When this movie was announced, I was kind of excited for it, I’ve always liked Sonic as a character/game. Then we had the trailer, we all know which trailer, the one with the weird body but even weirder teeth. That dampened a lot of my expectations, which, in an odd way, might have been good.

Sonic The Hedgehog is the story of, well, Sonic The Hedgehog. He is sent via a ring portal to Earth to hide his awesome speed from those on his home planet. But he obviously can’t help but run in the shadows, because that’s what Sonic does, he runs. Things go awry when an incident occurs and attention is drawn to something weird being in the area where he lives. He needs to then go to another world, but because of an accident, he doesn’t have his rings anymore so he can’t transport, will he get them in time or be found out.

I think the first thing to talk about in this film is Jim Carrey. This film isn’t carried by Jim Carrey, but this is the Jim Carrey from the likes of The Mask, Ace Ventura, and Liar Liar. Everything is over the top, exaggerated, and really what is needed for this film. Jim Carrey going full Jim Carrey helps out this film as he makes a wonderful Dr. Robotnik. Ben Schwartz then voicing Sonic is great, and James Marsden is a wonderful foil as a trusting character, but also kind of that exasperated “why is this happening to me” role in this film. There are other good characters in this film, Adam Pally as Wade, Tika Sumpter as Maddie, and Lee Majdoub as Agent Stone all really round out what turned out to be a solid cast for something that doesn’t have the biggest names, after Jim Carrey, and is a kids film.

Let’s talk a little bit about that, this is 100% a kids film in the best way. There are three types of kids films in my opinion, there are kids films that are only for kids and nothing really for adults, there are kids films that have jokes for kids and adults, and there are kids films that have poop jokes. This in that middle group. The jokes that they give, especially to Jim Carrey, paired with his overly exaggerated movements work well. The jokes will hit on word play for adults and the movements and delivery will still be funny for the kids. All of this while not pandering to a more adult sense of humor. It doesn’t do veiled innuendo for jokes, because eventually, and probably too early kids will figure those out. So this will be a film that can stand on it’s own for a while.

As for the story itself, it’s simple enough. They do a little bit of clever stuff with the rings, but nothing that is too surprising or too much of a twist, which I think is how it should be. Again this is a kids film, it should tell a straight forward story and it most certainly does that. But that isn’t to say that this is a boring story. They do a good job with everything that is going on to make entertaining. There are obviously a lot of moments of humor, but there are moments of emotion, and some fun ideas played around with in this movie. They don’t shy away from emotions in the male characters which is nice as well. The story is just a well enough done straight forward story for a light and fun film, anything more would feel like a lot for it anyways, and it isn’t a that dumb a story either, which a lot of kids films can be.

Finally, let’s talk about the hedgehog in the room, how does the new Sonic look? I mentioned the initial trailer where his body was just weird, and his teeth were flat out creepy. The new Sonic in this look amazing! He looks like he has stepped out of a video game, which is exactly what he should look like. But he doesn’t also then look out of place with everything else. Some of that is Dr. Robotnik also being very over the top as well, on a person. I think they did an amazing job of blending everything together and making it work well in the film. The special effects are nice, and sonic really never looks out of place, which is impressive for them completely rebuilding him after that first trailer.

So, overall, I’ve talked about this film generally in a positive light. And I don’t really think I have a negative for it. This is a good film. It isn’t an amazing film by any means, but it’s a ton of fun for adults, and I’m guessing it’s a ton of fun for kids as well, just with how it played out. There really aren’t any massive weaknesses to it. That said, this is a kids film, I firmly believe that unless you like goofy humor and word play, this will just be a meh film for you. But if you have kids, this is going to be better than a dumb kids film or one that has “hidden adult jokes and if you like word play, Jim Carrey does a good job with it. Definitely one worth checking out, and I don’t know if it’ll get a sequel, but it should.

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