite good. The background and environments are all very nicely detailed, and the color scheme never comes off as over done. The characters are nicely drawn too, and move pretty fluidly through the anime. Though they tend to be a bit more on the bland and un-detailed side when compared to the backgrounds. (or even the American cartoon known as "Adventures of Sonic the hedgehog.") But it was very pleasing to the eyes back in its time. Plus all the high speed action scenes are very exciting and differ from each situation that Sonic may be in. Soundtrack: 7/10 While we never get any of the actual Sonic tunes from the video game, the "movie made "soundtrack it does have is quite catchy and easy to listen to, even if some may feel it to be a bit on the sparse side, which yeah....it is. But you also get these neat little lite rock style beat that play in the background every so often, and do seem to fit the Sonic style of music and approach. There is even this cool vocal theme that plays at the end called "Look-alike," which you will most likely have stuck in your head after you finish it. Some fans may be disappointed that there are no actual familiar tunes, but I feel they more than made up for it with their unique take on the soundtrack. The voices all matched nicely to each character, though I personally found Tail's voices to be a bit on the annoying side, he kinda sounded like he had a sore throat the whole time. Still, it over all worked and the minuses out way the negatives. Characters: 8/10 Quite entertaining, they all brought over their personalities from the game. Down from Sonic's attitude, to Knuckles more tough guy approach. In fact I think most of the characters were much more on the discrete and likable side this time around. Because while in other titles Sonic might go overboard with his whole attitude thing, I feel that here they balanced each one out nicely, so none of them ever came off as too much of an extreme personality. Though I feel I still should mention that while the characters are all likable, they do give off a more comical approach to each one of them. Which can be seen as a positive or negative depending on your taste. Bottom Line: 8/10 Overall Sonic the movie was a well done project, it spaces out the action and comedy scenes (both of which are fun to watch) enough to keep things fresh and un-repetitive. While it did have a few kinks with the story, it over all came together and should work in the audience's favor. It might not appeal to everyone, and some fans might not like the lack of overall Sonic environments and themes. Its still a very entertaining movie none the less, and keeps Sonic and the gang at light speed!

wesley96

I'm a Sonic fan, and I have been for a long time, but to be honest, I didn't really like this, and here's why- Story: The story for the Sonic OVA/Movie is just like any other Sonic franchise, Sonic has to stop the villains no matter what cost. The story was very strong. You have Sonic and Tails at the beginning looking out for villains when they stop into Robotnik. Apparently Robotnik has "captured" the Mayor and his daughter. Suddenly, a robot named Black Eggman (or Metal Robotnik in the dub) appears in Eggmanland (or Robotropolis in the dub), and Sonic then goes to defeat therobot. Little does Sonic know that this is all part of Robotnik's plan to be able to collect Sonic's mind and thoughts in order to make a replicant of Sonic, called Metal Sonic. So now Sonic has to save the mayor, defeat Black Eggman, and defeat Metal Sonic. The story's as any other Sonic game. A strong one I must say. Art: The art for the Sonic OVA was bland, and not colorful. This is probably because the show was produced in 1996, but Serial Experiments Lain also came out at that time, and that had amazing art. Anyway, the characters themselves do look like they were intended to. I wish they took more time on Knuckles and Robotnik, because they didn't look that great. The background design also needed improvement. There was a part where apparently Sonic and the gang were near a volcano, and lava started to pour out. All you get instead of good background details, it looks more like water with bad photoshopping. Anyway, the art was good, but there needed to be improvements. Sound: The sound for the OVA wasn't that good either. I do think you could hear them, but not always. The voice acting for the characters were good. The Japanese voice actors were good, but the dub actors needed improvement. Dub Sonic sounded whiny, dub Tails sounded like a 4 year-old with a cold, dub Knuckles sounded too calm and needed some anger management, and the only voice actor that was good in the dub was Robotnik's. Characters: What can I say that hasn't been said about the characters? Sonic's cool as always, Tails is a great supporter, Knuckles was a good character, and Robotnik and Metal Sonic were great villains. Even though there was a great plot and characters, I didn't really enjoy it. Honestly, I was bored and was anxiously waiting for it to end. They took too long on how Robotnik was able to make Metal Sonic, and the parts with Robotnik and the Maoyr's daughter that was intended to be funny, just bored me and made me want to take a nap. Overall the Sonic OVA was just average to me. They could have done better jobs with this. Die-hard Sonic fans will love it. If you're not a fan of Sonic or you don't know much about Sonic, I wouldn't recommend it.