Sonic the Hedgehog (OVA)
Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie (sometimes known simply as the Sonic Anime or Sonic OVA) is a two-episode OVA series based on Sega's best-selling video game franchise Sonic the Hedgehog.
This anime features Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Dr. Robotnik (Eggman in the Japanese version) and a few other characters, such as the human Seira. This Sonic anime was made in 1996, where, in its native Japan, it was simply titled Sonic the Hedgehog (ソニック・ザ・ヘッジホッグ, Sonikku Za Hejjihoggu), and its two 30-minute episodes (Journey To Eggman Land and Sonic VS Metal Sonic) were released over two VHS tapes. ADV Films dubbed it in English in 1999, and released both episodes in Europe edited together as Sonic The Movie. They later released it in North America in 2000 as Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie.
The story follows a giant mecha (known as Black Eggman in the Japanese dub, Metal Robotnik in English and Dark Eggman to some fans) who appears in Dr. Eggman's utopian city of Eggmanland and banishes the doctor. The mecha takes control of Eggman's robotic army, to lure Sonic, Tails and Knuckles into the evil dimension The Land of Darkness. Once there, the blue blur finds Hyper Metal Sonic, a clone of him who shares his memories and feelings, and in essence lives the same life.
World
Unlike the official games continuity, the OVA takes place on a world named Planet Freedom, which is divided into two regions — the Land of the Sky and the Land of Darkness. However, in a reference to the games, one part of the Land of the Sky is called South Island, which is the setting of many of the Sonic games. Like many anime series, Planet Freedom appears to be a crossbreed of a fairytale land and Earth.
Story
Sonic is relaxing like he usually does, listening to dance music outside his house while lounging in a beach chair. When Tails comes out to test his new, jet-propelled bodyboard, he asks Sonic to give it a try. Sonic declines, since he has a great fear of water. Tails' bodyboard however, encounters a flying ship driven by Oji-san, an old anthropomorphic owl, and he is almost about to go into a cliff, being picked up by the ship. Sonic runs after hearing "Help!" from Tails several times. Sonic rescues them, but Oji-san gives news of the President being held captive by Dr. Eggman. Sonic and Tails race to the Presidential Palace, where they encounter Eggman holding the President and his daughter, Seira. Eggman tells Sonic a lie that his city in the Land of Darkness (Robotropolis in the English version as a tie-in with the American Saturday morning cartoon), is being held by a metal version of himself called Metal Robotnik, who attacked his good people with a battalion of demonic robots and sabotaged the Robot Generator by overloading it with energy, which would then (supposedly) malfunction and release excess electricity and destroy Planet Freedom within a few hours. (It is debatable whether the story was actually true, or if he attacked his own city, or if the mecha actually did attack the planet on its own free will and was then taken control of by Eggman; this would explain its name being a variation of the doctor's.) After Sonic trusts Eggman, Tails is given a navigational watch from the doctor for his journey, and the two head for The Land of Darkness, Seira goes into Robotnik's ship with him, playing around with the controls. Sonic and Tails enter the Land of Darkness, encountering Badniks, but they soon get to the abandoned city. There, they get into a long battle with Metal Robotnik, eventually making Knuckles save them and destroying the mecha. Sonic, Tails and Knuckles go into the core of the city, where Sonic is held in a glass container which copies his DNA. The protagonists think that the bomb that Robotnik threatened would blow up the Land of the Sky was a dud.
The Metal Robotnik appears, eventually crumbling, revealing Eggman and Seira in it. Knuckles falsely accuses Seira of being behind his scheme, and in reply she cries a river and reveals that "the robot and the machine going haywire were all part of Robotnik's evil scheme," which Eggman does not deny. He shows Sonic a metal version of himself, Hyper Metal Sonic, and the two get into a fight. Metal wins, and Tails and Knuckles go back to the Land of the Sky, where Tails finds out that Metal Sonic is out to destroy the world by hitting the Ice Caps and blowing it up. The blue hedgehog wakes up in Green Lake City (a heavenly shrubbery), and thinks about Metal Sonic knowing everything he does, or has done. Sonic gets to the workshop, and hears all about the Ice Cap dilemma from the President (much to the dismay of the President and Tails). Sonic, Tails and Knuckles go to the Ice Cap, where Seira is being held captive for marriage at the North Pole she is being forced into. (Dr. Eggman's main goal in the movie is to destroy the world, leaving only he and Seira to marry and have children. It is possible that he wanted to destroy everyone else first, because their marriage would be illegal otherwise.) Sonic encounters Hyper Metal Sonic, and the two have a long fight. Tails corrupts Metal's data with the navigation watch Eggman gave him before, and Sonic is able to do serious damage. At the same time, however, the President's ship is destroyed. Metal Sonic saves the President and Sonic realizes that Metal does have emotions, as he was programmed with Sonic's DNA. Metal gets blown into an ice crack in a scene inspired by The Terminator, where Sonic tries to save him, but Metal says, "there is only one Sonic" and is destroyed by falling into the magma. While Sonic is smarting from his injuries, Eggman says that he still has Sonic's DNA, and reveals his plans to create a superior, emotionless replica of the blue blur. A design failure of his (a robotic turtle) blows up the CD that the DNA is inside, thwarting his plans.
Trivia
- In the original translations, Knuckles was presented as a mole and not as an echidna, it also stated that he was an 'accomplished flyer' when he cannot fly but can only glide. This mistake even re-occurs in the character bios featured in the DVD release.
- Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie was also edited for age-appropriate issues as the anime was originally aimed at teenagers. Most of the censorship issues mainly concern not translating certain Japanese profanities, but in the scene where Sonic is supposed to show his middle-finger at Black Eggman, ADV changed the scene so that it seemed that Sonic was holding up his index-finger to Metal Robotnik. This edit is not present in the Region 1 DVD. However, because this is an OVA they did not censor all suggestive themes from the movie, such as the scene in which Sera shouted at Metal, calling him a "pervert" for accidentally looking up her skirt. It also had a scene where it looked like Tails was slapping his buttocks at Metal Robotnik, a scene were Tails falls onto Sera's breasts, holding onto them with his hands ("I never thought you'd stoop that low," Knuckles sighs) and another scene where Sonic had hurt his groin. Also, when Sera was picturing how she and Robotnik will get married, there is one of their babies breastfeeding on Sera's nipple.
- Sonic is animated in the same style as the Sonic CD intro and ending movies, though neither Tails nor Knuckles were seen in that game.
- The hat Knuckles wears never appears in any Sonic game, but it is a minor plot point in the Sonic the Hedgehog comics published by Archie. In that series, it is a gift from one of his ancestors, and a story arc showing a possible future for the characters depicts Knuckles wearing that hat regularly.
Though this article continually refers to the female hostage as "Sera" in the movie when she is in that robot with eggman saying she wants to take "a drive" a small robot puts up a sign saying "Goodbye SARA."
Continuity
 | This article may be confusing or unclear to readers. |
The OVA is generally believed by Sega and the Sonic fanbase to be an alternate continuity to the games series. Newer, often American or European, Sonic fans sometimes mistakingly consider this to be part of the official Sonic the Hedgehog canon, the Japanese continuity. There are some instances of the mini-series being true to the games which seem support this theory, including scenes that resemble and likely inspired the team actions in Sonic Heroes. However, there are some elements that make any connection seem impossible.
The first and most noticeable thing is that in the games, Sonic meets Metal Sonic in a different way. However, the Metal Sonic seen in the games is more similar to what Dr. Eggman was planning on creating near the ending of this series, in terms of not sharing characteristics of his flesh and blood brother in arms. Also remember that the robot seen here is never credited as Metal Sonic, but as Hyper Metal Sonic. It is possible that the anime's Metal is a prototype of Metal Sonic, and that the games' Metal is what Eggman is planning on creating later on during this story, before his design failure thrawts his plans. While that is most likely what the anime story would tell you, most of the official Sonic game sources would probably tell you otherwise, in one way or another.
Another problem is that Knuckles is apparently a mole with no intention of guarding the Master Emerald here. While this hero spends no time with his Emerald here, he, according to the official game canon, does indeed enjoy treasure hunting, despite his duties. And while ADV Films considers him to be a mole, there is no evidence that he was ever intended to be a mole, other than the fact that the president's daughter sometimes referred to him as "Mr. Mole," although that was undoubtedly intended to be a cute characteristic of her, and other than the scene in which Knuckles is avoiding being hit by Sonic, that unmistakably recalls the game whack-a-mole. It's also worth noting that the movie's official description claims that he is actually a mole, but the writer of the article was presumably not a player of the games, or chose to only include what was apparent from the movie in and of itself (actually, Knuckles is an echidna).
In the Japanese game continuity (and possibly the American as well, though this is somewhat disputed), Sonic lives on Earth. Here he lives on a planet called "Planet Freedom," but this planet is very likely Earth in the future; the ruins underground are probably the remains of New York City, and when Knuckles speaks about what will happen if Metal reaches the North Pole, the Americas can be clearly seen after The Land of the Sky spins into space. If this is the case, and if the anime is part of the official continuity, this would mean that the games take place in the future as well. And even if Planet Freedom is not Earth, the anime could still be incorporated into the games continuity with the explanation that the reason for Sonic, Tails and Knuckles to be residing on Planet freedom is to keep an eye on Eggman, since he has built a huge base on it (his so called "Robotropolis").
Some fans conclude that the series must be canon, since it was in part overseen by Sega and Sonic Team. However, the same applies to Sonic X, which differs from canon also. (Due to a number of reasons, but perhaps most evident in the fact that in that show, Sonic and the other sentient animals came to Earth from another world.)
Note that the "official Sonic canon" is debatable, as hardly any official licensed Sonic stories coincide with each other completely. At the time this anime was created it did not differ as far from official cannon as it does today. This is mostly a result of the Sonic Team games based on Sonic (which have first priority in Sonic fandom most of the time) steering the story in a different direction. It is possible that this anime was originally intended to be part of the Sonic canon, though it could be considered alternate universe nowadays, before the series' apparent reboot with Sonic Adventure.
Voice artists
- Martin Burke - Sonic the Hedgehog
- Lainie Frasier - Miles "Tails" Prower
- Bill Wise - Knuckles the Echidna
- Edwin Neal - Dr. Robotnik
- Masami Kikuchi - Sonic the Hedgehog
- Hekiru Shiina - Miles "Tails" Prower
- Yasunori Matsumoto - Knuckles the Echidna
- Junpei Janikuchi - Dr. Eggman
References
- "Sonic HQ Cartoon Info - Sonic the Hedgehog (Japanese OAV)". Retrieved 2006-05-03.