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This article contains spoilers for Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
Ow! The edge! Sonic the Hedgehog 3 brings another fan-favorite character to the big screen series, a character that may be baffling to those not steeped in Sonic love. In addition to dealing with two Robotniks, regular nemesis Ivo and now grandfather Gerald (both played by Jim Carrey), Sonic must match wits with Shadow the Hedgehog (voiced by Keanu Reeves).
Shadow might look like Sonic, but he has a very different attitude. Sullen and harsh, Shadow focuses only on his mission of revenge. Over the course of the movie, we get glimpses of Shadow’s backstory, which helps us understand Sonic’s grumpy new pal. But as dark as the story onscreen gets, the video games went much farther.
Before he got his own gun-toting, swear-word-saying solo game in 2005, Shadow teleported into the franchise with Sonic Adventure 2 in 2001. That game follows Ivo Robotnik’s plan to revive Project Shadow, a plan his grandfather Gerald devised 50 years earlier. Working on the cosmic Space Colony ARK, Gerald strived to create the ultimate life form. After two failed attempts, Gerald succeeded with the creation of Shadow the Hedgehog.
Gerald’s one reprieve from his work came in the form of his granddaughter Maria, an innocent who stayed aboard the ARK with him. Gerald brought the young Maria to the ARK in search of a cure for her terminal disease, and she became close friends with Shadow. Despite his bond with Maria, Shadow was still made as a tool of Robotnik, which drew the attention of the Guardian Units of Nations (GUN).
Befitting its name, GUN raided the ARK with weapons hot, an attack that led to the death of young Maria. Burning with anger, Gerald gave false memories to Shadow to refocus his mission on a single goal: destroying the Earth.
All of that happens more or less faithfully in the movie Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Sure, there are some slight differences, with Carrey playing a more whacky Gerald Robotnik, GUN being less initially violent, and actor Alyla Browne (Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga) being a bit older than the Maria of the games. But the basic idea is the same. Shadow loved Maria and her death drove him to seek vengeance. After being freed from 50 years of captivity, Shadow will stop at nothing to satisfy that desire.
But in the movie, Maria’s death is more roundabout. As she runs from the GUN soldiers alongside Gerald and Shadow, Maria stands too close to electronic equipment. When a GUN soldier fires toward them, he hits the equipment, causing it to explode. Maria dies in the fireball that ensues. It’s horrifying to be sure, especially for a kids movie. Yet the original Sega Dreamcast video game… was darker still.
Sonic Adventure 2 indeed gets more direct. In a flashback sequence, we watch as Maria makes her escape with GUN in pursuit. She begs Shadow to turn against her grandfather’s programming, but looks up just as a gun goes off and the screen goes white. So, sure, we can interpret the moment in different ways, but Sonic fans mostly agree that GUN directly shoots point blank Maria in the game. It should be noted back then, Sega and Sonic’s brand was to be slightly more “edgy” (or teen-appealing) than the House of Mario at Nintendo.
It’s not hard to see why Sonic the Hedgehog 3 made its change though more than 20 years after the fact. While the Blue Blur certainly has fans who have stuck through the characters through some very weird decisions, from inappropriate references to real-world genocide to the infamous fan art of Sonic pregnant with Tails’ child (no, I’m not linking to that), these Paramount Pictures movies are exceedingly kid-friendly. It wouldn’t do to have children see someone like them get shot in between scenes of Carrey playing drums on his big belly.
Instead director Jeff Fowler and the film’s many writers handle the tone like a hedgehog running through a track and collecting all the rings. Between Reeves’ natural gravitas and the actual death onscreen, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 plays homage to the source material, but still leaves plenty of space for the bright colored action that new, younger fans expect.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is now playing in theaters nationwide.
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