'Sonic The Hedgehog 2' Review: A Joyous Adventure That's Non-Stop Fun

Sonic The Hedgehog 2 brings back the iconic SEGA hero on the big screen with more adventure, action, and an even more unhinged Dr Robotnik played by the legendary Jim Carrey. This film takes further inspiration from the video game source material, and it absolutely pays off in a spectacular fashion, delivering non-stop fun from beginning to end.

Ben Schwartz once again voices Sonic and absolutely nails it by bringing him to life with his wonderful quippy persona. You can’t help but fall in love with Sonic because not only is he just ludicrously cute, but he’s just hilarious to watch too, especially when he shares screentime with Knuckles, voiced by Idris Elba. These two bounce incredibly well off of one another, and while this is Sonic’s film on the posters, Knuckles is undoubtedly the star of the show.

After the blue blur’s successful debut movie in 2020, it only made sense to introduce Tails and Knuckles in the sequel - and Paramount were on point with casting Idris Elba to play the red anthropomorphic echidna. Every single line that comes out of Knuckles’ mouth is incredibly funny and Elba’s character is missed anytime he’s not on screen. He’s brutally cute, a badass in every single action scene, but has such sweet innocence to him with his backstory in the film.

Paramount

As for the overarching plot, this film follows the video games a lot more closely compared to the first movie. Dr Robotnik is back from his mushroom-y exile and has fully become the Eggman that we all know and love from the video games, and he’s now after the Master Emerald in order to succeed in his plans for world domination. It’s up to Sonic to stop him, with the help of Tails, and together they go on a huge Indiana Jones-esque adventure to find the Emerald before Robotnik. It’s a super enjoyable journey with a very heartfelt story about friendship at the core of it. This is a film that children will absolutely adore, but even adults like myself and fans of the games will find brilliant.

Speaking of fans, many will be filled with joy upon hearing Colleen O'Shaughnessey voice Miles 'Tails' Prower in the film, as she’s been synonymous with the role for several years across animated shows and video games. It’s a delight to hear her alongside Ben Schwartz’s Sonic, but I do have to say that there’s the odd moment where she felt a little out of place. Some lines are delivered in a very video game way, and don’t quite bounce off the rest of the characters in the film. Even though this film feels a lot more like a video game, this just seems off. Nevertheless it is still fantastic to see Tails on the big screen and there are many moments which had me smiling.

Paramount

It seems as though Paramount has very much found its footing with this film series - which we can’t have completely expected after that nightmare-inducing first trailer for the 2020 movie. Thank goodness that they have as well, because Sonic The Hedgehog 2 is such a tremendously enjoyable film that I’m actually craving to go watch it again. It’s hilarious, full of action, brimming with references to the games, and undoubtedly better than the first film. I can not wait to see where the series goes from here.