There's a scene in Jeff Fowler's Sonic the Hedgehog 3 where the rising sun washes over its conflicted villain, the Keanu Reeves-voiced Shadow the Hedgehog, recalling an earlier moment of Shadow sitting under the stars with his now long-dead best friend, a young girl named Maria (a mischievous Alyla Browne), whose demise has driven him to anger. It's tragic, wistful, and moving, and just typing this out makes me feel like I'm losing my mind. The video game-based live action hybrid isn't just good, it may very well be great. You could mention it in the same breath as recent animated works like Flow and The Wild Robot — fun and touching action-dramas that could become classics in time — and it wouldn't feel out of place.
There's no getting around how limp and lifeless those first two Sonic movies are — works that take for granted that featuring a familiar character is effort enough. That's all some viewers need: babies, and adults who act like them, and if that sounds bitter and condescending, it's only because I was on the receiving end of online threats and a doxing bounty for not liking the last one of these. What a relief, then, that Sonic the Hedgehog 3 not only works like a charm, but overcomes nearly every flaw of its predecessors, and often tackles them head-on.
