Unless you've been living under a rock, you'll no doubt have seen the debut trailer for the Sonic the Hedgehog movie. At the very least, a few stills from the video will have likely cropped up in your social media feeds. The reaction to the trailer has been almost entirely negative, and funnily enough, the biggest problem seems to be Sonic himself.
The titular character has been lampooned by the public and the press due to his unusual appearance. We can probably all agree that it's awful, right? Well, the director of the film, Jeff Fowler, has heard the feedback. Taking to Twitter, he states the design of Sonic will be changed to better match the expectations of fans.
This will probably be quite the undertaking, as we can only assume a lot of work on the movie has already been done. While a CG character model can theoretically be swapped out of a given shot, it's still a ton of extra work for the design and animation teams. The movie is scheduled to arrive in theatres this November -- let's hope that gives them enough time to come up with something closer to the blue hedgehog we all know and love.
[source gameinformer.com, via twitter.com]
Comments 32
Do you think they only did the CG on the trailer or do you think the whole movie had the CG for Sonic already done? Cause if this last one is the case it's going to be expensive lol
Does make you wonder how SEGA themselves signed off on that design
They could superimpose Sonic's Mega Drive sprite over the movie and it'd look better than what we have now.
This has been so badly received, even the MSM have fairly in-depth articles on it.
BBC News - Sonic the Hedgehog's teeth and why video game movies struggle
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-48119048
https://www.theguardian.com/games/shortcuts/2019/may/01/live-action-sonic-the-hedgehog-film-grotesque-new-look
@AFCC Really? Cos what we've seen so far looks like it cost about £35 to make, and most of that was spent on anti-anxiety medication so they could manage to look Sonic in the eyes.
@bindiana This is the same Sega that thought Sonic '06 was okay to release, remember.
@AFCC I'm guessing that more has been done than just the trailer, but I don't know that much about making films
I think people are being unreasonable about this... the entire movie looks terrible, not just Sonic.
I'm calling it now! This movie is going to be the "Venon" of 2019.
Everyone hates it, but is going to make bank.
Sucks that they are changing it to be honest. Okay so he looks weird AF, so what? Weird AF is fun.
Well, that's one of this movie's problems resolved at least.
Sucker punch made Sonic look a million times better overnight. How did the makers of the film get the most important thing so very wrong?
https://kotaku.com/artist-fixes-live-action-sonic-the-hedgehog-1834465956
@Rob_230 wow that is sooo much better. Mainly because it now actually looks like Sonic.
As many others on the interwebs have said - why did it need a fan-backlash? How did the design get this far without such criticism internally, or even common sense enough of what the gaming fan-base in general can be like when it comes to such an iconic character?
Glad they're considering a redesign though. Hoefully they hadn't already finished a 'Crack-Fox' (look it up, Mighty Boosh) version of Tails!
Maybe this is the plan. Put out a joke version so people ridicule it and then the what would've been lukewarm reception to the real Sonic design gets a bump in positivity.
I do wonder if the theory that the trailer was using some kind of beta version of Sonic is true. I mean, that'd be pretty brilliant if the Sonic they're using is something from an early version of the movie. That would explain the willingness to "fix" it. They would get credit for making one of the biggest turn arounds in film history.
@Frigate I think them being willing to make the change suggests that the 'vision' is governed by $$$ and design by committee rather than anyone really giving a crap.
Good to see they're taking feeback, but I'm perplexed it's taken them this long to realise that Sonic's design might have been an issue.
I’ve never played a Sonic game, but it’s amazing how passionate Sonic fans are. And vocal. 😅
Never really been a Sonic fan, but even I thought "that's not Sonic" when I saw it.
@Frigate To some extent certainly, where entertainment is concerned.
But I really don't think a Sonic movie is born of anyone's 'artistic vision' on any level. It's born of desire to profit.
They could have the most Sonic looking Sonic ever, it wouldn't change the fact that the movie looks absolutely pants.
Granted his lines seem like he's going back to his roots, how is it that nobody is complaining about Jim Carrey as Robotnick? He looks nothing like him, and he's not fat for it (nor in a fat suit for it). The whole movie looks like what it should, a kids film, but just like almost every video game to screen movie, it's always going to get the backlash no matter what they do, even if they change Sonic to look like the animated game version. The movie looks entertaining, and that's what people should be going for...to be entertained. For some reason, I found the Super Mario Bros movie entertaining, mainly because of the actors that were in it, and the plot was horrible and the movie never even came close to comparing to the actual video games. It's a movie, this is why I hope no one ever picks Uncharted up from the dust it's in, or ever make a Castlevania movie. I never saw the Ratchet and Clank movie, but I heard that was terrible (can't even find it in stores anymore), but I did see Assassin's Creed and Warcraft and thought they were horrible. Never saw Rampage either, does anyone know if that is any good or not?
'thank you for criticism'
Nice. I wish more studios or outlets were like that.
Some people were already going political and defending the movie to push their virtue signalling beacon. Haha
Can we pool our resources to get Crush 40 on the OST?
I just know my kids are going to make me take them to see this. I'm going to sneak a Game Gear into the cinema and play Triple Trouble for the entire duration. Take that Paramount!
@JJ2
Yeah they're doing that over on the Nintendolife comments section right now as we speak. Can't believe anyone would ever defend this disaster.
Paramount needs this movie to be a hit for them. Not sure how much they've completed but I feel bad for the animators.
An artist from Sucker Punch did a quick fix to the design:
https://twitter.com/EdwardPun1/status/1123261756048953344/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1123261756048953344&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fkotaku.com%2Fajax%2Finset%2Fiframe%3Fid%3Dtwitter-1123261756048953344%26autosize%3D1
I’m one of the few that liked the trailer - it looks like an old school Jim Carrey movie. I’d be totally down for that, whether sonic is in it or not.
@IanDavid At last, I'm not alone !!
I totally dig the performance of Jim Carrey here. Thought I would never see him again in this type of comedy ! He's so good in it. Plus, is it me, or does he looks younger than what we saw of him this past years ? Could he be really back, top of his shape and all ?
Oh, and btw, for those who says "he doesn't look like Robotnik", please look the final frame of the trailer.
Just fix Sonic and it can be a fun comedy to see with friends and / or family....
@HungryWolf I kinda really liked the movie it was funny. Venom that is i dont know if Sonic is going to be any good. 😁
@Quintumply I'm thinking the CG is the last thing to do!
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