'Sonic the Hedgehog' A Review

Sonic the Hedgehog is a family action comedy based on the SEGA video game franchise of the same name. The movie opens on extraterrestrial anthropomorphic hedgehog with super-speed Sonic(Ben Schwartz) criss-crossing San Francisco being pursued by Dr. Robotnik(Jim Carrey). The movie then cuts back to Sonic's arrival on Earth and the circumstances perpetuating the confrontation.

Schwartz vocal performance is wonderful, he nails the rebellious edge, the impetuous, but most of all the carefree cocksure humor. Carrey clearly relishes the chance to go so big giving an Ace Ventura era type of performance, something we haven't seen from him in quite awhile, and it's really fun. James Marsen as Tom Wachowski is surprisingly affable and light and grounds the movie and the character of Sonic that really holds together the at sometimes extremely absurd plot.

The visual blend strikes a surprisingly effective balance, melding reality with some pleasing omages to the video game source. Ultimately the story is relatively simple, assisted by the structure- beginning at the end and flashing back to how we got there- which is necessary given the how over the top a lot of it is. In general video games fail because they are taken too seriously, here the humor, playfulness, and fun are focused on and as a result it may not be high art but it is certainly solidly entertaining.

Rent It.