Awesome / Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)

Moment Subpages are Spoilers Off. You Have Been Warned.

"That little alien... knew more about being human... than you ever will. His name was Sonic. This was his home... and he was MY FRIEND."

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Trailers

• It goes without saying that a lot of fans weren't happy with Sonic's design in the initial trailers of the movie, with a great many dislikes on a number of videos on YouTube, the positive reactions more heavily focused on Jim Carrey's performance as Dr. Robotnik. Cue the new trailer with Sonic's updated design, and to say the fans went wild would be an understatement.
  • Plus the fact that they showed Sonic’s voice and personality to be far closer to his game self than before, being both badass and genuinely funny.
  • Really, the fact that Paramount/SEGA listened to fans' complaints, were able to do a total overhaul of Sonic's design in such a short amount of time, and have the new trailer's reception be a complete 180 from the first one is an amazing feat.
• Jim Carrey is just loving every minute of his role as Robotnik, so much so that the fanbase reacted quite positively despite their initial concerns, and believed he would be the only saving grace of the movie, at least until Paramount delayed the project to update Sonic's design.
• The second trailer also introduces a new SEGA logo, starting on a clip of Sonic in Green Hill Zone before zooming out to show a collage of cameos from other different SEGA games before making the logo. It's closest thing to seeing Yakuza, Phantasy Star, NiGHTS into Dreams…, Puyo Puyo, Sakura Wars and even subsidiary company Atlus's Persona 5 among others on the big screen. Even some of Sega's lesser-known franchises such as Skies of Arcadia and even Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure are featured in the logo. Doubles as heartwarming to see them all together again.
  • In the film proper, this is even accompanied by the all-mighty "SEGAAAA" chant performed by a choir!
• Pictured above, the shot of Sonic staring down Robotnik in one of his humongous death machines: his eyes and body lit up with electricity, and with dozens of laser targeting systems pointed at him.
• Tom taking advantage of Robotnik's shock at seeing Sonic for the first time to lay the Doctor out with a single punch while he's distracted, take Sonic with him, and run.
• Tom's response to Robotnik's question about why he's helping Sonic: "He's my friend."
• At one point, Sonic is seen being chased by Eggman's ship... through the pyramids of Egypt and along the Great Wall of China, using his Rings to rapidly warp between various locations across the world! Safe to say that those scenes will be one hell of a ride.
• The Scenery Porn that is Green Hill Zone. It looks beautiful and like it was ripped right out of Sonic Generations.

Film

• The opening logos that start the movie are full of Eye Candy.
  • The Paramount logo at the beginning comes with a twist: the stars have been replaced with rings, the same rings that have defined the Sonic franchise. What's more, they're given the classic chime as they assemble into position around the mountain, before concluding with a high-pitched chime as the "Paramount" wordmark comes into place. To make things better, the logo is accompanied by an epic orchestral rendition of the Green Hill Zone theme.
  • Then we get to perhaps the greatest logo introduction since the arrival of Marvel's "Flipbook" sequence in 2002: Sega's own introduction card! The first thing we see is footage from various Sonic games, only for the image to pan out to reveal gameplay of various other Sega franchises over the years, such as Golden Axe, Space Harrier, Yakuza, Jet Set Radio, Sakura Wars, Virtua Fighter, Total War, The House of the Dead, Valkyria Chronicles, Persona 5 ^note Thanks to Atlus being owned by SEGA's parent company and many others. On top of that, a repeated orchestral rendition of the iconic "SEGA!" chant (yes, really) builds up to an operatic choir singing it as the wordmark is revealed. Not only does that logo give the viewer a great visual representation of what Sega develops in terms of games, but the expansive nature of the logo suggests Sega will get a lot more invested in media production in the future, which makes it all the more exciting.
  • The Original Film logo, while not as elaborate, is impressive in its own right: the normal black background has been changed to red, the same color as Sonic's sneakers, and the wordface is much bluer than normal, as blue as Sonic's fur.
• Tom straight up decking Dr. Robotnik when he’s distracted by Sonic despite the fact that the bad doctor had been about to kill him a literal second earlier.
• The Bar Brawl scene is both this and hilarious, as we see how Sonic's Bullet Time ability works. The music, "BOOM" by X Ambassadors, just adds to the awesomeness as he not only casually wins the fight through his wits, but pushes Tom to safety and messes with all the combatants at once.
• A villainous example for Robotnik; he had the foresight to design an armed robotic vehicle to deploy a smaller one from its underside in the event it gets tipped on its side, and the smaller vehicle can in turn continue functioning so long as it has even one wheel left. And even if it loses that, its eye can take flight (Becoming an outrageously tiny helicopter) that has some manner of cutting laser, and even if that stops working, the eye becomes a sticky bomb. Say what you will but the guy is Crazy-Prepared to kill/capture people.
  Sonic: Is that all you've got?
  Dr. Robotnik: (smugly and without missing a beat) No, but thank you for asking!
• Another villainous example, the entirety of Robotnik dancing. It’s not only just hilarious, but also lively and fitting. And Where Evil Grows by The Poppy Family playing just makes the scene even better.
• It turns out that the best hand-to-hand fighter in the movie isn't the trained police officer or the super-powered space critter, but Dr. Robotnik. He gets to show this off twice;
  • The first is when Robotnik arrogantly pisses off a muscle-bound biker thug, whose neck got broke thanks to Sonic's antics at the bar, and it looks as though Robotnik's picked a fight he's going to regret. However, the next scene shows the thug being hurtled clean through a window as Robotnik strolls out the door acting like nothing has happened and no more eccentric than usual, proving himself to be more dangerous than the thug would expect. As such, the thug himself is humiliated and in more pain than usual, having gotten beaten by both the hero (Sonic) and the villain (Robotnik).
    Dr. Robotnik (to Agent Stone after thrashing the thug): Now that's what I call Good Cop, Bad Cop.
  • The second is when Tom uses one of Sonic's rings to get the jump on Robotnik. Yet even when surprise attacked from behind by an officer of the law, the good doctor still manages to chuck Tom out of his cockpit with an attitude of bemused scorn.
• The entire chase scene in the third act is nothing but non-stop action-filled adrenaline. Sonic taps into his super-speed which makes the world slow around him, but as soon as Robotnik powers up his craft with his stolen quill, he matches the hedgehog speed-for-speed, and the two go at it across several corners of the world as Robotnik keeps up the pace with Sonic no matter how many rings the blue blur keeps throwing out to escape the mad doctor.
  • During the Egypt segment, Sonic realizes that Eggman is catching up to him too fast. So, he decides to take a page from The Flash (2014) and run around in circles repeatedly, creating a sand tornado to disorient Eggman's ship. It doesn't stop him entirely, but points for trying.
    "If you can't beat 'em, blind 'em!"
  • Even better is the entire fight is shot and done in such a way it wouldn't be out of place in one of the games as a boss fight.
• Tom using one of the rings to get on Robotnik’s machine and pummel him. He almost manages to take Robotnik out.
• Sonic defeats Robotnik by tapping into his power (including the quill Robotnik took) to severely damage his craft. Then Tom opens a portal to Mushroom Planet behind Robotnik, allowing Sonic to send Robotnik packing through the portal.
  Sonic: This is my power, and I'm not using it to run away anymore. I'm using it to protect. My. FRIENDS.
  • Robotnik's reaction to seeing Sonic get back up thoroughly re-energized and take the energy from the quill he stole, removing the thing that put him on an even playing field with the blue blur? Slide down his goggles and arm the missiles in his flying machine.
  • Even better? This is pretty much exactly how Sonic would defeat Robotnik in the games: by repeatedly dashing into the cockpit of his vehicle until it broke!
  • Also, Sonic tapping into the power, drawing it into himself, and attacking in an instant? Why does that sound so familiar? Oh yeah, the Light Speed Attack!
  • This entire scene is absolutely glorious. Tom stands up against Robotnik with an epic "The Reason You Suck" Speech during Sonic's Disney Death, concluding with him finally calling Sonic his friend. THIS is what gives Sonic his Heroic Second Wind. His eye snaps open, now glowing and sparking with cyan electricity. He closes his eyes, slowly stands as he lights up the entire screen with his power, his glowing quills and lightning being the only thing visible in this dark shot of the nighttime road, the lightning even shooting into the sky, like Sonic got struck down by God himself — then he opens his glowing eyes and delivers one hell of a Death Glare to Robotnik. The stunning visual effects, along with the EPIC score by Junkie XL, could give the freaking MCU a run for its money.
    • And he's not even at full power yet! "I think you have something that belongs to me." Cue Sonic sucking the power from the quill powering Robotnik's machine — then absolutely wiping the floor with him.
    • Now to the sound of "Live and Learn".
• Both stingers at the end of the movie have their share of awesome:
  • The first stinger features Robotnik, still trapped in Mushroom Planet, shaving his head and allowing his mustache to grow disproportionately, having lost what little sanity he had left. It's this moment where we see him assume his more recognizable from all other media. He tops it all off by revealing he still has Sonic's quill, thus setting the stage for his prolonged conflict with Sonic, and putting on his iconic goggles, completing his transformation to the menacing Dr. Eggman. Not only that but his voice and laugh sound very similar to Mike Pollock (Eggman's current voice actor). Now that's how you create an iconic villain.
    Robotnik: A lesser man would die here. (holds up the device containing Sonic's quill) I'll be home by Christmas.
  • Not to be outdone, the mid-credits stinger goes back to the cliff above Green Hills that Sonic was standing on earlier in the movie. Then a mysterious wind starts to pick up in the area. That wind turns out to be a portal opened by a ring, not from Sonic, but Tails. When he realizes from a device he's wielding that Sonic is nearby, we see his Establishing Character Moment: bravely jumping off the cliff and performing his iconic Propeller Flying ability before flying off into the town. That's two shades of awesome for a Sequel Hook, and it just gets us pumped up for what's next.
    Tails: If these readings are accurate, he's here. I've found him! I just hope I'm not too late.
    • Adding to the cool, he's voiced by his current VA Colleen O'Shaughnessey, who got to reprise the role in the sequel.
• More implied than anything, but one of Sonic's quills has been scanned to have limitless power. Now, imagine how powerful the entire creature is if one of his broken-off quills has limitless power.

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