Sonic the Hedgehog 3 review: Jim Carrey is out of his mind

Running time: 110 minutes.Rated PG (action, some violence, rude humor, thematic elements and mild language).

In theaters Dec.20.There really is only one justification for the existence of “Sonic The Hedgehog 3”: Jim Carrey getting the “Austin Powers” treatment.In the same wacky way Mike Myers did double and even quadruple duty in his spy comedies, this time, Carrey not only plays the over-the-top villain Dr.

Robotnik but his long-lost maniacal grandfather Gerald. The funny effect of watching Carrey vs.Carrey, both with mustaches you could see from outer space, is like Dr.

Evil and Fat Bastard or the Klumps going at it at dinnertime. Maybe even crazier, considering the Robotniks’ foes are a hedgehog, fox, anteater and James Marsden.Sonic and Co.are all but retired when a military group called G.U.N.

begs them to stop Shadow, a hedgehog alien more powerful than super-fast Sonic who’s escaped from his Tokyo cell.G.U.N.believes the prickly pest is hunting down the two keys (yeah, it’s another MacGuffin) to a device capable of destroying the world.Robotnik and Gramps want to snatch those up, too, for their own nefarious purposes — so, suddenly, Sonic’s nemesis is on his side.

Sort of.On the case, Sonic, Knuckles and Tails, along with humans Tom (Mardsen) and Maddie (Tika Sumpter), journey to Japan, London and the cosmos to thwart a talking porcupine.“Three” is much easier to swallow than the first sequel two years ago, which I found beyond annoying thanks to the addition of a squeaky fox named Tails (actor Colleen O’Shaughnessey also performs on “Digimon”).The voice acting, for the most part, is still of the Saturday morning cartoon variety.

What’s different from the previous entry is that humor here, despite a formulaic plot, is balanced with surprising dramatic heft.Odd but effective is Shadow’s tragic backstory.An explosion at a base he was living in caused the death of his only friend, a little girl named Maria.

The trauma and...