For millions of us '80s babies, that sound immediately brings to mind the library of excellent 16-bit games that were featured on the Sega Genesis console, led first and foremost by Sega's trademark mascot: SONIC THE HEDGEHOG. Since the character's 1991 debut, Sonic's popped up in over 50(!!!) games since (not counting compilations), a handful of comic series, and as a Jaleel White-voiced animated character for TV. The character has generated over $1 billion for Sega, and still remains one of the most iconic entities in the video game world. Now, Sony, Sega, and Neal H. Moritz are going to try to do what Sonic's Nintendo counterpart, Mario, failed so miserably at: translating into a major motion picture.
SONIC the movie is going to be a live-action/CGI hybrid, and is apparently sticking close to the games' central story about the super-fast hedgehog and his quest to regain the Chaos Emeralds from Dr. "Eggman" Robotnik. Along the way he has to deal with the evil doctor's evil robotic animals, his dangerous (yet impractically designed) vehicles, and, if we're lucky, pinball bumpers.
The cool thing about Sonic that kept the franchise afloat amidst a sea of massively-popular Mario entries was the sense of speed the games had, even in their initial 16-bit incarnations. Sonic (as well as his companions Tails and Knuckles) zipped through the inventive, sprited stages with a velocity that made the games the A/V equivalent of drinking Jolt Cola and running circles around your block. If the dude who made THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS and 21 JUMP STREET into hugely-profitable franchises can infuse the appropriate peppy energy into this flick, there's a chance that it will be one of the oh-so-rare video game adaptations that actually replicates the joys of playing the game itself.
Or it could be THE SMURFS. Time will tell.
-Vincent Kim-Zahedi
”Papa Vinyard”
vincentzahedi@gmail.com
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