Jim Carrey Ensures Sonic the Hedgehog Doesn’t Trip

I am very protective of the intellectual properties I love. Anyone who is close to me will attest to that so when I heard that one of my favorite gaming franchises was getting the Hollywood treatment, I couldn’t roll my eyes hard enough. 

So I went into Sonic the Hedgehog with pretty low expectations, but it still managed to surprise me and now I will tell you if Sonic crosses the finish line or misses the mark.

Sonic the Hedgehog comes to Earth to escape malevolent forces that seek to harness his power of super-speed. After accidentally causing a massive power outage while hiding out in the town of Green Hills, Montana, Sonic is targeted by the government who then hire the tyrannical roboticist Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) to hunt him down. Meanwhile, Green Hills sheriff Tom Wachowski (James Marsden) meets Sonic and decides to help him evade capture, collect his rings and stop Robotnik from using Sonic’s powers for world domination.

Well I guess I should start off by saying that I did not hate this movie. With all the controversy that surrounded this movie I was justifiably nervous, so it was nice to be proven wrong.

I first have to give props to special effects studio Moving Picture Company for busting their humps to give us a much more recognizable character design than the 1990s reject nightmare fuel that Paramount originally gave the thumbs up on. Those guys are the real Sonic Heroes.

The movie itself is a fun family flick, and Ben Schwartz brings his voice-over A-game in the role of the titular protagonist. He’s well known for playing these kinds of snarky characters, so I never had a doubt that he would do the role justice. James Marsden was likable, but nothing special.

Jim Carrey was born for this role! I never knew I needed him playing Dr. Robotnik until I saw him in action. His scenery chewing is God Tier, and if you don’t watch this movie for any other reason, watch it for him.

There were a lot of nods to the Sonic fan base, and most were subtle; Sonic die hards best keep an eye out for Easter eggs. 

The humor never felt cringey as these adaptations tend to be (I’m looking at you Peter Rabbit) and the jokes managed to give me an occasional chuckle. The writers did their best to avoid low hanging fruit. The effects were decent enough. Like I said, Sonic looks like Sonic and that was enough for me. The ’90s soundtrack felt appropriate given the source material.

I could have done without the quicksilver speed montage rip-offs though — not a deal breaker but come on guys, you’re better than that.

This could have gone wrong in so many ways and I would have just written it off as another bad video game adaptation. But after watching this, I want it to succeed and motivate other video game movies of this caliber. It’s easily on par with the likes of Detective Pikachu, and I really enjoyed that one as well. If you’re a fan of the franchise or have kids that you want to shut up for 90 minutes, then I can’t recommend this enough. 

I give Sonic the Hedgehog (Paramount; PG; 1hr 39mins) a 3.5 out of 5.