What the Sonic Movie did Wrong and How Detective Pikachu did it Right

by Finn, Grade 6

Last week, I watched the Sonic movie because my little brother forced me to and, to say the least, it gets a pass. It’s just your generic buddy-cop road trip movie with Sonic slapped onto it, with it’s only redeeming quality being Jim Carrey doing a great job as Eggman. This instantly reminded me of Detective Pikachu, which had the same buddy-cop road trip feel, but way, way better. So, let’s talk about how Sonic did it wrong and how Detective Pikachu did it right.

Brand Recognition

This is the most obvious one, but if you’re making a branded movie or a movie based on a series from another type of media, like books or video games, recognition is key. For example, Pokemon is one of the most if not the most recognized video game series of all time and appeals to every age demographic, already giving a boost in the audience that will recognize the name and go see it. Meanwhile, Sonic appeals to a few age demographics: actual Sonic fans, little kids, the artistic side that for some reason really likes to take the characters and have them do inappropriate things, and Internet memers, poop-posters, and trolls. This means that Sonic and it’s fanbase may seem too toxic and weird to outsiders, lowering the audience recognition even more.

The World Immersion

This is another key feature of a movie’s success: world immersion. If the world is relatable or intresting, that will get people interested and enjoy the movie more and tell friends and family about it, therefore free marketing. With Detective Pikachu, the whole world the movie takes place in is about the bond from humans to Pokemon and the animators did a great job at bringing it to life since the scenes, characters, and the Pokemon feel so alive. Meanwhile in Sonic, he’s hopping worlds and when he comes to Earth, he just doesn’t feel right. It’s normal Earth but now with Sonic, who the movie describes as an alien. it just doesn’t feel right since no one relates to having an alien on the planet you’re living in and since it does nothing interesting besides having the blue blur and egg, it’s just wrong. It doesn’t feel immersive, interesting, or relatable.

The one thing I can give it a little props for is referencing Green Hills Zone, usually the first level/area of a Sonic game. But that is nothing compared to the way Detective Pikachu did it. They built off the idea of Pokemon co-existing with humans and went with it, meanwhile the Sonic writers just took Earth and slapped Sonic with it. Long story short, Detective Pikachu does this by far better than Sonic. (Hi, this is post-writing Finn, remembering to make one last point. At the beginning of the Sonic movie, there’s an owl called Nightclaw who is Sonic’s “””parent””” and when they redid Sonic to make him more like his source material, Nightclaw’s style stayed realistic, and it just feels out of place. Ok, bye.)

The Animation

These are live-action movies, meaning there are a mix of live actors and animated characters. This is especially useful in Detective PIkachu because you can't show the bond between Pokemon and people without having Pokemon and people. This means that animation is a huge part in this film and in the Sonic movie. Detective PIkachu’s animation is really good since it’s needed to show the bond between people and Pokemon. Meanwhile, with Sonic, it feels clunky and robotic and has no soul and is a cash grab, which is the entire movie. The animation conveys a lot, and Sonic failed where Detective Pikachu succeeded.

Although the Sonic movie is OK, Detective Pikachu beat it in almost every aspect. Whether that’s the world immersion, brand recognition, the animation, even the source material, which I don’t even have time to go into, Detective Pikachu was great in every aspect. So, if you were going to watch one of these movies with your family, please pick Detective Pikachu so everyone can have a great time.