There’s a famous story surrounding when Jim Carrey approached Tommy Lee Jones at a restaurant one night during the production of Batman Forever in 1995. On the eve of the duo filming “their biggest scene together” on the Joel Schumacher sequel, Carrey popped into a diner where Jones happened to be eating. The maitre noted that they were working together and Carrey, believing he was of a cordial nature, stopped by Jones’ table to say hello. As Carrey expressed, “The blood just drained from his face.”
Unsure as to what the issue was between the two, Jones, after expressing that he “hated” Carrey, simply said “I cannot sanction your buffoonery.” Whatever the buffoonery that Jones couldn’t handle – which Carrey thought came down to either his star status being on the rise or the fact that such campy material as a Batman movie was beneath Jones – it’s on full, glorious, untamed display in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, where Carrey does double duty as the film’s cartoonish villain, Ivo Robotnik, and his even more exaggerated grandfather, Professor Gerald Robotnik.
Given that this surprisingly resilient series is onto its third film – I say surprising as prior to the first film’s release in 2020, the design of its titular character (once again voiced with enthusiasm by Ben Schwartz) was met with such criticism that the animators retooled the rendering, adding $5 million to the budget and an additional 5 months of labour – the narrative on hand and characters swirling throughout require little introduction. But, even if this happens to be the first Sonic film you endure, you’re likely to be swept up in its wild, irreverent humour, and follow enough of the laid out exposition that you aren’t exactly going to be pressed to understand the beats.
Said beats involve Sonic and his motley crew, literal lying fox Tails (voiced by Colleen O’Shaughnessey) and the hot-headed, and all-too-literal, Knuckles (voiced by Idris Elba), a red-furred echidna, having to defend their adopted planet Earth, and guardians, humans Tom and Maddie Wachowski (James Marsden and Tika Sumpter, respectively), from the mysterious Shadow (voiced by Keanu Reeves, clearly enjoying his character’s stoic nature), who has awoken from suspended animation in a secret facility off the coast of Japan. The government would like us to believe that Shadow is the big bad, but we can sense he’s more misunderstood – and flashbacks to his friendship with a young human (Alyla Browne) only reiterate such – and by the time “Team Sonic” have united with the Robotniks under the notion that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”, it’s all too obvious that Ivor is still his dastardly self.
Movies like Sonic the Hedgehog 3 don’t exactly deliver the type of stakes that prove stressful or unpredictable in any manner, and it’s very obvious where the Pat Casey–Josh Miller–John Whittington-penned script is going, but familiarity doesn’t diminish the film’s entertainment returns when director Jeff Fowler (who has helmed both the 2020 original and its 2022 sequel) leans in so gloriously to the ridiculousness that can come with a more family-aimed production. The quick pace, vibrant visuals, well-executed adult-leaning humour, and the more overemphasized comedic play – it can’t be stressed enough just how much fun Carrey is having – merge together for a truly inviting experience that shouldn’t be as grand as it is.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is bombastic in every sense of the word, but it owns its lunacy, and with such self-awareness, as well as a genuine sense of heart and emotional responsibility that doesn’t pander to the younger audience it is primarily aiming to entertain, it emerges as one of the year’s more genuine and uproarious examples of all-rounded family fun done correct. And, clearly knowing it can’t just leave us on such a high, a fourth Sonic has been announced – so, yes, stay for all the credits to get an idea of just who’s joining the fray.
FOUR STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is screening in Australian theatres from Boxing Day, December 26th, 2024.
