Sonic★the★Hedgehog

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 way ... through 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!

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 the ... robot. 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.

Intro
No doubt, if you like sonic, WATCH THIS NOW!

Story
Story is good and it gets to the point, no dragging everything along, Fast action form your favourite blue hedghog.

Animation
This is a really old cartoon due to it's age i gave it a 6 out of 10, because when it was made the animation wasn't bad, it's fair animation for it's age. An old classic.

Sound
... Decent sound, unique voices, music went well with the high speed action.

Characters
What's expected of Sonic and knuckles 3? And sonic the hedgehog TV series Sonic: Underground from the 1990's, similar characters, unique traits as always.

Enjoyment
I enjoyed this and think it is something I could watch a couple more times, decent re-watchability.

Story: 9/10
This movie is basically about how I score with a hot chick while Sonic gets beat unmerciful by one of my inventions.

Beautiful.

However, they mistakenly cast the Hero as the Villain. I can't give it full marks for that.

Art: 9/10
I am NOT that round!

... Sound: 10/10
No complaints here.

Character: 10/10
They captured my genius pretty well, although I wouldn't have wasted so much time moving on that chick.

Enjoyment: 10/10
I'm on screen almost half the movie. How could anyone not enjoy it? ;)

Overall: 9/10
Almost perfect, except for the miscast rolls and the rampant Hedgehog propaganda. I also would have won, should these events have actually occurred.

At least they got my name right.

As someone who will defend the Sonic series quite a bit, I must say this is one of the WORST pieces of media I've ever seen.

It has a story that makes no sense and characters that make even less sense. No one has any logic to how they act. Sonic is extremely out of character. Avoid this OVA. Don't even watch it out of curiosity.

I was in shock after watching this abomination that the localizers tried to pass off as a "movie". It's not a movie. It's less than an hour long, and perhaps that's for the best, because I hated every second of ... this trash.

Watch Sonic Boom instead.

Recently, there's been a lot of discussion over Sonic's Hollywood debut and how the trailer makes it look like absolute rubbish, particularly with the horrific design for the character himself. Because that's how Hollywood does adaptations. They think they can do better and make things more marketable if they just ignore the source they're adapting from completely. But I digress. In early 1996, The Blue blur got an anime adaptation in the form of a two episode OVA from Studio Pierrot. And I'm going to look at it to provide some background into Sonic adaptations. 

Story:

We open with a shadowy figure in a laboratory. He rants ... about his Hyper Metal Sonic and how he just needs "his" data to complete him. We cut to Sonic & Tails enjoying the beach when an old owl flies up and sends them to the President who needs them as he is going to attend a furry convention and needs feedback on his suit. Actually, there's an emergency. They arrive to find Doctor Eggman sitting at the President's desk with robots holding the president and his daughter hostage. He tells Sonic that his kingdom, Eggmanland, was taken over by a mysterious Black Eggman and his army of robots. Furthermore, they're abusing his generator in such a way that it may destroy the planet. Sonic says Eggman almost always lies but reluctantly agrees to go in case this is one of those rare exceptions. Thus Sonic and Tails begin their adventure. 

I would say that the big story issue is that the whole thing is kind of predictable, but it's also based off of the old Sonic games and those all had the same plot. So, I'm not sure the predictability can be called a big flaw. What is definitively a flaw is that the plot points don't always make sense. For example, Metal Sonic knows everything Sonic knows from copying information from his brain. Fair enough. Somehow he also knows things Sonic learns after that fact. How does that work? Are their brains supposed to be connected by wi-fi? Does Sonic's mind also have apps and Minesweeper? 

I will credit the OVA with giving its characters enough sense to make the obvious points. Which should be a given, but frequently doesn't happen, especially in works meant for children. But here, Sonic brings up Eggman's dishonesty every time it's relevant and there's always a good reason why they have to act any way. So, at least the plot doesn't revolve around carrying the idiot ball.  The OVA also does have the occasional funny moment. Which makes it pretty watchable. 

Characters:

There isn't much to the characters in this. Sonic can really move, he's got an attitude. He's probably the fastest thing alive. Tails is a playful kid who follows Sonic around and pilots a plane. Knuckles is a wandering treasure hunter who considers himself Sonic's best friend. Eggman wants to conquer everything. They're all simple, but serviceable enough. But that brings us to the new characters in the OVA. We have a senile old owl and the big joke surrounding him is that he awkwardly mimics the young people. The President is boring. But the real problem character is Sara, the President's daughter. She throws tantrums, cries and is just generally annoying. All without contributing anything meaningful whatsoever. Yes, she's one of those characters they could replace with a dog and it would only improve the work. 

Art:

The art looks decent enough. Knuckles wearing a cowboy hat for no reason is a bit odd. It's like the folks at Pierrot were inspired by Fang the sniper. But at least they had the good sense not to ruin Sonic's iconic design by making him look bizarrely humanoid. A studio would have to be completely and utterly made up of morons to do that. Hi, Paramount. 

Sound:

The actors do pretty well. Particularly Kikuchi Masami & Matsumoto Yasunori. Kanai Mika is probably the worst in terms of performance but that's more how her character is written than it is a reflection of her skills. The music is really well done with some tracks sounding like they came right from the Megadrive game. Maybe they actually did and I'm just not recalling the exact music from those games at the moment. Either way, it works.

Ho-yay: 

There isn't any. 

Areas of Improvement:

Lose Sara. She doesn't contribute anything to the narrative. Her scenes are just annoying. 
Have Metal Sonic learn Sky World's weakness through means that make sense. He could overhear it by zooming through or he could plant a bug on Sonic when he has the chance. In either case, it would work better than him still being connected to Sonic's brain through wi-fi. 
Develop the Relationships with Sonic, Tails & Knuckles a bit. We get some small sense of how the trio interact and things work between them, but it could pretty easily be strengthened. 

Final Thoughts: 

Honestly, I think this OVA is going to turn out to be significantly superior to the upcoming Paramount film. Is it a good OVA? Well, no but it does have a basic understanding of the Sonic characters and it faithfully follows the iconic designs that have kept the blue hedgehog relevant in spite of a long line of Sonic '06, Secret Rings, Unleashed, Black Knight and other rubbish titles. And it's not a bad OVA by any means. It has its enjoyable moments, in spite of its glaring flaws. In the end, it's pretty average. If you were comparing it to a Sonic game, it would be at roughly the level of the first Sonic Adventure. So, my final rating is going to be a 5/10. If you're a huge Sonic fan, consider checking it out. If you aren't, you probably won't get anything out of it. 

TLDR: It's cute. It's fine. Great OST.

Sonic★the★Hedgehog, an OVA based on the super popular, and with each passing year, super divisive Sonic the Hedgehog video game series. This OVA was a failed pilot for a possible anime series staring Sonic, back in his classic design, however it sold poorly pretty much everywhere, and I don't entirely understand why. This is not me saying "This OVA is amazing!" rather I'm saying "There's no obvious reason for poor sales". Then again, as someone who's seen this OVA years after it's original release on YouTube, I can't tell you the details on how Sonic was perceived back in ... 1996 Japan, US, and Europe.

The OVA feels like it's 2 stories back to back, which it is, and it flows well enough but you can feel when there's a shift to "the next episode". The plot is simple, the characters aren't deep, not do they really have a major change in development. It's simple and kiddie because it was supposed to be a simple kids show, which it accomplishes at doing. If you're not a Sonic fan, nothing here will really interest you maybe, but if you are, it is neat just to watch different interpretations of the characters. Sonic being a rude-boy, but like, really rude-boy, Tails being a lot more assertive towards Sonic while being a scamp as well, Knuckles wearing a hat and being a treasure hunter, the latter aspect he attributes in future titles, and Eggman... being what you think of when you think Eggman honestly.

The universe this OVA inhabits does seem to be distinctly different to what Sonic is, from back then to today, with the concept of 2 planetary regions, the "Dark World" clearly being a decayed version of modern time, but still the world being rather mundane compared to the wacky zones of the series up to then. If anything, it's sort of a precursor to what Sonic's world would become in the years up to come, except instead of modern society being a post-apocalyptic land, Sonic has adventures (pun intended) in a more mundane modern world.

The animation is, once again, fine. Nothing really stand out bad, but it is a post-80s/early 90s Studio Pierrot show, so don't expect their best, which is rather disappointing. Since this is only an OVA, you should expect the animation to be better than average TV fair of the era, but since it's just a pilot, it looks TV fair of its era. While there is some sequences during the battles between Sonic and Metal that look rather spectacular compared to the rest of the product, I wouldn't define those segments in the super famed important word "sakuga". If the animation was better, more akin to the Sonic CD opening, or for a modern comparison, the Sonic Mania opening, then I would say this OVA would be worth watching for the animation alone, but sadly, it's just 90s TV level.

However, what really elevates the OVA is the music, and if there is one thing Sonic is known for... one of many things the franchise is known for, it's the music. It's a mid 90s eletronic eargasm, it just sounds SEGA. You know the sound, just pop in Sonic 2 into your Genesis, Virtua Fighter 2 into your Saturn, Space Channel 5 into your Dreamcast, and just listen to the music... you know that feeling. Honestly I wish this pilot was successful if only to get more music. They're all very catchy and memorable, in a good way, there are tracks you want to listen to over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, until you get sick of them after a million listens.

I also watched this dubbed, and as far as 90s dubs go, say it with me, it's fine. Years ago I wasn't a fan of Eggman's voice, but I like it better now than I remembered. Sonic's voice hit the right amount of attitude, but it can probably get grating for some viewers (especially since the VA is an Irishman, and he was trying really hard to not let the Irish accent come through). Tails is really something, he sounds like a little twerp, which makes sense, but it isn't the best voice he's had, and it's possibly not his worst...
As for everyone else, nothing remarkable honestly.

Closing thoughts, it's fine. It's cute. And I would have rated this a 5, but I gave it a 6 because I am a Sonic fan. Look at my profile pic in case you could't tell by now. I'm being more lenient than I probably should be, I'm admitting that right here and now, but I can't deny this OVA has a charm about it, and there's this lingering feeling of "what could have been" if this OVA was made into a series, and I think I can guess why this wasn't a series.

It's nothing remarkable, and as I said, it's fine. I guess there just wasn't enough interest created by the OVA for it to anything more. Maybe it was marketed poorly. Maybe the Sonic franchise just wasn't as popular during 1996, as the last major release was in 1994, the Saturn was out worldwide by 1995, and there was no Sonic game released on the Saturn, save for a re-release. Maybe if it was better, and people did buy it, Sonic would have had a well done and beloved series that started in the 90s, or it would have been a short lived train wreck, who knows? Yeah.

Decent 6 outta 10

Some people say perfection is something that cannot be achieved, and Sonic The Hedgehog the OVA disproves that entire statement. The animation is top-notch, the storyline is superb, focusing on the inner conflicts between metal sonic and regular sonic, as they express the same thoughts and feelings. It is potentially representative to how in life we are always in eternal conflict with our dark forms, despite it still being a part of yourself. You might know everything your dark side is going to do, but thats not going to help you since the dark side of yourself knows everything you're going to do. Its strange, ... isn't it? The OVA also introduces staple mainstay characters in the entire sonic franchise, such as Old Man Owl and Sara, the Humanoid Furry Thing that Robotnik wants to marry, and Metal Sonic gets a nice upskirt of. The voice acting is some of the best I have ever heard, especially the english dub. The way everyone sounds so nasally and awkward really makes a statement about our own internal insecurities that we have with ourselves in order to deal with our dark sides. Knuckles wears a cowboy hat. 10/10

"You might know everything I'm going to do, but that's not going to help you since I know everything YOU'RE going to do! STRANGE ISN'T IT!"
-Quote by Sonic because why not?

While people outside of the Sonic fandom may not enjoy this, I would recommend this to any Sonic fan (I recommend this to myself then lol.)

Story - The story is simple, yet fun. It's fitting for a Sonic story, but don't expect it to be a masterpiece.

Art - I have no idea why I like the art so much. But the designs and places are greatly done.

Sound - I don't have much of an opinion ... other than they are good, but there's not really any memorable tracks. For voices, at least in Japanese, fit in my opinion.

Character - They did a great job on (most) of the characters in my opinion! Sonic has an attitude and is pretty lazy sometimes, but his heart is in the right place, Tails may be a sidekick to Sonic and scared sometimes, but he does his best and is a kind person, Knuckles is Knuckles (his hat is drippy), Eggman is also Eggman. I wasn't a huge fan of Sarah though, as she was basically Amy but not as good and her obsessiveness with Sonic is cranked up to a unhealthy amount. Also the "PERVERT" jokes weren't really needed a lot of the time.

Enjoyment - I think most of my enjoyment from this movie is watching Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles tackle the plot together. It was fun to watch.

Overall, I really enjoyed this OVA! It could have been better, but it was fun to watch. It will likely be more fun to watch if you are a Sonic fan or at least familiar with the franchise.

【ＳＰ♢ＩＬEＲ ＬEＶΣＬ： Ｎ♢ＮΣ】
review from a hardcore sonic fan! ok look, i know a lot of people including some sonic fans don't like this movie for things like the awkward english dub, unnecessary side characters and disconnected stand-alone worldbuilding, but i just cant hate it man! it's got that authentic 90s aesthetic with an absolutely boppin' house music/sonic r-esque soundtrack, genuinely gorgeous background art and overall art direction, and i personally find it cool that something like it exists at all even if it was never made into anything more.

these incarnations of the main trio are a bit annoying to some which is a valid gripe, ... i think this is mostly related to the voice acting and a lack of depth to their dialogue, but i actually don't mind it too much.

this movie's version of sonic is actually one of my favorites just from how adorable and surprisingly canon-accurate he is to classic sonic, like he's just a rude little creacher whos perpetually done with everyone's crap, the vibes are perfect for him. also i don't care what any of y'all say, i love his weird accent and wouldn't complain if sega brought it back. knuckles is also better in this than he has been for the past decade or so, mostly because he's portrayed as a helpful ally to sonic instead of a big dumb himbo or... an army general?? ughhh forces... also a fan of how chill he is compared to most of his more aggro incarnations. tails and sara were somewhat annoying to me but not insufferable, moreso sara than tails.

i definitely favored the second part over the first in basically every respect, as it's more effectively paced and works well with it's darker tone, not to mention it's got one of the best interpretations of metal sonic since the sonic mania christmas special short. i legit teared up a bit at the ending, it's just so simple but impactful for metal's character.

i honestly think this movie's greatest flaw is underdevelopment, which is something the writers seem to have already been working to solve by the second part. if only i was born into a timeline where this concept was made into a full anime, as it could've been a legitimately worthy addition to the sonic pantheon with better writing and more time. would still recommend to any sonic or anime fans who haven't seen it yet!

【ＳＴＯＲＹ：6
ＡＲＴ：9
ＳＯＵＮＤ：8
ＣＨＡＲＡＣＴＥＲ：7
ＥＮＪＯＹＭＥＮＴ：9】

I have a lot of trouble seeing Sonic animations as much good if it doesn't follow the games. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the old 90's cartoons, and X was alright enough as far as the Japanese version goes. The reason I couldn't enjoy many of these for more than a few minutes was it wasn't much like the games at all. That's when I heard about the OVA.

Story: 7/10
I love how it follows the basic Sonic formula: Sonic and his friends fighting Robotnik. However, the inclusion of Metal Sonic was a nice touch to give it a sort of CD-ish feel. I would ... write more about it, but I'm afraid to give away any spoilers.

Art: 8/10
I loved it, what more is there to say? It was just what I expected an animated Sonic to look like. Not too short or tall, a bit of a pot belly, and just retro in general.

Sound: 8/10
The inclusion of sound effects similar to the ones in DBZ made me laugh, seeing as how much people compare the two series these days. The music was pretty good, although not a masterpiece or anything close. The voices...not the people I'd choose for the job, but, they got the job done, and they weren't as bad as J. Griff...

Character: 6/10
This was where I got a bit ticked off. The characters are all wrong, with the exception of Robotnik and maybe Tails. Sonic came off as a bit of a prick, not wanting to save the Old Man at first, and even when Robotnik pleaded with him to stop 'Metal Robotnik', Sonic almost refused.

Enjoyment: 8/10
Even if the characters weren't very in-sync with their game counterparts, I still thoroughly enjoyed the movie, with all it's action, semi-adult-appropriate humor, and of course, the classic lines that everyone knows. "STRANGE, ISN'T IT?"

Overall: 8/10

Rate a 5
English Dubbed

Don't be fooled by my moderate ranking. I have to factor in the art with the story.

Art
No complaints. One was able to see what needed to be seen. Transitions from piece to piece were clean cut. Point of view was chosen well. Although, i am not going to say this work was outstanding but i will say paying close attention to minor frustrating elements such as making sure the 'watch' was on the right wrist was carefully attended to.

Story
This is what dropped the rating considerably for me. I being one who enjoys wording find it frustrating to write. Reason being is not ... a lot of words can be used to properly express point(s) being conveyed. Such example from anime is Sonic and Knuckles being even vs not. Both parties state they are square but they also state they aren't. If i was square with someone there would be no 'tab' or 'owe'. If this was a one time event i could overlook. Although, that is not the case. All, if not most characters had that wording flaw at some point in the movie.

Moving past how words were misused I could not get over the flawed logic in the plot's setting. Hostage negotiation i can understand means listening and helping the kidnapper(even if the hostage is not a 'kid', another issue). But if the hostage isn't confined and allowed to roam free there is no hostage. Therefore, all acts of 'helping' should cease and desist. For the 'power' is no longer there. Another example is towards the end. Without saying to much for spoilers i will try and be vague. If i was given a gift it serves a purpose. Say the gift was a book. I can do a limit of functions. I can be basic and read it. Or i can be slightly creative and use it as some sort of brace. While i can do some things with it i can't have it do something completely outside its feature like have it drive me to work.

7.9/10

I'm a huge Sonic the Hedgehog fan and I remembered watching this movie when I was very young and I was quite surprised by some of the adult moments in this film. Anyway, I really loved the action sequences as they were well-done and I loved the fact that they introduced Metal Sonic into this film as it's rare to see Metal Sonic in any other media besides the games and the comic books.

My biggest gripe with this film though is that I don't like how some of the characters are being written. Sonic acts like a jerk throughout the whole series and it ... was a bit shocking for me to see Sonic act like this since I'm so used to the goody two shoes version of the character. Also, I wish that the world building was a bit better since I don't quite understand the world that Sonic and his friends live in.

Overall, I found this version of Sonic the Hedgehog to be a very interesting part of the franchise and I would recommend this series to anyone who's a huge fan of Sonic the Hedgehog.

Honestly if your seriously considering watching this movie you should already know what it is

It's not good, everything here is pretty bad. The animation is rough and the voice acting is pretty awful. The story is your typical sonic story, lots of weird side characters a strange romance with a female human. The destroyed city near the end of the first half is pretty awesome looking though

But it all manages to blend together into a really enjoyable mess that is best enjoyed with friends.

If you like so bad its good movies this is out and out perfect.

About the only thing I can praise unironically is ... the music, which might be some of the best I've ever heard in an OVA

its all the old charm of 2d era sonic, just condensed into 2 pilots. bits of sonic cd are in there, but its mostly its own thing. the VA work is 90s ham at its finest, until it isn't for a moment. i especially like sonic's voice in this one. sara isn't that bad of a character, but her whole plot is wierd. Also this and sonic heroes are the only time metal sonic is given a story, savor it. i LOVE the artwork for this movie. the switch in color and stuff from their islands to the ruins is so drastic in nature. and ... THE MUSIC is amazing! the ending song isn't translated well, but the beats are bouncy and i dont care. every other song in this movie was lost media until last year, but people really love the theme of south island.

in a nutshell, im usually bopping to the music and in a giddy mood whenever im in the mood to watch it. its a 9/10 bc i turn my brain off from the story. its...an odd sonic story.

didn't bring up the meme status because we all know this movie's meme status.

STORY - 6:
Very unique premise for a sonic story, yet it still feels quite reminding of sonic cd, if you're a fan of sonic you're probably going to like the story, it's unique for sonic while still feeling like sonic. It's not very in-depth but I still enjoy the plot anyways.

ART - 8:
The art-style is great, it feels not too dissimilar to the intro for sonic CD, character designs are spot on and the art just generally looks nice to me.

SOUND - 9:
There is literally no getting around the fact that the voice acting isn't very good, if you're watching the dub like I ... did at least, which most people watch over a sub as it's easier to find. While the voice acting isn't great it does actually feel quite fitting for the respective characters, and the voices have a weird charm to them.

The music quality is opposite the voice acting quality, the music in this OVA is absolutely stellar, the use of the OVA's south island theme in the metal sonic fight in the finale elevates the fight so much, and so does much of the music in general, though the mixing between music, sfx and voices can be a bit iffy at times.

CHARACTER - 9:
They absolutely NAILED the characters of sonic and tails, knuckles being a treasure hunter was different but somewhat fitting, Robotnik felt somewhat off, but still close to his original character. the original characters in this OVA are a mixed big though. They don't get much focus though so it isn't much of a problem. Sara was somewhat annoying but it didn't bother me much, the old owl didn't bother me as he was pretty much just there. The president is where I have a problem, he is literally just an idiot, it takes him until pretty much the final act to realise Robotnik's real plan even though it was obvious to everyone else. Then in the final act he literally flies his ship into a glacier for no reason, this genuinely made no since because he had no reason to do that, so what was the point? Thankfully the president was a minor character so it's not much of a problem.

ENJOYMENT - 8:
My enjoyment varied throughout the entire OVA, but at the lowest it was like a 7, certain parts like the final metal sonic fight were a 10 in enjoyment, if you enjoy classic sonic then you'll enjoy this.

Overall Score - 80/100

Most people are familiar with Sonic, he's one of the most Iconic videogame characters of all time and like everything with 30 years of history and counting, there's bound to be strange things and I'm not talking about the beaten to death, arguably overhated 2000's games. In this case I'm talking about this fun little OVA that's product of it's time.

The story is very simple but that's all it needed to be, Eggman wants Sonic's data, gets Sonic's data and Sonic fights Metal Sonic. While I'm a fan of the deeper, darker stories from the comics and the Adventure era, this was meant to ... be a short self-contained romp with a frantically paced blend between cartoonish slapstick and a surprising prescence of light echii closely reminiscent of Kid Goku era Dragon Ball in the middle of cool action scenes more reminiscent of Z. And, while I would love a Sonic anime that incorporates all of this into a fleshed out, deeper narrative I appreciate what was done here in comparison to the boring and uneventful mess that was Sonic X's first two Seasons.

The characters are perfectly on brand, many people complain that Sonic is a bit of a jerk but if your familiar with Sonic's portrayal in media at the time then it couldn't be more true to his character, Tails is the innocent and cowardly yet trustworthy sidekick he was before Sonic Adventure, Knuckles is there I guess and Robotnik is the funny loveable goofball we know from the games. Newcomer Sarah is whinny and can be annoying but I don't mind her at all because the jokes they make with her work.

The soundtrack is also a great blend of jazz and electronic music, the dub's voice acting is bad in a charming 90's OVA way and everything about this anime as a whole encapsulates that perfectly. If you love retro anime, love Sonic the Hedgehog or just want a fun evening watch, this is definitely a choice to consider.

And now for another installment of Lawlmartz rips your childhood.


"Shut up, Tails!" - Sonic

Oh Sonic. Sonic, why will Sega not let you die? Sonic. The Blue Blur. Coldsteel the hedgeheg. Sanic. Sonichu. The list goes on and on- abominations born of a corpse thrown in a shallow grave, dug up time and time again to be paraded around with a new video game installment that makes "a new low" an understatement, every time. I played Sonic the Hedgehog '06, and dear GOD was it bad. Underscored by bestiality, plagued with terrible controls, and a plot so damn awful that I couldn't have shit a worse ... one together if I ate Manos Hands of Fate and anything made by Adam Sandler!

Yet, somehow these Sonic fans still exist, and are still out there, demanding more soulless, schlocky consumer products with the name Sonic printed on them. One of the firstborn of these was Sonic the Hedgehog 1996- which came out in 1999 in the US, with a HOT ADV dub. The amount of sarcasm dripping from this could be collected and sold as a cancer curative in China. Sonic 1996 was animated by Pierrot, and LO AND BEHOLD, this is their absolute best animation yet! Who knew that they peaked 20 years ago, because everything they make now sucks unwashed ass! Seriously though, for 1996, this was perfectly fine looking, and even has some nice backdrops. No real complaints about the animation... but the real bitching is yet to begin.

The movie starts off with an owl that sounds like Ernest Borgnine after huffing paint and shoving a telephone pole up his rear flying a jet. This should have been a sign to stop here.

I did not heed it.

It crashes into a mountain with a Saturn V rocket, the Star Trek Enterprise, and Malaysia flight 370 all sitting on the beach, and somehow the owl survives, warning Sonic and Tails that Robotnik has a newly minted, doomed to fail plan to destroy the world. Don't even get me started on the borderline blasphemous physics they abuse to explain how he plans on bringing this about... it would make my brain run out of my ears to even try to put it into words. It ends up that the entire movie is a setup for a "last man on Earth" joke about how this teenage monkey girl who looks like Goku's inbred sister wouldn't marry Dr Robotnik if he "was the last man on Earth". Ha. Ha. HA. HAHA. HAHAHAHahahaHAHAHahahAHhaHAhAhAHAHhaha you got me. That was a real kneeslapper right there, hot dayum. The movie ends with Sonic killing the president of the world and then Robotnik drives away with his daughter after Sonic, because he still has a CD full of dirty pictures he plans on blackmailing Sonic with!!! That'll show him!

"Stupid thing looks like Sonic, but it's BAD!" Sara, the monkey girl says somewhere in the middle of the movie. Little did she know that this would be the mantra at Sega for the next 20 years for the products they would put out.

The next glaring hole is the dub. The only reason I know this wasn't a fandub is because it has ADV printed on it VERY plainly at the beginning of the film, and oh man is it ever... jolting. Just getting the good out of the way: Robotnik actually sounds just like a hammy evil genius should- and his VA nailed the part.
The same can not be said for Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and whoever the heck else was in this turd. You see, in 1999, ADV was hot off the success of Evangelion, and apparently gave up caring between that and their next smash hit, Ghost Stories in 2000. Sonic alternates sounding like a 15 year old brat being held upside down with his nose pinched, and then a mid 1800s southern accent, for no discernible reason. Tails... well, lets just say that someone got a few too many kicks to the crotch, then tried to record while shoving live cockroaches up their nose. Knuckles is inexplicably a westaboo cowboy (go look that one up) and is a pissy teenager with hormones oozing out everywhere. He's so edgy that he makes Shadow and Coldsteel look like Billy "Emoboy" Corgan circa "the skirt" era. I love the Pumpkins Billy, but ya lost ya mind out there. Emo before emo was cool, lemme tell ya.
I think Brittney Karbowski, who was like 13 years old at the time this was made, got really really high and was told to be as screechy as possible to dub Sara.
This just in, apparently someone named Sacha Biesi dubbed Sara. She never did anything again, probably because they could get Brittney Karbowski to work for free, giving her pot and feeding her these lines so cheesy you literally couldn't have paid her to say, even as a child. *disclaimer I have no idea if Brittney smokes pot. Probably does coke, given how hyperactive characters she voices are.

But to say that the dub is jolting, jilting, wilting, flitting, flipping terrible, farting... oh i almost forgot- the fight with metal Robotnik, where it fires literal shit missiles at Sonic, and then Sonic rides one of the missiles back (inexplicably phallic shaped, with large spikes everywhere) right up into the giant robot's ass and it explodes. The shit glues Tails to the fence and Knucles peels it off and it's everywhere Where did this review go anyway
I think I lost it

There were definitely not enough Pingas in this movie

art: best of Pierrot, put it on the demo reel
story and characters: Sonic found Malaysia flight 370 and has been living in the fuselage ever since, the little rat
sound: "the fuq dis shit, ass?"
enjoyment: when I activate my pingas machine
overall: 4 pingases out of 10

I watched the English Dub film version of this and found it to be pretty disappointing overall. There are some things I like about it, like the 90s anime aesthetic and Hyper-Metal-Sonic, but those are bogged down by what feels like a lot of filler and lack of focus on its main plot. It constantly cuts to the president's daughter, Sara, who gets really annoying. I swear to god, she gets more screen time than Metal-Sonic, and they of course try to sexualize her for laughs, which comes across as gross and unfunny. I just wanted to see Sonic and Metal-Sonic duke it out, so ... the parts when they actually fight are cool, but they should've gotten more screen-time and development for these sections. All the good parts are over too soon and all the uninteresting crap lasts for what feels like an eternity. I also felt like they didn't do Sonic's character justice, because he's kind of an asshole in this, he treats Tails like an idiot and falls asleep during a hostage situation. I know Sonic is supposed to have attitude, but he doesn't seem like the hero he is in the games. I also really liked the music, it was catchy, fit with the mood, and felt in line with what you might find in a Sonic game. It's only really worth watching for a select few scenes and for those interested in the history of Sonic the Hedgehog media, otherwise it's just kinda boring.