Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie (1995)

Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie is a 1995 live-action/animated action-adventure comedy film based on the video game series Sonic the Hedgehog created by Sega. It was directed by Joe Dante and Gore Verbinski (the latter's feature directorial debut), produced by Steven Spielberg, Colin Wilson, and Paul Freeman, and written by Verbinski and David Koepp, while Naoto Ohshima (co-creator of Sonic) and Tom Kalinske (at the time, president of Sega of America) served as executive producers. It was produced by Sonic Team Pictures, 20th Century Animation, Toei Animation, and Studio Junio (Toei and Junio provided the traditional animation for the characters) and distributed by 20th Century Studios and Sega. The film stars Josh Keaton as Sonic the Hedgehog and Metal Sonic, Christina Ricci as Cindy Washington, and Jim Carrey as Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik along with supporting roles from Tara Strong, Bob Hoskins, Ariana Richards, Robin Williams, Thom Mathews, Crispin Glover, and John Malkovich. It revolves around Sonic, Miles "Tails" Prower (Strong), Knuckles the Echidna (Williams), Amy Rose (Richards), Mighty the Armadillo (Mathews), and Ray the Flying Squirrel (Glover) in their quest to collect the seven Chaos Emeralds to transport themselves back to their home planet Mobius after a diabolical scheme by Eggman (Carrey) caused them to transport to the human planet, Earth, and they also team up with teenage girl Cindy Washington.

Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie's development began as far back as mid-1992, during the production of the TV series Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. It was announced that 20th Century Fox (how it was named at the time) and Sega of America made a deal for Fox to adapt six of their game franchises into films; and this included Sonic the Hedgehog. Several directors were picked such as Michael Bay, Roland Emmerich, John Landis, and Sam Raimi but the directors picked ended up being Joe Dante (known for the Gremlins films) and Gore Verbinski (in his feature directorial debut, who would later go onto direct films such as Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl and The Ring). It was originally going to be traditionally animated but it later turned to live-action/animated, with Toei Animation and Studio Junio staying on as rhe animation companies. Josh Keaton was cast as Sonic the Hedgehog in early 1994, being just 15 years old at the time, making him the youngest person to voice the role of Sonic. Dante and Verbinski made Keaton, Strong, Richards, Williams, Mathews, Ricci, and Glover go on trips together to make their characters be REAL friends. Filming began in June 1994, four months before the release of the highly anticipated Sega Genesis game Sonic & Knuckles. The first trailer of Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie was revealed on December 18, 1994.

Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie's reveal at a Sega conference in December 1994 led to massive hype and anticipation, as well as interviews with the crew and cast members. Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie was released in 1,000 theaters on July 24, 1995, accompanied by the Looney Tunes short film Another Froggy Evening. Upon release, Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie received acclaim for its performances, visuals, music, direction, pacing, environments, and themes. The film was made on a $85 million budget and grossed $359.4 million, becoming the third highest-grossing film of 1995. The film launched the careers of director Gore Verbinski and writer David Koepp and actors such as Josh Keaton and Tara Strong. The film would later receive two sequels: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog 3. In retrospective, Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie has been considered one of the greatest films of all time. Its performances (even though Ricci admitted that she was embarassed by her performance), visuals, and direction have received unaimous praise to this day.