By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
If you’re an honest film lover, you’ll have to eat crow from time to time…for example, as soon as the first trailer hit, I thought the live-action Sonic the Hedgehog film looked excruciatingly awful. When I made time to watch it, though, I found this 2020 film to be a charming adaptation of a classic game series that managed to put its own spin (not to be confused with Sonic Spinball) on a familiar character. Now, the sequel is streaming like your favorite water levels (you do have a favorite, right?), and you can now watch Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on Netflix.
Sonic The Hedgehog 2 On Netflix
As what to expect, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 isn’t your usual Netflix fare: we follow Sonic’s adventures while his human roommates jet off to Hawaii for a wedding, leaving the titular hero to mind the store back home. But minding turns to Sonic Mania when the hedgehog runs into Knuckles, a new enemy who will stop at nothing to find the Master Emerald. Sonic has a new ally in the form of Tails, but it may take more than a sidekick to help him overcome both new villain Knuckles and returning evil mastermind Dr. Robotnik.
One of the best parts of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on Netflix is that Ben Schwartz (best known for Parks and Recreation and House of Lies) does such a great job voicing everyone’s favorite hedgehog. Meanwhile, James Marsden (best known for X-Men and Enchanted) returns as Sonic’s human father figure. And legendary rubber-faced comedian Jim Carrey reprises his role as Dr. Robotnik, a mad scientist bent on Sonic’s destruction.
All three of those Sonic the Hedgehog 2 actors reprise their roles from the first film (which is sadly not on Netflix right now), but the sequel also brings in some memorable other voice actors to bring some fan-favorite characters to life. This includes Colleen O’Shaughnessey (a voice actor best known outside of these Sonic films for her role work on Danny Phantom), whose Tails character plays a major role in the sequel after appearing only as a post-credits tease in the first film. And Idris Elba (best known for Beasts of No Nation and the Luther TV show) plays Knuckles, Sonic’s newest nemesis.
Before Sonic the Hedgehog 2 ran into the Netflix zone, it earned $405.4 million at the box office against a budget of $90–110 million. This was enough for the studio to buy plenty of Chaos Emeralds and greenlight a sequel that recently sped through theaters. It also led to a Knuckles spinoff TV show on Paramount+ in which Idris Elba returns to voice the cranky echidna protagonist.
On Rotten Tomatoes, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 earned a critical score of 69 percent, illustrating just how much the fastest thing alive won over the critics. Speaking of film critics, their general consensus on this movie was that it was a worthy sequel to the earlier film even if it didn’t live up to the fun of the original Sonic video games. This is a pretty reasonable critique, really…the movie is quite solid, but no movie-watching experience can match the transcendent joy of playing, say, Sonic & Knuckles for the very first time.
If you need more reasons to watch Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on Netflix, here goes: in addition to capturing the too-cool-for-school attitude of the original games, this sequel is the perfect chill-out movie. Sure, you can try to take the plot seriously, but you can also just vibe out with these entertaining characters while you play video games (preferably old Genesis games on your Analogue Pocket). Like the Sonic games themselves, this sequel is both relaxing and engaging, and it’s ideal to put on after a long day while you sip your favorite brew.
Will you enjoy Sonic the Hedgehog 2 as much as I did when you watch it on Netflix, or is this a movie you’d like to throw in the garbage alongside your old copy of Sonic ‘06? You won’t know until you stream it for yourself. Be warned, though: you’ll likely dig this film so much that you’ll become the “fastest thing alive” in your scramble to go watch the recent sequel.
