This Valentine’s Day, I had the pleasure of sitting in a row of college students among parents with children at the cinema. The film we chose to see was, of course, Sonic the Hedgehog. It was a bit of a joke, with us all wearing formal wear and sneaking the color blue into our outfits; however, Sonic the Hedgehog delivers a consistently funny and believable script paired with fantastic performances that will delight audiences of all ages. In fact, it was so entertaining that I completely forgave and forgot about the nightmare that was the original Sonic design.
Sonic the Hedgehog details the origins of Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) and his arrival on Earth – specifically, Green Hills, Montana. There he watches the sheriff of the city, Tom Wachowski (James Marsden), and his wife (Tika Sumpter) as he deals with crushing loneliness. When Sonic attracts the attention of the United States’ government, Dr. Ivo Robotnik (Jim Carrey) and Agent Stone (Lee Majdoub) are sent to investigate. Tom is unwillingly recruited to join Sonic on a road trip to San Francisco to keep his power out of the hands of Dr. Robotnik.
While I will credit some of the humor to audience commentary from around the theatre, which unfortunately varies from location to location, that in and of itself demonstrates the fact that this was a film that didn’t require careful attention to be able to follow the story. It is silly enough that even the most outlandish moments are believable, and that matched with someone talking about the superego and the id in relation to Sonic the Hedgehog was enough to make it hilarious even if every single joke failed miserably.
Thankfully, the reverse is true. Jokes are repeated and built upon just enough, stopping the progression before they become unfunny. Dr. Robotnik is outrageously ridiculous in a way that is extremely necessary for the character to be a worthy adversary to literal game/cartoon character Sonic the Hedgehog. He and his subordinate, Agent Stone, comprise a comedic duo to rival the humor of the Tom and Sonic’s antics, especially as they take what is potentially the strangest road trip ever depicted on screen.
Speaking of Dr. Robotnik, Jim Carrey gives a necessarily over the top performance. His commitment to the eccentricities of his character carries the film, especially since Dr. Robotnik is the most individual (read: least generic) character in the whole film. I find myself occasionally still reflecting on the marvelous moments and specific quirks that are never explained, although perhaps the nonsensical nature of these moments is where they derive their humor from. Agent Stone builds on this with his lack of surprise or questioning to any of these moments, which takes them to another level.
Even though Sonic himself is a bit generic, the explanation of his backstory humanizes him more than would be expected. The film seems to even take a page out of the X-Men franchise with how Sonic’s super-speed is shown, which feels unoriginal at best. Tom is similarly generic, but it is the easiest way to keep them both likeable, and as the heroes it is more important that their interactions are fresh than that they are individually spectacular. That being said, it is easy to sympathize with Tom’s main conflict, and his relationship with his wife is wholesome and funny.
It’s not a great film, but it is more than good, and at the end of the day, it’s Sonic the Hedgehog. All that could be expected from it is two hours of jokes and decent animation, and it exceeds that low bar by a mile. It may be too late by now to spend Valentine’s Day with Sonic, but there will always be next year.
Indira Ramgolam is a sophomore in Columbia College.