Film In Defense of Sonic Flossing: Sonic (2020)'s Themes on Childhood
Okay, we've all seen it. In the movie, Sonic indulges in the 2017 dance craze known as "the Floss" - twice, actually. Many people found this cringe-worthy, or an attempt to cash in on an outdated meme. You know, maybe it was. But looking at negative reactions to it online has some interesting meta implications in regards to the movie's themes.
One of the biggest changes to Sonic's character in this film is his age. He is quite a bit more immature than the Sonic we're used to in the games, less experienced about life and less sure of himself in general, which is helped by Ben Schwartz's great performance. He clearly needs a mentor or guide character in the form of Tom, which he's never needed before. Sonic's just a kid who's in way over his head, content to fulfill a bucket list of seemingly random tasks such as "eat a whole pizza" or "do a slam dunk." He's not yet concerned with justice or saving the world - he's just learning how to live his life. This is a very different Sonic than what we're used to.
Meanwhile, there are also some changes to Dr. Robotnik's character. He retains his arrogance and megalomania, but there's a certain nuance to his character absent in the games: his crippling inferiority complex. Several times throughout the film, Robotnik brings up accomplishments with those he is trying to belittle. With Major Bennington, he tells him that "no one cares about [his] feeble accomplishments," and later Robotnik ridicules Tom by saying he's already "surpassed everything [he's] ever going to do." He clings onto these achievements, these accolades and accomplishments given to him by society. Robotnik's self-worth stems entirely from whatever insane goals he is capable of seeing through. These beliefs are directly related to capitalism, and the supposed meritocracy of Western society - this "hustle culture" that more and more people are buying into every day. The idea that you must produce something extraordinary in order to have worth.
The conflict here is between Sonic and Robotnik's ideas of what gives life meaning. Sonic finds his happiness through performing menial acts of fun, while Robotnik finds his satisfaction through accomplishing major academic or military feats. When they finally meet, Sonic doesn't care about who Robotnik is or what he's done - all he knows is that he must protect his friends. This humiliates Robotnik and his self-confidence.
Additionally, Jim Carrey stated in an interview in regards to Robotnik that "Sonic is the innocence that [Robotnik] can no longer connect with; he wants to own it, but he can never be it." Maybe Robotnik was once capable of finding joy in little things like Sonic does, but he can't anymore. He's so caught up in the euphoria of achievement that everything else seems shallow to him. He's too mature and disillusioned for his own good, so much that it stops him from enjoying the things that he might have once loved.
This is where the Flossing comes in. Now sit down for a second and think: although he never saw it, how do you think Robotnik would have reacted to seeing Sonic Flossing? Confusion? Disgust? Anger? Horror? Maybe even... cringe? You see where I'm going with this.
Many people in the world, especially on the internet, allow their obsession with maturity and seeming "cool" to cloud their ability to enjoy things. They come to despise things that seem childish or naive, such as minor bucket list accomplishments or innocent dance crazes. They fall into the same pitfalls that Robotnik is in. This happens to all of us to some degree or another as we grow up - we are disillusioned with the things we once loved out of some sort of shame or distaste for what we once were. These emotions might make us feel revolted or annoyed upon seeing Sonic doing the Floss, for example.
I was the same way for a long time. I loved Sonic when I was a kid, I played all the games and watched the shows. But I got to a point where my own teenage self-importance met with the rampant cringe culture on the internet, and it made me try to avoid Sonic. Sonic was for stupid kids and furries, right? It went on like this for a long time - I was almost ashamed of my past as a Sonic fan. That is, until I finally watched this new film. It was kind of a wake-up call that snapped me back to reality, allowed me to finally accept that I still do enjoy Sonic. I enjoy his fun personality, his appealing design, his crazy abilities - it doesn't matter how old I am, it doesn't matter if I or anyone else finds Sonic ridiculous. The Werehog? Sure. Shadow is edgy? Yup. Sonic in King Arthur? Why not. I still find Sonic cool.
Basically, Sonic Flossing is completely harmless fun. The same people bothered by seeing a young cartoon hedgehog expressing happiness may very well be the same kind of cynical people who have lost touch with their youthful happiness. If that's the case, that's okay! People go through all sorts of phases in their life. But they'll find that they're a lot happier when they learn to escape their self-righteous nature and simply enjoy things. Just do what makes you happy - even if that isn't Sonic. We are all capable of this if we just take a deep breath, stop taking ourselves so seriously, and be true to ourselves.
Film 's good. Yeah.
I've thought about it, and that's the adjective I'd use. Good. Not "great," or even "very good," but a cut above "okay."
The visuals, infamously reworked completely after early trailers released, not only to the heavy and unrelenting backlash the studio expected from franchise fans and the games' creators, but from the public at large, are generally pretty good. The CG for things besides Sonic isn't too intrusive, and Sonic himself has a lot of visual personality, with a few minor touches like his worn-out shoes that give him some character. He emotes very well and looks both cute and cool. And the one original character they snuck in without using a design from the games absolutely lives in the Uncanny Valley too, so it's clear that it was a pretty widespread problem.
The characters are surprisingly well-done too, considering. Sonic himself has gone a little off his gourd after years of isolation, living among but not with human beings, and it's made him a bit wacky, but with an inherent pathos that I kind of did connect to, as someone who's had a long few years of loneliness. But he's also, you know, a kid. Excitable, blessed with some wisdom and cursed with an utter lack of knowledge of its limits.
The humans don't completely take over the picture, but they're still pretty good. I appreciated how little fuss the film made about the leading couple's relationship being interracial, and that it was generally mutually-supportive rather than abrasive. I'm not sure I like how Tom's central conflict resolved, but I appreciate he had one besides just being a surrogate parent to a hyper alien. And, of course, Jim Carrey steals the show as Dr. Robotnik, somehow managing to play the character in a cartoonishly-entertaining over-the-top scene-stealer, and still clearly put in some work in imbuing the character with an inner life and deeper workings, in figuring out what makes him tick. Props to James Marsden for holding his own rather than being blown offscreen whenever he shares the frame or scene with Carrey.
Also, the script is funny. I don't know how much was improvised and how much was pre-written, but the jokes are generally actually-funny rather than kids'-movie-funny.
The story's rather thin overall, and only really feels like it kicks into gear halfway through during a spirited highway chase. I would've preferred that earlier scenes of Sonic and Tom goofing around went a bit shorter, and the later Stern Chase take up more of the film. And the product placement is unfortunately extensive, for even weird things that the target audience of children and families won't be interested in, like, of all things, Zillow.
Finally, it's a good entry point to the character. The movie doesn't just assume you like Sonic and Robotnik and work off that; it seemingly works off the idea that this might be the first piece of Sonic media you've ever consumed and sets about trying to get you invested in these characters and their situations. And it understands that Sonic is kind of a spawling media empire that generally developed independently, and includes references to sources as varied as the detailed comic plots, individual frames from the video games, and even his Trademark Favorite Food from the Saturday morning cartoon.
SF Debris, a reviewer I respect enormously, once said the difference between a kids' movie and a family movie is that a kids' movie is just for children, and a family movie is something kids and adults can both enjoy. On that metric, this is a success as a family movie. It's not perfect, and I hope that a sequel can expand on some of these concepts into an even better picture (which, between its incredible financial success and certain things I'm carefully not spoiling, I think it could be well set up to do), but it's good enough that it deserves that second bite at the cherry at a time when many films want it and few of them do.
Film Follows the standard Hollywood formula, but it actually worked here
There's a certain formula for making live action adaptations of anything animated, especially if it's a franchise that's been around for decades, and we all know what it is:
Well, this movie, based on a video game series that originated in 1991, does all of that, despite the director's and writers' complaints. In fact, the writer duo said they previously applied for a job writing for the Tom and Jerry live action movie, and when they were being interviewed for the job and told the executives that any Tom and Jerry movie would need to actually focus on Tom and Jerry themselves, they were bluntly told to get out.
So the result is a movie that follows the standard Hollywood formula, but with the director and writers trying their best to fight back and make it somehow work.
And, I feel like within the limitations of what they were forced to do, it actually does work.
After seeing only a little bit of Sonic's homeworld, we see him go through a portal into our world. He lives on Earth, hiding from people and being undetected for a long time, until his run-in with a local cop. The two team up to stop Dr. Robotnik - yes, his 1991-1995 name, instead of the 1998-present name of Eggman - in San Francisco. And in the end, Dr. Eggm- Robotnik, is driven out.
Yeah, it fits the formula. But they did their best to make it work, with help from some elements of the Sonic franchise itself.
The push and pull between executive mandates and writers/director trying their best to make a good movie that doesn't feel like it's ignoring everything that happened with the franchise in the 2000s and 2010s can be felt throughout the film. But in the end, it works well enough for video game adaptations, before The Super Mario Bros. Movie showed a better way to do things.