Tag Archives: paramount

September 2, 2025

Super7 TMNT Ultimates! Triceraton

By Joe
Dinosaurs from space – what’s not to like?

My summer of discounts continues today with yet another Super7 Ultimates! release. Back when wave 7 of Super7’s line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was unveiled I quickly locked in a preorder for three figures: Punker Don, Robotic Bebop, and Triceraton. By the time the line released way, way, late, I only ended up with two of those three figures. That’s because as product was coming out and impressions and images were being shared online, there was one figure in that set I wasn’t willing to drop $55 on: Triceraton. Triceraton was one of my favorites in the vintage Playmates line. I got him along with Slash and for me the two were a pair of intergalactic do-badders. The figure was on my short list of wants from Super7 so I didn’t cancel that preorder hastily, but I did. Now that I’ve been able to get the figure for considerably less, the hope here is that I’ll be way more happy now than I would have been had I spent $55 on it.

For a big boy, he sure comes with a lot of stuff.

Super7 used to have a pretty good thing going. It got to take action figures that were 30 years old, upscale them, cut in some more articulation, and call it a day. It was a simple business model that seemed to please TMNT collectors. Who it didn’t please was Playmates. And as much as it annoys me that Super7 has seemingly been forced to cancel its vintage-inspired line of TMNT figures, I also get it. Triceraton is a perfect example of the basic approach the company was taking in that this is barely any different from the figure released back in the day. He’s just bigger. There’s a bit more paint, there’s some more joints, and the accessories are all painted now. There are some new accessories as well, but this thing is not much of a departure from the Playmates original. Considering how much I like that old figure, I’m happy with the approach here. Some figures I’ve wanted Super7 to make more alterations to, but this isn’t one of them.

I like how this guy scales.
With some NECA dinos.

Triceraton comes in the old style of Ultimates! box complete with a purple, personalized, slip-cover. The figure is a beast at just about 8″ to the top of whatever that ridge is on the back of the head of a triceratops. He’s not just tall, but chunky, and there’s some weight to this boy. Shockingly, he might be the third biggest figure in the wave he was a part of thanks to Robotic Bebop and the massive Guerilla Gorilla. Like I said, the design does not stray from what Playmates did before. The skin is orange, there’s still the blue around the eyes, the right horn is wrapped in green, and he’s got that weird, blue, abdomen. The base color for most of the figure is orange, but Super7 elected to apply a wash to the skin which really adds some depth. It’s fully textured too and the finish is really strong. The armor on the torso is a lustrous silver and they nailed the shade of blue Playmates used for its own figure. The belt is now fully painted with brown and silver and the rats dangling from the belt are also fully painted. The silver and purple on the forearms is painted cleanly as is the fingerless glove on the right hand. The only painted part that looks off is the exposed flesh on the legs which is orange painted over green and it’s pretty obvious. That’s kind of it though as this is a strong looking action figure and it’s easily the figure’s best selling point.

Snack time!

The figure also comes pretty loaded with accessories. We don’t get a second head, but we get three sets of hands: gripping, fists, and a clenching/style posed hand. He also has updated versions of his old guns. There’s the one that looks like a machine gun and one that looks like some laser or something. They’re both done on silver plastic, but hit with a spray of light, metallic, blue paint that looks really cool. That’s the old stuff, for new stuff we get a pair of canister grenades. They’re the same style that’s molded on the belt of the current and vintage version so it’s cool to get some as actual accessories. They’re also painted silver and they fit well in the clenching hands. We also get two wrist accessories. The first one appears to fit on the right forearm and has a communicator or something on it. It flips open and it’s all silver. It would have been neat if the screen was painted a different color, but it’s cool, though a little tough to get the clasps in place. For the left forearm, there’s a strap-on energy sword. It’s basically all silver with the blade done in translucent green. It’s very fitting for the line and looks pretty bad ass though it too is a bit of a pain to get strapped into place. Triceraton also has a respirator since Earth’s oxygen levels are poisonous to him. It’s done with a gummy plastic that’s very pliable. The mask and hose are transparent with the straps brown. It’s connected to a monitor that’s silver and clips onto his belt. It’s very easy to get onto the figure and I think it looks great, though like the wrist communicator, I wish the monitor had more detailed paint work. Lastly, there’s a third rat for him to snack on or you can just add it to Rat King, but he might not appreciate that it’s dead.

“What’s wrong? Can’t look up?”

The figure looks great and comes with a lot of stuff. The old accessories are here and the new ones are actually pretty awesome, so why didn’t I want to pay full price? It all comes down to articulation. And not just how much the figure moves, but what some of the articulation choices did to the look of the figure. This guy is has more points of articulation than the original, but functionally there isn’t much of an upgrade here. For joints, we get head, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrist, waist, hips, knees, ankles, and tail. Of those, the ones that function only as a swivel joint include the head, waist, and tail. If the head is on a ball joint, it’s not getting any benefit from it. The elbows and knees swivel, but the hinge joint is useless in both places. For elbow, the range of motion is maybe 30 degrees. It’s almost nothing. The bicep swivel basically doesn’t work. The wrists rotate and hinge fine, but the hinge for the gripping hands is the wrong hinge. The hips and ankles are pretty much the only joints that work well.

That’s as far as it goes.
What is this shit?!

And there’s the knees. The hinge joint has decent range. It’s less than 90 degrees, but it’s what we’ve come to expect from this line. The aesthetics though are trash. This is a character with holes in his pants over his knees and Super7 did not consider that when cutting in the articulation. It can bend only a minimal amount before exposing the big, green, hinge right in the middle of that patch of orange “flesh.” It looks so hideous that I honestly can’t imagine ever posing this guy with his knees bent which sucks. Why they didn’t just confine the openings in the pants to be above the joint is beyond me. That would have been the simplest solution. Or they could have done an overlay for the pants. I get why they didn’t just use an orange hinge as then there would be an ugly orange block of plastic on the back of the knee and it too would look stupid. You could argue it would be better to have the eyesore on the back of the figure as opposed to the front, but Super7 seems to always prioritize a neutral pose and that’s their right. It’s just another example of Super7 encountering a problem during the engineering process of an action figure and having no answer. And rather than try to come up with one, they just say “screw it.”

At least these guys look pretty good together.

This figure is a glorified 5 POA figure. You will get rotation at the head, shoulders, wrists, and waist. The hips articulation is only so useful without knee articulation and that’s a shame. A ball-joint at the waist would have been nice and another joint in the diaphragm too. The design of the figure seems accommodating for such with the chest armor and the divided abdomen thanks to the blue coloring. Super7 opted not to cut it up though which would be defensible if we were getting better articulation out of the joints already present. The head being just a swivel is pretty terrible too. The NECA Triceraton is a very similar sculpt and that guy can look straight up. There’s really no excuse for what’s present.

I think they’re going to need some help taking this guy down.

And that’s why I refused to pay full price for Super7’s Triceraton. There’s a lot I like about this figure and a lot that just drives me crazy. It’s a very good microcosm of the Super7 experience: it’s big, it looks good, it moves like shit, and costs too damn much. For $55, I obviously can’t recommend it which is why I didn’t buy it. For $32, which is what I paid for it, I think it’s acceptable. I have a big, orange, dinosaur that’s going to look cool in my TMNT collection and it only cost 2 dollars more than those silly vintage style figures Super7 does. He’s not going to be fun to play with and pose, but at least he has enough stuff that he can have his look changed up to some degree (though I’m probably going to just keep everything on him). And for $32 I think that’s good enough, but only just barely. I got mine from Big Bad Toy Store where the figure is still priced at $32 so if you want him, go get him.

Check out some more Super7 discount all-stars:

Super7 TMNT Ultimates! Wingnut & Screwloose

Late in 2023, Super7 started shipping the ninth wave of its line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Ultimates! action figures. I bought none. It was a wave with no compelling characters for me as it contained Slam Dunkin’ Donatello, Scumbug, Wingnut & Screwloose, Zak the Neutrino, and a flocked Master Splinter variant. Scumbug had been…

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by Joe

Super7 TMNT Ultimates! Foot Soldier (Battle Damaged)

The last Super7 review I did was for the wave of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles based on the 2003 cartoon and I concluded it by speculating it would be awhile before I found a reason to review another figure from Super7. That turned out to be a lie. With it being revealed that Super7 has…

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by Joe

Super7 TMNT Ultimates! Mutagen Ooze Leonardo (now with the rest!)

If you’re into collecting action figures then you’re likely familiar with the concept of a variant. Tooling action figures, the process of cutting steel into molds in which plastic is inserted to create the figure, is the most expensive part of creating an action figure. That’s why it’s in the manufacturer’s best interest to get…

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by Joe

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December 3, 2022

Dec. 3 – Popeye the Sailor – “Mister and Mistletoe”

By Joe
Originally released September 30, 1955.

Last year for the Christmas Spot we took a look at the 1960’s TV series Popeye the Sailor and its Christmas episode “Spinach Greetings.” There are a lot of Popeye fans in the world and my assumption is that most would not put Popeye the Sailor above the theatrical shorts that helped catapult Popeye to stardom in the preceding decades. Popeye the Sailor was a TV series produced on the cheap. It wasn’t much to look at and it was missing some of the classic stars, namely Bluto, though it did have the added charm of working in some forgotten foils for Popeye like the Sea Hag.

Still not the best era of Popeye cartoons, but better than the TV series of the same name.

This year, we’re going back to a more beloved era of Popeye, though probably still not the preferred era, as we have here a cartoon from the Famous Studios era of Popeye the Sailor shorts. These ones are notable for being mostly in color and for not featuring the work of the Fleischer brothers. Their ouster at Paramount is another story, but suffice to say that Popeye would not be a star without their contributions. The Famous Studios era would total 122 cartoons and run from 1942 – 1957. Many of these cartoons would find their way to television and could even be seen on Cartoon Network in the 90s. Not all of them were considered suitable to air though as, you could probably guess, there are some unflattering depictions of Japanese people during the World War II era of the shorts. Today’s selection, Mister and Mistletoe, is the 215th Popeye cartoon and was first released on September 30, 1955 alongside Alfred Hitchcock’s The Trouble with Harry.

This one takes place at Olive’s house on Christmas Eve and that’s going to cause some confusion for me.

The cartoon begins at Christmas time and Popeye’s nephews are present and all ready for bed. It’s Christmas Eve and they’re informing Popeye (Jack Mercer) and Olive (Mae Questel) that they’ve been good and need the adults to relay this important information to Santa Claus upon his arrival. Of note, only three of Popeye’s nephews appear in this one. Popeye usually has four nephews: Pepeye, Peepeye, Pupeye, and everyone’s favorite, Poopeye. I don’t know which one is missing here, but I refuse to believe it’s Poopeye!

There’s one in every family.

The boys are dismissed, but before they head upstairs to bed, they hang their stockings by the fireplace. One nephew, predictably, has an absurdly long stocking. Olive and Popeye then start decorating, while that crafty Bluto (Jackson Beck) lurks outside an open window (even though this takes place in a cold climate). Popeye shows off his impressive Body by Spinach by holding Olive up off the ground one-handed. She’s basically standing in the palm of his hand, but in a seated position, which just looks awkward. Bluto bemoans the fact that Popeye got here first which implies that this is Olive’s house (her name was also on the mailbox in the opening shot). Why are Popeye’s nephews sleeping at Olive’s house on Christmas Eve? I have so many questions!

Wait! That’s not Santa!

As Popeye and Olive decorate, Olive remarks how wonderful it is to see children believe in Santa Claus while Popeye wishes there was a Santa for adults. I don’t like Olive’s phrasing here as it implies there is no Santa Claus, but I guess since this was screened with a Hitchcock black comedy maybe kids were never expected to take this one in? Popeye’s comment seems to inspire Bluto to swipe a Santa suit and sack of presents that were by the open window. Now decked out in Santa’s threads, Bluto makes for the chimney and utters his own version of the jolly, fat, man’s signature laugh which gets Popeye excited. He peers up the chimney and as he does Bluto rips the top portion of it from the house and sends it down what’s left of the chimney to smash into Popeye.

Popeye seems to enjoy his “gift” from Santa Claus.

Bluto is then able to enter the home and Olive is instantly smitten. Popeye doesn’t seem to mind the mishap with the chimney either and is delighted to see Santa pay them a visit. Popeye and Olive not doubting the man’s identity seems to make-up for the prior comments about Santa. Olive leaves to fetch Santa a cup of hot chocolate while Santa suggests to Popeye a good spot for the mistletoe. Once placed, Popeye excitedly calls out to Olive to set himself up with a perfect opportunity for a smooch only for Bluto to literally pull the rug out from under him exposing a vent in the floor. Popeye goes sailing through an open door leading to the basement with the rug allowing for Santa Bluto to movie-in for a kiss with Olive. Before his lips find hers, Popeye pops up from the vent in the floor and Bluto’s kiss lands on the back of Popeye’s head causing Popeye to giggle and blush suggesting Santa is embarrassing him.

Saved by a tree on Christmas.

Mildly dismayed by Popeye’s intrusion, Bluto tries to get him out of his beard by asking Popeye if he’d like to help him with the toys. Popeye enthusiastically races over to Santa’s sack and starts filling his arms with toys. Bluto then sneaks up behind him, dumps him into the sack of toys, and chucks it out the window. As the sack of Popeye and toys sails through the air the drawstring snags a pine tree outside. The tree bends back, then snaps forward sending the sack back through the window. When it arrives, Santa and Olive are found seated beside each other on a lounge chair looking cozy while Santa starts to recite A Visit from Saint Nicholas. Olive looks primed and ready so maybe this was an erotic version of the Christmas classic? The sack smashes into Bluto and Popeye pops out looking a bit irritated. Santa Bluto laughs sheepishly and offers an apology.

An interesting way to play with a train set.

Bluto suggests Popeye setup the electric train set and we cut to Popeye excitedly doing just that. As he snaps pieces of the track together, Bluto pops out from behind a chair to plug the set in. When Popeye snaps the last pieces of track together he gets a mighty jolt of electricity. Who designed this thing?! This hardly seems safe for children! Popeye lands on the floor on his stomach with his mouth open in a cartoonishly large manner. Track is coming out of his mouth and the train engine soon drives out.

This poor guy just wanted to celebrate Christmas.

We then cut to Santa and Olive, and Santa has his arm wrapped around her, as they place lit candles on the Christmas tree. Every time I see this tradition acted out in old cartoons it floors me that anyone would have ever willingly placed a flaming object on a dead tree in their own house. Santa bemoans to Olive that it’s a shame Christmas only comes once a year and Olive, rather suggestively, replies that he can drop by anytime. Popeye then interrupts to ask Santa if he can help light the tree. Santa Bluto laughs boyishly as he apparently doesn’t mind the interruption and tells Popeye he sure can. We then see why he wasn’t frustrated with Popeye’s intrusion as he produces a stick of dynamite from behind his back. He tells Popeye he saved the last candle for him and instructs him to place it on the top of the tree. Popeye races up a ladder and does as he’s told. With the “candle” lit, he shouts out a hearty “Merry Christmas!” just before it explodes sending him smashing through the roof (Olive now has a busted chimney and a massive hole in her roof). Popeye soars through the air once again and crashes through a frozen river. The water splashes upwards and freezes instantly with Popeye trapped inside.

Donald Duck shares your pain, Popeye (note: see the entry for December 1st)

Admiring his handiwork, Bluto laughs heartedly while Olive looks worried, either over Popeye or the hole in her roof. We also seem to have switched locations in the house as the pair are still by the tree, but it’s now in a corner of the house. As Bluto laughs, he doesn’t notice his beard has landed in a candle and it catches fire. The flames burn away the false, Santa, beard leaving Bluto’s normal beard intact. Once Olive sees that this Santa is a phony she gets angry. Bluto brushes her anger aside and grabs her around the waist and suggests she give him a kiss. She clearly doesn’t want to as she wrestles against this would-be rapist’s grasp and is able to squirm free. She jumps on a tricycle and starts racing around the room on the walls while Bluto chases after her. He too is able to defy gravity by running on the walls. As Olive tries to avoid her attacker, she calls out to Popeye for help.

There’s the good stuff!

Popeye, hearing Olive’s cries, wakes up only to find himself encased in ice. He then blows hard on his pipe producing a blast of fire which melts away the ice freeing him. Popeye races back inside the house and, rather than immediately go to Olive’s aid, runs for the sack of presents. We soon see why as he pulls out a golden can of spinach. It’s addressed to “Me Nephews” and it’s from Popeye explaining how he knew it was there. He devours the contents and is then able to morph his left arm into a massive mallet (I love when the spinach gives him absurd powers beyond just ludicrous strength).

Bluto gets a brain injury for Christmas. I suspect it’s not the first time.

Popeye runs into another room and sees Olive go racing past him. When Bluto appears behind her Popeye blasts him with his mallet arm knocking him right out of the Santa suit. He bounces, in his long underwear, along the floor and comes to rest beside the tree. The stars spinning around his head then wrap around the tree and one comes to rest at the top. A very resourceful way to decorate a tree, Popeye.

Go get ’em, Poopeye!

Popeye then dons the Santa suit and belts out a “Merry Christmas” as he puts on a spare beard. The nephews hear the call of Santa and emerge from their room. They excitedly race down the stairs and dive into the sack of toys. They immediately recognize Popeye and as they jump into the sack each one asks a question of “Uncle Popeye” like “What did you bring me, Uncle Popeye?” “Did you bring me my gun, Uncle Popeye?” Realizing his disguise is no good, Santa Popeye just has a laugh at his own expense and the cartoon fades to black.

The expected ending of a Christmas Popeye short.

It may not have included a wacky flying reindeer airplane, but I feel comfortable declaring Mister and Mistletoe a superior Christmas cartoon to “Spinach Greetings.” It’s a pretty standard Popeye short with Bluto and the sailor battling over Olive only this one is set at Christmas and Popeye is mostly ignorant of Bluto’s advances until the very end. It certainly is a bit confusing as far as the setup goes of Popeye seemingly bringing his nephews along for a sleepover at Olive’s on Christmas Eve, but apparently someone at Famous Studios felt it had to be set at Olive’s house as opposed to Popeye’s. Those two certainly have an odd relationship.

Bluto is such a disgusting creep that I wouldn’t have minded a little more violence directed his way.

Being a Famous Studios production and not a Fleischer one, it likely comes as no surprise that this isn’t the best looking Popeye short out there, but it’s far from ugly. The animation is fine and there appear to be few shortcuts taken. There are a few hard cuts which are a bit unusual, but maybe that was to imply a longer passage of time. It’s only six minutes long so those kids were basically in bed for a wink or two before getting up for presents. None of the physical comedy is particularly original for a Popeye cartoon as I know I’ve seen Olive ride along a wall like she does in this one before. Popeye getting smashed with an entire chimney is certainly a violent touch, though the mallet transformation was a bit too conventional. Why not have his arm turn into something more festive? This is a Christmas cartoon after all.

I still have questions about this relationship.

Being that this is a fairly typical Popeye short, it’s also no surprise that there isn’t any sort of message baked into it. We don’t expect life lessons from Popeye (at least during this era) so it’s fine he has no Christmas wisdom to share. I do wish they had snuck in confirmation of the real Santa Claus as I do hesitate to show this to my “true believer” kids for that reason. It’s not the electrocution or the smoking that concerns me as a parent, it’s the Santa stuff! At any rate, this one is relatively easy to find online if you wish to make it part of your Christmas viewing this year. And with MeTV airing Toon in With Me and a Popeye show on Saturday mornings, there’s a decent chance this one will show up on television too this year.

Can’t wait until tomorrow for more Christmas? Check out what we had to say on this day last year and beyond:

Dec. 3 – The Simpsons – “The Way of the Dog”

It’s not often I get to look at a Christmas special from the same year I’m doing The Christmas Spot, but it also helps when that Christmas special premieres in May of the same of year. May?! Yeah, it’s weird, but for the 31st season finale of The Simpsons the show rolled out a Christmas…

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by Joe

Dec. 3 – Mega Babies – “A Mega Christmas”

Considering how gross a lot of cartoons had become in the 90s, it should come as no surprise that the decade concluded with Mega Babies, a cartoon about literal snot-nosed, super-powered, babies featuring diapers overflowing with excrement in the opening title. Mega Babies was a short-lived production from the Tremblay brothers, Christian and Yvon, who…

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by Joe

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February 21, 2020

Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)

By Joe

sonic 2020It was an interesting journey for the world’s most famous hedgehog to go from the small screen to the big screen, but the journey was finally completed Valentine’s Day 2020. Originally set to debut last Thanksgiving, Sonic the Hedgehog famously was delayed when fans reacted unfavorably to the title character’s design. Like Detective Pikachu before it, Sonic the Hedgehog was attempting to bring a CG version of the titular character into a real world setting. Fans were justified in their reaction to the debut of the character as he was only vaguely a representation of a character that’s been around for 30 years. The extra time, money, and effort to redesign Sonic has apparently paid off as the film raced out to an impressive debut weekend topping the weekend box office.

From the start, Sonic was always engineered to be pleasing to the eye. He was famously designed as a mash-up of two iconic characters:  Mickey Mouse and Felix the Cat. The fact that someone tied to this film decided to deviate from such a simple and effective premise feels like an ego-driven maneuver, but it’s likely it was just a result of over-thinking. Sonic the character doesn’t fit into the “real world.” He basically has one giant eye with two pupils in it, he’s a  blue hedgehog, but he doesn’t really have visible fur. And his head is bigger than his body in his classic iteration, though he’s since been elongated and given a more sleek figure over the years. The original stab at the character included fur (or quills), which was to be expected. What was odd was the attempt at shaping the face to something more rodent-like, I suppose. The end result was more of a combination of late 90s Michael Jackson and the transformed monkey kid from the original Jumanji. He had an oddly pointed nose and more natural shaped eyes to go along with a toothy smile that seemed to make viewers quite uncomfortable. His body was lean and slightly muscular – a runner’s body. Instead of white gloves he had white fur and was just all-together unpleasant to look at. The redesign basically took things back to the character’s roots. Physically, he’s more Sonic Adventure than Sonic from the Genesis. He still has textured fur as director Jeff Fowler felt that was important for a mostly live-action film, and he has two distinct eyes. He got to put his gloves back on though and his overall facial design is much more true to what fans expected. All in all, he looks nice.

bad sonic

This is not the Sonic fans wanted…

Which is certainly a start. An unappealing lead is hardly a death-knell for a movie, but it doesn’t help when the character is supposed to be visually appealing. It’s not something that can rescue a bad movie though, and I would guess most assumed Sonic the Hedgehog would be a bad movie. It’s not like video game to film adaptations have a good track record. I liked Mortal Kombat as a kid, but I’d hesitate to call it a good film. I did take the family to Detective Pikachu last year and felt it was fine for what it was. I know there are some fans out there that enjoy some of the Resident Evil and Tomb Raider films, but I do not number myself among them. Expectations for a video game movie are low, and will remain low until a Marvel-like run of success so expecting anything out of Sonic felt foolish.

good sonic

Much better!

And perhaps it’s that mindset that contributed the most to my enjoyment of Sonic the Hedgehog. It’s certainly easier to be pleasantly surprised by a film when expectations are low, but Sonic the Hedgehog managed to mostly achieve the same level of success as Detective Pikachu. And a lot of that can be attributed to the success of the main character. Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz who has quickly established himself as the best Sonic, sorry Jaleel) is charismatic. He has a manic personality as a result of living life faster than anyone while possessing a sense of honor and responsibility which are traits that lend well to heroism. He’s playful, chatty, inquisitive, and also a touch sympathetic. He’s essentially an orphan who was targeted by some bad dudes (who bare a strong resemblance to another Sonic frenemy) for his speediness and forced to flee his home world with the help of his magic rings. The rings in the film are magical devices capable of opening up portals to other worlds, which is how Sonic arrives on Earth as a kid and is forced to live in hiding. He badly just wants to make friends, and he’s taken a liking to a local cop he refers to as Donut Lord (James Marsden) mainly via peeping on his daily life. One night, in a fit of sadness, Sonic goes a bit too fast and produces something akin to an EMP pulse that knocks out power in the community which gets the attention of the US Government.

jim carrey robotnik

Carrey gets to bring his own personality to Robotnik, but he’s also kept in check and turns in a very fun performance.

The film wisely doesn’t focus much on the government stuff and instead uses a very loose scene to have those in charge select one Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) to investigate the cause of the phenomena. Carrey’s Robotnik bares little resemblance to the video game character (more commonly referred to as Eggman these days), but he possesses a quirky personality. Unlike a lot of iterations of Robotnik, he’s also a capable bad guy at times undone by his hubris. Carrey injects some of his usual comedic antics into the role, but nothing that becomes too over-the-top. He’s entertaining, and the only character other than Sonic capable of stealing a scene.

Robotnik quickly ends up on Sonic’s trail and from there the film turns into a road trip buddy comedy with Sonic forced to come out of hiding and seek the help of Donut Lord, aka Tom. The film does a good enough job of balancing the comedy with action. Tom and Sonic mostly get along from the start so it doesn’t play up tension too much between the leads. Not all of the comedy lands as this is a PG film primarily looking to entertain children. There’s a confrontation at a bar that’s a bit groan-inducing, as well as some jokes that amount to product placement, but the film doesn’t linger on anything long enough for it to grow boring or stale. The main plot beats are simple and easy enough to follow even for younger viewers making this one more about the ride than the final destination.

sonic ring

Sonic’s rings play an integral role in the film acting as portals between worlds for Sonic to escape into.

Visually, the film’s special effects hold up just fine. No, I don’t suppose I ever really bought into the concept of Sonic actually existing in this world like I may have at times with Pikachu, but I didn’t feel that harmed my enjoyment of the movie. The film makes liberal use of the slow-motion sequences popularized by the X-Men franchise when illustrating just how fast Sonic can move. Like Quicksilver, Sonic will appear to move at normal speed while the world around him is nearly frozen in time allowing him to correct a situation or just make mischief. It’s not exactly original, but it’s also not something that needed improving on. The film’s score and sound effects also make use of sounds fans of the game have grown up with. Honestly, the film could have used more of the original music as what is adapted for this film is basically the only music that stands out.

sonic friends

Sonic’s human allies, played by James Marsden and Tika Sumpter, don’t offer much, but they also don’t need to.

Beyond those sounds, there’s actually not a ton of fan-service in this one. There are some easter eggs, mainly the attackers early in the film, but the film mostly keeps everything in check. What’s here is enjoyable and most of it is easy to spot. Perhaps even too easy as I was hoping to come home and find out I missed a bunch of stuff that I could look for on another viewing, but I basically caught it all. I was a little disappointed that the film wasn’t able to make use of past voice actors, most notably Jaleel White, but maybe the studio tried and it just didn’t happen. The same can be said of past songs like the theme for the Saturday morning cartoon or the Sega CD “Sonic Boom” track. There is a post credits cameo that’s worth waiting for that all but guarantees a sequel as well, so if you like this then I guess that’s good news.

Sonic the Hedgehog is a competent take on the character that successfully adapts him for the big screen. It’s not a great film, but it is a short one coming it around 99 minutes and that’s all the time it needed. It’s a film worth seeing if you’re a big fan of the character, or if you’re like me and you’re just looking for a movie to take the kids to that won’t bore or annoy you. If you liked Detective Pikachu then I think that’s a pretty good comparison and a solid indicator on if you’ll like this one. Sonic moves at a faster pace and has fewer lulls, but it also doesn’t have as much heart. Its human characters are bland and uninteresting, but they thankfully are not tasked with carrying many scenes by themselves. This is a film that knows what its audience wants, and that’s Sonic. He’s front and center and quite enjoyable to spend time with. If you ever wanted to see a Sonic movie, it’s hard to imagine one turning out better than this.

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