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Sonic The Hedgehog 3 is, as the title would suggest, a tertiary trip to Green Hills, in a movie franchise which has bucked the trend for most videogames-turned-big-screen-experiences, taking far more than its Christmas competitor, Mufasa, and displacing the nose joint of the House of Mouse.
I didn’t actually see the first two films until recently, as they didn’t really seem my bag, but with the first popping up on Channel 4, then the second NOT doing so because they haven’t got the rights – and it not even being on Paramount+ for some reason, despite it being their film, led me to check it out another way.
Both were passable, but Good Lord, the second one really tried my patience with the overlong wedding scene. Because it’s the 2020s, Tom (James Marsden – Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie) has to be in a mixed-race relationship, leading to Maddie (Tika Sumpter), that wedding being between her sister Rachel (Natasha Rothwell) – the tiresome “shouty black woman” cliché – and Randall (Shemar Moore), with his dodgy goatee.
And when it came to the guest list, I thought I’d stumbled across an episode of The Cosby Show, where they were always afraid to show a white face on camera!
For want of a plot in the third film, as shown at the end of No.2, Shadow is waking up, after 50 years in stasis, and voiced by Keanu Reeves, although while director Jeff Fowler wanted Reeves for the character because of his John Wick performances, he completely failed to include any spoof lines from that film.
Still, Sonic The Hedgehog 3 does have quite a few witty lines in it, an early one giving me a belly-laugh, albeit one that kids won’t get, as it’s been a year since Sonic arrived on this planet, so the celebratory banner reads, “Happy B-Earth-Day”, causing him to query, “Happy… Bea ARTHUR Day?!”
Plus, later, power outage shocks Sonic, leading him to proclaim, “1.21 Jigawatts!!”, which any self-respecting fan of the Back To The Future films will immediately recognise; before too long, Tails gets mistaken for Pikachu, from the Pokemon franchise, and later on, the younger Robotnik grimaces while talking about “hate-watching The Green Lantern from 2011”.
Another moving reference also comes when one character says to Shadow, “Vaya Con Dios” (translating as “Go with God”), given that Keanu says that to Patrick Swayze in 1991’s Point Break.
The task at hand will require Sonic to join forces with Dr Robotnik (Jim Carrey), given that the evil plan has been hatched by his grandfather, Professor Gerald Robotnik – again, Carrey, but in ‘older’-looking make-up, yet briefly interacting with each other brilliantly, such as the old man slapping the younger one on his head.
Gerald wants to use the Eclipse Cannon to destroy any place on Earth. He could start with the Kremlin and get rid of Putin, but instead, chooses to wreak havoc on GUN HQ in London, hence them wanting this pair – along with Tails and Knuckes – to sort them out; cue lots of running, jumping and shooting, and ye olde plot device of resolving things by requiring two keys to be brought together.
Apparently, this film is based on the plot of the games Sonic Adventure 2, from 2001, and 2005’s Shadow the Hedgehog, although whenever I play a videogame like Sonic, I rarely even realise there’s a coherent plot.
As an aside, for absolutely no reason, Tom and Maddie turn up again, despite being completely surplus to requirements and, unfortunately, this means a brief return for Rachel and Goatee, too. FFS! However, the first two make reference to blowing on a USB stick to make it work resulting in “The ’90s was the best decade”, yet we had cartridges in the ’80s which occasionally required the same intervention in order to blow out the dust and make them work!
Oh, and talking of surplus to requirements, I haven’t yet mentioned Krysten Ritter‘s Director Rockwell. Yep, I’ve no idea why she’s in this, either, given the completely pointless content for her character.
As you’d expect, Jim Carrey is the true hero of the hour, giving a fantastic peformance… well, two, really, even self-referencing this at one point, “It’s like we’re two characters in a movie, being played by the same actor!”
Overall, Sonic The Hedgehog 3 is a surprisingly consistent film, rarely slowing down (pun not intended, for a hedgehog that runs fast), although it could lose a slight 10 minutes of its running time.
Box-office-wise, in the US, at the time of writing, it’s taken $136.6 million in the US and Canada, against Mufasa‘s $113.5m, taking the crown from the new Lion King!
However, while the latter has taken $328m worldwide to date, this film has yet to include the box-office receipts from the UK. It’s been massively popular over here, but since the official release date was Saturday December 21st, that means the first ‘box office weekend’ is running the maximum of 9 days, from Sat 21st Dec to Sun 29th Dec. Add a single preview on Friday December 20th, and that also brings in extra revenue. The last time I can remember a film doing that (albeit without the preview) was 2014’s Transformers: Age of Extinction, which ended up raking in $1.1bn!
This film has both a mid- AND post-credits scene, and you can find out more information about those in the video below.
Sonic The Hedgehog 3 is in cinemas now, and is available to pre-order on 4K Blu-ray, Blu-ray and DVD, ahead of its release date TBA.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 110 minutes
Release date: December 21st 2024
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 (ARRIRAW(4.6K), Dolby Vision, Anamorphic Panavision)
Cinema: Cineworld Didsbury
Rating: 7.5/10
Director: Jeff Fowler
Producers: Toby Ascher, Neal H Moritz, Toru Nakahara, Hitoshi Okuno
Screenplay: Pat Casey, Josh Miller, John Whittington
Music: Tom Holkenborg
Cast:
Ivo Robotnik / Gerald Robotnik: Jim Carrey
Sonic: Ben Schwartz
Shadow: Keanu Reeves
Knuckles: Idris Elba
Tails: Colleen O’Shaughnessey
Tom: James Marsden
Maddie: Tika Sumpter
Agent Stone: Lee Majdoub
Director Rockwell: Krysten Ritter
Wade: Adam Pally
Rachel: Natasha Rothwell
Randall: Shemar Moore
Maria: Alyla Browne
Commander Walters: Tom Butler
Kyle Lancebottom: Jorma Taccone
Gabriella: Sofia Pernas
Pablo / Juan: Cristo Fernández
Young Walters: James Wolk
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.