I honestly believe the Sonic we ended up seeing in the final cut of Sonic the Hedgehog was always the original intended design; the shock trailer with the horrifyingly “realistic” depiction of the iconic blue blur was always a deliberate publicity stunt. It worked, and “Gangsta’s Paradise” never made it to the final soundtrack.

The question of “what if Sonic was real?” had been asked before, which the 15th anniversary disaster Xbox 360 release of Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) tried to answer with very limited success. I’m certain a large fan base out there enjoyed the misguided romance of Sonic and Princess Elise. Remember kids, there’s nothing cooler than finding anything you want on the internet but always leave safe search on…always.

Jim Carrey ended up playing the part of Doctor Robotnik, mainly because he realised that it was always predestined for him to take on the role since the very dawn of existence itself. A profound existential force may have played a part here, but against all odds and speculation the man once known as “The Mask” took on a cartoon character like only he can. Jim didn’t really need to know the source material, all he had to do was take on the traits of an evil genius with an insanely high IQ and a narcissistic personality disorder. The end result was probably the most enjoyable aspect of the film. This highly animated and manic depiction of the famed video game villain is hard not to love, it almost feels like destiny.

Sonic the Hedgehog works as a film because it follows the familiar plot device of Spielberg’s E.T. almost too comfortably to a T, but it also borrows the sensibilities of modern CG animated films with a Deadpool-esque sense of humour almost akin to Detective Pikachu; coincidentally, another film no one could imagine would turn out as good as it did. So basically, E.T. meets Detective Pikachu in what is honestly the best film anyone could have hoped for from the Sonic multiverse (Sonic Underground reboot please).

Sonic is fast, yet the film’s pacing doesn’t feel that way for the most part; but, as a whole, SEGA most certainly did what Nintendidn’t by giving their icon a worthy stage under the lights of Hollywood.

So how about a Martin Scorsese interpretation of Super Mario Bros.?

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