We took bets at the table in the Burgatory next to the McCandless Crossing Movie Theatre as to how many fart jokes “Sonic the Hedgehog” would have. After much deliberation, I settled on one. One fart joke. “Sonic the Hedgehog” would have three. It exceeded my expectations in regards to fart jokes, and it exceeded my expectations for the quality of the movie.

“Sonic the Hedgehog” was surprisingly fun. I was expecting to laugh but only in the sense that it was so bad. I legitimately laughed at some of the jokes in this movie. I didn’t think the CGI was bad, and you know what? Jim Carrey was great. I also don’t normally appreciate when a movie sets up for a sequel, but the way this movie did made me stand and clap at the end. No joke.

The premise of the film, while a bit played out, gets the job done for a kids film. Tom Wachowski (James Marsden), a cop, wants to know what it’s like to save a life, so he decides to leave his small town. Sonic (Ben Schwartz), who has been hiding his own existence for exposition reasons, begs Wachowski to hide him as a fugitive from the government. After being harassed by Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey), a scientist hired by the government to find Sonic, Wachowski and Sonic are on the run as the movie turns into a road trip buddy-comedy all the way to San Francisco, where the movie’s climax takes place.

There were some things I wasn’t a big fan of, namely, the audible product placement. Whenever I watch a movie, I can ignore the fact that they all drive Chevrolet cars or only drink Coke products. I completely forget any of that. But this movie had three major audible mentions of product placement, namely for Olive Garden, Zillow and Fitbit. I cannot hear those brands names without thinking “Wow. Zillow bought product placement in a movie. This movie. Yikes.” Granted, one of those brands is mentioned in a way that I think is rather funny, so I want to give it a pass, but it’s still painfully obvious.

Another one of my least favorite parts is Tom Wachowski’s character. Nothing against James Marsden, but his wife’s character was better written, and his own character reminds me of something like The Smurfs live-action movie or the terrible CGI Easter bunny movie. He’s too everyman. I felt like some of his writing, along with some of the dynamics in his relationship with Sonic, was lazy.

My last problem with the movie is that Sonic flosses twice. Like, the terrible dance move. I was about to cry at the end and then Sonic flossed, and I immediately stopped. Jim Carrey’s dance sequence, however, made up for that easily.

Overall, “Sonic the Hedgehog” is a fun kids movie that possesses some genuinely cool world-building, original jokes and Sonic Flossing. But if you’re asking me, the good things outweigh the bad.