Sonic 2 Yay or Nay?
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Last night I took 2 of my children ages 8 and 9 to Sonic 2 after we loved Sonic the original installment. Sequels rarely live up to the original, so much so the few exceptions to this rule have become pop culture lore. So why then does Hollywood produce sequel after sequel? Well, that reason is simple, risk avoidance. They produce sequels to successful originals because why a sequel may be a risky play artistic wise as it's hard to duplicate success without any chance for the deception. It is a safe play financially so studios often jump at the chances for sequels.
Jokes work because you don’ expect what's coming and movies also have similar success using the unknown. As soon as the viewer expects to see what they are seeing then they usually lose interest quickly. Sonic is one of the rare sequel success stories.
Sonic avoids the usual trap of making the same jokes with the same plot as the original just with a different villain. Sonic doesn’t fall into this trope as it follows its main character sonic as he faces new challenges and has to mature and evolve.
The movie introduces many new characters without the movie feeling too packed. Tales and Sonic portray their friendship perfectly paying tribute to the amazing friendship they had in the game and cartoons. Sonic was never a solo player game and the movie is better with the supporting cast.
The movie is geared towards kids but is one of the rare gems that adults can go to and still enjoy. This is done because of the nostalgic factor as many of the characters say and do the things they did in the game and it's a constant reminder of great moments of our childhood.
This nostalgic factor isn’t ever enough for a movie to have substance but sonic blends the perfect amount of adult humor, well humor adults can understand without kids quite getting the joke, and life lessons. I would say I audibly laughed at least 7–8 times during a kid's movie which is quite impressive.
The movie's main character Sonic again struggles with being cool and being responsible and in the end, the movie does a good job using its characters to teach real-world lessons to the kids. Knuckles learns to be open and trusting, Tails learns to be confident, and Sonic learns to be mature, well more mature.
Finally the star of the show the Villain. Normally the villains aren’t the star but Jim Carrey steals the movie again. His one-liners and physical comedy are second to none and he continues his trend of completely going for it with all his characters this one included and he doesn't disappoint.
This movie is a Yay, and for anyone looking to take their kids to an enjoyable family movie both the adults and kids can enjoy I recommend Sonic 2 and look forward to their 3rd installment.
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