Sonic: Night of the WereHog

Slipping under the radar of a lot of fans out their, "Sonic: Night of the WereHog" is basically a promotional video made for the newest video game, where Sonic changes into a werewolf at night by one glimpse of a full moon. And you know what? This thing has potential at being a great series someday! Story: 6/10 Sadly this was the weakest part of the show. Basically we have two kids wandering into a haunted house, after which they are scared by two ghost who are taking pictures of any passers by who happen to come a callin. All the while making sure they get tocapture them when they are in their most terrified look, only to take it for their female love interest ghost which seems to have a weird fetish for it. Sonic happens to make his way into the mysterious house later on, and it all plays out as them simply trying to take his picture while scared, which I must say just doesn't seem to be that interesting. We never even learn just why Sonic is even there to begin with, nor how he can even change into a werewolf. (unless you have played the game that is) What makes the story really bland is the fact that nobody on this title ever says one word, it would have been a bit more entertaining had they added some actual dialog to the mix. We do get some good action scenes when Sonic transforms into his werewolf stage though, the camera does these sorta slow motion effects once in a while when one of them lands a blow, which are pretty cool and stylized. The story is okay for the short 11 minutes, I just personally felt they could have done more with it. Artwork: 10/10 Oh my gosh its just gorgeous, everything is pain stakingly detailed; from each floor board in the house, to Sonic's fur when he is in werewolf form, to the realistic rain in the background! The animation is also stunning, each character moves with great fluidity and make neat facial expressions, you can just tell that the animators went all out on this one. There were times that I actual paused the video, just to soak in all the wonderful art and detail that went into every CG pixel! Soundtrack: 7/10 The background music (sorry, but there is no opening or closing theme) is just great, it really sets the spooky mood for the title. It ranges from these eerie style haunting drowns, to a pretty ear pleasing jazz style beat that has both a calm or fast pace beat to it, depending on what is going on. The thunder sound effects are also well done, and seem to strike at the appropriate time. There is one problem to the sound though as I mentioned earlier..........nobody talks!!! While I did hear Sonic say "Oops" once, other than that its just a bunch of mumbling by the characters. Which depending on your taste, you may find to be a killjoy. Though the antics of the characters are enough to where you don't feel lost at what they are trying to tell you. As they make more facial and hand movements to where you probably will get the general idea. Still, this title should have had dialog! Characters: 7/10 Sadly the biggest problem with this is, we only get Sonic of the main characters. All the supporting cast are is ghosts and this funny little creature that follows Sonic around. I would love to have seen some of Sonic's pals from the video game go in with him. While Sonic doesn't really retain his sort of "attitude" that you get in other incarnations of this character, he does do well to retain his overall personality, at least as much as you can get from no verbal talking. The ghosts I found to be pretty funny and entertaining, most of the time they get these goofy looks on their faces whenever they don't succeed in capturing Sonic's image, or when they are scared themselves! Overall, the characters do come off as silly yet entertaining. Bottom Line: 7/10 This title really does show great promise, while the overall concept of the story might fly over the heads of people who haven't had a chance to play the game yet, or perhaps the lack of conversation by the characters might bore some. Its an overall nicely made short, I feel that if Sega (the company that made Sonic) actually made a series out of this, it would grow to be quite popular with anime and non-anime fans alike. The Sonic fans will no doubt love this short, but I also recommend it to the casual viewers out there who might be wanting some silly spooky fun!