Everyone expected Sonic the Hedgehog to be an unmitigated disaster after it’s original trailer was released in late 2019. Because of the backlash to Sonic’s toothy grin and plenty on anthropomorphic body shamming later, Paramount pictures elected to delay the movie three months for some obviously needed redesigns. The studio decided to add a bit of flab to the “blue devil” and polish up those teeth in the adorable little creature’s mouth.

I finally had the opportunity to view this film with my four-year-old this weekend and we both enjoyed the heck out of it. It is certainly way better than it deserved to be. I’m certain we enjoyed it for different reasons, but I had the most fun spotting countless easter eggs and nods to the iconic gaming franchise. Here are some of my favorite.

Young Sonic is seen giving a flower to long claw, his guardian in the opening scene. This flower is from the iconic first stage in Green Hill Zone in the original Sonic the Hedgehog.

Later in the movie, Sonic is given a pair of new shoes. These are the iconic shoes he wears in the game and is the icon for the power sneakers power-up.

Sonic plays a game of ping pong against himself on a road sign identifying Hill Top Rd. Hill Top is a zone in Sonic 2 for the Sega Genesis/Megadrive.

Sonic is seen in his cave wearing a headband. The headband’s design is the silhouette of the Sonic 1 Sega Genesis/Megadrive title screen.

Sonic has a map in his cave. The map shows his home planet, which is humorously identified by the Sega Saturn logo. This map also seems to depict chaos emeralds.

Tails makes his cinematic debut after the first credit scroll.

Are Knuckles and his Echidna pals hunting down sonic at the beginning of the film? What are they after? Possibly hunting down chaos emeralds.

Can’t get enough Sonic? How about some Sanic the hedgehog? He’s everyone’s 16-bit system hero! Support our blog and buy this shirt today! Click the image and it’ll take you to our Teespring.com store.

Like what you’ve read? Want more?

Follow us on Twitter: @NerdJockBlog33