Sonic the Hedgehog 3

image for Sonic the Hedgehog 3

Short takes

Not suitable under 8; parental guidance to 9 (violence, scary scenes, distressing scenes)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Sonic the Hedgehog 3
  • a review of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 7 January 2025.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 8 Not suitable due to high level of violence, scary scenes and distressing scenes.
Children aged 8–9 Parental guidance recommended due to high level of violence and distressing scenes.
Children aged 10 and over Ok for this age group.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Sonic the Hedgehog 3
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Mild science fiction themes, action violence and coarse language
Length: 110 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Sonic the Hedgehog (voice of Ben Schwartz) and his friends Knuckles (Idris Elba) and Tails (Colleen O'Shaughnessey) are enjoying a family picnic with their adoptive parents, Tom (James Marsden) and Maddie (Tika Sumpter), when an army helicopter lands unexpectedly next to them. Director Rockwell (Krysten Ritter) informs the group that Sonic and his friends are required to help the agency arrest an evil hedgehog named Shadow (Keanu Reeves) who has broken out of a prison in Tokyo.

‘Team Sonic’ sets off to prevent Shadow, who is intent on destroying all those who have wronged him, from using his ‘chaos energy’. Shadow has teamed up with Ivo Robotnik (Jim Carrey), an evil human who has built the Eclipse Cannon – the most powerful weapon the world has ever seen. Robotnik’s desire for world domination is nearly equal to his evil grandfather Gerald Robotnik’s (Jim Carrey) desire to destroy the Earth and all who live in it. Team Sonic, however, is equally determined to save planet Earth.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Science Fiction; Loss of a loved one; Revenge; Action/Adventure.

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is a lot of violence in this movie, including punching, fighting, kicking, shooting, laser weapons, sonic booms, explosions, etc. Some examples include:

  • Shadow manages to break out of his imprisonment, knocks out all of the guards, smashes a window and escapes.
  • Shadow destroys everything in his path, picks up and throws cars, and creates carnage.
  • Shadow shoots at Sonic, crashes into him on a fiery motorbike, and takes off into space where he collides with Sonic, causing a widespread blackout.
  • A massive explosion destroyed the lab where Shadow was originally kept, killing many people including Maria, a young girl who had befriended Shadow.
  • A man on a motorbike crashes into a café, crushing a Commander Walters underneath a missile launcher.
  • Sonic and his pals are tied up inside a building which explodes. They are seen floating in the centre of the building, before being sucked up through a hole in the roof into space. A whole mountain collapses beneath them.
  • Shadow knocks out Commander Walters who looks dead. Sonic can’t wake him.
  • Grandfather Robotnik repeatedly hits his grandson with a large hand. Grandson Robotnik then drills an electric screwdriver into his grandfather’s foot.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

  • Shadow is a dark version of Sonic. Sonic is blue and emits blue light rays, while Shadow is dark and emits red rays from his eyes and body.
  • The opening scene is of a dark prison on a Japanese island. There is thunder and lightning.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

  • Shadow is seen hanging in liquid in suspended animation. He is guarded by men with automatic weapons.
  • Team Sonic land in Tokyo, which is in flames and a scene of much destruction.
  • Sonic is seen handcuffed to a post.
  • A large spacecraft rises up out of a river.
  • Robotnik is a large, hairy and scary man who is quite manic. He likes to place an electrically charged knife on his tongue to give himself an electric shock.
  • Team Sonic walk into a destroyed military base which is dark and creepy. They start talking about ghosts and Knuckles screams when he thinks he sees one.
  • Sonic, Knuckles and Tails are seen tied up in chains.
  • Tom and Maddie keep changing into different characters using holograms.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

  • Tom talks to Sonic about Sonic losing his mum at such a young age and how upsetting that was for him.
  • Maria takes pity on Shadow and befriends him. The two become very close and a scene shows Shadow weeping over her lifeless body and unable to bring her back.

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

  • Nothing further noted.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

  • Starbucks
  • Mention of ‘Google’.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • A romantic movie involving a love triangle between a woman and two brothers is being watched by characters.
  • Mention of ‘man boobs’.
  • Robotnik strips his agent’s shirt off, leaving him with a jacket on but bare fronted and embarrassed.

Nudity and sexual activity

  • None noted.

Use of substances

  • None noted.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

  • Holy crap
  • Oh my God
  • Screw up
  • Bad arse
  • Damn
  • Name calling, such as:
    • Alien freak
    • Grand geezer.

In a nutshell

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is the third animated adventure/sci-fi movie in the series. Sonic is this time confronted by an evil and very dangerous Hedgehog who wants to destroy the world. The film is fast paced and action packed but it does have a high level of violence, some of it done for laughs. However, there are also some upsetting scenes, which makes it unsuitable for under 8’s and more suited to older children and teens.

The main messages from this movie are that it’s important to make the right choices in life; and that love remains even after a person is gone.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

  • Courage
  • Duty
  • Teamwork
  • Loyalty
  • Selflessness
  • Love is stronger than pain.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

  • Shadow is driven by hatred and revenge for losing his only friend. The movie points out that there are no winners with revenge, which is a good point to discuss with children.