Sonic the Hedgehog 3

Sonic the Hedgehog's evolution as a cinematic franchise nicely shows how much videogame adaptations have grown in a relatively short period of time. The first film, released in February 2020, featured a charming animated Sonic, but had very little to do with the universe of the SEGA videogames. The "fish out of the water" type of story is the resource Hollwood always uses so that parents or anyone not familiar with the source material don't feel left out.

The result was an okay adventure film, decent but predictable, playing too safely to bring much enthusiasm out of Sonic fans. The second movie finally allowed itself to lean more prominently on elements exported directly from the games, with two new animated characters, Tails and Knuckles, starring in many scenes of their own, but still with an annoying parallel subplot with human characters attending a wedding (sigh).

Now, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 builds on the strong foundations of the two previous movies and finally puts the animated characters front and centre. They move the plot forward, leaving the rest of the human characters in more secondary roles than ever. With one obvious exception: Jim Carrey's Robotnik, more unhinged than ever, legitimately giving one of the finest comedic performances of his career. One that feels completely out of place in modern Hollywood... in the best way possible.

Jim Carrey, an icon from the nineties, coming out of his semi-retirement to play the villain of another nineties icon, felt like an anachronism back in 2020. One could think that, after two movies, Carrey would just show up for the paycheck with a lazy performance, especially after the well-reported discomfort with Paramount about his salary and his complete absence from the promotion. But that could not be further from the truth: Carrey kills it by playing not one, but two versions of Robotnik (one under heavy makeup to make him look older) and spends most of the film interacting with his other self, meaning that, on set, he was acting in front of nobody. That's an incredible feat.

He dances, he screams, he contorts like he isn't 62. It will feel annoying to some people, because slapstick has become old-fashioned. Recent Hollywood movies, and superhero flicks in particular, have moulded modern audiences' tastes, instilling a certain postmodern humour that often comes out as cynical, poking fun of all traditions, sometimes in clever ways, sometimes disguising traditional comedic tropes as lazy metareferential jokes.

In contrast, Jim Carrey's performance -and the whole Sonic 3 movie, for that matter- feels very sincere and carefree. Even if you don't really find it funny, because in the end it is really a children's movie, it is still mesmerising to see Carrey giving it all like he used to do decades ago, possibly for the final time in his career.

Sonic 3 is a blast from start to finish. It feels like a cartoon episode, with a relentless plot that jumps from one location to another, one action scene to another, without wasting any time on exposition (there's a brilliant joke about that, actually) or lame subplots with the human characters to kill runtime and save VFX money. In fact, it would have certainly benefitted if it were a bit longer, because some characters' backstories feel undercooked and a few dangling threads are left that could have been explored more.

One character that we wished had more screen time is, surprisingly, Shadow, played by Keanu Reeves. His arc is very predictable but that doesn't make it any less satisfying to watch. The movie borrows most of the plot points from Sonic Adventure 2, which means fans from the 2001 Dreamcast game will know what to expect, including his tragic backstory, that is actually... really nicely done. But the whole movie feels too rushed. It's not like the Super Mario movie, which was terrified of any dialogue lasting longer than a minute, but it is still a shame that Sonic 3 doesn't allows itself a bit more time to breathe...

Because, unlike the previous two Sonic movies, everything works here extremely well: the animated characters, the human characters, the plot, the action scenes, the humour. Action scenes are on the shorter side compared to what superhero movies have us accustomed to with 20 minute battles, but they are plentiful, diverse and well spread across the movie, including nice "postcard" shots of Tokyo and London.

Even if we said earlier that the rest of the human characters - aside from Carrey - were side-lined, that doesn't mean they are ditched completely. The relationship between Sonic and Tom Wachowski, played by James Marsden, was the heart of the first movie and thus the whole franchise, and that is rightfully respected here, complementing nicely with the other emotional half of the franchise, the brotherly relationship between Sonic, Tails and Knuckles. Even the rest of members of the Wachowski family are given little cameo appearances that are actually funny and well-integrated in the story.

In terms of fan service, fear not, the movie has plenty of references to past Sonic adventures while making sure, with its two post-credit scenes, that fans will look forward for the future: this isn't going to stop in the third movie, not even close...

Sonic 3 finally becomes a true "Sonic adventure". One that trusts that all audiences, from the SEGA megafans to parents accompanying their children during the Holidays, will accept that a big budget American movie can feel like a Saturday morning cartoon from start to finish without feeling embarrassed of itself. Without the need of toning it down it to make it more digestible for the general public, or sanitizing the elements brought directly from the videogames to make them more "grounded."

And everything comes back to that very first trailer for the first movie in 2019, with that hideous "realistic" Sonic that almost killed the franchise before it even started. A movie like Sonic 3 could have never been conceived with that conservative mindset. The same mindset that turned Monster Hunter into a military film, Borderlands into a censored PG-13 adventure for the whole family, or Uncharted into a decaf Tom Holland movie starring himself. Thankfully, common sense and fun prevailed over soulless corporatism for once.

Sonic 3 is perhaps the purest videogame adaptation that has ever been, embracing the source material, gifting us with an anthological performance by Jim Carrey, while adding a few well-thought elements of its own, and rounding it all with the "Hollywood flavour" to make it feel like a highend blockbuster. One of the best, most entertaining blockbusters of the year.