Movie Reviews

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024) – Movie Review

Published

1 year ago

December 27, 2024

Sonic the Hedgehog 3, 2024.

Directed by Jeff Fowler.
Starring Ben Schwartz, Jim Carrey, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba, Colleen O’Shaughnessey, Krysten Ritter, James Marsden, Tika Sumpter, Alyla Browne, Lee Majdoub, Natasha Rothwell, Shemar Moore, Adam Pally, Tom Butler, James Wolk, Jorma Taccone, Cristo Fernández, and Sofia Pernas.

SYNOPSIS:

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, Team Sonic must seek out an unlikely alliance.

Watching Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is a vindicating experience. For years (possibly decades by now), whether it be the first two Sonic the Hedgehog movies, Bayformers, and plenty of other examples that exist out there, there has always been a firm feeling among many that if these filmmakers and studios forced aside the damn human characters and focused on who viewers are here to see (which doesn’t mean crowded, embarrassing fan service), the results would likely be worthwhile.

This might be the first live-action/CGI hybrid feature of its kind that almost entirely does away with its already established human characters (discounting staples of the game people actually want to see, such as Jim Carrey’s returning Dr. Robotnik, once again with ample screen time) and trust that there is enough compelling story within the source material to adapt sincerely that fans and nonfans alike will come away satisfied.

Granted, in the case of Sonic the Hedgehog, director Jeff Fowler (who has directed all three of these firms) didn’t have much to work with since the Sega Genesis games weren’t necessarily known for story or characterization (as the games branched out into different gameplay mechanics and evolved with the industry’s technology, so came attempts at telling stories within them), somewhat forced to bring human characters into a cinematic adaptation. However, over the previous two films, he and screenwriters Pat Casey, Josh Miller, and John Whittington have gradually and gracefully brought in more nonhuman characters to join forces with the lightning-fast Sonic (voiced by a returning Ben Schwartz), such as tech gadget specialist fox Tails (voiced by Colleen O’Shaughnessey) and brawling, literal-minded Echidna warrior Knuckles (another amusing voiceover performance from Idris Elba.)

This installment brings Shadow the Hedgehog into the mix, bursting with chaos energy and hell-bent on revenge-fueled destruction. Toss in a long-lost grandfather Robotnik (also played by Jim Carrey, opening up an entire separate dimension for his reliably impressive brand of physical comedy and strange noises), and the filmmakers now have enough characters to where the likable but also intrusive human additions can be pushed off into the background, making an appearance for cameo purposes or when it actually fits the story being told. Despite that, some human cameos don’t need to be here, aren’t funny, and feel contractually obligated more than anything. For the most part, though, everything is much more tolerable and sensible.

Aside from the prologue, when Sonic’s human best friend Tom (James Marsden) and his partner Maddie (Tika Sumpter) pop up, it’s not solely for jokes but typically to push forward a specific central theme regarding loved ones, dealing with anger, and important choices in life that directly correlate to with what Shadow (voiced by Keanu Reeves in John Wick mode, which is pleasantly fitting for the character) is going through.

Having been contained and studied for roughly 50 years upon being discovered in a meteorite crash, Shadow has escaped and is obsessed with bringing forth chaos and ensuring others feel his pain. Such torment movingly plays out in flashbacks, revealing that while he was frequently experimented on, Commander Walters’ daughter Maria (Furiosa‘s Alyla Browne, already a notable effusive presence from these two movies alone) occasionally broke him out to play and developed a close bond. She became the only bright spot in his experience on Earth, meaning that one doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that something tragic eventually happened.

It appears that whoever is cooperating with Shadow is also utilizing whatever is left of Dr. Robotnik’s technological weapons. The mad scientist turns out to still be alive and has put on a few pounds (although not quite as heavy as the character’s depiction in the video games, but considering there are more movies to come, one presumes he might not be done gaining weight) while watching Spanish soap operas and chilling with his loyal minion Agent Stone (Lee Majdoub.) Enemies decide to join forces to discover who is behind the commotion temporarily. Agent Stone realizes that Sonic and company aren’t just a team but also friends, a dynamic he wishes he could have with Dr. Robotnik. As previously mentioned, Dr. Robotnik discovers that his grandfather (just as diabolically insane and intelligent) is alive, paving the way for another familial dynamic and some nutty off-the-wall chemistry between two Jim Carreys.

And while there are unquestionably brief stretches of horrendously delivered dramatic dialogue from supporting characters and cringe gags (dancing across a hallway filled with lasers), there is a moving-through line of heroes and villains forced to look within themselves and determine who they ultimately want to be, especially as betrayals occur. Perhaps most importantly, it leads to impressively staged action that is epic in scale, showcasing Sonic and Shadow beating each other senseless across the entire planet and into outer space, amplified by genuinely emotional stakes regarding love and loss.

With Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Jeff Fowler and company have found the right balance of humor (even Jim Carrey feels reinvigorated and energized more than in the first two, up for the goofy acting challenge presented that is right inside his slapstick wheelhouse, while also simply given mostly funnier material to work with) and frenzied action elevated by strong, vibrant CGI (this is unquestionably one of the better-looking special-effects extravaganzas of recent memory) alongside an engaging story. There is a case to be made that Shadow’s back story could have been even longer and not limited to a couple of flashbacks, but the right characters here are put front and center, which makes all the difference for a Sonic adaptation to click.

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is aware it doesn’t always “gotta go fast,” occasionally slowing down to ensure we care about these characters while laying out its themes with affecting sincerity.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com

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Movie Reviews

Jeremy Schuetze’s ‘ANACORETA’ (2022) – Movie Review – PopHorror

Published

8 hours ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

Jeremy Schuetze’s ‘ANACORETA’ (2022) – Movie Review – PopHorror

PopHorror had the chance to check out Anacoreta (2022) ahead of its streaming release! Does this meta-horror flick provide interesting story telling or is it a confusing mess.

Let’s have a look…

Synopsis

A group of friends heads to a secluded woodland cabin for a weekend getaway, planning to film an experimental horror movie. As the shoot progresses, the project begins to fall apart—until a real and terrifying presence emerges from the darkness.

Anacoreta is directed by Jeremy Schuetze. It was written by Jeremy Schuetze and Matt Visser. The film stars Antonia Thomas (Bagman 2024), Jesse Stanley (Raf 2019), Jeremy Schuetze (Jennifer’s Body 2009), and Matt Visser (A Lot Like Christmas 2021)

My Thoughts

Antonia Thomas delivered an outstanding performance as the female lead in Anacoreta. It was remarkable to watch her convey such a wide range of emotions with authenticity and depth. I was continually impressed by her ability to switch seamlessly between different dialects. I absolutely loved her delivery of the dialogue of telling The Scorpion and the Frog fable.

Anacoreta employs a distinctive, meta-horror style of storytelling. The narrative follows a group of friends creating a “scripted reality” horror film, and as the plot unfolds, the boundary between their staged production and their actual lives becomes increasingly blurred. This was interesting, but at the same time frustrating as a viewer.

Check out Anacoreta on Prime Video and let us know your thoughts!

Movie Reviews

‘Hoppers’ review: Pixar’s best original movie in years

Published

20 hours ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

‘Hoppers’ review: Pixar’s best original movie in years

“So it’s like Avatar?” one character quips in Disney and Pixar’s “Hoppers,” bluntly translating the film’s high-concept premise for the sugar-fueled kids in the audience. And yes, the comparison is apt. The story follows a nature-obsessed teenage girl who manages to quite literally “hop” her consciousness into the body of a robotic beaver in order to spark an animal rebellion against a greedy mayor determined to bulldoze their forest for a freeway.

It’s a clever hook. The kind of big, elastic idea Pixar used to make look effortless. “Hoppers” does not reach the rarified air of “Up,” “Wall-E,” or “Inside Out,” but after a stretch of uneven originals like “Turning Red” and “Luca,” and outright misfires such as “Elemental” and “Elio,” this feels like a genuine course correction. The environmental messaging is clear without being preachy, the animals are irresistibly anthropomorphized, and the studio’s once-signature emotional sincerity is back in sturdy form.

Pixar can afford to gamble on originals when it has a guaranteed cash cow like this summer’s “Toy Story 5” waiting in the wings, but “Hoppers” earns its place in the catalogue. Director Daniel Chong crafts a warm, heartfelt film that occasionally strains under the weight of its own ambition, yet remains grounded by character and theme. Its meditation on conservation and animal displacement feels timely in a way that never tips into after-school-special territory.

We meet Mabel, voiced with bright conviction by Piper Curda, as a child liberating her classroom pets and returning them to the wild. Her moral compass is shaped by her grandmother, voiced by Karen Huie, who imparts wisdom about nature’s sanctity. True to both Pixar tradition and the broader Disney playbook, this beacon of guidance does not survive past the opening act. Loss, after all, is Pixar’s favorite inciting incident.

Years later, Mabel is still fighting the good fight, squaring off against the smarmy Mayor Jerry, voiced with slick menace by Jon Hamm. He plans to flatten the glade where Mabel and her grandmother once found solace. Mabel’s resistance feels noble but futile. The animals have already mysteriously vanished, the machinery is coming, and her last-ditch plan involves luring a beaver back to the abandoned forest in hopes of jumpstarting the ecosystem.

That’s when the film gleefully pivots into mad-scientist territory. At Beaverton University, Mabel discovers her professor, voiced by Kathy Najimy, has developed a device that can project human consciousness into synthetic animals. The process, dubbed “hopping,” allows Mabel to inhabit a robotic beaver and infiltrate the forest from within. It’s an inspired escalation that keeps the film buoyant even when the plotting grows predictable.

Her new posse includes King George, a lovably beaver voiced by Bobby Moynihan with distinct Bing Bong energy; a sharp-tongued bear voiced by Melissa Villaseñor; a regal bird king voiced by the late Isiah Whitlock Jr.; and a fish queen voiced by Ego Nwodim. As is often the case with Pixar, even in its lesser efforts, the world-building is meticulous. The animal hierarchy, complete with titles like “paw of the king,” is layered with jokes that play for kids while slyly winking at adults.

The plot ultimately follows a familiar template. Scrappy underdog rallies community. Corporate villain twirls metaphorical mustache. Emotional third-act sacrifice looms. At times, you can feel the machinery working a little too cleanly. Pixar, and Disney at large, has grown increasingly reliant on sequels and established IP, and “Hoppers” does not radically reinvent the wheel. In an animated landscape where films like “K-Pop: Demon Hunters,” “Across the Spider-Verse,” and “Goat” are pushing stylistic and narrative boundaries, being safe and sturdy may not always be enough.

And yet, there is something refreshing about a Pixar original that remembers how to tug at the heart without squeezing it dry. “Hoppers” is playful, peppered with cheeky needle drops, and builds to a sweet emotional catharsis that may or may not have left this critic a little misty-eyed. It feels earnest and engaged.

“Hoppers” may not be top-tier Pixar. But it is a welcome return to form, a reminder that the studio still knows how to marry big ideas with a bigger heart.

HOPPERS opens in theaters Friday, March 6th.

Movie Reviews

‘Hoppers’ review: Who can argue with hilarious talking animals?

Published

1 day ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

‘Hoppers’ review: Who can argue with hilarious talking animals?

Just when you think Pixar’s petting-zoo cute new movie “Hoppers” is flagrantly ripping off James Cameron, the characters come clean.

movie review

HOPPERS

Running time: 105 minutes. Rated PG (action/peril, some scary images and mild language). In theaters March 6.

“You guys, this is like ‘Avatar’!,” squeals 19-year-old Mabel (Piper Curda), the studio’s rare college-age heroine.

Shoots back her nutty professor, Dr. Fairfax (Kathy Kajimy): “This is nothing like ‘Avatar!’”

Sorry, Doc, it definitely is. And that’s fine. Placing the smart sci-fi story atop an animated family film feels right for Pixar, which has long fused the technological, the fantastical and the natural into a warm signature blend. Also, come on, “Avatar” is “Dances With Wolves” via “E.T.”

What separates “Hoppers” from the pack of recent Pix flix, which have been wholesome as a church bake sale, is its comic irreverence.

Director Daniel Chong’s original movie is terribly funny, and often in an unfamiliar, warped way for the cerebral and mushy studio. For example, I’ve never witnessed so many speaking characters be killed off in a Pixar movie — and laughed heartily at their offings to boot.

What’s the parallel to Pandora? Mabel, a budding environmental activist, has stumbled on a secret laboratory where her kooky teachers can beam their minds into realistic robot animals in order to study them. They call the devices “hoppers.”

Bold and fiery Mabel — PETA, but palatable — sees an opportunity.

The mayor of Beaverton, Jerry (Jon Hamm), plans to destroy her beloved local pond that’s teeming with wildlife to build an expressway. And the only thing stopping the egomaniacal pol — a more upbeat version of President Business from “The Lego Movie” — is the water’s critters, who have all mysteriously disappeared.

So, Mabel avatars into beaver-bot, and sets off in search of the lost creatures to discover why they’ve left.

From there, the movie written by Jesse Andrews (“Luca”) toys with “Toy Story.” Here’s what mischief fuzzy mammals, birds, reptiles and insects get up to when humans aren’t snooping around. Dance aerobics, it turns out.

Per the usual, “Hoppers” goes deep inside their intricate society. The beasts have a formal political system of antagonistic “Game of Thrones”-like royal houses. The most menacing are the Insect Queen (Meryl Streep — I’d call her a chameleon, but she’s playing a bug), a staunch monarch butterfly and her conniving caterpillar kid (Dave Franco). They’re scheming for power.

Perfectly content with his station is Mabel’s new best furry friend King George (Bobby Moynihan), a gullible beaver who ascended to the throne unexpectedly. He happily enforces “pond rules,” such as, “When you gotta eat, eat.”

That means predators have free rein to nosh on prey, and everybody’s cool with it. Because of bone-dry deliveries, like exhausted office drones, the four-legged cast members are hilarious as they go about their Animal Planet activities.

No surprise — talking lizards, sharks, bears, geese and frogs are the real stars here. They far outshine Mabel, even when she dons beaver attire. Much like a 19-year-old in a job interview, she doesn’t leave much of an impression.

Yes, the teen has a heartfelt motivation: The embattled pond was her late grandma’s favorite place. Mabel promised her that she’d protect it.

But in personality she doesn’t rank as one of Pixar’s most engaging leads, perhaps because she’s past voting age. Mabel is nestled in a nebulous phase between teenage rebellion and adulthood that’s pretty blasé, even if a touch of tension comes from her hiding her Homo sapien identity from her new diminutive pals. When animated, kids make better adventurers, plain and simple.

“Hoppers” continues Pixar’s run of humble, charming originals (“Luca,” “Elio”) in between billion-dollar-grossing, idea-starved sequels (“Inside Out 2,” probably “Toy Story 5”). The Disney-owned studio’s days of irrepressible innovation and unmatched imagination are well behind it. No one’s awed by anything anymore. “Coco,” almost 10 years ago, was their last new property to wow on the scale of peak Pixar.

Look, the new movie is likable and has a brain, heart and ample laughs. That’s more than I can say for most family fare. “A Minecraft Movie” made me wanna hop right out of the theater.