Sonic The Hedgehog (Dir Jeff Fowler, 1h 39m)

Few characters epitomise the 1990s in all its cheesy charming totally tubular neon polyhedral end-of-cold-war, pre-millennial glory like Sonic the Hedgehog. Created by Sega in 1991 as a mascot to combat Nintendo's Mario in the early 90s battleground that was the Console Wars, since his halcyon early 90s heyday, he's made a number of decreasing returns like a one-hit wonder indie band of that period, to remind you that, yes, he still exists and yes, he still goes fast, together with an ever increasing and increasingly ungoogleable crew of friends and enemies. Until now. For, hot on the heels of the visually impressive and surprisingly likable Detective Pikachu, which proved you can make a good videogame movie as long as it's riffing off the best of 80s and 90s kids films, comes a cinematic outing for Sonic that proves Sega (can still) do what Nintendid (sorry).

After Sonic (Ben Schwartz) is forced to escape from his home planet, eventually ending up in rural Montana, together with his bag of planet hopping deus ex machinas, in the form of the game's iconic rings, so he begins to settle into life as an unseen part of the town, watching over them, and in particular James Marsden's cop, Tom and his wife. However, when loneliness gets the better of him, and an electromagnetic pulse gets the Government, and their agent, Doctor Robotik (Jim Carey) involved, and a comedy of errors sees the rings lost into downtown San Francisco, the unlikely duo must travel across the country, with Robotik hot on their tail, to reunite Sonic with his rings, with buddy movie shenanigans along the way.

It is these three central performances that essentially hold up the movie, and none is more scene-stealing, none more impressively over-the-top, and none more fun that Jim Carey's Robotnik (although, in one of countless sly nods to the Sonic faithful who've been fans of him since the beginning, Sonic insists on calling him Eggman-his original in-game name). Carey is having an absolute whale of a time, complete with cartoonishly large expressions, spectacularly 90s dialogue, and chowing down on scenery like it's an all you can eat buffet-Carey may have given better or more dramatic performances but he hasn't been this fun, nor this scene-stealing in years, and his slow transformation into the familiar appearance of Robotnik is great to watch.

And Carey, above all, epitomises why this film works; because it harks back to Sonic's origins, not only in the fact that the film rather smartly boils its premise down to Sonic against Robotnik and his insidious machinations, but in its feel and tone. As Detective Pikachu feels like Who Framed Roger Rabbit for the 21st century, complete with noirish tone and central detective story, so Sonic the Hedgehog feels like a 90s buddy movie, with Marsden's Tom the straight guy to Schwartz's fast-talking, fast-running hedgehog. There is, undeniably a charm to this duo as they go through trials and tribulations, from a bar-fight that smartly uses slow-motion to show Sonic methodically swapping people around, and setting up pratfalls in a similar vein to Quicksilver in X Men: Days of Future Past, whilst a chase sequence as the duo approach San Francisco flicks between teamwork, angry argument and impressive crashes, explosions and stunt-driving.

Certainly, as with Detective Pikachu, it is the relationship between our central duo, and the test of their bond against Robotnik where the film particularly excels-for lack of a better word, Schwartz makes Sonic, for all his quick-witted, fast talking and-at least in my opinion, slightly arrogant personality-a likable protagonist, with early scenes of Sonic watching the town go about its business making him a surprisingly lonely figure, with a Spielbergian small-town wistfulness permeating the film before he and Tom crosses paths in a scene that also riffs off any number of 80s and 90s Spielberg films, especially ET.

Moreover, this film is a celebration of Sonic as a character and as a franchise, from tiny details-at one point the iconic "gotta go fast", a crude drawing of Sonic, makes an appearance, to Tom Holkenborg's score that neatly riffs off familiar cues by original Sonic composer, Masato Nakamura, or, in gloriously retroish tones captures the 90s and neatly couples it to the typical sterling Junkie XL sound, to Sonic and Robotnik slowly piecing together their iconic appearances towards the finale, to the sweetly nostalgic feel of the credits and titles. This film, as with Detective Pikachu, loves its source material, loves videogaming, and this attention to detail, this love, feels like an integral part of its success.

And unquestionably, what Schwartz captures is that optimism of Sonic at that peak, that point nearly thirty years ago where Sonic was the epitome of cool. Though it is his design that set this film back nearly half a year, and at least partly caused the closure of animation studio Moving Picture Company in the crunch to change Sonic's design from the most terrifying thing ever put on a cinema screen (TM) to a faithful, and beautifully animated rendition of Sonic, it is the voicework, as with Reynold's Pikachu, that makes this character, breathes charm and warmth and surprising amount of heart into him, and though the messages this film conveys (friendship, friends, etc.) are about as generically 90s as they come, between Tom and Sonic, there's a surprising degree of authenticity.

Sonic the Hedgehog may feel like a film that's fallen through from the series' heyday, from that period where the blue hedgehog had his moustachioed adversary on the ropes, may be as 90s as they come, may be a little too reminiscent of the cinema of his golden years. But Sonic the Hedgehog is a welcome surprise, even if Robotnik comes close to stealing his nemesis's thunder with a joyfully over-the-top performance, in a film that ably matches the pace and wit of Sega's mascot with a charming adventure.

Rating: Recommended