Sonic the Hedgehog

Director: Jeff Fowler
Starring: James Marsden, Jim Carrey, Tika Sumpter, Natasha Rothwell, voice of Ben Schwartz
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Runtime: 99 mins. Reviewed in Feb 2020

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Rating notes: Comedic action violence

This is definitely a film which is best reviewed by a younger member of the audience, possibly 12 and under. Older audiences may not realise who Sonic Is, and what is a talking hedgehog doing with all the humans. If their children and grandchildren have not played the Sega video game, they will experience a dead loss.

So, it is probably best to be at a screening with a younger audience who are responding to this unusual blend of animation and live-action. Sonic the Hedgehog has the capacity for moving faster than sound and light (well illustrated in an early stage of the film where he plays baseball with himself, quite competitive as he throws, hits, runs, catches…).

Actually, there have been Sonic movies since the early 90s. But, here Hollywood has its turn. It may not move as rapidly as Sonic does, but it is very fast-paced. It opens with a fantasy sequence where Sonic is pursued by strange creatures in another world, is protected by a wise old owl who gives him some rings, gold rings, which can serve as portals for escape from dangers. Off he goes through the first one and, if you were to choose a place to go in the United States, would it be Montana? Well, that is where he ends up. It is where he lives his lonely life over the years, and plays the baseball game with himself.

Enter the humans, especially in the form of a friendly policeman, Tom (James Marsden) who can’t believe Sonic’s speed, gets tangled with police and military, decides to take Sonic to complete his mission in San Francisco.

Not as easy as hoped for. When Tom arrives in San Francisco, he teams up with his wife from whom he is estranged and he (and certainly we the audience) are verbally over-browbeaten by his wife’s sister, loud and definitely definite.

But, that is not the main worry. This story has a villain, the sinister Dr Robotnik, a mad inventor, who has created his own subservient servant to bring him coffee and some daily praise, who is into weapons and power. He is played by Jim Carrey, returning to his manic behaviour, expressions, intensity that made his career in the 1990s.

Of course, this builds up to confrontations between the mad scientist and Sonic, especially when fast vehicles and elaborate explosives are involved. Lots of action, vehicle chases, crashes, some mayhem.

And it comes to a head in San Francisco, on the top of the Transamerica building, multiple bombs, multiple explosions, threats to Tom and his wife – the defeat of Dr Robotnik and leaping through golden rings and landing, of course, back in Montana.

Tom and his wife are reunited. The whole experience is American top-secret. Sonic now has a nice room in the house with all his souvenirs. A nice ending.

But, on a strange planet, Dr Robotic shaves his head, talks to himself manically, obviously auditioning for the next film of Sonic’s Adventures.