Rating: PG
Runtime: 1 hour, 39 minutes
Director: Jeff Fowler
Quick Impressions:
My four-year-old son isn’t always crazy about sitting through movies, but he loves Sonic the Hedgehog. He considers himself a gamer and dreams of a career as a professional YouTuber. (“I’ve been practicing saying, ‘Comment down below.'”) So even though he’s far too young to remember, say, the Sega Genesis from the console’s glory days, he’s enthralled with the efforts of the streamers that he watches on his tablet. Sonic is a character he particularly loves. He knows all the games, characters, lore, Easter Eggs, shortcuts, cartoons, music, you name it. Often we pretend we’re characters from the games. (Usually, I’m Sonic, and he’s Tails. Our remarkable speed and agility helps us to sort and put away the laundry much faster.)
So my husband and I were thrilled to see him excited about more than just popcorn and treats at the movie theater. His older brother and sister got a kick out of his enthusiasm, too. And I have to say, it was really fun watching with him. He sat still in his seat, eyes glued to the screen the entire time. (Anyone who knows him will recognize this as a miracle.) Then sometimes, he would get so excited, whispering, “So this is our first look at Dr. Eggman,” or, “Listen closely to the music right here. Do you hear it? Do you hear that theme?” Once I had to “shh” him gently during a prolonged burst of excitement about footwear. “So that’s where he got them! I always assumed before that it was the shoes that made Sonic fast…”
For anyone who is a fan of the character, Sonic the Hedgehog is a pleasant treat. Apparently, it’s a big hit, too. (We saw it a bit late because we were out of town, then sick most of the week we returned.) Personally, I’m glad so many people are seeing the movie. The character’s initial design was horrendous, and then the filmmakers actually listened to fans and spent lots of time and money making the title character look less like Slender Man’s spiny cousin and more like…well…Sonic the Hedgehog. The changes worked. The character looks just about right, and the movie is highly watchable, particularly for families with young children.
The Good:
Just the night before seeing this movie, I finished reading the charming Anthony Daniels memoir, I Am C-3PO: The Inside Story. In it, Daniels talks at length about how he was drawn to the role in part because he loved Threepio’s camaraderie and banter with scene partner R2-D2. Then he got on set and discovered R2’s part would be added later. Often he was tasked with creating the illusion of well-timed banter when he was, in fact, acting alone.
I thought about this as I watched Sonic the Hedgehog. The majority of the scenes are carried by the bantering duo of Sonic and his human friend Tom, played by James Marsden. But Sonic isn’t really there. He’s not an actor in make-up or a motion capture suit. He’s entirely animated, surely a later addition to any scene in which he appears.
I kept wondering, “Is someone there, though? Did they just give Marsden a box or prop or X to look at, or was another actor actually delivering Sonic’s lines? Was Sonic’s voice actor Ben Schwartz (known to most for his work on Parks and Rec but to our family as Dewey from DuckTales) actually on set to help Marsden’s performance? If not, did the director or a crew member read Sonic’s lines? Did Marsden have to imagine Sonic’s lines?”
However this played out, it cannot have been easy for Marsden–starring in a buddy comedy with a co-star who is not actually there. With such considerations in mind, I have to say this is one of the strongest performances I’ve ever seen by James Marsden who is able to maintain a surprising amount of energy as he shares the screen with no one but his phantom co-star for extremely long stretches.
Thanks to his efforts, Sonic is always a pleasure to watch. The movie is made for children, of course. The jokes are gentle, and while they rarely result in huge laughs, they do bring near constant smiles and little true boredom. Marsden’s good-natured energy alone keeps us completely engaged. As I watched, I kept thinking again and again, “This is a deceptively difficult part.” But Marsden makes it look easy. So if you’re a fan of his work, you’ll definitely want to see Sonic the Hedgehog.
Unless you’re a four-year-old gaming fanatic like my son, though, the real star of this film is Jim Carrey whose comedic talents are perfectly suited to this production. He’s basically reverted to 90s comedy Jim Carrey (whose humor was sometimes too much for me), but an Ace-Ventura-style Carrey turns out to be just what Sonic the Hedgehog needs. He’s really quite hilarious, masterful, honestly.
While always sweet and smile inducing, the movie offers few huge laughs, but almost every one of these truly funny moments comes from Carrey. Honestly, it isn’t just that he’s funny. You watch with the sense that you’re seeing a master at his craft doing some of his finest work. He could be giving the same performance on stage. At one moment, I realized, “I’m pretty sure I would pay to see an entire one man show of Jim Carrey lighting matches.” (His silent acting here reminds me of my favorite moment in All is Lost when Robert Redford carefully shaves.)
I usually prefer the slightly more dramatic Carrey. (I love Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, for example.) But even I think Carrey’s more antic style works incredibly well in this particular film.
The best parts of the movie for me were the moments when humans shared the screen together, particularly Marsden and Carrey, though Carrey is also brilliant with his assistant (a deliberately understated Lee Majdoub). And Marsden has good chemistry and timing with Tika Sumpter, too, who plays his character’s wife (conveniently a veterinarian) and is also quite good at interacting with Sonic. Late in the movie, she shoots him the most adoring look. I thought, “I wonder what she’s actually looking at.” If it’s nothing, then I’m even more impressed by her as an actress.
The whole supporting cast is quite good, especially when you consider that this is a children’s movie based on a video game about a fast hedgehog who runs through rings. Adam Pally does quite a bit with a character who might be quite frustrating to play. And though I had some frustrations with Natasha Rothwell’s character, I absolutely adored her performance.
Ben Schwartz makes a pretty endearing Sonic. His voicework transforms a character familiar for his speed into a lovable protagonist who easily touches and wins hearts. His dialogue is not necessarily hilarious, but Schwartz brings a sweet, curious, impatient, childlike quality to Sonic that should win over actual children and their parents.
Also if your kids easily grow restless, good news! Something is always happening in this movie. Any movie about Sonic should move pretty fast, and this one does. Its zippy pace and near constant action should appeal to most kids (and will also probably be a plus to parents who are only there because of kids).
If you are a gamer (or a child of the 80s and 90s with fond memories of Sonic), then chances are you’ll approve of how kindly and well this adaptation treats the character. As video game inspired movies go, this one is fairly clever. It gives us a reason for all the rings, shows us how Sonic gets his trademark red shoes, and spends a commendable amount of time (like basically its entire runtime) exploring the origin story of Dr. Eggman.
Best Scene:
For me, Jim Carrey is hands down the shining star of the entire production. My favorite scene (in every way) features him dancing around alone, unabashedly reveling in the joys of evil and science. As I mentioned before, at one point he must light a match, and this is so well acted that I realized I would watch an entire feature length film (or stage play) of Carrey working his way through a matchbook, striking every last match one by one.
Best Scene Visually:
The team behind Sonic the Hedgehog took a gamble. The filmmakers made the bold choice to correct a character design that fans initially found repugnant, and this definitely paid off. (In its boldness, this decision reminds me of Ridley Scott’s eleventh hour recasting of Christopher Plummer in All the Money in the World.) Throughout the movie, Sonic looks a lot like Sonic, and he certainly did not in that first gruesome trailer, so making the change is obviously the project’s visual masterstroke.
The movie is at its visual best when we see the world slow down around Sonic. (He’s so fast, you know!) Remember how recent X-Men movies have shown Quicksilver moving at normal speed while the rest of the world appears to be in slow motion? This movie does that more than once, always to great effect. I like the musical choices at these moments, too.
Best Action Sequence:
Jim Carrey and James Marsden make great scene partners. I highly enjoyed their ongoing exchange when Dr. Robotnik shows up at Tom’s house. The scene with the high speed chase is pretty good, too, especially the fast-beeping ending.
The Negatives:
I honestly can’t decide if all of the Olive Garden references are cute or taking product placement to a new low. Either way, we all left the theater talking about wanting to go out for Italian food, so I guess you can’t argue with results. (I can imagine Olive Garden executives listening to complaints about these heavy-handed endorsements and hearing only, “Everybody’s talking about the Olive Garden! Let’s pay for advertising in ten more movies!” (Super Mario Brothers feels like a good fit. Where’s that reboot?))
Now just to be clear, if you’re an adult who isn’t into Sonic, there are only two reasons to see this film. 1) You have a child (or other loved one) who is dying to see a Sonic movie. 2) You’re happy to see Jim Carrey give a performance that reminds you of his very popular comedic work in the 1990s. I actually could imagine childless non-gamers seeing and enjoying the movie entirely because of Carrey’s performance.
But Sonic is actually a children’s movie. There is a tiny bit of mild profanity during the last big showdown (one utterance of “hell” and an interrupted “son-of-a…”). In the context of the rest of the film, this language feels harsh and out of place. That’s how gentle and kid friendly the movie is. So do not go expecting a laugh-a-minute thrill ride geared to adult tastes. This is an entertaining movie and a better-than-average cinematic video game adaptation, but it is definitely for children. The rare off-color jokes are about farting, not sex. The plot is engaging, but always vaguely familiar (in that it’s full of often used tropes and situations).
In the end, only one thing really bothered me. Why does Maddie’s sister hate Tom so much? He voluntarily worked three jobs to put her through veterinary school. He’s gainfully employed. They’re already married. He treats her kindly and thoughtfully. I found this irritatingly mysterious and inadequately explained. It shouldn’t be that big of a deal, but it made her character feel sort of fake to me, like she was just there to be amusing and ridiculous. The silver lining, however, is that Natasha Rothwell gives one of the funniest performances in the movie and actually made me truly laugh a couple of times. I also had trouble understanding why the other police officer had to be that inept. At first it annoyed me. But then I found Adam Pally’s total commitment to the ridiculous character so endearing that I eventually got over my irritation.
Overall:
Sonic the Hedgehog gave me the great (and rare) pleasure of taking my youngest child to a movie he actually wanted to see and enjoyed. Jim Carrey is fantastic as the villain, and we’re already excited for the sequel the movie seems to tease in its post credits sequence. If you like Sonic the Hedgehog, you should be pleased with his debut on the big screen. So take all the kids and afterwards, head over to Olive Garden for a bottomless pasta bowl. When you’re there, you’re family!