Sonic gained a family in the first movie, and then completely established himself as a superhero by the end of the second. With those roots now firmly planted, he’s going to use it as fuel for his showdown against fan favourite, Shadow in the SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3! We momentarily manage to catch up with the voice behind the iconic speedster – BEN SCHWARTZ – to discuss family, villains, adventure, and everything else you can expect from the upcoming sequel…
STARBURST: By the end of the second movie, Sonic has gained close friends and a family. What can we expect from some of these dynamics this time around?
Ben Schwartz: It’s been so fun to watch Sonic grow! In the first movie, he was lonely, and he so desperately wanted friendship and a family, and then he got that in Tom and Maddie. In the second one he got real friends with Tails and then, ultimately, Knuckles. So I think you’re watching a kid grow up too. So it’s like, “Alright, he has a family now, but he is also a kid, so he can be a little rebellious sometimes, and not do what his parents say all of the time.” I think we are kind of growing with our audience as we go, which is really exciting. I love the idea that this movie has so much heart, and family, and caring, and teamwork. So I think we always try to keep that there, because if you cared, or invested in Sonic, then the laughs become even funnier, and the failures become even more heartbreaking.
It looks like Sonic is teaming up with Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey), how excited are you for fans to see that, and what does this new dynamic idea bring to the story?
One of the fun things about when you do enough movies, is you get to really explore different characters, like with teaming up. So the idea that there’s going to be two Jim Carreys in this movie, it’s going to be fun! And also, what does this look like for ‘Team Sonic’ – which is Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails – how are they gonna work as a team? What does that look like? Is Sonic pushing too hard to be the leader, is he trying to do everything himself? So, all of those relationships are great, and you’re never going to get a fight from me if we can have two Jim Carreys in a movie. I’m going to say yes, every time!
What does this third outing do for Sonic, like how does it add to his arc that has formed over the trilogy?
Well, he becomes supersonic at the end of the second movie, in that amazing sequence, which I love so much, but then he also learns that he can’t be that all of the time, so he gives The Master Emerald to somebody else. So I think with this one it is literally him learning how to be a leader, and him learning to rely on his friends, and to lean on them for help. I think a big theme in this movie is “You can’t do it all by yourself, it’s okay to ask for help”, which I think is a big thing for kids, and adults. It’s okay to ask for help, it’s okay to know when you can’t do something by yourself. So I think that’s the big theme in this one. And what does that mean for Knuckles and Tails, too? Being pushed to the side a little bit, when they feel like they should be out there with him.
Ben Schwartz
In the first movie there’s a brief moment where Sonic is watching Speed – how insane is it to have Keanu Reeves take on the role of Shadow? It seems like the films just keep getting bigger!
It’s so good! The ultimate life-form, and he crushes it. The animation on Shadow is great – everything got notched up! The fight sequences are more intense and beautiful, the CG is incredible. The backdrops are all around the world. It just feels like, “Alright, we did Sonic 2, what can we do with 3 to make it even bigger and better?” So we took it to the nth level! What’s going to happen if we get a fourth one of these?! It’s been amazing to watch how big the scope of all of these movies are getting. When people support us and see the films, we have more opportunities to go even bigger for the next one.
We read that Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow the Hedgehog are an influence on this movie; can you elaborate on that? What themes or ideas from those particular games have found their way into this?
I think if you look at the trailer, first of all we see Shadow, second of all we see his teleportation, we see his bike, there is an Akira slide, which is not in Sonic Adventure 2, but it’s still very cool! You can even look at the locations in the trailer, and you’ll be like “Oh!” With the storylines, we play with a lot of different things in this. But I think if you’re going to do a Shadow story, you’d be hard-pressed not to start where the original, beautiful Shadow story started, with Sonic Adventure 2. So, you’re going to see a lot of Shadow, and a lot of story in there, and you’re going to see all of the action that brings. My hope is that there’s going to be a little bit of that music too. This movie is so cool, and if you’re a fan of Sonic Adventure 2, you’ll be very pleased with this film.
This is your third Sonic film with director Jeff Fowler, how has your creative collaboration grown or changed over that time?
He’s the best! He should get so much credit, because what he’s doing is so impossibly hard, he’s filming live-action people with no CG people there, then he’s doing the voice-over in CG, and he’s somehow putting all of the worlds together. He has to have such foresight when he’s doing live-action stuff, and understanding exactly where all of the action will be, and where all of the CG stuff is happening. We got so lucky that his first big thing was Sonic, because then we just get to keep him… until he’s sick of us! Him and I from the beginning were always really collaborative, he always lets me into the process, to give thoughts, think of ideas about how I can make my Sonic lines better, or thoughts on the movie in general. We had gotten so good at it that the amount of time it takes to do what we do is so much quicker, if it’s twenty recordings for the first one, and then for the next one it’s seventeen, this one is fourteen. We know it so well, and he also knows that I’m there whenever he needs me, If he needs me to come in and do one line, and it makes the movie point one percent better, I’m there in an instant. I care so much about the movie, he cares about the movie. All we are trying to do is make the best thing, so him and I can make a hundred more of these. I think the fans of the franchise know how lucky we are that we got him, because it’s not easy to make a successful video game movie, and he’s made two! My hope is that this third one will be even more successful and then we can make a fourth, because a fourth one would be bananas!
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3 zooms into cinemas on December 21st
