This article contains MAJOR spoilers for “Sonic the Hedgehog 3!” If you haven’t seen it, watch it first and then come back. However, there will be no spoilers for things specific to the first or second movie, because I have not seen the first two “Sonic the Hedgehog” movies. I’ve watched the first half hour of “Sonic the Hedgehog,” but aside from that, my knowledge lies in the games, “Sonic: Boom” and “Sonic: Prime” on Netflix, and of course, the SnapCube fan-dub. Safe to say I know a decent bit about the Sonic world, but for this reason I won’t discuss continuity or flow between the “Sonic the Hedgehog” movies.
Anyone who has been within a ten-foot proximity to me for the past two months knows just how excited I was for “Sonic the Hedgehog 3.” So, when it was finally released on Dec. 20, 2024, I jumped to the theaters and dragged my little sister and mom along to go see it.
“Sonic the Hedgehog 3” introduced Shadow the Hedgehog, the edgy antagonist to the sassy Sonic the Hedgehog. It also introduced Dr. Robotnik (or “Eggman”)’s grandfather as another villain. Throughout the movie Shadow, Eggman, and Eggman Senior scheme against Sonic, and his friends, Knuckles, Tails, and Tom and Maddie (who are both humans).
In “Sonic the Hedgehog 3,” Eggman Senior convinces Shadow to get revenge for the death of Maria, Shadow’s deceased human friend. At the same time, Sonic gets obnoxious and starts to neglect his friends. When Shadow accidentally puts Tom in a coma, Sonic goes into full warpath mode and tries to get revenge on Tom, in the same way Shadow tried to get revenge for Maria. In the end, Sonic and Shadow battle it out and realize that they both were in the wrong and made up with each other and Sonic’s friends. However, at that point, it became clear that Eggman Senior was evil and using Shadow and Eggman to destroy the world, so Shadow and Eggman sacrificed themselves to save the world.
I saw “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” with my sister and mom. My mom knows nothing about Sonic; my sister knows whatever she interpreted from a handful of Netflix’s “Sonic: Boom.” However, both of them followed the movie pretty decently. The creators did a good job of creating a complex story with many moving parts that were still easily ingested by younger audiences.
Classic to the “Sonic the Hedgehog” movies introducing a new character in each film, Shadow was brought in as the new character in this movie. He was portrayed as a very edgy mirror to Sonic, something that was further emphasized by both of them trying to avenge their friend; Sonic with Tom, and Shadow with Maria. Seeing this similarity between two characters that make such a point to be different from one another, what with Shadow being semi-evil, it was really cool to see both of them tie together. This really emphasized how they are indeed mirrored to each other.
“Sonic the Hedgehog 3” had many flashbacks of Shadow and Maria, Shadow’s former friend, bonding and hanging out, which got sadder as the movie progressed because Maria eventually died before this movie took place. The flashbacks were spread out and sandwiched between either Knuckles or Eggman’s comic relief, giving the audience’s tear ducts a rest. Most movies I’ve seen drag out and overuse the sad part of the movie, using it as the main emotion to move the plot along, but “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” didn’t do that, instead conveying a fun story with sad interludes, thus not ruining the overall vibe.
Although most of the movie was about Sonic and his friends, including Shadow, I felt there were too many Eggman moments. He’s the main villain in the Sonic franchise and in “Sonic the Hedgehog 3,” and even acquired a grandfather, Eggman Senior. Both Eggman and Eggman Senior were played by Jim Carey, something that the media super hyped up. However, my sister and I both agreed that too much of the film focused on this. Full of costume changes, dances, and long monologues, a considerable portion of “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” had only Eggman and Eggman Senior on screen. Although the constant jokes (and the fact that Carey said every grandfather nickname known to man) were funny, considering the franchise is called “Sonic the Hedgehog” and not “Eggman the Man,” I would rather see a Sonic and Shadow dance scene instead.
There also wasn’t a lot of back-and-forth of witty digs between Sonic and Shadow. Classically, Sonic will playfully insult Shadow’s emo appearance and personality, something that is prevalent in Netflix’s “Sonic: Prime.” I was really looking forward to this, considering that “Sonic the Hedgehog 3”’s main new character is Shadow, but taking into consideration the plot in this movie and how Shadow was kind of hiding most of the time and thus not in contact with Sonic often, it is understandable why this didn’t happen.
Despite all my griping about “Sonic the Hedgehog 3,” it was in all actuality a very good and well-put-together movie. Going into the theater to see it, I was worried that the movie would be confusing, what with the introduction of two new characters. The plot was however very well put together. Even though there were two revenge arcs, flashbacks, and otherworldly travel (Sonic and Shadow go to space at one point), everything was easy to follow and well laid out in an easily-to-digest way. The only plot hole I picked up on was the fact that hedgehogs cannot breathe in space without proper gear and protection, something they didn’t have, and when Sonic and Shadow flew up into space to battle it out, the mere journey through Earth’s atmospheric temperatures would have technically burned them to a crisp. (Well, that, and the fact that primary-colored, talking hedgehogs don’t exist, unfortunately.) All this technical stuff aside, it was cool to see Sonic and Shadow in space and this movie is after all targeted at little kids, not tediously meticulous high-schoolers. This movie was still very fun to see, despite my age, though.
Whether you and your friends are Sonic fans or not, seeing “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” was an incredibly enjoyable experience for me and my family. Complete with jokes, backstories, lore drops, egg-shaped men, and hedgehogs, it was a fun movie, something my sister and I would 100% recommend. And I mean, really, who doesn’t love a movie all about sassy hedgehogs?
