Nerdly » ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 3’ Blu-ray Review

15th Apr2025

‘Sonic the Hedgehog 3’ Blu-ray Review

by Matthew Turner

Stars: Jim Carrey, Ben Schwartz, James Marsden, Tika Sumpter, Idris Elba, Keanu Reeves, Krysten Ritter, Lee Majdoub, Natasha Rothwell, Adam Pally, Shemar Moore, Colleen O’Shaughnessey, Alyla Browne, James Wolk | Written by Pat Casey, Josh Miller, John Whittington | Directed by Jeff Fowler

The speedy blue hedgehog returns for a third instalment in SEGA’s Sonic franchise, based on the popular video game series. This time around, the film is actually an improvement on the previous two movies, thanks to a couple of key factors, namely Jim Carrey pulling double duty and an inspired voice performance from Keanu Reeves.

As teased in the previous movie’s post-credits scene, the villain this time round is Shadow (Reeves), a red and black space hedgehog who closely resembles our spiny hero, and is out for revenge, following a traumatic event in his past. He’s aided in his revenge mission by 101-year-old Professor Gerald Robotnik (Jim Carrey in old-age make-up), so naturally it isn’t long before Sonic’s arch-nemesis Doctor Ivo Robotnik (Carrey again) joins their ranks.

Meanwhile, Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) and his buddies Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey) and Knuckles the Echidna (a returning Idris Elba) – both of whom were introduced in the previous movie – have their work cut out for them when it comes to saving the day, chasing Shadow and the Professor to various international locations, including London and Tokyo.

Jim Carrey, giving his performance the energy of his classic 1990s comedic turns, was the undisputed highlight of the first Sonic movie, and was curiously dampened down in the first sequel, so it makes perfect sense for the threequel to double down on Jim Carrey action here. Consequently, every scene he shares with himself is a lot of fun, whether they are making meta jokes about actors playing two roles or ad-libbing new names for “grandfather”.

Elsewhere, Schwartz’s performance as Sonic is still kind of annoying, but it gets the job done, and there’s strong comic support from Idris Elba, who is surprisingly funny as Knuckles (he’s essentially the Drax to Team Sonic’s Guardians of the Galaxy). The unexpected treat is Keanu Reeves, who brings Shadow a soulful quality that makes him a sympathetic and interesting figure, rather than an exaggerated villain.

As for the rest of the human cast, Tika Sumpter and James Marsden are still on board as Sonic’s de facto mum and dad, and the film does at least find them a few funny things to do. The script even finds a clever way to work in fan-pleasing cameos from Natasha Rothwell and Shemar Moore. The only slight disappointment in that respect is that the film casts proven comic talent Krysten Ritter as the deputy head of G.U.N., but fails to give her anything funny or interesting to do.

Having helmed all three Sonic movies, it’s fair to say director Jeff Fowler has found his feet – the film zips along at a decent pace and there’s an unexpected emotional component that works surprisingly well. Similarly, the plot has a bit more focus this time round and is able to successfully juggle several different elements as a result.

On top of that, the action scenes are zippy and fun in a way that will please children and won’t bore adults. The main issue is that Sonic himself isn’t that funny (and certainly not as funny as the film thinks he is), but that matters less this time around. Indeed, the film manages at least two laugh-out-loud moments, which is two more than the previous sequel could muster up.

In short, this is a solid threequel that is likely to go down well with fans of the franchise and might even make a few converts along the way. SEGA certainly hope so anyway, as the film ends with the now-traditional tease for the next movie.