The most important role

I actually loved Carrey in those movies, his berserk energy was perfectly suited.
- Unpopular opinion; he was amazing as the Riddler.
  I think people overlook the way his energy has a dark undertone sometimes. There's something in his high energy performances that throws red flags for me, in a mental health emergency kinda way. But I like that in him.
  I have a troubled family, and Jim Carrey reminds me of a particular uncle of mine who has severe bipolar and ADHD, among other things. I think most people find his performances funny because they can't imagine being in the room with someone who behaves that way.
  
  Have you watched Kidding? The Jim Carrey show about him being a dark Mister Rogers?
  I worried about him, too. I saw him following the Robin Williams playbook for a while. But unlike Williams, Carrey has been very public about his mental health and is actively working on it. So I feel like unless something goes horribly wrong, he’ll be fine. True creative geniuses usually need help keeping themselves grounded, but seldom does anyone reach out to give it to them.
  Most everyone could use that kind of help from time to time.
  
  I don't think that's necessarily an unpopular opinion. Burton allowed his villains to chew the scenery, and so did Schumacher. We got what we expected with Jim Carrey.
  I think most people's issue with Schumacher's Batman is that the extreme camp was a departure from Burton and not exactly what fans wanted from a Batman film at the time. The swashbuckling 70s Batman comics, and the dark, gritty 80s Batman had more than proven the character could be done seriously. Burton put that on screen with his two movies, which carved out a more modern, more gothic, and (for the time) more grounded Batman than previous adaptations. It worked, and people liked it.
  Schumacher's movies reverted Batman back to the camp of the '60s, and was explicitly pulling from the Batman TV show, which was effectively a comedy more than anything else. Fans weren't feeling that anymore in the 90s, and they kind of still aren't (though I'd argue they've opened themselves up to camp a bit more after we've been to the extreme other end with Snyder).
  That said, if there's one aspect of Batman that is always permitted to be campy, it's the villains (within reason). Jim Carrey's Riddler is basically Frank Gorshin's Riddler from the show, which was kind of the standard way of depicting Riddler for the era. It didn't align with what we generally expect from Batman nowadays, but it was undeniably entertaining, and not all together unfitting.
  
  People don't like his Riddler?? That was like one of the best parts of that wacky movie
- The intro scene on mushroom planet was great

To be fair, 2 years a solid break from most things. I could use 2 years off my job
- From what little I know of Jim Carrey, he would have been doing other things; not a break. I think he paints.
  
  Sorry, my lack of punctuation really messed that up. I meant, that taking a break from anything for 2 years, is a good break from whatever that "thing" may be.

My guess is when he signed on for the first Sonic movie he committed to some number of sequels if they ended up being greenlit. Not that I think he hates to be in those movies, but it seems like a professional obligation to not leave them without one of the mainstay actors
- I think it’s more likely that Sonic is just a very large children’s franchise and the dude is fine acting in them for that reason. I think what I’ve gotten from his stance on “retirement” is just that he’s tired of doing it for the money and experiencing the awfulness of Hollywood in general. But if it were me, yeah I’d come back for a beloved children’s franchise.
  
  Exactly 💯 - also this role is goofy and fun, he can be as wacky and dumb in it as he wants, it's pure gold for a comedian/actor like him. Also, he fucking carries that franchise 🤣
- A definite possibility. Or perhaps he discovered the being retired isn't as much fun or relaxing as he thought.
  Oddly enough, there isn't maybe as much fun in fishing or traveling or pursuing a hobby(s) every day as you might think. It can be hard to understand for those of us who still need to get up and "be somebody" everyday that not having a reason to do so can lead to mental degradation and depression.

He's great in it. Can't blame the man, he gave wonderful performances.
That said, cash speaks.
- I'm not a huge fan of the sonic movies. But he is really fun in them.
  
  Not a huge fan either, but I actually watched it because of him.
- Jim has no shortage of cash.

Still not as fearless as Nicolas Cage.
- You have much less inhibition when trying to claw out of enormous debt. Glad that Cage has got his feet back under him.

I don't see Jim actually ever retiring for as long as he keeps getting cast in fun roles. Man seems to genuinely love acting.
- And he also seems to pretty much be the person he is in movies in real life. What a blessing to make millions of dollars just being who you are.
  
  What a blessing to make millions of dollars just being who you are.
  Please check with Chris Farley, Ryan Reynolds, Nic Cage, Steven Seagal, and Jackie Chan , to test that hypothesis.
  Okay, Mr Farley gets a pass. RIP, bright star.

I always knew Carrey was an Adventure 2 fan.

To be fair, the trailers show him becoming an ally and dealing with his daddy issues. I can’t imagine them doing much more with the character, so this might end up being a sendoff.
- In the games, Eggman has become an ally several times, but he always goes back to his plans of world domination. He wants to rule the world, so he's not going to let anyone destroy it first.
  
  Ah, last Sonic game I played was 3d Blast, so I’m not up on all the drama.

Script, or check?
- Maybe fun? That passage reads to me that he’s at the point of his career where he can pick and choose his work, and will only agree to it if he can goof off doing whatever the fuck he wants.
  
  He does seem to be having a blast playing Robotnik in the first two
  
  Tbh, he's been at that point in his career for a long, long time.
  
  will only agree to it if he can goof off doing whatever the fuck he wants.
  Well that IS how all of his best and worst work came about, after all.. With the possible exception of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 🤷

Bill Murray always claims he was conned into making Garfield, but he still came back for Garfield 2.
Sometimes all you need is a big pile of money in exchange for what is not really a lot of work in the grand scheme of things.

This is why people that claim to be enlightened can’t be trusted.
- I'm enlightened and I agree with you
  
  Conundrum!

Tbh he was kind of born to play Robotnik.

https://youtu.be/vWRlxSGf_ns

Thanks, Sonic.

I'd bet a lot of money that doing voice work is a lot easier than being in a live action production. Not saying it's trivial, just potentially way more flexible, especially with how easy it is to splice different audio tracks together, which probably means fewer takes are required. And on top of that, there's fewer people that need to coordinate to record those takes (especially considering live action takes likely requires more audio engineering support because it isn't done in an audio recording studio).
It might be like a pilot deciding they are done flying commercial jets but don't mind flying a smaller jet from time to time.
- He's live action in those films. Only Sonic is CG.
  But I mean regardless, in his defense, they were good kids movies and he was great in them (in the genre of kids movie villain). But more importantly in his defense: he probably took a break, and got recharged. He's been pretty open about his mental health struggles, so he probably thought he would never come back unless it was amazing, took a break, got recharged, starting getting itchy to work/bored, and then he either liked the script, saw it as particularly low stress/fun, or just wanted some money.
  
  He also might have been contracted for the role already. His contract for the first or second movie likely had something about sequels in it.