Sonic the Hedgehog 2

About the film

Contains story spoilers.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 starts with its hero enjoying a home while still imagining that heroism must mean an exciting public adventure. Green Hills has given Sonic people who care about him, but his speed allows him to go looking for trouble much faster than he can learn to handle it. That gap between ability and judgement is the starting point for the sequel. Jeff Fowler's film keeps the combination of animated characters and a live-action human world, then introduces other creatures with their own histories and expectations. The new arrivals make Sonic less of a unique visitor. He becomes part of a larger conflict, and has to decide what sort of friend and protector he will be within it.

Robotnik escapes the mushroom planet and allies with Knuckles, an echidna seeking the Master Emerald. Tails arrives to warn Sonic, and the pair follow Longclaw's map to a compass in Siberia. Robotnik and Knuckles take it, while Sonic chooses to save Tails. A portal rescue deposits them at a Hawaiian wedding, which is revealed as a G.U.N. operation to capture them. Maddie and Rachel free the captives. At the emerald's temple, Robotnik betrays Knuckles and takes its power; Sonic and Knuckles help one another escape. Together with Tails, they confront Robotnik's giant machine in Green Hills. The shattered emerald releases the Chaos Emeralds, transforming Sonic long enough to defeat it. The three then agree to protect the restored Master Emerald.

Tails introduces a form of capability that does not depend on being the fastest person in a room. He is an inventor, observer and enthusiastic admirer of Sonic, which gives their early relationship an unequal starting point. One has been watching the other's exploits; the other is only just discovering he has somebody who believes in him that strongly. The film gives that admiration somewhere to go beyond imitation. Tails can contribute through his own skills, and Sonic can respond by treating him as a friend rather than an accessory to his adventures. Their pairing also makes Sonic's choices easier to read. Chasing an object can look like the urgent goal of a quest until a companion needs help, at which point priorities become visible.

Knuckles arrives with a much more rigid understanding of loyalty. Idris Elba's voice gives the character a blunt, serious presence beside Ben Schwartz's rapid, conversational Sonic. Knuckles's strength and commitment make him an immediate physical threat, but his seriousness also leaves him open to manipulation by somebody who flatters his purpose. Robotnik does not share the obligations Knuckles believes are holding their alliance together. The conflict therefore develops through competing ideas of partnership as much as through different powers. Sonic and Knuckles both carry losses from the world they came from, yet they initially let inherited conflict define how they see one another. Helping each other offers a practical way to revise that understanding, without requiring them to acquire identical personalities.

Jim Carrey's Robotnik treats all those relationships as material to exploit. His interest in the emerald is the freedom it gives him to impose his own will, and the giant machine makes that self-image literal. Where the three animal heroes gradually discover how different abilities can work together, Robotnik folds his enlarged power into an enormous representation of himself. Agent Stone's attachment to him adds a different comic imbalance: devotion exists on one side without creating a generous relationship on the other. The contrast is useful because the film contains plenty of familiar heroic ingredients, including a map, a powerful object and a race to find it. The alliances determine what those ingredients mean and which kinds of power can last beyond a single confrontation.

The human storyline keeps the adventure connected to Sonic's adopted household. Tom's advice about patience is difficult to follow precisely because Sonic can make something happen almost instantly. Maddie's family wedding then becomes a collision between a recognisable social event and the institutions trying to manage extraordinary visitors. Natasha Rothwell's Rachel brings a forceful comic response to the deception surrounding it. That diversion changes the scale of the danger for the human cast: the fantastical conflict has entered their relationships rather than remaining something they hear about afterwards. The film can move from a snowy chase to a celebration and then a large mechanical battle, while the Wachowskis remain a place Sonic is trying to belong rather than merely a base from which he launches missions.

The screenplay by Pat Casey, Josh Miller and John Whittington turns the sequel into a team-building story. Tails's inventions, Knuckles's strength and Sonic's speed can all matter without becoming interchangeable, while their decision to protect the emerald gives them a responsibility beyond beating Robotnik. Sonic's temporary transformation is a spectacular climax, but the lasting change is the group that remains after it. The final domestic setting puts extraordinary creatures into the ordinary work of living together, an idea that keeps the movie's cosmic objects tied to affection and trust. A later glimpse of Project Shadow opens another part of the screen world. Within this film, however, the central movement is complete: Sonic's wish to be a hero has become an understanding that heroism includes making room for other people.