Sonic the Hedgehog movie: Critics put the brakes on

The trailer was out last May, but Sonic went back to the drawing board after fans reacted badly to how he looked.

Variety said he “has been redesigned to satisfy fans, but no-one figured out how to make him as fun as he is fast”.

And IndieWire declared that “fixing Sonic’s terrifying face hasn’t made this movie any less of a nightmare”.

Jim Carrey plays Dr Robotnik, who – as well as the US government – is chasing the supersonic Sega hedgehog, portrayed in voice and facial motion capture by Ben Schwartz.

The Guardian gave the film two stars, noting how “dastardly Jim Carrey gives Sonic the blues”.

The paper’s critic Steve Rose wrote: “Carrey’s moustache-twirling villain is more fun and far more animated than the charmless hero in this derivative caper.”

The Telegraph was similarly unenthused. “The video game speed freak [is] slowed down to a drab, joyless crawl,” wrote Robbie Collin.

Before he was a movie star, Sonic first appeared as a thrill-seeking Sega video game character in the mid-90s.

The New York Times concluded that the “Sega adaptation hedges its bets”. Ben Kenigsberg wrote: “Improvements to Sonic’s appearance haven’t done much for a generic script.”