Sonic The Hedgehog 2 Review - Almost Supersonic

The engine that drove the first big-screen Sonic the Hedgehog adaptation was the way it combined the Blue Blur with a human buddy–making for a lighter Who Framed Roger Rabbit dynamic that kept the story about a cartoon space hedgehog with impossibly fast feet feeling relatively grounded. In broadening out the story in order to make a sequel, Sonic The Hedgehog 2 steps away from that dynamic and shifts it some, which simultaneously gives Sonic more room to breathe as his own character, and creates some derision in the overall story.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 isn’t quite the breezy and fleet-footed romp that its predecessor was, packed as it is with all the characters of the last movie plus a few new ones, and at times that makes it feel disjointed and cumbersome. When all the threads start to come together near the halfway point, though, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 catches a stride that makes it just as much fun as the first film–and often more. Even when it isn’t quite as together, Sonic 2 subsists on a steady flow of jokes and gags, with director Jeff Fowler and the movie’s script leveraging its many characters in effective ways. They understand how to use its characters to keep things moving, and Sonic 2 sticks an over-the-top funny tone that makes even the weaker moments work.

Both Sonic the Hedgehog movies are about Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) trying to find his place on Earth. After the events of the first movie, Sonic has found a home with humans Tom (James Marsden) and Maddie (Tika Sumpter), but the heroics of the last movie have left him trying to find ways for his alien superspeed powers to do more good in the world. Sonic 2 starts with the Blue Blur moonlighting as a Batman-like superhero in Seattle, but his improvised heroics wind up causing a fair amount of devastation. As Tom says in a father-son-ish heart-to-heart, Sonic still has some growing up to do; it’s a “with great power comes great responsibility”-type thing, with Sonic needing to realize his fun antics have actual consequences.