Sonic the Hedgehog 3

A definite improvement on the previous sequel, this may be the best Sonic film yet, with plenty of humour to keep the grown-ups entertained alongside the younger target audience.

Premise:  Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz), Knuckles (voiced by Idris Elba) and Tails are forced to seek help from Dr Robotnik (Jim Carrey) when another alien hedgehog called Shadow (voiced by Keanu Reeves) escapes from military custody on a mission of revenge.

Review:

The Sonic series so far had been a bit hit-and-miss for me: I went into the first Sonic the Hedgehog movie in 2020 with very low expectations, but I was pleasantly surprised by how fun and funny it was, largely thanks to Jim Carrey’s delightfully over-the-top performance, and the odd-couple comedy dynamic between Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) and James Marsden’s character.  But Sonic the Hedgehog 2 left me underwhelmed, due in part to the human cast taking more of a backseat thanks to an influx of new animated characters (who were not nearly as fun or as funny).

Thankfully, Sonic The Hedgehog 3 appears to have found the right balance again between the human cast and the animated characters, and between the comedy for the adults and the adventure plot for the kids.  In fact, Sonic 3 is probably the best film in the series so far, with the franchise finding its groove and rhythm to provide a very entertaining family friendly movie.

“…Jim Carrey singlehandedly makes these films so much more fun than they have any right to be…”

Yes, the plot is still wafer-thin, and any adult viewer will see most of the story developments coming a mile off, but Sonic 3 is far better than I (personally) ever expected a Sonic film would be.  Once again, the secret to the film’s success is Jim Carrey’s absolute commitment to the larger-than-life antagonist Dr Robotnik, who steals every scene he’s in and who singlehandedly makes these films so much more fun than they have any right to be.  In Sonic 3, we get double-Carrey as he plays the dual roles of Dr Robotnik and his own grandfather, Professor Robotnik (which results in a great gag when they first meet).  Jim Carrey’s performance as Dr Robotnik is a career highlight, easily standing alongside Ace Ventura, The Mask, and The Cable Guy (an underrated film that I love).  The best gag in this movie, involving an impromptu tribute to 00s electronic techno music, is just one of many examples of Jim Carrey’s off-the-wall humour making the movie so much more fun that it looked like it should be on paper.

The rest of the cast hold their own – Idris Elba in particular benefits from not having to play the antagonist this time, and he gets some genuinely funny deadpan lines.  Keanu Reeves doesn’t get an opportunity to play any scenes for laughs, but his angsty voice performance does bring some depth to his animated antagonist, while James Marsden and Tika Sumpter get a handful of funny scenes despite being largely relegated to the parental-advice-roles in this movie.  Krysten Ritter joins the cast as a high-ranking military officer, although she doesn’t get a great deal to do and somewhat disappears in the final act (suggesting that there may have been additional deleted material?).

“…finds the right balance between the comedy for the adults & the adventure for the kids…”

As with the first Sonic film, this isn’t the sort of family-friendly movie that I would necessarily recommend to grown-up audiences who don’t have kids – but if you do have family members in the target audience age-range, you could do a lot worse than taking them to see Sonic The Hedgehog 3.

And for those who are interested in the plot-lines, there are two mid-credit scenes which presumably set up the (now confirmed) fourth film.