Jim Carrey’s flashy double act can’t save the animation

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3 ★★

(PG) 110 minutes

Even by cartoon standards, Sonic the Hedgehog doesn’t look much like a hedgehog. But that was probably never his intention. When he made his debut as a video game mascot in 1991, his cute but edgy look – big eyes, spiky blue mane – suggested that his Japanese designers may have taken some cues from characters The Simpsonsa brand new global sensation at the time, also from Mickey Mouse.

In his current incarnation on the big screen, in which he is voiced by US comedian Ben Schwartz, he is said to come from outer space and resembles a non-canine member of the Paw Patrol who fights crime together with a few furry companions of a similarly indeterminate species . Okay, technically Knuckles (Idris Elba) is an echidna and Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessy) is a fox, but I can’t be the only one who had to check the Sonic wiki to confirm.

We’re not far away either Alvin and the Chipmunksstarring a trio of mischievous animals who set their sights on their human foster father, played by a more reserved James Marsden – a character created for the part-live-action Sonic film series released by Paramount in 2020 and directed by Jeff Fowler became all three films. The real star of the trilogy, however, is Jim Carrey as the angry, crazy steampunk scientist Dr. Ivo Robotnik, also known as Dr. Eggman, the long-time villain in the Sonic game world.

In Sonic the Hedgehog 3Carrey takes on a second role as Dr. Robotnik’s doppelganger grandpa, which doesn’t put much strain on his talents, although it does double the number of movie characters he’s played this decade. Sonic now also has a doppelganger: Shadow the Hedgehog, voiced by Keanu Reeves, who counters our hero’s brash optimism with a melancholy that comes from his traumatic past.

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It’s the kind of cross-cultural mash-up that might seem bafflingly confusing if it weren’t more or less the norm in today’s Hollywood. As if hoping to make a virtue out of necessity, Fowler and his writers consciously heighten the tonal contrasts with earnest sermons (“Listen to your heart”), strained wordplay, a few fleeting bondage gags, lots of Carrey showboating etc. Mix in some key plot elements, including a climax that hinges on the threat of global nuclear destruction, for a film largely aimed at young children.