In the opening moments of “Sonic the Hedgehog 3,” a character gently strums the opening notes of Crush 40’s 2001 anthem “Live and Learn” — the main theme of a Sonic the Hedgehog video game from over 20 years ago — on an acoustic guitar. I knew immediately that this was a film made for me.
When I was a kid, in the early 2000s, Sonic the Hedgehog was a pretty big deal. Even though I only played an odd smattering of the games, I was always familiar with the blue blur and his supporting cast of colorful characters.
It’s been an oddity and a joy to see Sonic become one of the most interesting and successful franchises in the contemporary film scene. Where attempts to build franchise universes around the most iconic characters in entertainment history have crashed and burned, somehow, I’ve gotten three “Sonic the Hedgehog” movies and a TV show that are all at least good — with some flashes of great.
“Sonic the Hedgehog 3” keeps up the series trend of increasing marginally in quality with each entry as it finds the confidence to lean more into the source material video games. This entry is a largely faithful adaptation of 2001’ Sonic Adventure 2, less one giant lizard and some of the more mature themes that tackled the HIV/AIDS pandemic and also war crimes.
The film opens with Shadow the Hedgehog — an edgy foil to Sonic who’s black and red and has cool rocket shoes — escaping from a government laboratory after 50 years in stasis. After he embarrasses the Guardian Units of Nations, GUN, they call in Team Sonic — Sonic, Knuckles the Echidna and Tails the Fox — for a thrilling battle in Tokyo that ends with Shadow doing the “Akira”-slide on a motorcycle up the side of a skyscraper and Team Sonic wholly defeated. So begins a winding adventure that traverses the globe and slightly beyond.
The film is driven by three creative needs that are at times at odds. Sometimes, it’s a goofy action movie about colorful anthropomorphic animals that move at the speed of sound, at others it’s a melodramatic exploration of grief, guilt and anger. At all times, it’s ultimately a children’s movie.
For that reason, “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” pulls its punches. This is a film with stakes where characters sometimes die or get grievously injured, and it’s in multiple instances unclear that either of those happened. In the film’s climax, a weapon of mass destruction threatens to cause untold loss of life. Constantly, the film undercuts its own themes and its strongest moments by barreling into its next joke.
Often, those jokes are delivered by Jim Carrey, who in this entry plays a double role as villainous Drs. Ivo and Gerald Robotnik. Carrey’s performances are stellar — somehow the guy has chemistry with himself — and the film really pushes the effect of having one actor play both parts to a technical marvel.
The two characters, though, are often played entirely for comic relief and feel like they’re drawing away from the rest of the action — like when they share a minutes-long dance sequence that grinds the film to a halt.
There’s a lot of fun, charm and craft in “Sonic 3,” perhaps more than one might expect from a film called “Sonic the Hedgehog 3.”
Keanu Reeves brings a surprising gravitas to a potentially silly character in Shadow. In flashback sequences he befriends a young girl, Maria, and they together pontificate about life and belonging. In the present day, Shadow is twisted by pain and grief but charms through Reeves’ quiet, condescending quips.
The film also, through Sonic, explores an interesting, if characteristically rushed, arc about leadership on its way to an over-the-top finale that delivered everything I might have hoped for.
“Sonic the Hedgehog 3” is a solid, fun movie for kids like the two solid, fun movies for kids that came before it. I’m so excited for generation of youngsters who get to grow up alongside this iteration of these characters as they show no signs of stopping.
“Sonic the Hedgehog 3” is playing this weekend at the Kenai Cinemas and Orca Theater. Check showtimes and purchase tickets at catheaters.com and orcatheater.com.
Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.
