Amin Abbas

DUBAI: The sequel for the Japanese game character Sonic the Hedgehog’s movie premiered on April 19 in the UAE, bringing together fans of SEGA’s blue mascot.

The first Sonic game, released in 1991, was developed after SEGA requested a new mascot character to replace Alex Kidd and compete with Nintendo’s mascot Mario. Its success helped SEGA become one of the leading video game companies during the 16-bit era of the early 1990s.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is a sequel for the original movie from 2020 and produced by SEGA Sammy Group and Original Film with global distribution by Paramount Pictures. The movie features the return of the acclaimed actor Jim Carrey as “Dr. Robotnik,” James Marsden as “Tom Wachowski” and Tika Sumpter as “Maddie Wachowski” along with talented voices of Ben Schwartz “Sonic,” Colleen O’Shaughnessey “Tails” and Idris Elba “Knuckles.”

The premiere was packed with fans who were excited to watch the sequel of SEGA’s blue mascot movie on the big screen.

Fahad Durrani, one of many fans said: “I was really excited for this sequel as the original movie was really successful where many previous movies based on video games got bad reputation and performance in the box offices.”

“I used to play Sonic games in my childhood, so growing up with the character and watching him in the sequel on the big screen is really exciting especially with the return of the talented actor Jim Carrey as Dr.Robotnik and Idris Elba as Knuckles is more amazing,” he added.

Faisal Hashmi, a film director shared his feedback about the movie: “As many people aware, most of the previous video game movies were really bad and flopped in the box offices, so when the first Sonic the hedgehog movie released in 2020, it got everyone by surprise and was a huge success at the box office around the world.”

“I loved the first movie with the amazing performance of Jim Carrey as Dr.Robotnik with the big energy he put into the character, I was really excited to watch the sequel to see Jim Carrey reprising his amazing role and Idris Elba voicing Knuckles was more exciting element for the movie,” he added.

Paramount Pictures officially announced the sequel to Sega’s famous blue mascot movie in February 2021, bringing back Fowler as director of the movie as well Pat Casey and Josh Miller as returning scriptwriters. Neal H. Moritz, Toby Ascher, and Toru Nakahara are credited as producers on the new film, while Hajime Satomi, Haruki Satomi, and Tim Miller are credited as executive producers.

The studio decided to produce a sequel after last year’s Sonic the Hedgehog grossed over $319 million dollars worldwide to become one of the biggest movie releases in 2020.

Paramount Pictures announced last February that it has already started development on a third Sonic the Hedgehog movie, as well as the first live-action series for the Sonic franchise. The live-action series will debut on Paramount Pictures’ Paramount+ streaming service in 2023, and will center on the character Knuckles, with Idris Elba reprising the role.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 movie is available now through the Cinemas around GCC region.