Despite a very rough first look, the original Sonic the Hedgehog movie wound up being an unexpected delight. From the first trailer back in December, you could tell that the sequel planned on delivering even more of the same high-speed thrills as the original. With less than two months to go before its spring release, the promo released for the Super Bowl does a great job of getting you hyped for the Blue Blur’s second cinematic outing.
Outside of Sonic (Ben Schwartz) and a returning Jim Carrey as Doctor Ivo Robotnik/Eggman, the big reason to see the sequel comes from Sonic’s fellow animal heroes, Tails and Knuckles, voiced respectively by Colleen O’Shaughnessey and Idris Elba. Where the first trailer gave us brief snippets of how Sonic’s ever energetic self would play off of Tails’ wide-eyed youth, this new commercial puts a bigger spotlight on the echidna to show how he’ll be a pretty strong obstacle for Sonic. Director Jeff Fowler wasn’t kidding when he said that Elba was really putting the work in to play the red echidna: He looks like a real threat that’ll put Sonic on his toes during the film’s many (and hopefully pretty impressive!) action beats.
But while Knuckles is the star, it’s arguable that the highlight here is our first glimpse at Eggman’s own gigantic robotic version of himself, looking like it’s ripped right out of the classic games. We’d seen teases of this fight in the first trailer, from Sonic and Tails’ missile-laden perspective. Now we get to see just what was firing those missiles for a moment, and it’s honestly perfect.
Considering how much of a smashing success the first movie surprisingly was, it would be easy for Sonic 2 to simply rest on the laurels of the previous film while bringing in its hero’s BFFs. But it’s clear that director Jeff Fowler is taking the sequel very seriously and wants to make it worthy of the love that fans have put into the Sonic franchise over the decades. This is a movie that’s said to be “even more Sonic-y than the first one” from storyboarder Tyson Hesse, and it looks like he wasn’t kidding on that front.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 will release in theatres on April 8.
Editor’s Note: Release dates within this article are based in the U.S., but will be updated with local Australian dates as soon as we know more.
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