Sonic the Hedgehog gives the spiny video game character an extra-terrestrial origin story overhaul in his first big screen adventure. The Sonic The Hedgehog movie had a troubled production, forced into completely redesigning the title character at massive expense (don't worry, they make the money back with product placement deals) after a huge online backlash to the origin Sonic look. Fortunately, the finished product is faring notably better, with the Jeff Fowler-directed movie pleasing both younger viewers and those old enough to remember the original SEGA video games.
However, the Sonic the Hedgehog movie does make a number of changes from its home console source material. There's a deeper purpose to the gold rings, a real-world setting and a brand new evil scheme for Dr. Robotnik to attempt, but the biggest alteration to Sonic's 1990s SEGA debut is with the hedgehog's backstory and origins. In its first video game effort, Sonic the Hedgehog makes little attempt to explain or provide context to its character, instead presenting a fictionalized fantasy world all of its own. The plot simply revolves around Dr. Robotnik's desire to steal the Chaos Emeralds by imprisoning animals inside robots on an island simply known as South Island, with Sonic himself said to hail from the unseen Christmas Island. Other than that, Sonic's background remains a mystery.
Unsurprisingly, the Sonic the Hedgehog movie required a little more detail in order to integrate Sonic into live-action and make him a more well-rounded character, and this meant a truck-load of changes and additions to the original concept.
Baby Sonic Was Raised By Longclaw
Sonic the Hedgehog's big screen debut provides an origin story that will be mostly alien to fans of the original video games, both literally and figuratively. Narrating his own tale, Sonic takes the audience back to his youth as Baby Sonic. The blue speedster doesn't know exactly where he came from, but his youthful self is looked after by a guardian, Longclaw the owl. Longclaw believes that Sonic's speed powers will be coveted by pesky evil-doers, so encourages the youngster to remain hidden for his own safety. Ever the extrovert, Sonic ignores this advice and inadvertently leads a tribe of echidnas straight the hut that he and Longclaw share, forcing the owl to give its life so that Sonic might escape.
In an even more extreme move, Sonic is confirmed as coming from another planet. One of the biggest challenges facing Sonic the Hedgehog was figuring out how to include both Sonic's usual trap-filled habitat and the real world where James Marsden and Jim Carrey could be found. Their solution is to locate Sonic's world in another part of the universe. This is confirmed when Longclaw creates a portal to Earth, explaining how the ring transporter will take Sonic to a far away planet, and the point is hammered home further when Sonic is referred to as an alien throughout the movie.
All of this backstory was composed especially for the movie. The idea of Sonic being in hiding is new and Longclaw hasn't appeared in any previous Sonic the Hedgehog media, although some have speculated the character might be inspired by another owl from the 1990s animated series. The evil tribe is unfamiliar, but the fact that they're echidnas hints towards Knuckles appearing further down the line. Although the video games don't explicitly reveal where South Island is, the suggestion is that Sonic's gaming adventures take place on Earth; moving the action to another planet and making Sonic officially extra-terrestrial is strictly movie-only territory.
Green Hill Zone Is A Planet (And A U.S. Town)
Having made such significant changes to both Sonic's backstory and the settings, Sonic the Hedgehog risked alienating longtime fans, but makes up for this by introducing two versions of the video games' famous Green Hill Zone. In the flashback scenes featuring Longclaw and Baby Sonic, the Blue Blur runs through an island landscape that bears a strong resemblance to the Green Hill levels from the games. There's lush grass, checkered walls, loop de loops and even a telltale crumbling bridge that any fan of 1991 Sonic will recognize. Consequently, it can be inferred that Sonic's home planet is effectively the Green Hill Zone, and the island backdrop also alludes to South Island from the games, albeit on a distant alien planet.
The Green Hill title, however, is saved for something else entirely. When Sonic lands on Earth, he makes the small town of Green Hills, Montana his home, coming to know the residents from afar and settling down in a small cave with his amassed belongings. The town has absolutely nothing in common with the Green Hill Zone old-school gamers know like the back of their hand, but between the visual appearance of Sonic's home planet and the name of his adopted residence in the United States, the entire Green Hill level of video game mythology is covered.
Gold Rings Are Teleporters
Another part of Sonic the Hedgehog lore changed by the movie is the purpose of the gold rings. In the video games, Sonic would collect rings as he found them spread across the land, and holding these items would protect the character from damage. Dropping your rings right before reaching the end of the level or starting a boss battle was always one of the most stressful parts of the Sonic the Hedgehog games, introducing controller smashing to the video game world long before Mario Kart's blue shells. The rings were essentially Sonic's life, and players would feel naked traversing the dangerous landscape of South Island without any.
In the Sonic the Hedgehog movie, the rings are still vitally important to Sonic, but for a completely different reason. Because Longclaw tells Sonic to keep himself hidden, the owl gives its adopted child a bag of gold rings, which Longclaw then reveals to be teleportation portals. Rather than being intrinsically tied to Sonic's fate and health, the rings are his ticket to constantly travel to new "safe" worlds. There was never any indication of this in the original video games - the rings have plenty of uses, but only the giant ones take Sonic from one place to another.
How Sonic's New Origin Changes His Character
The widespread changes made to Sonic on the big screen aren't just superficial, they add extra, necessary layers of personality to the hedgehog's character. The most obvious and vital of these additions is that Sonic feels constantly lonely, forming an attachment to Earth despite being in hiding. The Sonic the Hedgehog movie turns the character's physical ability to run fast into the emotionally unhealthy habit of running from life; he lives by Longclaw's instructions to remain unseen and, as a result, has only ever made friends in his mind. The emotional journey Sonic takes from being a reclusive urban myth to Tom and Maddie's surrogate child underpins the entire film and provides most of Sonic the Hedgehog's emotional beats - a far cry from the video game hedgehog that merely hoovered up rings and jumped on stuff.
The flashes of personality Sonic has shown throughout the past 29 years have been a confident swagger and a snarky attitude, and those qualities are still present on the big screen. However, in a quest to make Sonic engaging for a feature-length running time, it was vital to add more shade to those light traits in Sonic the Hedgehog's new movie, and Sonic's lonely existence, along with his "make a real friend" bucket list item do exactly that.