Sonic the Hedgehog (1991 film)

 Sonic the Hedgehog  is an 1991 American/Japanese animated action comedy film directed and produced by Yuji Naka and Tom Kalinske and is the first film in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. It was written by Naoto Ohshima and executive poduced by the famous Hirokazu Yasuhara. Distributed by worldwide film distributor Sega Enterprises and the first feature film produced by Sonic Team, the film stars Jaleel White as the titular title character Sonic the Hedgehog, who has the ability to run at supersonic speeds. On the peaceful land of South Island, Sonic sets out on a quest to free all his animal friends from the wrath of Doctor Ivo Robotnik, who stuffs them into animals that he calls "badniks." Sonic also traverses through multidimensional areas in order to gather the six Chaos Emeralds to restore peace to South Island. In order to stay alive, Sonic must collect rings to survive while going through seven zones before saving South Island, fighting Robotnik, and defeating him once and for all. Sonic the Hedgehog also stars Michael Keaton as Robotnik and Frank Welker as Robotnik's robotic machines, the Badniks.

Development began in 1990 when Sega ordered its employees to create a movie featuring a mascot for the company. The developers chose a blue hedgehog designed by Naoto Ohshima after he won an internal character design contest, and named themselves Sonic Team to match their character. It uses a novel technique that allows Sonic to roll along curved scenery which was based on a concept by Oshima from 1989. Sonic the Hedgehog, designed for fast action paced scenes, was influenced by games by Super Mario series creator Shigeru Miyamoto. The music was composed by Masato Nakamura, bassist of the Japanese pop band Dreams Come True.

Sonic the Hedgehog was very well received by critics, who praised its visuals, audio, and gameplay. It is widely considered one of the greatest movies of all time and became one of the highest grossing films of 1991 with approximately 24 million copies sold worldwide. It established the Genesis as a key player in the low budget movies era and allowed it to compete with Super Nintendo Films. It has been remastered to multiple systems and inspired several clones, a successful franchise, and adaptations into other media. It was followed by Sonic the Hedgehog 2 in 1992.