In 1991, in an effort to compete with Nintendo and their smash-hit Mario franchise, Japanese video game developer Sega released “Sonic the Hedgehog”. The original game was a fast-paced side-scrolling platformer starring the eponymous snarky blue anthropomorphic rodent tasked with protecting the natural world from Dr. Eggman (localized to Robotnik in America) and his army of machines. Sonic would go on to become the de facto mascot for Sega through their resignation from the console wars of the 1990s and early 21st century, and well into their later continuation as game publisher. In recent years, the franchise has fallen on hard times and as the games became less and less critically revered Sonic has become more associated with children’s entertainment whereas his plumber counterpart still retains a kind of all-ages appeal.
This seemingly superfluous context is my way of conveying my expectations going into a live-action Sonic the Hedgehog movie: a past-due attempt to jump-start a halfway dead property that I’m not particularly fond of, primarily aimed at children. While I wasn’t exactly wrong to think this, I was quite surprised to find that the films appeal has the potential to entertain a much larger audience and maybe subvert the global expectation of video game adaptations being irredeemable trash.
Sonic the Hedgehog stars the voice of Ben Schwartz as the title character, who in this version is an alien on the run from his enemies, now living low in the forests of Montana. After accidentally making himself known to humans, he teams up with small-town cop Tom Wachowski (James Marsden, in maybe his fourth or fifth movie escorting a CGI character) to recover his teleportation rings and leave Earth before the sadistically unhinged Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) can find and capture him. It’s basically a filler plot to set in motion what is essentially an adventure/comedy buddy road movie.
Even though I didn’t grow up with Sonic (I was a Nintendo kid in the 90s), I appreciated the film’s ability to sprinkle in an abundance of nods to the games without becoming too pandering to their audience. The story is a generic paint-by-numbers family film rife with popular culture references that has had Sonic elements not necessarily clumsily injected into it, but rather very gently adapted to vaguely resemble something familiar. There is enough care taken to ensure that the heart and specific charm of the character is present despite the fact that you could have very easily rewritten the story to showcase any number of lovable children’s mascots.
While nothing about the film really stood out above the rest, I was shocked at how the final product ended up as significantly more than the sum of its parts. Fans of Jim Carrey will find plenty to love in what is one of his most energetic and cartoonish performances since his heyday. While I never really fell for his goofy rubber-faced shtick back in the day, it meshed perfectly with the playful tone of the film and ended up being my favorite part of the movie. You could even argue that his performance was more animated than that of the actual computer-generated character.
Setting my expectations low allowed me to enjoy Sonic the Hedgehog. It just barely falls on the right side of a fine line between being a throwaway cash-grab and a genuine ode to a beloved character. Kids are going to absolutely love it and the parents tethered to them will certainly find things to like as well. The highest praise I can ultimately give it is that when the credits began to roll I was sincerely hoping to see more.
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