The Fandom Portals Podcast
"Welcome to Fandom Portals—the show that explores how your favourite fandoms can help you learn and grow!" 🎙️✨
Each episode, we explore TV, movies, comics, and games to reveal how these worlds and the characters in them help us learn about resilience, courage, friendship, and more.
The Fandom Portals Podcast is hosted by Aaron Davies and Adam Brasher, two friends who are obsessed with fandoms, storytelling, and building a community where passion and positivity come first. From Marvel to Middle-earth, Star Wars to indie comics, we dive deep into the stories you love — and how they help us learn and grow. ✨
The Fandom Portals Podcast
Sonic 3: Leadership, Shadow Selves & Trust in the Sonic Universe
Episode Summary:
In this episode of Fandom Portals, Aaron and Brash dive into Sonic the Hedgehog 3! They explore Sonic’s leadership growth, Carl Jung’s shadow self concept as seen in Sonic vs. Shadow, and the role of trust throughout the film. They also break down Keanu Reeves' performance as Shadow, Jim Carrey’s return as Robotnik, and the expanding Sonic universe. Plus, don’t miss the February giveaway winner announcement!
⏳ Timestamps & Topics:
- 0:00 – Welcome & episode overview
- 1:44 – Gratitude & Growth segment
- 4:28 – First Takes: Initial reactions & Sonic/Shadow origins
- 7:44 – Jeff Fowler’s history with Sonic
- 10:26 – How Sonic 3 adapts Shadow’s backstory
- 13:05 – Brief Community Review: Challenge Accepted podcast
- 14:24 – Fandom Fact Face-Off: Trivia battle
- 23:02 – The Real Deal Analysis:
- Acting Performances – Standout moments from Jim Carrey & Keanu Reeves
- World-Building – Is the Sonic Universe overcrowded?
- Cinematic Build-Up – The epic final battle
- 42:44 – Most Valuable Takeaway (MVT): Life lessons from Sonic & Shadow
- 50:17 – Devil’s Avocado: What if another actor voiced Shadow?
- 56:00 – Fandom Portals Honor Board: Ranking Sonic 3 vs. other films
- 58:40 – Closing thoughts + Giveaway winner announcement
🎯 Key Takeaways:
✅ Sonic’s leadership arc across the trilogy
✅ Shadow self psychology in Sonic vs. Shadow
✅ The importance of trust in Sonic’s journey & Robotnik’s downfall
✅ Keanu Reeves brings a new depth to Shadow
✅ Is the Sonic Universe getting too big?
🎙️ Memorable Quotes:
🌀 "You didn’t let your pain change who you are inside." – Tom to Sonic
🌀 "There are no winners with revenge." – Sonic
🌀 "Nobody makes a coffee like him." – Brash on Agent Stone
🚀 Call to Action:
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⭐ Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
📲 Share this episode using #FandomPortalsPodcast!
🔗 Links & Resources:
📢 Geek Freaks Network – All your fandom news: GeekFreaksPodcast.com
🎞️ Letterboxd Rankings: Fandom Portals on Letterboxd
Apple Podcast Tags: Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Sonic movie review, Shadow the Hedgehog, Keanu Reeves Shadow, Jim Carrey Robotnik, Sonic 3 analysis, video game movies, animated movies, fandom podcast, Geek Freaks Netw
Contact Us:
Website: https://www.fandomportalspodcast.com/
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Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/fandomportals
Hello everybody and welcome to the Fandom Portals podcast, where we explore the fandoms that help you learn and grow. I'm your host, aaron, and this week we're looking at the blockbuster hit, sonic 3. Brash and I discuss Sonic's leadership over the three movie arc. We look at Carl Jung's shadow self-complex and we also talk about the delicate balance of trust in the film. We also discuss the performance of Keanu Reeves as Shadow. At the end of this episode, we also announce the winner of our February giveaway, so stay tuned for that and we also outline some ways that you can get involved in the network to potentially win some goodies in the future from our network, the Geek Freaks Network. So, as usual, thank you so much for tuning in. We hope you enjoyed this episode of the fandom portals podcast on sonic 3.
Speaker 1:Hello everybody. It's aaron here from the Fandom Portals podcast. I'm here, as always with Brash. How you going? Brash Bad yourself. Yeah, pretty, pretty good, not too bad at all.
Speaker 1:Today we are going to be looking at the movie Sonic the Hedgehog 3. And the reason we're looking at that movie is because, as many people know, we do a fandom fact face-off segment in our podcast here. So each week we challenge each other to trivia questions based on the movie that we're looking at and focusing on, and the winner, after a four-movie cycle, treats the other to a cinema experience. And I graciously lost. So I shouted you to the cinema experience and we watched the Sonic 3 movie. So excited to talk about it today. But before we get into it, we're going to do our gratitudes and our growths.
Speaker 1:I might start today. My gratitude is I'm glad I'm grateful for rainy days, brash rainy days, because we live in a very hot place. When it rains it starts to get a little bit cooler and it's the only time when we can have real cozy kind of movie weather. You know it sounds weird, but when it's raining outside, put the air conditioner on, snuggle up on a blanket, watch something good. It's just a great time, especially if you have surround sound, because it feels atmospheric For me. That's my gratefulness. Sometimes here, where we live in the heat, we get a rainy day and it's fun and it's nice.
Speaker 2:I agree. I agree with that. But it's always the days after the rain when the sun comes back out. That then you're like God. I wish it didn't rain. It's stinking hot and it's sticky, and it's humid.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the tropics people, we love it. My growth I've been doing well on the bedtime front. I've gotten five days in a row so far.
Speaker 3:Oh nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, signal applause sound right here. Yeah, five days is pretty good. I've been trying all January to get my bedtime down to you know a repeatable sort of time and more days in a row, and I've gotten five so far. So I've gone for six tonight, so hopefully we'll keep on going with that. You messaged me earlier about it and you were just like, yeah, not done so good myself.
Speaker 2:No, no, no. Anywhere between 12 to two o'clock is when I've been going to bed for the past week or so.
Speaker 1:So terrible terrible for me. Yeah, you know, if you just scale it back by 15 minutes, maybe 11.45, just ankle it.
Speaker 2:Even then, I think the one time I went to bed I jumped in the bed like 10 o'clock, doom-scrolled, yeah, yeah, doom-scrolled until 2 o'clock in the morning. I was like you've got to be kidding me. How could I? I was just doom-scrolling and I looked at the time Like, oh great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, it sucks when it gets you like that. Hey, because, yeah, I can't say that I'm innocent in that regard, because I've definitely doom-scrolled my way to eternity before. It's all about balance. That's all we've got to forget what about yourself for Gratitudes and Growth Branch this week. What are you thinking?
Speaker 2:My Gratitudes. My Gratitudes at the moment is work. My work has been. I've gotten a few praises on the work I've been doing at work, which is really nice, and even a few on the deal Although I don't think anyone from work is going to be listening to this because they're all old but I've actually was sort of softly given a well softly being presented with an opportunity for a promotion. Oh, that's good. Unfortunately, that promotion would take me to Rockhampton, so I'm not doing it.
Speaker 1:Well, obviously you've got to stay here for the podcast. Exactly, that's exactly it.
Speaker 2:That nice can't afford to move and I've only got. I need to support a house.
Speaker 1:I can't leave the house. That's fair, you know. Good to be considered, though it's good to get that recognition I got considered.
Speaker 2:I'll be grateful. All good man, all right.
Speaker 1:So now we're going to jump into our first takes segment, all right. So in our first takes segment we discuss how we first encountered this media, what our initial impressions of the media were and our feelings on the media after having watched it. We will also share some of our community's thoughts on this movie. For those who've contributed to our podcast in our threads page, uh, we can link that in the show notes below if you are a person who wants to do that in the future.
Speaker 3:So again, we are talking about the movie sonic 3 there's been a high level security breach breach and we need Team Sonic's immediate assistance. Project Shadow is far beyond anything we've ever encountered. Shadow's story began a lot like your Sonic, but where you found family and friends, Shadow found only pain and loss.
Speaker 1:All right, we got a rogue alien on the loose. How do we find him? Start with a giant fireball. I love it. Let's start with a giant fireball, and the movie puts Sonic, knuckles and Tails reuniting against a powerful new adversary known as Shadow, a mysterious villain with powers unlike anything that they've faced before. With their abilities outmatched in every way, team Sonic must seek out an unlikely alliance in the hopes of stopping Shadow and protecting their planet and the unlikely ally. Spoiler alert everybody from here on out. Spoilers are going to happen.
Speaker 1:the unlikely ally is Dr Robotnik. Okay, so you can go first Forrest Brash. What were your initial impressions of the movie? For one, how did you first come about Sonic as a character, or Shadow as a character, as he's a new appearance in this movie? What's your first takes of the movie?
Speaker 2:So first Sonic from Sega. Like way back when childhood three-year-old me playing Sonic Mega Drive. Do you have a Mega Drive?
Speaker 2:No childhood three-year-old me playing Sonic, mega Drive. Do you have a Mega Drive? No, I think the first thing I played on was the Sega Genesis. I think it was Yep, yep. But Shadow first was actually a school friend of mine, a friend of mine. He really liked Sonic. I was in high school and he was like, oh, dude, you should check out this game. I was like, oh, no game, yeah game. I was in high school and he was like, oh, dude, you should check out this game. It was like, oh, no game, yeah game. It was like the very first like Shadow game or game that had Shadow in it, or was it a game about Shadow?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that was on the original Xbox. I remember. I can see the cover in my brain. It's got Shadow standing there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and he showed me and he's like dude, it's so cool, that's right. He showed me one of those music videos that people put up on YouTube where they have clips of the game or movie or whatever and they're music videos.
Speaker 1:Music videos, yeah.
Speaker 2:That was the first time I saw Shadow, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Funny story about that game. Actually Jeff Fowler the guy that directed Sonic 1, 2, and 3, he was a visual effects artist about that game. Actually Jeff Fowler, the guy that directed Sonic 1, 2 and 3 he was a visual effects artist on that game.
Speaker 1:That was like his first ever visual effects job so he has a really special place in his heart for Shadow and he said he's so honoured to actually bring Shadow to the big screen because of where he got his start, and he did that for the Japanese studio he was working for at the time. So, man, that's a throwback.
Speaker 2:That is cool, yeah so that was probably the first time I encountered Sonic 2 and Shadow. I honestly did not know about this movie at all until we sort of were talking about it. Go on and see one. Yeah well, because I know at the end of Sonic 2 you see Shadow, yeah, yeah, and I was like, oh, that'd be so cool when they decided to do that movie. And then all of a sudden, here's Sonic 3 out at cinemas and I was like, when the fuck did this happen?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was awesome.
Speaker 2:Like what the hell I'm like I didn't even realize I didn't see any trailers or anything. I just all of a sudden was like hey look okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was the same for me too because, um, prior to to this, I saw interviews where, uh, jim carrey was actually talking about his retirement. Yeah, and obviously, knowing that the sonic franchise was the last one he was doing, I thought you know that's going to look a bit different for how sonic three or four, or however many they do, turns out, because obviously they're out without their primary antagonist. So it kind of took me by surprise a little bit too in that regard. Yeah, it snuck up on everybody. But what were your initial impressions of the movie after we watched it? What did you think? Actually we liked it.
Speaker 2:I reckon it's my favourite one out of the three yeah, yeah, I think so too.
Speaker 1:For me it's definitely my favourite one. For me, my first takes of Sonic again, I played it on Sega with my brothers that we played, and I always come back to sonic games being the games that kind of frustrate me the most, because I'm very much a completionist and I like platformers because you know that if you're moving forward, everything you've done behind you is completed and when you're playing a sonic game it's like all around the place like if you miss something you missed it?
Speaker 1:yep, exactly right. So that was a really big irking point for me when playing Sonic. But I loved the I'm not sure what one it was on, but do you remember the Sonic game where you'd be walking down the tube and you'd have to dodge all the balls that were coming towards you, yep, and one of them would have tails and you could go up the half pipe and things like that? That was the game that I played out for Sonic and for Shadow. I first encountered Shadow didn't know he existed at all. First time I ever encountered Sonic was in Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games oh Shadow.
Speaker 1:Shadow yeah, sorry, yeah, and he was, um, he was a character in that, yeah. And then, and then I went down the rabbit hole after I realized how cool he was and how awesome he looked and how edgy he stood and as a teenager you look at him, it's like, oh, I relate to Shadow so much and like the Shadow game, like not spoiler alert, but Maria brutal yeah, yeah, Absolutely brutal yeah, and oh.
Speaker 1:I did some reading on it as well because I never played the game. But I've seen the cover art and I've seen it around in different sort of clips and things like that, but they actually seem like they kind of stayed pretty faithful to Shadow's backstory in this movie.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, more or less. Yeah, more or less yeah. But yeah, those sorts of games were kind of big and popular at the time because they had Jak and Daxter, which is kind of very similar, and Jak and Daxter 2, especially, going around the city running and gunning that kind of thing. So yeah, I can see how this, this character of shadow, definitely became like a fan favorite and him being teased at the end of of Sonic 2. I think the American cinema experience is different to the Australian one, because in an Australian cinema when you're watching a movie, there's that etiquette, everybody's kind of quiet and you see something and you're just like, oh, wow, that's cool.
Speaker 1:But in America apparently they like jump, it's a big whole experience and when Shadow's there at the end apparently it just erupted so yeah, he's very popular and the director, jeff Fowler, also said you know, the funnest part about directing these movies is being in the cinema when that two minute end scene happens, because you can see the excitement for what's coming and people want to see more and it makes you want to go and a cea um american cinema experience just to have a look, because I do find that they are.
Speaker 2:They get a bit more excited, yeah interactive almost.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, we get told to to be silent in those movie cinemas. So yeah, it's actually a faux pas yeah, it's a much, much noise. Yeah, yeah, it could be quiet, you know when you're going in and out. But yeah, so I, yeah, I also like the movie. I definitely think it's my favorite of the trilogy, and the Knuckles series is up there as well for me.
Speaker 2:Okay, I'm going to be honest with you. I haven't finished that yet.
Speaker 1:I got like four episodes in and was like it definitely could have been a movie, because the first episode and the last episode you could literally smush them together and everything in the middle is kind of just like road trip fun, yeah. But I love Knuckles and I love seeing Idris Elba.
Speaker 2:Knuckles is generally my favorite character. He's my favorite. Yeah, he's like. I don't know if you've seen the Sonic, sonic Go TV show, tv show, but where, where, like Knuckles is my favorite in it. I don't know how many times I've watched the compilation of Knuckles parts in that show when he's like, when they're trying to like decide for something or reason, he's like let me have a look. He pulls it, gets some glasses out, puts some glasses on, goes oh right, I can't read and I'm like it's just oh it's just so funny and yeah, I love that His dry witticisms get me a lot, especially with his voice being Idris Elba's voice.
Speaker 1:I'm just like that, and you know he's really staunch and proud as a warrior and, yeah, when he's just knocked down a peg he's still hitting that pride moment. He doesn't take a step back. He's good. Yeah, I like it All right.
Speaker 1:So we do have some Sonic 3, and this one comes from Challenge Accepted, the podcast that is hosted by Thomas and Frank, our good friends here at the network, the Geek Freaks network, and they said Sonic 3 is another incredible installment in the Sonic universe. It has all the humor of the previous movies, along with a well done tragic story for Shadow. They loved Keanu Reeves' voice and thought that they worked seamlessly into the rest of the ensemble cast, and they reckon they gave plenty of space for Jim Carrey to cook in the movie, which was good too. So shout out to you guys at Challenge Accepted thank you so much for your Sonic 3 review, guys. And if you like Challenge Accepted, or if you like Fandom Portal's podcast and you want something very similar, challenge Accepted is a really great podcast for you to sink your teeth into as well.
Speaker 2:So thanks, guys, appreciate you that's one thing I was wary about was Keanu Reeves. Yep, I thought.
Speaker 1:I thought he'd come, like his voice would come across to Ted, yeah, yeah yeah, we might get into that, into, you know, mvts, or if it comes up in our real deal when we generate. But yeah, I have some comments on Keanu as well, so stay tuned for that, people. It's coming alright, but we're gonna go into our fandom fact face-off. We're starting a uh, a brand new round, so here we go, all right. So this is the fandom fact face-off, where we ask one another a series of trivia questions associated with the focus movie. The host with the most collected points from the fandom fact face-off segment will shout their opposing co-host to an all expenses paid trip to the movie cinema.
Speaker 1:Now this episode is brought to you by the loser of last week's last time cycle myself and we're starting a new one. So points are clean. Everybody's at zero. Three questions here we go. I'm going first. Brash, are you ready? Yeah, okay. So after their initial race at the start of Sonic 3, where Knuckles, tails and Sonic did the race that was distracting him for his Be Earth Day party, at the end of that race, knuckles and Tails were sitting in a hologram sort of formation and they had their arms folded and their foot was tapping, and that is a very common animation for the game of Sonic. How do you initiate that action in the game?
Speaker 2:Oh, it's been ages. My mind just goes. You just have to stand still for a period of time. That's exactly right, yeah that's exactly right.
Speaker 1:You just stand still and it's almost as if the characters are saying what's going on and they face the screen looking directly towards you, they tap their foot and they fold their arms and those kind of video game aesthetics is all throughout these Sonic movies and it's really exciting to see them. Throughout these Sonic movies and it's really exciting to see them. Even when Sonic crossed the finish line, you saw the goalposts spin around and the sound of the coins. Every time they get the coins, that da-ding sound, yeah, it's all rife through them. So that's a point for you, brash. Well done To a good start your go.
Speaker 2:Well, I think I've already talked about this. I think you already know this one.
Speaker 1:Miles Prowler or Miles Power, and it's miles per hour, yeah, as in like the sort of speed that Americans go to. But yeah, I saw that on an interview and Ben Schwartz, the guy that plays Sonic, didn't know, he didn't know, didn't know he was absolutely taken aback by it. Yeah, I saw that video, that was it. Okay. So scores at one apiece, very good. Okay, here is my question for you. All right, so who is Sonic's favorite actor in the Sonic universe?
Speaker 2:Oh, is it Matthew McConaughey? No, oh for some reason. I thought it was Matthew McConaughey.
Speaker 1:You get one more guess. I know why you think it's McConaughey it's because you see him in a cowboy hat and flannel, and all that in Sonic 1. Yeah, very McConaughey-esque, but it's not Matthew McConaughey.
Speaker 2:Not Matthew McConaughey, his favorite, because I'll I'll give you a clue.
Speaker 1:It's very meta right now for Sonic 3. Yeah, so in the first movie, when they're having family movie night and he's looking over the back of the couch, they're watching a treasure. And then it's kind of meta because obviously Keanu Reeves appears in Sonic 3 as the voice of Shadow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was almost going to say Jim Carrey, but I'm like no, it's not Jim Carrey, Because I thought Jim Carrey, well, for a moment I thought Jim Carrey because of Sonic's humor is very much Jim.
Speaker 1:Carrey's humor. Maybe that's why they kind of work well together, because they bounce off each other kind of well. Oh yeah, but yeah no. His favorite like many, many, many other Australians and Americans and worldwide people, his favorite actor is Keanu Reeves. So there you go, your question.
Speaker 2:My question. I think I've already spoken to him about this movie. Oh good, maria, canonically not movie-wise, but canonically has Maria died? I don't remember.
Speaker 1:So in the movie she is the victim of a laboratory explosion. I know she's a Robotnik. Is she murdered?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Is she killed by Gerald? No? Okay, well, killed by Gerald, no.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:Well, that's my final answer. Oh, you're final answer. Oh sure, I'll give you one more One more.
Speaker 1:Okay, one more, because you're on the right track. Was she offered a dose of the experiment and then it overwhelmed her body? No, no.
Speaker 2:She was gunned down. What? Yeah yeah. So she was helping Sonic, uh, shadow escape from cause. I think in the original they're in like a space station. Yep and um, she's helping Shadow escape and the actual soldiers on that base shoot Maria and Maria's got gun like got a gunshot wound and ends up putting Shadow into a um escape pod Yep and launching him away, away, and so he's going like flying back from the space station as maria is on the window dying.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow that is so tragic, tragic, yeah, man, and you know what? Um, my question, my next question, actually falls directly into line to that. So that's perfectly timed, because obviously the game was meant for an older audience and jeff fowler, the director, had concerns as concerns, as did the target audience when they knew that Shadow was coming in.
Speaker 1:They didn't know how they were going to handle the edgier themes, like you know Shadow and his motorcycle, shadow in general, the death of Maria, the firearms that are in the 2005 video game. He said he was going to be very respectful for the fans that they love in that kind of movie, for the fans that they love in that kind of movie. And my question is in that 2005 game he? Well, actually my question was he acknowledges the risk of having this particular thing in the movie and I already gave it away but it's not his edgy attitude and it's not his motorcycles, it is Guns, yeah, the guns. So I didn't word that question. Well, so you can get the point for that one. That's my bad, but yeah, I just find it really awesome that he cares about the subject and the material enough to know that his target audience probably needs a I don't want to say watered down, but a revisit.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to rethink now. He doesn't actually fire the gun, because he does hold the gun.
Speaker 1:Does he fire it? So, maria and Shadow, and now that I know you knew this, you're probably looking at it going are they going to go there? Yeah, but I didn't know what was going to happen, but I think somebody was wrestling the gun.
Speaker 2:Oh, no, sorry, I mean, yeah, the general who dies at the jumping command. He's the one that pushes the gun away and hits the tank instead and the tank explodes and kills Maria yes.
Speaker 1:Commander Walters.
Speaker 2:Commander Walters Yep, when Shadow's on the ground, he's on the bike, he has a pistol.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep, yep. I can't remember if he actually fires it or not. I don't think he does. Yeah, I don't think he does.
Speaker 2:But yeah, he wrestles the gun. Yeah, he does have the pistol and he points it at Sonic. He doesn't use it obviously yeah.
Speaker 1:But yeah, general Walters wrestles the gun and the gun fires, hits a tank and then the explosion is what takes Maria out. And then it's done kind of um tastefully as well, where you see uh long shots of Shadow and Gerald Robotnik over Maria, but you don't actually see any.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Any you know Anything you do see in Maria. You see sort of like that scuffed, sort of like charcoal face.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, all right. What's your last question, because the scores currently is 2-1 to you, brash.
Speaker 2:Oh, a character was meant to appear in Sonic 3, but they had to cut them. Who was?
Speaker 1:it. That's interesting because the cast is already getting quite inflated. Is it a and would it have been an animated character? Yes, did they cast that character?
Speaker 2:they have. The only thing is, I'll give you, I'll give you a hint, she sort of, she does actually sort of make an appearance already.
Speaker 1:Oh, is it Amy? Is it Amy?
Speaker 2:Yeah, in the end credit scene she appears she was actually meant to come in midway.
Speaker 1:Oh really, yeah, yeah, to me her animation looks kind of different to the others. I don't know what it is.
Speaker 2:Maybe it's just the way that they've done the hair, or I think it was what was cut out of the movie, but there's like a full clip of Amy and they had to cut it. Yep, it was like a mid movie part. She wasn't going to be in like the full part of it, but she was meant to make an appearance. She was meant to make an appearance and, I think, leave, run off and then, and then she would come back at the end. Yep, yep, but yeah, because she, she was meant to come in, introduce herself and then get all flustered around Sonic. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And because she, I think she comes and helps out and then helps out in the battle and then leaves, because she gets all flustered around Sonic and leaves.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have mixed feelings about that. We might get into it a bit later too, but the amount of characters they're kind of bringing into this franchise now, it's good on one hand, but on the other hand there's also some drawbacks, I feel.
Speaker 2:But honestly they have to have Amy in there. She is like an integral part of Realistically. Amy was there before Knuckles. Yeah, looking at the canon for Sonic X at least.
Speaker 1:But yeah, that's good. So the score currently for our Real Deal after one week. At the moment he's in the lead. We'll see how it goes next time we go into our fandom fact face-off.
Speaker 1:All right, this is our Real Deal segment, where we randomly select a criteria or lens to view the movie through and discuss elements with the intention of finding out whether it can be rated positively or negatively. Each week we name the positive and negative criteria and it will reflect a fun kind of element or focus for the media, and topics can range from engineering, anything from cinematography all the way to the character development, villain or themes. All right. So if we're rating something as good, we're going to call it supersonic, and if we're rating something as not so good, we're going to call it the eclipse cannon. So let's get our first generated item up, all right.
Speaker 1:So the amazing generator has given us, uh, acting performances now. The first thing that comes to mind for given us acting performances. Now, the first thing that comes to mind for me in acting performances is the live action characters, you might say, them being James Marsden who plays Tom, and there is also Jim Carrey who plays Robotnik, and Tika Sumter, who plays Maddie as well. So they're the primary three sort of characters For me James Marsden and Tika Sumter. I think it is always very fun to watch an actor who's acting against a character that's not there. So at the start of the movie, when they're talking about their family scene and they're acting with such warmth especially James Marsden's character when they go back down into Sonic's cave I still miss her.
Speaker 3:You think long claw would be proud of me. I know she would pal, because even though you lost her at such a young age, you didn't let your pain change who you are in here, yeah, in my lungs, or your heart. Heart, right, yeah, it makes more sense, not lungs, heart. That's the thing about life, sonic. It's all about the choices we make. You're gonna make some good ones and, knowing you, you're gonna make some bad ones, but as long as you remember to listen to your heart, you're gonna make the right choice when it matters the most the fact that he's interacting with an inanimate object and he's only reacting to the voice lines of a character that's not there.
Speaker 1:It's really hard to portray that kind of emotionality and I think he did it really well. So for for james marsden and for tika sumter, I think that they did a really great job in that regard for their acting performances, although as the movies go on from sonic one, two and three, I feel like their roles are being more and more and more reduced. Uh, and whether that's good or bad we'll have to wait and see. But I think that at least tom is a pretty important part to the, the sonic character, because it kind of grounds him in his familial values. And then we can't really go past the acting performance of Jim Carrey.
Speaker 1:And again, another challenge that actors have is when they're performing against a character who is in fact themselves, which is what he did when he played Ivo Robotnik and Gerald Robotnik in this movie and his interaction. Sometimes the lines would back onto each other, like Jim Carrey, as Ivo would say one line and then in the split second Gerald would say another. So they've either edited that really well or Jim Carrey's sharp wit is just that good that he's able to yeah, he's able to reflect upon himself and just react to his own audio recordings. So well, so for me, for for acting performances, I think I'm going to give this a supersonic.
Speaker 2:Hell yeah, yeah, I agree. Like even what was her name? Kristen Ritter Mm, who plays Director Rockwell. Yep, agent Stone. I reckon he's probably my unsung hero of the Sonic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, lima Joob.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's so funny and like the whole time, every single movie, you just feel for the guy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know he loves Robotnik so much. Us as the audience is just wondering why. But yeah, it's that toxic relationship.
Speaker 2:And you're like dude. You need to get out, you need to find someone who's going to appreciate you. He does get his appreciation at the end, which is really nice.
Speaker 1:Nobody makes a coffee like him.
Speaker 2:That's it. Yeah, that's it, but his interactions with Shadow I really liked. It seems like out of all of them, he had more interaction with Shadow than most of the other people did yeah. I think so too. The acting is so good. And are we going to talk about the?
Speaker 1:light show. Yeah, yeah, oh, the light show, the dance, the light show, the dance.
Speaker 2:I mean in a way, I know, when I was watching it I was like wouldn't the lasers bounce off and hit themselves in the face and then they'd die? Because aren't these lasers meant to like dice things up? And it's like bouncing off of the suits and then like, as soon as that hits them in the face or something, they're going to die, aren't they? Yeah, but I mean, it was just amazing. Yeah, that's what a dance scene is meant to be Exactly.
Speaker 1:Not plot derailing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Not well, not Venom 3 dancing. Yes, exactly, that's exactly what I was referring to when I said plot derailing, venom 3 needed to take notes from Sonic 3.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this should be Sonic the Hedgehog, the great dance. Oh, but I agree, man just, and I wonder how that was performed too. I want to see a behind the scenes on that one. How did Jim Carrey dance with himself? Because he did manoeuvres there where he was leaning up against himself? Yeah, and I'm thinking like was that? Did they perform that twice? Was he performing with a double both times and he had to do it as Gerald and as Ivo?
Speaker 2:Yeah, because you know, if that's the case, Because I've seen other people and you know you've done something good when it's replicated on other platforms.
Speaker 1:TikTok Yep Instagram Reels. I think that's exactly why they put this in the movie to gain that sort of publicity from Sonic 3.
Speaker 2:And I've seen people do that thing where they film themselves doing one dance and then they film themselves doing the opposite and then mesh it together. It's not as flush or as nice looking as the movie, but they do a good job. Like it was one of those points where it came in a point in the movie. Where it was, it was like refreshing the palette yeah, I agree, because it was just after you sort of learned about Shadow and a bit more about his backstory and how sad it was and the Dark Element.
Speaker 2:And then they sort of have to kind of plan to stop their evil, plan and sort of like all right, restart. Now we're into the final chapter. Let's shake things off, get a little bit of groove on and then move forward.
Speaker 1:And I liked that. The purpose of the dance number was obviously them celebrating their entry into the security vault successfully, yeah. And then you know the USB scene as well blowing that USB like we all did with cartridges back in the 90s that was great too. But I think, yeah, as you said, dance number was perfectly warranted in terms of the purpose of this movie, whereas if we're comparing it to dance numbers in venom 3, absolutely unnecessary and I you know what. It's just crazy that in 2024 we got two movies that had like middle scene dance numbers. That's just unheard of.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I feel like jim carrey was in his prime element, uh doing this, and I really hope that he uh returns for more. I know that he said that he was going to retire, but but since this he said I'm not really going to retire, I'm more taking like long restful breaks between roles. And if something comes to me, you know, on a good script that's written in gold ink, then I'll do it. And, fun fact, when they were actually offering him the part of Robotnik for Sonic 3, they sent him the script and they printed it in gold ink Just. They sent him the script and they printed it in gold ink just from their printer. They printed it in gold ink and gave it to him because he made that remark and he obviously came back and he loves being around the cast and the crew, so hopefully he'll keep coming back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and there's a joke going around about him saying that he'd only come back for a really good role, and it's like Jim Carrey is going to retire unless he gets a really good role. It and it's like Jim Carrey is going to retire unless he gets a really good role.
Speaker 3:It's a good role and it's like they're just up in their outfits and stuff doing the dance and I'm like that is a really good role.
Speaker 1:I love it. That's awesome. He suits the role I think so, and it's almost like a return to form for him, like he's returning to the thing that he was made popular for and it seems like the thing that he enjoys and loves. It looks like he's having fun in the role, which is it's great to see someone who's enjoying their job and doing a good job doing it. So, yeah, and so for you. Super Sonic, oh, definitely Super Sonic. Yeah, yep, very good, all right, let's get our next one.
Speaker 1:All right, now we're going the elements in the world to align with a well, in this case, the video game or source material of Sonic. So we spoke a little bit earlier and touched on a little bit earlier about how this franchise, the Sonic Universe, is getting more and more characters. There are four CGI characters now in terms of Tails, knuckles, sonic and now Shadow. We know, teased in the end scene trailer that Amy and also Metal Sonic was revealed. So that's six CGI characters.
Speaker 1:I'm a little bit worried, brash, that it's going to stop the development of new characters if they have to share screen time with so many others.
Speaker 1:Now we have the benefit of the fact that obviously these are known characters but you still like to see your characters developed well in the movie sort of sense. I read that Jeff Fowler purposefully focused on Shadow because he knew that that character was well-loved and he also knew that his backstory needed time to flesh out. And if you're going for a concept like vengeance and grief, you can't really rush that in a story. So I feel like in this sort of space, the way that they're building their characters has gotten to a really good point here at Sonic 3, but I fear that they'll overdo it. And I know that in Sonic 1, they were talking lots and lots about Sonic being able to use the rings to transport to different worlds, and one of those worlds being the Mushroom Land. Yeah, so I'm wondering when the crossover to Mario is going to happen. It's on the cards. It has to, because these are two well-performing franchises, amazingly performing franchises.
Speaker 2:It'd be silly not to that's where Robotnik went, didn't he? Yeah, Mushroom Kingdom. And then Knuckles found him.
Speaker 1:That's it, that's it. That's it. So for me at the moment, at this point in the franchise, I think that the way that they handled the new character of Shadow and in the previous movie the way that they handled Knuckles even though he didn't have very much screen time but he he was then given the series to develop him as a character. So when he came back in number three you knew him a little bit more and you saw his development and you understood why he was making the choices that he made. So I think, world building-wise for me at least for the Sonic characters right now it's a supersonic, but in two or three more movies we'll have to see how that goes. What are your thoughts on the world building so far, Brash?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like what they did with Sonic 3 and how they did focus on Shadow again. I still have to finish the Knuckles show because I think having the Knuckles show probably flushes him out a bit more, since he was there in Sonic 2. But I think he they didn't really focus too much on him per se yep, not as much as say, like Shadow in Sonic 3, like you didn't learn about any of really his backstory except the fact that he's a warrior from the Kinder Tribe and yeah, and that he's been tracking down Sonic because they've been trying to get the rings, because they're the protectors of the that's sort of the same with Tails as well, because Tails came out like, hey, I'm Tails, I'm your best friend.
Speaker 2:Now, he really didn't get, yeah, he didn't really get a lot either, but if you know Sonic, everyone knows Tails. Yeah, sonic's best friend. So going into it, just seeing him rock up and then being friends, you sort of see it because in every iteration they were always friends, yeah.
Speaker 1:And that's kind of all you need really from that kind of character. But yeah, I liked how they gave time for shadows, though.
Speaker 2:I but yeah, I like how they gave time for shadows, though I feel like that was important. Yeah, 100%, but I feel if they are going to keep adding more CGI characters, they're going to have to move away from Earth and go back to their world. I feel like there should be a threat on their world that they need to go back and fix where it could be all CGI characters.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and maybe Robotnik. So yeah, that might be a flip, isn't it? Because in the first movie, obviously, sonic was the only CGI character and it moved into a very human world, but then it's moving closer to the more animated, with Robotnik being the only human character, being the only, uh, human character. That that that's possibly a way to do it because, as I said, as I mentioned earlier, the character of um tom and maddie, their roles of being more and more and more reduced yeah, I feel like they're something too.
Speaker 2:They were definitely reduced um something three, I think they actually increased, increased a little bit. I reckon this is just a theory, but I reckon that's because they may end up pushing the amount to the side. In this last one we'll give you guys a bit more screen time, because it may be the last time we're really going to focus on you guys or need you guys if you look at the way the characters are kind of going the journey of Sonic through Sonic 1, 2 and three.
Speaker 1:in sonic one he was very much, uh, getting used to and being acclimatized to a new planet earth. He needed a friend and he needed a family and he found tom and he found maddie. And then in number two, sonic was learning very much how to be a team player and how to work within a group with with tails and then and then knuckles at the end. And Sonic 3, he was almost more so leaning towards being a leader of the group and that was very much epitomized in the scene where they were trying to break into the gun facility and every single one of them had a different role and Knuckles famously sitting on top of the Big Ben Tower. You know his role was to patiently wait until the signal was fired, until he had to break glass. Yeah, until he had to break glass, yeah, until he had to break glass, and that was the most painful thing in the world for him.
Speaker 1:But that shows character growth for him as well, because previously he was very much a smash and grab kind of character and now he's sitting there and he's waiting. He's performing his role in the team. But for this growth that Sonic's happening, that Sonic is going through, there comes a time in every family where the kids grow up and they leave the home. So that is probably coming for Sonic and his pals, because they're very much represented as the children of Tom and Maddie. So what adventure will he have now that he sort of is growing up and moving away from these people? And I think you're right, it might be a return to the green land or whatever they call it in Sonic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it could be because they've got the Emerald Chaos Emeralds, chaos Emeralds. It could be Rogue comes along and steals. Yeah, rouge, rouge, rouge, rogue. I thought it was Rogue Rouge. Actually, it is Rouge, isn't it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is Rouge.
Speaker 2:Yeah, rouge comes along and steals the Emerald Crystal, like the. What's an Emerald Crystal? The Chaos Crystal. Chaos Crystals, chaos Crystals. Chaos Gems, chaos Emeralds, chaos Emeralds. What is wrong with my mind right now? God, anyway, that's all right. Chaos Emeralds. I'm keeping it all in, brad. Yeah, chaos Emeralds. Yeah, she could come along and steal them and they have to go retrieve them, and it could be from the person who sent the Metal Sonics.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I think Metal Sonic doesn't really have to be developed. No, because he's a robotic character that's just to enforce it. Really, yeah, but what are you giving the world building Brash? Do you think it's going to be a Super Sonic, or do you think it's going to be an Eclipse Cannon, as we're looking at it now in Sonic 3?
Speaker 2:As of Sonic 3, I want to give it supersonic as of right now, if I think they, if they continue on earth for me, I think it's going to start going towards eclipse canon.
Speaker 1:Yep yeah, and I pretty much agree with that as well. All right, let's get our next one. All right, the next one is a cinematic build-up brash. You want to kick us off for this one?
Speaker 2:yes, so out of all the movies we've done so far, I think this one's had the best cinematic build up where it fully like they go through. And there's the initial um, they're having a good time, fun, everything's great. And then, bam, threat comes along. They're like, yeah, we'll go kick its ass. They go there, get their ass handed to them. Then it's like, oh damn, we suck, we need to get better. And then the bad guys team up and they have to try you covertly try and find out what the deal is. They team up with um eggman and was like oh, okay, let's go um, find out who the big bad is. Oh, it's my daddy or granddaddy, yep. And then it's like, oh, we should team up because we're the same. The big climactic. It all ramps up and leads up to the big.
Speaker 2:We have to stop a doomsday machine while taking on like hundreds of robots, while we're yellow and golden and just destroying stuff, and even in that they take a moment to sit down on the moon and have a bit of a powwow and then you know, know a little bit of a bit more character development between the two, where Shadow is like, damn, if it's what I'm doing, something that Maria would not like me doing, would I seem bad in her eyes and sort of passes on something, passes on his knowledge from Tom that he gave him onto Shadow, yeah, yeah, and yeah, sonic passes on his knowledge from Tom that he gave him onto Shadow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, he says the good thing about you, sonic, is that you don't let the pain change who you are on the inside. Yeah, hear my lungs. So supersonic for you. Yeah, I'd say definitely supersonic. Yeah, so for me.
Speaker 2:I think this movie follows a traditional sort of hero's journey arc which was introduced by a guy called Joseph Campbell.
Speaker 1:He made the hero's traditional sort of hero's journey arc, which was introduced by a guy called Joseph Campbell. He made the hero's journey sort of framework and it basically shows how a character starts off in a particular way, how they're very safe in their space with the things that they're comfortable and what they love and what they know, which is epitomized in the party scene, the birthday party, the birthday party and then a complication occurs which causes the character to then be thrust out of that comfort zone and then make them grow, obviously this being the introduction of shadow being asked to help the world out now. So he's gone from you know local green veil problems to help the world with a bit of disdain. With a bit of disdain could uh ever imagine, even with the uh, the team that he's with? So all the lessons he's learned in the past aren't helping him now. So he's forced to grow on this journey through challenge and is eventually pushed into a final confrontation where he uses the chaos emerald to become supersonic and very reminiscent of like an anime kind of battle towards the ending.
Speaker 1:Third arc, though the fight scene that shadow and sonic have in that visually appealing, very satisfying in terms of how the story is running and also something that fans and kids would look at and just I can picture like mouths open wide, looking at the screen, like is a really perfect sort of action sequence in these kind of blockbuster like movies. So for me it's definitely a supersonic. I feel like the hero's journey in this stage of sonic's arc. He's still still being challenged and he's still growing and learning. And the way that they epitomize that in the final arc with the Eclipse Cannon and that challenge and then the allies turned, or the enemies turned allies, it's just, yeah, the perfect three act movie.
Speaker 2:And, like I just said, the visuals. The visuals are like when they're zooming across the Earth, but as they go across the earth you can see like it cracking and like lava shooting up out of the ground from all the spots that they travel to, like their battle alone is slowly destroying the earth itself. Yep, and that's like what knuckles and tails, war and sonic about. Like why he shouldn't use the chaos emerald because it could destroy the. There's enough power there. It could potentially destroy the Earth. He learns that and then they work together to push the Chaos, the Eclipse Cannon, away from the Earth into the moon, turn it around the other way.
Speaker 1:Just take a bit off the top of the moon. Yeah, that's it. We didn't need that part anyway. No, I think for this one. For me, cinematic build-up is definitely a supersonic. All right, let's move on to our MVTs.
Speaker 1:Okay, so for our MVTs, this is where we discuss the most important thing we learned from the media that we watched, and it could be something that extends our knowledge or could be something that we apply to our lives. It could be something as simple as a piece of dialogue or a thematic or moral lesson to a technical piece of cinema that we wanted to discuss as well. So I might go first for this one, and I really want to talk about Shadow obviously being a important part of this movie, but the concept of like a shadow self, because through the movie we look at Sonic and we look at Shadow and we are positioned to view and can't be helped but to view the parallels in their life, and I think they even say it in dialogue at one point. You know he is you if you never found Tom. So Carl Jung sort of represents this as the shadow self and it's represented as like a darker aspect of your personality and it's often projected onto others, so you can see how Sonic is more optimistic and jovial, whereas Shadow is more brooding and vengeful and burdened with a tragic past, even though Sonic as well is burdened with a tragic past. But the way that they overcome that is extremely different. And I think for me that Shadow self is analysed quite poignantly in this movie because it's right there physically for you to see. You know, shadow is what Sonic would be if he didn't have Tom or if he didn't healthily deal with the trauma that he felt when he lost Longclaw. So the scene where he goes back to his cave at the start of the movie in Sonic 3, I think that was a reminder for audiences that, hey, sonic actually also has a traumatic past, just like Shadow does, you know. But Sonic dealt with it through love, kindness and connection, whereas Shadow was forced to deal with it through love, kindness and connection, whereas shadow was forced to deal with it through repressing it because he was put in stasis and then isolation, because it was all by himself. And then, once he did break free, the connections he did make were people that were perpetuating those feelings of vengefulness towards the tragedy that he felt. So he didn't healthily deal with his emotions and as a result, he turned completely different to how Sonic wanted to interact and I just really liked looking at how both of those characters sort of dealt with pain, because Shadow did it in more of a destructive way and towards the end of the movie as they begin to confront each other.
Speaker 1:Sonic, throughout all of the movies previously, has beaten the villains with his super speed. He's done it with his abilities, every single time. It was made very clear at the start of this movie that he couldn't do that with Shadow. There was no way he could do it because Shadow was his superior in every way, which is an interesting concept to look at when you're talking about how he's taken a darker path and for him to be more powerful because of that.
Speaker 1:But the way that sonic defeats I'll put in quotes shadow in this movie was he. He used kindness, so he brought about, as we talked about before the attention to shadow that the person that he loved and the person that he cared for and the person that he's lost wouldn't appreciate the way that you are treating her legacy and the way that you are surviving beyond her and you know that sort of raised a point to shadow and not to say that he's completely healed by the end of the movie, but it offered him enough of a point to think about. Maybe things can be different because, shadow, when he's looking at sonic and sonic's beating the absolute crap out of him and he says you know, do it, I'm right here, it's what you want go ahead, finish it.
Speaker 3:What are you waiting for? Do it. I'm right here. You didn't let your pain change who you are In here. Huh, this is not who I am. What are you doing? You won. Take your revenge.
Speaker 1:There are no winners with revenge. And then Sonic chooses not to. I think that perplexes Shadow and it's the first time where he's actually seen somebody choose kindness as opposed to dealing with something in a more darker sort of way. So for me, my, my MVP is the fact that I think everybody has the potential to be both. I think everybody has the potential to be both. Everybody has the potential to be their Sonic, or to be their Shadow, or to live and see something through an optimistic lens or through a vengeful and dark lens when people wrong you.
Speaker 1:But it's sort of how you deal with that and the people and the connections that you have around you that help you to push through in a positive way or in a manner that serves you rather than upsets and damages you more. And that's what you get from watching kids movies with an adult brain. But yeah, I think that connection that he sees Sonic have with his family, with his friends, and then when he steps away from that in the middle of the movie and he takes the Chaos Emeralds to do it on his own and it's brought to his attention that you know, now you're just like me that's when Sonic kind of clicks and he, he. He then believes I have to do this in a different way. So I think that's my most valuable takeaway, for this one is that we do have moments where we can choose, and we can choose to either deal with it in a in a way that promotes connection, or we can further those feelings of vengefulness and sorrow and brooding in shadow and trauma. So what's yours?
Speaker 2:Mine. Mine is sort of in a similar vein, but more so trust my most valuable lesson I got from this was trust, and not so much.
Speaker 2:I thought it had a little bit to do with shadow, but it doesn't. It's got nothing to do with him. Really. It's got to do with both Ivo and Gerald Straight away. He's never knew his family. Grandfather comes along and straight up, says sweet nothings in Ivo's ear and goes along with it, ends up telling out his grandfather's a genocidal maniac that wants to destroy himself and the earth, and then took him pretty much their whole relationship in that movie to. Then at the end when he's like, oh, hang on, is this thing going to destroy the Earth? And he's like, yeah, I thought we were going to rule the Earth. And he's like, no, we're going to destroy it. And he's like, oh, I probably shouldn't have gone along with your stuff then I shouldn't have helped you.
Speaker 2:And also with Sonic. Sonic Sonic has to learn to trust his friends that they are there, they've got his back, they'll help him out and he doesn't have to rely on using a destructive force to solve the problem. He has his family that he needs to trust in yeah.
Speaker 2:I think those are my. That was my most valuable takeaway that you have to be one. You have to. You have to be able to trust in people, but you have to be one. You have to be able to trust in people, but you have to be careful in who you trust.
Speaker 1:Yeah, not blindly trusting. Yeah, Because they offer you something that you like. I really like that MBT because I see that a lot in Knuckles, in the character of Knuckles, because there is a scene in Sonic 3 where Sonic and him go head to head because Knuckles' primary role as an echidna and warrior is the protector of the Chaos Emeralds and Knuckles is the only one that knows where they are. And in a previous instance if Sonic came to Knuckles and said I want the Chaos Emeralds because I need them, then they may have come to blows, but you know there is an escalation. But then Knuckles sort of de-escalates and says you know what? I'm going to trust you, yeah, that you're not going to use these in a foul manner and I'm going to let you go and do this. Instead of fighting him and confronting him, he trusted his quote brother to do the right thing because he knew that Sonic was inherently a good person. So that was where I see that trust because, yeah, it's definitely there in a lot of different facets. Yeah, it's definitely there in a lot of different facets, but knuckles as well.
Speaker 1:Very, very good mvt. I like it very good. All right, we're gonna move on to devil's avocado, all right. So devil's avocado is our what if? Segment, where we play devil's advocate and, uh, we're gonna take a story element or a character and offer a new take and we're gonna sort of hypothesize on how that would improve or or limit the the movie that we're kind of looking at. So in this instance I'm going to ask you a question to start off with that devil's avocado brash, because I want to ask you what does Jared Leto, jason Momoa, robert Pattinson and Johnny Depp have in common?
Speaker 2:Jared Leto, jason Momoa. Robert Pattinson and Johnny Depp. What do they all have in common?
Speaker 1:They're all very sexy. Yeah, I don't know. Well, they all have in common they're all very sexy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know. Well, they all have in common. They all have in common.
Speaker 1:They were all considered to be the voice of Shadow. Ah, so I'm wondering for my devil's avocado. We talked earlier about Keanu Reeves. Thank God it wasn't Jason Momoa. He was actually also considered for the voice of Knuckles when that sort of came around, and then they landed on Idris Elba.
Speaker 2:I can sort of see that I couldn't see him as Shadow.
Speaker 1:Now that I've seen Idris Elba as Knuckles, I don't want anyone else to do it though. So for that, devil's Avocado would be a staunch no, but for Keanu Reeves and Knuckles, if we're talking about Devil's Advocates here, I think for me the it would be Johnny Depp. For me, because I know that he kind of has that voice. He can play dark, he can fall into his roles pretty well, but would you?
Speaker 2:prefer one of them or do you think Keanu, if I choose someone else besides Keanu, robert Patterson, 100% Yep, he is an amazing voice actor. Yeah, yep, he played the heron in the Boy and the Heron, that's right? Yes, he did. I haven't seen that yet and his voice you couldn't even tell it was Roland Parson.
Speaker 1:He was just that good. Yeah, he's done some voice work or he did put on an accent for his upcoming role in Mickey 17. And he said he based that off of Steve-O. And I listened to the trailer and I closed my eyes and I put the phone close to my ear and I was like, you know, he's kind of. He's kind of there like with the Steve-O impression from Jackass. But yeah, he can also play play sort of broody and and and dark, because he's obviously Matt Reeves' Batman.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cause Keanu. In an interview he said when he was trying to find the voice of Shadow, he's like he couldn't go too high because then that would be too much in the realm of sonic. He couldn't go too low because idris elba already has that deep, low voice naturally and he didn't want so it couldn't be too. It'll be too knuckles to go too low or too deep with it. So he's like I had to try and find somewhere that was sort of sitting in the middle between sonic and knuckles, yeah, and hit that sweet spot in the middle and I think he did a really good job.
Speaker 2:But in that interview this is before we saw the movie in that interview he sort of does the voice and all I could hear was Ted from Bill and Ted, yeah, and I was like, oh, I'm like am I going to close my eyes and just hear surface shadow? Yeah, I was like, oh, and just hear surf of shadow? Yeah, I was like, oh, and I'm like I love Keanu to death, but his voice is very iconic. Yes, that's what I was worried about and it's always sort of the same tone, whatever he plays. He hides it fairly well in most cases, but you can always sort of hear that Ted, yeah, the Ted in the back of the voice.
Speaker 1:I think in this one in particular. I couldn't unsee the Keanu when I was watching Shadow. Yeah, and you know, for me that was fine because he did a great performance as the voice of Shadow and he was also, fowler said, the director. He was overjoyed to play Shadow. He'd seen Sonic 1 and 2, and to be a part of the franchise. He was just completely in. He was surprised that he was offered. So it's good that he was that enthusiastic, which means he'll be enthusiastic to return. But for me I think it was less like.
Speaker 3:I could tell that was.
Speaker 1:Keanu for one, but to that credit as well.
Speaker 2:now that I hear Ben Schwartz, I can't not hear Ben Schwartz like as he plays Sonic it's kind of they're using their own voice, they're not throwing it or anything like that yeah, ben just sort of ups the optical and makes it just that a little bit higher. But yeah, you can just 100% know it's Ben and Idris too. Like Idris, that's just Idris' voice exactly that's.
Speaker 1:I think I described it on threads one time as like a a bottle of maple syrup being poured down an oak and chestnut tree in the the beautiful green of the forest in somewhere far away. That's what Idris Elba's voice sounds like on anything. Yeah, he's just like a sexy, sexy voice. But I think I think Keanu did enough and I think he's different enough to continue in it.
Speaker 2:But I reckon out of all the other ones, robert Patterson for me probably would have been the best because I reckon he could have done a voice where you would have been like who's the voice of Shadow and you would not have known unless you actually saw the cast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's all about the nuance when you're doing voice acting and it's all about the way that you project or the way that you withhold your voice, because obviously you only have the emotionality of your voice to project how your character is feeling. So to me, I think that Keanu probably could have done a little bit more in that space, because a lot of the times when he was talking about you know the death of Maria and I know that Shadow is an emotionally stunted character, but I still would have liked to have seen or heard more from that voice to indicate some high and low feelings. I think he was kind of monotone throughout.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he was the same voice all the way through, even when he got angry, in that he was still sort of still that same voice, like he didn't raise his voice.
Speaker 1:That much Exactly. So, yeah, props to Kearney. I think he did a great job, but if we're playing devil's advocate, robert Pattinson would have been great. Interesting to see how Johnny Depp would have gone, but I definitely probably not a Jason Momoa shadow. No, I couldn't see it, It'd just be.
Speaker 1:yeah, I really couldn't see that happening. No, all right, let's move on to our fandom portals on a board, all right. So this is where we rate the movie and place it on our letterboxd honor board. The title that's in the top spot will, at the end of our podcasting year, be crowned the Fandom Favorite Staff Choice Champion, and this board can be followed and tracked for you guys on our letterboxd, which is at Fandom Portals, and you can find that in the show notes below if you have a letterboxd. So, brash, currently our number one choice so far is Phantom of the Opera, and it's been sitting there for one week so far. The second place after Phantom of the Opera is the Nice Guys. Where do you think Sonic 3 sits on our list so far? I definitely think it's above Venom 3.
Speaker 2:Yep, where do you reckon it is? Because I think we're going to be different on this.
Speaker 1:Okay. So again, if this is different, if we are not 100% sure on where it's going to be placed, we're going to put it to social media and you guys will be the tiebreaker. So for me, I'd probably put it above Venom 3, but below the Nice Guys, which sits in third place.
Speaker 2:Ah, below the nice guys, which sits in third place. Ah, that's where I'd place it. Yeah, yeah. Well, we are different, but I thought we, I really thought we were going to be different another way. Okay, yeah, so I put it above the nice guys, but below Phantom of the Opera.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I guess our question is do we think that Sonic 3 is better or worse than the Nice Guys, objectively speaking? So I guess you guys in the Fandom Portals audience will be the ones that decide its placement, whether it is currently sitting at second or currently sitting at third place, before or after the Nice Guys on our Fandom Portals Honor Board. But our winner on the Honor Board for a second week running will be the Phantom of the Opera, which is the first time that a movie that we've looked at has spanned across a one week period of time. Yeah, I like that. I like that. It's good.
Speaker 2:I actually forgot about that, guys, because I honestly thought you might have put Sonic 3 above Phantom and I was going to say, ooh, no, as much as Sonic 3 has the action and nostalgia about it and everything like that, everything like that. I was like. For me, phantom was still like. I still like. If I had to choose to watch a movie right now, phantom or Sonic 3, I'd probably choose Phantom.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think for me, phantom was just the emotional resonance and the themes through. That got me through it, as well as the stunning visual and the craftsmanship on the set design I can't disparage that effort just visually Can't disparage that effort, just visually, and it's a nice and beautiful story.
Speaker 1:So it's still number one for me going forward and we'll see how it tracks as we kind of progress.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right, let's go to our sign-off. All right, we want to thank you guys for listening to the Fandom Portals podcast and we encourage you guys to engage in our socials. We shout out our social media as most episodes whether it be a threads post or somebody who's liked our reviews on Letterboxd you can find those in our show notes below A Letterboxd has watch lists on it which you can do monthly along with us, and you guys can also have the opportunity to answer some polls, to interact in questions and posts on our Instagram and threads. If you have something that's a little bit longer to say to us or you have some feedback for us on on the show, you can definitely hit us up on the emails, which is fandomportals at gmailcom, and we thank any and all feedback that you guys want to give and are happy to give us, because it helps us learn and grow, which is the point of this show. So this is Aaron signing off this is Brash signing off.
Speaker 2:oh, and make sure you've got to go fast. Unless you're driving, do the speed limit Be responsible.
Speaker 1:Great messages coming from Brash there. Thank you so much. All right, we'll see you guys later. Hey everybody, it's Aaron here from the Fandom Portals podcast. I am here to announce the February winner of our T-shirt giveaway. Again, we want to thank Frank from the Geek Freaks Network for making this possible.
Speaker 1:If you want to get involved in some of the giveaways that happen here at the Fandom Portals podcast, then make sure you connect with us on our social media. That's where all the announcements will be and, while you're there, make sure you go and follow all of the podcasts that are a part of the Geek Freaks Network. They often do giveaways and they also produce amazing film and TV and pop culture content. So that is the Geek Freaks podcast, the Challenge Accepted podcast and, of course, our podcast, the Fandom Portals podcast. Okay, without any further ado, the winner of our February giveaway is none other than Megan from Vigilante Vibes, so we'd like to congratulate you. You'll be receiving a shirt in the mail, courtesy of the Geek Freaks Network and the Fandom Portals podcast, so wear it with pride and we will catch you.
