Gotta review fast! (Thoughts on Sonic The Hedgehog 3 (the movie) )

 Hey friends! So just a few weeks ago, I wrote a little post about the second Sonic The Hedgehog movie, even though it came out over two years ago. That's not very fast, if you ask me. Sonic would not be impressed at all, because he's gotta go fast. In that spirit, I decided to go ahead and write about Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which just came out a few weeks ago. Very rarely will I go see a movie on the day that it comes out, but this was one that I was really excited for and wanted to see as soon as possible. I still haven't seen the Mufasa movie, which means that I've been shunned from the different Disney clubs right now, but that's not the point. This week I want to talk a bit about the Blue Blur, and what his third theatrical outing has in store for him! I'll do my best to stay away from plot spoilers, but if you've played Sonic Adventure 2, or are at least familiar with the story, you'll know what to expect.

    The third movie begins with a lot of the character building and father/son dynamic that you can expect from Tom and Sonic, but it doesn't take long before G.U.N. shows up and whisks "Team Sonic" off to Tokyo, where Shadow has broken free of his cryogenic sleep after 50 years. Shadow defeats them all pretty easily, then speeds off on his motorcycle (which he really doesn't need, but uses it mostly for the cool points I think). This movie does a really good job of showing Shadow's backstory and his relationship with Maria (his best friend who is a human) being the anchor for his emotional involvement. There were a few weird changes to Shadow in this movie from the game, but for the most part, they were just nitpicks. 

    Honestly, I don't know how much I can say about the plot of this movie without it being considered a spoiler, so I'll just take some time here to point out some excellent performances. First, I have to say that there are significantly fewer scenes with Tom and Maddie this time around, really only being important for setting up the third act twist, which is fine, especially considering they've historically been the weakest part of a movie about cartoon animals fighting an evil scientist, but they're still very lovable and funny. I have to give a big shout out to James Marsden and Tika Sumpter for being just as fun to watch as always. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles are definitely the stars of the show, doing a great job of building into the team dynamic, though as can be expected, Sonic and Knuckles do butt heads every now and then (and not in the way that I expected, if I'm honest). Ben Schwartz, Colleen O'Shaughnessy, and Idris Elba bring such great performances to Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles respectively that it makes me really excited for the future of this franchise as we'll presumably just bring more and more characters for them to interact with. Again, I cannot overstate how cool it is that Colleen is the Voice Actress for Tails in the movies after voicing him for a lot of the games. Shadow is the big threat this time around, and Keanu Reeves honestly nailed his take on this character, being pretty firmly in his wheelhouse of characters that he would be perfect to play, he was a really great mix of being intimidating and torn in how he feels, and I felt like he did a great job voicing him. How could I forget Jim Carrey not only playing Ivo Robotnik (like he played in the first two movies), but also Gerald Robotnik, his grandfather. Mr. Carrey absolutely nailed both of these roles, bringing some of his greatest and most wacky comedic characters to mind. Agent Stone (played by Lee Majdoub) also is a hilarious and somewhat tragic character in this movie, with one of my favorite scenes being him having a normal conversation with Tails, even calling him adorable,. Maria, of course, was only shown in flashbacks, but I really liked the way that she was portrayed, with Alyla Browne doing a great job of bringing her sweet and kind nature to the screen. Kristen Ritter was a new GUN character introduced in this movie, and she also did a great job as a sort of secondary antagonist to Sonic and friends, I would love to see her return in another movie or two.

An overcorrection that I was very happy with!

    One of my biggest complaints about the second Sonic movie was that they had almost no music from the games whatsoever, and that's a huge shame, considering how consistently the soundtracks from this series of games actually outpaces the gameplay. In Sonic the Hedgehog 3, there was no doubt that they wanted to put the music from the games in here. "Live and Learn" (the theme song from Sonic Adventure 2, which is the game that Shadow first appeared in), acted as a character theme for Shadow throughout the whole movie, and I had a big smile on my face as soon as it started playing for the first time. There's a point where something really bad happens, and as it's happening, it's playing the Dr. Eggman theme that has been around since probably Sonic the Hedgehog '06, if not before. There is an audio cue from "Escape from the City" somewhere in the soundtrack that I can't really expand upon, but it's very exciting that it was listed in the credits. At one point, Eggman's phone rings, and his ringtone is E.G.G.M.A.N. from Sonic Adventure 2, which is his character theme in that game. There are so many great references and callbacks that I'm sure I missed upon first viewing, but I was very happy with the way the fan service was treated in this movie. I definitely hope when the fourth Sonic movie comes out, we'll have lots of other tunes from the Sonic franchise.

Minor Spoilers Ahead! Feel free to skip until you see the movie!

    I don't want to talk too much about the big spoilers, but I'll try to talk my way around them a little bit. First of all, very nice to see the return of Super Sonic, though I'm still a little confused about having the Chaos Emeralds being part of the Master Emerald, but it works with the lore of the movies at least. I thought it was kind of strange that they didn't include the lore about Maria's illness, but I guess that could have been one plot point too many, especially when juggling so many things about Shadow's backstory as well as the current plot. There's a Kaiju movie that Maria and Shadow watch together that shows the Biolizard as the monster that's attacking the city. I just loved the little easter egg of putting the final boss of the game just as a nod. Another Easter Egg that I thought was cool (if it was intentional), was Maria's marker drawing on Shadow's capsule when they first met. She drew him to look like a bunny with a bow tie, which was the original sprite created for Sonic when they were first designing him on the Genesis. I also thought the line about how the light still shines even after the star is gone was really great, and a really great way of putting the grief of losing someone. I'm glad that Sonic and Shadow did bond a bit, especially with the concept early on of Sonic being just like Shadow if things had gone differently for him. I really don't want to spoil the two post credit scenes in this movie, but they make me really excited for the future of the series as a whole, especially for the inclusion of a new character!

Spoiler talk is done, not many spoilers were there honestly!

    I'll wrap it up here friends, and I have to say, the series just crossed the billion dollar mark between the three movies that have come out, and I'm very excited for the future of this series of movies. They have all been a lot of fun, and though this one was a bit darker with the inclusion of Shadow and his past, I think this was my favorite of the three so far. I'm certainly hoping that the trajectory will continue in this way, because I'm going to see the new ones no matter what!

    Thanks for reading this post, friends! I've been excited for this movie for a good while, and the marketing has been really spot on, with not only the very fun posters referencing different Christmas movies, the animated short of Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles encountering Santa, but also the full DLC level that they put into Shadow Generations, where Keanu Reeves voiced Shadow in this level where you're going through Japan. It was such a cool idea, and I definitely hope we can get something similar from future video game movies. Did you like the movie? Have you seen it yet? I hope you liked it as much as I did, and I hope that your new year has gotten off to a good start. Until next time, I'm Jonathan, a Self-Proclaimed Sonic fan, and I'll talk to you again soon!