One Of The Best Sonic The Hedgehog 3 Scenes Was A Silly Jim Carrey Idea

The "Sonic the Hedgehog" movie series keeps getting bigger, bolder, and better with each installment, and if the the post-credits scene for "Sonic the Hedgehog 3" is any indication, Paramount has no intention of stopping. And honestly? It shouldn't. As I noted in my review of "Sonic the Hedgehog 3," this franchise might as well be "Fast & Furious" for kids and millennials who grew up playing the original "Sonic" video games. If the creative team behind these movies wants to keep going for years to come, we should stand back and let it happen.

Now that the "Sonic" cinematic universe has incorporated Tails (my favorite boy), Knuckles, and Shadow, the films are straying further and further away from the live-action world of Green Hills, Montana, and into the otherworldly lands shown in the "Sonic" video games (note: there are nearly 150 "Sonic the Hedgehog" games as of publication). The most important human in the series, arguably, is Jim Carrey's hilarious portrayal of Dr. Ivo Robotnik aka Dr. Eggman, a role he established in the first film and nearly didn't return to for "Sonic the Hedgehog 3." Fortunately, not only did he come back to play the role, but he also pulled double duty by playing Ivo and his grandfather Gerald.

In one of the best scenes of the film, Ivo and Gerald are preparing to break into a classified area blocked off by a laser security grid. But upon realizing the special suits Ivo invented are completely immune to the lasers, Ivo and Gerald make the best of their journey through the hallway with an elaborate dance sequence. It's hard enough for a production to effectively shoot a dance sequence, but it's something else entirely when the two people dancing are played by the same actor, and there are laser beams bouncing off of them with every movement. But according to director Jeff Fowler, the dance sequence, all the way down to the song choice, was Carrey's idea.

Fowler spoke about the scene with Polygon, noting the dance was a way to come full circle from the first movie, as well as something Carrey really wanted as part of his return to the franchise. As he explained:

"In our early conversations, it was one of Jim's requests. In the first ['Sonic the Hedgehog' movie], there's a moment where Robotnik is in his lab, and thinks he's by himself. He puts on some music ["Where Evil Grows" by the Poppy Family] and he just starts dancing. He has a little dance party, and then he gets interrupted by [his assistant] Stone. And so Jim wanted to dance again. Of course, we had to not just have him dance, we had to go big, and really go for it."

Go big they did. The dance sequence feels like something Carrey would have pulled off during his heyday in the 1990s; it's an explosion of physical comedy, facial contortions, and committing to the bit harder than anyone could have expected. It was also Carrey's idea to have the two Robotniks dance to "Galvanize" by The Chemical Brothers, which includes the phrase "Don't Hold Back" on repeat, making it a pitch-perfect inclusion. The "Sonic" crew brought in choreographers and a dance team to make it all work. "Of course, Jim wanted to do everything he could, but there was no way he could do everything, especially since he's dancing with himself," Fowler noted. "So there's always going to need to be another human in there dancing with him that would then become a face replacement down the line."

Fowler also said that getting it right was a bit of trial and error when it came to incorporating the lasers, but is extremely proud of the work from all the different teams that helped pull it off. "I think we've all seen sequences with laser grids and lattices where people are having to navigate them," he said. "But the idea of just dancing right through it — it was so Jim Carrey, so perfect, and just really fun to execute."