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The Console Wars between Nintendo and Sega spilled out into the cinemas with Sonic the Hedgehog's silver screen debut. Early drafts of the script revolved a plot where Sonic and his friends entered the real world that combined animation and live-action similar to Disney's Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Said scripts included a boy between 10-14 as a focus character for audiences to "relate to." However, Sega of Japan immediately vetoed the idea and insisted that the Sonic characters be the sole focus. As DreamWorks did not have its awn animation department until the acquisition of Amblimation in 1997, the company commissioned noted Japanese studio: Tokyo Movie Shinsha to animate the film.

While the film remains largely faithful to the source material by roughly adapting the plots of the first two games on the Sega Genesis along with elements Sonic the Hedgehog CD, screenwriters Ted Elliot and Terry Rossion slipped in some subtle adult humor. Particularly in the Blue Blur's banter with his arch-nemesis Dr. Ivo Robotnik as well as the bumbling duo of Buzzbomber and Motobug (voiced by Saturday Night Live alums David Spade and Chris Farley.) However, it largely remains an adventure film with Sonic and his friends racing to grab the last Chaos Emerald before Dr. Robotnik, who want to use all seven emeralds to power his ultimate weapon: the Death Egg.

Sonic the Hedgehog garnered praise from critics and audiences alike for the high quality of the animation. Particularly the sequence where Nyxus, the guardian of the seventh emerald, sends Sonic to the Special Zone riddled with traps to test his worthiness. Observant fans would recognize the sequence as similar to the half-pipe special stage from Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Some critics even favorably compared Sonic the Hedgehog's quality to Disney's animated offering, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, despite having only a fraction of the budget. Indeed, some parents who found themselves concerned with Hunchback's bleaker and darker tone instead took their children to the much lighter Sonic instead.

Helping Sonic the Hedgehog's fortunes was the aggressive marketing campaign where Sega boldly declared 1996 to be "The Year of the Hedgehog" in anticipation of the film's summer release, and Sonic X-Treme's Holiday '96 release. Knowing of Disney and Nintendo's release of Super Mario Bros. 3 that year, both Sega and DreamWorks dared the plumber to top them in a campaign eerily similar to the former's "Genesis does what Nintendon't" from earlier that decade.

Write-Up courtesy of @Pyro