Should you watch Sonic The Hedgehog 3?

Yes. Yes you should.

Image credit: Paramount

Wait, you're still here? I thought I had convinced you to watch it already. You want a more detailed reason as to why I think you should watch it? Fair enough! Before I talk about the movie itself let's see how the movie describes itself first:

''Sonic the Hedgehog returns to the big screen this holiday season in his most thrilling adventure yet. Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails reunite against a powerful new adversary, Shadow, a mysterious villain with powers unlike anything they have faced before. With their abilities outmatched in every way, Team Sonic must seek out an unlikely alliance in hopes of stopping Shadow and protecting the planet.''

Now that we know a little more about the movie and what it wants to sell us let's start our review. In this review I'll be talking about:

• Storyline

• CGI

• Character design

• Overall rating

Storyline

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 has in my opinion so far one of the best storylines in all of the Sonic movies we have. Instead of waiting to introduce Shadow until much later we get introduced to him right away, however partly. We don't know his motives or what happened to him yet. We do gather from the first few minutes however that he is viewed as dangerous and has been asleep for 50 years. That is of course until the system that is keeping him asleep is hacked and he manages to break out. With some cool teleportation moves (real legends know this as chaos control) and a few references to Shadow's own game the dark hedgehog manages to escape GUN and flee towards Tokyo.

In Tokyo Shadow is introduced to our main group, team Sonic, with our heroes Sonic, Knuckles and Tails ready to complete their mission to bring Shadow back to GUN. Of course this is the part where we get even more references to Shadow's own game and finally get to experience the frustration Sonic feels to having actual competition. Personally this was great to see as it brought back memories to the anime Sonic X where Shadow and Sonic were known to clash multiple times throughout the series.

Shadow manages to escape team Sonic and teams up with Dr Eggman, Stone and Gerald Robotnik. Okay teaming up might not be the best way to put this. Gerald Robotnik may have played a part in convincing Shadow on what to do for Maria, who we will discuss in a bit. As expected team Sonic once again tries to stop them, fail again, meet up with Tom and Maddie are make a new plan to stop both Robotniks and Shadow.

Image credit: Paramount

As promised, Maria. Fans of the Sonic series will know who she is but for those who don't the movie has an excellent way of introducing her and making her feel part of the story, not just a reason for Shadow to do what he does. Maria Robotnik is Gerald Robotniks granddaughter that was allowed to join her grandfather on what we know as the ARK, a research facility supported by GUN. This is where Shadow's story really begins. Shadow and Maria had a sibling like relationship. When Maria first moved into the ARK she took a wrong turn and stumbled upon Shadow who was resting in a tube filled with water, it is not explained in the movie why this was the case so let's just say it was for science and a cool backstory. At first Maria is a bit taken back but soon warms up to the dark hedgehog and manages to befriend him. Maria was the only one who treated Shadow as a person, not a test subject. They watched movies together, she taught him how to dance and how to have fun. This is why, SPOILER ALERT, her death affected Shadow so heavily. She died at hands of GUN which fueled Shadow's hatred towards the situation. It shouldn't be a surprise that he isn't too fond of team Sonic because he knows they work for GUN. However this quickly changes once team Sonic realizes GUN hasn't been very honest. Team Sonic along with Maddie and Tom were nearly successful in stopping both GUN and the Robotniks if Shadow hadn't mistaken Tom for General Towers (Tails was able to invent a device that allowed people to transform into others ;) ). Sonic sees Tom lying on the ground and guess what happens? You guessed it? Our blue boy gets mad. To not spoil the ending I will stop here. I will add that I think the ending was great and really tied everything together. If you've played Sonic Adventure 2 you're really, really going to like this ending.

Image credit: Paramount

CGI

I am no expert on CGI so I can't give a detailed review on the technical part on it but I can say that the team worked even harder on it than the last movie. Sonic The Hedgehog 2 had already quite the amazing CGI but in my opinion they really outdone themselves in this movie. Especially with Shadow's design. It feels right, blends right in most of the time and it really reflects his softer sides as well.

But it wouldn't really be a review without a little bit of criticism as well. Personally there were a few scenes that I felt could have been a bit better if there had been a bit more budget. Some scenes just show it was less important and therefore didn't have to look as good. It didn't bother me too much but it is noticeable so if you're a huge fan of amazing CGI you might be a bit bothered by this. Other than that it was great! I can't wait to see even more improvements in the next movie!

Image credit: Paramount

Character design

I'm going to keep it brief with the main team and specifically handle the Robotniks and Shadow's designs.

Team Sonic looks amazing as usual. It's hard to imagine what the team would have looked like if the old design hadn't been changed shivers, The team blends in well with their environment and rarely feel out of place. Tom and Maddie look stunning as usual and I really like how the actors make everything feel so real. Great job to them! Now onto the fun part, the Robotniks. As you might know Jim Carrey plays both doctor Eggman and Gerald Robotnik (there is even a little joke about that in the movie). One thing I have to say is that he plays both characters marvelously. If I hadn't known it was the same actor twice I would have assumed it was just another actor who looked like Carrey. Which is why I wanted to highlight the character design aspect of the movie. The makeup team did an amazing job at making Carrey look like two different people. Gerald Robotnik is of course older and sure looks the part. Another little fun thing is that he is also a little bigger, just like in the games. The iconic moustache is of course also part of his amazing looks and really ties the Robotnik family together. Easy for kids to understand!

Image credit: Paramount

Eggman actually gets reintroduced to us in quite the funny and comedic way, fat and lazy. His moustache is a mess, he has long but not so luscious locks and of course the typical round belly we usually see actors sport when playing a chubby character. But nothing could beat the clothing design, especially near the end. If you're a fan of Eggman's iconic looks you're in for a treat, they were able to recreate the well known red long coat we always see Eggman wear. Of course paired with his iconic glasses and bald head! This really felt like a treat to the fans and I am so glad they didn't hold back from making the characters look like their game variants.

Now then, the man of the hour himself, Shadow The Hedgehog. As you already know I think Shadow's design is amazing. As I've said before he blends in great with the rest, his design looks on point but it also reveals a much softer side that we don't often get to see in Sonic media. The only times we really get to see Shadow not brooding is when he thinks of Maria. The design team responsible for Shadow was somehow able to make him like threatening yet soft at the same time. The fur looks right. it looks edge but also soft to touch. In a way it looks very realistic but still animated enough to make it work. I really have nothing but praise for the design team once again. Thank you for giving us a Shadow we rarely get to see.

Overall rating

It shouldn’t come as a surprise, I am very positive about the movie and give it an 8/10. It's easily the best movie out of the three but it also doesn't belittle the other two. The movie just shows a great progression in team and budget as well as skills and passion. It's easy to see that everyone involved is very passionate about this project, something we don't always get to see anymore with some movies. Looks at Disney's Mufasa.

If there's one thing the series has proven it's that listening to fans is very important and will be rewarded. As of time of writing this articles Sonic The Hedgehog 3 just passed $1B in the Global Box Office. That is a lot of money for a movie with a budget of $122 million. This alone proves that a studio that listens and cares about it's audience will be successful in the long run. I fully support and praise everyone who has worked on this series and will continue to do so in the future. Thank you for giving us a great movie but and even greater comeback of a character.