Sonic sees himself as a cinematic universe-dwelling superhero (“Blue Justice, patent pending”) in the trailer below for Sonic The Hedgehog 2. Which is unusual for fans of the old-school SEGA video games, who know him best as an irritating blue guy that only likes to dick around, collect rings, and annoy Doctor Eggman.
They’re skills that’ll come in handy in this video-game adaptation sequel for the whole family, hedging its bets in UK cinemas this April 8.
James Marsden returns to give some sage advice to his supercharged charge, but so does the villainous Jim Carrey, who our critic considered to be the best thing about the first movie. “Papa’s got a brand new ‘stache”, he gloats, sporting a mo that is either very cumbersome wig work or very convincing CGI. Maybe both, who knows.
If Sonic, voiced once more by comedian Ben Schwartz, handled Eggman once, he can certainly handle him again. But Knuckles? That’s another story, with the slicked-back red frenemy showing up to knock Sonic’s lights out at the end of the trailer below.
The introduction of two new, beloved characters from the world of Sonic exhibits two very different approaches to legacy voice-casting. Professional voice actress Colleen O’Shaughnessey is the only performer from the original video games to reprise her role, giving the sweet sidekick Tails some retro flair. He kinda sticks out, in fact, against the post-modern sarcastic jokes about Oprah and vision boards.
But for Knuckles, the team at Paramount just went ahead and paid Idris Elba to give us some gritty, British realness. Hand him the big green glowing Chaos Emerald, Sonic, just for sounding so damn smooth…
