This movie is better than the 2020 original

3 stars. 2 hrs and 2 minutes. Rated PG. In theaters.

At initial glance, “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” appears to be like like a hard cash grab from the same folks who manufactured 2020’s shockingly productive “Sonic the Hedgehog.”

I use “shockingly” since the initial movie, which experienced its modest charms amid the unfastened finishes and bald spots, appeared destined for the scrap heap of video-activity variations — a style that has consistently tanked over the a long time simply because studios have no notion how to translate interactive electronic figures to real-existence settings.

Instead, “Sonic” designed much more than $300 million in the U.S. and went on to turn into the best-grossing superhero motion picture of the yr (certainly, even beating Marvel’s widgets). Go determine.

That initially “Sonic” — about a blue, extraterrestrial hedgehog who runs so rapidly he will make The Flash glimpse sleepy — neatly embraced its child-helpful contours, depicting its cartoonish protagonist as a thoroughly CG creation that lives in the authentic world (in this circumstance, the blandly fictional hamlet of Green Hills, Mont.). It could have been a jarring distinction, but it labored due to the fact everybody seemed to know precisely what variety of movie they ended up in.

The solid entirely returns right here for “Sonic the Hedgehog 2,” which opens Friday, April 8, and to superior impact than the initial.

Sonic is still voiced by Ben Schwartz (“Parks and Recreation”), who leans into our hedgehog’s additional childlike attributes as he entertains his superhero aspirations. Sonic’s human sidekick, Eco-friendly Hills police officer Tom Wachowski (a chipper James Marsden) is leaving Sonic residence by itself to attend a marriage ceremony in Hawaii with his spouse/Sonic’s mother determine Maddie (Tika Sumpter). Maddie’s sister and the bride-to-be, Rachel (Natasha Rothwell), just about steals the present in scenes that sense hardly tethered to the key plot, as if a sitcom was plopped into the center of a Thanksgiving Working day parade. Surprisingly, it operates.

In the meantime, Sonic’s pun-pleased nemesis, Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey), escaped from his galactic exile at the conclude of the past motion picture. Knuckles, a purple, brawnier variation of Sonic (voiced by Idris Elba), struts through a portal and tells Robotnik about his quest to locate an historic stone acknowledged as the Master Emerald. Robotnik, who significantly resembles his ridiculous online video sport silhouette, is freed.

Another new-old character is Miles “Tails” Prower (voiced by Colleen O’Shaughnessey), Sonic’s sidekick who equally debuted in the 1992 match Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Tails has produced his way to Earth for the very same motives — to come across Sonic and protected the Master Emerald — while he’s extra like Sonic than Knuckles, an innocent existence whose sweet voice belies his clear room travels and unexplained powers.