Sonic the Hedgehog: Wonders of the World

Sonic the Hedgehog: Wonders of the World is a 2021 American two-part animated action adventure comedy fantasy film based on the Japanese video game series published by Sega, coincided with it as the 30th anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog. The two-part film is directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman from a screenplay by Phil Lord and Rothman and stars Roger Craig Smith and Mike Pollock reprising their roles as Sonic the Hedgehog and Dr. Eggman from the games.

Wonders of the World features several villains reprising their roles from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog OVA,  Sonic Underground, Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog,  Sonic the Comic, Sonic X and Sonic Boom. Lord and Miller wanted the film to have a unique style, combining Mikeros Image and Reel FX with traditional hand-drawn comic book techniques. The film required up to 200 animators. This film is dedicated to Long John Baldry and Deem Bristow who both died in 2005, Baldry voiced Dr. Robotnik in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and Bristow voiced Dr. Eggman from 1998 to 2004.

Sonic the Hedgehog: Wonders of the World was released on Netflix on June 23, 2021 as the honor of the 30th anniversary of the franchise. It received praise for its animation, characters, story, voice acting, humor and soundtrack, grossing over $65 million on a $12 million budget. It also earned positive reviews from critics, with many noting it as one of the best animated films based on video games of all time.

Synopsis
"The story follows Cillian Darcy as he teams up with Sonic the Hedgehog on a grand adventure across the globe to find all seven Chaos Emeralds as they were hunted by Dr. Eggman and his army of villains from various parallel universes."

- Netflix

Plot
A lifelong Sonic the Hedgehog fan Cillian Darcy is an awkward and unpopular teenager lives in New York City with only one friend, football player Rory Mayne. At school, his family was treated as a joke to the city because his ex-step father had failed projects. So Cillian does get bullied a lot at school. His childhood friend Hannah even ditches him to be close to the cool kids.

After school, Mrs. Mayne organizes a surprise party for Rory's birthday and pushes Cillian to round up the guests. Molly is the only person who wants to attend. Maisie, Milly, Rex, Jake, Jenny, Oliver, Olivia, Toni and Axel reluctantly come to the party, but act like jerks and refuse to participate in the activities. Cillian tries to save the party by getting everyone to dance, but Oliver and Jenny sneak upstairs to make out in the bedroom of Rory's little brother. Mrs. Mayne throws them out, and the others act really indignant and walk out on the party. Rory goes to his father's den to get matches for the cake and finds a gun in a locked desk drawer. He tries to twirl it for Cillian, but accidentally shoots himself in the stomach and dies. It caused Mr. and Mrs. Mayne to think that Cillian shot Rory on purpose and have him arrested. Fortunately, the next morning, Cillian is sprung and placed in his mother's custody. His mother Lisa called Cillian's biological father Hal, who pulled some strings to get Cillian free. Not only that, Lisa's taking Cillian to the airport, as she's sending him to stay with his father in Los Angeles for two weeks, much to Cillian's shock and decided to give two weeks with his dad a try.

Cillian arrived to Los Angeles and gets a ride from a local taxi driver when he's unable to find the car his father sent for at LAX. They pull up to his father's mansion where he's incredibly greeted by Christina, Hal's wife. She ensures that he's okay and welcomes him to attend the fundraiser for a multimillion-dollar mall development. Hal sees Cillian and welcomely greets his son, as he is in the middle of a conversion with two of his friends, Fred Pond and Dickson St. Claire, who Cillian greets with nicknames and various handshakes. Christina guides Cillian to the food table, instructing him that he's welcome to order off-menu whilst she goes talking to the donors. While waiting for his cheese-steak, Cillian meets a girl Emily Pond who admires his lucky Sonic the Hedgehog pendent. They are joined by Max Jones, Cillian's old friend who has a bit of an awkward exchange with Emily, just before she departs. Cillian looks to catch up with Max, who is suspicious of his sudden arrival in Los Angeles after what happened to Rory and hopes that one day they can talk about why he's really there.

Max joins Michael Boyce, Melody Barne, Lindsay Watson, Rebeca Cohn and Mikey Greenberg in the game room, where he announces that Cillian arrived which leads them to wonder if Cillian will be joining his dad. The girls want Hal to bring Cillian on stage and make him suffer for what he has done when they were young, whereas Max and the boys want to ease him in.

Hal gives a speech during the fundraiser for the donation to prevent the upcoming mall development called the High Point Center, during which he explains that he was tired of seeing the innocent homes and businesses about to be tear down across from Olympic to Larrabee streets.

In his room, Cillian unpacks his stuff which shows that he has Sonic games in his bag. Hal sees him unpacking and smiles that they've both long awaited their first meeting. Cillian shows his gratitude for his help to get him released. Hal offers to show him around Los Angeles just to get to know each other, which Cillian accepts.

Cillian is awakened from his sleep by a call from his mother, who tells him to think about where he woke up yesterday in comparison to today and think about where he'd rather be. He joins his stepmother, father, in the kitchen for breakfast where he meets his half-brother named Alex and three half-sisters named Natalie, Angeline and Krystal. Alex looks at Cillian's lucky pendent and is very impressed. Hal asked any of the five to pick up Randy from Miss Sharp's house which Cillian joined.

Cillian walks to Miss Sharp's house on a hot sunny day and finds Randy sitting out in the backyard, wearing a diaper. He decided to help him out, but Miss Sharp stopped him which leads to Cillian's eyes glow red and black before punching her. They both escaped back to the mansion. Cillian explains to Alex and Hal about what happened back there. Hal explains that Cillian has powers. Hal and Cillian are having a ride in Los Angeles and having a good time. Hal shows Cillian the popular hangout called Boom Cybercafe which Emily and her father owned. Cillian sees Max and the others and decided to talk to them so they can catch up. Cillian asked Emily if she wants to hang out with them, but Emily politely declined leaving the others to rudely call Emily a cold-blooded witch for breaking up with Max which he prefers as the heartbroken hero, which leads to Cillian to leave and decided that he should stay out of this time. Hal tells Cillian that he should go and explore the abandoned subway station tonight which leads to Cillian to travel there.

Entering the abandoned subway station, Cillian discovers a collider built by Art Peters, the St. Claire Development Company's Project Manager. He finds an USB flash drive designed to disable the collider. Just then, when the collider is activated, Cillian's pendent flew into the collider, causing an explosion. Cillian grabs his pendent and flees.

The next morning at the Boom Cybercafe, Art Peters and Dickson St. Claire are explaining the High Point Center. Cillian hangs outside for some fresh air and gets attacked by Dr. Eggman. Cillian decided to fight Eggman with a help from his powers. When Eggman summons his Obliterator Bot. The fight caused all businesses across Olympic and Larrabee to be destroyed. Cillian managed to destroy the Obliterator Bot, but Eggman reveals the chest of the robot happens to be a bomb and set it off, causing a fire to break out around the Cybercafe. Surrounded by bursting flames, Cillian searched desperately for a way out, but started to lose consciousness. Then, he felt someone frantically smacking his cheek. Admidst his fading consciousness, he saw Sonic the Hedgehog. With a gentle smile, Sonic reached out his hand to Cillian. Cillian staggered his way to where Sonic was standing. It was like his smile gave him a burst of courage and drew him towards him. He was taken by Sonic's friendly expression. Cillian begun to move faster after him. However, Cillian's consciousness finally gave way. Just before he blacked out, he saw Sonic waving his index finger left and right. He felt he wanted to smile. That was the same gesture Rory used to make when they were little.

When Cillian woke up, he was in bed. It appeared he had been out cold for two days. Sonic enters from Cillian's bathroom, explains that he knows Cillian's powers are growing and he needs his help for it. Sonic explains that the seven Chaos Emeralds are scattered across the globe. Hal tells Cillian that he should go help Sonic which Cillian agrees to help. He grabbed his map of the world and discovered that the first emerald is in Rome. Hal gives them a plane to travel there.

In his office at the St. Claire Development Company, Art Peters meets Eggman for the first time and shows his gratitude for his actions. They decided to form an alliance and hunt down Sonic and find the seven Chaos Emeralds. Eggman reveals he has contacts with other villains that can help them find the Emeralds.

In Rome, Sonic and Cillian search for the first Chaos Emerald and discover one in the Colosseum. Just then they were attacked by Scratch, Grounder and Coconut, who are assisted by Sleet and Dingo. But they failed as Cillian and Sonic escaped from them. They checked the map to locate the second Emerald and discovered that it's in Cairo, Egypt somewhere in the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Back home, Christina discovers that Art Peters was talking to Hal. However, it reveals that Art has superpower and controls Hal's mind.

In Cairo, Sonic and Cillian discover to get to the second Emerald is to solve five puzzles. They managed to solve all four puzzles, but the final one is gonna be a lot hard. What they didn't know is that Boom Shadow and Metal Sonic are after the Chaos Emerald as well. Sonic battles both of them while Cillian solves the final puzzle and gets the Emerald. When Cillian solved it, he grabbed the Emerald and they escaped, only to be captured by Scourge the Hedgehog, Rosy the Racal and Naugus and takes them where the third Emerald is located somewhere in Petra, Jordan.

They were taken to Petra, Jordan in Northern Arabia where they saw Art Peters, Eggman, Hal, Emily, who was kidnapped, Max, Michael, Melody, Lindsay, Rebecca, Mikey waiting for them. Art orders Cillian to collect the third Emerald for them. Using the information in his journal that he took with him, Cillian overcomes the traps and managed to collect the third Chaos Emerald, but refused to give it to them. Melody wants Hal to tell Cillian the truth. When Hal confesses that he was in on Dickson and Art's plan to put up the High Point Center, Cillian gets angry and says to Hal that he's not his father anymore, shocking everyone. Sonic and Emily left them as Hal felt regret and remorse for what he had done.

Cillian calls his mom to tell her that it doesn't work out with his dad anymore and wants to travel instead. She knows that he's come such a long way and feels grown, but he still needed a father figure. He admits this is true, but, he also needs to figure out what more life has to offer. Lisa accepts Cillian's choice and let him travel instead, wiping the tears from her eyes and telling him that she loves him. Sonic and Emily found him looking at the sunset, they decided to get to know each other. Cillian decided to tell them the story about his first crush when he was ten. It was an older girl named Audra, the summer day camp counselor, but it ended badly. Both Sonic and Emily feel badly. Emily tells him that her parents were divorced when she was nine because they don't love each other. Her relationship with her mother was estranged ever since. Cillian vows to embark to find the four remaining Chaos Emeralds. With Sonic's help and Emily joining them on their quest, they've vowed to take down Eggman and save humanity. Sonic checks the map and discovers that the fourth Emerald is in Agra, India, as the trio started traveling.

Part 2
Hal felt guilty for betraying his own son with Christina comforting him

Human Characters

 * Kj Apa as Cillian Darcy, a longtime Sonic fan who lives with his mother in New York. He join forces with Sonic on the journey around the world to find the Chaos Emeralds.
 * Abby Ross as Emily Pond
 * Shiloh Nelson as Kimmy Pond
 * Jason Isaac as Art Peters
 * Shannen Doherty as Lisa Breyer
 * Hugh Jackman as Hal Darcy
 * Tiffani Thiessen as Christina Johnson-Darcy
 * Troy Gentile as Alex Darcy
 * Victoria Justice as Natalie Darcy
 * Cierra Ramirez as Angeline Darcy
 * Eva Lazzaro as Krystal Darcy
 * Jacob Tremblay as Randy Darcy
 * Julian Works as Max Powers
 * Sam Kindseth as Michael Boyce
 * Taylor Russell as Melody Barne
 * Tiera Skovbye as Lindsay Watson
 * Dylan Everett as Mikey Greenberg
 * Alyssa Lynch as Rebecca Cohn
 * Jeff Garlin as Dickson St. Claire
 * Ken Lerner as Fred Pond

Main Sonic Universe
An anthropomorphic blue hedgehog who can run at supersonic speeds and cannot swim. He travels into the human world where he can explore and have fun there. Upon learning of his arch-nemesis Dr. Eggman appeared as well. Sonic teams up with Cillian to find the Chaos Emeralds.
 * Roger Craig Smith as Sonic the Hedgehog:
 * Smith also voices Sonic.exe.
 * Jaleel White reprises his role as Sonic from Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic SATAM, Sonic Underground and the 2013 Sonic Fanfilm.
 * Martin Burke reprises his role as Sonic from Sonic OVA.
 * Ryan Drummond reprises his role as Sonic in the games from 1998 to 2004.
 * Jason Griffith reprises his role as Sonic in the games from 2003 to 2010, and in the anime Sonic X.
 * Ben Schwartz reprises his role as Sonic in the live action films.
 * Deven Mack voices Sonic in the film, ahead of Mack voicing the character in Sonic Prime.
 * Mike Pollock as Dr. Eggman, a mad scientist and Sonic's arch-nemesis who he often refers to as "Eggman".
 * Kirk Thornton as Orbot
 * Wally Wingert as Cubot
 * Liam O'Brien as Infinite

Adventure of Sonic the Hedgehog Universe

 * Phil Hayes as Scratch
 * Garry Calk as Grounder
 * Ian James Corlett as Coconuts

Sonic OVA Universe

 * Sascha Biesi as Sara the Catgirl

Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog Universe

 * Roger Craig Smith as Scourge the Hedgehog
 * Cree Summer as Fiona Fox
 * Cindy Robinson as Rosy the Racal
 * Jim Cummings as Naugus

Sonic the Comic Universe

 * Roger Craig Smith as Fleetway Super Sonic

Sonic Underground Universe

 * Maurice LaMarche as Sleet
 * Peter Wilds as Dingo

Sonic X Universe

 * Matt Hoverman as Dark Oak

Sonic Boom Universe

 * Kirk Thornton as Shadow the Hedgehog, from the Sonic Boom universe. After his failed attempt to destroy all life in the multiverse in the final two episodes of the series, Shadow entered the human world, joining forces with Eggman and Art Peters to exact his revenge on the blue hedgehog.