National Post (National Edition)
Hedgehog benefits from full makeover
Sonic the Hedgehog
Cast: James Marsden, Ben Schwartz, Jim Carrey Director: Jeff Fowler
Duration: 1 h 39 m
When the first trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog was released last April, internet users fell into a collective uncanny valley at the horror of it. Weird musculature! Furry fingers! Nostrils! Human teeth! So the filmmakers put the movie’s November release date on hold, redesigned the title character, and are rolling out the vastly improved product this week.
Which leaves one unanswered question: Why didn’t this happen with Cats?
At least the young children and nostalgic millennials who are Sonic’s key demographic will be spared any lasting trauma from the revamped animated omnivore, who is now as cuddly as possible for a spiny mammal. A brief backstory reveals that Sonic is an extraterrestrial who wound up alone on Earth, observing humans but unseen until a fateful encounter in a garden shed. So basically E.T. with quills.
His new best friend is a small-town sheriff named Tom, played by James Marsden, essentially redoing his human-sidekick routine from 2011’s Hop, when he acted opposite a CGI Easter Bunny. Tom has a wife (Tika Sumpter, barely there), an evil sister-in-law (for added drama, I guess) and a plan to move to San Francisco and become a big-city cop.
But everything takes a back seat to his attempts to save Sonic from evil scientist Dr. Robotnik, played by Jim Carrey in a rare big-screen role. I would fault his overthe-top performance if the character weren’t already more of a cartoon than Sonic.
Not sure if first-time director Jeff Fowler told Carrey to go for broke or just decided to let him off the leash and live with the results, but his pure-misanthropy shtick is one of the weirdest performances I’ve witnessed in months — and I saw Nic Cage in Color Out of Space.
Sonic is voiced by Ben Schwartz, whose rapid-fire delivery had me thinking of fellow comedian Kumail Nanjiani’s work in Dolittle and Men in Black: International. He’s as likable as his newly overhauled physique, though that isn’t enough to fully recommend the results.
Still, if you’re sentimental for the furry blue speed demon, you may want to give it a try. Certainly the audience members at a recent promo screening who were whooping it up in the post-credit scene — some kind of cameo from Knuckles or Shadow or someone like that — felt they’d gotten their money’s worth. ★★½