Paramount has turned videogame franchise Sonic the Hedgehog into a tidy little earner in recent years with both two features films and a streaming series spin-off. Now the hyperactive blue alien headlines a third movie, just in time for the holiday season. Director Jeff Fowler is back at the helm, with the new film bringing back all of the old characters plus or two new ones.

I am a fan of the videogame series from its Sega Megadrive beginnings, and while I was not hugely taken with the earlier films I did appreciate their enthused approach to wholesome family entertainment and found them to be an enjoyable diversion. Unfortunately this third outing suffers from the weight of too many characters and too complicated a story. Unless Paramount and Sega learn some lessons from this new film, I cannot recommend they try for a Sonic the Hedgehog 4.

The new film introduces Shadow the Hedgehog (Keanu Reeves), a moody variation of Sonic with different colours and powers who is on a mission for revenge over the death of a young girl. When Team Sonic – Knuckles (Idris Elba) Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey), and Sonic himself (Ben Schwartz) – fail to capture Shadow in their first encounter, they are forced to team up with maniacal scientist Dr Robotnik (Jim Carrey) to make a second attempt.

Carrey pulls double duty here as both Robotnik and his elderly grandfather Gerald. I suspect the novelty of playing two characters was part of what lured him back one more time, since he is otherwise playing very over-familiar beats at this stage. To be fair, he’s is funny here – he’s a hugely talented comic actor – but there is a subtle sense of boredom around the edges.

Returning voice actors Schwartz, O’Shaughnessey, and Elba are all amiable enough. Without any space in his character for humour or emotion, Reeves is left to play Shadow with all the gravitas of a contractual obligation. Given the light tone of the films to date, attempts to shoe-horn a moody, tragic back story in are to the film’s detriment as well. For me at least, the key selling point of Sonic the Hedgehog was breezy fun; this new film asks its audience to work a little too much for their entertainment.

A story largely separate from everyday small town America trips the film into a trap its two predecessors largely avoided. With human characters largely at a minimum, and the heroes and their settings largely invented from CGI, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 does not simply originate from a videogame. It looks like one as well.

This is not actively terrible filmmaking, but the series is now delivering diminishing returns. Obviously a target market of over-stimulated ten-year-olds may have a very different experience, but even so I worry they are going to feel the length of the piece. It is a little too bloated, a little too busy, and – it must be said – just a little too boring too.