Sonic the Hedgehog 3 Trailer Casts a Dark Shadow

Movies

The super-fast rodents are piling up. Today, Sega and Paramount Pictures released a trailer for Sonic the Hedgehog 3, the latest installment in the surprisingly successful video game adaptation series. (I say “surprisingly” because when the first Sonic the Hedgehog film came out, movies based on video games were not exactly reliable box office sensations; we’re in the post-Super Mario Brothers Movie era now.) This time, Sonic and Tails – and their human friend who looks like Cyclops – must team up with Knuckles to face Shadow, a dark hedgehog speedster who escapes from confinement in a government facility and wreaks havoc on an unsuspecting world. When Shadow proves too powerful for the trio to beat, they seek help from an unlikely ally… Sonic’s archenemy, Dr. Robotnik. Ben Schwartz returns as the voice of Sonic, with Colleen O’Shaughnessey as Tails (whom she also voiced in the video games), Idris Elba as Knuckles, and Keanu Reeves as Shadow. On the human side of things, James Marsden once again portrays Tom Wachowski, Sonic’s human friend, while Jim Carrey is back as Dr. Robotnik. Directed by Jeff Fowler and written by Pat Casey, Josh Miller, and John Whittington, as the other two were (though Whittington wasn’t a writer on the first one), Sonic the Hedgehog 3 will zoom into theaters on December 20, 2024. You can see the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 trailer below:

I haven’t seen the other Sonic the Hedgehog movies (although Pat Casey and Josh Miller wrote Violent Night, which I absolutely adore, so maybe I’ll at least give the first one a shot), so most of my impressions are going to be based on the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 trailer. I’m really impressed by the voice acting; if I didn’t already know it, I wouldn’t have guessed those were Ben Schwartz, Idris Elba, and Keanu Reeves. Usually, celebrity voices just sound like them, but these guys are putting forth the effort to embody their characters, which I appreciate. That’s especially true of Idris Elba and Keanu Reeves, who are bigger names than Ben Schwartz; they could easily coast on their recognizable voices, but they’re not. Schwartz is someone I’ve seen in a bunch of things in smaller roles, and casting him as Sonic wouldn’t have occurred to me, but it makes a lot of sense; he’s got the voice that’s just squeaky enough to be a cartoon character but not so much that he makes Tails redundant. (I remember in the 90s when the animated Sonic was voiced by Jaleel “Urkle” White on two different cartoons, one broadly comic, the other more serious and action-based.) As for the humans, James Marsden doesn’t do much in the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 trailer, and Jim Carrey seems to be doing his usual schtick as opposed to playing Dr. Robotnik (although I’d be lying if I said he didn’t make me laugh once or twice).

The idea of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 seems interesting, and I like that they’re introducing new elements and characters from the games with each film, particularly Sonic’s adversaries. The second one brought in Knuckles, and this one has Shadow. They also appear to be going out of their way to make Shadow a legitimate threat to Sonic, having him overpower all three of the good guys in that fight the trailer showcases. Movies increasingly seem to have forgotten how to make intimidating villains – perhaps a result of Disney owning everything, although their classic films had some effective bad guys – so it’s a relief any time one appears to be a real impediment to the heroes. Shadow didn’t arrive in the Sonic the Hedgehog games until long after I had stopped playing them, so I’m not all that well-versed on his character, but my understanding is that he’s not so much a villain as an antihero, which suggests that someone else will be the real antagonist – perhaps Dr. Robotnik again, teaming up with his father to destroy the miniature wildlife that plagues him once and for all. It’s also funny how they’re slowly making the usually trim Jim Carrey more physically aligned with his rotund video game counterpart, if only a little bit. People seem to enjoy these movies, so I hope the third one is as good as the previous two.

Let us know if you’re planning on seeing Sonic the Hedgehog 3 in the comments!