Sonic the Hedgehog - Review

The poster child for potential disasters being directly influenced by the internet and its loudest voices, Sonic the Hedgehog has just about everything working against it. First off, video game movies have a storied history of flopping, either creatively or financially. Second of all, the source material is so devoid of narrative information, taking a blue hedgehog, and building a story from basically nothing is not easy, and the final product certainly proves that.

Sonic (Ben Schwartz) tries to navigate the complexities of life on Earth with his newfound best friend — a human named Tom Wachowski (James Marsden). They must soon join forces to prevent the evil Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) from capturing Sonic and using his powers for world domination.

Simply put, Sonic the Hedgehog is a minor miracle. Not in its narrative complexity or any sort of structural achievement, but in its clear level of work that went into appeasing the internet. While the new design for Sonic is still not perfect, it’s a vast improvement over the nightmare of a design from before, and the VFX artists that worked themselves to the bone must be commended for putting in that much effort.

The other commendable effort award goes to the more obvious choice: Jim Carrey. In a role that suits itself so well to a manic, over the top performance, Carrey delivers a performance worthy of his prime days of the 90’s. Without the literal mustache twirling villain, Sonic the Hedgehog would probably be closer to the disaster so many predicted.

Where the film struggles is in its attempt to create a story worthy of its whimsical and silly premise. Ultimately, the story makes no sense, but it kind of doesn’t matter all that much to the film’s goals. It strives to put Sonic, voiced by the always funny Schwartz, into situations that can lead to more and more silly comedy or childish jokes. And it largely succeeds in doing so.

Sonic the Hedgehog is not a good film, but its wholly enjoyable for its entire runtime, nonsense and all. It is nearly impossible to take your eyes off Carrey, and all the off the wall comedy and zaniness he goes for, and destined to be loved or hated with very little in between. It never tries to be anything more than what it is: a fun, goofy, family film. And you have to applaud its success even on that simple level.