This is the long-awaited follow-up the the 2018 sleeper hit: Shrek Retold, my favourite movie of that year. I, like most others, assumed that 3GI would remake Shrek 2 next. However, it was announced that their next remake project would be the 1999 movie edit of the 1996 Sonic the Hedgehog OVA. If you don't know what an OVA is, it stands for Original Video Animation and they are the Japanese equivalent of direct-to-video movies, shorts and series. That seemed a little weird to me, definitely a more obscure choice, but I didn't think much of it. They'll find a way to make it wildly funny and entertaining. I tracked down a copy of the original before watching the remake for context. I really wish I didn't do that, but I'll get to that later. It's really cheesy and annoying and it makes no sense, but it has nice animation, some cool ideas, and some great corny moments. I was looking forward to seeing what Sonic Rebuilt would do to retell the story. I tuned into the premiere livestream and watched it, and man was I disappointed. Shrek Retold was a complete, ground-up remake of Shrek. It had new animation, audio and music, fully unique and stand-out from the original. Sonic Rebuilt has original animation...and that's it. No new audio and no new music except for the credits. It was a straight-up remake of the original, no differences at all except for all the different animation styles. It wasn't as funny and it wasn't as entertaining, but I can't say I had a bad time watching it. There's still some really creative and cool animation as well as some funny moments created by the animation alone, which is impressive. Also, it's a free movie on YouTube so it's not like I spent any money on it. Overall, while I do wish Sonic Rebuilt didn't rely so heavily on the original, it was still an enjoyable quick watch. I don't think I'll ever watch it again, but it's worth checking out at least once.
