Time: 91 Minutes
Age Rating: PG – Violence
Cast:
Ben Schwartz as Sonic the Hedgehog (voice)
James Marsden as Tom Wachowski
Tika Sumpter as Maddie Wachowski
Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik
Director: Jeff Fowler

I have definitely heard about Sonic the Hedgehog video games. I know the concept of the games, most of the major characters, but not from actually playing any of the games, because I haven’t. The majority of my Sonic info came from watching comedy dub videos, so I came in with only a vague knowledge. 2020’s Sonic the Hedgehog isn’t that good but I actually ended up enjoying myself.

Sonic the Hedgehog has a very bland story and is a run of the mill action comedy. I wouldn’t call it bad, but nothing that memorable. It did feel odd to have the film adaptation of a game taking place in fantastical worlds and having unique characters to instead have its main character on familiar locations for Earth, but maybe they’re just setting things up for general audiences. On one hand, the low stakes are refreshing (Sonic is not aiming to save the world), but it might’ve been a bit too grounded and inconsequential for its own good. A lot of the humour really didn’t work for me, despite that, it was some cheesy fun. It definitely knows what kind of movie it is, it doesn’t attempt to make itself seem like it’s anything other than a kids movie. It also benefits from a fast pace, and a short runtime at 100 minutes. While the quality of the movie is largely inconsistent throughout, the third act is pretty entertaining. 

Ben Schwartz does well at providing the voice of Sonic the Hedgehog, really giving a lot to the character. James Marsden plays the obligatory generic human lead character paired with the animated character,  but he is decent in this role. The star of the show however is Jim Carrey, playing the iconic Sonic villain Eggman/Dr. Robotnik. He is very bombastic, over the top and energetic; you can tell that Carrey is fully into his role and is having a lot of fun. I will say that from my knowledge, Robotnik here isn’t that much like the character from the games, but this movie does seem to serve as an origin story for the character.

The direction from Jeff Fowler is decent enough. The visuals are pretty good, definitely very cartoony but suitable for this movie. The action is also entertaining, mainly shining in the third act.

Sonic the Hedgehog is silly, yet energetic and entertaining enough. As someone with a vague knowledge of the source material, I enjoyed it, not sure how audiences with no awareness of the Sonic games will feel about it though. It does have me interested to watch the sequel, which I heard is much better.