A movie based on a video-game character who looks like a blue hedgehog, runs really fast, and collects golden rings has no business being as entertaining as Sonic the Hedgehog. The first trailer certainly didn’t inspire confidence, especially after Sonic’s original, deeply unsettling design became an internet punching bag and forced the filmmakers to delay the movie for a complete redesign. Somehow, the finished film turned out to be pretty good.
Buy Sonic the HedgehogDirector Jeff Fowler and writers Pat Casey and Josh Miller deserve credit for constructing a coherent story around Sonic rather than simply stringing together references to the video games. Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) is an alien hiding on Earth in the small Montana town of Green Hills, where he has spent years observing the locals from a distance. He’s fast, funny, and lonely, and his desperate desire for companionship eventually leads to a massive power surge that alerts the government to his existence.
Enter Dr. Ivo Robotnik, played by Jim Carrey.
Carrey hasn’t always seemed interested in being the Jim Carrey remembered from Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, and Dumb and Dumber. Here, however, he appears to have discovered a time machine and climbed out wearing a magnificent mustache. As Robotnik, he is manic, egotistical, physically elastic, and completely committed to the ridiculousness of the character. He also appears to have ordered the scenery as an appetizer.
Carrey’s performance is particularly effective because the movie gives him room to be funny. Robotnik isn’t merely the obligatory villain explaining his evil plan. He’s a lunatic with an enormous ego who genuinely enjoys demonstrating how much smarter he is than everyone around him. Carrey’s facial expressions, physical comedy, and rapid-fire delivery give the character a personality that could easily have been missing from a lesser movie.
The surprisingly solid plot helps, too. Sonic teams up with Green Hills sheriff Tom Wachowski (James Marsden), and their relationship gives the movie an emotional center. Their road trip to San Francisco provides the expected action and jokes, but the friendship between the lonely alien and the dissatisfied small-town cop is sincere enough that the movie occasionally becomes touching without drowning in sentimentality.
The movie isn’t sophisticated, and it isn’t remotely interested in reinventing the family adventure. Its story borrows liberally from the buddy comedy and road movie, while Sonic remains a relentlessly chatty bundle of pop-culture references. But the formula works. The movie moves quickly, the effects are convincing, and the cast understands that the best way to sell an absurd premise is to play it with enthusiasm rather than embarrassment.
Most importantly, Sonic the Hedgehog doesn’t feel like a cynical exercise in turning a video-game mascot into a franchise. It feels like somebody actually tried to make a fun movie. That’s a surprisingly low bar, but Hollywood has managed to trip over it often enough that clearing it deserves some credit. Sonic the Hedgehog shouldn’t work nearly as well as it does. Instead, it’s a charming, funny adventure with a surprisingly good plot and a wonderfully unhinged Jim Carrey performance.
