"Sonic the Hedgehog" is about that. He's raised on this idyllic island by a magic owl until a bunch of natives hunt them down, and the owl gives him a bag of rings that make portals to other worlds and tells him to go through and keep going if anyone finds him. So he ends up on Earth in the woods near a small town, Green Hill MT. He grows to full size, which isn't people-size, while zipping around too fast for most people to see, and stealing stuff to live with and pranking the residents. Until his frustration with his outside-looking-in lifestyle erupts in an energy burst that sets a government-contracted mad scientist, Dr Robotnik, played by Jim Carrey, on his trail. Shortly after that, he is caught by the local sheriff's deputy, Tom, played by James Marsden, and his bag of rings gets lost. So Tom & Sonic go on a road trip to San Francisco, where Tom's wife is visiting her sister who hates him and Sonic's bag of rings is sitting on the roof of the Transamerica building. Meanwhile Dr Robotnik is in pursuit with his array of high tech drones.

For a kid's movie, based on a video game (hilariously, the production company making this is called "Original Films" ), there were very few plotholes or plot-enabling stupidity. I figured Sonic would be obnoxious and stupid, and cause problems with impulsive selfishness (or maybe I'm thinking of Barry on "The Flash" ). Tom would be a bumbling straight-man who's own "arc" would consist of being the butt of Sonic's pranks and failing until at the end, he got the thing he wanted thanks to some minimal effort on Sonic's part, which makes it all better. And Robotnik would be such a clown that you'd believe the most marginally competent or slightly grown-up hero could easily defeat him.

But they aren't. Despite being played by Ben Schwartz, whose Jean-Ralphio character on "Parks & Recreation" wore out his welcome pretty fast for me, Sonic doesn't quite stray too far into being obnoxious. About the biggest complaint you can make about the character is that his powers seem to come and go at the requirements of the plot. He's absorbed plenty of pop culture by watching TV through people's windows, but needs to be driven to San Francisco, because he can't find it himself? Anyway he's hyperactive, and sometimes causes problems, but not to a degree that you start wondering why Tom bothers with him any more, which is usually the case for me with "whacky" buddy characters.

Tom's deal is that he's actually the one competent cop in his town and is ready to move up to the big time (which seemed a bit off to me - suburban cops make a LOT more than big city cops, especially considering the difference in living expenses between Montana and SF - I actually read somewhere that Police Departments in the Bay Area actually buy housing in the city for officers to crash at while off-duty between shifts, because they don't get paid enough to live close enough for a reasonable commute). Anyway, Tom. The other cop in town is played by Adam Pally, who was last seen - for certain values of that word - as a scout trooper in "The Mandalorian". In "Sonic" he's no more competent but a rather better marksman. Tom is actually pretty good in a fist fight and rather quick on his feet mentally. I HATE when movie or TV characters suck at lying. Tom is only bad at it for comic purposes when the stakes are low. His wife (Tika Sumpter from the "Ride Along" movies) is also a pretty good character and not a nag or unreasonably obstructive for plot reasons.

Dr. Robotnik, despite the genre and target audience level, with all the absurd behavior you'd expect of a guy played by Jim Carrey, is actually a competent antagonist. He postures and boasts and monologues, and sometimes pratfalls, but the beauty of super-speed is that it's such a game-breaker, that you can, even HAVE, to make the enemies capable. Robotnik is cocky and boastful, but he has good reason to be, and while his job as the sole government pursuit of Sonic is a bit implausible, the film makes a minimal and mildly humorous effort to hang a lampshade on it.

I liked it. It was missing many of the annoying cliches of this sort of film, and one of Carrey's more amusing performances in a while. And for once, no one abducts, rapes, impregnates or woos away Marsden's love interest. Or even tries to.

Definitely take the kids.