Keanu Reeves and two Jim Carreys kick Sonic The Hedgehog 3 into enjoyable overdrive

Aren’t video game adaptations supposed to be cursed? Tell that to Sonic The Hedgehog 3, the strongest showing yet from Paramount’s blue-blur franchise. Director Jeff Fowler comes full circle after working on animations for 2005’s Shadow The Hedgehog platformer, benefiting from existing connections to SEGA’s gun-happy bad-boy hedgehog. Writers Pat Casey, Josh Miller, and John Whittington formulate Sonic’s latest adventure well, going all-in on the strangeness of these animalian aliens. The film is passionate about Sonic’s lore, as made evident by direct Sonic Adventure 2 and Shadow The Hedgehog callbacks, but that doesn’t supersede its familial appeal. Sonic The Hedgehog 3 is an action-packed blast from start to finish that should please even the prickliest Green Hill Zone groupies.

Sonic The Hedgehog 2 concluded with a Shadow teaser, and that’s precisely where Paramount’s second sequel begins. Keanu Reeves’ tortured Shadow, a red-streaked hedgehog, escapes “Prison Island” in Tokyo. Sonic (Ben Schwartz), Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey), and Knuckles (Idris Elba) are called into action by the Director of the Guardian Units of Nations, Rockwell (Krysten Ritter), and asked to defeat Shadow. “Team Sonic” accepts G.U.N.’s mission but quickly realizes they’ll need extra support to defeat their super-strong and teleporting foe. That leads the trio to Sonic’s arch-nemesis, Dr. Ivo Robotnik (Jim Carrey), an unlikely ally—and, naturally, G.U.N.’s hiding something from Earth’s anthropomorphic defenders.

A hefty mountain of lore is plowed through in Sonic The Hedgehog 3, but Fowler excels at making everything digestible. Team Sonic’s quest to defeat Shadow is filled with obstacles that develop deeper friendships between the main animal crew, while Dr. Robotnik reunites with his diabolical grandpappy Gerald Robotnik (also Carrey). The performer is splendid in the dual role, single-handedly generating generational chemistry. Then there’s Shadow’s heartbreaking backstory as G.U.N.’s guinea pig, explaining his quest for revenge on behalf of the only Earthling he ever cared about, Maria Robotnik (Alyla Browne). All that, and Lee Majdoub still finds room to steal scenes as Robotnik’s underappreciated yet devoted assistant, or Tom (James Marsden) and Maddie Wachowski (Tika Sumpter) teaching Sonic valuable life lessons. It’s a lot of narrative to grapple, yet the film never feels overburdened or clumsily mapped.

Perhaps that’s because Sonic The Hedgehog 3 learns from the clunky Sonic The Hedgehog 2 and readjusts accordingly. There’s nothing unfamiliar here: Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles fight against another grumpy lookalike (Shadow) with the inevitable outcome already in sight. That’s what happened last time. But where Sonic The Hedgehog 2 favored interventions from the Wachowskis, Sonic The Hedgehog 3 lets its animated heroes shine. There’s less “live” in this impressively blended live-action movie, which is not a detriment. 

A whopping six studios collaborated on endless visual effects: Rising Sun Pictures, Rodeo FX, Industrial Light & Magic, Fin, Marza Animation Planet, and a Paramount in-house team. The outcome is misleading, given how the animation shows no stitches or signs of task divisions. Sonic The Hedgehog 3 features the franchise’s most daunting pixelated demands yet, between Gerald Robotnik’s cosmic death ray and multiple Shadow vs. Sonic throwdowns. The sprawling VFX team is the film’s MVP, delivering pristine renderings while keeping pace with the high-intensity boss battles. As electric energy pulsates, colored light trails à la Tron chase the protagonists. Sonic The Hedgehog 2 may have looked great, but Fowler’s collaborators raise the bar again. This all allows the voice actors to disappear into their white-gloved characters, conveying all the warmth and melodrama found in the film’s themes. 

Even better, the threequel’s writers are allowed to be dorkier in its references. Sonic The Hedgehog 3 aligns closer to Paramount+’s sneakily riotous Knuckles television show than prior Sonic films, playing goofier and breaking unexpected rules. Comedic highlights include softball shots at other movies (Ryan Reynolds’ Green Lantern) to fourth-wall-breaking admissions from character to audience. And Carrey is uncontainable, playing two deranged cartoon villains who indulge in outlandish behaviors like a glamorously choreographed laser-security dance number straight out of a Daft Punk music video. Fowler keeps Sonic The Hedgehog 3 marvelously madcap in kid-friendly ways, but still includes bits for the elder SEGA Genesis devotees, like Cristo Fernández’s telenovela interludes, pet subtitles, and hologram masks of felt ventriloquist puppets. There’s a daring unpredictability to the film’s sense of humor that’s excitingly addictive.

And the video game references are inescapable, balancing blatant callbacks and creative implementations of Sonic’s universe. Take “Chao Gardens,” a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant with costumed Chao performers you can chuckle at without purchasing a special SEGA Dreamcast VMU memory card. Shadow’s motorcycle and handgun combo earn their spotlight, as do the musical cues, none more blissful than Crush 40’s Sonic Adventure 2 theme song “Live and Learn” hitting at a pivotal moment during composer Tom Holkenborg’s third-act crescendo.

Sonic The Hedgehog 3 proves that more of the same can actually yield positive results. Reeves adds to the established voice cast adding his stoic somberness to the tragic Shadow, while double the Carrey means double the looniness. The third film refreshes what’s worked and improves what hasn’t, punching the franchise into overdrive and letting Sonic sprint laps around the outings of other video game icons, like The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Halo.

Director: Jeff Fowler
Writer: Pat Casey, Josh Miller, John Whittington
Starring: Jim Carrey, Ben Schwartz, James Marsden, Tika Sumpter, Idris Elba, Keanu Reeves, Krysten Ritter, Lee Majdoub, Natasha Rothwell, Adam Pally, Shemar Moore, Colleen O’Shaughnessey, Alyla Browne, James Wolk
Release Date: December 20, 2024